The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) (13 page)

He sighed in dismay. Of all the things that heaven could have given him, and he got a rope.

What would he do with a
rope
?

Maybe if it were a staff, a sword, or a knife it would have been useful for fending off attackers. If only he had a weapon...

But wait, he did have a knife, he had Arcana’s knife, only he had buried it under the ground and there was no time to go and get it. It was too far. He knew how to get there, but he did not have the strength to run the distance, while his pursuers were probably fresher.

He wondered if he could use the Zohar's power the same way that Arcana did, but that was highly doubtful. He looked at the rope again. Behind him there was a tree, but while he could probably hide behind it, it wasn’t thick enough to hide him effectively.

The situation seemed hopeless. He could no longer run, and he had nothing to fight with. As desperation crept in, he played with the thought that maybe he should just give up.

After all the troubles that he had survived, was this how it would all end?

Suddenly, Judas felt a sense of peace, the kind that came when one realized that there was no need to struggle anymore. He accepted his fate. If his pursuers caught him, they would probably stone him to death, or worse, torture him, and maybe even crucify him too. A second time.

There was no way out. He had to accept it. He could no longer run—at least not for a long distance—while his pursuers were fresh and more rested than he was.

He looked up to the sky. What a beautiful sight. If his own death were up to him at all, he wished he would die in his sleep, painless, oblivious of death taking him. Or if not, maybe a swift, clean death would do.

Of course, how he would die would no longer be up to him. His pursuers would decide that, and they would probably pick the worst possible death for him. He looked at the ground again.

Then he had an idea.

Maybe he
did
have a choice. If he was going to die anyway, why not die by a method of his own choosing?

The madness of Shaul must have affected Judas to the point that he had gone mad too.

He grabbed the rope on the ground, bit it, then started climbing up the tree. His arms and legs protested, it took all the strength and willpower he had left. He probably tore all his arm muscles there so that by now both his arms and legs were practically useless. He hugged a thick branch and crawled his way to the middle of it. The branch wobbled, but somehow it held.

While the tree barely had any leaves left so that it was not a good place to hide, it was perfect for his purpose. He tied the rope around his neck, then the other end of it to a thick branch.

At least it would be fast, he would not suffer a lot.

He hoped.

But as Judas was ready to end his life by his own hands, at the last moment, he hesitated. There had to be another way.

Then Judas had an idea. It was a mad idea, but it could work. There might be away to survive this after all.

Judas pulled the rope off his neck, loosened it, then tied it in such a way that the noose would not tighten when pulled. Then he put both hands on the noose.

After that, he gently lowered himself down the branch, and carefully, he put the noose under his chin.

As he lowered himself down, he felt his arms protest at his weight.

But somehow, he did it.

Slowly, he let his hands fall on his sides, so that he hung by the rope with his lower jaw. He was still alive.

He knew this was extremely risky, but a small chance was better than no chance at all. It was hard to breathe, and he felt like his neck would break any moment if he moved the wrong way. He needed to be very careful, one mistake and he would really end up hanging himself.

He took one last deep breath, then he let his arms fall limp on either side, closed his eyes, and pretended to be dead. He imagined the color of his head, probably black, from the lack of circulation in his head and the numbness he was starting to feel.

Judas waited a few moments. He could hear the voices of people over the hill getting louder as they came closer to where he was.

Then they spotted him.

By the sound of it, there were four of them, one woman and three men. A young woman screamed and pointed at his body, hanging from the tree branch. Judas tried to be as still as he could. He tried to hold his breath to look the part. The numbness in his head had spread. If it was not already black, he imagined his face probably looked blue right now.

The truth was, he was beginning to choke for real. He felt himself sway gently, as the branch swayed, and the rope turned. The turning made him dizzy.

“It’s him!” one of the men said.

“It’s the traitor Judas!” another said.

They ran towards him to see Judas closer and make sure it really was the traitor.

“It’s true, he has hanged himself,” a third man said.

“We must tell the others,” the other answered.

Now came the tricky part. If they all left to call the others, then Judas had a chance. He would climb down, and then he would have bought enough time to escape, what with them thinking him dead. But if one or two of them remained to guard his body, he would be in big trouble. Unless if only one remained, he might try fighting that one off. It didn't seem like they were soldiers either, there was no sound of mail or armor clinking.

Judas listened as they ran off, hurrying to bring the news to the others. Then one of them turned to look in his direction again.

The noose was moving dangerously closer to his neck. Judas wanted to do something about it, but kept himself still.

“What are you waiting for?” the young man yelled to the woman.

The woman looked back at Judas’s body. “Vultures! They might eat his corpse.” The woman yelled back.

