The Story of Apollyon

The Great Holy War

— And they were but two hundred men, who in the days of Jared came down to the top of Mount Hermon, and called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual oaths upon it. And these are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, their leader, Araklba, Ramil, Kokabel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezekiel, Barakijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zakiel, Samsapiel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs by the dozens.
Samayaza doubts the plan to take human brides as wives....

(the beginning of the bloodiest war in Creation)....

  After the Great Conflict, there was a lull, Heaven and the Council decided to send angels, the Watchers, to Earth. They served early humanity as vast repositories of information about the intricacies of civilisation, and their dedication was unparalleled. At first they were called Watchers, for their job was to observe humanity, lending a helping hand when needed, but not interfering with the course of humanity. They practically witnessed and heard everything that happened on Earth, they were messengers and intermediaries between Earth and Heaven. Everything that was happening on Earth was seen and predetermined by the Watchers on behalf of God.

The conflict begins, however, when the Watchers abdicate their duties. They watched over the children of men as they procreated and were obsessed with the beauty of the daughters of men, taking them as wives to bear them children.
Samayaza feared that not everyone would agree with this idea and the punishment for such a sin would fall only on him. The ten chiefs of the Watchers took an oath that meant they could not abandon this plan, and this oath also bound them to each other, meaning that any punishment would fall on all. Eventually, at the urging of their leader Samayaza, 200 Watchers defected en masse to illegally train and live with the humans.

The Chief Watchers shared forbidden knowledge and secrets, teaching humanity all sorts of charms and spells such as weapons, cosmetics, mirrors, sorcery, and other techniques that humans would otherwise discover gradually instead of gaining immediately. The offspring from these unions that the Grigori spawned were hideous, ugly monsters known in demonic circles as Nephilim, over 4,000 feet tall. The Nephilim were ferocious and powerful beings that humanity could not control, and eventually the giants rose up against them, pillaging and destroying everything in their path.

Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel observed this lawless and unrighteous behaviour and decided they must act. Turning to God, their father informed them that the only way to ensure the complete and final destruction of mankind was to destroy everything else and start over.

The situation escalated to the point where the people, driven by their newfound arrogance, dared to demand an audience with God and even attempted to raid Heaven itself to uncover the secrets of Paradise held by God.

Noah soon turned to the Watchers and informed them of God's plan, causing the Watchers to beg him to draw up a petition, trembling with fear and asking for forgiveness. However, God answered Noah in a dream that the petition was rejected because the Watchers would not be forgiven and would not ascend to Heaven. The petition on behalf of their children was also rejected, they would have to watch as the Nephilim were killed right before their eyes.

Apollyon, clearly enraged, returns to Earth just as Cockabiel is about to kill the angel Anaiel, rescues her and calms everyone who witnessed what is happening.
  Upon arrival, Apollyon demands that everyone leave the place and lunges at Cockabiel, who lowers the ground beneath his feet and throws it at Apollyon. The archangel easily shatters the ground before responding to Cockabiel with a blow for blow, resulting in a massive explosion. Ignoring the angel of the stars' distrust of his power, Apollyon tells one of the leaders of the Gregorys that the Trial of Mankind was extremely important, more important than any of them can imagine. Explaining that it was a symbol of their determination to move forward, Apollyon angrily declares that he will not forgive Cockabiel for trampling all their dreams.

Apollyon and Cockabielle continue to fight as equals until Sataniel breaks the connection to Heaven, causing everyone from Heaven to lose power, allowing Cockabielle to gain the upper hand.  The Destroyer soon falls to the ground and takes a few blows from his opponent, who tells him that without Heaven, he is nothing more than trash. After their magical power returns due to Sataniel's defeat, Apollyon grabs Cockabiel's foot as he tries to step on it and jokingly tells him that he can no longer be a caretaker after taking such damage from him. After throwing Cockabiel back, the fallen angel cheerfully tells Apollyon that it's time to get serious, and prepares his Black Hole.

