The Descent of the Gods

Plot

Almost all his life, Herab had dreamed of vengeance against his brother Cain. He had looked up to both his brothers, but Abel was the one he respected. From his childhood he had always feared Cain. 

When he had seen his beloved brother Abel lying dead, his blood draining into the soil of the land of Eden, something had died in Herab. Such a horrible deed should not go unpunished. 

Adam had begged him to allow God to deal with Cain in His own way. Herab would have none of it. If God allowed Cain to live after committing such a horrible crime, than Herab lost all respect for such a God. He renounced the God of Adam and left the land of Eden forever.

He had followed Cain and his wife down the river, and attempted to murder them. His plans backfired dramatically, and while Cain claimed the river island of Nod for his own, Herab found refuge in the mountain ranges to the west. In the caverns there, he had made his home. Eventually he found himself a wife, and his tribe grew with his own descendants and other family groups that feared Cain and sought the protection of the caves and Herab's own ferocity.

In the centuries that followed, Herab had murdered many men himself - maybe they desired to lead the growing Herabite tribe, maybe they had insulted his leadership, or once or twice they had condemned Herab's new religion. For these infractions, Herab had taken their lives.

Not long after he had begun expanding his caverns to resemble more civilized quarters, Herab's atheism was cut short. A powerful entity had entered his dreams. This being called himself Moloch, and he told Herab many things that Adam had kept from him, like the true story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and how the serpent had tried to help mankind. Moloch promised that the blood of Cain would be his, if only Herab would swear allegiance to his master. 

Herab's passionate adoption of the new god was followed swiftly by a baptism of blood. Not all the people who had gathered under his leadership had been willing to follow the image of the serpent Herab had erected in their great hall and demand that they join him in adoring.

Their deaths had sealed the new god's thirst for a blood offering. In the many years that followed, Moloch returned many times to haunt Herab's dreams, giving him instructions and commands to follow until Herab believed his force was mighty enough to attack Nod. But much to his surprise, Moloch told him to wait. Wait Herab did, but as the centuries passed, he grew impatient and his anger grew. 

Finally, when Cain threw out his forces from Nod in an attempt to teach the tribes a lesson and also root out Herab's people, Moloch had appeared to Herab again and given him the long-awaited orders to fulfill his vengeance against Cain. 

Herab had watched as Cain's troop had decimated the Sethite village. Herab knew full well that Seth, his younger brother, would likely die in the attack, but he felt no remorse. Seth was well known for his loyalty to the old religion of Eden, and therefore an enemy.

Only when the Cainites had finished their attack and had begun looting what little the village had to offer had Herab ordered his warriors forward. The ambush was flawlessly executed - hundreds of Cainites were cut off from the main force and annihilated to the man.

The next day Herab's forces stormed Nod, their thirst for Cainite blood whetted thoroughly. Herab had watched his forces overwhelm the famed and feared city. All who had feared Cain would fear Herab even more so!

He could hardly comprehend what had happened then. Lights from heaven had descended upon Nod, enveloping it with light. From the light had stepped men as Herab had never seen. Truly, if man was created, then these men surely had been the original mold.

His men had fled in terror. Over the din of their retreat, he thought he could hear screams. The voice screaming sounded like Moloch. 

The day of victory he was destined to have had been unfairly stolen from him. They had retreated to their caverns. After so many years of promises of eventual victory over Nod, they had been hurled back in their moment of triumph by supernatural intervention. None of them were prepared to enter a heavenly war.

He had sent spies into Nod, but his men feared to return anywhere near the 'skymen'. He had to promise them great rewards, and even then, only a few volunteered.

Now he waited, dreading Moloch's return. He hardly slept, afraid that as soon as his eyes closed, he would be face to face with the dark entity and his wrath.

But eventually, even men afraid to sleep must sleep. And when he did, Moloch visited him.

Herab found himself in darkness. He opened his eyes, but saw nothing. He felt around himself, and discovered stone walls that burned his skin when he touched them. Looking up, he thought he could see some light far above him. 

"I must be in one of the new caverns, but I don't recognize it," he thought to himself. He picked his way forward gingerly, trying to avoid touching the hot stones. 

When he finally reached the mouth of the cave, he stopped short of exiting, because a dark figure crouched there, it's back to him. The man or beast (he couldn't tell which) was looking far off in the distance. Nod lay before them.

"Why do you wait for Cain to fortify his city?" Moloch hissed. "Why do you do nothing?"

Herab fell to his knees behind the figure.

"My men will not fight gods!"

For a moment there was silence. Then a cruel sound emanated from the dark figure. It took Herab a minute before he realized what the sound was - laughter! Moloch was laughing!

"Gods?"

"Yes, to us, these men are gods."

"Show the world the blood of gods, and Nod will fall. If you cannot, then it is your blood which will be reaped."

At that, the floor of the cavern fell away from Herab's feet, and he plummeted into the fiery chasms of hell.

Which woke him finally from his nightmare vision. He lurched up from his sleeping mat, sweat falling from his body in sheets. He grasped the serpent emblem on his neck tightly, unable to let it go. 

It was a half hour before he recovered enough to rise.

The spy was waiting for him in the large cavern that they used as a meeting area.

"Did you find any weaknesses we can readily exploit?" Herab demanded.

"Not many," the spy replied.

"I only need one!" 

The spy smiled slyly. 

"Azrael, their leader, seems to favor Lamech's daughter."

"The one that tried to tear down Cain's image?" The spy nodded in reply.

"Interesting," Herab replied, now also smiling.

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"But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain..."  Jude 1:10-11