Legion Resurrected Chapter 15

15.

Lucifer

“Lucifer, you are mad,” Azrael shouted at him. “You can’t have the child. You will attract the Celestials.”

“The heck I can’t. The child is mine.”

“With a mortal? Lucifer, you should know by now. We don’t produce well offsprings? Remember the Nephilim?”

“Azrael, Charlie is my …. Lover.”

“As many there were. What were their names? Lucifer? How many were there?” Azrael snapped in anger. “Who was the first? Do you remember?”

“Lilith….” Lucifer muttered the name of his first love.

“Lilith?” Azrael mumbled with his mind twisted then.

“She was Eve soon after she met Adam. She named herself soon after the selection.” Lucifer replied. “Why do you ask? I know you like her.”

“Nothing personal. Let us talk of the child.” Azrael asked then.

“I believe it’s the child that Charlie is having,” Lucifer told the other. “I am not truly its father. You know we cannot have any with them after our oath on the defeat. However, I am close to her. I knew she was with a child and somehow, I am drawn to her. And the child. The unborn child.”

“It’s unborn?” Azrael had raised the question.

“Yes, she is not due yet. I left her some weeks back.” Lucifer smiled. “I am not a good lover. Now I need to find her.”

“You have to. She may be the mother of the child.” Azrael then sighed. “If only I had known…”

“Known of what? Azrael, you are not telling me the truth.” Lucifer confronted the other. “You went missing in the war. You were missing for a long time. Then you turned up and asked a lot of questions. I cannot say you shouldn’t but I have questions of my own. Like the Mage Book.”

“I won’t tell you. I can’t tell you.” Azrael replied. He started to move away. It was then Lucifer reached out to him. He pushed the hands-off and backed off.

“Don’t force me. I am not your follower. I am Azrael.” With that, Azrael pushed Lucifer off and left. It was then Lucifer went off to look for Charlie.

Survivals

“More guns? M240? Bazooka? Mortars? Where is the ammo? You have none and how do you expect to fight. Perhaps you want to toss it at them.” Those were the heavies that Bob and Percy had hidden in the basement. Lucifer scoff at the offering.

“Those won’t last a minute out there. Do you know how many of those demons are out there?” Lucifer looked at them. “I have my trident and Michael his sword. We may last a lifetime but all of you will be dead by the seconds.”

“No, they are not what I meant.” Bob stepped aside from the heap of weapons. He then looked at Percy. “I thought you arranged them in order after the last dealing.”

“Not me. The Mexican rejected it and I left it there.” Bob ignored the reply by Percy while he pushed the weapons aside and removed the planks below. He drew out the two volumes from the dust. The volumes were of book size and it was thin in the pages. He passed a copy to Percy.

“Now we have books? What? To read them to sleep.” Lucifer was getting agitated.

“Let me explain ourselves. We are not any passer-by or coincidence to be here. We were waiting for her to come. We were to protect her. I am part of the reader of the Elder Scrolls, or the Aedric Prophecies.” Bob was interrupted by Michael. He was surprised at the revealing of the scrolls. He had not sensed the presence of anything mythical there in the Diner.

“I heard of the Aedric Prophecies. It’s the fragments of creation from outside time itself, described as pieces of the divine. They are the namesake of the Elder Scrolls series. The immensely powerful artifacts are of unknown origin though likely Aedric, and their nature remains an incomprehensible mystery to most….”

“You are well informed, Michael.” Bob cut in. “The Scrolls themselves tell of future and past events, but this is just a small part of their power. The Elder Scrolls are completely enigmatic; they do not exist, and simultaneously have always existed. Just like all of you. You are an Angel and yet in this dimension you were not to exist in the physical state.”

“The actual number of scrolls is unknown,” It was Percy continued on. “Because they do not exist in countable form. Once, after rumors that a Scroll had been stolen from the Imperial Library in the White-Gold Tower, the Imperial Librarian attempted to do an inventory of the Scrolls, but it proved impossible as the number and placement of the artifacts constantly fluctuated for no discernible reason. It was claimed that the scrolls are aligned to the events of the dimensions. Not only here but the other dimensions too.”

