CHAPTER III
Mephistopheles
Samael was overcome with a mixture of joy and longing when he stood before the Almighty. He hoped his Father would tell him about the universe he had created and the wonderful world that existed in it. Because now he understood a little better why God had been so busy. Still, he preferred to have been admiring His face, singing His glory, and praising His magnificence. After all, everything else paled before God's love.
However, the Creator surprised Samael with a sad expression and a serious voice.
“My son, something terrible has happened,” said the Almighty.
“What worries Thee, my Lord?”
God raised His left hand, revealing it empty.
Samael froze. Evil, which God kept under control, the great dark serpent of hatred and destruction, had escaped.
“Falsehood and deception are the ways of evil,” said God. “The Beast eluded Me with tricks, for as the ages passed the Beast shrank between My fingers and weak seemed to have become. He begged Me to relieve the pressure on him. Fearing hurting him, I did. But if he had shrunk in size, he had grown into ruse and malice, and slender, broke down and fled. I trembled, for mighty is the Beast's desire to spread corruption and ruin.”
“What can I do?” asked Samael, unfastened.
“I ask your forgiveness, My son, for requiring from you something that is impossible for Me to practice. Violence. Even if it is against the scourge of the Beast, which longs only for the end of creation.”
“I will do what needs to be done, Father," said the angel, and there was pride and determination in his voice. “In Thy Name.”
“Keep your heart pure and attentive, My sweet Samael. For seductive is evil and strong its temptation. Be careful or you will succumb.”
Samael acknowledged.
“Do you know where the Beast has escaped, my Lord?” asked the Firstborn. “Where should I start looking for him?”
Samael had his answer before God offered it. For cold blows of air chilled him from top to bottom, snapping the feathers of his wings. Each blow of air heralded the passage of a faint specter made of an opaque and dead light. Some of them crossed alongside Samael. Others passed through him like a sigh of bad omen. But everyone went directly to God, where they dived, never to be seen again.
“These are the remains of dead angels,” said the Creator, His voice saddened.
“Their essences return to Me when they cease to exist.”
In a strange way, Samael could feel each of them, and recognized some as part of the phalanx sent to Earth, according to the records Gabriel had passed on to him.
The essences of a thousand and five hundred angels gave themselves to God, but there was no sign of the two Seraphim who commanded them, Nathanael and Camael. Still, it was clear that the Beast had reached the new world.
Samael said goodbye to God and urgently went back to the Silver City. The dark news he was carrying spread like shockwaves among the angelic inhabitants. It was difficult to distinguish what was most disturbing, the discovery of how fragile angelic immortality could be, the escape of the Beast, or the mysterious whereabouts of Nathanael and Camael. These, if they had managed to escape, could find themselves injured or disoriented.
As a precaution, Samael dispatched an improvised patrol to the frontier between the spiritual and physical planes, in case Camael and Nathanael managed to reach it. However, they had strict orders not to cross it. Samael did not intend to lose any more of his brothers to the Enemy, whose power was beyond the understanding of most angels.
The Beast was not, by definition, a creature, but part of the Creator Himself. Therefore, Samael's chances of subduing him seemed very remote. Still, the Seraph tried to prepare himself in the best way for his confrontation with the Dark Shadow of God.
Samael commissioned Leviathan, head of the Silver City blacksmiths, an innovative and revolutionary blade based on the knives the angels used to carve wood or slice bread. However, it was much longer and more resistant, forged with the most powerful alloys and sharpened with a care and dedication ever matched. The impressive weapon gained a solid jade fist, encrusted by three broad jewels, representing God, the angels, and their Holy Covenant. Thus, came the mother of all swords, which Samael called Enoli, the Avenger, brandished to punish the Beast for the angels he had mowed down.
Ready for his fight on Earth, Samael was questioned by a crowd of Seraphim and Cherubim who wished to accompany him on a mission that everyone knew suicidal. No other gesture symbolized better the noble character and dedication to duty innate to the angelic race.
Samael tried to dissuade them. In part, to spare his brothers from violence and pain. For there was still goodness in Lucifer Morningstar in those days. But there was also the pride of fighting that battle alone in honor of God. And part of him desired that glory only for himself.