Damn woman.
Judas cursed in his head. Who cares about vultures! Go away stupid girl. Judas began to feel panic. He wondered if the woman could hear his heart beating in his chest.

“Then let them eat his corpse,” the man answered. “He is a traitor and deserves no kindness from anyone, not even in death.” Judas silently thanked the man. Finally, someone with half a brain.

The woman looked at the other man, and then back again at Judas’s body. For a moment, the woman did not move.

“It’s good that you have finally paid for your crimes,” the woman said finally. Then, after what seemed like forever, the woman decided to join the others.

She turned one more time before finally disappearing over the hill. “You deserve worse than that,” the woman said.

Judas listened as their voices became more and more distant, then he risked an eye open—just a tiny slit—to make sure that they were really gone. It seemed they had passed over the hill and he was safe.

Somehow, his crazy plan had
worked
. He was a genius! He still had to figure out how to save Arcana and Varak and Gnaeus, but he had to deal with one problem at a time. For now, it was time to go down.

But as he looked down on the ground in front of him, he almost shrieked in surprise; there was a young man wearing white robes standing there. Luckily, Judas did not produce any sound, what with the rope choking him. But his body involuntarily jerked, and the movement caused the noose to come closer against his neck.

For a moment, he found it even harder to breathe. But he had to keep still. Judas prayed the man did not notice his surprise, but how did the man get there in the first place?

Judas was sure he only heard the footsteps of three men and one woman. Unless there was one among them who had a really quiet step.

There were only
four
of them.

He cursed inside his head.
Go away!
Judas made a mental command to the man, willing the man to disappear. As his vision started to turn black from the lack of air, he started thinking how unfair the world was. Just a little more, just a little more, he could do it. He had survived many troubles, something like this was nothing.

But, to his dismay, the man suddenly spoke. “Why are you hanging by your neck and pretending to be dead?” The young man said.

Startled, Judas involuntarily moved, causing the rope to tighten deeper around his neck. This time, the rope choked him for real. If he continued like this, he would
really
die. In that moment, he decided that, if he was going to die anyway, he would rather have a chance against the man. After all, there was only one enemy, unless if he had mistaken the count again.

But now was not the time to worry about how he had missed the man’s presence, so he quickly put his fingers on the noose and pulled his chin off the rope. As he let go, he gasped for air, filling his lungs to the point that it felt like his head was going to explode.

Judas fell down from the branch but managed to land on his feet, his vision still partially black from the long duration of having no air. But even as he landed, his legs buckled and he toppled backwards.

He was breathing hard, but he was alive.

Now, to take care of the other problem. It took only a few seconds to recover his vision, and the first he saw was the figure of the white robed man looking down on him.

The man, whoever he was, did not appear to be any bigger than Judas in terms of size and weight. That was good sign. But the man did not attack him. Instead, the white robed man extended a hand in a gesture of helping him up. It was obviously a trap, but Judas would not fall for it. Instead, Judas intended to use it to his advantage.

Judas gripped the man’s hand with both hands, and heaved, putting all of his weight in one pull so he could send the other man off balance. He planned to hit the man’s stomach with a knee as the man fell down.

To his surprise, and despite all his effort at heaving the man down, the white robed man stood firmly and did not fall. In fact, it didn’t seem like Judas moved the man at all. Not even an inch. It made him think of pulling himself against a sturdy tree; instead of the man going down, Judas was now the one standing up.

Judas cursed silently.

Something was wrong with his senses lately, what with the voice in his head, him not sensing this man come close, and now this. Maybe he really was going nuts. After all, how could a man not budge after such a pull?

He looked in wonder at the man’s arms, as it was thinner than his own. Where did this man's strength come from?

The gaze of Judas followed the man’s arm, and as he looked at the man’s face, Judas gave a small cry of surprise. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine. The man’s face was not the face of an ordinary human. It was the face of a young man, but like Shemyaza, there was an ageless quality about it.

Judas, suddenly, felt afraid.

Seeing his surprise, the white robed man calmed him down. “Do not fear,” the man said. There was something strange about the man's voice, but Judas couldn't quite put a finger to it.

“I am Gabriel,” the white robed man continued, “an angel, and I was sent here to meet you.”

Judas wanted to groan.

Excellent, he had just tried to attack an
angel
. Judas had no doubt that was what this person was.

“I did not mean to—” Judas stammered. “I did not know.” If he had known that the man was an angel in the first place, he wouldn’t have tried anything like that.

“I am sorry for trying to attack you,” Judas said. But the angel did not seem to be offended.

The angel was pale skinned, with red lips, and a clean face without a mustache or beard. With a youthful face, the angel probably did not need to shave. In fact, if the angel wasn’t male, Judas would have described Gabriel as beautiful. Despite the young face, Judas had the impression that the angel had lived more years than him—especially the angel’s eyes that wore an expression that spoke of inhuman wisdom.

