Sebastian Gloom

The Eve of the War

     Dark shapes swam around them as Sammael swam upwards. Gloom tried to make out their forms, to see what kind of creatures they were. Were they sea beasts of some kind, or another breed of angel performing some incomprehensible task essential for the proper functioning of the universe? One of them came close, almost near enough to touch, but still all Gloom could see was the vague outline of black, rubbery skin on which smaller creatures, parasites or symbiotes, moved on hard, articulated legs. Then he gave a start as an eye opened, as large as a grapefruit with a wide, oval pupil. It subjected him to a curious gaze, giving Gloom the impression of a vast, incomprehensible intelligence, and then it turned and disappeared back into the stygian blackness with long, slow beats if its mighty tail.

     The water proved to be deeper than the deepest of Earth's oceans. It seemed to stretch endlessly above them, and soon it was an unknown depth below them as well. Eventually though, it began to lighten, and it was with vast relief that they broke surface and lay for a moment in the slow, rolling waves. “The Waters Above,” said Sammael as he paused to regain his strength. “The waters with which God flooded the world in the time of Noah. Some ancient philosophers believe that this is the original chaos from which the world was created, but they are wrong. The true chaos lies outside all else and remains there still, forever trying to reclaim the Creation of God.”

     Gloom longed to ask questions, but he was too far away from the demon’s head. A thousand other damned souls lay in between. He had to content himself with just looking around, therefore. The sea stretched all the way to the horizon in all directions, cold and almost clear with just a faint trace of green. Fresh water, he noted as he dipped his head tentatively below the surface and allowed a small quantity into his mouth. The sky was an iron grey, devoid of sun or clouds. The light seemed to have no source, but it illuminated the scene as brightly as a heavily overcast English day. That was it. That was all there was to describe. Just an endless ocean of water, miles deep, encircling the world, the sun and planets and even the stars themselves. A vast reservoir of water that, as far as he could tell, existed only so that God could flood the world if he wanted to.

     “If I were to design a universe,” he muttered to himself, “I'm pretty sure I wouldn’t do it like this.”

     “Perhaps God had a reason to design it this way,” suggested the man floating beside him.

     “No doubt,” replied Gloom. “I’m just not sure that they're logical, sensible reasons.” The man chuckled in reply.

     A few minutes later the demon was ready to continue the journey. It spread its wings high and wide, and with a single massive beat thrust itself out of the water and back into the air, it’s cargo of damned souls still dangling beneath it, held by its myriad arms. The waves shrank below them as they rose until the sea appeared to be a perfectly smooth surface of dark grey, the horizon and the sky meeting at a perfectly straight line that encircled them. Before much longer, though, their ascent halted as they came to a solid surface above them. Like all the spheres they'd passed through before, it had circular holes in it. Sammael entered one of them and flew along it until it turned a bend that left it running parallel to the ground, and then he settled to its lower surface.

     “Ahead lies the blessed realm,” it told its passengers. “The realm of Heaven itself. Unless fortune has betrayed us, God and His ministers still remain unaware of what we are doing. Once we pass through, though, they will be alerted and will gather to attack us. In order to gain the maximum advantage, therefore, all demons and their human allies will enter simultaneously. Messenger demons are passing back and forth among us, checking to see whether we are ready, and when Lucifer knows that we are all in place he will give the command to advance.”