Apollyon starts to get sucked in, and he asks what it is. Cockabiel replies that it is a point of infinite gravity that swallows everything, and then shouts to Apollyon to fly. Apollyon then uses his magic to smash and destroy Cockabiel's black hole. Afterwards, he asks Cockabiel if he wants to be sent flying. After striking Cockabiel with his "Shattering Evil, Spreading Truth: Empyreus", Apollyon defeats the fallen angel and sends him into a spiralling flight into the heavens.
  Later, Apollyon complains that he can't move and that he must really be getting old.

The destruction of Hyperborea

Hyperborea — lost continent that was once located at the North Pole and was divided into four countries by four major rivers.
Hyperborea was ruled by the legendary Hyperboreans, a people who lived in the northernmost part of the known world and were considered to be the first race of humans, directly descended from Adam, Eve, and Naamah. Although the Hyperboreans lived in a cold part of the world, they were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate and god-blessed land. In many versions of the story, they lived north of the Riphean Mountains, which protected them from the cold north wind.

Rahab had a hand in the destruction of the Hyperboreans because of his undying love for them. Although they were God's creation, Rahab saw that their development and transformation into a golden kingdom shining on the surface of the ocean was not without his participation, and he came to claim his rights over them. He loved them so much that he would not even allow the likes of the Devil to reach the Hyperboreans. This created a fierce hatred between Rahab and the Devil, as the sea was the one area over which the Devil had no power, even though he proclaimed himself to be the God of Peace. Although he could not set foot on the land of Hyperborea, his children, and in this case Cain, the Father of Murder, could. Unbeknownst to Rahab, the Devil had directed Cain to the continent of Hyperborea, where he could perhaps once again find meaning in his miserable existence, and Cain sailed towards Hyperborea.

Hyperborea unfortunately fell into decline with the arrival of Cain, which led to idolatry. Cain's presence in Hyperborea began to distort the nature of the people. The Hyperboreans began to sin and wreak havoc in their realm, tarnishing the gift that had been so generously given to them by Rahab. But what really decided the fate of the Hyperboreans was their worship of the fallen and demons. In a fit of rage and desperation to protect the Hyperboreans and against the orders of Heaven, Rahab invaded the continent, flooding vast tracts of land, and even ripped off a chunk of the continent in a fit of rage, sensing the contagion of the Supostat and worse, the Ancient Evil, and did not allow it to fall into their hands and be seduced by the split tongue of the serpent or tainted by the Ancient Evil.

Suddenly the four of them - one Firstborn and several younger ones - realised how horrible everything they were doing was. An initially noble goal eventually turned into an excuse for the Nashimami to terrorise a good half of the Universe. Realising that the shroud of self-deception had fallen from their eyes, they banded together and abandoned their brethren. Of course, they regarded them as cowards and traitors and were not particularly saddened by their departure. For the time being.

Four of the rebels went to the Celestial Temple to atone for their sins by swearing allegiance to Equilibrium.

The Council was not tempted by such temptations, so they agreed, but only on a number of conditions. The first was to renounce their brothers and their past. To do this, the Nashim had to choose new names for themselves. The second condition was that the Nashim had to prove that they were worthy to become executors of the Council. To do this, each of them had to ride a Ghost Horse. Considering that these animals cannot be conquered by weapons, only by willpower, the task was not an easy one. And the third condition of the Heavenly Council, which was the most important one, was as follows: After fulfilment of the first two conditions, the four sworn Nashimians would receive the status of Horsemen of the Apocalypse (that is, they would become the official executors of the will of the Council of Elders, as well as their loyal soldiers and executioners), immediately after which they would embark on their first mission - the destruction of the army of the corrupted and defiled Nashim.

(That's how the dreaded Horsemen came to be. Their first task was to kill their brothers...)

