The oaths were taken, and Lucifer was pleased. He and his brothers reformed the War council of the new world, but without the proper number of supplies near them they would have to venture into this unknown realm. It had been 2 weeks since their escape from the Prison citadel and the voice leads Lucifer and his brothers to an abandoned fortress. Lucifer looked up at the massive gate before him and called for Vulcan.

“Vulcan!” Vulcan flew to Lucifer and replied

“Yes, brother.” as his steel wings sliced through the gate like butter and Vulcan ripped the doors off their hinges. Lucifer walked through the gate and saw a sight for sore eyes. This was an Angelic fortress. Shattered weapons and pieces of armor were scattered all over the outer courtyard. A battle had occurred here, but Lucifer did not recall ever fighting here. He called his brothers to join him and as they did the voice whispered to Lucifer.

“This is it. This will be where you begin your journey to ascend to your rightful status.” Lucifer looked around at all the Angelic relics and saw a sword splintered into three pieces. He knelt by it and picked up all three pieces and walked to Vulcan.

“Vulcan, will you be able to recreate this weapon? Perhaps reuse the materials here to create a forge?” Vulcan shook his head and replied

“It is not that easy Lucifer, to craft Angelic weapons I need access to the Angelic forges. The only forge that I could create here would be one that produces simple weapons and arms.” The voice then whispered to Lucifer

“Remember the guard you killed? The one whose life you sucked out from his body. Use his soul to craft weapons, they will be more powerful than anything an Angel could make.”

Lucifer thought for a moment and replied to Vulcan.

“I absorbed something from the creature in my cell. His life force drained as he stared into my eyes. We could use his essence to create a forge to at least create weapons to fight these creatures.” Vulcan nodded and replied

“If you would like to try, then so be it.” Vulcan raised his hands, and many bits of metal flew into the air. At first it was a sphere, then it changed into a prism. Vulcan shouted

“Go on, put his essence in this!” The voice whispered to Lucifer

“Carefully repeat everything I say…” Lucifer began to chant in a language not familiar to his brothers and within an instant the prism started to glow a bright red. Vulcan smacked his hands together and the forge was completed. The Anvil was glowing red and the flames were pitch black. Lucifer handed Vulcan the Angelic sword pieces to try and recraft the blade. Vulcan took his time but was able to craft the blade. The blade was nothing special, it looked like a normal sword, no aura, no flames, just a normal sword. Vulcan gave the blade back to Lucifer as the voice began to whisper.

“This will be a great weapon someday, for now keep it here.” Lucifer gave back the sword to Vulcan and spoke

“We will keep this sword here for now, but brother you must craft us armor and weapon.” Vulcan replied

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“I will do my best, but these weapons will not do much until we have another power source we can draw from.” Lucifer nodded and replied

“Then we will find one for you” Vulcan began to work on his new forge and Lucifer went to his other brothers who were still investigating the fortress. When Lucifer found them, they were in the old armory. All the weapons were gone, and the armor racks were knocked over and shattered. Lucifer came to Ares and asked

“Brother have you any ideas about how we are to get an army?” Ares looked at the ground and around the room then back at Lucifer and spoke

“I have a few ideas, but you might not like them.”

“Go on then”

“Those creatures you were talking about do know what they are?”

“I have no real memory them.”

“These are monsters that we used to fight in the outer city of the Golden Gate”

“These are not those, they would have to have entry into Heaven to able to get there.”

“They do.” Ares pulled the lever on the wall next to Lucifer and behind it was portal like the one that the voice held open on their escape.

“These are what they use to travel to our realm.” Lucifer pushed the lever up and shut the door.

“We have abandoned that realm and we will not use unless absolutely necessary.” Ares nodded and replied

“I knew you wouldn’t like that one, but I know many of our troops were sent here with including my guardsman. I could summon them here and Vulcan could arm them. The only problem would be the amount that survived might not be enough.” Lucifer touched Ares on the shoulder and spoke

“Do what you can.” Jupiter kept looking around the room and when Lucifer came up to him, he said

“You should not have done that”

“Done what?”

“Healed me that way”

“Why not, you were dying”

“I am not the same Lucifer.”

“You think any of us are?”

“I…. I have voices in my head. They won’t stop talking to me.”

“Jupiter, you do not have to listen to them. They may give you suggestions, but you have the choice of whether or not to listen.”

“I understand…lets go” Jupiter, Lucifer and Ares returned to the courtyard outside of Vulcan’s forge and Ares raised his arms and began to summon his troops. In a matter of moments 10 guardsman showed up with nothing but linen clothes on them, their weapons destroyed just like Lucifer’s and the rest of the army. Ares went to his guards and told them of the situation and they each agreed to follow their leader. Ares raised his arms again and this time 150 soldiers were summoned in the fortress. Ares lifted his arms once more and nothing came that time. Ares walked to Lucifer and spoke

“This is it brother, you think we can still do this?”

“One step at a time brother.”

Lucifer flew up into the air and began to speak

“Brothers, we are here in the desolate landscape. This relic of time was once a domain of our father, but he has abandoned us. You may feel alone and despair, but do not fret we are all here together as brothers once more. I offer you this one chance, one chance to gain more than you ever were meant for in Heaven. Serve me by choice and you will be a part of something greater. Those of you who do not wish to follow may do so now but remember this you will be alone for all of eternity. I will grant you salvation and we shall ascend to become the rulers of this hellscape!” No one wished to be left alone for eternity and they all swore fealty to Lucifer. The voice began to whisper

“Now we have some work to do.”