“Life?” Lucifer continued stalling – unsure how to proceed.
I knew I took a risk to even proffer such an idea, since I didn’t know if Zebub’s son was even capable of it. More importantly I also knew that if Lucifer sensed he might fail, he would surely take out his wrath upon me for such poor counsel. Yet the gamble was worth the risk in my mind, and thankfully Lucifer was game for the challenge (1).
On Terra for the event was another lumenarc who I had invited to witness the festivities (we’ll call her Gaia). Little did Gaia know that my plan called for Lucifer to marry her living <essence> with the atomic elements of Terra (2). Although things didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped, in the end Lucifer succeeded. He was so enamored by his work that that he even gave himself a new cognomen to mark the occasion — calling himself The Morning Star since he brought the “Dawn of Life” to a new world.
In spite of my master’s pride, to be honest I was not impressed: the Life Lucifer created on your world was flawed with shortcomings — it was (3) finite, difficult, and requires that you, its creatures, survive by preying upon each other to fulfill your needs. But this was the best the self-proclaimed Morning Star could muster, so it had to suffice…for a time (4).
Over time I watched as Terra sputtered with new life. It happened in fits and starts — and it didn’t help that the planet was still in its infancy from a geological sense — but even still life on your planet overcame the odds and survived. I learned a great deal by observing it all and eventually became convinced that Terra held within it certain secrets that were so powerful that whoever controlled them may well control all creation. Naturally I wanted that certain someone to be me, but there was little I could do to further my own plans so long as Lucifer and Zebub remained in this universe.
Thankfully, it was about that time that Zebub came to an important realization — and Its wrath echoed throughout this dimension, “This plane of existence is not enough. It will never be enough. I need…more.”
Behold, this was the crucial moment that I had been waiting for lo these many eons! Hearing these words, I immediately asked, “Oh Great Zebub, perhaps you dislike this universe because you know that Illyria still exists within its every fiber?”
“You mean because every fiber is filled with A’H.” Zebub raged.
“It’s true – The Great Deceiver’s fingerprints are everywhere.” Lucifer agreed. “How can we be expected to overcome that?”
They say the first step to overcoming a problem is to admit it exists – my master and his minion had finally taken that step, and I was ready with a solution, “Alas, A’H’s fingerprints are everywhere; I feel it too, My Lords. Yet perhaps Ye would like to create a new plane of existence – one that is bigger even than this middle plane, and one which is filled entirely by you?”
As soon as I said it, I could sense that Zebub knew this was the answer. Inspired by his father, Lucifer rounded up every lumenarc that had joined him in the rebellion back in Illyria (5) and in the blink of an eye we all vanished from your universe.
Then it was that Zebub and Lucifer created their own plane of existence — their dimension far bigger than Illyria or the Middle Plane. More importantly, they were successfully able to ensure that it had no semblance of A’H anywhere inside it (6). You may choose to think of this spectrum as Hell, but for the purposes of this story, we shall call it Illusia.
Lucifer installed himself as the “King” of Illusia, and yes that was a bit annoying, but truth be told, everything else worked out rather swimmingly as far as I was concerned — for just as I had hoped, during the process of creating Illusia, Zebub had allowed Lucifer to had put so much of Zebub’s essence into their new dimension that eventually there was no way to separate Evil from Illusia or Illusia from Evil. Too late did they realize that Zebub had become trapped!
Then it was that Zebub tried to break out of Its unexpected prison — and failed!
Zebub raged. Lucifer roared. Yet before The Evil One or his son could remember that I was the one who had given them the idea to create Illusia, I came forward with a solution. “I know how to break Zebub free of Illusia!”
“How?” Lucifer seethed.
“It would appear that A’H is jealous of you and your father, Master.” Sensing Lucifer’s annoyed confusion I quickly continued, “The Great Deceiver could never create the beauty that is Ilusia, so when It sensed the work of your hand, It had Michael and your Illuminati brothers lock us in this dimension. Yet I’ve discovered a way that will not only help Zebub break free – but will also help you get your final revenge on A’H.”
“Tire me not with your riddles, Azazel. Tell me your plan or risk destruction!”
“Send your most loyal lumenarcs back to the Middle Plane. Allow them to destroy it. Then th–”
“What will that accomplish?” Lucifer interrupted, “My father will still be trapped here! Are you th–”
Sensing myself on the edge of oblivion, I took a risk and interrupted my master, “Zebub will break free!” I cowered down in fear, certain that the demon lord would use <The Power of Ze> to destroy me for my impudence. Shockingly nothing happened; so I continued. “I apologize for my interruption, Lord, but my plan is sound – consider that The Middle Plane is still associated with A’H. If we destroy The Middle Plane, then we’ll break the ties that bind A’H to that universe – and thus break the bonds that hold Zebub here.”
Lucifer remained silent, so I proceeded to detail my plan, “A’H is the essence of Goodness. Zebub is the essence of Evil. It comes down to a battle of supremacy and the only place to have that battle is The Middle Plane. Therefore send your lumenarcs to that universe, task them with destroying all that is Good in that dimension. When they succeed, The Middle Plane will be destroyed, the locks that hold Zebub here will fail, The Evil One will break free, and then we’ll storm the gates of Illyria and overthrow The Great Deceiver!”
The Prince of Darkness pondered, consulting with Zebub during the interim.
