Lucifer Rising

Until the day I die, I will fight you bozos. Seriously. My name is Eric Wahid, and I'm a guy with problems. I was born in the City of Nabatieh, Republic of Lebanon, in early February 1987. My father Joseph Wahid is Ethiopian and my mother Catherine Al-Mansur is Lebanese, of Maronite Christian extraction. I lived an ordinary life in the City of Beirut with my parents, for most of my time upon this world. It wasn't easy for us, as a family made up of an African father and Arab mother, especially given how racist Arab society was and continues to be. Still, I loved the country in which I was born and cherished its people. Thirty years after my birth, I encountered a man named Ibrahim the Wise while visiting my father's ancestral homeland of Ethiopia.

This old man who has been an icon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for decades wasn't what he seemed. He revealed himself to be the latest reincarnation of the Biblical Patriarch Abraham. I thought the old buzzard was out of his mind, until he showed me what he was made of. I watched him slice off his left pinky finger and it grew back in a matter of seconds. As I watched, stunned, the old man smiled and told me that he and I were linked, and we had a destiny to fulfill. You see, there is a war going on. Angel against Dark Angel. Many of them winged sons of have come to the planet Earth from the Kingdom of Heaven and they desperately want to find a powerful weapon to conquer all realms of creation, including the Kingdom of Heaven and the planet Earth.

These Angels are led by the Archangel Michael and his second-in-command, a warrior Angel named Raphael. They're the new leaders of God's Army now. Apparently, God has vanished from Heaven and the Angels are running the show. The Dark Angels are here on earth as well, and they're trying to find the location of God's Adversary. Can you guess who they're looking for? Lucifer. The Morning Star. The Prince of Darkness. If he is found by the Dark Angels and they release him from his Prison, it's over. The Patriarch Abraham is here on Earth for the first time in thousands of years. The man from whom all Jews and Christians are descended from came down from Heaven to the earthly plane in order to search for something very special. The location of Lucifer Morningstar's Prison. And he asked me to help him find it. Hey, I wasn't about to say no to a guy like that. A man whom I've seen bring a woman back to life after she died from gunshot wounds with a simple touch. For a while I was the Patriarch's little helper, then I guess life happened. I got tired of guys with wings coming after me, and I wanted to live my life without the constant danger that came with being the sidekick of a Holy Man.

I came to the City of Ottawa, Province of Ontario, to study at Carleton University. You see, my mother got a job as a diplomat working for the Lebanese Embassy, and I always wanted to study in Canada so our family moved here. Guess who followed me to Ontario, Canada? None other than my favorite biblical Patriarch. I ran into him while walking around in downtown Ottawa. Apparently, Angels are present in Canada too. I told he old man that he could stuff his mission where the sun doesn't shine. Ever the charmer, Abraham asked me to sit down and have a chat with him. While walking through the Rideau Shopping Center, we were followed by a particularly nasty bugger, the Archangel Gabriel. To the outside world, us two gentle gents were attacked by a nearly seven-foot-tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed Caucasian guy built like a linebacker. In his hands he held a four-foot-long antique sword.

The guy would have cleaved me in two if it hadn't been for Abraham's quick thinking. Abraham thrust a knife into the Archangel Gabriel's midsection, and the howling creature of heaven fled. I always thought that Angels were Immortal, and Abraham assured me that they are, but they can be hurt. The blade which the Patriarch Abraham stabbed the Archangel Gabriel with is no ordinary metal. It is a blade of Empyrean metal, fashioned in the Vaults of the Kingdom of Heaven itself. By hands which were more than human. The wounded Archangel fled, but the Patriarch assumed me that it was Gabriel's pride which was wounded most, not his body. I gathered then that the Archangel Gabriel and the Patriarch Abraham knew each other, and the old man told me as much when queried on the subject. Apparently, when God's chosen Prophets, among them Abraham, Moses and finally, Jesus Christ, rose to Heaven, many Angels did not like the power and importance given to these special human beings souls by God.

A faction of the Angels of Heaven and all those who dwell in the Pit of Hell have a deep, powerful hatred of humanity. According to Abraham, the Archangel Gabriel is not fond of humans, even though he firmly opposes the Dark Angels plans to locate Lucifer Morningstar and free him from his Prison. Even the Archangel Michael, the guy who is de facto leader of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Absence of God, has always maintained a neutral stance when queried about his opinion of humans. Yeah, Angelic beings aren't fond of us, not even the good guys amongst them. Yeah, even though Canada is thousands of miles from both Lebanon and Ethiopia, the two places where I ran into Abraham, it seems he followed me here and has thrust me back into his world of magic, of fate and of chaos.

I'm not impressed by all of them Angels, to tell you the truth. Except maybe the Angel Hazel, who first appeared to us in the guise of a tall, curvy young woman of dark hair, golden brown eyes and bronze skin. The Angel Hazel helped me on a night when I was attacked by the Dark Angel Astaroth, who looked like a tall, burly Asian guy. I was walking out of the university library on a Friday night. That area of campus was nearly empty. For once, they came at me while Abraham wasn't around and I was forced to fight for my life against an enemy who could not die. I fought as hard as I could, but in the end, the Dark Angel Astaroth had me on my knees, ready to chop off my head with one of those unbreakable magical swords that all Angels seem to carry. The power of Angels is simply too great for any mortal man or woman to face, unless equipped with divine weaponry. Something like an Empyrean blade. According to Abraham, properly used, such weapons can seriously damage or even kill an Angel.

