Chapter 25
Elisabeth~
I was back at the edge of the chasm, but this time, there was no smoke rising from below.
This time, everything was clear, the army of demons on the other side as visible as the sky on a sunny day.
There appeared to be thousands of them, but that could also just be an optical illusion.
Not for a second would I trust anything that these entities showed me.
I was also alone, which didn’t make sense.
While I’d known that they were going to come for me, for some reason, I’d been under the impression that Lazarus, Luther, and everyone else that God had deemed worthy would be here with me.
Luther had spoken of fighting alongside me, so why weren’t they here?
More importantly, why wasn’t Lazarus here?
While I couldn’t speak for all the others, it hadn’t ever been a problem to pull Lazarus in with me, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Elisheva,” Eligos greeted, my name a hiss on his lips like he was tasting it, my mind automatically knowing who he was for some reason. “It is good to see you, my child.”
I stared at the war demon, and I wasn’t surprised that it was him greeting me.
After all, he was one of the great dukes of Hell, and he ruled sixty legions of demons, which would explain the army standing behind him.
When summoned, it was said that he appeared as a gallant knight, and in the realm of warfare, he was impressive in unparalleled strategies, leadership, and military tactics.
However, looking at him from across the chasm, he didn’t appear as a formidable knight, ready for battle.
He looked like all the other demons that I’d encountered, only a bit bigger.
“Eligos,” I replied as evenly as I could, doing my best to hold my own without Lazarus with me.
“All those false prophets throughout the years to finally find a true child of God,” he stated, but his words didn’t ring true. After all, we were all true children of God, so I could only conclude that he was trying to confuse me.
“You speak as if I am without sin,” I countered. “And I am not.”
“Ah, Elisheva...” he purred. “This is not about what you do. This is about what’s in your heart. This is about what is reflected in your soul. This is about more than just attending church every Sunday, then acting as if we and God don’t see you the other six days of the week.”
Ignoring him, I glanced around, recognizing his words for the distraction that they were.
Since demons could materialize out of nowhere, the chasm wasn’t a deterrent for them.
It was actually a way to herd me in place.
Since I didn’t know the rules, I wasn’t about to take a chance down there, and they knew that.
They knew that they had the advantage here, and that fact was a bit disorientating.
All this time, I’d been under the impression that they’d been inside my mind, but they hadn’t been.
Whatever this place was, it was more than a simple dream of my subconscious.
For a moment, I wondered if this was Purgatory, but then I remembered that my corporeal self was still alive, so this was something else.
Now, while a lot of people thought that Purgatory was a second chance to get into Heaven, awaiting one’s fate, it wasn’t.
Purgatory was the last chance for the righteous to ask for forgiveness in order to enter Heaven.
It usually pertained to sudden or unexpected deaths, which lacked the opportunity to repent, and so that’s what Purgatory was for them.
It wasn’t to give all sinners a second chance at redemption.
“With or without me, you cannot defeat God,” I said, looking back at the army of darkness. “You have to know that.”
He let out a condescending laugh before saying, “Elisheva, we’re not here to wage war on God.”
“Then what are you here for?” I snapped.
“We are here to wage war on His children,” he informed me, and that’s when it all suddenly made sense. “We’re here for you, because if we can possess you, then we can possess them all.”
My hands began to shake as I finally realized what this was.
I finally understood why Lazarus had to protect me.
I finally read between the lines of everything that Luther had told me.
It wasn’t up to me to slay a legion of demons in a bid to save humanity; it was up to humanity to determine if I was worth saving.
If I was truly the miracle that Ramiel had claimed, then the sacrifices made here today would restore God’s faith in His children, proving that not all was lost after all.
I straightened to my full height, my hands still shaking, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about the adrenaline coursing through my body right now.
I was alone with their plan laid out before me, and I’d been arrogant and na?ve to believe that I could do this alone.
I’d been so hellbent on protecting everyone else around me that I ended up losing sight of the bigger picture, and it looked like my arrogance was going to finally cost me.