It took Samael to use his authority as Prince Regent for others to abide by him. Gabriel considered that a reckless decision. Though Samael was the most powerful of the Seraphim, how could he, by himself, defeat the Beast, who had eliminated an entire phalanx? However, Gabriel, as an angel, was able to acknowledge and obey.
But not everyone shared the same servitude. While Samael left the Silver City, a few, like Leviathan, had their own plans.
On the edge of the physical universe, Samael spotted the patrol he had sent ahead. He told them to return to the First Heaven. Even though they wanted to follow him, they turned around and left.
Samael penetrated the cosmos, experiencing the indescribable pleasure of returning to the corporeal form. However, he had no time to enjoy the physical sensations associated with it. He advanced and found the world he considered his tainted by an immense dark mist that spread over the southern hemisphere.
Blinded by cholera, Samael plunged through the acidic clouds of gloomy ash. As he emerged through them, he came across a devastated environment that shed tears on him. Where once there had been verdant plains and all sorts of animals had been grassed, now only desolation and dust were seen. The soil was barren, rocky, and brittle. Huge volcanoes rose, menacing, on all sides, their hideous mouths spitting rivers of lava and columns of toxic vapors that impregnated the air with the smell of death. In that cursed place, the rays of the sun dared not penetrate. That was undoubtedly the dwelling place of darkness and the graveyard of creation.
Samael advanced cautiously by short flights from one volcano slope to another, as sneakily as possible. Still, every slope he reached seemed like the last. For the Beast would be lurking him, ready to devour his body.
Fortunately, Samael was not sighted before locating the Monster. The ominous giant rested curled up on himself, lazily occupying an entire valley with his disgusting scaly body. The only sign of movement the Beast issued came from his huge attentive head, peering in the opposite direction to Samael.
Fearing that the Enemy would capture the sound of his wings, Samael decided to walk the rest of the way. His angelic feet touched the soil of loose stones with such lightness that they did not even move. Careful, he reached the bald ridge of a mountain wedged between two volcanoes and hid behind the largest rock he found. From there, the Beast seemed even bigger and more menacing. His oppressive shadow fell heavily upon Samael, who experienced a strong urge to run from there to hide in the deepest of caves, or simply beg the Beast to put an end to his torment. But the will of the Firstborn was proved stronger, and he stood firm in the face of the horror that offered itself in front of him.
Suddenly, the Monster made threatening gestures with his head and then laughed amid ghastly grunts that froze the angel’s spine. At first, Samael even wondered if the Beast had lost his mind, for there was nothing where he had focused his attention.
That was when Samael noticed a narrow crack at the base of a volcano. Forcing his eyes, he glimpsed Nathanael and Camael trapped inside it. Camael had cuts and swellings throughout his body. Nathanael looked in better condition, however both Seraphim were visibly shaken by the torture that the mere gaze of the Enemy provoked.
Samael began to devise an attack plan when the Beast froze, sniffing suspiciously the surrounding air.
It all happened so quickly that Nathanael had to mentally reconstruct the scene that took place before his eyes to better understand it. The Beast's tail hit the mountain between the two volcanoes north of the valley with such force that it plucked it from the ground. The whole mountain flew beyond the horizon, going to fall into the ocean on the far side of the world.
In place of the mountain, there remained a dense cloud of dust that, upon settling, revealed Samael, hovering in the air, defiant, having escaped by a wreath of the sudden attack of the Enemy, who drooled with irrational hatred.
“Look, Camael,” Nathanael said, stupefied. “It's Master Lucifer! He came to save us!”
Weakened, Camael merely raised his eyes. His expression was of dismay, because Samael had no chance against what was throwing himself at him.
The Beast jumped on Samael like a spring that suddenly released all its tension.
Samael strayed from him at the last moment, not to be crushed. He then struck back with Enoli, a sharp blow against the belly of the gigantic serpent, while the Enemy passed scraping over him and went to land out of the valley, spraying half a dozen volcanoes under his titanic weight.
The sea of lava that sprouted from the devastated volcanoes was harmless to the Monster. However, the same was not good for a weapon forged in the Four Heavens. A small but painfully deep cut now burned beneath the Beast, redoubling his anger at that insignificant creature who had the petulance to challenge him.
