CHAPTER VIII
The two cities
Enoch ruled for seventeen years, until he was deposed and cast into the dungeons of his palace by his firstborn Irade. Enoch would die decades later, mad and forgotten in the dark undergrounds of the city that bore his name.
Cain's offspring had their blood honed by the darkness of Lucifer that they brought within them. Hence, their lives last less than those of the people of Adam. Yet, even under the aegis of wickedness, the city of Enoch prospered and extended over the next centuries, becoming a powerful empire, richer and more populous than the kingdom of Enos itself.
The tens of thousands of inhabitants of Enoch were counted when their sixth ruler ascended to the throne. His name was Lameque, whose father was Methuselah, the only one of Cain's royal descendants to live almost as much as a legitimate son of Adam.
King Methuselah's father was Meujael, Irade's firstborn. Irade had reigned absolute for a quarter of a century, passing the crown, at the gates of death, at the age of one hundred and thirteen. Meujael praised himself for increasing the cult of Lucifer and his entourage of demons. Monumental temples were erected to Pazuzu, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Azazel, Belial, Astaroth and Matraton. However, the most formidable of his works was the Great Pyramid, built in honor of Lucifer and inspired by the palace that, according to Cain, his father erected in the Abyss. A dark cathedral of internal floors dyed in red by the blood of animals sacrificed to the Devil. A wide pyre burned the fat from those pagan offerings.
The Gospel of Lucifer proclaimed that the faithful dead would inherit his dominions in the Abyss. For the souls of those who worshipped him and made offerings in his name would be received with love by the fallen, while the souls of the infidels and heretics would suffer under horrific torments.
Typical lies of the Enemy. For Lucifer was unaware of the real fate of the souls, which he believed consecrated to the Four Heavens. However, the Devil was mistaken about the Lord's intentions, because the souls were not destined to the Heavens or the Abyss, but to another place of creation.
King Meujael extended the dominions of Enoch beyond the land of Node, establishing a series of distant villages and border posts. Their scouts brought news from a remote city which seemed to rival in power and wealth with their kingdom. The followers of Lucifer had found the City of Man.
The dark kingdom was tempted by dreams of conquest. The poison of greed insinuated through every temple, street, and home. Amazing accounts began to circulate about countless treasures and beautiful women that would exist in the faraway land.
The demons heard the cry of lust rising from the hearts of Enoch. They decided to teach them the art of forging swords, shields, helmets, spears, and bows. Meujael died at the age of ninety-nine, when his latent army began to take shape. His work would proceed under his only male heir, Methuselah. And a hundred years took the armies of Enoch to improve themselves on the affairs of war. They learned military discipline, the correct handling of weapons and taming the noblest of creatures, the horse, developing the concepts of assault cavalry and battle chariots. Warrior doctrines were elaborated by royal counsellors and scholars and promptly tested in martial exercises. Lucifer instructed Methuselah to form a personal guard along the lines of his Luciferes, giving rise to the Dark Helmets, elite soldiers of the king's trust.
Yet, the wiser were the angels of the Lord, for they felt the shadow that rose east of Eden. Gabriel appeared before Methuselah to forbid him from shedding human blood, which had not occurred since Abel's murder.
With the thread of the his sword against the king's throat, the Seraph warned that Enoch would be wiped off the face of the Earth if he marched into the kingdom of Adam, for it was under the protection of the One God.
As swiftly as Gabriel came, he departed, leaving behind Methuselah's court in uproar.
Satanist priests remained the most eloquent proponents of war, firm in their conviction that the angels should not be feared, after all the demons would fight by their side, guaranteeing them victory.
They repeated the Devil's promises which encouraged them to pillage the houses and temples of Adam, to rape their women, and enslave their children. For those distant lands belonged to those who disowned Cain, the Patriarch of Men. Their blood should be as weak as Abel's, thus deserving of slavery and the peril of their swords.
Methuselah, however, prudently refused the clergy's suggestions, arousing the fury of Esthor, High Priest of Darkness, leader of the satanic church. A tall, stern, and cruel man, Esthor withdrew from the throne room in a burst of wrath, but not without first swearing revenge on the king for his betrayal of Lucifer's designs. That same night, the Devil came to Methuselah's chambers to convince him to remain committed to the war.
However, the king proved to be cautious, knowing that such an action would only bring ruin to his city. The Devil departed angrily, and strong was his desire to gut Methuselah with his bare hands, but Lucifer resisted the impulse, fearing to awaken the wrath of God and bring upon himself the angelic hosts if he shed human blood, even from a descendant of Cain.
