 
The Angel Slayer

The Seven Princes of Hell

By

Steve Wharton

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

Published by:

Steve Wharton on Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Steve Wharton

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed. If you enjoyed this book, then encourage your friends to download their own free copy.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblances to persons, living or dead, or places events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

Cover Artwork and Design by Tonya Benton
CHAPTER ONE

Ryan was getting bored sitting at home; he was completely healed from his last mission. He was checking his figurines two to three times a day and not receiving anything. He had made more of the figurines and now had a display of twenty-five of the Angels. Ryan was not use to sitting idle, He had increased his workout routine up to two times each day and his sword workouts to three times each day, Ryan casted another sword for Maria so they could work out together. With the help of Mr. Lee both of them were becoming very proficient with the swords. Ryan had just finished checking each Angel figurine and received no assignment. He went back into the house and sat down in front of the TV.

"Still nothing?" Maria asked.

"No nothing, I am starting to wonder if the last assignment made God angry at us, if we failed to do what he asked. But I really don't see how we could have failed."

"He will let us know what we are to do when he is ready; you know we work on his schedule not ours."

"I know but I hate sitting around with nothing to do, I'm ready to go back to work."

Suddenly a booming voice said, "My child, you have not failed me. I wanted you to heal from your encounters with the fallen you have dealt with. You have now seen the power that some of the fallen have. You are my warrior against the fallen, you must be more careful with them each fallen you encounter will be stronger then the last, it will have more skills then the last. Are you ready to take on that challenge? I believe you are. This is the last time you shall hear from me direct. From this day forward you will only deal with Gabriel. Now go my child and deal with your task."

The voice was gone, both Ryan and Maria were excited that a new assignment was coming, finally to get back to work. Ryan got up and went to his work shop and checked each figurine and nothing. Dejected Ryan went back into the house.

"Still nothing." Ryan said.

A white light appeared before Ryan and Maria, The angelic form of Gabriel formed the form became more solid, until the form of a man appeared. Both Ryan and Maria were stunned that Gabriel would become a human to them. "My child go and select a figurine it will tell you who the fallen is."

Ryan got up and went to his work shop he brushed against a figuring and received an image in his mind, he selected the angel figurine and the name of Abezethibou appeared in his mind but the usual information on him did not come. Ryan reached to move the figurines over and the next one he touched filled his mind with the name, Ephippas, he again reached up to slide the figures over and a third one filled his mind with the name Beelzebub. Ryan thought that there must be a mistake he reached to slide the remaining figure over and when he touched it nothing happened, he touched several more to be sure there were no more names. Nothing came to him when he touched the other figures. Ryan returned to the house and spoke to Gabriel.

"I am confused Gabriel, I have received three names this time, they are Abezethibou, Ephippas and Beelzebub. I received no other information about them. Tell me is that why you are here?"

"Yes my child, It was felt that you needed a history lesson to prepare for these fallen.

After the War of Heaven, the imprisoned dissenter Angels dissented they needed a form of ruling government in their new plane of existence. Some vied for power, but undoubtedly, the ruler of Hell at the time was the leader of the dissenters, the charismatic Morning Star, Lucifer. Courageous and strong, he made others bow before him through persuasion, bribery, or intimidation.

For years, Hell has been organized by Lucifer into the ruling body called the Seven Princes, in which the leading seven would rule over different, vast areas of their lands. Each Prince was responsible for all their own subjects and lands. Many enjoyed how organized this system was.

The first fallen we will discuss is Abezethibou. Beelzebub brought Abezethibou with him when he fell from heaven. It has been said that the Lord God was the one who hardened the heart of the Pharaoh, but it was Abezethibou, he opposed Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. He along with the Pharaoh chased Moses and the Israelites to the Red Sea. When the Red Sea was parted by our Lord God for the Israelites to escape from Egypt, Abezethibou entered the Red Sea with the Pharaoh's army in pursuit of the Israelites. The Red Sea was closed by our Lord God, killing the Pharaoh's army and trapping Abezethibou in a pillar of water under the Red Sea."

"I understand so far," Said Ryan.

"Next we shall discuss Ephippas, It has been said that Ephippas will free Abezethibou from his prison in the pillar of water. Ephippas has the ability to control wind. It is said he will use this power to free Abezethibou allowing to seek revenge and wreak havoc on mankind.

Now we will discuss Beelzebub, he is one of the most powerful fallen and one of the Princes of hell; he is one of the strongest of the fallen you have faced up to now. He can be found near the city of Ekron, 25 miles west from Jerusalem it is a Philistine city it is the modern day city of Tel Miqne. The closest populated city is Jerusalem. Beelzebub destroys by means of tyrants, causes demons to be worshipped, arouses desires in priests, brings about jealousies and murders, and instigates wars. Since the day of his falling there has not been peace in what today is known as the Middle East. He was the one responsible for the destruction of the Garden of Eden in what you now call Iraq. As you dispatch the first Prince of hell you will meet or hear the name of four more Princes of hell. Your assignment is to dispatch each of them. Now my child you must use your resources to find and dispatch of the fallen ones."

"I understand Gabriel as my Lord God commands it shall be done."

Gabriel's white light appeared and the human form that Gabriel had been in disappeared and his angelic form appeared. "My child all of the Angels in heaven are praying for you, go now and dispatch of the fallen."

The white light disappeared and Gabriel was gone. Maria looked at Ryan with concern on her face, and said, "This is going to be a hard task, two of the three are very powerful fallen. We will have to be on guard all the time."

"I agree with you, but it is what the Lord has assigned to us. We must not fail God, Would you find as much information as you can on the three of them. The more we know the better."
CHAPTER TWO

Lucifer summoned Barbatos the Duke of Hell again. Barbatos hurried to Lucifer's throne room, "My Lord you summoned me?"

"Barbatos we have lost contact with more of our brothers. Why? Did I not tell you to find out what happened to them? You have not given me answers."

"My Lord Lucifer, as I reported to you they seem to have just vanished. I have reviewed out text and as written, I can only come to the conclusion that a slayer has been sent from heaven to rid God of the fallen."

"Impossible, I would know if there was a slayer? Besides it has been said that God would never let an angel harm another. If there is a slayer it would have to be someone that I would be aware of, he would have to be impure of heart. Find out what has happened to our brothers and do not return with such foolishness of a slayer. Should you fail I will cast you to the sea of fire to oversee the souls that are mine."

"My Lord, I do not make the claim of a slayer lightly, it is written that a slayer shall come forward and dispatch of the fallen. It is said that this will happen before you can bring the Anti-Christ forward to claim the human race as yours."

"The time is not right for my child to come forward to do my bidding. Now do as I say or you shall suffer my wrath."

"It shall be done as you say Lord Lucifer, I will return as soon as I have the information you ask for."

*****

Maria has spent almost the entire day searching ancient text and the internet for the information on the fallen. By the time she finished she had four binders full of information. The hard part was separating the fact from the fiction. "Ryan I believe I have all the real information that is out there on the fallen, it is going to be a lot to study." Maria said.

"Let's have a look at what you have."

Ryan took the four binders and looked at them; he scanned the binders looking for where to start. It was a real mountain of information. Maria had done a great job of putting it together. Ryan was almost thru with the first binder when there was a knock at the door, Maria answered the door before Ryan could get up from his seat. Ryan could see it was the same delivery driver that had delivered all of the other packages he had received. Maria thanked him and closed the door. "What did he bring us this time?"

Maria opened the package and said, "It has our travel documents and hotel reservations as well as car reservation, we leave to fly into Tel Aviv tomorrow morning, then take another flight to Jerusalem."

"Maybe we should move to the middle east looks like all of our assignments are going to be there." Ryan joked.

"Maria I have a question about where to find Abezethibou, all the information talks about an area 25 miles from Jerusalem. I don't find any other towns or cities nearby."

"That's correct everything in the area is ancient towns or cities all of them are archeological digs. There is a mention of an underground temple for the fallen. I would guess it is for Abezethibou. If we're lucky we may even find Ephippas there. Another place to look is in the city of Eilat it sits on the Gulf of Aqaba which is part of the Red Sea. In addition we may find evidence in Nuweiba, long said to be where Moses crossed the Red Sea."

"That's a lot of land to cover, Maria can we narrow it down some?

"That's not all of it, it is said that Moses exited the Red Sea near Midian, that site is in Saudi Arabia. It's in the area where the some say is the Real Mount Sinai."

"Where do you suggest we start then?"

I think we should start around the digs of Ekron and move slowly back towards Jerusalem, maybe we can lucky and find the supposed temple in the ground."

"Sounds like as good a place as any." Said Ryan.

Ryan set his binder down and moved over to the couch where Maria was sitting, He put his arm around her and they sat cuddled on the couch talking about anything and everything, not once talking about their assignment. Maria finally said, "You know Ryan God has said that I am yours and you are mine, do you think we should do something about that?"

"If you are referring to marriage I don't know, I know I have fallen in love with you, but being married, I think I would worry about you more than I do already and that would be hard to do."

"I feel the same way but I also think it would be the right thing to do."

"Let's do this assignment and really talk about it when we get back home."

"I would rather talk about it now but I can wait."

"I promise when we get home it will be the first thing we talk about."

"I'm going to hold you to that too."

He two of them got up and packed a bag for each of them. Ryan packed the three boxes and called the number to ship them, a short while later the delivery driver knocked on the door and took the boxes and told him they would be in Jerusalem when they arrived at the hotel.

Maria and Ryan turned in for the night, their flight left at five thirty in the morning so it would be an early rising. The night seemed to pass quickly and the smell of brewing woke Ryan before his alarm went off. He got up and walked into the living room to find Maria already dressed and fixing their breakfast. She smiled at Ryan and said, "I thought I would fix us a good breakfast, being on airplanes for the fourteen hours the food is not usually that good so we would get a least one good meal before we got to Israel."

"I like your thinking."

They left for the airport after finishing breakfast and checked in with the airline and went to the departure gate. They had almost an hour to kill Ryan got out some of the papers that Maria had prepared about the fallen. The hour passed quickly and they were called to board their plane. The flight to New York where they changed planes would take about four hours, plenty of time for Ryan to finish the binders that Maria had compiled. Maria had slept most of the way to New York. They made their connecting flight and they spent a large part of the flight on what their plan would be. They arrived in Tel Aviv and caught the short flight to Jerusalem, easily clearing customs the picked up their rental car and drove to the Al Jazeer Hotel. They checked into their room took their belongings and the boxes that had been delivered for them to their room. Setting everything down they decided to find someplace to eat.

Departing their room they left the hotel and walked down the street, they saw all the American fast food places but they wanted a real meal. They found a traditional Israeli restaurant and Ryan had Shwarma which is grilled lamb that is then shaved, and served with laffa bread and Maria had Shnitzel which is chicken cutlets breaded and fried. With their bodies fed they took a walk around the hotel area. They stopped at various stores and just did a bit if window shopping. With darkness setting in they decided it was time to return to the hotel. Once back in their room the unpacked their bags and opened the boxes. Ryan checked each weapon that was in the boxes. Finding each just as shipped he placed them back in the boxes and slid them under the bed. They want to get an early start the next morning so they turned in for the night.

Maria and Ryan were on the road out of Jerusalem early and they headed for the archeological digs of Ekron. "One of the places at Ekron we should pay close attention to is the sanctuary of Baal at Ekron, which is connected with Beelzebub." Said Maria.

"I saw where you mentioned that in the information you did up for me. Maybe it will give some clues to the whereabouts of Abezethibou."
CHAPTER THREE

As they drove up to Ekron they found guards posted. They drove to the guards and stopped, the guards asked for their archeological credentials. They told the guards that they were tourists and wanted to see an active archeological dig. The guards told them that access to the dig was restricted to professional archeological professors approved by the professor in charge or by one of the registered tours. Ryan asked if the head professor was on site today and was told Professor Jennison was in Jerusalem at the European Collage of Jerusalem until the end of the week. They thanked the guards and turned around headed to the College.

They arrived at the European Collage of Jerusalem and found the office. They went in and asked where they could find Professor Jennison. They were sent to the archeological department with a map in hand to help find the building they were in. Once they located the archeological department building they quickly found Professor Jennison's office. They knocked on the door and were told to come in.

They were greeted by Professor Jennison; a tall man with graying hair they thought might be in his late fifties or early sixties.

"Good morning Professor, my name is Ryan Simpson and this is my partner Maria, We would like to speak to you about getting access to the Ekron archeological dig site. We are kind of armature archeological students."

"What group are you here with?" the professor asked.

"We are not with a group sir. We are touring the country by ourselves and we are trying to look around some digs." Ryan replied.

"Why would you something like that; access is much easier when your with a tour group." The professor replied.

"We understand that sir but the tour groups seldom get to see the real discoveries found at digs. You see sir we are doing research on the mythical fallen angels. If we find in our travels that there is an interest in such fables we may write a book on the subject."

"Well now why didn't you say so, we may be able to work something if I can get some credit for the information I provide."

"Professor that would only be right, if we cite work from someone we would definitely give credit to them."

"Do you have anything in specifically you are looking for at the Ekron dig?"

"Yes we do we are looking for any information on the sanctuary of Baal which is connected with Beelzebub."

"Now I can help you there, the Baal who was worshipped was called Baal Zebul, which some scholars connect with _Beelzebub a fallen angel_ , who is known in the bible, also connected with Beelzebub is said to have taken Abezethibou when he fell from the graces of God. It's strange that you ask about it though, the wind has been blowing somewhat unnaturally the last week or so and a temple has been partially uncovered about 10 miles north of the Ekron dig site. I drove out there last week on my way back here to the college. The temple has some inscriptions on it that refer to Abezethibou. My first thought was another ancient temple, but closer inspection reviled that it is at the most forty to fifty years old."

"That would be odd to have it buried out here wouldn't it?" Asked Maria.

"Like I mentioned earlier we have had some strange winds lately it could be that something like this happened some years ago and buried it in the sand. But some of the people seemed to know right where it was. I overheard one person say they were just here the previous week to honor the arrival of Abezethibou."

"Now that is odd," said Ryan.

"I would love to get a closer look at the inside of the temple."

"It would be nice, well thank you for your time Professor; we will be in contact if we ever publish." Said Ryan.

Ryan and Maria departed the professor's office and gave each other a odd look, "are you thinking what I'm thinking Ryan."

"If your thinking we should take a ride to the site of the Abezethibou temple then yes we are thinking the same thing."

"Just what I was thinking too, let's go then."

****

Barbados entered his master's throne room, "My Lord I have some information from one of my followers, he tells me that two tourists inquired about the sanctuary of Baal at Ekron, he said that they were researching the fallen for a possible book on them."

"Ah writer's they should all be here they all tell lies. They do not know the meaning of the word truth. They fit right in here. But what does this have to do with our missing brother's?" Lucifer replied

"I do not know t this time my Lord."

"Find out or suffer my wrath."

"Yes my Lord." Barbatos departed from Lucifer.
CHAPTER FOUR

Ryan and Maria drove out to where Professor Jennison told them the newly uncovered temple could be found. They pulled into the makeshift parking area that had been laid out for the tourist to visit the uncovering of the temple. There were people guiding the cars where to park, others were giving tours to the top part of the temple that had been uncovered. There did not appear to be any doors that one could take to the inside of the temple. Ryan and Maria took the guided tour to the top of the temple.

"Now here ladies and gentlemen we have about 10 meters of the top of the temple that has been exposed. We do not the total height of the temple, but some estimates say it around 20 to 30 meters based on what has been exposed. Early estimates put the date around 2500 years ago." The guide explained.

""Now I think that is a bunch of malarkey that would put the height around 100 feet tall and Professor Jennison already estimated the age to be at the most, 50 years old." Ryan said to Maria.

"It doesn't look like there is any way to get in. I have been looking for some clue that would point out a hidden entrance." Maria said.

"It's starting to get late we may want to head back to the hotel." Ryan commented.

"I agree, I have some research I want to do when we get back."

They drove back to the hotel and went to the hotel restaurant to eat dinner. When they finished dinner they went to their room, Maria got out her laptop and pulled up an electronic copy of the bible. She did a search for Beelzebub. She found what she was looking for in Matthew 10:25 and Matthew 12:24 and again in Matthew 12:27.

"Ryan come look at this, I searched Beelzebub in the bible and I found him mentioned in these chapters and verses, I knew I had heard that name before. So far he is the only fallen I have remembered being mentioned in the bible."

"What else have you found?"

"I have also found Ekron mentioned twenty five different times in seven different books of the bible, from Joshua, Judges, 1Samuel, 2 kings, Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah and Zechariah."

"Sounds to me like we are in the right area then, and we need to tread lightly so not step on any toes."

"Agreed where do you want to start in the morning?"

"I'm not sure I was thinking about renting a helicopter and flying over the city of Nuweiba and what was Midian following the path of the exodus but that means flying over Egypt and Saudi Arabia."

"Can you get a flight to do that?"

"I don't know if I can or not may be a day or two to make it happen."

The following morning Ryan contacted a few helicopter companies and found that they would indeed make the flight he wanted. They needed twenty four hours to make the proper flight arrangements. Ryan reserved a flight for two with Al Jater helicopter service for the next morning. The total flight would last about 6 hours with refueling stops in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. As long as they never left the helicopter they would not have to worry about clearing customs.

They decided to travel back to the partially uncovered temple and were surprised to find another twenty to twenty five feet of sand had been blown away. A part of a set of stairs had been uncovered and an access into the temple was now open. They were charging twenty five dollars to tour the inside of the temple.

Ryan paid for two to take the tour. They climbed the sand and stairs and entered the temple. The guide led them to several chambers off the main temple room, the guide giving a description of each room as though the temple had been open for years. The other thing that Ryan and Maria noticed was there were electric lights turned on inside the temple, truly not a twenty five hundred year old temple.

The tour reentered the main temple room and everyone was given a little time to look around. Ryan took note of the many statues of Abezethibou, they all had one thing in common, in every one of them Abezethibou only had one wing. Maria had noticed that there were also statues of Beelzebub in the temple. Maria asked the tour guide if there were ever any worship services held in the temple and she replied they held them every other day at seven in the evening. They completed the tour and left the temple grounds and drove back to Jerusalem and to their hotel.
CHAPTER FIVE

The next morning they arrived at the Jerusalem airport and found the helicopter service. They showed their passports as identification and were led to the waiting helicopter. They boarded the helicopter after a brief safety lecture. They took off and headed for Nuweiba in Egypt where they would refuel. During the flight the pilot gave them a sightseeing tour of the area's they flew over. They landed in Nuweiba and remained in the helicopter while it refueled and they were back in the air. The pilot went down low over the beach that was supposed to be where Moses parted the Red Sea. "The area described and the artifacts that have been found in this area of the Red Sea indicate that this was where Moses crossed the sea," the pilot said.

The pilot flew over the sea following a straight line until they crossed over land again the pilot then landed the helicopter at what was Midian. They got out of the helicopter and the pilot told them that this was the area that Moses held the children of Israel and went to receive the commandments from God. It is said the fallen angel Beelzebub used his powers over man to have the children of Israel turn against Moses and make a cow of gold and begin to worship it until the return of Moses came back down from Mount Sinai. The pilot pointed to Jebel El Lawz and said that is the true Mount Sinai.

They boarded the helicopter and made the return flight to Jerusalem again with the pilot giving a sightseeing tour from the air. When they landed Ryan gave the pilot a tip and they returned to the hotel.

They returned to their room and Ryan picked up the binders that Maria had prepared for him and he thumbed thru them until he found what he was looking for. "Maria according to your information there should be a temple for Beelzebub at Midian. I didn't see any ruins or anything else that would indicate that a temple ever stood there."

"Come to think of it I didn't see anything either. Let me do some research on that again."

"While you do that I think I am going to go and workout."

Ryan returned to the room covered in sweat two hours later. He had completed his workout and was exhausted mainly from the heat. Maria told Ryan that the information she had developed said that there should be a temple or ruins at the location where Midian once was.

"I wonder why there is no evidence of anything."

"I really don't know why there isn't anything there; it is a puzzle to me."

"I'm going to make a call back to the states and see if I can get some photos from previous satellite passes over the area, maybe they might show something."

"Do you think that you can get the photos?"

"I have a friend of mine who is with the CIA; he might be able to get me some of the photos as long as they are declassified."

Ryan called his buddy with the CIA and was told that he would see what he could do about getting some unclassified photos for him. Ryan gave his the address where to that the photos and mark them for him. Ryan hung up his phone and went and took a shower,

When Ryan returned from the shower he said to Maria, "What do we know about Ephippas, I remember something about him and King Solomon, find anything out you can over the next day or so please?"

"I sure will, I remember something about Ephippas in Solomon's writings."

"Also I want to go to the worship service at the temple tomorrow evening; maybe we can learn something about the whereabouts' of Abezethibou."

"You know Maria, it's strange but I have not had the feeling of a fallen in any of the places that we have visited, I'm starting to wonder if they are not around here."

"Oh their around here I don't think we would have been sent here it they weren't here."

"Maybe tomorrow then."

The next morning they decided to take in some of the sights of Jerusalem, they had some time before they had to go to the worship service and they didn't know when or if any photos would arrive for them.

"I want to see the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount as well. What about you?" Ryan asked.

They left the hotel and drove to the area of the Wailing Wall; they parked the car and walked to the open area in front of the wall. Ryan stopped and looked at Maria, "I'm feeling something but it its very weak. A fallen is in the area." Ryan walked the area that tourists were allowed in but feeling never got stronger or weaker.

Maria took pictures of the wall and the surrounding area, she was taking pictures of the many people in the area as well, hoping that she might get a shot of a fallen that they had pictures of already.

When Ryan stepped clear of the area where tourists were allowed the feeling cleared. Ryan shook his head at Maria and said, "The feeling is gone, I know there is a fallen nearby but I don't know which direction it is."

They walked back to the car and drove around to the Temple Mount. As soon as Ryan stepped out of the car the feeling of a fallen struck him. The feeling was so strong it brought Ryan to his knees. Maria ran around the car to Ryan and tried to stand him up. "Wait just a minute; let me get use to this feeling. It is so strong, almost like there is more than one here."

"Can you tell where?"

"Not right yet the feeling is just over powering."

"Why didn't you feel it in the car?"

"I don't know," Ryan answered as he stood and leaned back on the car.

"Can you tell where it is coming from?"

Ryan pointed up in to the sky. Maria looked up and scanned the sky above them. She spotted two black dots flying across the sky. She reached into the car and retrieved her camera. Maria's camera was much more powerful then what the average tourist would have, she zoomed in as far as the camera would allow and snapped eight or ten pictures. She reviewed the digital pictures and was shocked at what she saw. She clearly got two winged objects flying across the sky, and as she advanced to the next few pictures she saw that the larger object split into two making it three objects she took pictures of. She showed the pictures to Ryan and his eyes grew wide. "What in the name of God is that?"

"That my dear is three fallen angels moving across the sky."

"What direction are they going?" Ryan asked.

"Looks like they are headed towards the temple or Ekron."

The feeling grew weaker as the fallen flew farther away until it vanished completely. Ryan had recovered completely and said, "I've never felt it that strong before. If they are at the service tonight I may not be able to do anything. It was so strong it hurt for a while."

"Maybe we shouldn't go tonight."

"Not a chance, if they are here we will find them and do whatever it takes to defeat them. I think I want to go back to the hotel and rest before tonight."

"Get in and let's go."

Ryan and Maria got into the car and pulled away from the Temple Mount, Maria headed back to the hotel when Ryan said, "You know there was something different about the feeling I had. It was like there were two completely different feelings."

What did they feel like?"

One was the usual feeling of the fallen, the other was, well just pure evil. Maybe that was what made the feeling so powerful. I've felt two fallen before, maybe these two fallen are just stronger then the last two. It's the other feeling that bothers me."

"Why is that?"

"The other feeling like I said is just evil, maybe a demon or something like that."

"Maybe we need to talk to Gabriel when we get back."

"Good Idea."

When they arrived back at the hotel Ryan settled into the chair and called to Gabriel, the white light started to appear and the form of Gabriel formed.

"What is it my child that causes you to call me."

"Gabriel today I sense a new feeling along with the sense of the two fallen angels, the other feeling I can only describe as evil."

"Ah yes my child the second feeling is that of evil, you have sensed the presence of a demon. Often a demon will travel with a fallen, he is the fallen's protector. The demon can be dispatched in the same manner as a fallen. You also have the ability to see the demon in its true form, should you come in to contact with the demon it will not appear as a human to you."

"Thank you Gabriel that answers the question."

The form of Gabriel faded and the white light disappeared. Ryan looked to Maria and asked if they had any pictures of the fallen and Ephippas. Maria said they only had artist renditions of what Ephippas looks like.

Ryan pulled the boxes out from under the bed and he took the Mac 10 and 4 nine millimeter hand guns out he checked each weapon and inserted the clips and magazine into each gun. He wrapped the Mac 10 in a towel and set the nines on the table. "We may need these tonight," Ryan said
CHAPTER SIX

They left the room and headed down to the car. Ryan opened the trunk and placed the hand guns and the Mac 10 in the trunk. He placed the camera bag over the guns so they would not shift position. They got into the car and drove to the temple. After parking the car Ryan opened the trunk and checked the guns one more time. He took the safeties off each gun and laid them back in the trunk. He hoped they would not need them but they were ready if needed.

The climbed the sand and stairs and entered the temple. As soon as Ryan crossed over the outer door the feeling of evil hit him. He stopped for a moment and Maria looked at him and asked, "Are you ok, you look kind of pale."

Ryan shook his head yes and the entered into the worship part of the temple. Ryan felt the feeling getting stronger. Once inside the worship room, Ryan looked around the room, off to his right was a demon standing there. He could see the demon was relaxed not expecting any trouble. When the demon glanced at Ryan and Maria, he stood a little straighter. Ryan nodded at the demon and he and Maria took seats on the back row next to the isle.

The service started shortly after they had taken their seats. The worshipping of Lucifer and the fallen angel Abezethibou made both Ryan and Maria sick to their stomachs. Ryan wondered how anyone could worship someone or something that was so evil.

Just past the halfway point of the service a middle aged man stood and walked to the altar. He spoke, "Welcome to the service this evening, It is not often that I Abezethibou get to come and worship with you." Abezethibou's sermon went on for almost an hour; the praising of Lucifer was making Maria very sick. Ryan had just tuned it out. The service ended and as everyone got up to leave the demon walked up to Ryan. He asked Ryan and Maria, "Would you please remain behind I would like to speak with you as soon as all of the followers leave the temple."

Once everyone left the temple the demon walked back in and introduced himself to Ryan and Maria, "Welcome to the temple of Abezethibou, I am Ephippas the first servant of Abezethibou, I noticed that you were not praising Abezethibou with the other followers, may I ask why?'

"This is our first time at a service like this. We were not aware of the words to say in praising him sir."

Ephippas placed his hand on Ryan's shoulder and his hand immediately started to burn. Ephippas knew immediately that Ryan was not a person who was there to worship Lord Lucifer and his master Abezethibou. Ephippas pulled his hand back and looked at the burn marks on his hand. He started yelling about Ryan being in the temple. He yelled that Ryan was too pure at heart and did not belong there.

"My Lord Abezethibou will want to speak with you."

As Ephippas started to pass in front of Ryan, Ryan grabbed the demon by he throat and snapped the neck of the demon. The demon said "You must not know anything about demons and angels, we cannot be killed."

Before Ephippas could contact Abezethibou, Ryan held is hand up and the Angel Sword appeared, with one swift the sword came across the throat of Ephippas and his head rolled onto the floor. Before Ephippas hit the floor his body and head burst into flames and disappeared.

Ryan looked at Maria and said "let's go we need to get out of here."

Ryan and Maria moved at a quick walk out of the temple and headed to their car. Just as they reached the flat sand Abezethibou appeared at the top step and in a booming voice said, "Who dares desecrate my temple? Who dares to kill my servant? Speak now or I will kill all of you."

