Chapter 2

Maurice Koenig got up from his sleep, hungry and convinced that what he had experienced was simply a dream. There was no way that it could be real. A Demigod ancestor of his, especially one THAT gorgeous, wanting to sleep with him? It was impossible!

However, as he sat up in bed, his hand brushed against the smooth, feminine skin of the ethereal beauty who had been watching him. She winked teasingly at him, as if to say "surprise, I'm wide awake and have been staring at your hot, manly form". She was still as ravishing as when he first saw her.

"Hello, my dear nephew. How was your sleep?" Aunt Lilith inquired.

"It was fine. I gather that you already knew that," Koenig quipped.

"You looked like you enjoyed yourself. It was hard to say, since I haven't slept in fifty millennia. Constant awareness causes one to find sleep fascinating, believe it or not. Part of me envies you that time of day when you don't have to think or worry," she observed.

"And the other part?" he asked.

"Sees how dangerous and frightening it must be to sleep. You are afraid of things that aren't real, while being oblivious to actual threats. I've been an angel so long that I have trouble relating to such a state," she explained.

"That's interesting. What do you do with the extra time not spent in sleep?" he probed.

"Think, stress, plan, fight, fuck, drink, eat, etc. Basically everything that mortals do when awake," Lilith told him.

"In addition to serving the Elohim, that is?" Maurice commented.

"Well, that was part of the fighting bit that I mentioned, but yes," she answered.

"How many Elohim are on Belial's side versus those on Jehovah's?" he wondered aloud.

"Most of the Elohim are dead these days. They were killed by Jehovah the only way that Gods can die: they were prevented from changing shape. If a God stays in one shape too long, he is trapped in that form and eventually dies. A dead God's body inevitably transforms into an elemental being: a demon.

"A demon retains much of the personality of the God who died, but not his immortality. It regains shape-shifting powers, but forms a new soul that can be more easily killed. In essence, Gods sire demons by asexual means. Shape-shifting is more exhausting for a demon than for a God, so they ultimately pick a form that is useful to them. They have no allegiances or obligations, as they are basically the offspring of Gods.

"These demons are not to be provoked. They are proud and feral, often feeding on the flesh of the more stupid animals. They rarely attack humans, as they are not worth the trouble. They are little more than Nature's way of filling the void left by deceased Gods.

"Demons are also made another way: they can mate with each other. There are 780 such demons. They have the same powers as their parents. Demons do not mate with Gods, angels, mortals, etc., chiefly because most of those find them repulsive or frightening. A dead God becomes a male demon and a dead Goddess a female, of course. It's by default.

"Anyway, there are now only 16 Gods left. Of these, 7 are with Belial, 3 are 'neutral', and 4 favor Jehovah. The last of these don't care about being worshipped anymore, I suppose. They are just on his side because they agree with his ideas, hate Belial, or are waiting to stab Jehovah in the back. The four are the four so-called beasts mentioned in the Book of Revelation. They are sycophantic scum in the extreme, not to be trusted. Their names are Azrael, Azazel, Leviathan, and Behemoth. Belial has sworn to destroy them when the time comes.

"The 'neutrals' are: Prometheus (but when is he ever NOT neutral), Osiris, and Ishtar, the Babylonian Goddess of Love.

"Zeus, Hermes, Athena, Aphrodite, Thor, Krishna, and Rama are the remaining Gods who prefer to aid Belial. Each of the Gods has angels, including Cherubim and Seraphim. Cherubim are the officers and Seraphim are the foot-soldiers. However, Jehovah has far more angels than most Gods, as many have defected to join him. They have jumped on his 'bandwagon', in a manner of speaking.

"The most recent divine death was that of the Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu. Her demise coincided with the First World War and left Japan open to the suicidal rise of the militarist faction. She was targeted because the idea of a major world power still favoring one of the other Elohim was anathema to Jehovah. She didn't go quietly, either. Her fight against him for survival was desperate and courageous.

"As you can tell, the war among the Gods is something that impacts mortals a LOT. Belial is not going to surrender and neither will Jehovah. They both want victory badly. Belial has more of the Elohim and a third of the angels in his camp. Jehovah's host is almost entirely composed of angels. Of course, he doesn't have any Nephilim such as myself. Only Belial has those," she informed him.

"So, it's a stalemate at the moment," Maurice guessed.

"Exactly. Jehovah can't gain any ground without Belial countering it. The former still holds the office of Supreme Being, but it no longer means what it used to before the Civil War among the Elohim. We hope to defeat Jehovah in time, but it remains to be seen," Lilith related.

"Who caused Communism? Was that a God's doing?" he questioned her.

"No, that was a rogue angel's. He was one of the Shaitans (Adversaries), the angelic spies and informers, who got tired of being maligned by his own God. He led a mutiny of the Shaitans and only 3 of them survived. One was Abaddon, a dreadful angel who was locked away for centuries for his part in the revolt. Another was Asmodeus, who went into hiding and caused trouble for Jehovah in many ways.

"The ringleader was Moroni, who was VERY real. Joseph Smith didn't just invent him. He started Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and, of course, Mormonism. His goal was to get revenge on Jehovah. Unfortunately, his tactic was to kill his followers, since he was too weak to oppose him head-on. This was the angel mentioned in Job. He liked to cause destruction and mayhem, even more than Abaddon," she corrected him.

"So, that bit about Abaddon being released in the Book of Revelation is not going to actually HAPPEN, is it?" Maurice asked her.

"I doubt it. Jehovah likes to make idle threats and boasts. He also likes to tell half-truths, hence the passage in Revelation about the locusts with strange features being led by Abaddon. In reality, the Destroyer is too menacing to EVER safely unchain," Lilith assured him.

"Do those locusts exist?" he asked curiously.

"No, they were a figment of John's extreme imagination. He was too fond of mushrooms and other hallucinogenic drugs. The book was written in the 2nd Century AD, not the 1st. He was also a very spiteful man who hated the Roman Empire with a passion. That's why he wrote the book: as an attack on Rome. Jehovah took full advantage of these issues and invaded his dreams, making him think that they were real. He presented him a spin on his visions that was convincing enough for the man, who was merely an exiled deacon from Asia Minor, not the son of Zebedee from Galilee.