Two days after his altercation with Lucifer, the king was attacked.
A group of Satanist priests ambushed Methuselah during his customary morning walk through the gardens of his palace. On this occasion, however, fearing for recent events, Methuselah had taken appropriate precautions.
When the nine priests appeared wielding their murderous daggers, they found themselves readily surrounded by a squad of Dark Helmets who had hidden themselves behind the bushes that stretched from both sides of the trail. The priests were quickly dominated, following the wise orders of Methuselah, without a single drop of blood being shed.
The news of the attack on the king aroused the avenging fury of the population. The army had to intervene to separate the enraged mob from the terrified priests and priestess. The soldiers were able to prevent the bloodshed, but not the looting of the satanic temples, vandalized and burned to ashes.
To avoid greater tragedy, the king exiled the clergy away from his dominions. Stripped of their rich robes, Esthor, his priests and priestesses were chained to each other by their wrists and ankles. Before leaving the city limits, naked and in a single row, following under the derision of the population, which threw them spoiled fruits and buckets of urine and feces on their bodies, Esthor turned to the inhabitants of Enoch and promised that the Satanists would return. On that day, the rivers of the Earth would dye themselves with the blood of the infidels. Prophetic would be the words of that powerful and evil man. For Leviathan, sent by Lucifer, went to meet the Satanists in the middle of the wilderness. He freed them from the shackles and led them to the grimmest mountains that rose in the far east of the world, from where they would plot their revenge.
However, those were still happy days for the inhabitants of Enoch. Since, for the first time, they were free from the influence of evil. The shadow of villainy in their hearts shrank and seemed to be extinguished. Enoch would know years of peace and prosperity. Their crops doubled, tripled in abundance. Their animals, no longer sacrificed, feed adults and children, and not the sinister pyre of the Great Pyramid, dismantled to the last block of stone. The ruins of the other temples were cleared, and their sites converted into holy shrines to God and his angels. Even the king's appearance improved, Methuselah’s white hair and wrinkles, then one hundred and thirty-three years old, disappeared, and he resumed the joviality of yore.
And everyone in the kingdom said it was a gift from God and gave thanks in their prayers. It was not long before the angels announced their presence in Enoch. Gabriel was the first of them, and frequent became his visits. Michael, Camael and many others followed him.
The angels began to regain their faith in humanity, so shaken by the expulsion of Eden, the rebellion of Cain, and the earlier deviations of Enoch. Perhaps Man was not as corrupted by evil as they had originally thought. And the angels felt joy and had hope in Man.
Their presence became more frequent also in the City of Man. Enchanted as they were with humanity, it was not long before the divine creatures discovered the beauty of women. Seraphim and non-celibate Cherubim started taking for themselves the females of their choice. But with the women of Enoch the angels did not lie down, for the blood of Cain, the son of Lucifer, flowed into their veins. And the angels did not want to get in the way of the enemy's blood.
The human wives of angels enjoyed great honors in the City of Man: their families worshipped them; and men disputed their sisters as prestigious spouses. They gave birth to the children of angels. Giants not by stature, for human were their dimensions and appearance, but by superior strength and speed. Demigods able to raise entire houses with bare hands and run faster than horses. They were mortal, since they could perish from accident or illness, however, never of old age, because they stopped aging when they reached adulthood. The most powerful of the giants was Sansael, the first of his race, Gabriel's firstborn with the most beautiful of women after Lilith, Princess Inara, daughter of Enos.
Nine hundred and sixty-nine years lived Methuselah. A period of glory, peace, and fortune for his subjects. The whole kingdom wept his passing, songs and libels were written in his honor.
By this time Adam and Eve had already died, with the City of Man experiencing such prosperity under the crown of Enos, then an elder made even wiser and magnanimous over the years.
But, at the eastern end of the Earth, on the peaks of the highest mountains, where life was scarce and rawness was imposed, a seed of terror had been planted and germinated for centuries on end, waiting for the right moment to blossom like a storm over the creation.
The Satanists had established, in that godforsaken place, a diabolical society whose law was the domain of the strong over the weak and where torture and rape were part of the routine.
Methuselah's death and the accession to the throne of his son Lameque, then only thirty years old, were trumpeted to the four winds by Lucifer.
A few decades earlier, Lilith, the First Woman, had been freed from her captivity in the Abyss, wholly converted into a disciple of evil.
So, in the most obscure and fetid corner of the caves, Lilith lay with Aton, a young man of robust physical complexion and barbaric temperament. A true descendant of the High Priest Esthor, Aton was seduced by the supernatural beauty of the First Woman.