Ryan stepped forward and said, "It was me, I am the slayer and I will dispatch you next unless you repent and bow down and ask forgiveness from the one true God."

Maria had slipped away from Ryan and kept moving to the car. As soon as she reached it she opened the trunk and just stood there.

"Bring this one to me he is a false one against Lord Lucifer and me. There is no such thing as a slayer"

Several men moved toward Ryan and grabbed him, they started to push him toward Abezethibou when Maria fired one of the nine millimeter's into the air, "Release him and no one will get hurt," she yelled.

"Silly female you do not know that your weapons cannot hurt me for I am an Angel and cannot be killed."

"Maybe my bullets will not kill you but they will kill these followers of yours. Now release him."

"Bring the female to me as well," Abezethibou yelled.

The men started towards her and she leveled the Mac 10 and fired a burst into the small crowd of men, four of dropped but that did not stop them, she fired at them again and four more dropped leaving only two to take her. She lowered the Mac 10 and used one of the nine millimeters and shot the remaining two followers. She then shot three of the men holding Ryan and the remaining three dropped to the ground cowering and not wanting to get shot as well.

When the followers dropped to the ground Ryan held his hand up high and the angel sword appeared in his hand. "This Abezethibou is the Angel Sword and it will kill a fallen angel, I gave you the chance to repent and you chose not to so now I will dispatch of you."

Abezethibou gave a moment's thought to what the man was saying. He knew that Ephippas had been killed, he had sensed his death. Maybe there was something to what the man was saying. "You have no chance against me. Go now before I kill you."

"I'm only going to come up there and dispatch you." With that Ryan started to climb the sand and when he reached the stairs he glanced up and saw that Abezethibou was gone. He finished climbing the stairs and entered the temple. He searched the temple worship room but found no trace of Abezethibou. The feeling of the fallen was quickly disappearing and then was gone. Ryan moved to the front of the temple and opened the doors that he found but he never regained the feeling of the fallen. Ryan put the Angel Sword back in the scabbard and returned to the door. He saw that Maria had everyone rounded up and was holding them at gun point. None of them was moving afraid of getting shot.

Ryan climbed back down the stairs and sand and rejoined Maria, "Did you see if Abezethibou flew away from the temple?"

She shook her head and said, "No but then I was trying to round up these people and I could have missed him."

Ryan looked at the people and said "you are free to go, but never come back here again, find a true place of worship and get down on your knees and ask the one true God for forgiveness. Praise him and he will forgive you."

"Who are you to tell us not to come back here and who to praise?" one of the people asked.

"I am a messenger of the Lord thy God. I speak his words. If you come back you will have signed your own death warrant, now go and speak to no one about what you have seen here today."

The people started to go when lightening came from the sky and struck the followers of Abezethibou. A few of them screamed but they all fell to the ground dead.

"Time for us to go, I think we just saw some of the power of Abezethibou."

I'm with you, let's get out of here."

Maria put the guns back in the trunk and they got in the car and headed back to the hotel. "You know Ryan I never saw Abezethibou leave the temple but like I said I could have missed him."

"I don't know id he ever left. In fact I think he is still there. I want to come back here tomorrow. I want to search the temple completely. I just feel he is there."

"If that's what you want then we will do it."

When they got back to the hotel the desk clerk called them over and handed Ryan a package, "This was delivered for you a little while ago, Mr. Simpson."

"Thank you."

They got to the room and Ryan and Maria sat on the couch, he opened the envelope and took out a hand full of pictures. He laid the pictures out on the table by the date and time on each photo. Once he had all of the photo's arranged he started to scan them for differences in them.

"Maria look here, Right where your information say's a temple should be. Do you see it?"

"No what am I looking at?"

"See right here in these photo's the land is flat, then in the next one there is a sand dune there, the next one is flat again, a couple more photo's down the sand dune is back. There is something there alright."

"Maybe it's just the wind blowing in a dune."

"Nope there is nothing there for the sand to blow up against. If it was caused by the wind it would be a smaller dune."

"I see what you're saying. What could be there?"

"My guess is a hidden door in the ground leading to our temple we are looking for."

"We're going to need to get visas for Saudi Arabia, I want to inspect that site. But before we do that we need to take care of Abezethibou."
CHAPTER SEVEN

The next morning they drove back to the temple they were at last night. When they arrived they saw the tour guides taking down the make shift parking area. Maria pulled up next to the guide that gave them the tour a couple of days ago and asked her, "What's going on? You're not giving tours anymore; I was hoping to get some pictures of the inside of the temple."

"When I got here this morning I found a sign on the temple door that said closed until further notice and the door was locked. So we are taking everything down and going home."

"What a shame I was really looking forward to getting some shots." Maia answered.

"Sorry" the guide said and she walked off and loaded her car, got in and left.

Ryan and Maria stayed until the last person left and they got out of their car and made the climb to the doors of the temple. The tried the doors and found them locked. The inspected the entire area that was not covered by sand and did not find a way into the temple.

Ryan and Maria climbed back down to their car and got in and started back into town. Maria glanced in the rearview mirror and pulled over to the side of the road. "Look behind us at the temple."

Ryan turned and saw what Maria had seen in the mirror. A hidden door was now closing about ten feet below the line of sand that covered the temple. "Turn around get back to the temple."

Maria spun the car around and drove back to the temple. Ryan jumped out before the car had completely stopped rolling. He ran up the sand to the area they had seen the door. Ryan started brushing the sand away, he had cleared about five feet of sand by the time Maria joined him. Together they cleared the sand away from the spot. They saw lined in the brick indicating that there was some type of opening. They searched for something that would open the door, after about an hour they had not found anything that would open the door.

"There has to be something that opens this damn door." Ryan said.

"We have looked at everything all the bricks; everything and we haven't found a thing."

Ryan stepped back and down off of the door into the sand looking over the area that he and Maria had been searching. He didn't see anything that looked out of place, he took another step back and felt the sand give way a little. The door started to open and Ryan yelled at Maria, "Look out its opening."

Maria jumped off the door as it started to move and fell into the sand. The fall startled her and she was shocked at the size of the door. She scrambled down to Ryan and asked "How did you do that?"

"All I did was step back a little further into the sand and felt it give way and the door started opening."

"Let's get inside while we can, the door may start to close at any time."

*****

Abezethibou met with Beelzebub as they planned after the incident last night at the temple. Abezethibou explained the killing of Ephippas and the incident outside the temple and of the man and the sword.

Beelzebub looked at Abezethibou and said "You know the Angel Sword is a myth. There is no way that an Angel can be killed. God made a promise to all the Angels that he would never kill an Angel fallen or not. He has said that another Angel cannot hurt another or else he will be cast into the Abyss. It just isn't true."

"Then explain how Ephippas was killed. How the man knew who I was. Way would he spout off about God and tell me he was going to dispatch me. Tell me why I can't call my minions, or why I can't open my access to the underworld. Why can I not contact Lord Lucifer? Explain this to me."

"I do not have your answers here. Let's go to my temple and see if we can find the answers."

The two fallen angels departed for Midian. They arrived at Midian several hours later. When they landed Beelzebub told Abezethibou this is the site of my temple. Are you aware of what this place is?"

"No, I'm not."

After Moses crossed the Red Sea he went up to Jebel El Lawz the true Mount Sinai, and received the commands from his God. I enraged the so called children of Israel; they built an idol of gold a cow from the spoils they took from Egypt. They started to reject God and turn to our Lord and master. But Moses returned from the mountain with the stone tablets. He dispatched the so called Ark of the Covenant to be taken to his master. People have been searching for the ark ever since. I have the ark and the idol they built, they are in my temple.

"Moses, my enemy, I have always hated him. Because of him I was trapped in the pillar of water until my faithful servant Ephippas freed me some fifty years ago."

"I know my brother, now let's go into my temple and contact our Lord and Master."

Beelzebub opened the access to his temple and the two fallen entered; They went to Beelzebub's throne room and tried to contact their Lord and Master Lucifer. They received no response; they tried again with the same results. Beelzebub tried to call his minions and again nothing happened. "My brother I think we have a problem, I also cannot contact anyone."

"We need to find out who this man is and what abilities he has and what kind of threat he is." Said Abezethibou.

"How do you propose we go about this my brother?"

That I'm not sure of at this point, but we must figure out some way."
CHAPTER EIGHT

Ryan and Maria stepped into the temple and found a set of light switches on the wall. Ryan flipped the switches on. The lights showed a long hall way leading deeper into the temple. The also found a set of stairs leading down further into the temple. "Maria I think we need to stay together so we don't get separated in here."

"That's a good idea, which way do you want to go first down or straight ahead?"

"Let's go down first, do you have any lipstick with you?"

"Yea I have some in my purse, what do you want it for?"

"To put small marks on the wall so we can retrace our steps if we have to."

'Now why didn't I think of that."

"Because you're a woman." Ryan laughed.

"I'll get you for that one." She smiled.

They started down the stairs into the bowels of the temple, the air felt sticky and damp, they reached a landing and there was a door at the right side of the landing to the left side the stairs continued down. "Lets' keep going down." Ryan said.

They took the stairs down one more floor and it ended at a door right in front of them. Ryan opened the door and stepped into a dark room. He felt the wall until he found the light switch and turned the lights on. Maria gasped at all the gold and silver that was in the room, at the far end of the room was a throne. They walked the room looking at all the paintings, jewelry, gold and silver. "What is this place?" Maria asked.

I would bet this is the throne room for Abezethibou. I would say he is full of himself, to keep all of these treasures around him."

"Ryan come over here this looks like another door of some kind but it is in the floor."

"We called these scuttles in the Navy. They open and have a vertical ladder under them that you can climb up or down on."

Ryan bent down and looked for a way to open the scuttle, "I don't see a way to open it, look around and see if there is something to pry it open."

Maria nodded to Ryan and found what looked like a pry bar. "Will this work?"

"Let's give it a try."

Ryan took the pry bar and tried to get it under the lip of the scuttle. It was sealed too tight to get anything under it. "We may have to come back and try something else."

Maria found another set of stairs at the other end from where they came in to this room. The stairs led up and they started up the stairs. When they reached the next level they opened the door and stepped into a bedroom. They looked around the room and didn't see anything out of what would be in any other bedroom. They closed the door as they left the room and continued up the stairs. It opened up to a open room behind the worship room, all they found here was robes and vestments for the services they held here. There were two doors off of this room one led to the worship room and the other led into a hallway. They took the door and went into the hallway. The hall led back to where they had entered the temple. A lever was set into the brick on their right. Ryan pulled the lever and the hidden access opened to the outside.

They stepped out into the sand and moved clear of the door after a few seconds the door closed on its own.

"I'm going to have to find a way to open that scuttle in the throne room. I want to know what's under that scuttle."

Ryan checked his watch and said, "Wow we in there almost five hours. Most of it spent on the throne room.

They headed back to their car and got in and left the temple. They made their way back to Jerusalem.

"I'm not sure which direction to go, continue after Abezethibou, or shift our attention to Beelzebub. Which do you think?" Ryan asked

"At this point I think we should stay with Abezethibou. We know where his temple is and how get in and we have a good idea of where to find him.

"That makes a lot of sense. Ok we stay with Abezethibou."

"I don't know about you but I'm getting hungry." Maria said.

"I'm with you, let's get something to eat."

After dinner they headed back to the hotel. They parked the car in the underground parking deck, and returned to their room. Ryan picked up one of the binders of information on the fallen angels that they were working on with this assignment. "Maria, I have a question for you, why would the fallen stay in this area? This is one of the holiest cities in the world. The ability to recruit followers to their cause would not be very good around here."

"Think about it if they can convert people here in the holy city, they can convert people anywhere in the world."

"That makes sense, but something just isn't right, with all of this. A temple and open worship to Lucifer. In most areas it's hard to find a group of devil worshipers, they tend to stay hidden. The persecution from the various religions is already tough on them. Why do it in the open and here of all places? There has to be some other connection that we're not seeing."

*****

"My Lord Lucifer, I come with news, and you're not going to like it." Barbatos said.

"What is it and it better be what I want to hear."

"We have lost contact with two more of our brothers, they are Abezethibou and Beelzebub. I myself have tried to enter the temple of Abezethibou from beneath and the way in is shut. I have been unable to get in. I sent minions to each place that our missing brothers were and the reports I have received have witnesses saying a man with a sword claimed to be the slayer and killed the fallen. I have sent minions to the temple of Abezethibou to find information about him and see why he has not been in contact with us and report back to me."

"Why do you persist with this slayer? There is no way an angel can be killed except by the Angel Sword! Unless someone has taken the sword from my vault, it is not possible. Come with me Barbatos we shall go and see."

Lucifer and Barbatos went to Lucifer's vault and when it was opened a bright light shown thru the door. "There Barbatos is the famous Angel Sword. When I was banished I took the sword, I locked it here so it could never be used against our brothers, it has never left this room."

"Then my Lord there must be another sword that is being used, how else could our brothers disappear without a trace?"

"When your minions report back to you I want to hear what they say. If there is a slayer, I want him brought to me in chains. If he exists he will suffer a fate like no other has ever experienced here in hell."

"Yes my Lord and master it will be done."

Barbatos departed from Lucifer and contacted the leader of his minions and informed them of what Lord Lucifer had ordered. He told him that if they failed him they would meet with a fate worse than any other has ever met.
CHAPTER NINE

Ryan and Maria got up the next morning and left for the temple of Abezethibou. As they approached the temple Ryan noticed that there was what looked like demon's searching the area outside the temple.

What do you see there by the temple? Ryan asked.

It looks like people wandering around the temple." Maria answered.

"Drive by the temple towards Ekron. When we are out of sight of the temple pull over."

"What's going on?"

"If you remember when we attended the worship service, I didn't see Ephippas as a human, I saw him in his true form of a demon."

"I remember that."

"Well all the people that were around the temple just now are demons, not one of them was a human, I think we have trouble."

Where could they have come from, I thought once you revealed yourself to the fallen they couldn't call their minions."

"That's what Gabriel said to me. Maybe they somehow have been able to contact them or another fallen has sent them here."

"How are we going to deal with them?"

"That I'm not sure of that, I think I need to speak with Gabriel again, We may have been discovered by the devil."

"Oh my, that doesn't sound good."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Ryan we're clear of the temple but we are in sight of the guards at Ekron. We need a more secure place if you're going to call upon Gabriel."

"Your right, the safest place is our room. Let's go back there and on the way back slow as we pass the temple, I want a better look."

Maria made a u-turn and headed back to the hotel, as they came closer she slowed a bit and Ryan started watching the demons. They were closely looking for something, Ryan guessed it was Abezethibou. As they moved past the temple Maria picked up speed and they drove back to their hotel. Once back in the privacy of their room Ryan called upon Gabriel.

The white light appeared and Gabriel's form appeared. "What is it you seek my child?"

"Gabriel, I have encountered a problem at the temple of Abezethibou. There is a hole in the floor on the bottom level of his temple, I was going to open it today so I could see where it led, hoping that it led me to Abezethibou. The main problem is there were demons all over the temple grounds; I am guessing they were searching for Abezethibou as well."

"My child do not open the gateway in the floor. That is how the fallen come and go between the underworld and the surface. Should you open it then Abezethibou can summon his minions and other fallen to come to his aid. You say there are demons there with Abezethibou?"

"Yes Gabriel I counted about twenty of them."

"Another fallen must have sent them to Abezethibou. I will try to find the answer for you. What is it about the demons you wish to know?"

"I seek to know who they are, what they want, how did they get here and how to kill them?"

Gabriel bowed his head and seemed like he was not there Ryan spoke to him but received no answer from him. This lasted for a few minutes. Just as fast as Gabriel seemed to go away he returned.

"My child, the demons were sent by one of the fallen in hell to find out why the fallen here on earth have not been in contact with their keeper in hell, that should answer your last two questions. The first question who they are will take a little time to explain.

Many today believe that demons are fallen angels, this is not so. Fallen angels are the angels that were in Heaven with our Lord God. They chose to leave Heaven and follow the darkness. The first fallen is Lucifer in God's word his name is mentioned only one time, his other name of Satan is mentioned fifty times. The fallen have chosen to follow him.

Demons are tormented souls that chose to follow Lucifer before they arrived in Heaven. They are neither man nor sprit, but they can take the form of man. Some say they can posses a human, while the demon possession is false, they do have a human presence among man. They will appear as a man unless the Lord God allows man to see their true form. Most demons take a form of grossness that resembles what they chose to follow.

"Many believe that a demon can only be slain like an angel, or that they cannot be slain. This again is not true. While they are in a physical form on earth they can be slain as any man could be. The main difference is when a man is slain his body is left behind, when a demon is slain his form will burst into flame and it is consumed by the lake of fire. Does this answer your questions?"

"Yes Gabriel I believe that it does."

"Then my child go and continue your task that our Lord God has given you, The Lord God blesses you."

"Thank you Gabriel."

The form of Gabriel disappeared and the white light fade until it was gone. Ryan sat there in awe of watching Gabriel go, the sight of him left Ryan filled with joy and the knowledge that the Lord God was his provider.

Maria looked at Ryan and smiled she knew the contentment that Ryan felt when he was in the presence of Gabriel, she also could see the determination in his eyes to do as the Lord has requested of him.

"Maria, I estimate there were twenty to twenty five demons around the temple, I need to find a place that will give me a clear shooting line at the demons, I'm going to have to eliminate them before Abezethibou discovers that they are here. If they can get this many in here then they can get more and that will really complicate matters."

"There is nothing but flat dessert around the temple, how can you get shots off like that?"

"That isn't a problem; I can wear desert camo that will give me some cover, just as long as it is a clear line of fire."

Ryan grabbed his cell phone and called his friend back in the states, "Jim, Ryan here, I need a big favor I need you to go to my house and get all of my desert camo and ship it to me. I need it ASAP. Can you please do that for me."

Ryan received the answer and hung up the phone. "I hope it gets here before Abezethibou finds the demons."

"I'm sure it will, things have a way of getting by the time you need them." Maria said.

That night a knock on their door woke Ryan and he went to the door and looked thru the peep hole. Standing there was the same delivery driver that had delivered all of his packages at home. Ryan opened the door and said, "Man you sure get around."

"As do you Mr. Simpson."

Ryan let out a chuckle and said, "That I do, that I do."

The man brought the boxes into the room and left, Ryan opened each box and found all of his desert gear that Jim had shipped.

Maria slightly opened her eyes and asked, "Who was that?"

Ryan replied "Angel Express."

Maria rolled over and went back to sleep. Ryan laid out the gear he would need and returned to his bed and quickly fell asleep.

Ryan was up and dressed by the time Maria woke. He poured a cup of coffee for her and said, "I'm off to the temple, I want you to stay here today. Do some sightseeing or shopping."

"But you're going to need backup."

"Not today I'm going to need every weapon we have to do this job. I want you here. If I'm not back by sun down then pack up and get out of here. Understand and no arguments."

Maria frowned and agreed to do as Ryan had asked of her.

Ryan grabbed a couple of the boxes and went and got the car. He headed out to the temple. As he drove past the temple he noticed there were not as many demons as there were yesterday. He went about a quarter mile past the temple and parked just off the road. He retrieved some of the gear from the boxes and all of his weapons and ammo. He made his way into the desert about five hundred yards and set everything down in the sand Ryan set up the camo tents that would provide him some cover from anything flying above. If they flew close to the ground they most likely would be spotted. When Ryan was sure everything was set up he crawled under the sand colored cover for his body and picked up his Marlin 444. He checked the wind and there was almost none. He would not need to make corrections for the trajectory of the bullets. Ryan sighted in on the first demon he spotted. He knew he would be able to get off two or three shots before the demons realized what was happening. Then another two or three before the figured out where the bullets were coming from, after that they would be coming at him.

Ryan picked up his binoculars and made a quick head count. He counted 12 demons. Not really bad odds considering his fire power.

Ryan sighted on the farthest demon and squeezed the trigger. He kept his scope on the demon wanting to be sure of his shot. The demons head exploded and it burst into flames. Ryan quickly shifted targets and fired the last three rounds in the Marlin. He quickly reloaded the rifle and repeated the process, eight shots, and eight dead demons.

Ryan grabbed another clip and reloaded when the doors to the temple flew open and Ryan could see it was Abezethibou. His booming voice carried all the way to Ryan, "Who dares attack my temple. This is hallowed ground and you have taken my followers from me." Ryan fired three more time at the demons then fired the last round at Abezethibou. The bullet struck Abezethibou in the chest but did no damage. It was like a fly landing on him. The lone demon left at the temple looked in the direction of Ryan and pointed. Eight more demons came out from inside the temple headed right for Ryan. Abezethibou howled "find him and kill him." Ryan took aim at the lead demon and fired, the demon dropped in his tracks. He aimed again and fired the second dropped, he was out of rounds in the Marlin. He picked up the MAC 10 and started firing short bursts at the demons as they closed upon him; he had killed five of the demons closing in on him. He reloaded the MAC 10 and fired a full burst moving the gun back and forth. He dropped 2 more from this. He pulled both of the nine millimeters and began firing. He hit both of the remaining two but they were not kill shots.

Before he could reload the demons were on top of him. One of the demons was trying to sink his teeth into Ryan's neck. Ryan was busy fighting him off when the last demon slammed into Ryan knocking all three of them to the ground. Ryan rolled as he hit the sand and came up with the Angel Dagger in his hand. One of the demons charged in at Ryan and be brought the dagger down across the demons back. The demon yelled out in pain as the dagger cut deep across its back. Ryan spun just in time to keep the other demon from driving a sword into his back.

The blow from the sword pierced his right shoulder. Ryan dropped his dagger, the other demon reached to pick up the dagger and the moment it the demon touched the dagger it shot a bolt of lightning out that struck the demon and blew a hole in the demons head.

Ryan was losing blood from the shoulder wound. The sword had pierced all the way thru the shoulder. The demon gripped the sword again and twisted it in Ryan's shoulder. Ryan dropped to his knees, the demon slammed foot into the side of Ryan's head several times. He rocked backward and the demon pulled the sword from Ryan's shoulder and raised the sword above Ryan's head. He started to bring the sword down when suddenly the demons hand and sword fell to the side. Ryan starred up and watched as the demons head landed on the ground in front of him. Ryan fell forward his body falling on the demons head. The head burst into flame and caused a severe burn to Ryan's stomach. Blackness enveloped Ryan and he passed out.
CHAPTER TEN

Ryan woke with a pounding head and a sore shoulder; he looked around to see where he was and discovered he was in his hotel room. Ryan called out to Maria, who came into the bedroom to see if Ryan was awake or calling out while still sleeping. Ryan had called Maria's name several times while sleeping off the drugs she had given him to help control his pain.

"Glad to see your awake this time," as she stroked his hair. "You have given me quite a scare. I thought I was going to lose you there for a while."

"How did I get here?" Ryan started to sit up and his head began to swirl and the room started spinning forcing him to lay back down.

"Now you just stay there in that bed, don't try to get up."

"Ok but tell me how did I get here?"

"I brought you back here and tried to mend you the best I could. I had to go and buy some medical supplies to finish the patch job on you."

"How did you know I was hurt?"

"I rented another car and came out to the temple, I stayed out of the way and hidden until the last two demons reached you. I don't know how you did it against those two monsters, but you held your own until you got stabbed in the shoulder. I grabbed the sword you made for me and started to you when the lightning bolt hit one of the demons. The last demon did something with the word and you fell. The demon kicked you several times and was going to cut your head off when I got behind him. I cut off his hand first then his head. You got badly burned when his head caught on fire before disappeared. I went and got the car and put you inside and brought you back here. The only two wounds I'm worried about are the burn and the bite marks on your neck."

"Did that demon bite me; I was trying to keep him off me."

"It looks like he did."

"What does that mean, what happens when a demon bites a human?"

"I don't have the answer to that, maybe we can ask Gabriel, he may have an answer to that question."

"Please help me get to the living room; I want out of this bed."

"Ryan I would prefer you stay in bed."

"I need to get up, please help me or I will get up by myself."

"If you insist hardhead."

Maria helped Ryan to his feet as he stood his head swam and he got dizzy, he stood still for a moment until the room stopped spinning, and Maria steadied him and helped him to the chair in the living room.

Ryan sat in the chair and asked for some coffee and some food. "How long have I been out, I feel like I haven't ate in a week."

"You've been out for three days."

"No wonder I'm so hungry."

"I know that Gabriel can't heal me again but maybe he can answer the question about the bite." Ryan said.

After Ryan finished his meal Maria brought him another cup of coffee. Ryan took a sip from the coffee and called out to Gabriel. The white light appeared and the Angelic form of Gabriel appeared. "Yes my child you have called upon me."

"Yes Gabriel, I have a question that we cannot find an answer to."

"What is the question?"

"In my battle with the demons at the temple of Abezethibou, it appears I was bitten by one of the demons. What effect will this have on me?"

"It is unlikely that you were bitten, a demon will almost always kill when it bites, though it has happened before. If you were bitten you will start to see the attributes of the demon to appear in you. Things like the strength, maybe even the ability to fly if the demon had wings."

"That answers my question, thank you Gabriel."

"You're welcome my child." Gabriel disappeared as did the white light.

Ryan was feeling better after eating, he and Maria spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Ryan turned in early feeling tired he figured the fight he had with the demons left him wiped out.

Ryan woke early the next morning and got up and fixed coffee and ordered room service for breakfast. Ryan felt great this morning, he went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He pulled the bandage off his neck and the bite marks were gone. He removed the bandage from his shoulder and the wound from the sword was gone, just a small scar remained. He walked out to the living room said "good morning Maria."

She looked up from pouring the coffee and was shocked to see that the wounds were healed. "How?"

"I don't know maybe because of the demon bite. I feel perfect today."

"This is amazing. It has to be a miracle."

*****

Abezethibou met with Beelzebub and said "The slayer is dead. The demons killed him yesterday at my temple. Thought he did manage to kill all of the demons I watched as the head from the last demon burst into flames and burn through the slayer. I went into my temple for a few minutes and when I returned the body of the slayer was gone and a burn mark in the sand was all that remained of his body."

"Abezethibou this is wonderful news, our Lord and master will be pleased. Now we can move forward with converting as many of the people as we can. We must make ready for the birth of the Anti-Christ. We know it will not be much longer."

"Has the master said when it will take place?"

"No he has not yet set the date but it must be soon."

That will be a glorious day, the day that God will no longer be in control, The day that our master takes control of everything that is and will be."
CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ryan and Maria headed out to the temple, on the road to the temple they passed four Israeli army trucks pulled off to the side of the road a couple of miles from the temple. They drove on past the trucks and arrived at the temple. When they arrived they were shocked to find that the entire temple was now totally exposed. All of the sand had blown away from it. The height of the temple was just over 100 feet tall and the base was about 50 feet square. Ryan thought back to the search of the temple. It wasn't anywhere near that large on the inside or they had missed a lot of rooms. Ryan's phone vibrated in his pocket, he pulled it out and looked at it, it was his friend with the CIA. Ryan answered the phone and listened intently. In a few minutes he hung up the phone and said "Damn, something bit is going on."

"What is it Ryan?" Maria asked.

"That was my buddy Tom, the one with the CIA. He told me the latest satellite pass over Midian has the Saudi's in an uproar. There is suddenly a full fledged temple there. The Saudi government is up in arms; He said to check the news on BNN."

"What does it mean? Whose temple is it?" Maria asked.

"Right now I don't have an answer to the questions you are asking. It's going to take a bit of research but I would bet the temple belongs to Beelzebub. But for now I want to concentrate on Abezethibou" Ryan answered.

As they got closer to the temple of Abezethibou, they saw hundreds of people in front of the temple. They pulled in and parked in the makeshift parking lot that had been put back up.