Not without heartache and bleeding hearts, the four newly minted Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death, Discord, Fury and War, set out to fulfil their vows. They caught up with their brothers soon enough and engaged them in battle several times, killing several hundred each time.

Seeing where this was going, Apollyon and Gabriel, place with some of the Nashim who had not fallen into vice, decided to confront the angel of the depths and those who had fallen into vice.

Apollyon and Gabriel descended from heaven and quickly defeated the fallen angel of the depths. Despite a fierce struggle, he was unable to withstand the might of the great archangels. As punishment, it was imprisoned in its domain along with the creatures it had once sworn to protect. From there it ordered its master to slay the surrounding Krakens that were feeding on the Hyperboreans trying to escape across the sea, and defeated Rahaba himself. He then used the corpses of the slain Kraken to bind the fallen angel to the depths of the ocean by making chains from their entrails. As a result, the angel was cast out of the heavenly plane and imprisoned in the oceans of the world, unable to rise to the surface of the water to ask forgiveness for his misdeeds.
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In the meantime, the Nashim had reached a city called Aleppo. As it turned out at the moment of their arrival, the Jinn who lived there, having learnt that the horde was rushing towards them, hired an army of demons who joined them in the battle. Nothing is known about the Horsemen's participation in the battle, but from what Death remembers of the Nashiyim disposing of the corpses of their enemies after the battle, they were at least present. Presumably, they also fought on the side of the Djinn.

Meanwhile, the world had learnt about the so-called Promised Land, the Garden of Eden. It is the place closest to Paradise - a garden full of beauty, peace and pleasure. According to the plan of the Creator who created it, this land was to be given to a new race - people. However, they turned out to be unworthy and therefore were deprived of the opportunity to dwell there and were banished to a new reality, which became the World of People. They learnt where their forefather Adam had come from.

''According to some legends, the mountain on which Adam stepped when he descended to Earth is located in Sri Lanka. It's Adam's Mountain (2,240 metres). It is also known as the nearest point to Eden.''

On learning this, Absalom set out to lead his people to the Garden of Eden and take over the land. The Heavenly Council realised this almost immediately, and so the Horsemen of the Apocalypse were ordered to join forces with the army of Heaven and wait for the Nashime at the foot of the mountain.

The battle at the foot of the mountain was the last battle for the Nashime army. The Horsemen and angels destroyed it, and its commander-in-chief, Absalom, was killed by Death (the only Firstborn of the Horsemen) with his own hands. Unlike his soldiers, who, when they died, were sent in the form of souls into an amulet that Death brought with him, Absalom dissolved into darkness.

(The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)

Apollyon only got there towards the end of the battle, what he saw shocked him, but he did not let himself waver. Upon meeting the Four Horsemen, Apollyon decided to give them the four rings of their father Adam, which multiplied their powers many times over. Death also gave the amulet containing the souls of the Nashim to Apollyon for safekeeping.

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Uriel is sent to warn Noah of the coming Flood, Raphael is sent to punish Azazel by binding him and throwing him into Dudael, Gabriel is sent to destroy the half-breeds as well as the children of men born in sin, he does this by instigating a great battle between them. Finally, Michael binds the leaders of the Watchers, along with all the other Watchers who have defiled themselves with unions with human women, dooming them for the rest of their long lives. This punishment served as retribution for the chaos and corruption they had wrought upon humanity.

Later, God sends the Great Flood to completely cleanse the earth of the Nephilim, and casts the Watchers into Sheol for eternity.

Apollyon stood on top of a mountain that was high enough that its peak towered over the giant tsunami. Only then could he truly look around, and his heart seemed to stop.

There was nothing everywhere but a huge mass of water. Everything that existed had been swallowed up by the sea. Nothing survived, everything was crushed by the immense force of the water. Now the only scenery was the ocean as far as the horizon, still raging, upon which the raindrops continued to fall.

Apollyon fell to his knees. All his strength seemed to have left him, but he still had the strength to raise his head slightly towards the sky.

