Chapter IV

The smell of bus exhaust mixed with perfume, and food, and the oblivious minds of the innocent . . .

He sat at the back of the bus, his oddly-colored eyes closed, listening to the music playing through his ear-buds from his smartphone. There was so much to enjoy about the Earth Plain. So much to experience.

He could smell everything.

Hear everything.

Feel . . . everything.

Without opening an eye, he knew that the girl a few seats in front of him was anxious to meet her friends. They were going to go out later and meet some English boys they had partied with the night before at one of the large clubs they frequented.

Three rows up and to the right was an elderly Frenchman who had recently lost his sun while serving in the French Foreign Legion as a bomb disposal technician. There was a group of young Spanish men, away for a weekend, looking for excitement.

And somewhere, nearby, was a young girl whose father worked at a university in Madrid. And at that university they were about to embark on a project to pull up a meteor that had been located off of the coast of Spain.

This meteor was unlike any the scientific world had ever encountered, and it contained a very special gift.

It held a sword.

This sword, unknown to all but a few, had been forged by God. It was one of five swords given to the five Arc Angels who protected heaven. This one sword, in particular had belonged to the Light Bringer . . . Lucifer himself.

It had been decreed by God, that when that sword spilled the first drop of innocent blood on Earth, the war between Heaven and Hell would ignite.

And Cael Lucien was here to collect it . . . and start the End of Days.