Number 666 3: Fallen (Staten Krown)

8

The blast shutters the hall.

"What have you done?" Metatron asks Gabriel.

Gabriel isn't one for an apology. After losing her strength this is probably a welcome change to her. I can see it by the look on her face. She's satisfied with whatever she's done without realizing what she's done. She literally smiles. She is enjoying this.

Maybe she was attempting to attack Uriel with it, but whatever she was doing didn't come to fruition. I watch as she handles this huge rod in her hand and vibrations spread out from that rod. The entire building is shaking. All around us we see cracks. I feel all this violent shaking and for the first time I look around and I feel completely powerless.

"This place is going down," Uriel tells me.

He doesn't have to let me know that. I can see it. Yes, I hate this feeling. Knowing that a single rod could perhaps rip a foundation is a scary thought. The shaking was sufficiently violent that it was very difficult to remain standing. Before I know it I am surfing into the next hall struggling to maintain myself as the foundation of the building is going down. The main library begins to transform into shambles. There were signs hanging from the ceiling on chains and they were swinging so much they were banging off the ceiling as they went back and forth.

For a moment I'm so confused that everyone seems to disappear. I don't know where they all went until I see Uriel. He grabs my hand, pulling me just in time for me to avoid a massive gash in the middle of the floor. My heart drops when I barely miss a crater on the ground! I look down realizing that I don't see the bottom of that crater.

The only words that I can mutter are, "Holy shit."

"Grab a weapon," he tells me, "We have to get out of here."

A weapon. Yes. A weapon. That's what we came in here for in the first place. I run forward grabbing what I remember noticing that everyone had disappeared. Then someone sticks their head out from under a table and yells at me to take cover. It's Metatron.

The roof begins to collapse. Large stone columns fold. I dive under another table – which was something of a moving target – and by the time I get under it, the noise was dying down but the shaking had yet to subside. Then all I could hear was the sound of glass breaking in the distance. I turn and notice it's Ariel. She has summoned up whatever strength she has and now has a bow in her hand. It's one from the angel armory.

She doesn't hesitate to use the bow and arrow to go after Gabriel, but it's too late. Gabriel takes to the sky. She takes to the sky and flies out.

She had the right idea.

"We have to fly away," I tell Uriel, "This whole place is going to collapse on us."

"We need a weapon."

I want to abandon the weapons. I could care less about them. But as I look through the collapsing building through boulders I feel something there. Sure it seems like the whole building was being shaken up and down rapidly. Sure it felt like the entire building was going to be torn from the ground and turned upside down. That's not what I felt though. It felt like a presence there in the rubble. Something abandoned. Something lost.

And I run out, thrusting my body forward and putting faith in God that I won't be clobbered by a falling object.

Through the rubble I find it!

It's a long, glass, triple-edged dagger with a sturdy hilt.

And even through the chaos even through Uriel calling me from the skies to join him, I know that this is my weapon. I know that this is my blade.