How many angels had he trapped in there? Were they all conscious? The thought of being stitched together and forced to share a body and consciousness with so many other beings made my stomach roll with nausea.
I reached out with my magic to examine the creatures Yahweh had created and found that I could feel their life force the same way I could with humans.
They were alive. They were fuckingliving, breathing beings.
I glanced at Yahweh and shook my head, tutting my tongue.
“You may be the God of Creation, but I am Lilith’s Keeper of Death, Yahweh. If you create them, I can kill them.”
I looked into one of the eyes of the horrifying monster as it rolled toward me. My chest squeezed with the unmistakable sting of sympathy.
Death, to most, was a terrifying moment of finality. However, to some, death was a mercy. It meant peace and rest. It meant the absence of pain. Death meant the end of a life well lived and marked the beginning of the next great adventure.
Death was not the enemy. Not always. Looking up at Yahweh’s abomination, I knew who the true enemy was, and for fucking once, it wasn’t me.
I allowed my death magic to flow forward. Using my power as if it were an extension of myself, I stroked the creature gently, pressing the rot past the mismatched patches of flesh and deep into its mess of a body. I found a horrifically large heart that had been made by fusing several smaller hearts together.
The obscene organ beat erratically, and I forced myself not to flinch as I rotted away the layers of flesh and bone that separated me from the pulsing muscle. Once it was exposed, I wasted no time sinking the blade of my scythe into it. The monster screamed as its life force was released from the fleshy prison Yahweh had trapped it in. As the monster died, I felt the souls Yahweh had trapped within it flutter past me on silent wings. The juxtaposition of the gentle brush of the angel’s souls with the ugly, monstrous sac of flesh I had just released them from made my black heart sing.
‘Thank you,’they seemed to whisper, and I allowed myself to feel a small spark of happiness for them. They were free now. Yahweh couldn’t hurt them anymore.
Yahweh roared in fury as I stepped through the quickly disintegrating remains of his monster. He threw more creations at me, but I cut them down one by one until there was nothing left standing between us.
His ever-changing eyes were burning with fury, and I watched as he tried to use his magic directly against me, but I was so filled with Lilith’s death magic that his power wilted and died the moment it made contact with my skin.
Fear flickered through his perpetually shifting face, and for one shining moment, I realized that I had won. He couldn’t beat me. I may not be able to kill him, but hecouldn’t kill me either.
“It seems you’re out of ideas,” I growled, reaching forward and wrapping my ink-black hand around his throat. “Let’s see what happens when an Aetherium blade severs the head of a god,” I purred, drawing back my scythe.
Yahweh narrowed his eyes at me, and reality flickered in and out of focus around us. Suddenly, we were in Heaven. I blinked against the bright white light, and Yahweh chuckled.
“Notquiteout of ideas yet,” he replied, before vanishing from my grip. Only his voice echoed around me as the veil shifted again, and I found myself standing in the middle of the street in front of Voodoo. There was a burning on my left hand, and I glanced down. The goat head ring on my finger burned bright red, then crumbled to dust and ash. Yahweh’s laughter echoed around me as he annulled my marriage to Lilith, dismantling the protection the bond had given her.
“You may have won the battle, Ramel, but you have not won the war.”
I spun around in the middle of the busy city street, not bothering to move out of the way of the cars as they sped by. Reality twisted again, and suddenly, I was back in the House of the Fallen. The hallway I had battled Yahweh in was now empty. I went to look out across the city of Hell, which was now in ruin, to the bridge that led to Heaven. The bridge was clear. The angels had all left. Everything was silent, and suddenly, I was afraid. It was too quiet. Something was horribly wrong.
“You will never be anything more than a vessel, Ramel. A leech that can only siphon power from the gods that gift it to you.”
That’s when it hit me. Yahweh had been a distraction. He hadn’t come here to unmake me. He had come here to keep me busy.
Lilith!
Yahweh’s laughter echoed around me as I ran.
“Run all you want, Ramel,” Yahweh laughed. “You can’t save her. You never could.”
“Friends don’t lie.”
—ELEVEN, STRANGER THINGS
The look on Rafael’s face was deadly. His choir uniform was tattered and dirty from the time he had spent tortured in captivity. His glasses were cracked, and he looked absolutely manic with rage. An evil smile curled across his mouth as he took in my horror and shock. “Surprised to see me?” he asked calmly, and for a moment, I felt like the Earth tilted beneath my feet.
“How did you get in here?” I gasped, and Rafael gestured to the demons standing behind me.
“I had a little help.” He smirked, and I whirled around.
“Jezebel?” I gasped, but she looked like she was ready to murder Rafael where he stood.
