Ruthless V5-Interlude-The Kingdom of Heaven

Men and women walked down the streets wearing varying expressions that invariably conveyed some flavor of awe.

Some wore special head coverings or hats. Others covered their faces. And some wore none of that, simply going about in their unadorned street clothes.

Many of the people who filled the public spaces came from countries where they had enforced laws or held strict customs over such matters of attire.

But for now, no one gave anyone else trouble or even criticism for the apparent errors.

Their God willed unity amongst His children.

And they obliged.

Soldiers who had shot at each other on opposing sides of informally declared wars bumped into each other in the squares and overcame initial awkwardness or even hatred to shake hands and speak with mutual respect—in some cases, affection.

An atmosphere hung over the whole city—perhaps the whole country. A shroud of love and of something more.

Submission to the will of a higher power.

None of the inhabitants of the capital remained indoors on this day. None of them carried weapons or tools of their trades.

This was the new Sabbath. They would not disrespect their God, or His enforcers, with disobedience to His commandments at this early stage in the history of their new country.

“How many are we?” whispered a young man named John. He had to ask, because although his hearing was excellent now, his vision had not been restored by the advent of the System’s rule on Earth. John was blind.

“We are many,” replied Sarah, his wife, in a low voice, arms wrapped around her husband’s waist. “Thousands and thousands, packing the pavement. Angels appear over every seventh building, twinkling with His light.”

“I can feel them,” John murmured. “I could almost see them.”

Sarah twisted her head to look up at her husband’s face curiously. He had not spoken of “seeing” anything in many years. Despite lacking eyesight, he had the most vision of any man she had ever met. But he didn’t use the word “see” lightly. It had never stopped bothering him to be unable to do something that so many others took for granted.

She took his hand and squeezed it.

“Of course you can,” she whispered. “No one deserves to feel their presence more than you.”

“Not what I meant, sweetheart, but thanks.” His eyes crinkled in that way they always had as he smiled.

She smiled back at him lovingly. He couldn’t see the gesture, but she knew he could feel it. John’s own grip around her tightened with love and an air of possession.

Thank God we lived to see this moment together. There were so many times when it might have been otherwise.

Sarah guided him to a good spot in the public square where they could observe the festivities. She would continue to act as her husband’s eyes throughout the morning’s ceremonies.

The System—undoubtedly doing the bidding of God—had unlocked the Skill Eye of the Heart for her when she was first initiated. As a result, although her husband still could not see, Sarah’s gifted eyes could observe many truths that they could not before—so that she could continue to see for her husband in myriad ways as they struggled to survive the end of the world.

Now the struggle seemed to be over for them. They had made it to the Kingdom of Heaven. There were all races, all colors, here. But they held a creed in common. They were all among those groups who the people who had once been Muslims had called People of the Book. All united now as monotheists receiving revelation from the one true God in real time, which had melted away most of their differences smoothly and cleanly.

The couple approached a massive platform that had been erected in the center of the square, got within two hundred feet of it, and then Sarah judged that they could not safely make it closer. The crush of the crowd would be too dense if they drew too near, and with her husband’s condition, she was afraid to be separated from him—mainly afraid for him. In the excitement of the crowd’s movements, it was possible he might be crushed underfoot. John was not physically frail, but there were thousands and thousands of people lining the square, more pushing in all the time.

Sarah found a place where they could stand outside of the immediate reach or easy view of others, between a pillar and an olive tree.

She stood, described their surroundings to John, and guided his hands to the surfaces nearby so that he could get a good feel for the environment in case he needed to navigate it quickly for some reason without her being able to easily direct him.

They stood there and exchanged their usual loving words and excited thoughts about what the future might hold. Then the ceremony began.

Thirteen men walked onto the stage and took plain stone seats. Visually, there was nothing in common between these men other than that they were dressed appropriately for the weather and their roles—in white robes and golden breastplates, carrying rods of authority.

Slowly, majestically, the group of angels that had been hovering over buildings in the city filed into the space as well, gathering and hovering over the outskirts of the square.

Sarah observed and explained what was happening, as what she guessed were the highest ranking angels present crowned the thirteen Holy Kings with glittering crystal crowns. The applause carried itself to John without needing any narration, of course.

The kings each got up and spoke a bit to the people, just briefly introducing themselves and not providing much information or substance. They all looked strong and wise, and perhaps that was why none of them felt the need to compete with the others in speech-making. By what must have been prior agreement, one of their number spoke last and longest, giving what was clearly the main address for the opening of the ceremony.

“I am King Omar,” he said. He spoke in a language that Sarah was not familiar with, but which was helpfully instantly translated by her Universal Language Comprehension. “It is my great pleasure and privilege to be here with you. We are gathered here today in celebration.”

There was a great roar from the crowd before he could say anything else. The King tried to speak again, but then he simply smiled, closed his mouth, and waited. After a few seconds, the cheers faded away to nothing, and he was able to talk again.

“Thank you for your enthusiasm,” he said calmly. “Thank you for your faith. It is your commitment to this cause, to your beliefs, that has brought us all here.”

He paused, and there was applause again. Sarah held her breath, waiting for more.

“We had sinned greatly, and that was why the recent changes occurred,” the King said. “We sinned. Us as a species, and I believe, yes, us as a group here, too. None are free from sin. And I believe that the challenges that we have faced over the last few months were set before us in direct response and proportion to mankind’s recent sins. Everyone here has survived those challenges, passed through the crucible.