"Look Maria, the temple now has statues of Abezethibou on both sides of the entrance; there are all kinds of ornate objects at the entrance as well. He must be expecting something big coming. Look at all the people and listen all they doing is chanting the name of Abezethibou."

"What do we do now?"

"We are going to keep an eye on this place, we have to figure out a way to get in and put an end to Abezethibou."

Just then the doors of the temple opened and Abezethibou stepped out onto the platform. He raised his hands and the crowd became quite. Abezethibou spoke, "My children, this is a great day; I Abezethibou am preparing this temple for the coming of Lord Lucifer. He will cast his seed on the earth and bring forth the Anti-Christ. Our Lord Lucifer shall rule the earth."

The crowd starting chanting Abezethibou's name again. A man off to one side of the crowd started speaking thru a bullhorn, "Abezethibou you are a false prophet, the true God will never allow you to do the things you claim." The man bent down and picked up a semi-automatic rifle and began shooting at Abezethibou

The crowd cheered as they saw the bullets from the man's gun had no effect on Abezethibou. The man continued to fire the gun, emptying the magazine at Abezethibou, The man seeing that his gunfire had no effect, he bent down and reloaded the gun. He began firing into the crowd, the people started to scatter and fall to the ground, Ryan could see a few demons come to the sides of Abezethibou, he sent two of the demon to where the man was shooing from and told them to bring the man to him.

The demons reached the man and disarmed him. They grabbed the man and carried him to Abezethibou. The crown cheered as the demons carried the man to the temple. When the demons landed next to Abezethibou, the fallen grabbed him by the throat and held him off the ground.

"This man thinks he can slay me Abezethibou, The real slayer was killed earlier this week as he tried to slay me. I killed him; he will no longer attack any of my brother's. For this man's attack on me and you my followers he shall be put to death. Abezethibou tossed the man down in front of the demons and they attacked him, in just a few short minutes the man was dead.

The crowd was worked into frenzy by the killing of the man. The shouted both the names of Abezethibou and Lucifer. Ryan spotted the four Israeli Army trucks they had passed on the way in pull up and solders jump out of the back. They wasted no time firing tear gas into the crowd. The crowd started to flee many having tears from the gas. Ryan grabbed Maria and got into their car. They started to pull away from the temple and they were stopped by the Army and questioned about their presence here. Ryan spoke to the solder, "We were on our way to the Ekron dig site and saw the crowd, we stopped when we saw the crowd. Right after we got out of our car some crazy guy started shooting. We got back in our car and started to leave when you people showed up."

The solder looked at their papers and told them they could go. They drove back into Jerusalem in silence and headed for the hotel. Once back in their room Ryan plopped in the chair and looked at Maria, "I'm at a loss on what to do now, with the Israeli Army involved at the temple it is going to be really hard to gain access into the temple. It's going to take some scouting of the area to figure out how to get in."

Ryan turned on the TV and changed the channel to BNN; the news channel was talking about the appearance of the temple at Midian, The reporter was saying "the area had nothing in it two days ago and that evening the structure appeared out of nowhere. Saudi government officials are at a loss to explain where the temple came from. Scientists are putting together an expedition to try to identify and date the temple, to see who the temple was built for. Some religious leaders are saying it has to be a temple for Moses. The area that the temple sits is said to be where Moses performed the parting of the Red Sea and where he came out of the sea before it closed. Religious leaders are calling for the temple to be designated a holy site. This is Jenna James reporting for BNN."

"Damn with all the news and religious people around the Midian site it's going to be almost impossible to get in there." Ryan said.

The news channel was showing a map that was believed to have been the route that Moses took when crossing the Red Sea. The screen flashed away from the map and it went to a man with a group of about ten people standing behind him. Ryan did a double take at the screen. "Maria come here quick." Ryan said

"What is it?"

"Look at the screen what do you see?"

"Just a man and some people, why?"

"Listen to him."

"My name is Al Baal Zebul, High Priest, my family purchased this property long ago from the Saudi Arabian government, and I have the paperwork to prove it. This temple was built to honor our Lord and Master Lucifer. I have contacted the Saudi government and asked that they not send the Scientists or allow any others on my property except my followers and the followers of Lucifer on the temple grounds."

"But sir, where has the temple been? Three days ago it wasn't here all of a sudden it appears. Please explain that."

"The temple has been here for years, there must have been a sand storm that concealed the temple from view for a while. Thank you." The man and his followers turned and left and entered the temple.

Ryan scrambled for the binders of information that Maria had prepared and started going thru the pages. Halve way thru the second binder Ryan stopped and laid the open binder on the table. "Maria look at this."

Ryan showed her the page, it was about Baal Zebul also known as Beelzebub in ancient times.

"Well I'll be, so that's him."

"I also noticed that the group of people behind him on TV was all demons."

"Now that is going to make it tougher on us."

"Well we can deal with that and him once we have Abezethibou taken care of."

Ryan pulled out the boxes from under the bed and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles, He turned off all the lights in the room and put the goggles on his head over his eyes, adjusting them to make sure the fit properly.

"What are those for?" asked Maria

"We are going to Abezethibou's temple tonight; I want to have a look around."

Ryan grabbed two fresh boxes of nine millimeter rounds from his box, and then slid the box back under the bed. He then changed to his desert camo clothes. Once everything was in place they departed for the temple.

Arriving at the temple Maria dropped Ryan off and drove a short distance and parked the car. She then headed to the temple to rejoin Ryan.

Ryan was slowly making his way to the temple when he saw the sudden appearance of light coming from the front doors of the temple. Ryan turned his head so the light didn't wash out his ability to see in the darkness. Ryan spotted the two demons after they had left the temple, they were not coming in his direction but moving in the direction that Maria had gone when she parked the car. Ryan followed the demons thru the night vision goggles. He moved his head further ahead of the demons and he spotted Maria coming towards him from the direction the demons were headed.

The demons were upon Maria so fast she didn't see them until they were on top of her. They grabbed her and headed back to the temple. Ryan screamed "NO." Ryan pulled one of his nine millimeters out and carefully took aim at one of the demons not wanting to hit Maria by mistake he took his time with the shot. He fired once and hit one of the demons, he let go of Maria and fell to the ground, before Ryan could get off another shot the demon and Maria disappeared into the temple.
CHAPTER TWELVE

Forgetting about staying hidden and scouting the area Ryan got up and ran to the temple. By the time he made it to the door, it was closed and dark again. He ran up the stairs to the door but found them locked shut. Ryan searched for a way to open the door but could not find a way to open it.

Ryan shouted at the door, Abezethibou it's me you want, let her go."

Ryan continued to search for a way to open the door. There was no lock visible or any way to open the door. Ryan remembered the hidden door on the back of the temple. He looked over the sides of the temple and knew that if he tried to follow the side of the temple to the back he would slide down the wall. He scrambled down the stairs and ran to the back of the temple. He looked up the wall of the temple and figured he could scale the wall. He didn't have the sand to help him climb the wall the climb would take time, something he figured he didn't have a lot of. He had to get to Maria before Abezethibou had her killed.

*****

Once the demon had Maria inside the temple he closed and locked the door and took Maria to Abezethibou.

"My lord, we have the female that was coming toward the temple in the darkness. I don't know how but she managed to kill my brother." The demon said to Abezethibou.

"Who are you and what are you doing sneaking around my temple in the darkness?"

"I am Maria a child of the Lord God, I work with the slayer and we have come to kill you. He will dispatch you to hell forever."

Abezethibou reached out and slapped Maria across the face, then punched her in her stomach. "Foolish girl, you have wasted your time, it is you that will die and it will be a slow painful death."

"You will see once the slayer finds out I'm gone. He knows that I came here, He will kill you for turning to the darkness."

The slayer is dead, I watched his body burst into flames when he fell on top of one of my minions that he had killed. I saw the burn marks in the sand with my own eyes.

"You are a fool then, He is not dead and he is coming for you."

"Let him come then, I will be ready for him. He shall die when he reaches my temple." Abezethibou told the demon to take Maria to the preparation area, the area that the fallen and the demons used to prepare a soul for their lord Lucifer.

The demon started to grab Maria and she and she twisted away from him and kicked the demon in his groin. The demon yelled out in pain and Abezethibou reacted by slamming his fist into the side of Maria's head. The blow caused Maria to fall to the floor. The demon kicked Maria and she felt the darkness start to come over her. She struggled to get up and the demon kicked her in the head. The demon started slamming fists into her face and the side of her head. Blood started to flow from Maria's ear and mouth from the blows she had taken. She passed out from the blows she had taken.

When Maria woke up she was chained to the wall in a room she had not seen when Ryan and her searched the temple. She tried to get loose from the chains but she had no luck as she was chained solidly to the wall. The demon came into the preparation area and approached Maria, she spit at him and he slapped her across the face. The demon said, "Woman do as your told and it won't hurt too much. Keep fighting and it will be very painful."

"You wait until the slayer arrives he will kill you and send you back where you belong." She spit at the demon again, he wiped the spit from his face and punched her in the stomach. She cried out in pain and the demon said "I will personally see that you suffer greatly before you die."

"Go to hell" Maria cried.

The demon slapped her in the face again and then punched her in the stomach again. He started to slap her face over and over again. Maria felt the darkness slip over her again.

Maria woke sometime later, she wasn't sure what time it was, she guessed it must be close to dawn, she felt the temple wall against her back shake, and heard a low sound that sounded like a small explosion. Maybe Ryan has come to get her.

*****

Ryan searched the back side of the temple where he thought the access door was. He would slide down the wall some and scramble back up to the spot he thought the door was. Ryan searched for more than an hour and could not locate the door. He slowly slid down the wall of the temple and returned to the front door. He beat on the front door but no one came to the door. He yelled for Abezethibou to come out and face him but nothing came out of the temple.

Ryan scrambled down the stairs and ran to the car. He got out all of his nine millimeter pistols, the MAC 10 and all of the ammo in the trunk of the car. He also picked up two small blocks of C-4 explosive and two blasting caps. He drove the car back to the temple. The need to secretly get back to the temple was not needed any longer. His goal was to get Maria out alive and then kill Abezethibou.

Ryan climbed the stairs to the door. Ryan beat on the door again and nothing happened. He opened one of the blocks of C-4 and rolled it into what looked like a very long worm. He carefully placed the C-4 around the door. He pushed one of the blasting caps into the end of the C-4 and let the wires fall to the floor, he unrolled the wire and went down the stairs until he reached the end of the wire. He took his flashlight out and removed one of the batteries. He took both leads from the cap and touched the battery. When the wires touched the battery the blasting cap blew causing the C-4 to explode. The door to the temple blew free from the hinges and fell back into the temple. Ryan ran back up the stairs and entered the temple with the MAC 10 ready to shoot.

Ryan slowly entered the temple seeking cover as he advanced. He had to go slow; him getting killed or captured would not help Maria. As he entered the worship room he quickly scanned the room for a sigh of danger. Seeing nothing he darted to the column off to one side of the room. As he took cover behind the column he spotted the two demons. He fired a short burst and killed both of them. Ryan moved forward keeping the door he knew came from behind the worship room. The door flew open and six demons entered the room. Ryan ducked down behind the pews. He sneaked a peek over the top of the pews and spotted the demons moving to the altar. They didn't seem to worry about anyone being in the room. The demons were in a close group as the closed in on the altar. Ryan stood and fired a burst from the MAC 10 again; he hit all six killing fie of the demons. He slowly walked up to the wounded demon and pressed the muzzle of the MAC 10 to the demons head and said. "Before I kill you tell me where the woman is."

The demon stared up at Ryan with hatred in its eyes and said, "Abezethibou will destroy you for desecrating his temple, you will never find the woman."

"I'll ask one more time where is she."

The demon showed no fear of Ryan, he tried to get up and Ryan shot him once in the head killing the demon.

Anger filled Ryan as he moved into the back room of the worship room. The anger was directed at himself for not staying with Maria. He should have never put her into this position.

Ryan scanned the back room and found nothing there except for the robe and clothes that the worshipers used to perform their ceremony. Ryan took a moment to reload the MAC 10 and the magazine he had been using. He had five full spare magazines for the MAC 10 again and six spare clips for the nine millimeters

He found the door leading to the stairs that went down deeper into the temple. He opened the door and spotted a group of demons coming up the stairs. Ryan fired the MAC 10 into the stair well watched as all of the demons burst into flames and disappeared. He reloaded the MAC 10 and then he slowly descended down the stairs and entered the throne room.

Abezethibou heard the gun fire and guessed that the minions he had sent up the stairs had all been destroyed. Abezethibou moved to the door to the preparation area and opened it. He waited to make sure the slayer saw him go into the room. He would make the slayer's woman watch as he killed the slayer.

Ryan entered the throne room and spotted Abezethibou slip into a door that he had not seen when he searched the temple. He scanned the throne room and found no one else in it. He moved to the door that Abezethibou had left open. Ryan sensed it was a trap and looked around the room for something he could toss into the room in the hope of distracting Abezethibou. Ryan spotted a small table and he carried it to the doorway. As he stepped up to the door he saw Maria chained to the back wall. He saw that she had been beaten and was bloody. Her head was hanging down; he prayed that she was not dead already. More anger welled up inside him, he tossed the table into the room and he rolled into the room off to the right side of the door.

The demon that had been in the room with Maria watched as Ryan rolled into the room and jumped at him, landing alongside Ryan and he kicked at Ryan and Ryan rolled more away from the demon. He lost his grip on the MAC 10 and it fell to floor. Ryan could not reach the machine pistol. He kept rolling as the demon was still trying to kick him. One of the kicks glanced off or Ryan's head, he rolled away again and as the demon came at him Ryan stopped rolling and had one of his nine millimeter pistols in his hand. As the demon came closer Ryan squeezed the trigger the pistol fired and the bullet demon in the head, the demons head exploded and blood and brain matter showered Ryan.

Ryan got to his feet and quickly looked around the room and saw no one else besides Abezethibou and Maria.

"Abezethibou the chase is over it is time to face me and suffer the consequences for abandoning the Lord and following the darkness."

"I can't believe that your god would send you to face an angel; There is no way for you to kill me."

"What is with you fallen, have you never heard of the Angel Sword?" Ryan held his hand up and thought about the sword. It appeared in his hand and Ryan said, "Here you fool is the Angel Sword, and I'm going to cut your head off with it."

Abezethibou knew that in his human shell he was no match for the bigger Ryan, he shifted to his angel form. Ryan looked at him and laughed. Abezethibou did not have the clean bright white that Gabriel had; instead he was dirty and had just one wing coming out of his back. "No wonder you can't do anything you have one wing and you're filthy. Ryan said.

Abezethibou charged at Ryan and he easily stepped out of the way and brought the sword to his side cutting Abezethibou across the stomach. Abezethibou looked at his stomach and saw his own blood for the first time. Anger flared in the eyes of Abezethibou and he attacked Ryan again, he again stepped out of the way and brought the sword down and cut off the remaining wing form Abezethibou. "Now you are wingless and you can't fly away from me."

Abezethibou stopped and screamed in pain as he turned and saw his wing laying on the floor. "I'm going to kill you slayer."

The fallen angel had the look of blood lust in his eyes now and he charged Ryan carelessly, Ryan brought the sword around in front of him and sliced a arm off of Abezethibou. The fallen angel screamed out in pain as he watched his arm fall to the floor. He charged Ryan again and Ryan put an end to the fight as Abezethibou charged at him he swung the sword in a round house manner and cut the head of Abezethibou off. Ryan watched as the headless body of the fallen angel slammed into the wall and fell to the floor, Abezethibou's body, head and wing all laying on the floor burst into flames.

Ryan ran to Maria and she was slowly coming to. Her eyes opened as slits through the swollen cheeks and eyes. She said, "I knew you would come." And her eyes close again.

Ryan looked around for the keys to the locks that held Maria to the wall, not finding anything he took the Angel Sword and was amazed as the chains cut like butter. Ryan caught Maria before she fell to the floor. He gently picked her up in his arms and headed for the stairs, he felt the rumble from the ground as he started up the stairs, he hurried his pace as the walls of the temple started to crumble. He had to get out of the temple; he knew the temple was destroying itself.

Ryan cleared the doors of the temple and hurried down the stairs and reached the car just as the temple imploded in on its self. Ryan carefully placed Maria in the car and helped he lay down on the back seat. He was in such a hurry he didn't notice the fallen angel flying over the site of Abezethibou's old temple nor the demon flying away from the temple.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Beelzebub watched from the sky as the temple crumbled down on its self. The only way that a fallen's temple could do that is if the fallen was killed or if he destroyed it their self. Beelzebub saw the car as it drove away but paid it no attention; he flew down low trying to see if he could spot anything. He didn't see any movement he circled the remains of the temple watching for any sign of his old friend Abezethibou, not seeing any he turned and headed for his temple. Beelzebub made the trip home t his temple and went inside, he instructed the demons to remain on guard, something was in the works but he didn't know what it was.

*****

Barbatos instructed his minion to remain outside the throne room until called for, Barbatos entered Lucifer's and bowed He said "My lord Lucifer I have news for you, of the upmost importance."

"What is it this time Barbatos and you better not tell me it's about the slayer."

"No my lord I won't tell you that this time, I have a witness to the slayer who will tell you what he saw."

"WHAT! You have a witness to the slayer?"

"Yes my lord, let me get him."

Barbatos went to the chamber door opened it and told his minion to come in. He escorted the demon to the throne of Lucifer and told him to tell him what he saw.

"My lord and master, I am humbled in your presence, my lord Barbatos has instructed me to tell you what I saw at the temple of Abezethibou."

"That is correct now tell me before I lose my patience."

"My lord, I witnessed a man with a sword, he cut him across his stomach then he cut off the remaining wing of Abezethibou, he then cut off his head and then Abezethibou burst into flames and disappeared."

"You witnessed this with your own eyes?"

Yes my master."

"You will be rewarded, now go."

The demon bowed and turned and left, Mammon closed the door after he left the throne room. Barbatos looked back at Lucifer and asked, "What do we do now my lord?"

"I will think on the matter and I will inform you of what I decide we shall do."

*****

Ryan raced back to the hotel and carried Maria to the room, he laid her down on the bed and called for Gabriel. The white light appeared and the form of Gabriel appeared. "What is it you need my child?"

"Gabriel; Maria has been badly injured and needs your help, she may die."

"My son I told you that I would not be able to save you again...."

"It's not me that's hurt, its Maria, you said yourself you could not save me but its Maria, help her please." Ryan interrupted Gabriel.

"I am not allowed to help, I cannot save her."

"Then please let me speak to God."

"Our Lord God has told you himself he will not speak to you again. That all things would now go thru me. I'm sorry Ryan there is nothing I can do."

"Gabriel I cannot believe that the Lord God would be so cruel. He gave her to me and me to her, now he is going to take her away from me."

"I cannot change what will be, my child."

"Gabriel you saved my life, you told me it was not my time, that the Lord God had work for me here. Is that correct?"

"That is correct my child."

"Then my work is now complete, if Maria can't be saved by you or God then take me with her. My work is done."

"My child your work is not complete, you still have much to do."

"No Gabriel my work....."

The loud booming voice came to both Ryan and Gabriel, "What are you saying Ryan my child."

Ryan bowed and said, "My Lord God, I cannot go on without Maria, she was hurt following me and to aid me in the service of my Lord. I have asked Gabriel to save her. He said he could not. I asked Gabriel to allow me to speak to you. He repeated what you said to me about you not speaking direct to me again.. I told Gabriel that my work here was finished, I would not go on without Maria."

"Ryan my child Maria shall not die, it is not her time. She like you has much to do yet. She will require time to heal but she shall not die."

"Why couldn't Gabriel just tell me that?"

"He did not know."

"My Lord please forgive my stupidity. I was not thinking right. My mind was on Maria and nothing else."

"My child you have done nothing that requires forgiveness."

"Thank you my Lord."

There was no answer to Ryan's last statement. The voice was gone.

"Gabriel I also ask for your forgiveness. I was rude and intolerant of you. I am sorry."

"My child you were worried about another and not for yourself. That requires no forgiveness."

"Just the same I am sorry."

"Gabriel's form faded and the white light disappeared. Ryan went to the bathroom and made a cold compress from a washcloth; he carried it back into the bedroom and placed the compress on Maria's head. Ryan then moved a chair close to the bed and sat down with Maria. He had made up his mind he was not going anywhere until she woke up.

Maria woke up close to noon the next day; she looked down and saw Ryan sitting in the chair with his head on the bed. "Ryan, what are you doing here?"

Ryan opened his eyes when he heard Maria speak. He stood up and leaned over and kissed her forehead, "Thank God you're awake. I've been so worried about you."

"But what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you to wake up."

But you need to finish this assignment you have to finish with Abezethibou and then move on to Beelzebub."

"Maria, Abezethibou is dead. I was waiting for you to wake up before I went after Beelzebub. But you're not coming with me, you need time to heal. By the time I finish with Beelzebub you should be well enough to fly home."

"But I should be able to help you with Beelzebub...."

"No you're not coming with me your staying here. You need to heal, and that's final."

"Well can you at least tell me what you have planned?"

"That's easier said than done. Getting into Saudi Arabia is going to be easy, how I'm going to deal with Beelzebub I haven't figured out yet and getting out of Saudi Arabia is going to be tough as all get out."

"Getting you out may be easier then you think. When you're ready to come out call me and give me you're GPS and I can have the helicopter come and get you."

"That's a good idea, I never thought of that. You can handle that without ever leaving the room."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lucifer called for Barbatos to come to the throne room. When Mammon arrived he bowed and said, "You sent for me master?"

Yes Barbatos I have decided what to do about the slayer. But I must have some answers first."

"Yes my lord what is it that you need to know?"

"How many demons did you send to Abezethibou and Beelzebub?"

"My lord I sent twenty to them, I estimate that nine were killed with Abezethibou, one returned here and that there are still ten with Beelzebub."

Let's say there are only five with him, I want that number increased to fifty. One human male should not be able to kill fifty demons and a fallen angel."

"I wouldn't think so my lord."

"I also want the slayer captured and returned to me here. I will deal with him myself."

"It shall be done as you order my lord."

*****

Ryan called the helicopter company that he had rented before and made arrangements to have them fly him back to Midian. He also made arrangements to have them on standby to pick him back up. He paid extra for their services this time to ensure that they would be available when he needed them. He told them he would have some cargo that would make the flight with them. They would leave at six tomorrow evening.

Ryan arrived at the helicopter landing pad at four in the evening. The helicopter was waiting for the flight. It had been fitted with an extra fuel tank so that they would not need to refuel on the way to Midian. Ryan transferred his cargo from his car to the helicopter. After loading the helicopter he went into the office and gave the pilot the weight of his cargo. He had estimated eighty pounds on the phone the day before. His total actual weight was only sixty-three pounds. The pilot told Ryan that they had clearance to take off at six PM. The pilot asked if that was ok and Ryan told him it was.

The helicopter took off right at six o'clock. Once airborne Ryan instructed the pilot to land a mile from the Midian temple, the pilot nodded that he understood the instructions. Ryan was told the flying time was about 3 hours. He nodded and leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Ryan nodded off and on during the two hours of the flight. He remained awake the remaining flying time. He was watching the ground looking for landmarks from about fifty miles from the temple. The full moon kept the desert in a nice light that enabled him to see well enough to mark items on his map. The pilot told Ryan they were making the approach to the spot Ryan wanted him to land.

The Helicopter touched down and Ryan jumped out and unloaded his cargo. Once he was fully unloaded he gave the pilot a thumbs up and the helicopter took back off. Ryan set about covering everything with his camo tarps. He changed into his desert cammo's and put on the night vision goggles. Ryan then took out his cell phone and marked the GPS coordinates of his current location. He got out his map and saw where he had marked the location of the temple. He confirmed the location with his GPS.

He got out his pack and packed it with all of his spare ammo as well as the extra clips and magazines. He placed the extra tarps he brought with him. He placed the nine millimeter pistols on top along with the MAC 10. He slid the pack onto his back then slid the Marlin sniper rifle on his shoulder. He checked his time it was nine thirty, he started off toward the temple.

He made better time than he had estimated it took him twenty minutes to cover the mile. He found a dune that gave him a perfect firing line to the temple. He set up the Marlin on the tripod and covered it and the C-4 with one of the spare tarps. He estimated the remaining distance to the temple at about one hundred yards. Ryan settled in for a little nap before making the remaining distance to the temple. Ryan was about to close his eyes when he spotted a black cloud moving towards the temple. Ryan pulled out his binoculars and looked thru them with the night vision goggles. It wasn't a cloud at all.

Ryan counted fifty demons in flight and they were headed to the temple. This complicated matters a little. He was expecting some demons but not that many. Ryan came up with a plan but in would make him use almost half of the C-4 he brought. He moved in until he was 25 yards away. He dug a trench fifteen feet long and two feet wide. He placed the C-4 in the trench and space it out so that he covered the whole fifteen feet of the trench, he put blasting caps in the C-4 and rolled the leads out to their full distance. He sat his spare flashlight down next to the wires. He piled up some sand for him to take cover behind. Satisfied that all was set, he moved in closer to the temple.

Ryan scouted the temple from the outside, taking note of all the ornate objects that adorned the temple. He placed a small piece of C-4 on the door to the temple. The amount of C-4 he was using was just enough to get the attention of the demons inside. He hoped to get some of the demons to come out.

He use the battery he had from the spare flashlight and set off the C-4. The explosion from the C-4 was only strong enough to put a burn mark in the door. As soon as the C-4 Exploded Ryan took off running back to his Marlin. He hit the ground just as a group of demons came out the door. Using his binoculars and night vision goggles he counted 10 demons that came out the door.

Ryan sighted on one of the demons and squeezed the trigger. The demon fell to the steps of the temple. The remaining demons looked around to see if they could figure out what had happened to their brethren. Ryan sighted on another of the demons and squeezed the trigger. The demon's head blew apart showering the other demons with blood and brain matter. Ryan shifted to another demon and squeezed the trigger again. The bullet tore thru the demon leaving a gaping hole in the demons back where the bullet exited its body. The remaining seven demons were at a loss as to where the bullets were coming from.

Ryan sighted in on the closest demon and squeezed the trigger again, the demon spun around from the force of the impact. Another demon saw his brethren fall and rushed to his side. He looked over the demon and saw that the back of its head was missing, the demon howled to let the remaining demons know that another of their kind was dead. The remaining demons slowed their search of the area, looking for the source of the bullets that were killing their brethren. They knew that Beelzebub would have their heads if whoever was out there gained access to the temple.

Ryan was thankful that the suppressor on the Marlin not only suppressed sound bit the flash of the muzzle of the rifle. Ryan sighted on a demon that was making its way back to the temple and squeezed the trigger again. He watched thru the scope and the demon fell to the ground at the bottom of the temple stairs. Ryan had cut the force of this group of demons in half and had not been discovered. He hoped his luck stayed the way it was going. Ryan reloaded the Marlin and sighted on another demon, the demon took the bullet in the chest and it was a thru and thru shot that went thru the heart.

Ryan checked the entrance of the temple to see if any additional demons were coming out to help their fellow demons. Ryan didn't see any movement from the temple, he brought the scope down and found another demon He pulled the trigger and another demon went down. He quickly found two more demons and shot them, Ryan spotted one of the two remaining demons heading quickly to the temple and he shot him, the shot was off just a bit and the demon kept going he gained access to the temple just as Ryan fired again. The bullet hit the stone at the door and showered the demon with little pieces of brick.

Ryan knew there was still one more demon outside and he searched for it with his binoculars. He heard the sound from the flapping of its wings and Ryan froze. He remained totally still until he heard the sound moving away from him. He brought up his binoculars and found the demon flying back towards the temple. The demon came down between his C-4 line and the temple. He was looking off in the general direction of where Ryan was laying on the ground. The demon seemed to be waiting for something. Ryan shifted his binoculars between the temple and the lone demon. In a few short minutes he got the answer as to what the demon was waiting for. Ryan spotted another group of Demons coming out of the temple. This group was larger than the last one.

