While I've been too busy to write anything significant, I have started on the new fiction novel that I'll publish later this year. It's called Minor Demons. I have about 10,000 words written so far and I plan on it being 50,000+ words. I have a cover being made right now and it looks amazing so far (it's in the computer graphics stage, right now it's a drawing). I figured I'd post a preview so everyone could check out some of my fiction since most of what I published towards the end of last year was history articles and a tech help guide. I also have three history articles that are being turned into audio books and I'll post it over all of my social media when those are finally up on Amazon and iTunes.
A HISTORY OF DEMONS
Copyright 2013 by Randall J. Morris
At the end of the Great War, the Dragon was cast into Hell. He yelled and thrashed around in his new home. Hell wasn’t Hell until the Dragon was sent there. Rocks jutted out of the ground and ended in impaling sharpness. A think mist of darkness enveloped the entire realm. Fire came into existence all around; not a fire that brought light but a fire that brought heat and pain. The Dragon raged there until he saw something else descending from the Heavens.
The gates of Hell were broken as the Dragon’s army was thrust through them. For the first time since the last battle, the Dragon smiled. At least God had allowed him creatures that he could make more miserable than himself. Maybe there would be a chance to regroup and assault the Heavens once again…
His thoughts were cut short as something else walked through the gates of Hell. The demons all cowered in fear and crept deeper into the shroud of darkness and fires of Hell. The Dragon stood his ground. The shimmering being walking towards him glowed with radiant light. His white eyes were no less bright, even in the blackness of Hell. His right hand gripped his sword, also a pure white but the Dragon knew it was stained with the blood of innumerable demons. Even if his followers fell back, he was not afraid of the angels, having once been one himself. He knew this angel particularly well since he was the commander of the armies of the Heavens.
“Come to finish me off, Michael?”
Demons had been slowly growing more used to the light surrounding Michael the Archangel and were slowly moving towards him, readying their weapons. Without turning his head, Michael could feel their poorly concealed approach. He took his sword in both hands, raised it high above his head, and drove it down into ground. The entire realm radiated with white light and the demons fled in a final retreat.
“Enough with the tricks. Let’s finish this.”
The dragon unsheathed his dark blade that still glowed with the blood of the angels. He was ready for the final fight, Lucifer and Michael – one on one.
“I didn’t come here for that. I come with a message from God.”
“Do you now? What does the Great Tyrant have to say about my rebellion?”
“I wouldn’t talk ill of the Great God who spared your life. It would have been easy enough to stamp out your rebellion and put an end to you.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“God told me to stop.”
“I’m not an angel anymore, Michael. I tried to overthrow God. You mean to tell me that even after I betrayed him, he didn’t have it in him to end me? What a weak and sentimental…”
“I didn’t come here to argue with you. I’m here to offer you the terms of your exile. If you refuse,” Michael added with a smile, tightening the grip on his sword, “I will cut you off from existence. God has allowed me that privilege should you continue on in your desire to fight.”
“Let’s hear it then, errand boy.”
“God will allow you to bring evil into the world to test the humans. You will retain command over all the souls you took with you from Heaven. You and your army will sustain yourselves by the souls you corrupt and successfully win over on earth. You will not appear to the humans, you will not make yourself known, and you will never again attempt to enter the gates of Heaven unless God demands your presence. It’s either that or I can end your miserable reality right now.”
“I accept. We surrender.”
Michael looked disappointed.
“The first humans will be placed on earth shortly. Be warned that I will not allow your demons to rage out of control on earth. Angels will be sent to earth should the humans ask for it.”
“Oh they won’t. Most of them will be under my control almost instantly. They’re weak creatures and God was a fool for creating them. If any do ask for angels, I’ll have other humans mock them and put them to death. I hope you don’t get too bored waiting for prayers that will never come.”
“You underestimate God’s plan but pride has always been your downfall. You were my brother but you rose up to seek the glory that will never be yours. I had always hoped that you weren’t as stupid as you looked but I guess you proved me wrong, Lucifer. I’ll see you again at the end of time when God gifts me the right to slay you.”
As Michael turned to leave, Satan threw his sword at Michael’s back. Feeling darkness approaching, Michael turned and deflected the weapon with his sword. He spun and readied a counter strike, ready to split the Dragon’s head down the middle. He stopped his blade within inches. The Dragon smiled and shook all of Hell with his laugh. Michael turned and walked swiftly away, light and glory exiting Hell with him.
It was shortly after his exile that the Dragon organized his forces. As the Master of all evil, he decided to gift his knowledge to six demons – the six lords of Hell. Each would become the master of one temptation. While they took over responsibility for their specific sin immediately, they were all made masters of sin when the Dragon personally brought them to earth and taught them how to destroy humanity.
The first major demon was Lucian, the lord of lies. Lucian accompanied the Dragon to earth when he tempted the human race’s first parents, Adam and Eve. The Dragon took possession of a snake and lied to Eve. Eve then tempted Adam. Lucian watched and learned how one lie could spread from person to person and corrupt them all. Lucian later discovered that a lie could easily lead to more lies and even a white lie could be like piercing water to bring forth innumerable ripples. It was Lucian who convinced Cain to lie to God after he killed his brother.