(Apollyon sheds tears)

It was the first time in his life that he had ever asked God to explain to him what was going on. He had never done it before and never thought he would speak to God like this. But now he couldn't help but ask Him the reasons for such cruelty as the ocean continued to resonate with this chorus of voices.

Apollyon turned slightly towards him, looking at him again. The Angel of Waters looked at him with a mixture of disgust, contempt, and disapproval. "It's over," he said in a harsh voice. "This memory of me has waited so long and has finally been satisfied. This world has met its end ... and it's all your fault. If you had done what you were supposed to do from the beginning, none of this would have happened." He said, grinning: "Being too good is as much a sin as being too evil. Remember that the next time you feel like showing mercy to a bad person. You said it yourself... ruthlessness is mercy to ourselves, and now you know it for sure too.

And as he said these last words, he seemed to turn into a liquid and disappear into the ocean with a drop of rain falling from the sky. Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of thunder and the waves. Apollyon was left alone, kneeling on the top of the mountain, which was slowly being flooded by the rising water.

Apollyon stood motionless on top of the mountain, watching as the vast ocean around him continued to rise, crashing down on what was left of the mountain. The rain continued to pour down on his face, but he barely heard it, just as he barely heard the thunder. His mind, his heart, everything in him was empty.

It was over...

It really was over.

Humanity was gone.

As he sank into the abyss of misery... at that moment, a flash cut through the sky, much brighter than the others, illuminating the ocean as if it were day.

Apollyon instantly froze in place, For, he had just seen the bright light finally dispel the darkness of the storm clouds, and a shadow appeared in the distance. A shadow in which the shape of a giant ship was unmistakably recognisable.

There was silence for a moment, and he spread his wings and took off, heading for that vessel.

He reached it in less than a minute, but that was a long time considering his very fast wings; the craft seemed close, but it was actually very far away from where he had been before. He could see it so well, not because it was close, but because it was huge: it was about 135 metres long, 15 metres high, and 23 metres wide, maybe more, and it looked more like a fortress than a real ship, as if a hull had been built around it at the last minute.

He didn't care where the ship had come from, who was on her, or how she hadn't fallen to pieces from the giant wave that had swept over the world. All he cared about was that if there was a ship there was someone alive. And he could see that the ship was struggling to keep up with the waves and the wind and could tilt dangerously sideways.

He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let the last surviving humans be swallowed by the water. Whatever their reason for being here, they had to live.

He thundered towards the hull, grabbed it and pushed, levelling the ship until it began to lurch to the other side. Apollyon started to pull it to level it again, but suddenly the ship levelled itself. He, suddenly felt a very strong presence, someone must have been on the other side of the board to support him as he was doing himself. He mentally thanked whoever it was, and then continued to push the hull so that the ship would not assume any other position than upright.

Finally, at the end of the fortieth day, the rain stopped.

It happened almost suddenly: one moment the clouds were rumbling and pouring torrents of water, and the next they ceased. Gradually they dispersed, and the sunlight illuminated the earth again. And when this happened, something new appeared that had never been seen before: a huge arch, woven of seven colours, cut the sky in half, revealing to the world a beautiful sight that almost no one else could admire.

Apollyon felt his heart ache when he saw this sight, the first rainbow in history. He knew that light hitting water could create colours, he remembered in Adam's memories seeing it several times in Eden, but this was the first time such a phenomenon had appeared in the sky. He never thought he would see the sky streaked with seven bright colours. Perhaps that was why he took it as a good omen, as if someone had assured him that the flood was really over and that it would never happen again.

Apollyon, detached himself from the hull of the ship and soared above the deck of the vessel. A panting angel appeared beside him. He recognised her as Michael both tired and wet, but Apollyon still wore a robe stained with the blood of the enemies he had killed.
Even forty days in the rain had not been enough to wash it away.