The new group of demons that looked to be around twenty-five headed for the lone demon. He knew he couldn't pick them off one at a time without being discovered. The group seemed to be having a discussion about where the attack on them was coming from. The lone demon from the first group pointed in Ryan's general direction but was sweeping his arm. Ryan figured out that he didn't know the exact location of their attacker. Ryan estimated their distance to him was about thirty yards; well in the range of the MAC 10. Ryan picked up the machine pistol and flipped off the safety. He started firing and watched as the demons started falling. What Ryan didn't see was the group of five demons that flew over him. Ryan fired until the MAC 10 was empty. He quickly reloaded and started firing again. The attack caught them off guard and the demons were slow to react to the gun fire, Half of them fell in the first volley of gun fire. The gun fire was tearing thru the demons and in just a few minutes the group of demons littered the desert until their bodies all burst into flames and disappeared.

The five demons that Ryan missed landed behind him and they were slowly making their way to Ryan's position. When Ryan went to reload the MAC 10 the five of them attacked him. The demons over powered Ryan and kicked him and punched on him. The blows seemed to Ryan were not full force, just enough to hurt him and put him out of the action. Ryan tried to roll away from the attack but each time he was kicked and punched. The five demons finally over powered Ryan and grabbed him. They dragged him kicking screaming back to the temple. Ryan was not going to go down easy, he managed to get one of his arms free and he smashed his fist into the face of one of the demons before they grabbed his arm again. The demon he hit fell back and blood ran free from its nose. The bleeding demon kicked out at Ryan and the kick hit him in the back near the kidneys. Ryan stumbled forward but the demons held their grip.

A couple of the demons used their fists and pounded on the back of Ryan's head. The blows were having the effect the demons wanted. Ryan was starting to stop struggling. Blood was coming from Ryan's mouth and nose. His head was pounding from the blows he was taking. The demons roughly pushed Ryan into a chair and tied his arms and legs to the chair with large strips of leather. Ryan tried to move his arms and legs but was bound tightly to the chair.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Beelzebub came in and said, "So you're the mighty slayer? You don't look so tough, and to let a few demons take you prisoner."

"You're the famous Beelzebub, the lowest of the low."

Beelzebub reached out and slapped Ryan across the face. Listen to me you have caused enough trouble. "You have destroyed my friend and brother Abezethibou and for that you will pay." Beelzebub punched Ryan in the face.

Beelzebub turned and said something to one of the demons but Ryan couldn't make it out. Beelzebub left the holding room, the demon that he had been talking with turned and smiled showing fangs and drooling from its mouth. The demon walked to Ryan and punched him in the stomach. He stepped back and let out a devilish laugh. "This will be fun slayer." The demon growled.

"My lord Mammon wants the you alive but I get to have some fun with you before he arrives."

"And who is this Mammon? Probably some low life fallen that will be a target of mine soon."

The demon growled and punched Ryan in the face. "Is that the best you can do? My friend's kid hits harder than that. The anger in the demon was rising and he pushed Ryan over in the chair and kicked Ryan in the chest. "Come on now you can do better that. Ryan said smiling."

The demon left the room, Ryan knew he was getting under the skin of the demon. He opened his hand and called forth the dagger. The dagger appeared in his hand and Ryan holding the end of the hilt cut the leather strip that was holding hi in the chair. With his left arm free Ryan used the dagger to cut the remaining leather strips from his ankles and other arm. He walked to the door and listened carefully. He could hear the footsteps of the demon pacing back and forth. He figured the demon was trying to regain control of his temper. Ryan moved so he would be behind the door when it opened, he yelled at the demon calling him a low life demon who couldn't do anything without being told to do it.

The demon opened the door and walked in, He was shocked to see that Ryan was not in the chair. He closed the door and was going to search. He reached behind him to close when he felt a burning sensation in his arm. He pulled his arm back and was shocked just a stub remained where his left hand use to be. The demon spun around and faced Ryan who was holding the Angel Sword. Ryan swung the sword and cut the demons head off. The head rolled away from the demons body burst into flames and disappeared. Ryan moved to the door and opened it and stepped thru it. He surprised the two demons who were sitting at a table he quickly took the dagger and slit the throats of both of them. Sitting on the table was his back pack his nine millimeter pistols four boxes of ammo and t blocks of C-4 with blasting caps along with his flashlight.

Ryan scooped up everything and placed it back in the pack. He made the dagger disappear and kept out the nine millimeter pistols. He walked to a door at the other end of the room and listened carefully; He didn't hear anything and opened the door slowly. He stuck his head thru the door and did a quick scan of the room. Not seeing anyone he stepped into the room. This room had two doors, one off to his left and one right in front of him. He walked to the one on his left and tried the door, and found it was locked He walked to the other door and opened it, this door led to a set of stairs that went up. He closed this door and walked back to the other door.

He didn't want to shoot the lock as that would draw attention to him. He stepped back and put all his force into the door with his shoulder. The force on the door splintered the door jamb. He entered the room on the other side of the door and saw a desk and some filing cabinets that were not being used. He walked to the desk and searched the drawers but didn't find anything of use. He went back to the other door and started up the stairs, when he reached the top of the stairs he opened the door and stepped into a large open room. Ryan looked over the room and saw statues of Beelzebub all over the room. He guessed that he was in the worship room, he stepped in further and saw the pews and more statues of Beelzebub. He wanted to find the fallen so he could take care of his business and get back to Maria.

Ryan called out the name of Beelzebub but nothing happened. He moved to a door he spotted on the other side of the of the worship room. The door was locked this door was heaver then the one down stairs and he knew he wouldn't be able to force it open. He walked to the front of the temple and opened the front door he looked around the entrance and had an idea. The pillars on the entrance platform would make a nice distraction when he blew them up.

Ryan took one of the blocks of C-4 and broke it into quarters he placed a cap in each one and added seventy five feet of wire to the caps. He tossed the wire down the steps and followed the wire down. When he reached the bottom he took out the flashlight and removed one of the batteries. He touched the wires to each end of the battery and the four pillars blew up sending pieces of stone all over. The overhang of the entrance fell down causing the temple to shake. Ryan took off running back to where he had the Marlin and the MAC 10. He slid to the sand and rolled under the camo cover.

The remaining demons came out from the temple and started to search for Ryan. Ryan reloaded the Marlin and quickly sighted on a demon and fired, he shifted his aim to another and fired again, he did that until the Marlin was empty. He picked up the MAC 10 and fired it sweeping it back and forth until the MAC 10 was empty. He reloaded and continued to fire. A group of demons was coming toward him, and he bent down and picked up the wires and the battery he left laying n the ground.

Ryan waited until the demons were almost on top of the C-4. He placed the wires on each end of the battery. The C-4 blew up and parts of the demon bodies were blown all over the area. Ryan picked up the MAC 10 and started firing again. When Ryan had completely emptied the par magazines for the MAC 10 he pulled out the first nine millimeter and began firing. By the time Ryan had emptied the spare clips for the nine millimeter's there was not one demon left outside.

Beelzebub landed in front of Ryan. "Why do you continue to try to destroy the fallen? What have we done to you?"

"Are you that much of a fool. It's not what you have done to me but what you have done to the Lord God. You had everything in heaven. But instead you chose to follow the darkness. Why would you choose to do that?"

"The power, in heaven no one is worshiped like your god and his son. My lord and master Lucifer promised the angels that anyone who joined him would have power, riches and people to worship us. Why would we stay in heaven?"

"You made your choice, now you must pay the price."

"Before we do what must be done you must know that I have in my temple two things that man has searched for, for centuries. I have the Ark of the Covenant and I have the golden cow that the Israelites made the night Moses received the ten commandants. I offer them to you to go away and let me live, If you refuse me then I shall kill you and keep both prizes."

"Then we shall fight and you will be dispatched of."

Beelzebub was surprised that the slayer would turn down his offer. The wealth and notoriety would make him a very rich man and famous man. Beelzebub lifted off the ground and headed back to the destroyed entrance level of his temple. When he landed amongst the rubble he turned and looked at the slayer and yelled "You shall die for this" as he held his arms spread apart indication the damage to the temple.

Ryan took off running as fast as he could. He started up the steps of the temple taking two at a time. When he reached the entrance level Beelzebub was nowhere to be found. The front door to the temple stood wide open inviting Ryan in. Ryan started into the temple when he received a kick in the back forcing him into the temple. Ryan tumbled into the temple and as he landed Beelzebub swung a massive foot at his head. Ryan kept rolling and Beelzebub's foot missed. Ryan ran out of room as he rolled into the last pew in the worship room. When he stopped rolling Beelzebub landed a kick to his mid section, Ryan felt the air leave his lungs. The fallen smashed his fist into Ryan's head causing him to see stars. Ryan tried to shake the impact to his head off. The fallen hit him again; Ryan managed to move under the pew. He scrambled to his feet and raised his hand and called the Angel Sword. The sword appeared in his hand.

Beelzebub stopped short looking at the sword. He wanted to charge the slayer but the sword he was holding would inflict the damage to him or could even kill him if the slayer managed to get a clear swing at him. Beelzebub took the long way around the slayer and went thru a door leading away from the worship room. Before Ryan could get to the door Beelzebub stepped back thru and he was holding a sword of his own. Ryan remembered reading in the information that Maria had given him said something about Beelzebub and a sword.

"Slayer, my sword may not be the Angel Sword but this is the sword of evil." Beelzebub holding his sword in a manner that he could swing it from either side. Ryan had to be careful on his defense of Beelzebub. Ryan ducked under the sword of the fallen and spun around and swung the sword at Beelzebub's head. The fallen easily blocked the off kilter swing. The swords met and sparks flew. The sound of metal to metal contact echoed in the temple. Every time made a move with his sword Beelzebub easily blocked the move.

"Slayer how do you expect to win with simple moves like that, a child could block them all."

Ryan realized that Beelzebub was right he was just using the most basic of moves that Mr. Lee had taught him. Ryan went on the offensive with his sword; the fallen soon realized that the moves made by the slayer were much more advanced. He was having trouble blocking his moves now. Ryan kept up the pressure waiting for Beelzebub to make a mistake, Ryan saw an opening and cut the fallen across the arm. In response the fallen mad a clumsy thrust and Ryan cut a deep gash into Beelzebub's back. Ryan spun around and made a long cut on the fallen's stomach. When Beelzebub made an attempt to block the swing to his stomach, Ryan followed thru with the swing and cut off the left arm of the fallen and his sword fell to the floor.

Beelzebub stood in shock for a moment, the slayer brought his sword around in an attempt to cut the head off of Beelzebub. The fallen ducked and ran to the back door he had come from earlier. Ryan gave chase and when he burst thru the door Beelzebub hit him over the back with a folding chair. The impact drove Ryan to the floor. The fallen hit Ryan again with the chair. He tried to kick Ryan but Ryan rolled away from the kick. Beelzebub kept trying to hit Ryan with the chair. Ryan was getting desperate to avoid the chair. He realized he had one of the nine millimeter pistols close to his hand. He pulled the pistol and shot Beelzebub in the face. The shock of the bullet hitting him in the face caused him to drop the chair and grabbed his face. The fallen realized that the bullet had not done any damage. He went to charge the slayer but could not find him. While the fallen had his hands to his face Ryan had slipped back out to the worship room. He wanted the fight to stay in this room because it was so large.

Beelzebub spotted the door to the worship was slightly ajar, he went to the door and pushed it open and went into the worship room. Standing in the middle of the room he saw Ryan. "You run from me slayer, are you afraid of me?"

"No Beelzebub, I'm not afraid of you, the size of this room just let's me have a better look at you so that when I kill you I can watch you burst into flames."

"Well then slayer find me if you can." Beelzebub went back thru the door to the back room. He opened the door at the back of the changing room and descended the stairs. The stairs went down two levels of the temple and opened into his throne room. Beelzebub went to his throne and sat. He would wait for the slayer here.

Ryan followed Beelzebub and slowly moved down the stairs. He entered the throne room and saw that the fallen was sitting and waiting for him. Ryan moved into the room and said, "This is where you want to die Beelzebub"

"I think not slayer." Beelzebub clapped his hands together and two of the biggest and ugliest demons he had ever seen came from behind the fallen and stood in front of him. "You can't fight me by yourself; you have to bring your children to fight me instead." Ryan said. The massive demons started to move slowly toward Ryan.

Ryan stood his ground and lifted the Angel Sword and took up a defensive stance ready for the demon's attack. From behind Ryan he was grabbed by a third demon that he had not seen. Ryan dropped the sword when he was grabbed. The two demons in front of him continued to move closer. Ryan struggled to break free of the hold the third demon had on him. The third demon tightened his hold on Ryan making it hard for him to breath. The more Ryan struggled the tighter the hold from the demon. The demons in front of him were on top of him now and one of them slammed his massive hand into Ryan's chest right above the arms of the one holding him.

Ryan felt his breath go out of him. He struggled to regain his breath, the third demon reached to grab Ryan's head. Ryan remembered that demons could be killed like a human; he wondered if they could be hurt like a human. As the demon reached for his head Ryan used the weight of the demon that was holding him like a wall. He brought his feet up and slammed both of his feet into the demon's face that was in front of him. Both of Ryan's feet hit the demon square in the face, Ryan heard the cracking of bone. Ryan watched as the demon grabbed his own face and fall back in agony. Ryan remembered his pistol and was able to pull it out of his hip holster and shot the demon holding him in the leg. The demon howled in pain and released his grip on Ryan. Ryan slipped out of the loosened grip and hit the floor.

Ryan stepped to one side and shot the third demon that had stopped his advance when he saw his brethren hit in the face. The demon looked at his other demon brother and rage filled his eyes. He moved to block Ryan's escape. Ryan stopped and said, "Move again and your dead." Ryan tried to side step again and the demon moved with him.

Ryan brought the nine millimeter up and shot the demon in his head. The demon stood and stared at Ryan, Ryan fired again and it seemed as the bullets had no effect on the massive demon. The other two demons were starting to regain their control and were staring at Ryan. Ryan fired his pistol at the closest demon and hit it in the head a third time. The demon staggered and fell to the floor. The two other demons watched as their brethren burst into flames.

Ryan could feel the heat from the flames of the demon; the other two demons watched as the flames engulfed their brother and start to fade away with them their brother disappeared. Ryan slipped away from the demons as they watched their fellow demon disappear. As Ryan slipped to the side he fired four quick shots into the head of the demon he had earlier shot in the leg. The demon starred into space and fell to the floor and burst into flames. The remaining demon looked at Ryan and with amazing speed leaped at Ryan and knocked him to the floor. The demon tried to stomp on Ryan but he rolled between the demons legs and tangled the demon up and the demon fell into a table that was in front of him.

Ryan scrambled to his feet he brought the pistol up and Ryan saw the slide of the pistol was still back telling him the pistol was empty. Ryan tossed the pistol to the floor and called for his sword. The Angel Sword appeared in his hand, he swung the sword and easily cut the head off of the remaining demon. The demon disappeared like the others.

Ryan turned his attention to Beelzebub; Ryan was surprised to see another fallen angel standing there with him.

"Barbatos I need more minions to defeat the slayer." Beelzebub said to the other fallen.

"My brother I have provided all that I can provide you will have to defeat the slayer by yourself."

With that the other fallen moved out of sight and walked thru a door behind the throne and closed the door. Beelzebub knew he was all alone and that he had no chance to defeat the slayer. "Slayer you have won I submit myself to you and offer my services to you, but remember if you kill me my brother Mammon will hunt you down and kill you"

"Do not bow to me, I am not God, I am but his servant and Ryan brought his sword up and cut off the head of Beelzebub. He burst into flames and disappeared. Ryan felt the temple start to shake and ran for the stairs. He climbed the stairs two at a time he cleared the front door of the temple as it started to crumble in on its self. By the time Ryan reached his covered sniper site the temple was gone.

Ryan gathered all of his gear and put it in his pack. He picked up the Marlin slung it over his shoulder and started the one mile trek to his pick up point. It took Ryan just over fifteen minutes to make the return trip, his pack much lighter from the rounds expended and the loss of the MAC 10 and the C-4 used. Ryan dug out his cell phone and Called Maria. Have the helicopter pick me up, I'm done here.

"I'll call them as soon as I get off the phone, Are you ok?"

"Yea I'm ok. I'll see you soon." And hung up the phone.

Ryan packed all of his gear and looked at his watch. He had been up almost twenty-four hours. He laid down on the sand and pulled his hat down over his eyes. The sound of the helicopter woke him up. The helicopter touched down and Ryan loaded all of his gear, he climbed into the seat and told the pilot time to go. The pilot nodded and lifted the helicopter into the air. Ryan laid back and closed his eyes.

The pilot gave Ryan a shake and told him they were on final approach into Jerusalem, Ryan was glad to be back in a city, and he was looking forward to seeing Maria. When the helicopter touched down Ryan jumped out and unloaded all of his gear and loaded it into the trunk of the car. He made the short drive to the hotel and went up to his room. When he opened the room door Maria jumped into his arms and said "I have been so worried about you. Is everything ok with you?"

"Everything is fine," he said he moved his face closer to Maria and softly kissed her on the lips.

"Let me go take a shower and get all this sand off of me and I'll tell you all about it when I'm done." Ryan went into the bathroom and showered and dressed he returned to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Maria. He put his arm around her and pulled her close to he and he told her all about the events that took place at Beelzebub's temple. "I do need to find out about another fallen angel that needs to be taken care of before this assignment is over."

"Who is that?"

"Mammon. I met him at Beelzebub's temple and heard his name mentioned a couple of times while there."

"I'll see what I can find out about him."

Maria retrieved her laptop and began her search after almost five hours of searching and weeding out false information she had complied a lengthy list about Mammon. She pulled all the information she had in her binders and put Mammon's information in the binder.

She let Ryan sleep, she leaned down and softly kissed him on the cheek, she then placed a blanket over him.

Ryan woke to the smell of brewing coffee. He felt totally rested and ready for action. Maria brought him a cup of coffee and said "Good morning sleepy head."

Ryan yawned and checked his watch he saw that it said seven o'clock. Ryan took the coffee from Maria and she also handed him the binder with all the new information she compiled on Mammon.

Ryan skimmed the binder as he drank his coffee. "Very good Intel Maria," he said.

Thanks I take it Mammon is our next task."

I believe so; remember when we talked with Gabriel back in San Diego he said that the names of the Princes of Hell would be reviled to me as I dispatched one."

"I remember him saying that."

"Looks like we are off to England."

"I'll get everything packed up and we can go find a flight." Maria said
CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ryan made a trip down to the rental car and took all of his equipment to the room. When he got back to the room he pulled out the shipping boxes and packed all of the equipment. While he was gone Maria made reservations at the Royal Hampton Hotel and plane reservations leaving in seven hours. Ryan called the number for the shipping service and made arrangements for the boxes to be picked up. Ten minutes later the delivery man showed up and picked up the boxes and hotel information to deliver the boxes.

"We have some time to kill and I'm starving lets go get some breakfast." Ryan said.

Maria agreed and they went to the hotel restaurant and ate. They discussed the fallen Mammon and what other fallen they could expect to come into contact with this time.

"I think only two fallen will be with him they are Bune and Eligor. Of the two I think you will have the most trouble with Bune. As I put in my information he is a dragon in appearance with three heads. He mostly serves as a protector for Mammon. Also Mammon has at his command a legion of demons. When you find him you need to identify yourself pretty quick so he can't call on them."

Ryan nodded his head in agreement. "What time do we get into England?"

"We will get there close to midnight. A car from the hotel will pick us up."

The left the hotel and went to the airport in Jerusalem and caught their flight to Cairo, they have a three hour layover in Cairo then on to London. When they arrived in London it was almost twelve thirty in the morning. The car from the hotel was waiting just as requested. They loaded their bags into the car and took the short drive to the Royal Hampton hotel. They checked into their room and quickly turned in for the night.

When Maria woke she found Ryan sitting on the couch going over all the updated information she had provided for him. Lying on the couch was a note pad that Ryan had been jotting down notes. Maria yawned and said, "How long have you been awake?"

"Ryan looked at his watch and said "just a couple of hours. Care for some coffee?"

"I'd love some."

Ryan got up and fixed a cup of coffee for him and one for Maria. He carried the cups to the living room and sat them on the coffee table.

"Well what are your thoughts for finding Mammon?"

"Well right country but wrong spot; I think we should head to Cornwall, more of a hunch then anything that says he is there."

"Ok Cornwall it is. How do you want to get there drive or fly?"

I think drive, it will take twice as long but I want go that route."

"Drive it is, I'll make the arrangements for a rental."

"Before we go I want to stop by the desk and see if our packages have been delivered and let's get some breakfast."

"You bet I'm starved."

They went downstairs and Ryan went to the desk to inquire about the boxes he was waiting for and to let them know that a rental car was going to be delivered soon and that they would be in the restaurant. The clerk checked on the boxes and they were there, he would have them delivered to his room. Maria went to the restaurant and got them a table; she ordered their drinks and waited for Ryan to come.

After finishing with the desk clerk he joined Maria in the restaurant, Ryan found that they already had coffee and all they needed to do was order the food. The waitress returned a few minutes after Ryan arrived took their food order and left.

They were just about finished with their breakfast when the man with their rental arrived. He delivered a Ford Expedition. Ryan signed for the car and tossed the keys to Maria.

After breakfast they returned to the room Ryan checked the equipment and closed the boxes back up and called down to the front desk for a bell hop. When the bell hop arrived they loaded their bags and the boxes and went to the rental car Ryan loaded the boxes and bags, tipped the bell hop and they left for Cornwall.

The drive to Cornwall took just over 4 hours; they found a hotel and checked in for four nights. They carried their bags and the boxes to their room. Ryan unpacked the boxes and check all of the weapons reloaded all the clips. Ryan jotted a note to himself to pick up a automatic weapon when they returned home, and some more nine millimeter ammo. He handed Maria a pistol and said "Keep this with you whenever we are away from the hotel. I don't want you unarmed anymore."

"I will I promise."

"I would like to go out to the Merry Maidens circle and to Men-an-Tol they are very close to each other."

"Are you expecting to find something there?"

"I hope so or my hunch was way off. I believe that Mammon can be found somewhere near there, or at least I hope so."

They made the short drive to the Merry Maidens circle and made like they were tourists, Ryan felt a small tickle in his neck. He looked to Maria and said, "Someone or something is close by I'm getting a feeling in my neck."

They walked around to see if the feeling got stronger, in one direction the feeling disappeared. When they headed back it started to return. As they moved around they figured that the feeling was on a line with the Merry Maidens and Men-an-Tol. They moved in the direction of Men-an-Tol and the feeling got stronger.

"Let's get back to the car and drive over to Men-an-Tol. See what happens when we get there." Ryan said.

They returned to the SUV and made the short drive to Men-an-Tol. The closer they got the stronger the feeling got. They passed the half way point between the Merry Maidens and Men-an-Tol and the feeling started to go away. They pulled off the road and looked over the area. They saw nothing that would give any clue to where the fallen may be. Ryan got out of the car and started back until the feeling was at its strongest. He then walked along a line between the two stone objects. Ryan stopped once the feeling got weaker, he looked around and still didn't see anything. He started pushing the dirt around with his foot and stomping on the ground. He found something about 10 feet back towards where Maria was parked. He signaled Maria and she came and joined Ryan. "What's up have you found something?" she asked.

"There is something other than dirt right here; it has a hollow sound to it. I've been pushing dirt away from it but haven't found anything yet."

Just as Ryan said that his foot pushed away enough dirt that some metal showed. "Here look Maria there is some metal under the ground."

Maria looked at the spot that Ryan had just cleared away and sure enough there was some metal there. "How big is it?"

"I'm not sure, I don't want to try to uncover it all, someone may notice."

"What do you think we should do?"

"I think it may be a long night of surveillance."

"And where do think we can watch from?"

"I'm going to watch from the trees, you're going to be in the car or at the hotel."

"I don't think so."

"Really Maria I've slept in trees before, you can take the car or you can go back to the motel and come back in the morning. I'll need to off load some weapons but not a lot some extra clips and the extra pistols."

"I'll stay in the car; I'm not staying behind again."

OK let's go get some food for tonight, it could be a long night."

They drove back into town and stopped at a store and bought some high protein bars and some bottled water and some other food items that they could eat cold. They drove back to the Merry Maidens circle. Maria dropped off Ryan and she drove towards Men-an-Tol and parked off the side of the road. The car was out of sight to passer-bys. Maria settled in for the night and waited for Ryan's signal that he was in position.

Ryan made his way thru the woods to the spot he had pushed away the dirt. He saw the metal showing thru the dirt, he pushed some dirt over the cover in case they had lookouts positioned in the area. Ryan selected a tree close enough to see the open spot but far enough away so he would not be seen.

Ryan climbed the tree and settled in, he knew where Maria was and took out his mini mag light and gave two flashes of the light. Maria answered back with two flashes.

They had been watching the area for about four hours when Ryan spotted someone walking up the road. They were looking for something. The man reached a spot almost in line with the underground metal. He turned and walked toward the spot. When he reached the spot of the metal he moved a little to right and reached up and pulled down on a branch. Ryan watched as the branch moved and a platform opened up and reveled a set of stairs. The man went down the stairs and the platform closed. Ryan climbed down the tree and made his way to the car. As he approached the car he flashed his flashlight two times. Maria returned the flashes and Ryan finished the rest of the distance to the car. He got in and told Maria "There is a platform that rises and leads underground. I think that we may want to hit it during daylight."

"If you think that is best but we have everything you need to go down now."

"That's true and it's not all that late. Ok then I'm going down now."

Ryan crawled to the back of the SUV and dug out the extra clips and guns that were in the back. He crawled back to the front seat and got ready to go in. "Ok I'm ready, I'll be back as soon as I can."

Maria reached over and gave him a kiss, "Good luck and good hunting."

Ryan left the car and made his way back to the spot. He reached up and pulled down on the branch, the platform opened and showed him the stairs. Ryan started down the stairs.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lucifer summoned Barbatos back to his throne room. "What can you tell me? What has happened to Beelzebub?"

"The slayer took his head my lord."

"Did you do as I said and send him the minions that I asked you to send?"

"Yes my lord I sent him fifty additional minions, the slayer killed them all."

"Send a messenger to each of our brethren; I want them to be on the lookout for this slayer. I want his head."

"Yes my lord and master it will be done."

*****

Ryan moved quietly down the stairs, stopping every so often to listen to see if he could hear anything. He continued to move down the stairs until he came to a door at the bottom of the stairs. He listened carefully to see if he heard anything. Not hearing anything he opened the door and stepped thru it. To his surprise he walked in on three fallen angels sitting around a table.

"Who are you?" asked one of the fallen.

"I have come with a message."

"Ah our lord Lucifer has sent another messenger, has he caught the slayer.?"

The question caught Ryan off guard; he picked up on it quickly and decided to run with it.

"No he has not caught the slayer, but he is concerned that the slayer is in this area and he wants to know how many minions you will need to protect yourselves?"

"We have a total of twenty five here on site and another one hundred that will arrive the day after tomorrow?"

"Shall I tell Lucifer that you need more or that you have enough?"

"You may tell him we have enough."

Ryan turned to leave the room, when one of the fallen said wait.

"Do you know who we are?"

"No I do not."

"I am Bune, this is Eligor and this is Lord Mammon, You should bow to us. Are you new to hell?"

"No I'm not new and I bow to one only and that is he Lord God."

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" asked Mammon.

"I am Ryan the slayer and you have come to an end of your time."

The fallen all changed to their angel form and Mammon said, "No slayer, it is you who shall die."