From this carnal union, Lilith gave birth, thirteen days later, to their cursed and powerful offspring. Six dark snakes with wings on their backs, red eyes, and hideous mouths that spat fire. They were called dragons. Beasts so ferocious that they were kept trapped by the necks to thick chains stuck in the ground of the largest cave.
Before returning to the Abyss, Lilith ordered her children to be well fed the meat of the vultures and goats that inhabited the lower slopes. For as soon as they reached maturity, they would become powerful soldiers in the service of darkness, bringing terror to the minds and hearts of Man.
The proof of the dragons' untamed savagery took place the night after Lilith's departure, when Aton, moved by foolish paternal instinct, committed the recklessness of getting too close to his children. He was torn to pieces by the monsters who devoured him to the bone.
The dragons obeyed only the master of the Satanists. A melancholy presence, wrapped in a black robe, tattered and dirty, who used to hide his face under his heavy hood. In plain sight, he left only his old, bony hands, with long nails like the claws of a lion. He had a tired walk, always resting on a dry, twisted wooden staff. Alone, armed only with the rotten sword he carried at his waist, he freed Goroth, the greatest and most ferocious of dragons, from the chains.
The broken old man rode Goroth as one who takes the saddle of a horse, even though the dragon was five times the size of an adult steed. Goroth took off for the vicinity of Enoch. It was high dawn when they arrived. The old man continued, on foot, leaving the dragon hidden in a gorge to the north.
In the shadows, the elder found his way to the palace without being sighted by the city's residents. Lameque roamed lonely and restlessly through the throne room. Sleep did not come to him, something strange for a man used to sleeping like a baby. Since nightfall, however, he was feeling a bitter taste in his mouth, accompanied by an agony in the heart that he could not explain.
Then, the old man appeared before him.
“Who's coming?” asked the king, frightened. “Say your intention, stranger!”
The elder lowered his hood and the trembling light of the candles scattered across the throne room illuminated his severe, frowned old face.
“I am Cain, son of Eve, your ancestor and patriarch, Lameque, sovereign of Enoch.”
At first Lameque doubted it, but then he glimpsed the mark of the half-moon that the old man sported on his forehead and made sure it was Cain.
“How did you enter this place without being noticed by my personal guard?” questioned Lameque.
“Do you forget that this throne once belonged to me and that these walls were once my home? I know every passage and broker of this palace better than any other.”
“What do you want, old man? Are you here to claim the crown?”
“If I wanted the crown, it would be rightly mine. But fear not, Lameque, son of
Methuselah, for I do not come for your throne.”
“Then what?”
Cain sighed with difficulty, putting the weight of his body on his sinister staff. And suddenly he seemed very frail and weary.
“I'm dying,” said the elder. “All I want is to end my days in the city I built. In peace, away from the adulations of courtesans and servants. You will see I am not asking for much, boy. Just, shelter for this broken skeleton of mine. In return, I give you word that I will keep my presence here a secret, so as not to harm your reign with rumors and speculations.”
Suspicious and fearful, Lameque chose to keep Cain close to himself, under his control, until he decided what to do with him.
For long months, Lameque waited for Cain to try to usurp his throne. Yet, the old man remained true to his promise, staying anonymous, never leaving the guest room, a large space located at the top of the highest tower, once destined for Lucifer, but sealed since the Devil broke with Methuselah.
Lameque provided a maid of his trust to serve Cain. Every morning, she delivered a tray of wine, water, meat, eggs, and bread so by the closed door and returned only at night to collect it in the same place, then empty, and without ever spotting the mysterious guest.
Lameque enjoyed visiting the old man, hoping to surprise him by plotting some blow against him. Still, he always found Cain sitting at the counter, in silent contemplation, his gaze lost on the horizon and the garden of Eden beyond.
On these occasions, Lameque sought to probe Cain's intentions. Surprisingly, the conversations they shared eventually aroused Lameque's admiration. He discovered that the old man kept a keen and well-trained mind in the ways of logic and reason. Lameque gradually abandoned his mistrust as he became fond of the elder. Cain shared with him his past experiences as king. He soon began to counsel Lameque on matters of the court, which proved valuable and prudent. Cain soon instructed the king, with greater property than Methuselah himself, in the subtleties and tricks of politics. Before he realized it, Lameque became dependent on Cain. For the next two years, Cain's influence took root in the king, to the point that Lameque gradually dispensed all his other advisers, many of whom had been loyal servants of his father. In the end, he was left with only Cain as his source of wisdom and inspiration.