The second major demon was Cain, the lord of murder. His spot was contested as the Dragon couldn’t decide who was more deserving between Cain and his brother, Assassin. Before his journey to earth to tempt a son of Adam to murder his brother, a plot to overthrow the Dragon was uncovered by Lucian. Assassin was planning to betray the Dragon and sit on the throne of Hell. Cain pleaded with the Dragon to spare his brother (while demons generally care for no one but themselves, they can’t deny a sense of responsibility when it comes to family) but Assassin was cast into the depths of Hell to be eternally tormented with all that were under his command. Cain adopted his nephew, Shadow, and convinced the Dragon to spare him from the torture endured by Assassin.
Cain, the lord of murder, went with the Dragon to earth to tempt a son of Adam to slay his brother. The demon Cain learned that murder can have any motivation: greed, jealousy, anger, even righteous vengeance. After the son of Adam was killed, it was Cain, the lord of murder who tempted Lamech to become a murderer and forge a secret society bent on murdering all that opposed them.
The third major demon, and the only female of the six, was the demoness Vixen. Vixen became the major demon of lust. The Dragon took Vixen with him when he corrupted Sodom and Gomorrah and held complete power over them through their complete abandon to sexual desires. Vixen learned that getting any human to focus on immediate desires, while blocking out any other thoughts, could be incredibly effective in bringing men and women to surrender to lust. After the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Vixen was able to tempt the Egyptian pharaoh to bring Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to his house out of pure lust. God put a stop to this attempt at ruining Abraham’s lineage, but Vixen was later able to tempt David to commit adultery with Bathsheba and Cain stepped in to tempt David to murder Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. Vixen caused Solomon to give into lust and he took every attractive woman as his wife or concubine. Once he was bound through lust to hundreds of idolatrous women, Vixen led him into other sins and almost brought down the entire House of Israel on her own.
The fourth major demon was Baal, the lord of idolatry. Baal was present with the Dragon when the Israelites asked Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship. Baal learned that an unhealthy obsession with any object could turn into blatant idolatry. After Moses gave the Ten Commandments, Baal was still able to influence the Israelites by making idol representations of Jehovah. At times, Baal worked with Vixen to bring Israel’s pagan neighbors into the royal family as concubines or wives. Their greatest success was the marriage of Jezebel to King Ahab. Jezebel fought tirelessly to spread the worship of Baal to the entire kingdom of Israel. During some centuries, Baal was worshiped as a god by the idolatrous humans.
The fifth major demon was Leviathan, the lord of jealousy. Leviathan went with the Dragon to earth when the Dragon convinced the sons of Israel to throw their brother, Joseph, in a pit and sell him into slavery. Leviathan learned that jealousy was capable of being the author of many other sins, including murder, theft, and lies. It was Leviathan who later planted the seed of envy in King Saul which grew into a desire for murder. Leviathan worked with Cain in an attempt to slay David through the king’s overwhelming jealousy. Since then, Leviathan has used envy as an effective tool to not only lead mankind to other sins, but to also keep them in an enraged and hateful state toward their fellowmen.
The sixth major demon that the Dragon trusted to lead his armies was Asmodeus, the lord of inaction and laziness. Asmodeus was with the Dragon when he convinced the leaders of the Israelites to disobey the commandment of God and not destroy everything of the Canaanites. Asmodeus later convinced King Saul to spare Agag when Samuel had given the clear commandment to destroy everything. Asmodeus then took possession of Sarah and deprived her of her husbands until the arrival of Tobias came, accompanied by the Archangel Raphael. Asmodeus fled, was captured by Raphael, but then later escaped and has been leading men to failure through inaction since. Asmodeus was sometimes mistakenly seen as the demon of lust as he was often in the company of Vixen.
The Dragon retained control over the sin of pride, as it was the sin that he was cast out of Heaven for. Once he put the six major demons in place, he allowed them to choose their followers. Lucian and Cain recruited the largest followings. The major demons divided their followers into ranks based on their skills as tempters. Thus, middle demons and minor demons were born. A final class of non-recruited demons remained “in-training” until recruited into the army of a major demon.
While they couldn’t appear to humans or harm them physically, except under special allowed circumstances, demons were made of the same type of matter and could harm one another. They often got into fights and crafted armor and weapons out of the human souls they stole away to Hell. The need to craft armor and weapons from souls coupled with the demons need to consume souls for sustenance eventually led to a shortage of human souls in Hell, despite the billions the demons had corrupted and dragged down. The major demons of Hell pressured their armies to corrupt human souls further before escorting them to Hell but the shortage continued on.
The Dragon, shortly after his exile, devised three horrible trials that demons-in-training would have to pass through to aid in the recruitment process. Major demons and middle demons tuned in to watch each new class of demons compete in the trials.
The first trial was a labyrinth filled with creatures and monsters from the nightmares humans dreamed. The labyrinth changed with each demon that entered, so no run through the labyrinth was ever exactly the same. Some creatures remained in the labyrinth each time to keep a small degree of consistency.
The second trial was called the death pit. Two demons went in and one came out. Demons were allowed to kill their opponent, but the match was officially won when a demon incapacitated his opponent. Single elimination – no second chances.
The final trial was tempting an actual human in a simulated earth-like environment. Points were scored based on what the demon could get the human to do and how much chaos he could cause as a result.
Time passed on and while the earth became more and more corrupted, Hell brought forth a new generation of demons that would have to bring humanity to an even lower level to keep Hell supplied with sufficiently corrupted souls. All hope rested with the next group of demons-in-training.