Eligor was the closest of the fallen to Ryan and he took his lance and thrust it at Ryan. He easily side stepped the lance. Ryan held his hand and brought forward the Angel Sword. With Eligor wearing the armor of a knight, Ryan wasn't sure if he could get a clean cut on him. Eligor thrust his lance again and Ryan used the sword to block the lance. When the lance and sword met there were sparks that flew into the air. The fallen thrust again and Ryan brought the sword down on top of the lance, the sword cut the lance into two pieces. Eligor growled in anger and threw the back part of the lance at Ryan. He blocked the broken lance and moved closer to Eligor. The fallen backed up weary of the sword in the slayers hand.

While Eligor and the slayer were fighting Mammon slipped out the door in the back of the room. He moved up the back stairs and found the long hallway that led to the Merry Maidens circle. Once there he opened the access to the underground house and flew off to the northeast.

Ryan was advancing toward Eligor when Bune started to move toward the slayer. Ryan spun towards the three headed dragon of Bune and swung the sword in an upward direction and cut deep into the neck on one of Bune's three heads. The three heads were grotesque variations of animals here on earth. The first head was of a lion with huge fangs and teeth it drooled a slimy substance from its mouth. The middle head looked like a huge lizard that had an ear missing and it had long fangs and a tongue that served like a rope to pull victims to its mouth. The third head looked like a dragon and it matched the rest of Bune's body. Ryan forgot about the tail that Bune had as a dragon

Ryan was about to make a move on Eligor when he was hit but the fallen angels tail of Bune. Ryan tumbled across some chairs and fell to the floor. Ryan tried to regain his feet but Eligor was on top of him, Ryan struggled to breath with the weight of the armor and the fallen on top of him. Ryan spotted the point where the top and bottom halves of the armor came together. There was a gap due to the way Eligor was leaning on top of Ryan. Ryan called the dagger and he stabbed Eligor where the gap was and Eligor howled out in pain. He jumped off of Ryan fell backwards, his armor clanging as it hit the concrete floor. Eligor tried to get up but the armor was inhibiting him. Ryan turned his attention back to Bune. The dragon was still bleeding from the deep cut in the throat on one of his necks. Ryan picked up his sword and swung it again at Bune. Ryan made a clean cut on the injured head and finished the job, head rolling across the floor. The fallen howled in pain and using his dragon head he tried to clasp Ryan in its mouth. Ryan drought the sword around and cut the dragons tongue off on the dragon head.

The middle head howled in pain again and watched the tongue fall to the floor and his blood pooling in his mouth and spilling out onto the floor. Ryan swung the sword again and the middle head of the dragon fell to the floor. Ryan was getting ready to swing a third time to cut the dragons head off when the fallen burst into flames and disappeared.

Ryan turned around to handle Eligor but he was gone He scanned the room looking for someplace that the fallen could he hiding but found no place big enough. Ryan noticed the back door was slightly ajar. He went thru the door climbed the stairs. When he got to the top he could go left or right, Ryan chose the left. He followed the hall until he came to an exit point. When he left the hall he found himself at Men-an-Tol. He searched the area but found no sign of the fallen angels. Dejected he headed back to the car. When he was close enough he took his flashlight out and flashed two times. He waited for a response. He didn't receive one so he repeated the signal, again he received no response. He moved closer to the car he could see someone sitting in the front seat and they appeared to be looking away from him. Ryan move closer to the car and felt the cold steel of a gun barrel touching his neck Ryan froze where he stood. A female voice said, "I don't know who you are but get down on the ground. Ryan recognized Maria's voice and he whispered "Maria it's me Ryan."

"Are you trying to get yourself killed sneaking up on me that way?"

"I signaled you twice. You never answered, so I came closer to the car. I was worried that something happened to you."

"What are you doing coming from that direction anyway?"

"I had an altercation with the fallen, I fought with Eligor and then Bune, Bune is no longer with us, but Mammon and Eligor got away. The stairs I took went left and right I chose left and came out at Men-an-Tol. My bet is the other way leads to Merry Maidens circle."

"What do we do now?"

"Let's go back to the hotel."

They got into the car and headed back to their hotel. "Maria when we get back see if you can pull any information on the stone circles in this area. I have a feeling they are or were made by and for the fallen"

"I'll see what I can find out."

When they arrived back at their hotel Maria dug out her laptop and did a search on stone circles in their area. There were eleven possible sites. She called Ryan over and showed him what she found. "Can you print them or copy them down?"

"Either one."

"Print them please."

Maria sent the page to the portable printer they had. Ryan took the page off the printer and looked them over he had Maria give him more information on each stone circle. Ryan reviewed each circle's information and Ryan was able to trim the list down to two Circles. Ryan showed Maria the two choices and said "Ok Maria your turn pick one."

Maria looked over the choices and asked "How am I supposed to know which one to pick?"

"Sometimes it's not about knowing, sometimes it just a gut feeling."

"OK no reason but just a feeling and I think it is the Boskednan stone circle."

"Then we go there in the morning."

They left the hotel and walked to the pub at the end of the block, they ordered a pint each and fish and chips to eat. Maria looked at Ryan and said, "I know you said we would talk about it when we get home but we have a lot of time right now, how about we talk about us."

"I think that would be a good subject to talk about. We have been thru a lot over the last few weeks, my love for you has grown so much stronger. Maria I want us to be together forever. I want you as my wife, Will you marry me?"

"Tears welled up in Maria's eyes and she yelled YES oh God YES."

Everyone in the pub looked at Maria and Ryan said to them "I just asked her to marry me and well you heard the answer."

Everyone in the pub started clapping and the man behind the bar said a round is on the house. He looked at Ryan and Maria and said "your drinks and food are on the house tonight."

"Thank you sir but that really isn't necessary."

"May not be necessary but it's kind of a tradition around here."

"Thank you sir."

They stayed a few hours and thanked everyone in the pub again. They left and went back to their room.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Barbados entered the throne room and said "My lord our messengers have returned and all of our brethren have been told of the slayer and to be on the lookout for him."

"Fine now Barbados what do we do to find him and kill him?"

"My lord to find one man amongst billions is impossible. Unless we could get lucky and find him as he was attacking one of our brethren I don't see how we can locate him."

"How many legions do we have that we can spare right now?" Lucifer asked.

"Right now we have two legions to spare; the remainder are tied up my lord."

"How many total brethren do we still have?

"We have 225 fallen remaining."

"I want you to break loose 2 more legions and split them evenly between our brethren. That will give them almost 80 more minions to add to what they already have. I want them to call all their minions up and keep them near them."

"It shall be done my lord and master."

Barbados departed the throne room and started to make the arrangements that Lucifer wanted.

*****

Maria and Ryan left the hotel room and went to the Boskednan stone circle, the parked the car in the parking lot and walked the rest of the way to the stone circle. They acted as tourist's and made a thorough search of the grounds and making notes of things that seemed out of place. After walking around the circle for two hours they walked back to their car and compared notes. They talked about the things that seemed out of place and the one that jumped out at them was a lone tree stump at the edge of the flowers about fifty feet away from the edge of the stones.

Ryan said, "That tree stump is really out of place, if you were not looking for something out of place you wouldn't even notice it."

"Now what do we do?"

"We wait until it is dark out and go back up there and see if it opens or if it opens something else."

"Let's head back into town and get something to eat and kill some time." Maria said.

"Sounds like a winner to me."

They drove back into town and went to the pub they were in the night before. When they walked in the bartender said, "Hay it's the almost newlyweds."

"Thanks again, we really enjoyed last night."

"That's good, first round is on the house, we don't get many proposals in here."

"Thank you very much." Ryan said.

Maria and Ryan ordered fish and chips for their meal and tea to drink. After they finished their meal they left and headed back to Boskednan stone circle. The sun was just going down when the pulled into the parking lot. Ryan got out and told Maria, "Wait here I'm just going to check out the stump."

Ryan headed to the stump and quickly found where it was hidden among the wild flowers. Ryan stepped carefully thru the flowers and reached the tree stump. He searched the area and quickly came to the conclusion that it was just an old tree stump. He returned to the car and told Maria what he found. "Let's go back to the first place. I want to go back down into that chamber that we found yesterday."

Maria drove the short distance to the spot between the Merry Maidens and Men-an-Tol. She dropped Ryan off and he quickly disappeared into the woods. Ryan reached the platform that opened and he inspected the tree branch that hr had pulled on yesterday. Someone went to a lot of trouble to conceal the lever that opened the platform; this had to have been here for years it was a real piece of work. Ryan pulled down on the lever and the platform lifted. Ryan slipped under the access door. He went down the stairs and back into the room where he first met the fallen.

Ryan stepped into the meeting room as he called it, He started to examine the room paying close attention to things he had not seen before. The first time in this room he was more concerned in the fallen that were here. As he moved around the room he found halls that led away from the room. Next to each hall there were some letters, Ryan examined the letters carefully. The door he had passed thru the day before has two sets of letters. The letters gave Ryan a clue as to their meaning. The letters at the door were on both sides of the jamb. The first set were on the left and were MAT the set on the right were MM. He walked to the next hall and the letters on it were CM, the next hall had the letters TS, the next one had just the letter S. He continued to each hall and they all had letters that were the initials of the circle stones here in Cornwall. One hall had letters FH. They didn't match any of the stone circles. Ryan turned on his flashlight and headed down the hall that had the FH letters. The further into the hall Ryan went it had a damp feeling, after moving what seemed like a mile, Ryan could see a faint glimmer of light ahead. He move more slowly and as he got closer he heard voices. The further in he went the louder the voices got and the brighter the light was. He was starting to get the feeling in his back of his neck.

Ryan could see that the light was coming from an open door ahead of him on the left. Ryan slowly advanced until he was next to the door. It was only open enough to allow some light to escape the room and the voices to be heard. Ryan tried to see into the room behind the door, but it wasn't open far enough to see into the room. He slowly pushed the on door until it was open far enough to see into the room. He spotted a few demons moving around the room and they seemed to be agitated. Ryan recognized the language they were speaking but couldn't understand what they were saying.. Ryan slowly closed the door until it was ready to latch closed, he slipped past the door and continued down the hall. After another hour of going down the hall it opened up into another room like the one on the other end of the hall.

Ryan studied what he could see of the room before stepping into it. He slid his back around the corner keeping it against the wall. Once inside the room he examined the room carefully. Ryan noticed that there were halls leading out of the room with the same letters next to each hall. The door on the other side of the room had the letters FH on it. Ryan opened the door to find a set of stairs going up. He stepped thru the door closing it behind him. He started up the stairs when a door at the top opened. He heard some voices start down the stairs. Ryan backed up and opened the door; he moved to the hall next to the door and made himself as small as he could with his back against the wall. Three demons entered the room and crossed to the hall he had just left. The moved away and as the voices disappeared he came out of the hall he was in.

Ryan opened the door again and started back up the stairs. Ryan reached the top of the stairs and opened the door. He entered what appeared to be a basement of a house. Ryan searched the room and didn't find anything of interest. The feeling in Ryan's neck had grown stronger as he climbed the stairs and when he entered the basement area. There were a set of stairs going up to a door that Ryan guessed entered into a house or some other type of structure.

Ryan climbed the stairs and tried the door and it opened into a kitchen, he looked around the room and did not see anyone in the room. Ryan stepped all the way into the kitchen and the feeling in his neck almost made him double over. The feeling was so strong. It reminded of the feeling that he had in Israel. He carefully moved thru the kitchen and glanced into what appeared to be the living room. Sitting on various typed of chairs were a group of demons. Ryan counted ten of them and they were all paying attention to a demon that was talking in the same language he had heard in the hall downstairs.

Ryan decided he need to put an end to these demons and had to do it quickly and quietly. He brought forth the Angel Sword and charged into the room swinging the sword back and forth. The first swing beheaded four of the demons that were all close together and the return swing took the heads of three more demons. Ryan charged at the demon that had been speaking to the group and thrust the sword into its heart. Ryan pulled the sword from the demon and with the back swing cut the head off of another demon. The remaining demon let out a warning screech before Ryan cut his head off. He turned his attention back to the one he pierced the heart of and quickly dismembered his head.

Ryan listened if the warning that the one demon had gotten off alarmed anyone else in the house. He didn't hear any other movement or voices in the house. The feeling in his neck was still strong so he knew that there were more demons or the fallen were here. Ryan checked his watch and saw he had been away from Maria for over three house, he knew she must be worried sick at him not having checked in with her. He could picture her searching for some sigh of him. That thought worried him, there had to be demons in the area near her.

Ryan caught a movement off to his right and coming into the room was Eligor. The fallen angel spotted Ryan at almost the same time as Ryan had spotted him. "You again, I don't know how you found this place but you will not leave here alive." The fallen said.

"Finding it was easy, you fallen are not very good at hiding things." Ryan replied.

Eligor moved toward Ryan and feigned an attack to see what the slayers move would be. Ryan moved to block what he thought would be a charge from the fallen. The fallen faked another charge but Ryan didn't fall for it this time he stood his ground. "A quick learner." The fallen said.

Ryan didn't wait for Eligor to make another move; he stepped closer to the fallen and moved to thrust the sword and instead swung it at Eligor and made contact with his right wind cutting it off. Eligor screamed at the pain and suddenly had a lance appear in his hand. He twirled the lance in the air and suddenly thrust the lance at Ryan hitting him in his left thigh. Ryan tried to cut the lance with his sword but this time Eligor pulled it back before Ryan's sword could hit it. Eligor had another opening and thrust the lance back at Ryan and struck him in the right arm piercing him in the upper part of the arm muscle. Ryan felt the pain from the lance hitting him twice. He stumbled back and he fell over a chair. Eligor quickly moved in on Ryan and thrust the blunt end of the lance into Ryan's chest. Ryan tried to evade the blow but it hit Ryan right over his heart. The blow hurt like hell. Eligor kicked Ryan in his side; Ryan heard the sound of breaking bone. He knew that Eligor had broken some of Ryan's ribs.
CHAPTER NINETEEN

Maria was getting worried about Ryan he had been gone a very long time, Maria got out of the car and went to the spot where Ryan had showed her the metal that he had uncovered. Maria started to search the area for any clue as to how Ryan was able to open it when she spotted the shapes of something crossing in front of the full moon. She ran back to the car and quickly found the night vision goggles and the binoculars. She had watched Ryan use the Night vision goggles she quickly found the power switch and turned them on, she put them on and adjusted them to fit her eyes, everything turned green, she searched the sky with the binoculars and found the forms heading to a farm house off in the distance. She got back into the car and headed for the house.

She parked the car a short distance from the house and quickly got out two of the pistols. She made her way to the house and went up to the front door. She tried the doorknob and found that it turned and she pushed the door open. She heard someone in the room off to her right, she stepped around the corner and gasped just as the fallen was going to bring the lance he was holding down in Ryan.

Maria brought one of the nine millimeter pistols up and aimed at the fallen. She squeezed off four quick shots into the fallen. The fallen spun around o face the attacker and brought his lance around. The head of the lance had four razor sharp edges on it, as he spun the lance cut deep into Maria's chest. The fallen then plunged the lance deep into Maria's chest piercing her chest. Maria just stood there her eyes staring out but not seeing anything and then she fell to the floor.

Ryan screamed out "NO", he scrambled to his feet and swung the sword cutting off Eligor's arm. Ryan was swinging like a mad man, each blow from the sword cutting of a limb or cutting deep into Eligor. Eligor had no chance against the slayer he tried to block the first few blows from the sword but it was of no use. Each blow did damage to the fallen, the last blow Ryan struck was to cut off the head of the fallen. Ryan was still trying to cut the fallen when it burst into flames and disappeared.

Ryan ran over to Maria, She smiled up at Ryan and said "I Love You" and she was gone. Anger filled Ryan and he called the name of Gabriel but he did not appear. He called and called for Gabriel but he never came. The anger that was filling Ryan's heart was changing from the Eligor to Gabriel. Way wasn't he answering his call? Ryan sat there with Maria's head in his lap crying, he had just lost the only woman he had ever loved. Ryan finally stood up and he gently picked up Maria and carried her outside. Ryan remembered that there was a small cemetery near the Merry Maidens circle. He carried Maria to the car and laid her into the back seat. He climbed into the car and drove it close to the barn that sat behind the house.

Ryan went into the barn and quickly found a shovel. He then drove to the Merry Maidens circle. He parked close to the small cemetery and dug a small grave into the dirt. He placed Marias body into the grave and slowly covered her with the dirt. He found some tree branches and made a small cross out of them. He wrote a short passage from the bible he had heard Maria repeat often. He put some cash into an envelope and attached it with a not her wrote on it. He is money to cover the cost of a head stone. Please out the inscription on it and place it here with Maria. He turned and left with tears in his eyes.

Ryan returned to the car and drove to the hotel he retrieved all of his belongings and Maria's things; he packed them and loaded them into the car. He made the drive to London. He went straight to the airport and purchased a ticket to San Diego. His flight left in less then an hour so he went straight to the gate checked in and almost immediately boarded the plane. He quickly fell asleep and dreamed of Maria for the entire flight until the steward woke him to tell him they were landing in New York. Ryan made his connecting flight and was in San Diego three hours later. He picked up his baggage and got his car and drove home. Ryan walked in and dropped his bags on the floor. He went right to the liquor cabinet.

Ryan pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured a shot and tossed it back, he poured another and tossed it back. Pouring shots was taking too long; Ryan just started drinking right out of the bottle. The bottle was almost empty when Ryan passed out from the alcohol.

Jim Ryan's friend came over to Ryan's house to make his nightly check and he saw Ryan's car was in the driveway. It was still early so he went to the door and knocked, There was no answer, he doubted that Ryan or Maria were asleep, he knocked again and still no response. Jim walked over to the window and looked in the house and saw Ryan on the floor. He went back to the door and tried the knob and it opened. Jim rushed in and saw the almost empty bottle of whiskey lying on the floor next to Ryan; he could smell the strong smell of the liquor coming from Ryan. He called out to Maria and got no answer he ran thru the house but found not sign of her. He went back to Ryan and tried to wake him. All he got were some mumbled responses from Ryan so he picked Ryan up and put him on the couch. He sat with Ryan thru the night and halfway thru the next morning before Ryan woke up. Ryan looked around and spotted Jim, "How long have you been here?" he asked Jim.

"I got here last night and found you passed out on the floor. I've been sitting her all night and this morning. I made you some coffee just a little while ago. Want a cup?"

"Yea it will help clear the cob webs out of my head."

Jim poured Ryan a cup of coffee and set it down in front of him.

"What the hell happened that made you try to kill a bottle by yourself?"

"Long story my friend."

"Where is Maria, I couldn't find her anywhere?"

"She's dead" was all Ryan said.

"What? How?" Jim asked.

"I wish I could tell you, all I can say is I buried her in Cornwall."

"Look Ryan you and I go back a long way and we have pulled each other's ass out of the fire more times than I can count. Level with me are you working for the man.?

"You could kind of say that. But I quit yesterday, with Maria gone there is nothing left for me."

"Man you had it bad for her, didn't you."

"Yea I did I asked her to marry me two days ago.

"Wow, what happened?"

"All I can say is she was killed. I got revenge though."

"Man is there anything I can do for you?"

"Thanks but I'll be ok."

"You sure?"

"Yea I'm sure, I'm going to go and take a shower and go for a run. Let me catch up with you later."

"Ok sure man, call me later." Jim got up and left his friend. He was worried about him, he had never seen Ryan drink that much.

Ryan went and took a shower and dressed in his running clothes, he did his stretching exercises and took off at a fast pace. Ryan had been running for almost two hours when he got back home. His ribs were killing him and his head was pounding. He knew he wouldn't be able to do any weights so he took another shower and dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Ryan went to his kitchen and fix something to eat and went back to his living room and plopped down in his chair. Ryan's thoughts turned to Maria. He would miss her so much.

Sitting there a white light appeared to Ryan and the shape of an Angel started to appear and the form of Gabriel appeared. "My child....."

"Go away you wouldn't come when I called you for Maria. I don't want to see you now." Ryan interrupted.

"My child, I could not come when you called me."

"Why not?"

"You were in a house of evil. I could not get in."

"Likely story."

"It is true my child, when you let that place you didn't call to me again."

"Then why are you here now?"

"Our Lord God has allowed me to return to you again because he sees your pain, He still needs you."

"Forget it, I'm retired."

"My child you are still needed by our Lord God."

"I said no. Now leave."

The light and Gabriel disappeared at the same time. Ryan returned to eating his food. Ryan spent the next couple days wandering around his house, thinking of Maria. He missed her so much; he was looking forward to helping her plan the wedding and doing all the things married people do. Ryan laid on the couch and drifted off to sleep thinking of Maria.
CHAPTER TWENTY

"My lord Lucifer, I bring news. I believe the slayer is dead. We have heard from Mammon and he reports to me that Bune and Eligor have been slain but he lives and can now contact us and move about freely. He can also contact all of his minions It appears when Eligor fought the slayer though he lost his live he also took the slayer."

"This sounds good are you sure?"

My lord the house that Mammon was using was burned to the ground and there was nothing left to find. It is assumed that the slayer was burned in the fire. It must be true and as Mammon say's. What else could explain why Mammon could contact us again?"

"I am forced to agree with you. But should he return both you Barbados and Mammon shall suffer my wrath."

"I understand my lord."

"Now go."

Barbados departed the throne room. He returned to Mammon and said "My brother should the slayer return lord Lucifer has said we shall suffer his wrath, make sure he is dead."

"I will do as you say my brother."

Mammon departed from his brother and returned to his home in Cornwall. He summoned his chief minion and sent him to bring the fallen Berith to him. His minion departed and in less than a day returned with Berith.

"My brother I have a special task for you."

"Yes my prince what can I do for you?"

"I have someone for you to search for; I need you to report back to me and me alone. I am seeking this soul for our lord Lucifer. I intend to present this man's head on a golden platter as a surprise for our master."

"I understand my brother, how soon do you want his location?"

"As soon as you can find him for me."

"I shall return soon my brother."

Berith departed from Mammon and started his search from the information that Mammon provided him. The only name he had was Ryan and that he was the slayer.

The searcher decided to see if the slayer stayed at a hotel in Cornwall. He found him registered at the third hotel he checked. They told Berith that the one named Ryan never checked out and he just left. They told him that he had a woman with him as well and her name was Maria. They provided an address in National City, California in the states. Berith thanked them and gave them a tip. He left the hotel and returned to his lair in the underworld. He pulled out a set of maps that had an overlay that showed all the access points to the surface of the earth. If there was a fallen nearby there would be a point. If not then he would use the closest of the seven gates of hell. There are seven continents on the earth and all but one has a gate to hell on it.

The searcher found no access point near where the slayer's home was. He would have to use the gate in Pennsylvania. When he arose out of the gate from hell he set off to National City. California. He easily found the place he was looking for. He scouted out the house and decided to keep watch until it became dark. He would enter and capture the slayer and then return with him to his brother Mammon.

Berith waited until two hours had passed after the lights went out in the slayers home to enter. When he entered the house he moved about quietly checking each room until he found the slayer sleeping. He walked to the slayer and started to reach for him when the slayer spoke to him. "I would leave not before I fill you full of holes."

"You are supposed to be dead, my brother will be glad to have you as his guest, although it will only be for a short time, he is going to serve your head on a golden platter to Lucifer."

"Who are you?"

"I am Berith I search for lost souls for my lord Lucifer, but I have found you for my brother so he may give your head as a present for Lucifer."

"You go tell your brother that I am retired and of no threat to any of you."

Berith reached out and grabbed Ryan; he turned over just a bit and shot the fallen in the head. Berith jumped back and laughed, "You know that you cannot hurt me with your human weapons."

"Yea I know I did that to show you I am not a threat. Now GO AWAY."

"Come with me slayer freely or against your will or kill me, those are your choices."

"Then you will die you forgot that choice."

Ryan got out of bed and kneeled alongside his bed, he reached under the bed and pulled out the sword that he out there when he returned from England. In one move he raised the sword and cut Berith's head off. The fallen fell to the floor and burst into flames. Ryan dropped the sword on the floor and climbed back into bed. Ryan struggled falling back asleep.

He woke the next morning and got out of bed and almost stepped on the Angel Sword. He pushed the sword back under the bed with his foot. He went to his kitchen and made some coffee. He went into the bathroom while the coffee was brewing and took care of morning routine of shaving, brushing his teeth, washing his face and combing his hair. By the time he finished in the bathroom he returned to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He went to his chair in the living room and turned on the morning news.

A white light whiter than anything he had ever seen in his life appeared before him. A loud booming voice came from the light. "Ryan my child, why is it that you do not perform the task that I have set before you?"

"You are supposed to be the almighty and the all knowing, you already know the answer to that question."

"No my child I know you will not perform the task but I do not know the reason. I know and I knew that you would stop, but I do know the why."

"You gave me Maria, you said she is mine and I am hers. You let them take her away. You didn't allow Gabriel to come and save her."

"Oh my child you do not understand, Gabriel tried to come you, you were in a place of evil. The Angels are not allowed to enter that place lest they be tempted to follow the darkness, you see my child he could not come to you."

"Why didn't he come when I carried her outside the place of evil?"

"My child, had you called to him once outside he would have come, Gabriel had no way of knowing that you had left the place of evil."

"God I am sorry that it went down that way but you gave me her and you allowed her to be taken from me. For that I told Gabriel I quit and I am now telling you I quit."

The white light disappeared and he was gone. Ryan sat back in his chair and watched the rest of the news. He was going to gather all the molds and figurines that he had made and he would box all that up later today.

*****

Gabriel found Maria sitting by the Gardens of Love, "Maria my sister, how are you today?"

"It is a wonderful and beautiful day today Gabriel." Maria answered.

"I have been sent by our Lord God, he wishes to see you."

"See me Gabriel; I would be so honored to see him."

"Come with me my sister."

Gabriel escorted Maria to the Masters house, they walked in and Gabriel pointed to a room off to the left of the entrance. Marin walked into the room and came face to face with the Lord God. She fell to her knees and bowed to him.

"Raise my child, I wish to speak with you."

"Yes my Lord God. What may this humble servant do for you?"

"I wish that you speak to Ryan for me my child. I know that there are Angels that carry my word back and forth but I need you my child."

"My Lord I will do whatever it is that you ask of me."

"I want you to go to Ryan and convince him to return to the task that I gave him. How you do that is up to you my child. Should he refuse you then return to me and tell me so. Should he accept the service return to me and tell so."

"Yes my Lord it shall be done."

Maria left the palace of the Lord and returned to the Garden of Love. She called for Gabriel, "Yes my sister, you called me."

"Yes I have Gabriel, the Lord God has asked me to return and speak to Ryan, and how do I do that."

"All you have to do is think about where you are to go and you shall appear there to return just think home and you will return here."

"That's all there is to it?"

"Yes my sister, it will work for you this time, the Lord God has given you this power to do his bidding this one time."

"Thank you Gabriel, I shall do as the Lord asks right away then."

"Good luck my sister."

Maria did just as Gabriel had told her to do. She felt a strange feeling come over her and she disappeared from Heaven.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

A white light appeared before Ryan and the form of an Angel started to appear.

"He just doesn't give up."

The angel finished taking form and Ryan looked at who it was and jumped up and yelled "Maria."

Ryan rushed over to her and hugged her, "You have come back to me."

"Oh Ryan I am here only for a little while, I have come to ask you why you have forsaken the task of our Lord God."

"Maria, how can you ask me that? God let the fallen take you from me. I don't want to go on without you."

But Ryan you accepted the task before you ever met me. Now you question what God has done. I don't understand how you can do that."

"I'll tell you like I told Gabriel and God himself; they gave you to me and me to you. Then they took you away from me. I don't want to go on without you. I fell so deeply in love with you."

"My love I fell in love with you as well, but don't stop performing the task because of me, and don't perform because of me. Make your decision because of your love for God and not the hatred in your heart because of the loss of me. I will always be in your heart so I am not gone from you. You know what you must do my love. My time here is almost up I can feel the pull to return, do what you must and remember that I will always love you."

"I will always love you too Maria."