“I am Mephistopheles, the Renegade Shadow of God,” said the Beast, in a voice that trembled the very foundations of the Earth. “He who stands up against me will pay a thousand times in torment and agony.”
“You will learn that the hand of the Lord was not your prison, Serpent of Evil,” said Samael, brandishing the sword. “But your shelter against the thread of Enoli, the Avenger.”
They hurled at each other in a mad rage. The difference in size and agility made Samael look like a mosquito before Mephistopheles. Still, he could hurt the Beast at various spots, with black blood sprouting from the small holes.
The Enemy snaked everywhere to reach Samael. Every leap, every whirl of the Beast mashed mountains, shuddered continental plates, opened valleys and buried others.
The battle proved to be long and painful. The Beast bled abundantly, but never fatally.
Samael, overcame by exhaustion, ended up knocked down by a header from the Monster. The impact of their backs against the rocky ground was in front of the crevice from which Nathanael and Camael were too weak to escape. Samael's fall was so strong that much of his ribs broke.
Samael proved an intense pain that made him struggle to stay awake. With a debauched smile, the Beast slowly approached the Firstborn, savoring every moment leading up to the final blow. He had opened wide his fetid jaws to devour Samael, when suddenly screams from behind made him turn around.
Twelve angels, all blacksmiths of the Silver City, along with their leader, Leviathan, were charging the Beast. They wielded a type of three-pointed spear, which Leviathan himself had created and named trident.
They flung their tridents into a desperate attack. However, those did not have the cut of the powerful Enoli, knocking uselessly against the thick scales of the Enemy, without causing a scratch at all.
Courageous but reckless, the angels have gone from hunter to prey. One after another, Mephistopheles shred them. The essences of the blacksmiths ascended far from that world, straight to their well-deserved rest within God.
When only Leviathan remained, trapped in a wall of debris and flaming lava, Samael, gathering the forces that remained to him, stood up and took a fallen trident.
“Mephistopheles!” yelled Samael.
The Beast turned to Samael the moment he threw the trident at him. The weapon went through the Enemy's left eye, disappearing entirely into it, blinding it hopelessly.
Caught by surprise by the excruciating pain, Mephistopheles plunged into the depths of the Earth, opening behind him a huge dark hole from which one could not see the bottom.
Samael fell to his knees, exhausted physically and mentally. Leviathan landed next to him, worried.
“I'll be fine,” Samael said. “Go help Camael and Nathanael.”
“Yes, milord,” nodded Leviathan, heading for the crack in the rock.
Leviathan helped Nathanael carry Camael out, landing near Samael. Leviathan then took off beyond the volcanic region and returned bringing a generous portion of fresh water in his hands.
Nathanael and Camael drank from the water, which reinvigorated them. Leviathan provided the same for Samael, who then rose firmly, proving that his usual highness had not forsaken him.
“I need you to bring my assistants here,” Samael ordered, without turning his eyes off the edge of the abyss created by Mephistopheles, which now occupied much of the valley. “Let them come with as many building tools as they can carry.”
Leviathan acknowledged and set off in a flapping of wings.
Samael retrieved Enoli from a ditch and returned it to his scabbard. With his bare hands, he tore strips of fabric from his mantle to serve as bandages to Camael's wounds.
The three Seraphim waited for a full day and night to elapse under the constant strain that the Beast would emerge from its gigantic grave to attack them. However, the Enemy gave no signal.
The dawn brought Gabriel and Leviathan, followed by Samael's twelve assistants, headed by the most prominent of them, his First Secretary, Beelzebub. A red-haired Seraph with a stern look, known for his seriousness, discipline and integral fidelity to the Prince Regent.
Beelzebub and the others unloaded dozens of tools of various types and sizes, while Gabriel and Leviathan approached Samael, Nathanael and Camael. They brought bread and wines which their brothers devoured with taste.
“The Four Heavens celebrate your victory, Master Lucifer,” Gabriel said. “I have personally communicated your success to the Creator. He asked me to convey all His gratitude and love to the Firstborn.”
Those words filled Samael's heart with joy and pride.
