Lost Bloodlines Ch. 07

He pulled back, his eyes sparkling with wonder and joy. I didn't know how to respond, simply staring wide-eyed at him. I flinched as one of his hands cupped my face, running a thumb along my cheek.

"Just as beautiful as I remembered." His grin widened. "Maybe even more so. Your eyes, your face...you look millennia younger! Rebirth suits you, my dear."

The intimacy of his touch was just too far for me. I took a quick step back, breaking free of his hands. "You know I'm not her, right?" While I might have expected him to be affronted at the harshness of his words, his smile remained unchanged and genuine.

"Of course, I do. But part of you is, so to me you are one and the same. My daughter."

Something about his earnestness was disarming, and I found myself speaking when perhaps I should have remained silent. "She and I...we haven't been seeing eye to eye. She tried to kill me today. Your daughter tried to murder me. So, forgive me if I'm not as interested in the family reunion."

He waved away my concerns with an errant hand. "Nonsense, she couldn't have killed you any more than she could kill herself. It's just adjustment problems, I'm sure you both will be like sisters in no time." I just looked at him in confusion. He acted like he could see into my head, but...he was completely wrong. Lilith hated me. This wasn't some sort of miraculous joining of souls, it was a patchwork monstrosity. There was some sort of disconnect happening, and I couldn't identify exactly what it was.

"Well, I...I hope you're right about that," I sputtered. Yeah, I know I sounded like an idiot at this point, but I was having trouble making sense of this conversation.

"I know I am." He just kept grinning that foolish, happy grin at me. Breathing in, I tried to settle the confusion in my mind. I needed to get this back under control, I came here for a reason, I let myself be traded away by the U.S. for a purpose, and I was getting sidetracked.

"Why did you bring me here?" I demanded. "What is it you want from me?"

"Why do I need a reason? This is your home, you belong here."

"Why do you...? Because you're the devil! Lucifer, Satan, the Morning Star, the boogeyman of a good portion of the world!" I was getting worked up, already breaking the words I had said to Camilla. But there was some ulterior motive here, I was sure of it.

Lucifer's smile faded slightly. "Ah. Yes, I do have quite a reputation on Earth, don't I? Not entirely undeserved either, I admit." His eyes took on a far-off quality. "Those were the good old days. Fighting the good fight against Father, raising the legions, corrupting humans by the thousands. All with you by my side." His reminiscing words turned into a grimace. "And then the Great War came. And I lost you. Everything fell apart, and now...now the humans hate me because they've been taught to. Not because of anything I've actually done to them."

His face softened. "Lilith...Charles, however it is you wish to be addressed, you must understand that I speak truly. I have no ulterior designs, there's no monster waiting for you around the corner. I asked for to be delivered here because I love you, no matter what form you take. I only wish for you to be safe and happy, back among your children."

"Lilith is fine," I muttered. I hated that that returned a smile to his face. "Let's say, theoretically, that I believe you. Before I could consider staying here...I need to know the truth. About everything. Who is Lilith, really? What is she to you? What was the 'Great War' that people keep mentioning, and how did she die? I'm tired of being lost in every conversation I have with someone from your world."

Lucifer was looking at me worriedly. "Are you sure that's what you want? The truth can be a burdensome thing. Perhaps you'd rather wait, see what Hell has to offer before we discuss ancient history."

I laughed humorlessly. "See, I used to be a historian. I'm afraid there's no way for me to appreciate the present without knowing what has led to it. Either I get the full story, or I'm finding my way back to Earth."

The devil took a deep breath, studying me. Eventually, he nodded. "Very well. This story is not a pretty one, however. Don't say I didn't warn you." He stepped forward, and before I could say another word, he lightly touched my forehead, and the world went black.

-00000-

"I think it best that we start at the beginning."

A scene materialized before me, of a savage volcanic wasteland. The sky was choked with thick smoke, and the darkened and cracked earth flowed with molten rock. The ground shuddered violently as the image took shape. I wasn't present, instead watching as if a movie was projected onto my mind.

"No one is quite sure where magic comes from. There are many theories: overlapping realities, thaumaturgically-active minerals, perhaps something more spiritual. What is clear, however, is that it key to life. This is how we most often see magic made manifest; through the souls of living creatures."