Even more insidious was the slow and gradual introduction of new centers of power in the city, outsiders who emerged at the borders proclaiming themselves priests of a strange cult of the Sun and Moon. They wore white robes with golden hoods and enjoyed the protection of the king, who had the Hall of Justice demolished, to erect in its place an unusual temple, a gigantic elliptical pantheon for the newcomers.
The people of Enoch watched in dismay the legal services once provided by the Hall of Justice being overlooked and inadequately distributed to other public buildings.
Worst of all, they felt degraded by the new religion, which was opposed to their belief in the One God.
The angels resurfaced at Enoch, trying to dissuade Lameque from failing the true faith. But he scorned their appeals, and, at the end of nine years, the huge elliptical cathedral was completed. Faced with Lameque's heretical insolence, the angels abandoned Enoch this time never to return, while popular dissatisfaction grew rapidly.
The angels were oblivious to the fact that the priests of the Sun and Moon were, in fact, descendants of the Satanists of Esthor, brought from the high mountains in secret on the wings of Goroth and the other dragons, according to the orders of Cain.
Before long, the distant and gloomy caves at the top of the world were abandoned, as hundreds of priests now had a new home in the cathedral that Lameque had consecrated to them. At the age of ninety-five, Lameque considered himself strong enough to proclaim the Oracle as the official religion of Enoch, abolishing the worship of the One God.
However, few had turned to the new faith. Hence, most of the population revolted against Lameque and marched to the king's palace.
Unfortunately, this only precipitated the tragedy, since Lameque, carefully following Cain's advice, had been strengthening his personal guard. For the past three years, the Dark Helmets have become a large force, equipped with the finest spears, swords, and shields. They violently suppressed the insurrection. And again, the Earth drank Man's blood. Over a thousand people were slaughtered that day. The streets of Enoch overflowed with the blood of the innocent. Even Lameque's wives, queens Ada and Zila, whose beautiful forms had seduced the king against Cain's will, were not spared.
Ada was the mother of Jabal, heir to the throne, a benevolent young man with a kind heart, an enthusiast of living among the shepherds of the kingdom, while Zila was the mother of Jubal, who rather played his harp than dealing with matters of state.
For it was against the two noble princes who Cain, with his lies, poisoned their father's mind, falsely accusing them of conspiring to depose him. The proof would be their faith in the One God who they would love more than their king. Cain's malice led to the murder of the two brothers by the blades of the Dark Helmets. A horrible crime that Lacquer announced smiling at his wives, before throwing them into the pit from where they would never see the sunlight again.
“Hear my voice, women of Lameque,” cried the bloodthirsty king. “I killed my firstborn for hurting me and my second son for stepping on me. For seven times Cain will be avenged, but Lameque, seventy times seven.”
Lameque had conceived two more children with Zila: Tubalcaim, Chief of the Royal Forges, and his sister, the virginal Naamah, whom Cain spared from death, but not from an equally dreadful fate.
To prevent Lameque from remarrying, Cain convinced him that Tubalcaim and Naamah, as faithful to the One God as Jabal and Jubal, should give him a male heir, whose protector would be Cain himself, who could mold the child into a loyal servant of Satan. Unfortunately, they would have to wait a few years until Naamah, still a little girl, was able to breed.
Cain and Lameque were unaware of the existence of another potential heir to the throne of Enoch. Since, one night the king had bed drunk with a courtesan, a dancer who used to entertain the nobility. From this union, she came to give birth to a bastard son of Lameque, whom she called Noah. Terrified by the purge of the royal family, the courtesan fled Enoch carrying the baby.
Although they had escaped Lameque's clutches, mother and son would have succumbed to the rigors of the desert if an angel had not intervened. Michael, still with tears in his eyes after so much blood and so many lives reaped at Enoch, led them to the City of Man, where they were welcomed by Enos.
Noah and his mother were the only inhabitants of Enoch to flee from the shadows that fell upon that doomed kingdom. The others were forced to worship the Sun and Moon.
Yet, more than half of the population remained faithful to the One God. Those were sacrificed on the altars of the temples converted to the new faith. Cascades of blood sprang, tainting the dirty in red. Thousands perished under the ceremonial daggers of the priests, fulfilling Esthor's promise: his descendants had returned and executed his vengeance.
The remaining subjects were seduced by that murderous show of power and violence, and soon they knelt in prayers to the Sun and Moon, who then presented themselves. The Devil proclaimed himself as the Sun God and Lilith as the Moon Goddess. They were worshipped by those who, by escaping imminent death, had condemned their eternal souls.