“The world has not ended, but we have passed through the eye of a storm that pulled many away—many of them, perhaps, to a dark fate.” He shook his head, as if those words were unthinkable—or perhaps not what he had meant to say. “The world has simplified for you, for all of us here, now that this Kingdom has formed. God now has a presence on Earth once more. The sacred will sweep across the lands. There will be judgment. There will be law according to holy principles passed on to us from God through the angels. We will build His Kingdom in humble gratitude for this opportunity. This chance to attempt to be worthy of His mercy, His gifts.”

He put his hands together and closed his eyes as if praying.

“I can only beseech you all to do your best to please God in each and every day. Despite our errors, know that His will will be done. Amen.”

And then something that no one had expected happened.

One of the angels moved forward from among its fellows and took its place at the center of the sky, floating above everyone’s heads. It seemed larger and more authoritative than the rest, as Sarah looked up at it. Perhaps it had expanded to fill its role.

Sarah caught the slight look of surprise on King Omar’s face before he managed to return to neutral. Her eyes were exceptionally powerful, however, and possessed a deep insight into the nature of others and their inner processes. She doubted if others had noticed it.

Then King Omar bowed his head slightly and stepped back to cede all attention to the angel, and it began to speak.

“Congratulations, humans,” it said. “I bring tidings of joy today. I speak to you to say what no mortal ought have the temerity to say: you are the elect. Every one of you here has been chosen by God to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There is more work to be done here, more souls to be saved, but you are Soldiers of God now.”

There were cries of joy, applause, people visibly tearing up all around Sarah—this was what they all wanted so desperately to hear, more than anything. After all the tests, all the trials and hardship, they had made it. They had been accepted into God’s loving embrace.

But she felt something else, on top of that. Pain.

Her vision was better than most, in part because of Eye of the Heart, and Sarah had been staring at the angel intently as it spoke, unable to take her eyes away—unwilling to even blink. Finally, though, the brightness of its appearance hurt her eyes so much that she was forced to close them. She allowed them to remain closed for a moment and then reopened them.

She saw something slightly strange.

Was that there before?

A reddish haze rippled around the angel’s body. A strange aura that she had not noticed on it or any of the other angels before.

Sarah had the strangest sensation that she felt the angel’s gaze land on her for a moment. But that was impossible, right? She blinked once more, and the aura had disappeared.

What did I see? Did I see anything? My eyes hurt, maybe they’re just not working right. I’ve been out in the sun too long…

But it had not been a long day yet. She knew her eyes were as good as ever—better, even. Her eyes were special.

She had a long moment of hesitation, then decided to try to clear up her doubts, if such a thing was possible.

If it was an imposter somehow, the other angels would do something. Right?

She stared at the angel and did it before she lost her nerve.

Identify.

The red haze around the angel’s body reappeared in a sudden shift.

Two creature names appeared for the angel for a split second, floating on opposite sides of its head—instead of the usual one that any monster or human might have. They vanished before she could read them, however, and the image was replaced by a splitting headache.

“Ah, fuck,” she swore quietly, squeezing her eyes shut and lowering her head.

Her hand involuntarily tightened on John’s arm. Then she recognized what she was doing.

Shit, I’m going to leave a bruise.

She started to turn her head toward her husband and open her eyes.

“Sorry, John—” She froze in mid-sentence.

Sarah’s husband, and the entire world, were completely still. Now that she noticed that, she realized that the arm flesh that she had imagined she was squeezing to a painful degree actually had not been depressed at all. It was as if she was squeezing a marble statue that was completely immune to her grip.

“Wha—? How?” She didn’t have the chance to formulate a full, coherent thought.

Sarah’s whole body shook with fear as the figure of the angel appeared to her side, dominating her peripheral vision with the glow around its body.

The figure seemed to grow larger, expanding to fill her field of vision completely, as she turned to face it.

“I’m s-sorry,” she gasped. She felt a terrible pressure crash down on her form, and she was driven, first to her knees and then into a prostrate pose, her forehead pressing against the ground.

“How unsightly,” the angel said, its voice colder and more distant than it had been before.

“S-sorry,” Sarah repeated. Her mind was completely blank. It was all she could think to say.

“For just a moment, you saw it, did you not?”

“No, I swear, please, I—I didn’t see anything, I won’t tell any—”

A surge of pain ripped through Sarah’s entire body, as if she had been damaged at the cellular level in every place that she could receive damage.

The world around her began to move again, but Sarah could not grapple with that. Her whole form was undergoing a change that she did not understand, but that she felt was extremely painful. Was this another Evolution?

“Some of you will be selected for immediate ascension into God’s Kingdom after this. Some of you have more trials yet to come in this fallen world. The tasks of building this Kingdom and saving yet more souls…”

Those were the last words that Sarah heard from the angel before her eyes, nose, and mouth suddenly filled with blood. She could feel the thick, sticky liquid dripping from every orifice now, and she knew she had suffered some sort of catastrophic damage to every part of herself.

A moment passed, then another voice flooded her ears. This one was closer to her and far more familiar than the angel’s. It was loud enough that she could hear it through the thick blood that ran from her ears.

“Sarah?” John cried out.

She had let go of his arm when the world froze and she fell prostrate to the ground. She couldn’t tell what he was doing, but the part of her brain that wasn’t overwhelmed with pain latched onto the fact that John was looking for her. He was a Healer, he could help her!

She tried to push herself up from the ground, but her arms were too weak, and every movement was far too painful.

“Sarah?!” John’s voice was louder and more urgent. Almost desperate.

I’m right here, John. Right down here!

She opened her mouth, but only blood came out, gushing up from somewhere deep inside her as she tried to speak.

Sarah began to lose all feeling in her extremities.

I love you, John. I love you!

Her mouth moved with the words, and she tried to gasp the words out around the blood, but she could no longer be sure that she even had a tongue.

Then Sarah knew no more, felt no more, was no more.