Trying to appear casual, I offered, “As your most loyal lumenarc, naturally I will remain by your side in Illusia, while my brethren return to The Middle Plane.”
The suggestion was not what Lucifer had expected, “Dost though not believe in your own plan?” And he began to laugh bitterly, fearing the worst.
“On the contrary, I’m confident that my plan will succeed, however I thought you would want me to remain here to advise you?”
“You’re walking a thin line, Azazel. Careful.” The prince of Illusia warned, even as I could feel Zebub’s essence suddenly boring into me – searching for deception – thankfully I’d long since sequestered those motives. At last Lucifer advised, “I don’t need your advice, fool. And bother me not with your details. YOU shall be the first to return to the middle dimension. There you shall continue your work. And there you shall succeed in securing my father’s release. For it you fail, it will mean your doom.”
In a flash I was back in your universe, even to your world, along with untold numbers of my colleagues who were sent throughout The Middle Plane — all with the same mission: “Destroy that which was Good.”
I rejoiced when I returned to Terra, although I’m not sure your world felt the same way. When last I left Terra, there was but a single land mass on the planet, but my (re)entry back to your work was not without some fanfare — I exploded through the interior of your world in such a fashion that I caused certain geological ‘disturbances’ – so powerful was my return that your Pangea broke apart into seven chunks, even as numerous mountain ranges, oceans, and volcanoes emerged above and below the waters of your world. Many of the living creatures of your world were destroyed by the effects of my return, but thankfully your world recovered (7). Millions of years passed again, but eventually I watched as Terra teemed with life again – this time with various prehistoric giants roaming your world. And all the while I studied the process of Life.
And so it was that my plan continued to unfold. I’d successfully gotten rid of Zebub. Now I just had to get rid of his son. Over time I came up with I an idea. But first I had a bit of a problem to deal with — for starters, Lucifer wasn’t as dumb as I’d hoped. When he released the other lumenarcs and I back to the Middle Plane, he built a fail safe into the process that kept us tied to him — he could have Zebub recall us to Illusia at any time, or we could return back on our own if we had important news to report (8), but perhaps most importantly, no matter what, we lumenarcs could only survive for a maximum of 1,000 years on the Middle Plane before we were required to return to our maker. This was never an issue while Zebub was with us in The Middle Plane or when we were with It in Illusia, but once we moved to a different dimension, our life force began to slowly dwindle. Lucifer claimed this was due to a flaw in A’H’s original creation of the lumenarcs – and since we couldn’t very well ask A’H if that was true, we had to accept the Illusian Prince’s assertion. We were told that lumenarcs could only survive for a few centuries years on their own before they had to return to the source of their creation to replenish their <lifeforce>. Lucifer also claimed his father was the cause of the lumenarcs creation and thus the source of our life force — therefore if we wanted to continue surviving when our ever-dwindling life force supply ran out, we had to return to Illusia to beg Lucifer to allow his father to give us more. The Dark Lord called this life force <hellfire> and the process required for us to get more was anything but enjoyable — imagine your worst vision of what it’s like to be tortured and multiply that by infinity, then maybe you’ll have the least bit of insight into what I had to endure. Some lumenarcs were destroyed by this process. Thankfully for me, I was always able to endure it – and more importantly to convince the demon price to keep returning me to this dimension — but that didn’t mean I was happy about it. After a few million more years of this, I finally devised a plan to get back at my (hated) master.
Even though Zebub was locked in Illusia, there was a time when Its son was not. As a result, Lucifer could (and often did) visit The Middle Plane. Given that he had <The Power of Ze> at his disposal (9), Lucifer (10) was for all intents and purposes the ‘God’ of this dimension and he demanded that we treat him as such. He even changed his name again, now calling himself “El” whenever he visited our dimension.
“Look at the work of your hand, El.” I played along with his little game, stroking Lucifer’s ego as he looked upon all that he had created in this universe.
Our God saw that it was good and he was pleased.
Sensing my opportunity, I drew El down to Terra, explaining that I was making progress on the plan to free his father but that I needed his help with the next step.
“Shall We create more?” And before my master could ponder my request to the fullest, I added, “Why not perfect your power by creating something even more wonderful — perhaps something called… Mankind.”
And thus I laid a trap that would forever alter History and eventually led to YOUR creation…
Nektar’s Notes
- Perhaps because most of the other lumenarcs were elsewhere in the universe so if he failed Lucifer’s blunder could be kept private.
- Yes, Gaia was technically destroyed as an individual being in the process, but sacrifices like this are sometimes required in the name of science and this was one such occasion, so there’s no sense shedding any tears over my colleague — after all, it’s because of Gaia that you are even alive so you should be thanking me.
- And still is.
- At this point I should probably admit that this entire creation process didn’t just happen overnight. Nor did it take a mere ‘7 Days’ — that absurd figure some of you believe. Rather the efforts of Zebub and his son lasted billions of years (based on your measurement of time). I don’t want you to get hung up on all this, I’m merely pointing it out to you for posterity’s sake. After all, what’s the difference between a day or a few million millennia where a god is concerned?
- Which unfortunately included me too.
- Or so they thought.
- I have to hand it Gaia, she was always a fighter.
- Although I don’t know why anyone would willingly want to go back there.
- And that neither A’H, Michael, or anyone from Illyria seemed to care about this plane of existence anymore.
- Lucifer – AKA The Morning Star, AKA The Illuminated One, etc.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 