Watching Astaroth battle Hazel, I was mesmerized. For once, with no humans around, Angel and Dark Angel showed their true faces. Magnificent wings unfurled from their backs as they flew into the air and dueled over me, the ordinary mortal caught between the war Heaven wages against Hell. Still, I could not simply stand there and watch as Astaroth mercilessly beat Hazel into submission and got ready to slay her. I snuck up behind him, picked up the Angel Hazel's fallen sword, and chopped Astaroth's head. I killed an Angel, well, a Dark Angel but an Angel nonetheless. Moments after, the Patriarch Abraham appeared, flanked by none other than the Archangel Uriel, who appeared in the guise of a tall, attractive Arab woman in her early thirties.

I don't know who was more shocked that I, a mortal, had killed an Angel. And not just any Angel. Astaroth was one of the strongest of Dark Angels, he was once the henchman of the Fallen Angel Beelzebub, who rebelled against Lucifer Morningstar and led a revolt against him in the Pit of Hell. Abraham looked at me with a sad look on his face as I gave Hazel a hand up. I noticed that the Archangel Uriel looked a bit nervously at the heavenly sword in my hand. She snapped her fingers and two more Angels appeared, a tall Hispanic guy and a short Filipino woman. The warrior Angels Sabriel and Haguel, respectively. Now how did I know that? I looked at Astaroth's remains, then at the Angels gathering around Hazel and I. Without relinquishing my sword, I asked Abraham and Uriel to state their business.

It was Abraham who spoke, finally. In a grave voice, he told me that he had at last found what he'd spent such a long time searching for. The location of Lucifer Morningstar's Prison. I smiled at them. That's good news, right? So why the long frigging faces? Uriel gently laid a hand on Abraham's shoulder, for the old man suddenly seemed tired. Hmm. For a guy who's untold thousands of years old, he usually seems quite spry. Uriel locked eyes with me and told me in three simple words things that I really wish I had never heard. You are Lucifer Morningstar, the Archangel Uriel told me. When he said that, I felt everyone around me grow nervous. The Angels Sabriel and Haguel pointed their swords at me. Hazel, who had been standing beside me until now, suddenly looked frightened. I can't tell her how much it hurt when she moved to stand beside Abraham and the others.

Wow. I always thought I had problems but this one takes the cake. Uriel and Abraham's voices droned on and on. They kept talking, but I swear I couldn't hear them. All I could hear was something building inside of me. A cold dread. I'm the Devil? This is crazy! I can't be the Devil. I'm a human being. My dad is a civil engineer and my mother is an internationally trained lawyer-turned-diplomat. I'm a Criminology student at Carleton University. And ever since I met a crazy old man named Abraham who turned out to be not so crazy, my life has been filled with supernatural nonsense. Angels, Demons and Monsters. And half the time, they want me dead. Now I know why. I looked at Abraham, and asked him how long he had known. I saw tears in the old man's eyes as he told me the Principalities, one of Heaven's toughest band of Angels, recently revealed it to him.

Ah, cool. So I have the Principalities to thank for this big revelation. I'll have to pay them a visit someday. Real soon. I looked from Abraham to Uriel, and finally to Hazel. I asked them what happened next. Judging by the look of cold determination in Uriel's eyes, and the anger and hate radiating off of Sabriel and Haguel, I had a pretty good idea what they wanted to do to me. First, though, I would deal with them then I would get answers. With a snap of my fingers, I set Haguel and Sabriel's wings ablaze. Howling in pain, they writhed on the ground. The flames consumed their entire bodies in less than a minute. I was about to do the same to the Archangel Uriel but she vanished. The cowardly Archangel retreated, teleporting herself out of my reach. I stood before Abraham and Hazel, who picked up Sabriel's sword. I looked at her and asked her if she would try to kill the one who saved her life. Hazel looked at me with tear-filled eyes. The female warrior Angel told me that even though she felt conflicted about me, she would do her duty. I shook my head, and walked past her. I looked at the ashes of Sabriel and Haguel, and gathered them in my hands.

With but a thought, I released them. The ghostly remains of the slain Angels rose in the air, hovering before me. I heard Abraham gasp in surprise and Hazel exclaimed that what I did was impossible. I laughed and told her that in power, I was second only to God Himself. Then I mercifully allowed Sabriel and Haguel to return from whence they came. The Kingdom of Heaven. Once again, Hazel and Abraham were alone with me. I smiled and told them that I wasn't the evil they thought I was. Someone in Heaven saw fit to trap Lucifer Morningstar, the Fallen Archangel, inside the body of a mortal man. Hoping that they'd be rid of me. They made me forget who and what I was. Robbed me of my identity. For that they will pay.

Yes, my enemies must pay for their transgressions against me. But while I am no longer merely Joseph Wahid, I am also much more than the Fallen Archangel known as Lucifer Morningstar. The one called the Devil by Jews, Christians and Muslims. I am much more than that now. What am I? The Angelic and the Human blended into one troublesome whole, that's what I am. Unique. I am Immortal, but I also have what no Angel does. I have a soul. And the humanity in me wouldn't let me destroy Sabriel and Haguel forever, and it was preventing me from harming Hazel and Abraham. I told them we'd meet again, and then I flew away. I flexed my wings and soared into the heavens. I'm going to the Kingdom of Heaven. Fate help anyone who prevents me from going in and getting some answers. I'll tell you how it went. Stay tuned for more.