Enoch plunged again into darkness, this time never to escape.
For the next two decades, Lameque prepared his kingdom for the subjugation of the City of Man. Armies have been recreated and rearmed. Cain was convinced that the angels would not assert their warning to Methuselah. After all, the kingdom had already shed human blood, their own, and, surprisingly, had not suffered reprisal for it.
Besides, their pagan gods had promised them that the legions of the Abyss would fight alongside them if the angelic hosts appeared. An oath that Lucifer had no intention of keeping, and in which Lameque foolishly believed.
The dragons came to guard the city, spreading fear and awe.
Goroth and two other beasts perched each on one of the towers of Lameque's palace. The three remaining dragons settled on the terrace of the great dark pantheon consecrated to the Sun God.
Lucifer presented Lilith to the king, not to give birth to an heir, but a general to his troops. Lilith conceived seven days after the carnal act, sprawling a sphere of murky light. For thirteen days, the sphere was kept in a dark room, away from sunrays, and grew to cool and solidify in the form of a terrifying creature, which had the dimensions of a gorilla, a ruby-red skin, a human face of strong traits, huge ram horns protruded from his head, with hands thick and long-fingered, clawed instead of nails, and goat-like paws in the place of feet.
Lameque called his son Umam, the Living God.
Statues of Umam and his banner, the Golden Calf, were scattered throughout the city's temples and worshipped. Umam became, after the Sun and Moon, the most important deity of Enoch. A pagan idol who led the growing armies with an iron fist. For cruel were his methods of training and perfidious his teachings. Hundreds of recruits perished under his exercises. The survivors became savage and merciless, trained in the arts of killing, pillaging, raping, and torturing. The most vicious were made his lieutenants. And they came to adhere to cannibalism, devouring with pleasure their companions who fell, while dreaming of the flesh of Enos' subjects.
Lameque was one hundred and forty years old when his armies finally marched toward the City of Man. Long columns of more than six thousand soldiers advanced, armed with spears, shields, axes, apples, swords, and bows. Umam's lieutenants rode robust stallions and carried banners with Lucifer's new coat of arms, a white trident with long, sharp tips over a blood red.
Umam was on Goroth's back, who flew in tight formation in front of the other dragons. Lameque travelled ahead of the troops, escorted by three battalions of Dark Helmets, and comfortably installed in a huge, heavy carriage that required tens of horses to pull it.
Lameque smiled proudly, sitting on his throne previously fixed on the roof of the carriage. He had Enoch's crown on his head, the royal scepter in his right hand, and the knife that had harvested Abel's life, borrowed from Cain, in the left one.
Cain remained in the palace, sworn in as Regent and having two Dark Helmets companies to ensure order.
Gabriel and Michael landed by surprise before the court of Enos. They came to warn the old king of the approaching storm. Sansael, Gabriel's half-human son, pleaded with the angels to drive evil away from the City of Man.
“I'm sorry, my Sansael,” Gabriel countered, with deep sadness. “But the Creator summoned the angels to His presence. We will not be able to participate in the battle to come.”
The angels themselves were unaware of God's reasons for taking them off the Earth, but these would soon prove tragic for Man's destiny.
“However, before our departure, you had to be warned,” Gabriel continued. “Those who advance have been purged of mercy. Their dark hearts harbor perfidious desires for killing and plundering. Their numbers count by the thousands; but be attentive to Lilith's children. Six winged beasts that spat fire, led by a two-legged abomination named Umam, king Lameque's devilish rod.”
“In the face of the evil that is proclaimed, you have our blessing to do whatever it takes to defend yourselves”, Michael added. “Even shed the blood of the enemy.”
“May God's blessings be with you, my son,” Gabriel said, with tears in his eyes, hugging Sansael.
The withdrawal of the angels left the kingdom plunged into fear and uncertainty. The City of Man had no armies to resist. Its inhabitants did not master the practices of war and violence.
Then, Sansael came forward; his voice sounded powerfully and wisely to someone so young. He reminded them that the giants carried not only angelic purity, but also the warrior skills of their fathers. It would be the giants, therefore, who should defend the Heirs of Adam.
King Enos summoned all the giants to his presence and called for volunteers among them. Each one of them, more than five hundred men and women, chose to face darkness. Enos made Sansael his general and gave him command of the troops.
In the infernal heat of the forges, the giants, following their angelic inherited instincts, created the swords and shields with which hundreds of brave souls would challenge thousands of villains.