The huge circular chamber at the end was marked out by the large columns positioned around the periphery. A wide smooth area of unbroken stone, intricately decorated with flowing designs, spread out evenly around a central circular pit. As solid as this floor appeared to be, tracks of coloured light could be seen shooting through the insignia towards the centre. How deep the abyss in the centre went was not apparent, but above the void swirled a ball of chaotic energy.
The sole occupant in this room was a huge, lizard-like creature that appeared far more reptilian than the reptilian that had been subjected to the mind-eater virus, and was far, far larger. The creature sat back on its hind legs, using its tail to support its upright position as it peered into the colourful, glowing mass of chaos before it. The liquid-light ceiling in this chamber swirled into the centre and fed into the central mass from on high, as electric energy shot up into the mass from the pit below. Via its front claws, the huge lizard drew different energy streams from the cosmic whirl, and combining these energies into one mass between its claws, it cast the electric ball aside, saying, ‘Mušma!’
Inside the discarded glowing mass an apparition took form and hardened into a fierce serpent creature whose neck branched into seven heads that moved and hissed independent of each other. With a wave of permission from its creator, the titanic beast slid through the pillars and out of the chamber into the mists and foliage beyond.
I had to wonder: why create a creature akin to the worst horrors of the dark universe I had left behind? Was this universe not meant to be more advanced than the one below?
‘Mušma, is one of many creatures of retribution,’ the oversized lizard said, in a voice distinctly female and that was calm and soothing to my fears. Then, twisting its long neck right around to set glowing eyes upon me, it raised one of its free front claws, and beckoned me over with a single talon.
I inched my way closer, hesitant to approach the beast that was easily ten times my size. ‘Where am I?’
‘In a dream,’ it said, as it morphed in form into a female that was not Grigorian, human, Elohim, reptilian or Nefilim, but the perfect combination of all of the above. She was scantily clothed, beyond her torso body armour that was moulded to snugly fit her shapely form, and stood scarcely taller than myself. Such a being I had never seen! Yet her stunning beauty did not stir my blood with the same intensity as the one who had compelled me to cross the threshold into this universe.
‘Grigori don’t dream, we don’t sleep,’ I advised, more disposed towards approaching her.
‘You are sleeping now,’ she told me surely. ‘This is the only safe place for us to meet, for the physicality of where your body resides is currently perilous for us both.’
‘Perilous?’ I queried the word choice, for my situation among the Nefilim was not thus from my perception.
‘You have been sleeping for quite some time, Azazèl,’ she informed me. ‘War has come to pass in your absence. My children fight with one another, and have rebelled against me so venomously that I, as the creatrix, am compelled to teach them a harsh lesson.’
‘You are the one that the Nefilim call Tiamat,’ I assumed. Some of the Nefilim believed she was the primordial master of chaos and creation; and from my current perspective they were not wrong in believing so.
‘And you are Grigori, sent to protect humankind’s evolution,’ she granted, as she walked in close to me, ‘and hence our purpose aligns.’
She stood closer to me than anyone ever had. Part of me felt that my personal space had been invaded and wished to step away, and yet it was a strange, exultant honour that a being so resplendent and powerful wished to be so near me, thus I remained still. ‘Have humankind offended, Tiamat?’
Tiamat was amused by my query, and perhaps feeling my discomfort, she backed up to explain her reaction. ‘Humans have not the intellect to even fathom my existence; as far as humanity is concerned the Nefilim are the creators and gods! They do excel in the genetic manipulation of physical forms, I’ll grant … but the allocation of soul-minds, and the subtle bodies thereof, is my domain. And that includes the soul-minds within the Nefilim themselves!’ She calmed to a tone of disappointment once more. ‘But the Nefilim have grown so conceited that they believe they can do away with me and my restrictive guidance. They plot to lure me down into the physical world so as to slay me.’