Nevertheless, I still wasn’t going to go willingly.
Even if I failed, God would know that I hadn’t gone freely, and that I’d been more than willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to prove to Him that we weren’t a lost cause.
While some of us were surely going to burn in Hell, there were still many others that chose the right thing every day.
There were still plenty of people that were on the right side of humanity.
“Then what are you waiting for?” I challenged. “I’m right here.”
Eligos’ voice deepened as he said, “We are not fools. Do you really believe that we are not aware of the others?” So, they were aware of my rare gift, but they didn’t know how it worked. “Do you think a good general goes into war before assessing all the possibilities first?”
Now, while his lack of knowledge could buy me some time, I still had no way to defeat them on my own.
I had no weapons or even a plan, truth be told.
Plus, while Ramiel had told us the when and why of all this, he still hadn’t said anything about how I was supposed to defeat these monsters.
All he’d said was that I’d be taken, and that Lazarus would lead the charge to get me back, which had me wondering if I was supposed to just let them take me.
Was that God’s plan? Was that what He needed me to do in order to see if His children could rise to the occasion?
Looking across the chasm, I asked, “Are you afraid of losing?”
“We will not lose,” he replied confidently. “You just have to look around you to see that we’re already winning, Elisheva. We’ve been winning for a while now. Asmodeus, Mammon, and Moloch have been doing their jobs very well.”
Asmodeus was the demon of lust and excess, and he was the epitome of temptation.
Mammon was the demon of greed, and enough said on that score.
As for Moloch, he was the demon of child sacrifices, and he represented the abuse of power, injustices, and exploitation.
Unfortunately, all you had to do was look around to see that Eligos wasn’t lying about how they were winning the war between good and evil right now.
Temporary pleasures were more sought after than eternal life, and the more that I thought about it, maybe humanity didn’t deserve to be saved.
Maybe God put me here to give Him a reason to start over, maybe take away the free will that had ruined so much.
“Elisheva, do not let doubt enter your heart now,” a voice that I’d never heard before said. “Remember your teachings; all of them. Stand before them and know their power. Stand before them and know their weaknesses. Stand before them, knowing everything in your heart.”
Like a rolodex flipping inside my brain, the teachings of The Bible raced through my mind, and I felt an enlightening that flowed through me like a warm blanket, soothing everything inside me.
Every word in the book flashed behind my eyes, showing me a much deeper meaning than I’d ever considered before.
I wasn’t here to win or lose; I was here to show people the way.
Angels and demons couldn’t die, and I couldn’t believe that I’d forgotten that very important fact.
Angels were saved, and demons were banished, but they couldn’t die as they were not corporeal.
Their wars were simply battles for redirection.
If good was winning, then the demons came in to try to push them back, and the same was said for when evil was winning, and so that’s what this was.
This battle was an attempt to push evil back in its place; it wasn’t for me to literally slay all the demons that stood before me.
Eligos had stated that they wanted to possess me, which made complete sense now.
However, now that I knew what I was doing here, that was never going to happen.
I looked across the chasm, studying all the eyes that were staring back at me, and I felt no fear.
In fact, I felt empowered. I felt like I was ready for them to come for me because it was impossible for them to defeat me.
Whatever it was inside me that made me believe, it was stronger than a million demons come together.
It was stronger than Satan himself, and God knew it.
No longer concerned with why I’d been chosen, standing here, I was finally accepting that I had been, and that was all that mattered right now.
God’s faith in me was all that mattered.
Just then, I felt the ground beneath me begin to shake, and when that familiar smoke from before started rising from the chasm, I knew why. While the black smoke might help empower the army on the other side, Hell was raging, and there was only one reason why it would be.
Lazarus was here.
I turned just in time to see him materialize from the gateway that Ramiel said belonged to me, and tears immediately hit my eyes as a love that I didn’t know was possible flowed through me, screaming out his name like a prayer.
“Elisa!” he roared, but it was too late.
I turned back around just in time to see Eligos leaping over the chasm, and the next thing that I knew, I was shrouded in darkness.