Resurrection

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Anti-Christ strolled forward, Katon’s sword in his hand. Crafted from the spear Longinus had used to send Christ packing back to Heaven, it looked at home there, his grip confident upon its hilt.

Seeing him approach, Daartan stumbled back a step, falling to his knees, deep lines etched into the light of his face. He raised his shaking hands to ward Longinus off.

“I do but what God has decreed for me to do.” Gone was the swagger and bluster, the arrogance. In its place was sheer terror. It was easy to corral and lord power over an Anti-Christ when he was dead. It was another thing entirely to do so when he stood before you, the cold steel of his living gaze taking your measure.

Longinus looked to the sky, a subtle smile playing on his lips, before returning his focus to Daartan. “Though I cannot fathom how it is possible, there is no trace of God’s presence in the world. Nor for that matter, is there any of Lucifer. Much must have changed while I slumbered dreamless under your vigilant watch.” He leaned in close, baring his teeth in a fearsome grin. His eyes sparkled with malevolence. “However, there is much that has not changed god or no.”

Daartan shuddered as Longinus gestured to Karra. She walked over and stood beside me, a satisfied smile on her face. Though still shrouded in wet red, her wounds were healed. Her eyes were filled with excitement, but she remained quiet, her attention focused on her father.

“You dared lay your hands on my daughter. For that alone, I will have your soul. Were it not for her sacrifice, offering up her blood to speed my return, you would have taken her life.” He set the tip of his blade against Daartan’s trembling throat. “Your audacity has cost you your soul. However, your failure has earned you a swift death.”

As though resigned to his fate, Daartan said nothing, his eyes straight ahead. Not one for empty threats, Longinus set his hand upon the knight’s head, grabbing ahold of his ethereal form, and thrust the blade through his neck.

Daartan gurgled a scream, twitching in the Anti-Christ’s grip, before going silent as the blade was torn to the side, cutting through the left half of his neck in an explosion of brilliance. In a smooth, sweeping motion, Longinus brought the sword back around to finish the job, hacking through what was left of Daartan’s neck.

The knight’s head came free. Longinus raised it up, tendrils of dripping light streaming from its severed base. Like his followers, his glowing flesh dimmed and went dark, blackened decay spreading across its surface, a wildfire of rot. A moment later it felt apart, a hail of dust showering down over Longinus’s flushed face.

He stood still, not even bothering to lower his arm as Daartan’s spirit fled the ashes of its previous form. He closed his eyes tight as the soul transfer washed over him, little hint of it visible on his stoic face. A few moments later, his eyes sprung open. He looked about, taking in the ruin of the field. After a moment, his gaze alighted on the fallen body of Lilith.

With measured paces, he went to her. He dropped to a knee beside Lilith and scooped up her small, bloody hand and placed it inside his before pulling her head into his lap. He looked down at her, his face without expression. Though I couldn’t hear from where I stood, I saw him whispering to her as he gently stroked her hair, smoothing it away from her frozen face.

Dead, her spirit lost in the abyss, Lilith stared up at him in silence, unseeing. It had been her heart that killed him and in the end, it had been her heart that raised him up. Were this any other story, it would have been a happy ending.

Afraid to speak, for fear of incurring Longinus’s wrath, I glanced at Karra. Her eyes never once met mine, locked as they were upon her father. An exhilarated smile creased her face, so deep there were troughs in her cheeks. Against the odds and the will of God, she’d returned him to life. She left a wake of destruction behind her, but she had her father back.

I turned back to Longinus and jumped as I realized he was walking toward us. My heart sped up involuntarily as he came to stand before me, the cold chill of fear dancing along my spine. Karra, all smiles, wrapped herself around him in a tight embrace, burying her head in his chest. He pulled her in close with one of his massive arms while the other still gripped his sword, his dark eyes locked on mine.

“I remember you.” His voice was quiet, yet powerful.

I hesitated to confirm that, given what my uncle had done to him.

“Triggaltheron? Lucifer’s whelp.” He remembered, saying it without rancor, much to my surprise. With a flick of his wrist, he flung the blade point first into the ground and proffered his empty hand to me. “I am in your debt.”

Even more surprised by that, I shook his hand, doing my damndest to keep mine from trembling. “That’s not necessary,” I told him, manners kicking in instinctively before reason could talk them out of declining.

“Perhaps not, but you have earned my gratitude nonetheless.” He tightened his hold on Karra. She moaned happy, looking unwilling to let him go. He smiled at her response. “It seems I have returned to a world far different than the one I left. Indulge me a moment?”

I nodded, as if anyone in their right mind would say no.

“God and Lucifer: where have they gone?”

“I wish I knew,” I answered honest. “Tired of the war, they reconciled and left the world behind. No one knows where they are.”

One eyebrow raised, he looked at me unbelieving. “Reconciled?”

“It’s true,” Karra told him, pulling away from him just a little, though her hands still clutched to his frame.

His face a mask of uncertainty, he sighed, slow and thoughtful. “The order?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “There’s not much of that these days. The soldiers still fight, but there are no generals to direct them. It’s chaos. Angels battle angels, each believing they know God’s will best. Our brethren do as they’ve always done, but now there’s no one to rein them in. And through it all, the humans are largely oblivious, caught in the middle, same as always.”

Longinus took it all in, shaking his head. “You say there are no generals, but when I awoke, I sensed an old soul whose energy felt familiar, yet I couldn’t recognize.”

“That’d be Baalth.”

His eyes widened a moment, then narrowed. “He’s come into power?” Not waiting for an answer, he took his daughter’s hand, pulling her close again. “It seems I have much to learn about this new world of ours.” He kissed Karra’s forehead gently. “I must also make up for lost time. Farewell, Triggaltheron. My conflict with Lucifer is not yours to inherit. Think of me should you find yourself in need.”

He reached down and reclaimed Katon’s sword, then bowed his head. I did the same in return.

Karra smiled at me, her eyes telling me sorry. “I’ll find you, and we’ll talk.” She mouthed thanks and gave a quick wave. A moment later, they were gone in a crackle of energy.

The last man standing on an empty field, I went over to check on Rahim. Battered, his ear swollen and leaking blood, he was at least awake. His head was propped up against the body of a fallen gaunt and he was looking off the direction I’d come. He had a smile on his weary face.

“I saw him die.” His voice was weak, but there was a satisfied lilt to it. Though he probably regretted not being the one to deliver the deathblow to Daartan, he could feel satisfied the knight got what was coming to him for his mistreatment of Katon.

While I, too, was glad Daartan was gone, not to mention Lilith, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it given the big picture. Despite his seeming kindness and the offer of help, Longinus had a track record that suggested we could be in for a rough ride. Reborn in a world with no God or Devil to keep him in his place, he was a superstar supernatural who could tear existence apart, if that was his desire. He was the Anti-Christ after all.

That was just it. We had no way of knowing where his head was after four hundred years of being dead. Would he return to business as usual, no longer leashed to Lucifer’s whims, or would the new order bring out the best in him, motivate him to reinvent himself? Only time would tell.

The not knowing scared me.

Not up to thinking about it right then, Pandora’s Box already open, it was time to go home. There was no sense in worrying about what hadn’t happened yet. So thinking, I helped Rahim to his feet and half-carried him over to where Veronica and Poe lay, the poison still holding them immobile. Setting the wizard down beside them, I contacted Michael through the open mind-link, and let him know we needed a ride.