The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) (21 page)

But what reason would Gabriel have to lie to him?

Was Gabriel testing his faith?

Did he need to prove himself first?

“I think you’re lying,” Judas challenged. “This, this is just a test!”

Maybe that was it.

However, Gabriel sighed.

Judas felt nauseous.

“That will be enough for today,” Gabriel said. The angel opened the door so Judas could leave the room. Slowly, Judas went out the room and out of the structure. He headed back to his quarters.

This was just a test.

There was no truth to what Gabriel was saying.

Judas leaned himself on the wall, because otherwise he would have fallen from weakness.

“How is he doing?” The Master asked Gabriel. The Master wore simple white robes, unadorned. His long hair fell untied behind his back. His eyes were full of compassion, as if he saw the goodness in everything in the world, no matter where he looked.

“It is to be expected, he is resisting the lessons of the True History,” Gabriel said. “We should let him get over it at his own pace. It might take him a few days, weeks, or months but even if it takes him years, we can wait. If we go too fast, we will break him.”

“I believe in him,” The Master said. His voice was gentle. “Growing up together with him, I know he can do it.”

“You put too much faith in a... human,” Gabriel said. “If even us angels can’t solve the problem of our Great Wars, what makes you think he can do it? Sure, I have seen him face The Immortal King. There is bravery there, but aside from that… There are many angels and humans who have greater potential.”

The Master was silent for a few moments.

“You underestimate humanity,” The Master said, “In my time with them, I have come to learn more about them than the rest of you angels have. They are more like us than you think. But they have the power to become the Savior because they have what we don’t.”

“And what is it that they have, that we don’t possess already?” Gabriel said. “Power, technology, wisdom, Long Life.”

The Master paused several seconds before answering.

“Urgency,” The Master said. “Their short lives push them to their limits, to become their fullest before their time runs out. They are a young race, but look how far they’ve come! I have faith in them.”

“Weren’t the First Keepers threatened when humans came to possess Forbidden Knowledge?” The Master reminded Gabriel. “Didn’t we come down to divide them after they almost finished the Tower Ship of Babel? They have the potential to rival us, and in such a short time. They may have the potential to exceed what we have accomplished, given more time.”

Gabriel did not look convinced. “But because their lives are short, they don’t value it,” Gabriel countered. “They are more willing to throw away their lives because they know they will die anyway. We, who live the Long Life understand the
true
value of life.”

“But do we, really?” The Master said, “Here we are, still caught in our own wars. No matter how powerful we become, and no matter how far our technology has advanced, we are still destroying each other. The curse of the Ouroboros haunts our race. We are destroying ourselves. The Earthborns continue to fight against the Angels of Sky Jerusalem.”

Gabriel didn’t have any words to respond to that.

“Whether the Savior comes from them,” The Master said, “or whether it comes from us, we will never know until it happens,” The Master said, “or whether he will come at all. But we must always have hope.”

“Hope,” The Master said, reaching out a hand towards Gabriel, “that we can end all the wars and needless suffering. Hope, that we can end the curse of the Ouroboros. For the end of all wars and needless suffering.”

“For the end of all wars and needless suffering,” Gabriel echoed, taking The Master’s hand.

“For the end of the Ouroboros,” Gabriel said.

Keep seeking, and you will find.

And when you find,

you will be DISTURBED.

-The Gospel of Thomas

Ask, and it shall be given you;

seek, and ye shall find;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

-Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9

The next day, Judas woke up, remembering only vague moments from what happened with Gabriel. He could, however, remember being taken to room with a spherical object that showed him moving images, the moving images corresponded to what Gabriel was saying. There was a swirling mass of images and thoughts in his mind that didn’t make sense.

He met Gabriel that day and asked the angel what was happening.

“I have hidden much of the True History inside you,” Gabriel said, breaking Judas’s trance. “One by one the knowledge will reveal itself to you as you need them. Everything will come at the right time.”

“But why not reveal it all at once?” Judas said, though he thought he already knew the answer. His head was aching from all his new memories and, if there was any more, his head would probably explode.

Judas jumped. An angel had left the room and Judas wasn’t even aware there was another besides Gabriel. The door closed seamlessly. Who was it? And did that angel also teach him something?

“It can drive a human insane if the world he thought he knew suddenly changed so much,” Gabriel explained. “Trust. Believe, and in time you will remember it all.” Believe? Gabriel had just destroyed his entire belief about life!

“But it’s just a day’s worth of teaching, how can there be so much,” Judas said.

Gabriel looked amused. “We have trained you for
seven
days without sleep,” Gabriel said. Seven days? Judas sighed. No wonder he felt like this. At that time, someone entered the room. When Judas saw who it was, a wave of relief washed over him and all thoughts of doubt vanished.

It was The Master.

“What happened to your neck?” The Master said, chuckling.