And then the men came on deck, led by an elderly but still sturdy man with a grey beard and lively eyes. Some of them were a little frightened when they saw him, still covered in blood, but their patriarch only smiled at the two angels: "Thank you for your help, messengers of the Most High."

- Noah," Michael greeted him. - How did you manage to escape? The last time I saw you, at the end of that bloody demon invasion, that boat was just a fortress on land...

"That's true," Noah confirmed. "But just as you left to take care of the rest of the planet and prepare for another attack, the Almighty sent an angel to me. He warned me that a flood like no one had ever seen before was coming, and that I should build an enclosure around my fortress to turn it into an ark. I immediately set to work and finished just in time. When the water rose, God made sure that the ark would rise smoothly and not be swept away like everything else.

Apollyon's eyes widened. So... God had allowed even a small fraction of humanity to survive? Had He saved Noah, the last descendant of Seth, his family, and the last good people left after the war happened and wiped out everyone else? Did He warn Noah ahead of time so that he could act quickly and build an enclosure around the fortress in which he protected the remnants of good humanity and other animal species so that it would rise up and carry them to safety when the waters began to flood the entire Earth?

He looked down and saw Noah addressing him. "I've never seen you before, so I don't know who you are, but we owe you our lives too. Without your help in holding the hull together we would not have been able to keep the ark stable," he said with a smile and then opened his arms as if inviting him to follow, "The Almighty has clearly guided you to our path. Would you be so kind as to stay and help us? When the sea recedes and we need to rebuild the Earth's ecosystems, we will need your help....

Help?

Him?

Of all creatures. God sent him there... to help humanity again?

Was that what he must have thought?

No...

No.

He'd had enough.

I.

He had.

He flew away.

Apollyon crashed into the surface of the mountain with such force as if it had been hit by an asteroid: the impact was so powerful that it shattered part of the peak. He rolled over on his back breathing heavily, not knowing what to do, he looked at the sky silently asking what would happen next...

Suddenly he heard crying, the sound stopped Apollyon's rapidly beating heart. He jumped up from his seat and looked around for the source of the crying. Apollyon found a package in which a baby was wrapped, taking it in his hands, he felt on its back wings and realised that this baby was a new heavenly angel. And with him in his arms he flew to Heaven.
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The Nashime are a race of brave and powerful warriors whose passion for adventure has become a religion, and whose reputation as one of the most powerful races on Earth is a cause for fear and respect among other races. They are a race of humanoid beings with highly advanced technology resembling magic and sorcery, upon which their entire civilisation is based. They are the children of Adam the first man and Naamah, the third woman, in creation.
The greatest representative is Absalom.

Rahab (noise, tumult, arrogance), is a mythical sea monster, a dragon of the deep waters. Known most commonly as the Angel of the Sea, Rahab was once a keeper of the faith who protected seafaring coastal peoples and kept order amongst the deep dwelling creatures of the sea.
Rahab was the Angel of the Deep and thus was an angel that was closest to children of Adam and Eve. Being part of the veins of the world, Rahab arguably had a better understanding of how the world and its inhabitants operated whilst his brethren resided in the timeless halls of Paradise. Even after his imprisonment, Rahab would be there in the waters, rivers, and springs of the world but where no mortal may dare ever enter.

Kokabiel — Fallen angel, the fourth mentioned of the 10 leader-observers of the 200 fallen angels in the Book of Enoch. His name is usually translated as "star of God", which is appropriate since Kokabiel was said to have taught the constellations to his fellows.

The Rider's Ring is some sort of artefact that allows Riders to use most of their abilities in their embodied form. If a Horseman is stripped of his Ring, he will be significantly weakened and his body will be destroyed, apparently causing the anthropomorphic concept to merge back into its concept. The ring can also be worn by anyone, gaining some of the Horsemen's abilities and skills. There are four rings in all, once belonging to Adam, in which he imprisoned the defeated spirits of War, Hunger, Plagues and Death.