She vanished and Ryan was alone again. Ryan put his face down in his hands and cried. Ryan looked up and walked out to his shop. He looked over the figurines, the molds and all of the material that had been provided for him. He shook his head and walked back to his bedroom. He pulled out the Angel Sword and Dagger and laid them on the bed. He took each one out of the scabbard and held them in his hands one at a time. He knew what he wanted to do and he knew what he had to do. He walked back into the living room and called Gabriel. The white light appeared and Gabriel's form came out of the light. "Yes my child you have called me."

"Yes Gabriel, I want to let you know that I am ready to resume the task that my Lord God has laid upon me to do."

"That is good to hear my child. The Lord God will be pleased."

"Do I pick up where I stopped at or will a new assignment come."

"That choice is up to my child."

"Thank you Gabriel, I will start where I left off. I need a day or two make some arrangements."

"Whatever you need my child you are not on a timetable to complete your tasks."

"Thank you Gabriel."

The Angel disappeared and the white light faded.

Ryan picked up his phone and called Jim. When Jim answered Ryan asked him to come over he needed to talk with him. Jim arrived in about tem minutes and Ryan asked him to come in. "Grab a couple of beers out of the refrigerator and come on back and have a seat."

Jim went and got a couple of beers and came back in the living room, he took a seat on the couch. 'What's up Ryan, what can I do for you?"

"I have a job offer for you. The work is under the table, I'll pay you well."

"What kind of job, what will I be doing?

"I can tell you this much I need someone I can trust and that is you, the packages you have been shipping to me you will continue to do so. I am going to set up a meeting between some shady people, to purchase some munitions, I'm going to need a lot more hardware to do what I am doing."

"What are you doing?"

"That Jim, I can't tell you yet."

"So you're back working for the man huh?"

"You might say that." Ryan smiled.

"You have yourself a new employee."

"Thanks Jim, I owe you big time for this."

Ryan picked up the phone and dialed the number from memory. When the phone was answered Ryan said, "Mr. Jenson, I would like to meet with you, it would be me and my partner Jim Elgin. Yes sir, as soon as possible. Very good sir we will see you tonight."

"I hate to here only one side of the conversation."

"Short side of it, we are going to meet Jenson tonight at six out by the stadium."

"Who is Jenson?'

"He is an arms dealer that deals weapons to the good guys. I would bet he does some business with the bad guys as well. He has quality goods and the prices are good."

"Cool."

"Ok now to make a list of what I'm going to be ordering."

"Grenades ten cases, nine millimeter two hundred cases, RPG one with two hundred rounds, Grenade launcher with two hundred rounds, five M-16's with one thousand cases of 5.56mm ammo, fifty pounds of C-4 and caps plus a thousand feet of wire for the caps. That's a start."

"My god Ryan you starting a war?"

"No my friend putting an end to one, be back here in an hour and be ready to go."

"Roger that Ryan."

They left Ryan's house and made it to the designated meeting spot with fifteen minutes to spare. Ryan parked his car in the open he and Jim got out of the car and waited. Mr. Jenson and his group arrived and Ryan walked to his car and opened the door for him. Mr. Jenson got out of the car and shook hands with Ryan and said "Mr. Simpson it is good to see you again."

"It's good to see you to sir. If you would I would like to introduce you to my partner."

"It would be my pleasure sir."

The two men walked to Ryan's car and Ryan introduced Mr. Jenson to Jim.

"Mr. Jenson, I am going to be on the move a lot over an extended period of time. Mr. Elgin will be my contact with you sir. He has the full authority to place orders in my name and will make payment upon delivery. Mr. Jenson he knows as much about weapons as I do. You have always been fair and just with me, please be that way with him."

"Mr. Simpson, while you have been a small time customer of mine I treat all of my customers the same. If I were to try to shaft one the word would get out fast and I would not be able to do any business with anyone."

"I know that sir, I have always had trust in you and I know that it will continue. My orders will be much larger and more diverse, starting with this order."

Ryan handed Mr. Jenson the list of munitions. Mr. Jenson looked over the list and said "very good, looks like a war is starting."

Ryan laughed and said "My partner said the same thing and I told him no it's ending one."

"How soon do you need this?"

"How fast can you deliver it?"

"Tomorrow soon enough?"

"Yes sir it is, now how much?"

"How is one hundred fifty thousand."

"You have a deal sir. Here is where to deliver."

Very well I'll call thirty minutes before delivery, delivery time is noon, I must see you or Mr. Elgin outside or I keep going just as always."

"Very good Mr. Jenson, Have a great evening."

"Good night Mr. Simpson."

Ryan and Jim got back in the car and drove to Ryan's House. When they arrived Ryan told Jim to come in. Ryan grabbed a couple of beers and tossed one to Jim, Come on follow me. They walked out to Ryan's shop, "I'm going to show you a couple of things. These little things here tell me who, what and where I'm going. The other thing I'm going to show no one else gets to know about."

Ryan moved some books and pushed a button that slid open a panel behind the panel was a safe. Ryan gave Jim the combination to the safe. "Open it" Ryan said.

Jim opened the safe and his jaw hit the floor. "How much is in there?"

"About two hundred fifty thousand, it was my lump sum plus some investments I made over the years. That's where you get the money to pay for the orders I give you plus to replace what I expend."

"You got it boss. And no one will ever know about it."

"OK man see you tomorrow, be here by eleven."

Jim left and Ryan went back into the house, He called the airport and made reservations to Cornwall, England. He called the hotel that Maria and he stayed at and made reservations for a week. He told them that he would be receiving some packages and they would probably arrive before he did. He would be flying out at six pm. Jim met Ryan at eleven and they drove to the storage unit that Ryan kept. Mr. Jenson was right on time. Ryan inspected the munitions and paid Mr. Jenson in cash. They loaded everything into the storage facility and Mr. Jenson and his crew left. Alone with Jim Ryan told him what to load in the car, with everything loaded the headed back to the house. When they arrived back at the house the backed the car into the garage and off loaded the arms they kept. Ryan got out the boxes and they loaded them, sealed them and addressed them. He asked Jim to call and have them picked up. He was headed to the airport and checked in for his flight
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ryan made the drive from London to Cornwall and checked into the hotel. They were glad to see him back, they asked about Maria and Ryan told them she wasn't with him this trip. It was still early just past noon so he decided to take a ride out in the direction of the farm house.

He parked the car and scouted out the area. When he got close to the house he started to feel the feeling in his neck. He reached the walls of the house and peeked in several of the windows, he spotted a room that was full of demons and in another he spotted Mammon. He went back to his car and started to select what weapons he would use. Ryan moved back to the house and rigged C-4 around the front porch and across the underneath of the porch. When the demons came out the front door they would have a nice surprise. Ryan mad his way to the window he had seen the demons thru and as he expected they were still there. Ryan pulled the pins on two grenades and threw them thru the window. They broke glass going thru the window and Ryan could hear excited voices, He ran around to the front of the house and picked up the detonator he took the M-16 off of his shoulder and took off the safety. Ryan had military magazines so each one held forty five rounds.

The Grenades exploded just as Ryan made it to the front of the house. In less time than it took to count to ten the demons started running out of the house. They were stopping on the porch to see if they could find out what was happening. They stopped coming out and Ryan set off the C-4 under and around the porch. When the smoke cleared there were no demons left standing. Ryan started to the go into the house when Mammon stepped out. Ryan dropped the M-16 and called the Angel Sword. When Mammon stepped out of the house he fell into what was a hole where the porch had been.

Mammon yelled "What is going on here?"

Ryan looked back at Mammon and said "remember me? We have some unfinished business."

"NO it can't be your dead."

"Sorry to rain on your parade but I am very much alive.

"You will pay for what you have done here."

Ryan stepped forward and said, "You have live long enough, had it not been for me coming to get you my Maria would still be alive. But I will give you the same chance repent and ask God for forgiveness and I will let you live."

"Repent to God never and should you succeeded in killing me my brother Asmodeus will avenge my death."

Ryan drew back and with a quick swing he cut off the head of Mammon. Ryan picked up his M-16 and went back to his car. He loaded everything in the trunk; He drove back to the hotel. He repacked his boxes and called the number for the delivery service. In a short while the delivery service picked up the boxes and left.

Ryan walked down to the pub where he had proposed to Maria. When he walked in the door the man behind the bar recognized him "hello my friend it is good to see you. I had heard you went back home."

Ryan said, "I did I was back there for a few days and had to come back, I thought I would stop in for a pint and some of your great fish and chips."

"Where is your lovely lady?"

"I'm sorry to say she is gone."

"I'm sorry to hear that what made her leave if I may ask?"

"Oh no she isn't gone like that she passed away, she was killed by a madman."

"My friend I am so sorry to hear that, I don't know what to say."

"Tell everyone that the drinks are on me, Ryan counted out five hundred dollars and laid it on the bar. "How long will that last?"

"A couple of days at least."

"Great now how about my fish and chips."

"Coming up right away sir."

Ryan ate and waved by he went to his hotel room for the night; He drove back to London the next morning and was back on his way home that afternoon. When he landed in San Diego he went home and looked up at the heavens and said, "Thank you Maria."

*****

Barbados entered the throne room Lucifer had been expecting him, "Well what do you have for me Barbados"

"My lord, we have not heard from Mammon in over a week, I sent two of my minions and they found his house in shambles. The front of it was gone, there was no sign of his minions or of him."

"Does it look like the slayer was there?"

"My lord I don't know it looked like there was an explosion and that is not consistent with the slayer."

"I want to know what happened, I want the minions sent back to everyone of our brethren. They stay this time until I tell them to leave. I want our brethren protected."

"Yes my lord it will be done."

"Barbados, don't let me down again."

"Yes my lord I won't."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Now how in the world am I going to find out about Asmodeus Ryan thought? He wasn't the best with computers and he didn't know how to sort out the real information from the bad. Ryan opened the laptop that Maria always used. He turned it on and when it finished booting up he saw a icon on the screen that said Ryan's info. He double clicked on the icon and there was a listing for every fallen angel that there was. He scanned the list and found the name Asmodeus. He clicked on the link and a complete listing opened for him. Ryan looked over the file and came to the conclusion he had to go to Iraq. This was a place he was not looking forward to going to. He had done two previous combat tours there.

Just after Ryan closed down the computer his delivery man showed up with a package. The package contained a plane ticket to Baghdad, and reservations at the AL Heeken Hotel Ryan packed his bags and boxes, He called the delivery service to come pick up his cargo. The delivery man showed shortly after he hung up and picked up his boxes. Ryan left and went to the airport on the way Ryan called Jim and told him he was on his way to Iraq.

Ryan plane arrived and he cleared customs and caught a cab to the hotel. He checked into the room and put his clothes away. He was just closing the last drawer when there was a knock on his door He checked the peep hole and opened the door. The delivery service brought the boxes and left. Ryan opened the boxes and checked everything. It was all there. Ryan loaded his pistols and strapped one to his calf and pulled down his pant leg. He was going to keep one of the pistols with him at all times while he was in Iraq. He was where he wanted to be this was where the two rivers joined, he would start his search there.

Ryan left the hotel and walked to where the Tigris and the Euphrates came together in Baghdad. This place is cited in many works as the location of Eden. This is a location that id really a fishing expedition, Ryan was hoping to find more about Asmodeus while here in Baghdad. His Intel showed he was Persian but spent most of his earthly time in what is now Syria as well as in Jerusalem, As Ryan walked this area of Baghdad he took notice of the destruction that had been done by the war. Many of the buildings were in various stages of disrepair. Ryan found what he was looking not far from the point where the two rivers joined. One building standing alone, it looked like it had not been touched by the war at all. Ryan noticed that there were two armed guards outside the building and they were demons. Ryan watched as men came and went from the building. The ones going in were searched by one of the guards before they were allowed to pass.

Ryan wanted inside this building but wasn't ready to start a shootout with the demon guards. Suddenly an idea came to Ryan; he walked up to the demons and in Iraqi Arabic he spoke to the demons, "I am from lord Mammon, I am here to speak to whoever is in charge."

At the mention of Mammon's name the demons shifted and were suddenly nervous, they knew who Mammon was and wanted no part of one of his enforcers. One of the demons escorted Ryan inside and took him an office that had the name Ruax, Ryan knew that he was a fallen of lesser importance. The demon opened the door and Ruax looked up and appeared to be irate at the interruption. The demon started to speak and Ryan quickly dismissed him sending him back to his post. Ryan then turned his attention to Ruax. "Lord Mammon has sent me he is concerned about the payment from Asmodeus, it has not arrived yet."

Ruax was not surprised, Asmodeus often had visitor from Mammon, and he was always late making payment. Ruax said, I will contact Lord Asmodeus and let him know that you have visited."

"No, Lord Mammon has told me to see Asmodeus personally and collect this time." Ryan said.

"I understand what your job is but Asmodeus would have my head if I told anyone where he is. With everything happening about this slayer going around he is being very careful."

"Very well, I shall report to Lord Mammon that you refused to help."

Ryan turned to leave and Ruax said "Wait, don't do that. You can find Lord Asmodeus in Akashat; shall I contact him and inform him you are coming?"

"No don't do that Lord Mammon wants me to report how the business is going."

Ryan noticed that the safe in the back of the room was ajar; his war chest was going to need to be replenished. Ryan decided that he was going to help himself to some of the money Asmodeus had in the safe. Ryan made like he was going to leave when he suddenly had the Angel Sword in his hand and brought it around and cut the head off of Ruax. He waited until Ruax body burst into flames and disappeared then he stepped over to the save. Ryan opened the door of the safe and saw there were stacks of American one hundred dollar bills. Ryan looked around the office for something to put some of the money in; he spotted a back pack next to the desk that Ruax was sitting at. He dumped the contents on the floor and filled the back pack with as many of the ten thousand dollar stacks that it would hold.

With the pack full Ran put on the back pack and left the office. He nodded as he passed the demons that were still guarding the door. Ryan went straight back to the hotel. Once Ryan got back into his room he poured the money out on the bed and counted the number of stacks. Ryan had collected seventy of the stacks. He got out one of his boxes and put the cash inside and sealed it and called the delivery service. They arrived in a few minutes and took the box. Ryan combined all the munitions together and closed and sealed them. He took them downstairs and put them in the Hummer he had rented on the way back to the hotel. Ryan checked out of the hotel and drove to Akashat.

Ryan stopped about a half mile from Akashat and set up camp about a half mile off the road. He was far enough off the road he wouldn't be seen. It was starting to get dark so he dug out his night vision goggles and his binoculars. He made the half mile trek to the sand hills overlooking Akashat. He started the distance scouting thru the binoculars; he was maybe one hundred yards from the outskirts of town. The town was lit up but didn't interfere with the night vision goggles. As he scanned the area he was surprised to see most of the ones walking around were demons. The town it's self had a population of around fifteen hundred people. With all the demons it looked more like five or six thousand. Ryan wasn't sure how to handle this, he didn't have the right types of explosives or guns to handle this type of situation.

He knew he couldn't go charging in, he wouldn't last a minute. Ryan was checking the area to the north west of the town; he saw what might be an area that he could get in and out with minimal contact with the demons. But once in town he didn't know what he would run into. He moved his position over where he had been looking. He spotted what he needed to get to as a target, how to get there was another story. Ryan continued to scan the area when he saw what might do what he needed. He returned to the Hummer and got a grenade launcher and a case of rounds for it. He took an M-16 out along with five boxes of ammo and five extra magazines. Once he had it all loaded up in his pack he headed back to the north west side of town.

Once he was in position he got out the Grenade launcher and laid out ten rounds for it. He laid out the M-16 along with 2 boxes of ammo. He loaded the Grenade launcher and estimated the range to the target. He sighted the launcher and let the round fly, it fell ten feet long. He quickly reloaded and sighted the launcher again. He let the round fly and this time it hit the mark. The fuel truck exploded into a ball of flame. The fuel that was pushed away from the truck by the force of the explosion caused many smaller fires in the structures that were nearby. A group of demons came running out of the building that Ryan wanted to get into. Ryan let another round from the grenade launcher and it landed right in the middle of the demons. The resulting explosion caused what demons that were not killed to scatter away from the building.

Ryan fired half of the case of grenades and he picked up his binoculars and scanned the area. He spotted a building off to the left of the main structure he was watching, He could see there were a lot of demons coming from the building. A new idea came to his mind. He stopped firing grenades and watched the activity around the smaller building. The demons that had come out of the building started to file back into it. Ryan guessed that this was some type of a barracks for the demon troops. He covered the grenade launcher and his M-16 with one of his desert camo tarps and returned to his camp site.

Ryan grabbed some C-4 and made up three satchels, each holding two pounds of C-4. He placed a blasting cap into each pound of the explosive. He then made some timers and connected them to each pound. When he had completed the satchels he obtained another case of grenades and headed back to his vantage point. Ryan moved off to his left about three hundred yards with the grenade launcher and the half of case that he had left from the first round of attacks on the demons.

Ryan fired the remaining five grenades into an open area of the town. The demons responded to the area of the explosions. He sprinted back to his vantage point and watched as the demons came out of the barracks building again. He timed how long it took the demons to return. He frowned at the ten minutes it took them to start to return. He needed more time than that.

Ryan's attack had the opposite effect that he had hoped for as he kept watch on the town he spotted fewer and fewer of the demons out on the streets. He did notice that the demons were returning in mass to what he was calling a barracks. There were far more demons than what the barracks could hold. The sun would be rising soon so Ryan collected all of his gear and weapons and headed back to his camp.

*****

Asmodeus was growing irate at the attacks. He had an agreement with the local war lord to keep this town free from the attacks that have been going on around the rest of Iraq. The fallen directed his lead minion to recall all of the demons around town and have them stay close to his temple building.

The temple building was a dual purpose building. Everything above the ground was a house of prostitution. There were no regulations banning it in Iraq so Asmodeus could operate in the open. He had a high calls group of women that took care of his customers that one would call the rich and infamous. He also had the lower class that most would call whores. His business thrived and kept him safe for the most part. He had concerns about the Angel Slayer coming here but with the extra demons that Barbados had sent he had a security force to handle the slayer if he came. He also wanted to see the local war lord to find out who attacked the town this night.

Asmodeus was going to find out who attacked his town and make them pay for it. He checked his access to the underworld and found that it still worked so he eliminated the possibility of it being the slayer. The information he had from Barbados was that when the slayer showed up the contact with the underworld was lost.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Ryan stayed at his camp site except for trips to the outskirts of town to recon the area. He didn't see many demons walking around so the streets were pretty empty. Ryan watched as a truck load of locals all armed to the teeth showed up and stayed for a day then left. Ryan did see the men coming and going from the main building where he launched the grenades a couple of day ago. Most of them he didn't see any weapons with except for some body guards with some of the men.

On one of the trips he was able to obtain some clothes that the locals wore, they might come in handy. Ryan also was able to find some small packs and made up a few more satchels of C-4. He was satisfied that he had enough explosives made up to do what he wanted.

Ryan made his way back to his vantage point and with him he was carrying about a hundred pounds of weapons and explosives. He laid out the weapons and ammo on his tarp and covered them. He then made his way around so he was behind the barracks. He sat back and waited until nightfall. The sky was cloudy and overcast which worked in Ryan's favor. He needed all the cover he could get. He slowly made his way down to the back of the barracks. He looked into the window of the barracks; he looked into an empty building. It didn't look like that it was in use. He watched for a bit longer when he saw a door open and four demons came out. They walked to the front door of the barracks and walked out into the street.

Ryan tried the window and fount that it slid open easily. He hoisted a couple of his satchels up and slid them to the floor of the building. He climbed up and went thru the window. He went to the door he say the demons come out of and set his timers on the C-4 for three minutes that should give him plenty of time to get out of the building. Ryan started the timers and opened the door and tossed the satchels down the stairs. He ran back to the window and didn't bother to climb slowly he jumped thru the window and rolled as he hit the ground.

He scrambled up the hill behind the barracks and had almost reached the top when the C-4 went off. The ground shook and the barracks created a large fireball and then fell in on itself. Ryan could hear gun shots going off in the barracks. The explosion created by the C-4 was much larger than it should have been. Nothing came from the area that was barracks. Ryan sprinted back to his vantage point and scanned the area. A few demons came from the main building and a few came running from around town. The number of demons was a lot more manageable. He counted ten demons trying to locate anyone who might have been responsible for the blast. Ryan picked up the M-16 and switched it to semi automatic. He started shooting the demons, they scattered seeking cover where they could find it. Ryan had killed three demons before all of them had found shelter.

The demons were searching and were unable to locate where the attack was coming from. Ryan spotted three of the demons hiding behind a car. He launched a grenade and the car exploded killing the three demons. He watched as a demon tried to make it back into the main building and Ryan shot him. Ryan set the M-16 down and made his way into town. As he approached the main building a demon came out of his hiding spot and Ryan called the Angel Sword and be headed the demon. The two remaining demons ran for the other side of town. Ryan pulled his pistol and shot both of them in the back of their heads. Ryan turned his attention to the main building.

Ryan carefully approached the main building and entered it slowly. He found the building main floor empty. He climbed the stairs and found women from various nations in various stages of dress. He told them to get out of the building fast. The women did as told and Ryan finished searching the upper levels and as he found more women he told them to leave. Ryan found the access to the lower levels and discovered that this was the temple for Asmodeus. Ryan searched the lower level and found Asmodeus sitting on his throne.

Asmodeus said "I don't know who you are but you have defiled my temple, and for this you must die."

Ryan still holding his sword spoke, "Asmodeus I am the slayer, you have broken your faith with the Lord God. I'll give you the chance to get down on your knees and repent and ask for forgiveness for your sins."

"No I shall never bow to him again, I am one of the crown prince's of hell and you shall bow before me."

"I bow only to one and that is the Lord God."

Ryan stepped towards Asmodeus; the fallen stood and walked to the back side of his throne. Suddenly Asmodeus disappeared, Ryan ran to the back side of the throne just in time to see the trap door slide closed. Ryan searched for the way to open the door but found nothing. Ryan knew a good way to open the trap door, he removed a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin, he set the grenade down on the trap door and ran around the throne. The chair took most of the blast that went out from the grenade. The force from the grenade blew open a hole in the floor where the trap door was. He jumped down into the hole to find a tunnel that led away from the throne room.

Ryan climbed up the damaged stairs and back into the throne room. He went back to the surface and exited the temple. He found a few demons had made it out of the barracks. He quickly shot them before they could react to him. He went back to his vantage point and grabbed his M-16 and all the spare ammo and magazines that he brought with him. He grabbed the three remaining satchels he had. He headed down from his vantage point back to the temple. He placed another satchel on top of where he saw the last demon come from and set the timer for 5 minutes. He went back into the temple and down to the throne room.

Ryan selected two locations that would do the most damage to the temple. He placed the satchels down and set the timers for thirty minutes. He jumped back down into the tunnel and followed it until it came out in the hill side above and behind the temple. Once he came out of the tunnel the C-4 exploded inside the temple. The ground shook but the building though badly damaged remained standing.

Ryan knew where Asmodeus was going so he returned to his vantage point collected his gear and went back to his camp site. He loaded the all of his gear and weapons into the Hummer, he double checked to make sure he had everything and climbed into the Hummer. He started his drive off the main road as he didn't want to go thru the Syrian check point at the border. He was headed to Al Bukamal in Syria.

What is Syria today was the first place in history where Asmodeus could be found. Ryan knew that he had a business interest in Al Bukamal. Asmodeus had another whore house there.

The drive to Al Bukamal took almost six hours going across the desert; he had to avoid two Syrian patrols, before he made it to Al Bukamal. He parked the Hummer on the north side of the town and set up his camp site. Ryan made a small fire and brewed some field coffee. He would have to have the fire out before night fall came so it would not be spotted.

As night started to fall Ryan made his way to the hills on the north side of the town of Al Bukamal. Ryan had a good view of the town. It had a population of about eighteen hundred. Ryan was surprised that of the people moving about the town not one of them was a demon. Ryan spotted the real temple of Asmodeus. It was easily identified by the three headed man right in the center of the arch.

Ryan made his way to the temple and walked right in the front door. Ryan scanned the worship room and didn't see anyone. He moved freely around the upper level of the temple and did not find anyone at all. He found the door leading to a set of stairs going down. Ryan slowed his pace down and when he got to the bottom of the stairs he came to an open hall with doors on both sides He moved to the door on his left and opened the door the room was empty. He turned to leave and found himself face to face with about thirty demons. Ryan brought the M16 to bear and fired a burst of about forty rounds. He dropped half of the demons; they started to retreat back to the other side of the hall. Ryan saw the door and pulled off a grenade from his belt. He pulled the pin and tossed the grenade thru the open door. He heard screaming from the other room. The demons that were in front of him turned and didn't move they heard the screaming from across the hall.

Ryan let go of another burst of the M-16 and dropped the remaining demons. Ryan removed three grenades from his belt he pulled the pin of the first grenade and tossed it thru the open door across the hall; Ryan repeated this with the other two grenades. They made three distinct explosions. Ryan walked to the room across the hall and found one thing alive, Asmodeus. He was sitting in his throne with a large piece of metal thru his stomach and passed thru him and the back of the throne. The three heads of Asmodeus growled and hissed at Ryan.

"I should leave you like this, no one would ever find you, but I can't do that." He walked over to the fallen and with a swing of his sword he decapitated the first head, the two remaining heads howled and hissed even more at Ryan. Ryan repeated the swing cutting off each of the heads. Ryan felt the temple start to shake and turned and ran up the stairs and out of the temple as fast as he could. He watched as the temple imploded in on its self. Ryan turned and walked to the whore house. He went in and was surprised to find a demon sitting at the desk. He used a variation of the story he used earlier but instead of Mammon he used Asmodeus. The demon opened the safe and then turned to face Ryan and saw he was holding the sword. He called to his master Leviathan to save him. Ryan cut off his head. Ryan went thru the house and told everyone to get out. As he moved from room to room he pulled the pillow cases off and carried them back to the office. Ryan started pulling the stakes of one hundred dollar bills out of the safe. By the time he was finished he had five pillow cases full of the stacks of hundred dollar bills. He made his way back to his Hummer and loaded the pillow cases in and out his weapons back in. He slowly drove back into Iraq and headed back to Baghdad.

Ryan was back in the hotel the next day. He slept most of the day, not having slept much the last two days. When he awoke he called down to the hotel desk and asked them to send up some medium sized boxes. When they arrived Ryan packed two of the boxes full of the stacks of money. He called the shipping company and they arrived to take his boxes and ship them to his home in San Diego. Ryan checked out of the hotel and drove to the airport. He checked in with the airline and boarded his plane less than an hour later.

When Ryan arrived in San Diego he got his car and loaded his luggage and drove home. The delivery truck pulled up right behind and Ryan opened the shop door and had the delivery man put the boxes in side. He tipped the man and said thank you. The delivery driver got back in his truck and drove off. Ryan opened the boxes and counted the money. He had stocked his war chest with just over a million dollars. He kept out ten stacks of bills and drove to the church that was the delivery company and Ryan walked in and asked to see the person in charge.

The senior reverend walked in and said "Good Afternoon Mr. Simpson, how are you today sir?"

Ryan was surprised that he knew his name. I'm doing great sir, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a bag of money, and he said. "This is for your church sir."

The reverend took the bag and Ryan turned and walked out without another word. Ryan returned home and dug out Maria's laptop.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ryan turned on the laptop and looked for the fallen name he heard the demon speak in Syria. He quickly found the name and he double clicked on the name Leviathan. The information on Leviathan popped on the screen. Leviathan was the fallen angel and always with him is his twin brother Behemoth. Leviathan's brother Behemoth is not a fallen but rather the largest of all the demons. It is said he cannot be killed like all the other demons. It is said that Leviathan is a sea demon, but that is not true, he is a fallen but he is always near water. Where you find him will be a surprise. He can be found near a Salton Sea surrounded by a desert.