Even after Gabriel and Arcana healed him, the spots left by the noose around his neck was still visible.

“Just a little accident while escaping... your followers.” Judas was not about to reveal that he had considered killing himself.

The Master nodded at him. “Good thing you survived all that,” The Master said.

Judas could say the same thing about The Master. “How did you... How was it even possible that you could survive all that torture? It felt so real... I thought you were really gone... I survived, because the soldiers were too busy with what was happening to you.” Tears welled in the eyes of Judas. He had tried to believe that his Master was still alive, but it was different when he actually saw the Master in person.

“I thought I had to climb The Blue Rose before I could meet you,” Judas said.

“No matter,” The Master said. “We will meet again there and have a longer talk. But Gabriel and I decided it best that we meet now, after all the new memories you just learned.”

“Feel my hands,” The Master said as he extended both of them. Those hands felt smooth, though right in the middle of each there was a hole about the size of a large nail. Those hands were like his hands—the scar of the nail, one on each hand, forever left there.

“From now on, nothing will be normal,” The Master said, this time grimacing. “Everything you knew about the world will be turned upside down.”

He knew what The Master was trying to say. Judas needed to let go of his previous beliefs, no matter how hard it was. He needed to, somehow, accept the True History.

“I will try to learn everything,” Judas said.

The Master nodded.

“You did well playing the part of The Betrayer,” The Master commended. The betrayal was only a role. The reality was, it had to happen for the prophecies to come true.

“
Somebody
had to do it,” Judas said. “I did not want it to be me to be the one to lead you to suffering, but I couldn’t let it be anyone else either.” It had to be done, and Judas Iscariot, the most trusted among the twelve apostles, was picked for it. If The Master had a best friend among them, it would be him. But of course, Judas wasn’t just a best friend. He was the Master’s brother, since they shared the same mother, and they had grown up together.

“The other apostles,” Judas said, “they are furious of the betrayal.” The Master nodded.

“In time, they will understand,” The Master said.

Judas hoped the news had reached the apostles that he was seen dead, hanging from a tree. They would believe that. They were good people, the other apostles, but they hated him now.

Then, another angel entered the room carrying an obsidian box. The Master gestured for Judas to look at it. Judas studied the box, he touched it, it felt smooth, and solid as stone.

“This,” The Master said. “is for you.” Judas wondered what was inside it. “Press it there and it will open,” The Master said. The box opened with a sound like a distant waterfall. Inside, there was a golden arm bracer in the shape of a snake coiled several times. The length of the bracer was almost an entire arm.

“Wear it around your arm,” Gabriel instructed in his deep commanding voice. Judas did so. Despite being made of gold, it felt comfortable and fit his arm perfectly, almost as if it was crafted just for him.

As put the golden arm, a familiar voice spoke in his head.

Ah, at last,
The Great Serpent Nacash said in his head.
I can take a permanent physical form rather than always hide inside your blood. This blood will be perfect.

There was something that told Judas that he shouldn’t speak of Nacash to Gabriel or even his Master. They might think he was going crazy.

“This golden arm bracer is your guide,” Gabriel said, “Your sword. Your shield. Your armor. And your wings.” And as if as an afterthought, Gabriel added, “It is also a vault of wisdom.”

“Thank you,” Judas said to The Master.

“You seem, distant,” The Master asked. “Does the True History trouble you?”

Indeed. Judas’s mind said he was open, but his heart spoke differently. He felt the whirlwind of emotions return. He was loyal to The Master, there was no doubt about that, but learning what he had just learned, even though much of it was still shrouded from his mind, was a totally different thing. Judas tried to push the emotions away and cleared his mind until he found the stillness from within. The Master put a hand on his shoulder.

“I believe in you just as you had faith in me,” The Master said. “From this day forth, you will no longer be an ordinary human, you will be like us. You will live among the angels. You will drink from the Fountain of Life like the angels. You will fight the battles we fight.”

Judas nodded. He wanted to put more spirit and passion into his words, but in his troubled state, they just weren’t there. Still, seeing The Master had uplifted him considerably.

“Very well,” The Master answered. “I have to go. Gabriel and the other angels will guide you through your next days. But before I go, I have something important to share.”

Judas looked up.

“Your greatest mission is to save the world from destruction,” The Master said. “But there will be many steps.”

“The first step is to understand the nature of the threat,” The Master said. “Why do we angels destroy ourselves in Great Wars? Why do we destroy the world we live on? This is the threat of the Ouroboros.”

“The serpent biting its own tail,” Judas said.

The Master nodded. “Do you know what it represents?”

“There are people among us who seek to destroy each other,” Judas said. “I have seen the wars of humans all over the world. Brothers against brothers, fathers against sons. The Ouroboros is the symbol that represents us destroying ourselves.”

