Author/Translator's note: Here's the second chapter!
oOo
Leviathans
More fish have crawled out of the ocean, about a hundred of them, according to the daily reports of my brothers echoing through my skull. We all rigorously share our observations and comments.
They're dragging themselves on the ground, learning how to breathe and move around in an environment that is not made for them. Does that steady determination bordering on stubbornness appeal to our Father?
In the wide zone that has been attributed to me, I watch over a few dozens fish living in a group that have moved further away from the ocean. Their life expectancy is short and their offspring often get eaten by predators.
They keep reproducing relentlessly and adapting to their environment a little better with each new generation. Gradually, they stopped struggling to breathe like they used to and their gills clogged permanently. Their legs are stronger now, their tail shorter, and all the scales fell off. I observe as their bodies change and their brains get bigger. Fewer predators attack them now that the group of fish is organized.
They established some kind of warning system where they take turns watching, and depending on the danger, they all run away or all attack the larger beast, outnumbering it. Rather ingenious, for animals.
Countless springs have gone by since the day I was assigned this mission in the Garrison, and my group of fish split into dozens of groups each made of about fifty mutant beings. There is something coming to life inside each one of them, a strange sort of faint light, weak, barely there.
A soul. Or at least, what is meant to become a soul some day. For now it is only a draft, Anael's voice whispers directly into my head when I ask him about it.
"What is a soul?"
Michael said it is a creation of our Father that makes these creatures special and different from the others.
I'm not sure I understand and he doesn't explain further. I keep quiet as my brothers in arms comment the event through the celestial channels. My mission is to observe, not to ask questions about God's intentions.
I squint at two fish copulating to prepare the next generation, completing their frantic act with a squeaking noise.
oOo
We should find a new name for this living things that are evolving with slight differences depending on where they live on the planet. We can't really consider them as fish anymore. Scales have been replaced by hairy skin, gills are gone and ears are sticking out of their head, and their fins have mutated into long members that end with nimble fingers. The shape is similar to our arms, except that they have two instead of four. A nose and eyelids to close their eyes have also appeared. Their brain keeps growing and some of these new species are now above one meter high.
I am about to make this suggestion to Anael, when suddenly imperious voices explode inside my head. The Archangels are calling us, every soldier of the Garrison, without exception.
I spread my wings and fly off immediately.
I land in a chaotic battlefield surrounded by mountains covered in lush vegetation. Deafening screeches rise up to the sky.
There are large expanses of scorched earth in the shape of angels with spread wings on the ground. Meaning several of my brothers have perished already, and their dying Grace have branded the ground.
Something heavy crashes on my back and I almost fall down to the ground. My Grace forges my weapon instinctively and I grab it, flapping my wings to find my balance back. The foul breath of a creature brushed against the back of my head as I blindly try to chase it away with my blade.
"Castiel!" Riemu's voice calls out behind me.
He manages to set me free and I whirl around. My brother just stabbed the creature with his blade, but it doesn't seem to be effective. The oozing monster looks unharmed. Riemu suddenly disappears from my sight when two creatures bring him down, and before I have any chance of helping him, five more attack me at the same time.
In the confusion of the battle, I catch sight of Uriel fighting a dozen of these things. Even though they are barely half our size, they are ferocious and fearsome. Sleek black wings flap under the sun as they try to devour Angels with their oversized jaws, their claws trying to tear them apart. As for Anael, he is flying high in the sky, trying to get rid of a creature clinging to him.
I shout a battle cry and relentlessly slash open the monsters surrounding me with their wide open mouths, trying to swallow me alive. My entire left leg is engulfed inside the esophagus of one of them, and the world turns dark when another one swallows my head and tries to rip it off from my body. Blinded, hindered, and feeling raw pain tearing through my back, I decide to dive straight to the ground, hoping not to crash into one of my brothers.
The impact on the mountain is violent and painful, but it did shake off my assailants. I scramble back to my feet, turning my back on the mountain to prevent an attack from behind again. I brush a tract of land lined with a dozen trees off my shoulder with a flick of my hand.
Tightening my grip around my blade, I'm keeping them at a distance as they pile up together in front of me. How many are they? Maybe thousands. Except for the Garrison, I only see about a dozen of Angels fighting. Why are there so few of us? We'd have to kill hundreds each to overcome this!
Our weapons are useless. But we will fight until the end.