Ryan only knew of one Salton Sea and that was just a few short hours from his home. Ryan decided to make a day trip to the area. Ryan got in his car and drove out to the Salton Sea. Ryan was remembering everything he knew about the Salton Sea and the one thing that he remembered was that the Sea sat right on top of the San Andreas Fault which now made a lot of sense. The fault could provide an easy access to the underworld for the fallen and demons.

There were several communities along the sea, but the ones that interested Ryan the most were North Shore and _Niland. Both of these communities had died out a number of years but still had a small population's. The remaining four or five communities had thriving populations. There were no close mountains or hills to use for a vantage point to overlook the area, so he figured he would do it the old fashion way and go right into the towns._

Ryan arrived in _Niland and did a slow drive thru it. The thing that stuck out the most was he did not see one human being. Everyone he saw was a demon. The town wasn't big at all maybe four hundred homes. He continued north and in about half an hour he was in North Shore._

_The town had a population of maybe five hundred. Again Ryan did not see a single human being, just demons. What Ryan didn't understand was that if_ Leviathan was known for envy why he would be here. Then it hit him, LA three hours away, Palm Springs three hours away, San Diego three hours away. The sheer number of souls he could take. He had over half of the state's population and most of the wealthiest communities within 3 hours of here. Talk about envy.

Ryan picked up his phone and called Jim, "Hey buddy, need you to go to work, Here goes, I need two cases of grenades, two cases of grenades for the grenade launcher, I need two RPG's and two cases of ammo, two portable sas (surface to surface missile) launchers plus five cases of missiles, I need two thousand rounds for the Marlin and tell Jenson I'll pay double if he can have it tonight by six." Ryan headed for home with a stopover at the local dive shop to pick up his tanks and dive gear, he thought he might get some dive time in while he was at the Salton Sea.

When Ryan arrived back at home he pulled out his class c toy hauler and pulled it out of the side yard. He opened the hauler up and backed his ATV out of the hauler, Ryan moved his dive gear from the trunk and backseat to the hauler and then began loading what he thought he would need for the Salton Sea. Ryan was loading the last box when Jim stopped by at the house.

"Glad to see you here, Jenson said he would have it by six tonight and I came by to get the funds but you're a little short on cash. We are going to need another 150K from what you had in the safe."

"There are three boxes still sitting on my living room floor grab one and bring it out here Ok." Jim went into the house and grabbed one of the three boxes and brought it out to the shop. Ryan opened the box and took out fifteen stacks of hundred dollar bills and tossed them to Jim.

"Wow you must get paid good." Jim said.

Ryan took out two more stacks and tossed them to Jim and said, "That's a bonus for you having to bring the items here to the house."

"I'll be back here by seven."

"Great I want to be on the road by nine."

"Where you going this time?"

"I'm going to spend some time at the Salton Sea."

"Wish I was going with you, I've heard the diving and fishing are great."

Hope the diving is, I want to get some time on the tanks while I'm there."

"OK. Man see you around seven."

Ryan closed up the back of the toy hauler and got his pickup from behind the house and headed to the gas station to fill it up along with five, five gallon gas cans. When he returned home he got out the tow bar and hooked it to the front of the truck. Now all he had left to do was load the new weapons and the food and he would be ready to go. Ryan went back in the house and poured a glass of tea and he would load the food.

Ryan sat down and suddenly the white light started to appear and the form of an Angel appeared.

"Ryan my child, our Lord God is concerned about you on this task, you will be facing two of the toughest in the fallen angel Leviathan and the demon Behemoth"

"Gabriel, do not worry, I will be able to handle them both. I will take on one at a time. I have faith that I can take them down."

"Very well then I will not trouble you anymore."

Ryan got up and loaded the food he would need into bags and carried them out to the toy hauler. He put everything away in the refrigerator and cabinets. Ryan had just finished putting the food away and Jim drove up with the new weapons. They loaded them into the back of the hauler and put the four wheeler back in. Ryan closed it up and hooked his pickup to the hitch. Ryan pulled away from his house at eight thirty that night. Ryan parked the RV at the National Park Campgrounds. He unhooked his pickup and pulled it to the side of the RV. Ryan turned in for the night as he wanted to get an early start in the morning.

Ryan got up before sunrise and unloaded ATV from the back of the RV. He set off in the direction of Niland, when he arrived there he circled the town looking for a place he could set up a view point to observe the town. He found some sand dunes to the east side of town about two hundred yards from the town limits. Though they were not very high they gave him a clear view of the main street of Niland. Ryan sat on the seat watching as Niland started to come to life. Ryan started the ATV and headed down the dune and into town. He slowly drove down the main street taking notice of lack of any business in the town. There were store fronts but they all were empty. The only business that was open was a gas station on the north side of the town, and it was just that a gas station, it had one pump and nothing else. Ryan stopped there and filled the tank on his machine. He paid the clerk for his gas, noticing that the clerk was a demon.

After filling the tank Ryan set off back to his RV. He passed several cars along the way, he specifically wanted to see if any of the drivers were demons but none of them were. They were just campers or tourists traveling thru the area. Ryan arrived back at his RV he got one of the gas cans and strapped it on the back of his four wheeler and headed for North Shore. When he arrived at North Shore he circled the town again looking for a vantage point. He moved in and out of the desert around the town and could not find anything close enough to town that would allow him a line of sight to the town.

Ryan headed out to the old marina that had been shut down for years and found what he wanted. An old water tower gave him the height he wanted and it also gave him the distance he needed so he would not be seen while climbing up the tower. Ryan parked ATV and climbed the old water tower. It was a perfect spot. It gave him a clear view of the entire town. Ryan climbed back down from the tower and returned to the ATV. He headed back to his RV. He took the direct route and made it back to the campground in half the time it took to get to North Shore.

Ryan opened the hauler part of his RV and laid out the weapons he would need for Niland. He set out the grenade launcher with two cases of grenades, he loaded his belt with hand grenades. He picked the M-16 with four magazines and a case of 5.56 mm ammo; he selected two nine millimeter pistols with four boxes of ammo. Satisfied he had all he would need he boxed everything and got it ready to load on the ATV in the morning.

*****

Barbados entered Lucifer's throne room and had a frown on his face, "my lord I have some more bad news, we have not heard from Asmodeus, I think he has fallen to the slayer."

"Barbados I am tired of hearing of this slayer. I want his head and I want it now."

"Yes my lord and I have an idea on how to do that."

"What is that?"

"I recommend that we offer a reward to our realm, if it is a fallen that brings in the slayer an offer to become one of the princes of hell. You have openings there anyway having lost four of your princes. If it is a demon that brings in the slayer make him a lord of his own territory."

"Barbados you surprise me, I thought a simple bribe would be good but I like your idea even better."

"Thank you my lord and master."

"Inform everyone about the reward."

"It shall be as you say my lord."

Barbados sent work through out the realm.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ryan left the RV just as the sun was rising, he headed for the spot he had scouted out the day before. When he arrived he searched for the dune he had found yesterday, he was surprised to find ATV tracks covering the area. Ryan was concerned that there may be people in the area and he didn't want anyone getting hurt that were not demons or others not associated with the fallen. Ryan drove the ATV around and found an area that had promise. It looked to be an old industrial park. There were a couple of three and four story buildings in it. Ryan watched the area for a couple of hours and no one or anything came within a couple of blocks of it. Ryan moved to the back of the tallest building and found a way into the building.

The building was completely empty. It looked like kids had come in before and had put graffiti all over the walls. Ryan made his way to the top floor and found a set of stairs that went to the roof. The door to the roof was off its hinges and made for easy access. He went on the roof and found that it was a perfect spot to see the town. Ryan spent the afternoon on the roof and watched as the demons moved thru the town. One building had an unusual amount of activity of demons coming and going.

Ryan watched as a demon carrying a bag over its shoulder went into the building. Soon it seemed like all the demons in the down were showing up at the building. Ryan guessed that the building was some type of meeting place for them. What ever the one demon had in his bag it was creating a stir in the small town. He left the town and headed north. The activity around the building was evident that something big had happened. The demons that were coming out were excited. They formed a group of about a hundred and headed for the spot where he originally planned on setting up. Ryan watched thru his binoculars as the demons started gathering the group of people that had made camp there. The demons started tearing up the camp site and one of the demons slapped a young woman when one of the young men tried to stop it he was beaten by several of the demons. The demons took the young people prisoner and roughly escorted them to the building that seemed to be the center of the town for the demons.

Ryan had to take action; he could not let the young people suffer at the hands of the demons. Ryan went back to his ATV and put on the grenade belt and got the M16 and the pistols. He made his way on foot to the building and found an open window at the back of it that was open. He flattened himself between some old bushes and the wall. He could hear voices but could not make out what they were saying. He was able to hoist himself up and climbed into the building and moved towards the front of the room. He could hear better and someone was accusing the young people of hiding the slayer or maybe one of them was the slayer. The young people were pleading that they had no idea who or what the slayer was. He had to get them out of there before something happened to them.

Ryan cracked open the door to the room he was in and saw that the hall was packed full of demons. Ryan took five grenades off of his belt and pulled the pins and tossed the grenades into the crowd of demons. Ryan flattened himself against the wall and when the grenades went off it blew the door of his room off the hinges. Ryan stepped on what was left of the door and started firing the M16. He emptied the magazine and reloaded. He took a moment to look at how many demons were left. The hall was full of dead demons and they started to burst into flames and disappear.

The room that they were standing in front of had its door blown off and the biggest and ugliest demon he had ever seen walked out of the room. Ryan emptied the M16 into the massive demon and it had little to no effect on it. The demon turned his attention to Ryan and slowly moved towards him. Ryan reloaded the M16 and fired again. The bullets were hitting the demon but again had little to no effect on the huge demon. The demon kept coming at Ryan. He backed into the room he entered the building from, he grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin and rolled it at the demon. The demon placed his large foot on the grenade and the blast had no effect on him. Ryan turned to scramble out the window but found that the blast from the first grenades had causes the debris to block the window.

The massive demon stopped at the entrance to the room and spoke to Ryan 'I am Behemoth why have you attacked my sanctuary?"

"I am the slayer and I am going to cut you down to size."

"You are dumb then, your weapons have no effect on me, I shall kill you and give your head to my brother and collect the reward on your head."

"Reward, what reward?"

"Lord Lucifer has placed a reward for your head, the reward is great and I shall collect it."

With speed that surprised Ryan the massive demon charged Ryan. The force of the demon running into Ryan knocked both of them thru the blast weakened wall. He massive demon began to pummel Ryan with his huge fist's Ryan was able to roll away before the demon could inflict much damage to him. Ryan decided to withdraw. He thought better to lose the battle than the war. He quickly turned and ran running between buildings trying to lose the demon. Ryan finally lost the demon and slowly made his way back to his ATV; Ryan had to duck for cover several times as the demons in the town were searching for him. He started the ATV and drove west into the desert and then turned south. He didn't want any demon who might have seen him to follow his north to his RV.

Ryan was satisfied that he wasn't being followed by any of the demons he turned his ATV back to the north, but still stayed away from the road leading back to his RV he continued until he was almost abreast of the campground when he spotted the black cloud moving to the north. Ryan dug out hid desert camo tarp and his binoculars he covered the ATV and looked at the black cloud. The cloud was actually a group of demons headed north. He took cover under the tarp and watched and waited as the demons continued to the north. He watched as the cloud split into two groups and one headed down into the campground where his RV was.

Ryan waited where he was until he saw the demons take to the air again but this time they were headed back to the south toward Niland. When the demons were out of sight he headed back to his RV. He stopped short of the sand dunes that were to the west of the campground and got off the ATV and moved to the top of the dunes. He used the binoculars and scanned the campground. He couldn't see anyone moving around but he did spot three demons patrolling the area.

Ryan stowed his binoculars and moved down the dunes and into the campground. He almost reached his RV when he came face to face with one of the demons. He quickly brought one of his pistols out and shot the demon in the head.. The pistol had a suppressor on the pistol so it made almost no noise. He moved around the campground finding the remaining demons and shot them. He made a round of the campground and found that all of the campsites had been tossed around. He found three dead bodies, anger grew inside Ryan. He looked to the heaves and said, "these people died because of my, Why?"

"Ryan didn't receive any answer but he really didn't expect one. Ryan made his way back to the ATV and drove it back to his ATV. Ryan found the door to his RV open and saw that it had been searched and everything had been thrown all over. He opened the hauler part of his RV and saw it had not been touched. The demons must have not noticed the difference in the inside length and the outside. Ryan picked up one of the chairs he had outside of the RV and sat down and put his head in his hands. Ryan said, "Gabriel why?"

When Ryan lifted his head he saw Gabriel standing before him. "My child it was not expected that the demons would do this. Things have changed with the war on the fallen, my child."

"Changed how?"

"Lucifer the lord of hell has placed a bounty on you. He has offered any fallen a place as a prince of hell and any demon his own territory. This has never been done before. We did not expect this to happen."

"So what do I do now?"

"The Lord God has told me to tell you that you may stop going after the fallen if you wish."

"You have to be kidding me? Innocent people have died because of my actions. I won't stop until all of the fallen have been taken care of."

"My child the task will be much harder now that you are known to Lucifer. He shall have every demon and fallen looking for you and he most certainly kill you."

"He better be prepared for the fight of his life, because I'm not stopping until I have killed Lucifer himself. I'm not stopping until I avenge every death that happens in this war against evil"

"My child our Lord God will be pleased to hear you are not stopping."

Gabriel disappeared and Ryan was left alone. Ryan knew his ATV wouldn't carry everything he was going to take with him. Ryan backed his pickup to the back of the hauler part of his RV and loaded a grenade launcher, a RPG and a SAS launcher, he loaded half of his grenades for the grenade launcher, the RPG and the SAS launcher. He took the Marlin and half of the rounds for it. He was declaring war on the town of Niland and nothing would be left standing when he was done.

Ryan headed out to Niland and when he arrived he found a back road to the four story building. He was able to get to the building without being seen. Ryan transferred all of the weapons to the roof. Ryan loaded all of the weapons. He knew the range to Behemoth's building was outside of the grenade launcher but not the RPG. He sighted the RPG on the back of the building and fired it. He quickly picked up the SAS launcher and sighted on the front door of the building. The RPG round hit the back of the building and exploded knocking off a large part of the building. Demons started to come out of the building and Ryan fired the SAS into the front door. A large portion of the front disappeared and a large number of demons flew in every direction. Ryan quickly reloaded the SAS and fired another missile into the center of the building. The rest of the building fell in on itself and was in flames. Ryan doubted there were any demons left alive in the building.

More demons were coming from all directions to see what had happened. Ryan took a moment to reload the RPG and the SAS launchers. When he looked back at the building there were maybe three or four hundred demons that had gathered. Ryan fired the RPG and the SAS as fast as he could change weapons into the group of demons. The SAS being a faster missile arrived at almost the same moment both rounds exploded and wiped out almost three fourths of the demons and wounding the rest.

Ryan picked up the Marlin and started sighting in on other demons that were coming to the building. By the time he stopped shooting with the Marlin he had expended three hundred rounds. Ryan scanned the area and did not see any demons anywhere in the town. Ryan scanned over to where Behemoth's building stood and saw the burning wood start to move; suddenly Behemoth pushed his way thru the wood and stepped out of the rubble.

"Slayer where are you, I'm going to kill you." Behemoth yelled.

Ryan loaded a missile into the SAS launcher; he aimed and fired at Behemoth. The blast knocked Behemoth backwards about twenty yards but he got back to his feet. He moved forward to the street and yelled for the slayer again. See the lack of effect his conventional weapons had on the demon he knew he was going to have to use the Angel Sword. Ryan climbed down from the roof and walked out to the street to face Behemoth.

"Slayer where are you?" yelled Behemoth.

"Behemoth, Here I am, come and get me." as Ryan called the Angel Sword forward.

"Has anyone every told you that you are one ugly dude." Ryan taunted Behemoth.

Ryan could see the anger build in Behemoth and he taunted him more. Ryan wanted him as mad as he could get him. He knew if he could get Behemoth mad as possible that he would make a mistake and create an opening for Ryan.

Behemoth started to run at Ryan and he could not believe how fast the monster of a demon could move. Ryan side stepped the charge from Behemoth and just gave the demon a light tap on the head as he passed by. This infuriated Behemoth even more, Behemoth stopped and spun around and charged Ryan again, this time coming in straight upright. Ryan swung the Angel Sword and sliced off the left leg of Behemoth just below the knee. The demon spun and caught Ryan in the head with his massive fist. Ryan went to the ground from the impact if his fist. Behemoth never let out a cry of pain he just walked on the good leg and the stump. He came at Ryan again and made contact with Ryan's right shoulder, the pain from the impact caused Ryan's right arm went numb from the impact, and caused him to drop the sword. Behemoth was back on Ryan in an instant.

Ryan could feel every blow that Behemoth was landing. He could feel the darkness start to come over him, he fought to keep conscious

Ryan's thought's turned to the people that had been killed by Behemoth or his minions. Then Maria came to his mind and she spoke to him, "my love you can't let Behemoth defeat you, too many are counting on you." He could feel strength coming back to him and he yelled, 'no."

Ryan pulled back his legs and kicked Behemoth in the groin. Behemoth howled in pain and fell off Ryan, allowing him to scramble to his feet. Behemoth was holding his groin and Ryan put all of his strength into another kick and hit Behemoth in his head. Behemoth swung his massive fist and hit Ryan in the chest knocking Ryan backwards almost ten feet and he landed on his back. Both Ryan and Behemoth got to their feet and charged each other, Ryan slid at the second and tangled up the demons feet. Behemoth went down face first into the pavement of the road. When Behemoth rolled over he saw Ryan standing over him and he had a pistol aimed at Behemoth's head. Ryan pulled the trigger and the demon yelled in pain but got to his feet and swung at Ryan.

Ryan ducked under the giants swing and put all of his force in a kick to the demons left knee. Ryan heard the bone crack but it did nothing to slow the demon down. They circled each other looking for an opening when Ryan remembered his sword. He held up his hand and called the sword. It appeared in his hand just as Behemoth charged again. Ryan spun and the swing of the sword hit Behemoth on his left arm cutting if off. Behemoth watched as his arm hit the ground. Before the demon could react Ryan swung the sword again this time connecting with the neck of Behemoth. The sword went into the giant demons neck just a fourth of the way. Ryan pulled the sword free and swung again, hitting the neck again cutting in a little deeper. He pulled the sword free again and swung to the back of the neck, cutting in deeper.

The demon let out a blood curdling scream that Ryan knew would alert any other demons that were in the area. Ryan swung the sword a fourth time to the neck of Behemoth but it still did not cut off the demons head. Ryan pulled the sword free and swung with all of the strength he had left, the sword made contact with the demons neck and cut thru the rest of the way and the demons head fell to the ground. Behemoth's body fell to the ground and Ryan watched in disbelief as the demon's heart continued to pump blood.

Ryan drew the dagger and plunged it into the demons heart but it still pumped, the eyes of the demon blinked and Ryan jumped back. "I am not so easy to kill am I slayer." Ryan could not believe what he was seeing and hearing. Ryan took the dagger and cut a long deep slice into the demon; he then reached in and pulled the demons heart out of its body. Ryan tossed the heart aside and watched as first the heart burst into flames, then the head and finally Behemoth's body burst into flames. It seemed to Ryan that the parts burned forever before the massive Behemoth was gone. Ryan stood exhausted and sore and looked around the town he saw nothing that move any where.

Ryan made his way back to his truck, he turned and looked up at the building and said out loud "I still have to climb up and get my stuff." It took Ryan two hours to bring all of his gear and weapons down from the roof and load it all into his pickup. Ryan climbed into the driver's seat and just sat there for a moment and said, "I hope his brother isn't that hard." Ryan started the pickup and drove to the RV.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Ryan pulled into the campground and as he drove to his RV he saw the tents and RV's of the other campers that had died at the hands of Behemoth and his minions. Ryan could feel the tears well up in his eyes as he drove thru the campground. He pulled up to his RV and went inside. He sat at the booth that served as his dining table and looked at the mess he still needed to clean up. Ryan leaned his head back to relax and thought about where to start and he dozed off.

There was a pounding on his door that woke him up. "Yea who is it?"

"Ryan open up its Jim, you have a big problem."

"Ryan opened the door and looked at Jim, "What in the name of God are you doing here?"

"I thought I would come up here and do some fishing and diving with you. I stopped in Niland to get some food and man it looks like a war zone there. I had my scanner on coming up and I heard that the California Highway Patrol had gotten a report of some type of war and sword fight going on in Niland. They said they were looking for a male driving a red truck. We need to get you out of here."

"Someone must have seem me and called the cops. Not good, and I'm not finished here yet."

"What in the hell are you doing up here, like I said the place looks like a war zone. Buildings are blown all to hell and I didn't see a soul in town. Did you kill everyone?"

"Jim, I promise you I didn't kill a living soul."

"Well I think you would have a hard time convincing the cops, your covered in blood and you look like you have had the crap kicked out of you."

"Man I can't tell you what happened, I'm not allowed to, and in fact I can't tell anyone."

"Well we need to get you loaded up and get you out of here."

They went to the truck and transferred all of the gear and weapons from the pickup and loaded it in the hauled, hooked up the tow bar and hooked it to the RV. Ryan cleaned up and together they pulled out of the campground. Ryan led off moving north on highway 111 going towards North Shore. Ryan knew of another campground on the other side of the town. They drove thru North Shore and Ryan noticed that the demons were still moving around town as if nothing happened. The campground was about 5 miles to the north west of North Shore. Ryan pulled up to the gate and spotted the sign that said closed. Ryan got out of the RV and walked back to Jim's truck. "Can't stay here the drive is blocked and it has a sign that says closed." Ryan said.

Jim said, "I know of another campground about ten miles north of here is that ok?"

"Yea that works for me, I'll follow you." Ryan answered.

They made the drive to Happy Acres Campground, Ryan walked in and asked if they had any RV openings. The man behind the desk looked up and said, "Do you have any pets, kids or anyone else with you?"

Ryan said "No kids, no pets and just have a friend with me and he most likely won't be staying."

"Then yes I have openings. How many nights?"

"I'll pay for a week."

"Cash only."

Ryan paid for a week and went back to the RV he told Jim to follow him and they drove to the site that the clerk showed him. Ryan pulled in first and Jim pulled in alongside. Ryan got out and unhooked the pickup and moved it next to Jim's truck. He took off the tow bar and stowed it. Ryan looked at Jim and asked him if he wanted anything to eat. Jim nodded and they went into the RV and Ryan fixed some supper.

After dinner they went outside and had a beer and watched the stars, Ryan looked over to Jim and said, "I'd love to have you stay buddy but I have another weeks worth of work here. How about when I'm done here I give you a call and then we can get some tank time and do a little fishing?"

"We can do that but do you need some help up here?"

"Thanks for the offer but no I'm on the down hill side of this job, but I appreciate it."

Jim got into his truck he said goodbye to Ryan and left to go home. Ryan turned in for the night; he hoped with a good night's sleep, some of the soreness would go away.

Ryan got up the next morning and loaded up the pickup and drove to the water tower in North Shore, Ryan took the Marlin and a several boxes of ammo and climbed the old water tower. He set the Marlin on the tripod and sat down on the floor that circled the tower. He put his eye to the scope and checked the distance to the farthest house. He double checked his range finder and the distance was nine hundred yards. Two yards farther then he had the Marlin sighted for. Still an easy shot he would just have to watch the wind. Ryan sighted the door of the farthest house and squeezed the trigger. He watched the bullet hit the door and splinter as it went thru. He worked the bolt action ejecting the spent cartridge and inserting a new one. He kept his eye on the scope and waited until the door opened and a demon stepped out,

Ryan squeezed the trigger again and Ryan watched as the head on the demon exploded. Ryan moved to the next house and repeated the same process. He did the third house the same way. Ryan checked the main street and no one seemed to be paying attention to what was going on around them. Ryan spent the next two hours killing from the top of the water tower; it reduced the number of demons by three hundred and fifty. To Ryan's estimate that left around one hundred fifty demons plus Leviathan so Ryan decided it was time to start with the demons on the street. There was a much greater chance that Ryan could be discovered doing this.

Ryan sighted on the farthest demon from his position and pulled the trigger. He watched the bullet to the demon and pierce the demon thru the heart. The demon dropped to the round. None of the demons seemed to notice the demon on the ground. Ryan repeated this process twenty more times. He folded the tripod and climbed down the water tower and stowed the Marlin. He got the M16 and the spare magazines. He strapped on his grenade belt and replaced the grenades he had used in Niland.

Ryan moved from the back of the water tower and headed into town. He hit the main street and was spotted by a group of demons not far down the street. The demons started to close in on Ryan and he brought the M16 up and fired a short burst into the group. A few of the demons dropped to the ground but the rest kept on coming. Ryan pulled the trigger again and more of the demons fell. The demons kept coming and they were growing in numbers. Ryan pulled a grenade from his belt; he pulled the pin and tossed it right in the middle of the group. The grenade went off and killed ten to fifteen more of the demons.

Ryan walked to the old church in the town, on his way he either fired off more short bursts from the M16 or tossed a grenade. The demons were now starting to avoid Ryan. Ryan walked into the old church and saw right away that it had been converted to a temple for Leviathan. Ryan called out to the fallen one and received no answer. He searched the old church and didn't find anything. He placed a satchel of C-4 in the front of the church near the alter. Ryan set the timer for 30 minutes and left the church, he started toward the center of town when a fallen angel landed in front of him. "You have done all that you are going to do in my town slayer. The time to collect the reward on you is here."

Ryan looked the fallen over and saw a serpentine body with a dragon's head, the fallen had a tail that was almost ten feet long. The small front arms would make it impossible for him to hit Ryan with any force. Ryan called the Angel Sword and when it appeared the fallen headed for the Salton Sea. Ryan gave chase and watched the fallen enter the water. Ryan kept a watch for the fallen but never saw him surface. Ryan ran back to his truck and headed back to the RV. He got his dive gear out and checked the ranks and the regulator. He double checked his weights and fins and mask. He loaded everything into the truck.