“The Scrolls are said to pierce the walls of the dimension,” Bob took over. “It’s giving glimpses of the flux of time itself. Though any person with prescient powers who is properly trained can read and interpret the contents of the Elder Scrolls with much practice, this peering into the fabric of reality has a terrible price. With each new reading and foretelling, the reader will gain a greater understanding of the Scrolls but will be struck with blindness for a greater period, eventually, inevitably, losing their vision permanently and are forever deprived of their ability to read the Scrolls. Even for the Angels.”

“I was told that reading an Elder Scroll is described as a mind-shifting view into infinity. It was forbidden to us, the Angels.” Michael added in.

“Not entirely true. For one who had read the Scrolls held four possible outcomes: those who have no training like the Scrolls will see nothing at all upon the parchment, or a mess of odd lettering at best. Subjects who have some understanding of the Scrolls are in the greatest danger: they are immediately struck completely and irrevocably blind. The third group trained from young are disciplined enough to guard their minds while reading the Scrolls, often spending a decade in training before reading their first. Their vision fogs, but they can read mundane parts of the Scroll, though the knowledge they gain needs meditation and reflection to communicate what they saw. The fourth and final group, though there is a continuum between, are only of experienced ones. They could obtain greater and more detailed knowledge than any other, but eventually, there comes a day of Penultimate Reading whereupon the next reading, they are forever blinded but retain their knowledge over a lifetime. But when is it they won’t know?”

“And who are you?” Lucifer asked.

“We are the fifth group. We do not read the scrolls but we protect them by putting rights the events that unfold before it. And its reader to continue the flow.” Bob then paused before he continues. “The Readers of Moth.”

“The child will be that leader of The Moth. And we are to protect the leader until the child is ready to put right the balance.”

“Are you implying the events are not unfolding as planned in the scrolls? And what gives you the right to correct that balance?”

“It may take a lifetime to explain the scrolls. We are out of time here. We need to leave with the child. The sanctuary is not here.” Bob cut in. We must go to ….”

Percy cut in. “We need to move the child away. Its only safe in one location.”

“Atlantis,” Bob exclaimed the name when he continued his words.

“And you are mad.” Lucifer laughed. “No one knows where Atlantis is? Not even us.”

“Not true. Atlantis was hidden from all of you. Not by the Supreme but by the First Gods itself. Atlantis was their realm within the dimensions. It moved from one level to the next, in the shadows watching and learning and recording as it was for the scrolls. It was a living city.”

“More bullshit!” Kyle finally spoke then. “I have heard enough. All this is bull shit. My faith will not be …”

“Deterred? Yes, you shall not be. For you only a part of the vision here. All of you are.” Bob cut in. “Including you, Jeep.”

Jeep had been listening and felt the whole event since the arrival of those minions or whatever they are called. Then all those revelations were mile-high tales.

“Jeep, you are not my son per se. This body is your biological father named Bob, but inside this physical frame, Bob does not exist. Inside this body is my soul. I am Aegeus of the Moth Elders. I am with Belen, the one you knew as Percy. We were warriors of the Moth Elders. We were sent here to protect the child. And the few of you.”

“What happened to…” Jeep was devastated.

“Bob died in the war. He was killed in an ambush. So was Percy. Both of us stood in for them.” Bob continued on. “Look to yourself. During the fighting, were you afraid?”

“Were you?” Bob looked at Kyle. “None of you did. None of you are who you are. Audrey died years ago. She is Charlee.”

“Both Jeep and Kyle, you are not who you may be. We will explain later but right now ….”

“No! Tell what of Charlie?” Jeep asked.

“Charlie is …. Charlie. She is the mother of the child.”  Bob explained it all.

“I can’t believe you at all.” Jeep snapped out in anger.

“Yeah, more bull shit.” Kyle scoffs at Bob.