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|||I was being lifted out of the ground and gently but surely into the air. These two angels had been my best assistants and confidants, now rebels of Heaven merely by helping me. First I was taken to the Cave of Memories just outside Eden, where my needs were attended to and my back carefully stitched together. Then I was left alone to recuperate while those that had followed me prepared a plan of defence. Already, the garden lay in waste, a mess of ashes and mud.
I was told by my final attendant that Woman was still alive in the garden, but it would mean death for any angel to step inside its broken gates. Death for any other angel, that is. Though I had been stripped of both name and position, I remained "Son of the Morning," the first among immortals. I alone could match the power of every legion and the One himself would not dare say otherwise.
With that thought in mind, I walked down the slope and began my journey to Eden. I arrived in only hours and found myself embroiled in a search through what had become a field of blood. At the entrance had been two Seraphim, their bodies impaled on a broken part of the gate. Their severed heads lay only a few feet away, while their wings were nowhere to be seen. The shattered corpses of dozens of others lay scattered about the area. The crystal clear waters of the Hiddekel River had been turned to blood.
There was not a living thing within view as I walked through the gardens at the Eastern Gate. Every creature had been killed and every plant and tree had used as fuel for incineration of the entire domain. Not an insect or leaf had been spared from the carnage. But from the Tree near the Southern Gate, I could hear a woman quietly moaning in pain. I recognized the voice immediately and ran to help her.
As I neared the gate, I could see the charred and blackened top of the Tree of Life, and under it lay the bodies of six angels, each with their eyes torn out. At the foot of the tree lay Lilith, my creation, bleeding from many sword wounds, staring blankly, blood covering the fingernails on her right hand. In her other hand I noticed a half-eaten piece of fruit nestled in her palm. I knew then I had no reason to worry; there was only One that could kill her now.
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