Jesus Triumphant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 8) by Brian Godawa Read Free Book Online Page B

domain that gave it access to the many lakes, seas and rivers of the earth. Leviathan was the force of chaos that Yahweh had tamed for his purposes. He had emptied the sea monster’s jaws at the War of Gods and Men before the Great Flood. He crushed the heads of Leviathan at the Red Sea in order to establish his covenant with Israel, a covenant that was understood as a creation of the heavens and earth. Subjugation of the dragon and the waters was the mark of sovereign authority and the power to create order out of tohu wabohu , the formless void.
    The gods were not here for Leviathan this evening. They were at Panias for another purpose. The waters of the Abyss also operated as a passageway that linked the earth above with the underworld below. Panias had a nickname throughout the land. It was called the Gates of Hades.
    The Ob entered a trance-like state and swayed like a serpent amidst the floating clouds of incense. Her pupils expanded to fill her eyes. No whites were left, only black pools of darkness. Obs were necromancers who called up the dead. The Ob and her nymphs were opening the Gates of Hades.
    The gods went to the ledge and cast a piece of silver into the pit as a payment for their request. Then, one after the other, they used a sacrificial dagger to cut their palms and squeeze their blood into the pit.
    Next came the sacrifice. Usually, a black pig or other special animal was slaughtered and laid at the edge for its blood to mix with that of the supplicant, to aid in calling up the spirits. But there was none. The nymphs were confused. They were normally given the dead pig to lay at the edge. But there was no pig to offer.
    The Ob twitched and spasmed and spoke in foreign languages in a voice not her own. It was the language of Babel.
    The three gods approached the nymphs like feline predators, their eyes fixed, their steps smooth and ready to spring. Then the nymphs realized why there was no animal to sacrifice. They were to be the sacrifice.
    Each god grabbed two nymphs, one in each hand, and broke their necks. One of them got out a scream before being stifled by death.
    Pan was disappointed. That poor slave was his favorite. He would never be able to embrace her sexually again. He considered doing so with her dead body as a last goodbye, but thought better of it when the howling sounds ascended from the pit deep below. They had to complete the ritual.
    They cut the throats of the nymphs and placed them at the edge of the cliff. Their blood dripped down the ledge from their limp, broken forms.
    The howling increased.
    The Ob fell to the floor in a fit of seizure. She called out in her magnified croaking voice, “NEPHILIM, ARISE! COME FORTH FROM THE DARK EARTH TO FULFILL YOUR DESTINY!”
    The ground around the precipice rumbled and all went quiet. Deathly quiet. The air had been sucked out of the cave and down into the pit, and all sound with it.
    They waited in the vacuum of silence.
    The Nephilim were the Fallen Ones, the Seed of the Serpent, and because they were heavenly hybrids, when they were killed in the Flood and thereafter, their spirits became disembodied demons. Now they were being called up en masse to finish the war they had started in primeval days, but this time as unclean spirits who inhabited the land and the people.
    Demons could only possess those who invited them in. But unfortunately for Israel, many Jews violated the first commandment of Yahweh’s Ten Words from Sinai, and worshipped the Canaanite gods. This failure gave the spiritual forces of this present darkness a grip of influence over Israel. She was infested with demons.
    Another rumble, followed by the reverse of the sucking wind, and a gust of unimaginable force blew out of the pit, like a huge corpse reviving with breath. The gods fell to the ground before the whirlwind. It was like opening a crypt that sucked the surrounding air and began to breathe.
    And then, it all stopped dead.
    A new rush of sound took its place. A