‘Then the Grigori shall be your guard,’ I decided without a second thought. The Fallen had wished to bring down the creator in the dark universe. I had hoped, with their loss of memory and a new evolution, that might have changed; but it was clear whose side the Grigori must take.
Tiamat smiled broadly at my offer, but only because she thought it charming and sweet. ‘My champions are dragons, like me,’ she advised. ‘Perhaps that is what I should call you, for you have the spirit of a dragon.’
‘You may call me what you wish, as long as I can be of aid in your defence.’ I was unsure if Tiamat was taking my offer seriously.
‘Of aid to my cause, you can be … but not quite in the way you imagine, Dragon,’ she tried the title on me and smiled, confirming that she felt it suited. ‘For the first thing you will learn about the female aspect of any soul is that she does not attack every problem directly and with full force as her male counterpart might. She will devise a shrewder means to achieve her goals in the long term.’
‘And what scheme has she devised in this instance?’
‘As a mother,’ she advised, ‘I must find a way to reward my children who are on the right path back to the creator, and punish those who continue to serve themselves. There are less than a clawful among the Nefilim who have shown any sign of remorse for their defiance, and their part in this rebellion was executed to keep the peace, not to advance their own agenda.’
‘Anu,’ I guessed him to be the spearhead of the resistance against his rebellious children.
‘Yes, Anu and his daughter, Ninharsag, know and understand my mysterious importance to this universal scheme, as I understand theirs,’ Tiamat explained. ‘For they, like Enki, have developed the Grigori essence I wove into the soul-mind of all the Nefilim from the essence of Araqiel. But apart from this trio, the rest of the Nefilim do not even believe they have souls, much less that they should develop them.’
‘Enki,’ I said in approval, not surprised to learn that he still held Tiamat’s favour.
‘And because Enki’s emotional body is so well developed, his guilt in siding with his kindred against me has driven him into isolation. Thus, one of the few redeeming members of their race is useless to me.’
‘What did the Nefilim do to elicit such a rebuttal from their maker?’ I thought that Tiamat seemed a tolerant being.
‘At the request of my male counterpart, I sent our son down into physical incarnation to warn the Nefilim that if they did not stop making war with every other species they come into contact with, then they would face reprisals. The warning fell on deaf ears. They refuted my messenger’s claim to be the son of Tiamat and Abzu, for they deny our existence! Their council voted by majority rule to have our son slain. It was Enki who put forward the notion to freeze the prisoner instead. It is only because this solution appeased Enki’s peers that our son did not experience a painful and terrible physical death at their hands.’ Her voice filled with compassion as she justified her forthcoming reprimand.
I was confused by her review. ‘But in death, would your son’s soul not be returned to you?’
‘Yes,’ she granted. ‘But I would rather wait for our reunion than have any harm befall him.’
‘So your son is being kept in cryogen,’ I uttered sympathetically.
‘I speak with him in his dreams, as I speak with you now,’ she said sadly, ‘and as time has no real meaning to either of us, we can be patient. But in due course I will descend into the sub-planes of the earthly realms, along with my monstrous titans and free my beloved. On that day my wayward offspring will learn that a mother’s guidance is never redundant and o
nce lost, will be forever mourned.’
‘You will destroy your own creations?’ I felt her judgement harsh.
‘No, I will allow them to destroy me,’ she advised, ‘in the hope that my compassion will touch that untapped potential to feel in them all.’
I felt she was being overly optimistic in trusting that her death would emotionally affect the majority of Nefilim in any way. ‘And if it does not?’
‘Then the Nefilim will eventually destroy themselves. They believe they have discovered the secret to immortality in the Orme substance they inject themselves with. It’s the same gold-derived powder that they use to power the shield of their dying planet, but they are deluded to believe it will sustain any body indefinitely. This substance may grant supernatural power, but when taken in large and frequent doses, it will trap a soul inside its physical body. Once severed from their soul-group, they will be rendered infertile and cease to reproduce; my little ironic gift to the nihilists of the divine plan. If they believe that there is nothing beyond the life that they are living, then it will be so. The only thing that will save the Nefilim from cosmic extinction and a place in the Satan’s army once more will be the activation of their emotional bodies through exercising love, compassion and wisdom.’