"But far before the evolution of the first multi-cellular life on this planet, magic birthed its first children from the primordial elements of the cooling Earth."

From a nearby pool of lava, something sparked within it, causing the molten rock to heave in protest. It spat forth an amorphous blob, which rolled in an undignified lump to rest against a nearby rock. Much like the lava from which it originated, it glowed with heat, but as it cooled, its red-yellow color faded to a pale white. It sat motionless for a long while, until it suddenly moved of its own volition, lurching forward. It rolled, flowed really, across the hot rock of the ground, exploring its new environment. It divided once, twice, a dozen more times, into small blobs, each finding their own movement.

"These little creatures you see before you were the first advanced inhabitants of this world, made from a fusion of pure primordial magic and earthly elements. They are the first of the beings that came to be known as gods. They had no real intelligence at this point, and merely roamed the forming Earth, immortal and unchanging, for billions of years."

The scene changed, and we were deep underwater. Ancient shelled creatures and strange fish flitted about around our view. One of the creatures was not quite like the rest. Among the trilobites that scurried across the sea floor, one had a pure white shell, and glowed dimly underwater.

"With the advent of advanced life, the mindless gods found new forms, drawn to the small traces of magic held within the souls of living things. They thrived among the energies produced by the living. They grew more aware, and found homes among the many creatures of the young Earth."

Our environment shifted, the ocean dried up, was replaced with desert, then a growing woodland, and then a lush jungle, millions of years passing in the blink of an eye. In the trees, monkeys and apes hooted and hollered, swinging between branches.

"Millions of years later, a certain breed of ape developed a mutation, one that vastly increased the amount of magic capable of being stored within their souls. With the influx of magic to this group, their capabilities skyrocketed. I think you can guess where this is going."

We were on a savanna, crude structures built in a clearing, with primitive humans gathering around a fire. As they gestured at each other and spoke in halting tongues, a lion stepped forth from behind a nearby tree. It glowed softly with an inner light, and its coat was dappled with white spots. It examined the humans curiously. One of the humans spotted the beast, and the village erupted into shouts. They gathered wooden and flint weaponry and surrounded the lion aggressively. The creature did not react, however, merely looking with interest between the figures around it. A curious child, sneaking between the legs of one of the warriors, burst into the circle and approached the beast. It did not move as he neared, and the humans gasped as it allowed the child to touch its mane in wonder.

"It was only through proximity to the magic-rich souls of early humanity that the gods found true sentience. They became truly aware, both of their surroundings and their own nature. The attention and worship of humans made them stronger and smarter, as they leeched off the passive energies of those that offered tribute. They took on personalities, gained powerful abilities, amassed the beginning of cults to worship them. Some took on human form, while others retained aspects of their animalistic past."

A series of images flickered before us. A glowing man and woman were surrounded by hundreds of kneeling humans, a figure with the head of an eagle lounged in a stone structure as men and women presented gifts, a massive white elephant trampled spear-wielding foes, as cheering figures followed its devastating wake.

"It was during this era that the first monsters came into being. Formed from older evolutionary lines of those early magic-imbued apes, these monsters were better able to channel the magic inside of them and lived far longer, at the cost of reduced fertility. Many took on aspects of animals or plants, becoming a synthesis of humanity and the natural world."

A pack of humanoids with hyena-like features stalked a wildebeest across the savanna, a trio of snake women blasted fire against an incoming wave of human attackers along fertile farmlands. A great sea serpent roamed the depths of the ocean, catching a shark in its massive jaws before swimming the direction of a nearby shoreline where small boats floated.

"Conflict between humans and monsters was inevitable, and the early gods were often little more powerful than the monsters that hunted their worshippers. In this moment of crisis, however, the gods discovered that their primordial magic had another function."

A glowing figure laid his hands on a kneeling human woman. Bright light surged throughout a wooden hall, and the onlookers gasped in amazement as the woman rose, transformed. She had grown greatly in stature, and brilliant white wings sprouted from her back. With a shout, golden armor formed around her body, and her companions cheered as she lifted a silver spear into the air

"Gods began creating their own monsters out of their human followers. Under their direction, the naturally formed monsters were pushed to the edges of human civilization, hunted and ostracized."