Orders are orders.
I hear Anael shouting something at Riemu just before he collapses to the ground, submerged by way too many enemies. I fly off right away to rescue him, but it's too late. Blinding light bursts out of the swarming mass of monsters. Riemu's Grace has been set ablaze and is fading now. There's nothing left but an expense of burnt earth.
Riemu has been killed in action, Anael's voice resonates through my skull.
Rachel is in trouble too. Five creatures are attacking him and a wing has been ripped off his back. His Grace is bleeding out from the wound. Riemu is dead, but I can still save Rachel before he faces the same fate. I fly in his direction and shove my blade into a monster's shell, cracking it. It doesn't even seem to feel pain and spins around to face me, snapping its oversized jaw open to show the bottom of its stomach.
"Cut their head off!" the voice of the Archangel Gabriel thunders.
I obey and with a swift motion of my blade I behead the creature and set Rachel free, shielding him as he struggle to get on his feet, off balance because of his missing wing.
Every soldier in the Garrison obeys and in the distance I see Ephra perched on a mountain beheading three monsters at once with one single swift move.
Only now do I notice the seal drawn in blood drawn on a mountain's cliff, and a black hole widening in the air. A portal.
By my side, Uriel and Anael slice heads off with all their might, and the ground is littered with headless corpses. As I fight, I notice out of the corner of my eye that the four Archangels are standing near the seal, their hands joined together, chanting prayers.
Where did they find such a quantity of blood to draw the sigils?
My blade is sleek from the creatures' dark blood and I'm covered in it too. Defending myself while protecting Rachel who can't fly anymore is hard, and it appears that the enemy noticed our situation – they are now attacking us by packs of hundreds.
Suddenly, a blinding light bursts out from the seal and a powerful shock wave send me down to the ground with Rachel. When I open my eyes again, the monsters are gone and the seal snaps shut. The Archangel Lucifer shares a look with Michael before he raises his voice.
"Our Father has ordered us to lock away His latest creations, the Leviathans. They were a danger to His Work. It is done. You may return to your initial mission now."
Rachel bravely struggles to stand on his feet while the other Angels obey and fly away. He is leaning on me, which leaves me no other choice but to remain here instead of going back to my mission as ordered.
"Good job, Castiel," Anael nods at me approvingly, then flies off.
Raphael is striding across the devastated battlefield healing the wounded Angels one by one. He walks to us and brushes his hand against my brother's skull. A brand new shining wing sprouts from his mutilated back.
Raphael looks satisfied as we spread our wings and fly away from the battlefield.
oOo
These new instructions are confusing, but I obey and make myself invisible to mortals.
Anael appears by my side and stares down at the creatures that have come to look like some kind of weird apes loosing their hairs. They've learned how to walk on their hind legs as if to imitate us, and their brain has grown bigger along with their soul glowing brighter. From up here, they seem so tiny and insignificant, but still we watch every detail of their evolution.
"I see you have a preference for these ones," Anael states.
It came as a surprise for all of us when the fish we had to watch evolved into several distinct species. Orders were clear: do not interfere, and do not take sides. Over millennia, with glaciations and migratory flows, only two species remained, and they have been coexisting for a while now, with varying degrees of success and even some cases of inter species breeding.
We have been informed that only one of these two species was to remain eventually. But we don't know which one will survive and which one will go extinct.
"I think they are more likely to survive than the others."
"Why?" Anael's voice sounds curious.
"They are taller, physically stronger, more imaginative and their souls shine more brightly."
Anael squints at them.
"I would rather bet on the others. They are less ugly, reproduce faster, they are more adventurous, demonstrate group solidarity and they know how to fight."
"You're showing a lack of objectivity. My species has hair and eyes coming in many more colors. They have a talent for poetry and they bury their dead."
Anael gives me a weird look and stays silent for a while.
"Anyway, both these species have evolved to the point that we now have to hide from their eyes."
"Yes," I nod. "Raphael said that because of their soul, seeing or hearing us could harm them or even kill them."
This might make things difficult if we ever need to intervene. But I'm sure our Father will find a way.
A rustling of feathers. Uriel lands between us, looking impassive. All three of us stare down at the apes that lost almost all of their hairs.
Uriel's voice rises in the silence.
"Poetry against weapons and violence. For some reason I think your little pets are not going to win this one, Castiel."