‘They will find themselves in the dark universe, and will not advance further in the universal scheme, but go round and round through the two lower universes until they learn their lesson.’ I saw the wisdom of it. ‘Still, it is clear that some of the Nefilim have tapped into their Grigorian spiritual legacy.’
Tiamat nodded to agree. ‘If not for Enki, Anu and Ninharsag, all the Grigori would have been wiped from existence by now … or rather, kept apart from it. For sleep and death are brothers that are hard to tell apart in some instances.’
‘What?’
‘You are not alone in your slumber.’ Tiamat motioned to the ball of energy and within it I saw a vision of my brothers sedated in modules laid out in a row.
‘Anu, Ninharsag and Enki appealed your case to the great Pantheon of twelve, but by nine to three they voted that the Grigori were too powerful to remain in existence, or to instruct humankind, who are the race currently bearing the brunt of their merciless desire to wield power and accumulate riches. A desire that is now shared by the branch of the reptilian species that the Nefilim sought to enslave.’
In the sphere of energy I saw a great battle between the reptilians and Nefilim; the latter hovered over the battle on small flying transports, out of reach, whilst humans, mutants and monsters from the labs of Ninharsag confronted the hostile enemy, being devoured by the reptilians as they advanced. The field looked more like a feast than a battle! The Nefilim fired their weapons indiscriminately into the throng from above, killing fighters from both sides.
‘How did this happen?’ No sooner had I asked the question than I realised the answer. ‘The virus. The Nefilim released it?’
‘The infected reptilian was freed by its kin during a rebellion against the Nefilim, and having acquired your talents and a very self-serving smart virus, it quickly established itself as their leader.’
‘The reptilians took the Nefilim capital?’
‘No,’ she clarified, ‘this war is unfolding on the planet where human consciousness was to develop, but I fear there will be no humans left by the time my spawn have finished airing their grievances upon one another.’
‘This is my fault! I should never have come here.’ My worst fear had come to pass. I had been turned against the humans I was meant to protect in the last universe, and now I had failed to protect them in this universe also.
‘The soul of every uninfected human slain by the Grigori in the dark universe was delivered into this one,’ Tiamat addressed my unvoiced guilt. ‘You were destined to come here, as were the Fallen Elohim … but unlike you, they do not remember their dark past. Their instinct is still selfish rather than selfless.’
‘But what was the point of saving those souls, if they are only to be tortured in this universe as well?’ I appealed.
‘It is not for you to fathom or judge,’ she advised. ‘That is the job of the Logos. It is for you to guide humanity —’
‘No. I cannot stand back and watch them suffer knowing I am the cause. I want to be involved!’ I beseeched her to think of a way.
‘I could encourage those few Nefilim who are well disposed towards you to release you — but then they will be declared traitors, and war will be declared on them and you. Then the Grigori will find themselves slaying the Nefilim, and the humans you were sent to protect, who will also be battling the reptilians and the creatures of my wrath.’
‘No, I would not place those who are protecting the Grigori at any further risk.’ It struck me then, what could be done. ‘Araqiel incarnated into the Nefilim race to awaken the emotional body they lack. So allow me to join with humankind, to develop the mental body they require to rise above their pitiful lot.’
Tiamat’s face went blank at the suggestion — I could not tell if she was for or against the notion.
‘If indeed you can inject the souls of the Grigori into the human consciousness matrix,’ I proposed, ‘we could deal with your rogue children in a more covert fashion … as is your way.’
‘You learn fast, Dragon,’ Tiamat served me with an odd look of consideration. ‘That is not in the plan. That said, you are not the first to suggest this.’