“Thank you, brother,” Samael said. “However, the Beast was not eliminated, only wounded. I'm afraid he might rise up again and spread his terror across the universe.”
Beelzebub moved closer to them.
“My prince,” said the First Secretary, bowing to Samael. “Your servants await your command.”
“Together, we will build an outpost at the west exit of the valley,” Samael said, pointing to the rubble of a mountain sprayed in the fight with Mephistopheles. “A tower fortified by walls and palisades that will allow us to keep the Enemy under constant surveillance.”
“Do you think this is really necessary?” questioned Gabriel.
“It's such a fundamental task that I'll stay here myself to lead it.”
Samael's announcement was a great surprise.
“You are the Prince Regent appointed by God,” Gabriel said. “Your presence in the Silver City is indispensable.”
“God has entrusted me with the sacred mission of protecting the creation from the scourge of the Beast. That's my only priority right now.”
“But do you think it's advisable to stay here alone?” pondered Leviathan.
“I will not be alone,” Samael said. “After the tower is complete, I will keep my assistants here as my personal guard.”
“I can stay to forge the weapons necessary for the defense,” Leviathan said.
“Your presence will be greatly appreciated, brother. Besides, you've shown that you can be quite valuable in a fight.”
Samael landed his left hand on one of Leviathan's shoulders. Leviathan held his arm back outstretched, in a sign of their battle forged union.
“As long as my mission lasts in this world, you will be in charge of the Four Heavens,” Samael said to Gabriel. “I have every confidence in your leadership, brother.”
“Thank you,” Gabriel nodded, hesitant.
There was no pride or ambition in Gabriel in accepting the task, only the willingness to serve God and His angels with the best of himself.
The same could not be said of Samael, who took that situation as the perfect opportunity to finally reign in the world he coveted so much.
“Beelzebub, would you help Gabriel take Nathanael and Camael back to the First Heaven?” Samael asked. “There, they will be able to regain their strength.”
“Yes, milord.”
“And warn my wives to prepare themselves. They shall gather all my belongings in the Silver City and join me here as soon as possible.”
“Understood.”
Gabriel took off with Camael in his arms. Beelzebub did the same for Nathanael.
Samael looked up to the horizon with the certainty that all that belonged to him. Earth was his again. An affected smile sprang from his lips.
A long period of peace followed the defeat of Mephistopheles, as the Silver City returned to its routine of tranquility and harmony.
As time went by, concerns about the Enemy became mere memories. Thousands of cycles had passed without Kir Vael, the Death Valley's Tower, sending news. No angel had gone or come from it since it was erected in the new world. Still, Samael's heroic deeds remained revered and his absence much felt by many angels. After all, he was the oldest brother of the angelic race.
However, Gabriel's regency calmed this longing. In fact, Gabriel proved himself a more open, gentle leader, always willing to listen before deciding.
However, all was about to change.
It began with God reaching out to Gabriel during his prayers. The Lord's orders were clear and terrible. No word Gabriel uttered, instead he wrote in secret a letter that he entrusted to the one who had made his First Secretary, Michael, to be delivered to Kir Vael.
Earth's volcanoes have hibernated harmlessly since the Beast's disappearance. The outskirts of the Death Valley had regained life and beauty. The green fields stretched as far as the eye could see. The air was pure and clear. The presence of darkness was noted only in the narrow strip of rocky and barren terrain that surrounded like a ring the cold abyss of Mephistopheles.
Kir Vael was projecting at the west entrance of the valley. It was tall, smooth, and grim, protected by a string of three huge walls made of heavy stone blocks. At the top of the tower, two Seraphim kept watch, with a privileged view of the surroundings. They were Luciferes, the twelve former assistants of Samael who had become his personal guard. They wore gold armor, helmets with metal horns, swords on their scabbards, shields, and tridents in hand. Streamers stamping Samael's coat of arms, white rays exploding on a black background, fluttered at the poles pinned over the walls.
Michael landed in the main courtyard of the fortress. Before him, a statue of Samael solemnly held a replica of Enoli with its tip facing down; his other hand protruded upwards and a thick chain came out of it, trapping by the neck the beast that circulated nervously through the courtyard. A menacing lizard, large and heavy, of a race which would come to be known as Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Beelzebub, chief of the Luciferes, greeted Michael with a reverence.