“That is the Ouroboros of Humanity,” The Master said. “However, the problem does not exist in humans alone. Angels too continue to suffer this problem. The Ouroboros of Angels that destroyed heaven persists to this day.”

“But I thought angels are already wise and advanced compared to us humans?” Judas said.

“Even after living thousands of years, angels still have not solved their own problem,” this time it was Gabriel who spoke. “Today, we are divided between the angels of Heaven and the angels of Earth. But the problem does not stop there. Even among the angels of Heaven there are multiple factions that conflict with each other, and much more so among the angels of Earth.”

“We have given you The Commandments in the hope that you would not suffer the same fate as angels,” Gabriel spoke. “We angels have destroyed Heaven in our Great Wars and have almost destroyed the Earth during the wars of Babel and in Sodom and Gomorrah.”

“To save you from the same fate,” Gabriel continued, “we have commanded you to write down and record your own history, from Adam to Noah, to Moses, to Abraham, all so you can learn from the mistakes of your ancestors. Because you humans are short lived, it was necessary that there be created a way to pass on what one generation learned to the next generation. This way, maybe you humans will not have to suffer the same fate as us.”

“But I don’t understand,” Judas said. “What do you need me here for? Each of you angels is already much wiser, much stronger, more experienced than me. Why would you need the help of a human?”

The Master smiled at this, sharing a look with Gabriel.

“The problem of the Ouroboros has never been solved by us angels, and we have been here for a long time,” Gabriel said. “The Master believes that you humans have something that we don’t. If you can solve the Ouroboros of Humanity, then perhaps we can use
your
solution to solve the Ouroboros of Angels. But the opposite is also true. If we angels solve it first, we will share our solution with humanity, and it will usher a thousand years of peace. And besides, you are not the only one, but one of many. As we speak, there are Twelve Human Messengers chosen from the best of the world.”

“A thousand years? Why only a thousand? And what is it that humans have that angels don’t?”

“Humanity’s sense of urgency,” Gabriel said, echoing what The Master had told the archangel yesterday. Perhaps there was some truth to it. Maybe that urgency would be the key. “Because you are short lived creatures, you accomplish more in a short amount of time. And the ‘thousand years of peace’ is only a manner of speaking. What we really mean is an eternity of living together in peace. After all, if there can be one thousand years of peace, then there can be ten thousand, and hundreds of thousands.”

“The second step,” this time it was The Master who spoke. The Master’s gentle voice contrasted with the deep commanding voice of the archangel. “Is to gain power. In order to stand up against the other Twelve Messengers, you need to succeed in climbing The Blue Rose Tower. The others among the Twelve Messengers have already succeeded and overcame the challenge.”

“The third step,” The Master said, “is to protect the world from all other threats. Whatever happens, the world must not be destroyed.”

Judas nodded. Now that he understood his purpose, it was easier to see why they taught him what they did. They had to tell him the truth, no matter how painful it was, because the truth was necessary to make the right decisions.

“When you face against the Twelve Messengers,” The Master continued, “you can use whatever method you want. Will the problem of the Ouroboros be solved by a Messenger of Light? Or will it be by a Messenger of Chaos? There is no knowing what will work or what will not.”

“The war, however,” The Master said, “will not be a Great War. The Forbidden Weapon that destroyed Heaven is sealed forever. But do not take this war lightly, because if you can win it, it will bring us closer to ending the Great Wars of Heaven and Earth.”

Judas wondered why there was a need for Messengers of Chaos to accomplish the goal. Though he understood the significance of the mission, because if it was to solve a greater war where the Earth itself could end up getting destroyed, then it was worth fighting for.

Judas had to make good use of the time he had and learn as much as he could.

“Do you have any other questions?” The Master asked.

Judas had hundreds of questions in his mind. Though right now, he felt he was not ready to hear any more answers. Every answer he heard gave rise to even more questions, and every answer troubled him. In time, he would discover more, but right now, he just wanted to rest. “I don’t have any for now, but I will ask when I do,” Judas said. The Master gave him a brother’s embrace before finally leaving the room.

With that, The Master gave Judas a brotherly hug, then The Master and the archangel left the room.

Now alone, Judas studied the serpent bracer. Judas wondered how such a small thing could be so many things at the same time. A sword, a shield, armor, and wings, and it was also a vault of wisdom. And a vessel for Nacash, the crazy voice in his head. Looking closer, the serpent’s body was half the thickness of his arm, and it coiled around and covered the entire length of his arm. It was made of pure gold, but its eyes were made of jade, and there was a big shiny black stone, possibly obsidian, behind the snake’s head. Despite being made of gold, it was very flexible so he could move his elbows freely.

“I am beginning to see what you found in him,” Gabriel said to The Master. “He asks good questions, even though he does not know the answers to many of them. Unlike others who just wait to follow blindly, he uses his mind to think. But will that be enough?”