‘Am I not?’ I was pleased to have support, however anonymous.
Tiamat continued to stare at me, as she considered how to best pursue the subject. ‘The Nefilim Lord Enki has always deeply desired to have sons, but has been unable to seed a male with any of his mates. He has turned to Ninharsag to fashion him human sons, as intelligent as any of the Nefilim. To grant Enki’s greatest wish would be a clear sign of my favour and draw him out of his melancholy. Before the Grigori, I had not an appropriate soul to match to the chore.’
‘The Grigori are a match?’ I inferred.
‘On a physical level that seems the case,’ she said. ‘By splicing human genes with yours, Ninharsag has fashioned the perfect bodies to fulfil her brother’s request, and they are more beautiful than the Nefilim, in her opinion.’
‘Bodies?’ I queried the plural curiously and was prompted again to peer into the sphere of chaos. There was an image of a male of the human species, bearing a remarkable resemblance to my Grigorian self, and next to him was the paragon I had entered this universe to find. Yet the image appeared to be only an artistic impression. ‘Are they real?’
‘This is a developmental projection of how these bodies will appear when fully grown.’ She waved a hand before the sphere and the image changed to one, more realistic, of many human embryos gestating, some male and some female. ‘This is what they look like at present.’
Shock reverberated through my being as the realisation caused the fire in my chest to swell, which to me vindicated that I had found the right path. ‘I have been seeking aspects of myself that have never been realised.’
‘Interesting.’ Tiamat still did not sound convinced.
‘Why must we only be Watchers?’ I was distressed by the proposition of defying divine will; was this a test? I thought back to my time in the council of the Watchers, and to my meeting with DK — clearly at least one of the Grigori had resigned himself to entering the human consciousness stream, just as he had entered the Nefilim consciousness stream. ‘To join the human consciousness stream, you would have to split my soul-mind into twin souls?’
‘Such is the polarising aspect of this universal scheme. But the divide is only on a physical, emotional and mental level, to aid you to develop those subtle bodies. On a causal level, you will always be one. Just as on the highest levels of existence, you and all the Grigori are one.’
I grasped the premise and yet I knew Watchers were not meant to be involved. If we cheated this situation, were we ultimately opposing the divine plan? That was the Satan’s way.
Tiamat seemed wary and
was sorry to advise me: ‘You have already exposed the reptilians and the Nefilim to the Satan’s influence.’
The statement sparked the realisation that the reptilian carrying the virus now had access to the grimoire about the Fallen that had been programmed into the mind-eater. ‘How did I expose the Nefilim?’
Another vision in the sphere before me allowed me to view Ereshkigal, reforming all the melted seals left in cryogen modules inside Leviathan. Having collected all seventy-two, she spirited them away.
‘No!’ I protested my failure to leave the influence of the dark universe behind, even though I’d been fooled into forfeiting all control over the situation. ‘I can’t allow them to summon the Fallen into this realm.’
‘Too late,’ she said. ‘And how easily humanity will be convinced to kneel to his will.’
I was startled by her attitude. ‘Are you trying to talk me into defying the divine plan?’
Tiamat laughed. ‘You cannot defy the plan, for it is constantly changing according to the choices of all involved,’ she advised. ‘No being in creation, not even I, can force a soul-mind to submit to any lot. It is the divine plan that every soul chooses its own path … no one can hold you back from any path you freely choose to pursue.’
It seemed to me that my joining with humanity was what Tiamat wanted all along; but she could not make me volunteer the Grigori for this fate, I had to choose it. ‘And what will be my punishment for joining with humanity?’
‘There could be no harsher punishment than being human.’ She sounded surprised that I was seriously considering it. ‘You can’t imagine what being mortal is like,’ she warned. ‘To feel … pain, hunger, thirst, sickness, oppression, death! Imagine the torment of thousands of lifetimes constantly craving your soul mate and being bound to love and lose them in every one of them.’