“I bring a letter from the Regent of the Silver City to Samael Morningstar,” said Michael.
Beelzebub nodded, realizing the urgency in the Seraph's gaze.
“Come this way.”
Michael followed Beelzebub through the tower's high porticoes. Its interior was dimly lit by little pans of light, coming from the few existing windows. It resembled a large hall, with tapestries hanging from the walls, each one told a story. The birth of the Firstborn, the forge of Enoli, the struggle against Mephistopheles.
On the farthest wall, one could read the name of God, excavated in unusual letters.
Michael was led through the long span that rose through the hollow interior of the tower to the narrow platform that preceded its highest chamber. Two Luciferes stood guard outside.
“Wait here,” said Beelzebub.
Beelzebub entered the chamber, closing the door behind himself, but not before Michael managed to get a quick glimpse of its interior. A shadowy figure, surrounded by darkness, was sitting, wistfully, under the beam of light from a lonely window, as if doomed to observe the world outside through it.
Long minutes dragged before the door was opened again.
“You can enter,” announced Beelzebub.
Beelzebub waited for Michael to pass and then left him alone with Samael. Michael was surprised by Samael's appearance, now standing before him. Instead of the characteristic robe, Samael wore black armor and capes, and had Enoli hanging from his waist. His face sported an imposing beard and his gaze was stern. Suddenly, Michael felt like he was not welcome in that place.
“How long ago, brother,” said Samael, in a badly disguised hostility.
“Too long, brother.”
Samael studied Michael carefully.
“It's the first time you've come to Earth if I'm not mistaken. Do you like your physical body?”
“It's interesting.”
“Interesting,” repeated Samael, with an air of debauchery.
Michael's discomfort increased.
“What is going on in this world, prince Samael?”
“What do you mean?”
“The thing stuck in the courtyard,” said Michael. “It doesn't look like a creature of God.”
Samael smiled.
“You mean my pet?”
Samael led Michael to the window from where one could better watch the Tyrannosaurus moving from side to side, at the limit that the chain allowed it.
“Wonderful, isn't it?” smiled Samael, proud of the animal. “It's a predator. It feeds on the flesh of other living things.”
Michael was shocked.
“But, that's an abomination! An attempt on the Divine Law!”
Samael faced Michael with disdain.
“However, one could not expect any different, brother. Even asleep, the presence of the Beast in the bowels of the world is enough to corrupt creation. Once peaceful beings are now ferocious carnivores; insects and reptiles sprout from the soil with venom in their prey; diseases and deformations arise even in plants; earthquakes and storms claim lives across the four corners of the globe. And there is nothing we can do but give thanks for most of creation to remain untouched by evil.”
Michael turned to the letter he carried by hand.
“How could God know?” said Michael, in awe. “Are the assumptions that He sees everything and knows everything true? How can I not find infinite wisdom once again in His words?”
“What are you talking about, Michael?”
Michael gave him the letter.
“This is a message that God entrusted to Gabriel to be transmitted to you, Master Lucifer.”
Samael read every word with growing anguish. They were tough and cruel: ‘May Mephistopheles be cast out of the world, which may be purified with fire and destruction. For a new creation to emerge from the ashes of the previous one. Free from evil and sin.’
“I need to be alone,” Samael said, turning his back on Michael.
Michael left the room knowing how terrible the burden God had placed on the shoulders of His Firstborn was.
Beelzebub provided quarters for Michael.
In the evening, Leviathan approached the leader of the Celibates for news of the Silver City. However, there was nothing but the dull routine of the Four Heavens that Michael could tell him. Unlike Leviathan, who spent the entire night babbling about the landscapes, creatures, fruits, and aromas that abounded on Earth. Michael listened to everything with fascination, but without letting himself be seduced by that tactile and exotic world. His heart belonged to the Silver City, to which he wished to return as soon as possible.
Still, for six days, Michael waited in vain for a response from Samael, as he remained locked himself in his chamber. On the seventh day, finally, Samael came down gliding from the top window of the tower, with the strong glow of the sun reflected on his wings.
“Summon all the guard,” Samael ordered.