Ryan drove back to the Salton Sea. He slipped into his wet suite and donned his weights and tanks. He headed for the water. Ryan double checked the regulator again and made sure he had air coming out. He put on his fins and mask and inserted the mouth piece. He went into the water and quickly gained depth into the sea. Ryan's visibility was pretty good considering the salt content of the Sea. He was searching the bottom and looking for places that the fallen could hide. Suddenly he felt a tightening feeling around his midsection he glanced down and saw what looked like a tentacle; he tried to break free by pounding on the tentacle. Unable to get much force behind the blows Ryan was able to get his K-Bar diving knife out and cut into the tentacle. The tentacle released from Ryan's midsection and started to come to Ryan's head. Ryan slashed at the tentacle with his knife and made contact with it but did not cut into it. Ryan swam downward and managed to get clear from the tentacle. He turned to see that it was not a tentacle but the tail of the fallen Leviathan. The fallen moved thru the water like an eel and quickly caught Ryan with its tail again. The fallen brought its dragon like head around and tried to bite Ryan. Ryan was able do duck under Leviathan's head. He cut the tail again and the tail loosened but did not release Ryan. The fallen was unable to squeeze tight enough due to the tanks that Ryan was wearing. Ryan remembered his BCD and pulled the cord to inflate it. The life vest inflated from the co2 cartridge and started to take Ryan and Leviathan to the surface. Leviathan released Ryan and started to swim away. Ryan road the BCD to the surface and he swam to the shore. He quickly removed his fins and headed for the truck. Ryan replaced his K-BAR with the Angel Dagger, he switched his tanks to the second set he had. He reentered the water and started searching for Leviathan again. He had been underwater fro almost fifteen minutes when he found Leviathan. Ryan swam towards Leviathan as he pulled the dagger; the fallen angel mistook the dagger for Ryan's diving knife and brought his tail around to hit Ryan with it and Ryan sliced the end of the tail off. Leviathan came straight at Ryan and he sank the dagger into Leviathan head. Blood started to flow freely from Leviathan. The fallen angel was startled that the knife had drawn blood from him. He tried to swim away from Ryan but Ryan had a tight grip on Leviathan's neck. Ryan brought the dagger across the neck of Leviathan and slashed across the neck. Leviathan tried hard to shake Ryan loose from him. Ryan held tight and slashed again with the dagger and had almost cut through the fallen angel's neck. Ryan slashed again and finished the cut on Leviathan's head. Ryan released the head and it floated away from the fallen angel. The fallen angel's body burst into flames and disappeared. Ryan watched in awe as the fire burned underwater before Leviathan disappeared. Ryan swam back to the shore and exited the water. He removed his fins and walked back to his truck. Ryan removed all of his dive gear and stowed it back in the truck. He slipped out of his wet suit and dressed back in his clothes. Ryan climbed into the truck and drove back to his RV. Ryan unloaded the pickup and loaded everything back into the hauler part of the RV. He loaded his ATV and closed up the hauler. He put the tow bar onto the truck and hooked it onto the back of the RV. Ryan went into the RV and sat in one of the chairs. He wasn't sure what to do next as being underwater with Leviathan he never got to hear which of the seven princes he was to tackle next. Ryan got a beer from the cooler and sat back and relaxed. He dozed off and started dreaming about Maria, the dram was so wonderful when suddenly she changed from the beautiful Maria to a horned bearded fallen angel the name of Belphegore came to him in his dream.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ryan started the RV and headed for home, he was still shaken from the transformation of Maria's face to that of the fallen angel. He wondered why the fallen angel's name and appearance was given to him that way. Ryan would need to search Maria's laptop for information on Belphegore when he got home. It was late evening when Ryan pulled into his house. He parked the RV along the side of the house and went inside, he would take care of unpacking the RV in the morning..

Ryan took a shower and turned in for the night. He had a very restless night he kept dreaming of the shift from Maria to the fallen one. When Ryan woke he felt as though he had not slept a wink all night. He dressed and went to the RV, he unpacked all the clothes and food, then turned his attention to the back of the hauler. He unhitched the pickup and parked it in the back yard. He opened the back of the hauler and unloaded his weapons and stowed them. He unloaded his dive gear and stowed that as well. Ryan went into his house and took a shower and dressed again, he got out Maria's laptop and found the file on Belphegore. Ryan read the file and got all the information in the file on Belphegore, The one thing that Ryan paid attention to was how the fallen angel got his followers, using wealth to cause people to follow him. He would promise great wealth and then capture their soul. In his human form he was good looking and threw around money to convince people to follow him. In his angel form he was a haggard looking man with horns on his head. Now came the task of locating Belphegore, Ryan thought that he would be located somewhere that money being handed out would be normal and not paid much attention to. Ryan couldn't think of anyplace where cash being given away wouldn't draw attention so Ryan changed his train of thought, instead of cash what about wealth in the form of trading stocks, stock traders made millions of dollars and no one really noticed. Ryan's initial thought was New York City. He thought about it and decided that was not the place. There had to be a place where a lot of stock was traded and was a big banking town where lots of cash could be traded without drawing a lot of attention to it. Ryan now knew where he was going, Charlotte North Carolina.

Ryan restocked his RV, hooked up his pickup to the RV and set out for Charlotte. The drive would take three days and he wasn't in a big hurry Belphegore would be there when he got there.

Ryan had gotten maps of the Charlotte area and had studied them. By the time he arrived there he knew how to move around the city and all of the surrounding areas. Ryan found a small out of the way campground just across the state line in Fort Mill, SC. Ryan pulled the RV into his camping site, he unhooked the pickup and moved it next to the RV. He removed the tow bar and stowed it under the RV, he went into the Rv and got out the maps of the Charlotte area, Where to start his search? Ryan picked the downtown area of Charlotte, all the banking business was there, making it as good as spot as any to start.

Ryan folded his maps back up and went and got the pickup. He headed up the highway to Charlotte and made his way into downtown. He drove slowly around the various bank headquarters He wasn't sensing or seeing anything that might lead him to Belphegore; he knew that he had to be here, it just made sense.

Ryan parked his truck and started walking around the downtown area. He had been walking around and did not see a thing. It was almost sundown when he spotted two demons coming from the large bank building. They walked in the direction of the trolley and got on one of the cars. Ryan followed suite and rode the trolley and got off when the demons got off. He watched as they got into a car and drove out of the parking lot and turned onto the freeway onramp. Ryan walked back to the boarding ramp and waited for the next trolley headed back downtown. He got off at the same station that he got on at when he was following the demons. Ryan walked back to the parking lot where he had parked his truck earlier that day. He drove back to his RV with a stop for some fast food on the way.

Ryan decided he would scout out the area that the demons had headed the night before. He wanted to get a little better idea of the lay of the land. He would go back and wait at the parking lot where the demons had driven out of and follow them to their destination. It was hard to believe that the fallen would set up his operation right in the middle of the bible belt. Ryan arrived at the trolley parking lot just before the trolley arrived. He watch as the demons got off and walked to their car. They pulled out and Ryan followed them. The demons took the 485 interstate and drove until they got to the highway 74 east exit, they exited and drove thru a couple of towns until they came to highway 200 south they took that highway and drove out of town and took a country road to a small old building.

Ryan could tell by looking at the old building that at one time it had been a church. He drove past the where the demons had pulled in. Ryan continued on for a quarter of a mile and pulled over. Ryan got out of his truck and cut thru the corn field until he could see the old church building. As Ryan got closer to the building a light came on and the door opened. Ryan was able to duck behind an old Pecan tree. A demon walked out of the building and looked around. He went around the side of the building away from Ryan so he could not see what the demon was doing. The demon was gone for less than five minutes before he returned. The demon looked around again and went back inside. The door closed and the light went off. Ryan moved from behind the Pecan tree and made it to the side of the building. Ryan was able to see inside thru the window in the side of the building but could not see anything.

Ryan moved to the front of the building and slid up to the door. He tried the door knob and to his surprise the door knob moved and Ryan opened the door just far enough for him to see inside. Behind the door was a set of stairs that led down. There was no way to get into the main room of the old building from this door. A door opened at the bottom of the stairs and Ryan saw a couple of demons start up the stairs, he let go of the door and sprinted back to the Pecan tree just as the demons came thru the door. Ryan tried to see what the demons were doing but he couldn't get a clear look at them. The demons seemed to be excited about something their voices were loud and excited. Ryan dropped to the ground and slowly made his way back to the corn field. Once inside the corn field he stood and made his way at a quick pace to his truck.

Ryan got back into his truck and drove back to his RV. Getting into that building wasn't going to be easy. Ryan arrived back at the RV and opened the hauler; he selected the M16, the SAS Missile launcher, grenades and two pistols. He loaded them into his pickup and covered the bed with a tarp. He was going to be ready to roll in the morning.

*****

"You sent for me my Lord?" Barbados asked Lucifer.

"Yes, do you have any answers for me yet?"

"No my lord, we have not been able to capture the slayer as yet."

"What have we done to protect the remaining princes?"

"I have dispatched a legion of demons to them lord."

"Do you think that is enough and how many princes are left?"

"There are three my lord, but we haven't heard from Leviathan in almost a week."

"I told you I wanted his head and I wanted our brothers protected. You have failed me for the last time Barbados."

"My lord let me go to our brothers and I shall pick one and protect him with my life. I will check in everyday with you my lord. I beg of you."

"That Barbados is a good idea, go find yourself a prince to protect, if you come back you better have the slayer's head and the price better be alive. Now go."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Ryan arrived at the old church early the next morning he waited until he was sure that no other demons were going to be leaving. Ryan made his way to the door and slightly opened it. He could see the door at the bottom of the stairs. He removed two grenades from his belt, he pulled the pins on both grenades, he let the spoon fly on the first grenade and tosses it to the bottom of the stairs. He let the spoon fly on the second grenade and tossed it down the stairs. The first grenade blew and when it did it took the door at the bottom of the stairs and blew it inward. The second grenade rolled inside the room behind the door and blew up. Ryan pulled the door to the outside and stepped in. Demons were trying to move up the stairs thru the burning door at the bottom of the stairs Ryan tossed another grenade into the room at the bottom of the stairs and watched as pieces of demons flew everywhere when the grenade blew. He fired short bursts from the M16 into any demons that managed to make the stairs.

Ryan removed five grenades from his belt and pulled the pins and tossed them into the room as fast as he could. When the last grenade blew he moved the rest of the way down the stairs. Ryan was surprises to see that the room was empty; he searched the room trying to find some door or trap door. Ryan had no luck so he turned to go back up the stairs. Just as he took a step to the door his friends father Mr. Lee stood in the door. Mr. Lee looked at Ryan and said "Ah the student meets the master."

"Mr. Lee what are you doing here?"

"You seek Belphegore, to find him you must go thru me."

"Mr. Lee what are you saying, how can I face you. You are my teacher."

"Young one, Belphegore gave me what I could not get and that was wealth. For that you must get by me to get to him."

"Mr. Lee pulled his sword and moved toward Ryan. Ryan set down his M16 and removed his grenade belt; he held his hand out and called forth the Angel Sword. "Mr. Lee is the thing you really want?"

"Prepare to fight Ryan Simpson."

Ryan took the basic defense stance, Lee moved towards and thrust his sword at Ryan, and he easily blocked the thrust. Ryan came back across his head after the block and lee countered and blocked Ryan's swing. After the basic swings of the sword were done by both men the swings became faster and harder. Each man blocked the others movements of the sword. Ryan got the first strike slicing a deep cut to Lee's leg. On the back swing Lee blocked Ryan's swing and then came across and cut Ryan across his stomach. The two swords men fought each other for more then an hour. Both men had scored hits to each other. Ryan came across with his sword and Lee blocked it and parried the blade out of Ryan's hand.

Lee moved in on Ryan and brought his sword down to cut into Ryan, he rolled away from Lee's swing and caught Lee's feet and tripped him. As Lee started to fall he tucked himself into a ball and rolled over and came right to his feet. Ryan with a moment of time from Lee's fall called the sword back to his hand. Lee moved in again on Ryan and in a spinning motion Lee cut Ryan's left arm deep into the bicep. Ryan had cuts to both arms and legs he also had deep cuts to his chest and stomach. Ryan was loosing a lot of blood and was getting weaker the longer the fight went on.

Ryan thrust at Lee and blocked the move and came in close to Ryan and slammed his elbow into Ryan's face. The blow stunned Ryan and caused him to fall back. Lee moved in and tripped Ryan. The fall caused the sword to fall from Ryan's hand and slide across the floor. Lee moved in held the point of his blade to Ryan's throat.

"You see young Ryan the student can not defeat the master." Lee brought the sword across the chest of Ryan and cut a deep furrow across Ryan's chest. Ryan had lost a lot of blood and knew he was not going to beat Lee with a sword. "Mr. Lee before you kill me, tell me where can I find your master?"

"You can find him where you almost found all of the princes of hell on Mt. Sinai, in Saudi Arabia also known as Jabal al Lawz"

As soon as Lee told Ryan where to find his master Ryan pulled a nine millimeter pistol and shot lee in the head.

Ryan had been cut bad he was loosing a lot of blood. He had to make it back to his truck. Ryan stumbled several times climbing the stairs. when he reached the door to the outside he pushed it open and fell to the ground. Ryan was feeling the nausea and weakness over taking him. He pushed himself as hard as he could. It took over an hour but Ryan finally reached his truck, He climbed into the truck and finally passed out.

Ryan woke up feeling like every bone on his body had been broke; he looked around and realized he was in the RV. The RV was slowing and pulling off the road, he closed his eyes and wondered who had found him and knew about the RV. When he opened his eyes again he looked into the most beautiful angelic face he had ever seen. It was the face of Maria, Ryan looked again and saw that she wasn't and in angel form but rather human form. "Did they send you to take me home?" Ryan asked

"No my love they sent me back to help you."

"Why?"

"Not now you just rest and let me take care of getting us home."

"But....."

That's final and no arguments."

Ryan closed his eyes and went back to sleep the sleep was more induced by pain medication that Maria had given Ryan. It was better for Ryan to save his strength and heal then to worry about getting home or anything else.

Maria pulled the RV back onto the road and headed home. The drive took another day and a half to get back to Ryan's house; Maria pulled the RV into the side yard and helped Ryan into the house and into his bed. Ryan slept into the next morning.

When Ryan he went into the kitchen and made coffee, he was still trying to figure out how he got home. He had woken up several times and found himself in his own bed. Ryan went to the bathroom and looked at all the bandages that were on him. Someone had really taken care of him; though he hurt like hell he was glad to be alive.

Ryan poured a cup of coffee and went to the living room and was just reaching when Ryan heard someone in the spare room. Ryan opened the drawer on the coffee table and grabbed his pistol that he kept in there. He double checked to make sure that it was still loaded. He made himself as small as he could against the wall in the hallway, when he reached the s[are bedroom door he reached for the knob and just as he was going to take it in his hand the door flew open. Standing there was Maria, "What are you doing here you're an Angel." Ryan asked.

"No I'm not I use to be an Angel." She replied.

Ryan looked totally confused nit sure what to say. "Go to the living room and sit down, I'll try to explain." Maria said.

Ryan turned around and headed back into the living room. He put his pistol away and sat down on the couch. Maria walked into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee and came into the living room and sat next to Ryan.

"Let me see where to start, I guess the best place to start is where this all started. When I was stabbed I didn't die, the bones you buried were not mine. They were that of a female demon. The lord took me away complete; if you had buried my bones then I would have died. I was put into a place where I wasn't dead but I wasn't alive. I was allowed to appear to you a couple of times. I think the best way to put it is that it was a test that you needed to pass."

"A test, why would they give me a test?"

"Our Lord God wanted to see where your heart stood. You almost failed the test when you said you were going to quit. If your heart was not with the Lord he would have let me die, but you stayed and the lord brought me back to help you."

"God I thank him for that and I'm glad you're here, I need everything you can get for me on Belphegore. I have gone over everything you had left me. But I want to know how he is tied to Mt. Sinai, also known as Jabal al Lawz."

"I'll get your info but you're not going anywhere until your healed."

"But..."

"No butts you're grounded until two weeks from today period."

Ryan knew when to keep his mouth shut, and this was a time. He also told Maria about Mr. Lee his teacher on the sword. Ryan knew that Maria would not let him do anything that would cause his recovery to slow,

"Maria I am going to make a phone call, I need to replace some of my weapons. I promise that I won't move from the couch."

"Ok but remember I'm watching you."

Ryan picked up the phone and called Jim. "Hey buddy I need you to come over if you can." Ryan asked.

"Not a problem I'll be there within the hour."

"Thanks buddy, I'll see you then."

Ryan hung up the phone and asked Maria if she could bring him another cup of coffee. Maria got him another cup and poured the rest of the pot into a carafe and brought it to Ryan. "Here you go and don't get up."

"I won't except to answer the door when Jim gets here."

"No I'll answer the door you just stay there and rest."

"Ok I won't."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Jim arrived as promised and Maria answered the door. Jim was shocked to see her. She just looked at Jim and said "Don't ask and I won't lie to you."

Jim just shrugged his shoulders and went to the couch to sit next to Ryan. "What's up buddy?" Jim asked.

"I need your help; I really had the crap kicked out of me on my last assignment I'm grounded for the next two weeks. I need some weapons replaced and I need to get the truck off of the RV, and get everything in the hauler unloaded and put away." Ryan handed the list of weapons to Jim.

"How fast do you need all of this?"

"A week or two is ok, but the sooner the better so I don't need to worry about it." Ryan said.

"You got it my friend."

Jim put the weapons list in his pocket and went out side and took care of all of the things on and in the RV. Jim stuck his head back in the door and told Ryan and Maria he would see them later.

Maria came to Ryan and produced the information that he had requested on Mt. Sinai. Maria looked at Ryan and said "you're not going to like this."

Ryan read the first page of the info and when he turned to the second page he just said "Oh no, this is not going to happen yet."

"What's that Ryan."

"This says that Mt. Sinai is now the earthly home of Satan. I am in no way ready to take on the devil."

"Read more, it will tell you that Satan and Lucifer are not the same." Ryan continued to read and as Maria said Satan and Lucifer were not the same. Lucifer the ruler of the underworld is the same as the devil and Satan is his brother and a prince of hell. That makes it easier but knowing he is going to have to face two of the toughest fallen at the same time won't be easy.

The next two weeks passed by quickly and Ryan was ready to go. He was almost completely healed. He was ready to start his task again. Ryan went to his shop and packed all of the weapons he thought he would need. There was no hotel to stay at anywhere close so they would have to rough it in a tent. Ryan found the dagger in his weapons stash but could not find the sword. Ryan called the sword forward but it did not appear. Ryan feared he had lost the sword, he would continue to call the sword every chance he got.

"I want to change planes in Atlanta on our trip to Saudi Arabia, I hope when we fly of the Charlotte on our way to New York I can recall the sword or else we are in trouble, as I won't be able to slay the fallen."

Maria made the arrangements to connect thru Atlanta then on to New York then onto Riyadh and a final stop in Medina. Ryan figured at cruising speed he should be able to recall the sword thirty minutes after they leave Atlanta. Once he discovered he could call the sword it was easy, if it comes to him, he wasn't sure if he could send it to the scabbard.

They left the house and headed for the airport and checked in for their flight. The flying time to Atlanta was three and a half hours, then a two hour flight to New York. They landed in Atlanta and made their way to the new gate and checked in. They boarded the flight and took their seats in First Class. The flight took off and Ryan started his count down timer. Once they had been in the air twenty minutes Ryan went into the rest room, he started calling the sword right away, ten minutes passed and the sword had not appeared in his hand Twenty minutes passed and still nothing Ryan was about to give up but made one last call and the sword appeared in his hand. That solved one problem, he now had his sword but now he needed to find a way to get it into the scabbard. Ryan had brought his golf club bag and had put the scabbard in it. Ryan thought scabbard and to his surprise the sword disappeared. Ryan just hopped that it went to where he wanted it. He came out of the bathroom looked at Maria and nodded. The remainder of the flight went smooth. They landed in Riyadh 14 hours after leaving San Diego. They had a 2 hour layover in Riyadh before they caught the final leg to Medina. They grabbed a quick bite to eat then went to their gate and checked in for the flight. Once boarding was call they got on the airplane and were soon in the air for Medina. The flight time to Medina was only half an hour so just as they got settled into their seats the plane landed in Medina,

The left the airport and went to The Medina Grand Mosque hotel. When they checked into their room the clerk told them that they had several packages and they would deliver them to the room. As soon as Maria and Ryan got into the room Ryan opened the golf bag and checked for the Angel Sword. It was in the scabbard just as Ryan had asked it to do. Shortly after they got into their room the car rental company arrived and they had a Hummer for them. Ryan went down and signed for the Hummer and parked it in the hotel lot. Ryan called the desk and asked them if the boxes had been sent to their room yet and they told him no. He asked them to hold the boxes and he would be down in a few minutes and he would take them out to his rental.

Ryan looked to Maria and said "Babe we might want to get a good meal tonight because we will be roughing it and eating MRE meals until we are done here."

"That's a good idea, I've never eaten an MRE how are they?"

"I've eaten better and I've eaten worse, but for the most part they are ok."

They decided to eat in the hotel restaurant and when they finished they went and got the boxes from the desk clerk and loaded them into the Hummer. When they finished that they went up to their room and turned in for the night.

*****

Barbados met with Belphegore and Satan "I know that you are both aware that the slayer has slain five of our brother all of whom were princes, You two are the last two princes and are most likely next on his list. I have been sent by our lord and master Lucifer to stand between you and the slayer. Now before you go getting upset I also brought with me two legions of demons. If I can not protect you both then I will suffer the wrath of Lucifer. If I can protect you he has promised to make me a prince."

Belphegore said, "I do not have a problem with that, do you have a plan on how to defeat the slayer?"

"At this point I am planning on using the two extra legions of demons to put a stop to him on the trail up the mountain, should he get past the demons then I will face him alone and take him down. Should I fail then you are on your own."

"What has given him the ability to kill an angel? God promised he would never kill one of us, and he promised us that one angel can never hurt another? Asked Satan.

"The only thing that we think is that he has an Angel Sword in his position."

"But we know that the sword is a myth." Said Satan.

"No it is not a myth; I have seen the original sword with my own eyes. Lucifer has it locked away in the throne room."

"I say let him come he can face the three of us together, he could never beat the three of us." Said Satan.

The other two fallen agreed with Satan, the three of them would face the slayer together.
CHAPTER THIRTY

Ryan and Maria arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai, also known as Jabal al Lawz. Ryan set up the camp site. He unloaded the boxes and laid out the weapons he would be using. Ryan packed his back pack and guessed he would be carrying just a little bit more then two hundred pounds of extra weight in extra ammo, grenades and the SAS rounds. In addition he would be carrying the M-16, and the SAS Launcher, with the two heavy weapons added he would be carrying two hundred and thirty pounds going up a mountain.

Ryan finished everything and sat down on one of the folding chairs and got a bottle of water from the cooler. He picked up the binoculars, and started scanning the mountain side. "Oh, oh a little trouble." he said

"What's the matter Ryan?"

"Demons on the mountain side and a lot of them and they are covering the trail up the mountain."

"How are you going to deal with them?"

"I'm going to start from right here tonight when they won't expect an attack."

"With what that's a long way?"

"Just wait we have about an hour until night fall. I'll light up their light and make them wish they were in the lake of fire instead of being on that mountain side."

"I want to see that."

Ryan went to the truck and got out the SAS launcher; he unpacked the five boxes of missiles and laid them out. He called over Maria and showed her how to shoot the launcher and how to load it. By the time he finished with the lesson he told her to sit back and watch the fireworks.

Ryan grabbed the night vision goggles and slipped them on. He then looked thru the scope on the SAS launcher. He found a small group of demons about three hundred feet up the trail. Ryan sighted in on the group and squeezed the trigger the missile shot out the tube and slammed into the wall of the mountain right behind the demons. The resulting explosion killed the group of twenty to twenty five demons.

"Wow that packs a punch." Maria said.

"You haven't seen anything yet."

Ryan found another group of demons about fifty feet above the first group and another group twenty feet above them. Ryan saw the outcropping of rock and sighted the launcher on that. He fired again and the missile did its jib and brought all of the rocks on that outcropping down on the demons. Scratch another hundred demons; this was like picking fleas off of a dog. Ryan spotted a small cave above the last group. He caught a demon crawling and enter the cave. Ryan sighted and sent another missile on the way, the cave was covered completely from the rock slide caused by the missile.

It was around three in the morning when Ryan put up the launcher, he had fired forty five of the fifty missiles in the case. He looked at Maria and said, "I don't know how many demons were up there but there aren't as many now as there was. That's all for tonight though."

"What time do you plan on going up the side of the mountain?"

"Whatever time we wake up."

"Then lets turn I want to watch you in action from down here." They turned in for the night. Ryan had set up sleeping bags side by side for them.

The sun had been up for about an hour when Ryan unzipped his sleeping bag. He started the coffee and had breakfast almost ready when Maria came out of the small tent. "MMMM smells good." She said.

"I'm glad you like it, as soon as we finish eating I'm headed up the mountain."

"I'll be praying for you."

"Thanks babe."

After breakfast Ryan strapped on the grenade belt and hoisted the pack onto his back. He reached over and kissed Maria and said "see you soon."

Ryan headed up the side of the mountain; he ha climbed almost five hundred feet when he ran into a group of demons. There were all huddled in one mass and they didn't see Ryan until it was too late. The grenade landed in the middle of the group and sent pieces of demons in all directions when it exploded. Ryan moved past the location where the grenade exploded. He moved another two hundred feet higher and found a cave, he heard movement inside it and pulled the pin on two grenades and tossed them into the cave. The opening of the cave closed by the blast causing a cave-in. Ryan had been climbing for almost six hours and he decided to take a break on a flat level piece of ground, he took off his pack and he opened a bottle of water and took a drink, as he set the bottle down a shadow came over his seat. He looked up and saw three of the fallen standing in front of him. "I assume that two of you are fallen angels." He said.

"You assume wrong slayer, the three of us are. You should never have come up the mountain; you will meet your fate here."

"Well before we get started let me know who each of you are."

"Fair enough, it is always nice to know who is going to kill you."

"I am Barbados, Duke of hell."

"I am Belphegore, one of the seven princes of hell."

"I am Satan, one of the princes of hell and brother to Lord Lucifer."

"Very nice, I am Ryan Simpson the slayer and I am going to kill all three of you."

Ra

Ryan held out his hand and called forth the Angel Sword, and stood to face the three fallen. Barbados was the first one to come at Ryan, He came in with a huge fist intent on clobbering Ryan in the head. Ryan ducked under the fist and brought the sword across Barbados's mid section cutting a deep furrow across his stomach. Ryan kept the sword moving and cut the left hand of Belphegore off. It fell to the ground and Ryan moved towards Satan who easily moved out of the way. His fist slammed into Ryan's back and knocked him to the ground. Ryan jumped right back to his feet before any of the fallen could take advantage of him being on the ground.

Belphegore moved to attack Ryan and Ryan thrust the sword thru his heart, Ryan pulled the sword out and spun and cut the head off of him. Ryan spun again and slammed the butt of the sword into Satan's face. Ryan kicked out at Barbados and knocked him to the ground. Ryan swung the sword and cut off one of his legs. Satan charged Ryan in anger, Ryan fell to the ground and tripped Satan. As Satan fell Ryan sliced with the sword and cut off one of Satins wings. Ryan rolled over and brought the sword up and stabbed Barbados. Ryan flipped over and pulled the sword and swung it at Satan. Satan brought up his arm to block the sword and felt it cut deep into his arm and watched as the arm fell to the ground.

Barbados tried to gain his feet and Ryan slammed the butt of the sword into his head. The angel fell flat. Ryan pulled a grenade from his belt and pushed it into the mouth of Barbados. He pulled the pin and pushed the fallen off of the cliff. Ryan lost sight of him but heard the explosion.

Satan stood before the slayer and charged him. Ryan in one smooth move brought the sword up and cleanly sliced the head off of Satan. Ryan waited for a short while and Barbados did not return. Ryan started the climb back down the trail and in less time then it took him to climb up he was own on the ground and walking to Maria.

Maria ran over to Ryan and kissed him. She then asked, "Did you do that show for me?"

Ryan at a loss asked "What show?"

"I watched the fallen angel come over the side of the cliff, he fell for a bit and then his wings caught him. He started to fly up when the head exploded pieces of him went everywhere and then burst into flames and then he was gone."

"I would like to take credit for the show but all I did was push the grenade into his mouth and push him over the cliff."

"Ryan sat down and asked Maria to sit beside him. "Babe, there are no longer any princes in hell, I just killed the last one."

"You mean we can go home and stay there a while?"

"For a little while"

Ryan and Maria arrived back in San Diego and hoped to get a little vacation in before the Lord God sent them on their way again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in Pinellas Park, Florida. I joined the Navy at 17 and retired after completing 20 years of active service. I served aboard 5 different ships, most of them home ported in San Diego, Ca., the last one being the USS Reid, which fired the first shots of the first Persian Gulf war. After my military career I move to Mt. Pulaski, Illinois where I worked for Bridgestone/Firestone Tires in one of their manufacturing plants, I retired from Firestone. I moved to Charlotte, NC and returned to the work force with Continental Tires, at one of their manufacturing plants. I'm retired today devoting my time to writing and traveling I have been married to my wonderful wife Angel for 10 years we have 3 daughters and 1 son and 8 grand children.

If you like this book please leave a review at the site you downloaded it from. Good reviews or bad I read them all (I hope it is a good one though), The reviews are a good way for me to make my writing better.