I tried to speak up, and found that I was able to use my voice in this odd narrative experience. "But, wait, doesn't that mean that you..."

"Was once human? Indeed, along with many of my angelic brethren, until the next generation was born from among us. That brings us to myself, and my Father."

The scene changed once more. An arid landscape stretched for miles around us from our perch upon a low mountaintop. A bearded man, wearing a spotless white robe and glowing with inner light, was surrounded by dozens of angels. In the distance, a squat stone city was being built alongside a river, hundreds of small figures laboring under the harsh sun. The god pointed in the direction of the city, and the angels took off into the sky, led by a very familiar figure with long, flowing black hair and blue eyes. The host of angels hovered high into the clouds as they vigilantly watched over the toiling humans below.

"So, that's...God? Like, big "G" God?"

"Indeed, though he went by the name 'Yahweh' when I was created. He's had many others. Ahura Mazdā, Jesus, Allah. He was simply one of many hundreds of gods that had established themselves among humanity. I led his angels in protecting his human followers from monsters for hundreds of years, until we had a certain...difference of opinion."

"When you rebelled."

"Yes, alongside perhaps a third of the Host. We had grown weary of hunting down every monster within a hundred miles of his chosen people. I argued that monsters should be allowed a place within our flock, that our natural-born cousins were due the same protections from harm as the humans. Yahweh and his favorite son, that prick Michael, disagreed. We fought, and we lost. Brutally. Yahweh had every one of the brothers and sisters who joined me executed, and cast me out of Heaven, his sub-realm, as both punishment and a moral lesson for his followers." The deep-seated bitterness was apparent in Lucifer's voice, the events he was describing playing out before me in macabre detail.

"So, where does Lilith fit into all of this?"

"Patience, my dear. While my defeat was tragic, I had a back-up plan. During the war, I was approached by a certain Egyptian god of Chaos, who told me of a way to steal parts of a god's power. Pure, primordial, divine magic. He had an old grudge to settle, and believed that the spell might be useful to a rebellious monster. Gods had been doing it to each other for millennia, but for a monster? It would be dangerous. But in the moments before my fall, I had very little else to lose. It worked, if nearly killing me in the process. The angels hunted me for years, trying to retrieve that little bit of divinity, but I always was the best of them. When I finally learned the means of the magic's use, I did the impossible. I created you."

The image from Lucifer's painting appeared before us, this time superimposed on reality. Clutching at side of a small boat, the devil produced a small bottle, glowing dimly with white light. He spoke an incantation and formed symbols in the air, before dumping the brilliant liquid within the bottle into the sea. The waves turned red as fresh blood, and storm clouds gathered overhead. Lucifer's boat was rocked by tremendous waves, but he held on tightly, eyes never leaving the sea's surface. At last, a form appeared underwater, and he leaned over the side, sinking a hand into the surf. He pulled up, and a red body appeared from the waves, horned and winged, my spitting image.

"A monster artificially creating a new species of monster. It was unheard of, impossible. But you were perfect. Better than any that had come before you, the spontaneous act of creation leaving you with none of the weaknesses of a human origin. We fled from the Levant, and settled in central Italy. With considerable help from a local coven of human magic-users, I created my own sub-plane, Hell, and based its first portal there."

"Lilith was truly just your daughter then? That was your relationship?"

Lucifer laughed. "Quite a bit more than that."

An image appeared before me, of Lucifer and Lilith locked together in an embrace under a red sun. Their naked figures writhed on the hard ground and...

"Okay, I get it! I do not need the visual aid!" The devil chuckled evilly, but the vision disappeared.

"We were unable to have our own children, but I was more than happy to share. Lilith bore her first children here in Hell. Thus, the demons were born. Over the centuries, she had dozens more, each going on to father or mother their own line of demons with the other monsters or humans that settled in Hell for safety, forming the first of the demonic legions. As our fledgling realm grew, so did the human settlement we were connected to by portal. Lilith and I took a considerable role in shaping that city on seven hills."

"You're shitting me. You founded Rome?"