Gabriel’s wore his pale white hair tied at the back, and he wore plain white robes that fell to his feet. The angel was not muscular, but Judas guessed that the angel’s immovable strength did not come from muscles alone.

“Have no worries,” Gabriel said. This time Judas realized what was strange about Gabriel's voice. Gabriel's body and looks were that of a young man, but his voice was deep and authoritative. “You’ve done no harm to me.” True, even if he wanted to, Judas probably wouldn’t be able to do anything against such a powerful being.

“You look like you've been through a lot,” Gabriel said, as the angel looked Judas up and down. At that, Gabriel extended his hand towards him, though the angel's hands did not touch him. Gabriel muttered a couple of words.

Power radiated outward from Gabriel's hand, it was a warm energy that engulfed the body of Judas. In a moment, the warmth was gone, but Judas felt energized.

“Hmmm,” Gabriel said, surprised. “You took more energy that I expected, you must have been really drained. Even your spirit appears drained...”

Judas didn't know how to explain. It must have been the serpent bracer, draining his energy when he used its powers.

“Is that some kind of healing power?” Judas asked.

Gabriel shook his head.

“I merely transferred my energy to you,” Gabriel said, “the energy in turn is used by your own body to heal.”

Judas felt good. So good. As if he had woken fresh from a good night's sleep. All the sores in his body were gone. He wondered if...

Judas started removing the bandages on his arms. However, when he looked at his hands, there were still two gaping holes in the middle—where the nails had pierced his hands.

“I thought these would heal too...” Judas said, thoughtful.

“Unfortunately,” Gabriel said, “that wound has already healed and closed up. So even if your body regenerated itself...”

Judas nodded, understanding.

“Though there are ways to heal anything back to it's original state,” Gabriel said, “But come, we must hurry.”

Gabriel motioned for him to follow. Judas hurried along. Gabriel took long strides, and though the angel appeared to exert no effort, Judas had to jog to catch up.

“Where are we going?” Judas asked.

“Our ship is waiting nearby,” Gabriel answered.

A ship.

“Our ship?” Judas asked, wondering. They were in the middle of the desert. There were no seas or rivers “nearby”. What kind of ship was this?

“Yes,” Gabriel said, “not far from here.”

Judas followed, keeping his scepticism in check, considering all that he had recently been through.

To his disbelief, Judas gawked at the ship. But it was such a strange, small ship, and he doubted if ‘ship’ was the right word to use for it.

The ship that Gabriel referred to seemed to be made of black metal and it lay flat on the ground. It had no sails to propel it, not that he could see. The metal ship was circular in shape, and it was not very big, probably only two strides in one diameter and only two or three hand spans thick from top to bottom.

“What kind of ship is it?” Judas asked, curious.

“This is a
merkavah,
” Gabriel answered, and when Judas seemed puzzled the angel continued, “It is a small ship that can take us to the main ship, which is a farther distance.”

“It sails on land?” Judas said.

“Watch,” Gabriel said. At the angel’s gesture, the metal
merkavah
glowed underneath, burning bright orange like a furnace. The
merkavah
rose a few inches above the ground and made a whirring sound.

Judas watched in amazement.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he peered below the
merkavah
to see how it floated and if anything was supporting it underneath, but there was nothing below it. The air below it simmered in the heat, distorting the view on the other side.

Gabriel stepped on top of the
merkavah
and as he did, his image and the floating
merkavah
began to fade into nothingness. The whirring sound vanished.

Judas stopped, confused.

Where had Gabriel gone?

The angel and the
merkavah
had vanished totally

Judas turned and looked around, perhaps Gabriel had moved very fast and disappeared, that was indeed possible. But there was no sign of Gabriel in all directions.

Then as if to answer his question, Gabriel reappeared again at exactly the same spot, and gestured for Judas to come and climb the ship.

Judas tried to steady his trembling hands. He willed his feet to stop shaking. With that, he carefully stepped on the small ship, and when he did, his feet seemed to melt an inch into the metal. He put his other foot on the ship, and the same thing happened. He tried pulling his feet off, but they were fixed in place.

He was trapped!

“Relax,” Gabriel said, chuckling in a fatherly way, “It's so you don’t fall off.”

Judas nodded.

“Does this ship make you disappear?” Judas said.

“Yes, so ordinary people won’t see us going about,” Gabriel said. “Otherwise, people would be celebrating miracles every day.” That made sense, though Judas thought miracles would be welcome.

“When you say 'us',” Judas said, “who else do you mean?”

“The Twelve Legions of Sky Jerusalem,” Gabriel said.