At our feet, two red-headed creatures are painting colorful patterns with great delicacy on their own skin. Their artistic talent to decorate their bodies with colors and feathers is fascinating. Anael replies before I can:
"At least we can be certain that one of the two species will survive. According to Gabriel, it's for their safety that the Leviathans have been locked up, and dinosaurs eliminated."
"Indeed. Zachariah didn't take it all too well, by the way," Uriel says ironically.
"We must not talk about this," I cut him short, and silence falls back.
It is unwise to mention our superior officer who has been sent to rehabilitation for having objected the order to destroy the dinosaur species he was in charge of.
oOo
"Is this really necessary?" I glance at Raphael out of the corner of my eye.
Further away, Anael, Rachel, Uriel, Ephra and the rest of the Garrison silently watch as the last specimens of my favorite species are being slaughtered by a group of the other species. We are flying high in the sky, and from up above, we can see the Reapers harvesting the souls one by one.
"It is. There can only be one species left, that we will call Humans. Those are the orders."
"Orders are orders," I nod sternly.
The extinction process has taken longer than I expected and it has become obvious my favorite species would be disappearing. But still, until this very moment I had been hoping that somehow the situation could change in their favor. For centuries I've observed their reproduction rate decline and diseases taking them away, while the physically weaker species progressively invaded their territory, wielding weapons and bringing along tamed wolves they trained to attack.
Uriel was right. My favorite ones might be stronger and smarter, but their pacifism is their weak point. They don't know how to fight and they don't want to.
I will regret their poetry and their body paintings. Maybe God wants to create warriors instead of creatures that aspire to beauty?
Before our eyes, the last of their kind perishes at last. I look away, my Grace simmering with disappointment. Here starts the reign of Humans, and once again, the Garrison has only one species to watch over.
oOo
Uriel is standing silently at my left, and Anael looks tensed at my right. Two Human females are crying at our feet with tears streaming down their face. The entire Garrison is gathered behind us. I gaze up at the four Archangels, my older brothers, all radiating with light and power. Lucifer looks upset and deep in thought.
Each one of us is invisible to Humans' eyes.
Fluffy feathers brush against my side, and I look at Anael.
"They won't survive if this continues," he whispers in a low voice.
Blood splatters over the ground in front of the helpless Humans, and the skull of an infant appears. This isn't the first time I witness a birth, but today it's quite different, if the presence of the Archangels is anything to go by.
"Our orders are to not intervene," I snap at him.
Anael knows the orders and rules. As General of the Garrison, him of all Angels knows this. Yet he seems to take the Humans' matters a bit too personally. Once the human children are born and taken away, I will inform Raphael of his delusion.
The Garrison's mission is to observe and obey. Nothing more.
Anael narrows his green eyes.
"It would only take a snap of fingers from us for the mothers to give birth painlessly with no risk of dying. And we just stand here, watching idly."
I look sideways at him as a warning. If our older brothers hear him saying such things...
"The mothers don't matter. Father's only taken an interest in the two infants."
"You wouldn't be so indifferent if your favorite species had survived, Castiel."
I hear Uriel snicker. Everyone in the Garrison knew of my soft spot for the extinct species, and I fear they'll nag me about this until the end of time.
I have been watching the Humans for centuries now. The cycle of their lives is quite repetitive: they eat, sleep, reproduce, die. But little by little they've developed language, leather and woolen garments, hunting and fishing skills, and though they haven't reached the level of poetry of the extinct species, a sense of beauty and art growing in them. Even if in my opinion this frail, stupid and belligerent species should never have survived, I have come to term with it and watch over them in an impartial manner.
Humans have grown taller, their brain is bigger now, so is their soul. They have lost almost all of their hair and now Uriel keeps referring to them as « hairless apes ». For some reason, only the male ones are still growing hair on their face.
The other female Human screams in agony as the head of her infant slips out. I squint at the little girl the Humans are trying to pull out of her mother's body. Not far, the baby boy is already out and screaming in the arms of his exhausted mother.
Cherubs have been created about a thousand years ago and have been working hard for the last centuries to influence the Humans' sexual preferences to make this happen on the same day and the same hour. It's the first time God gives them a priority mission. To make a male and a female destined to mate once they come of age.
Adam and Eve.
For what purpose? I don't know.
It seems like our Father has plans of crucial importance for them both.
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In the next chapter
"You would kill your own brother for these hairless apes?"