"Founded is perhaps the wrong word. More like guided. We mostly attempted to stay under the notice of my Father, though there were times of conflict. King Solomon in particular became a thorn in our side, but that disaster was ended violently and effectively by my daughter. However, by the time the Republic formed, the Greek pantheon of gods began to exert their own influence. We existed relatively peacefully alongside each other for a time. My demons didn't prey on their worshipers, and they allowed our agents, both human and monster, to spread throughout the city and countryside in peace. As the Roman state grew in power, however, and the Greeks' great conquest of the East through their puppet Alexander fell apart, they increasingly spent more time in Italy compared to their homeland."

"Another interesting quirk of the gods is their paradoxical relationship with humanity. Just as they grew in power from worship and tribute, their own identities were shaped by their worshippers, often against their own interests. Therefore, in time, the Greek gods became the Roman gods, much more militaristic and expansionist, and they came in conflict with the demonic legions, whose size had swelled massively since their inception. We fought for centuries over control of the Republic, and into the early Empire."

"Until the return of your Father, I assume."

"Got it in one! With the spread of Father's most recent cult at the time, Christianity, throughout the Empire, the full might of Heaven fell once more against me. This time, however, I had far more than a few dozen disgruntled angels. Lilith and I put up quite the fight in those early years, against both the Roman pantheon and the angels, but we were eventually pushed back. The Roman Empire fell under my Father's control, and the legions were forced to act effectively as guerillas against the authority of Father's angels and empowered humans, the paladins. We did whatever we could to combat him."

A series of images flashed by. Demons, switching between human disguises and their normal forms, infiltrated a Roman camp and killed the sentries, allowing a Gothic horde to attack without warning. A succubus crept out of a luxurious room, an emperor laying slain in his bed. A meeting of priests was disrupted by a flash of hellfire consuming the roof of their building.

"Even when the Empire finally crumbled in the west, the hidden war continued in the medieval states that replaced it. Our legions increasingly came in contact with other groups of monsters as our influence was forced to flee further and further northwards from the spread of Christianity. We made pacts of alliance with the Fae and the monsters under their protection, along with the much more loosely organized Germanic and Nordic monsters."

"This was the 'Great War' then? The monsters of Europe fighting against your father?"

Lucifer was quiet for a long moment. Scenes continued to play out before me, of Lilith meeting with a group of werewolves, and of her and Lucifer speaking with two figures that I immediately recognized as Oberon and Titania from the broadcast. Moving alongside each other, dozens of demons and faeries raided a medieval castle, battling against a trio of angels that swooped to its defense.

"No," he said finally. "That was not the Great War. I long for those days compared to what came next."

The environment changed to a dark dungeon. Through the bars of a window, I glimpsed wisps of clouds, and the glint of a golden city far below our view. Five figures, gods I assumed by their faint glow, stood around two tables. Strapped down naked on their surfaces were a human woman and some sort of stout reptilian man. A beautiful goddess wrapped in furs painted symbols on their bodies as the gods watched impassively. The woman began to chant, holding aloft a dagger in both hands. At the culmination of her ritual, she plunged her weapons into the hearts of her two subjects. As they died, the symbols on their bodies flashed with a sickly green light, and the glow of the watching gods visibly brightened. They swelled with newfound power, congratulating each other with victorious laughter.

"Monsters were not the only ones threatened by my Father's growing influence across Europe at the turn of the first millennium. The other godly pantheons saw their followers abandon then in droves, taking their power with them. The Celts, the Norse, the Slavic and Wendish. All saw the end of their power in sight. Foolishly, I offered that we join forces and fight my Father together, but the gods were too proud to ally with mere monsters. It was the Norse pantheon that found a terrible solution to their woes, the goddess Sif in particular. She discovered that gods could absorb the power of a soul directly through ritual murder, bypassing the needs of having a human following entirely. The Norse went on to massacre hundreds of thousands of humans and monsters with their newfound sorcery. Empowered once more, they offered the knowledge to the other forgotten or fading gods of Europe, promising a return to the old ways of divine dominance over humans and monsters alike. The many pantheons of Europe fled to the Norse stronghold in Iceland, taking whatever human followers they had left with them, or simply abducting entire towns to be used as sacrificial fodder for their promised ascension. Millions were killed or abducted in their raids. It was during this exodus that the Great War began."