“Yes, sir,” said Beelzebub.
Leviathan, Michael, and Samael's wives came along with the garrison, but kept their distance, while the Luciferes stood before their master.
“Throughout an era, Kir Vael has protected this world from the enemy's ever-present threat,” Samael said. “You were vigilant. Your bravery and sense of duty worthy of record in the writings of the First Heaven.”
The Luciferes were filled with pride. Still, they realized a shadow of torment on Samael's face.
“However, contrary to what we believed, destruction will not come from underground, but from above,” Samael announced with a grudge that bothered Miguel. “That's God's wish.”
There was great surprise and commotion among the Luciferes, who shared their master's love for that world.
“I was ordered to expel Mephistopheles from Earth,” said Samael. “Only I plan more than that. I intend to give it an end, once for all.”
“Count on us, milord!” shouted Leviathan, confidently.
The same disposition for struggle broke out in the shouts of Beelzebub and of others.
“Thank you, brothers,” said Samael. “But this fight is mine. I will face the Beast alone.”
Miguel took a step forward.
“Forgive me for my insolence, Master Lucifer, but you were not able to beat the Enemy previously. Which makes you think you can do it this time?”
Samael smiled.
“I had a whole era to prepare. I have been training for this. Now, I'm ready.”
“Please, milord," Beelzebub asked. “Do us the honor of accompanying you in battle.”
“No, my dear Beelzebub. I need your skills on another mission. Return with my wives to the Silver City. Gather as many angels as you can and organize them into one army. If I fail, you will have to deal with Mephistopheles.”
“Yes, master.”
Samael turned to Leviathan, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders.
“This army will need weapons. And I do not know no one better than you to forge them.”
Leviathan tried to hide his tears with a smile.
“I will make the best weapons ever seen.”
“I'm sure of it.”
The Luciferes left that same day escorting Miguel, Leviathan and Samael's wives back to the First Heaven. Along with them was most of the belongings in Kir Vael.
Samael spent the rest of the afternoon walking around his ill-fated world, from the extensive ice fields at the poles to the tropical forests of the southern hemisphere.
When the sun went down, instead of returning to the tower, Samael went to the place where he had spent his first night in that world. As then, he lay down on the soft grass under the sea of stars at his head. However, sleep did not come to him. Dawn found Samael haunted by his own thoughts. A lump formed in his throat as he watched the last sunrise on the world he knew and loved.
For timeless creatures like angels, a change profound as that was a dramatic experience. Samael contained his emotions and took off for Kir Vael. There, he released the Tyrannosaurus held captive. The beast ran away from the fortress. Even though there was no hope for it, nor for those of its species, at least it would die free. More than Samael could say about himself. Stuck in God's designs, never in his own.
Samael lingered in his chamber, for one last look at the view so familiar from his window. He burned on a pyre the letter that God had sent him. He then put on his helmet, which, instead of metal horns, sported a half moon that crossed from the forehead to the base of the skull, and left.
Samael departed Earth and gained the cold darkness of space. He sought around and found a mountain floating, stray among the stars.
“Mephistopheles!” Samael shouted, his voice resounding like thunder through the ends of the universe to the foundations of the Earth. “Your time has come, Abomination of Darkness! Get up from your hiding place and face the holy light of Samael Morningstar!”
And Samael's natural brilliance exploded in all its power and splendor.
The stellar fire of countless galaxies paled before the glow of his flame. Samael launched the concentrated force of his being against the lonely mountain. Although the impact did not pulverize his armor forged in the First Heaven, his whole body hurt when he hurled the huge mountain towards Earth.
The asteroid cast its apocalyptic shadow on the small planet. It collapsed obliterating the continent where Kir Vael was built. The oceans swallowed its wreckage, along with several coastlines and islands spread across the four corners of the globe. Mephistopheles’ abyss collapsed; long fissures sprouted out of it as if the soil were made of glass. The inevitable followed, with the diameter of the abyss growing as its edges buckled.
The violent collision covered the skies with toxic clouds that blocked the sun completely. The world has become white by snow and deadly by the extreme cold. The ice age had begun and, with it, the end of countless species. Large lizards would be its main victims. Their disappearance paved the way for the small mammals, w