Chapter 7 – New Friends

Shoryu and Lexi and their two new friends materialized in the middle of a large house.  Shoryu looked around quickly to get his bearings and realized that they were in fact in the basement of a house since the only windows were tiny rectangular pieces of glass that were placed near the ceiling.  Through some of these windows, Shoryu could see some green grass and sod.  The rest of the basement was furnished like a work out room with various exercise machines and martial arts equipment laid out.

“Where are we?” he asked to no one in particular.

Faye, the young-seeming teenaged girl who had grabbed his arm moments before answered, “We’re in Rachel and Azazel’s house.”

“Az is my guardian since I’m still technically underage,” said Rachel.  She let go of Lexi’s hand and pulled her large sword out of thin air.  “Ugh, lugging this thing around tends to wear on a person after a while.”  She carefully laid the sword on a table.

Lexi followed Rachel to the table and looked at the sword with interest.  “That looks like a very heavy weapon yet you carry it as if it has no apparent weight.”

Before Rachel could reply, Faye scoffed, “That’s because that sword is a part of Rachel.  For her, it has no weight, but for anyone else, it weighs like a ton!  I should know since I lugged it around for a couple of years!”

Lexi addressed Rachel directly, “May I?”

Rachel nodded and then said, “May I see your sword?”

Lexi nodded and handed her sheathed sword to Rachel.  Lexi was impressed when Rachel treated the sword with respect.  As for herself, she was doubly impressed with Rachel’s sword.  It was a large sword that technically fell in the bastard sword category.  The long double edged straight blade was about three feet long and the handle was just long enough for a large man to place two hands tightly on.  The hilt of the sword was a simple cross piece that was functional yet ornate.  The weight of the sword did not bother Lexi at all, but she could see how a normal human as small as Rachel or Faye could have problems.  That they did not meant that they were not normal humans.

“Your sword is beautiful,” said Rachel with a shine in her eyes.  “I’ve heard and read so much about the Japanese katanas but have never seen one for real.”

“What about the ones in Az’s weapon closet?” asked Faye.

Rachel rolled her eyes.  “Those don’t count.  For all I know, Az probably had them made through either scientific or magical means and then placed a whole whack of dark spells on them.  This is a masterpiece, a true work of art.”

“I thought you didn’t care much about swords?”

“I have ever since you passed Excalibur to me!”

Lexi did a double take.  “Excalibur?  This is the sword of legend?”

Rachel looked at her keenly and said, “You have that legend where you came from too?”

Lexi nodded but Shoryu said, “I do not know of that legend.”

Lexi laid down Excalibur as Rachel sheathed Lexi’s sword and handed it back to Lexi.

Faye looked back and forth between Lexi and Shoryu and said, “Wait a minute.  You two don’t come from the same place?”  When Lexi and Shoryu both shook their heads in unison, Faye said, “Forget our homework Rachel.  This is more important.  Come on upstairs.  We can talk in the living room.”

“What about school?” asked Rachel with an arched eyebrow.

“What about it?” asked Faye in an exasperated tone.  “Just call the school.  Fake Az’s voice and say that you can’t go to school today due to a family emergency.  And while you’re at it, call the school a second time and pretend to be my dad, ok?”

Rachel huffed and went upstairs.  When she was at the top of the stairs she called down, “I’ll tell the school that you’re not feeling well due to PMS cramps!”

Faye rolled her eyes and said, “Whatever!”  She turned back to Lexi and Shoryu and said, “Follow me, and don’t mind Rachel!”

Bemused, Shoryu and Lexi follow Faye up the stairs.  Faye led them to a spacious living room with luxurious looking couches and they all sat down.  Shoryu sat beside Lexi while Faye sat on a loveseat directly opposite of them.  No one said anything for a few minutes and Shoryu spent that time admiring the house.

When Rachel joined Faye on the loveseat, Faye immediately got down to business.  “Ok, Rachel, you might not like this, but I’m afraid that you’ll just have to be a little more patient.  Whatever our guests have to say, I think is best that they say it when Az gets back.”

“What?” exclaimed Rachel.  “Who knows when that will be.  We don’t even know where he went!  He could be on a job, or he could be –“  Rachel broke off suddenly and turned her face away.  Shoryu could see a hint of red framing her face though.

“Rachel,” said Faye patiently, “this thing that we got ourselves into, it involves Lilith, it involves the ancient Nephilim and that means it probably involves the war.”

“Great, another war!” said Shoryu  before he could stop himself.

Lexi touched his arm in a soothing gesture.  “Faye, I get the feeling that there is a lot going on here but we need to wait for someone else to arrive before we tell our sides, right?”

Faye gave her a grateful smile and said, “Thank you.  Yes, Azazel is Rachel’s guardian and is directly involved in the war.”  She glanced at Rachel but Rachel was still looking away with her arms crossed on her chest.

“Most of the time!” said Rachel angrily.  “Who knows what he’s doing the rest of the time!”

Faye rubbed Rachel’s shoulders and said soothing, “Rachel, Rachel, we’ve been over this.”

Rachel brushed away Faye’s hands and retorted, “Yeah, we’ve been over this, but I just want to know what he’s been doing.  I want to know if he is back to his old habits.”

“Why Rachel?  You’re not married to him.  What does it matter?  Besides, we know his history.  He gets urges from time to time, you know?”

“No I don’t!  He’s an angel for god’s sakes!” exclaimed Rachel.  She jumped up and stormed out of the living room.  Her angry footsteps could be heard storming up the stairs.  There were more thumps, and then finally one loud bang that sounded like a door being slammed.

“I’m sorry,” said Faye to Shoryu and Lexi.  “Rachel’s going through some tough times right now.

“What did she mean about Azazel being an angel?” asked Shoryu curiously.

Faye hesitated and then said, “That would be starting in the middle.  But then again, if I start at the beginning, we would be here for a week.  Tell me Alexandra, how does the legend of Excalibur fit in your world?”

Lexi cocked her head to one side for a moment and then said, “It is really a legend about how swords were made in the old days.  Once, after my claymore broke, I complained about the poor quality of blades that were available to us.  My companions and I then started in on a discussion about the origins of the sword Excalibur.  See, the style of swords that were in use back in the 1200’s were pretty primitive compared to my sword and Rachel’s sword.  One of the major problems was how to properly attach a blade to the handle.  I remember my first claymore broke right at the hilt.  Excalibur was supposed to have been a prototype weapon.  The smith who created it laid the tang in a stone mold and then poured molten iron into the mold.  The iron cooled but was not tempered, so that it was softer than the blade, allowing it to absorb impacts without flying away from the user’s hand.  After it cooled, the smith took the sword out of the stone mold, hence the name ‘Liberated from Stone’ or Excalibur.”

Faye listened in enraptured silence and then said, “That’s really interesting.  I’ve never heard of that, and I’ve been around for a very long time.”

Shoryu was also intrigued and said, “That sounds pretty cool.  I must confess, I don’t really know much about swords one way or another.”

Lexi touched his face affectionately and said, “That’s because you have other advantages and have never had to have your life depend on the blade in your hand.”  Lexi looked back at Faye and asked, “How is my world different from this one so far?”

Faye took a deep breath and then said, “Before I answer that, how are you both regarding religion?”

Lexi said, “I’ve been alive for more than eight hundred years.  I’ve fought in countless battles and seen disgusting atrocities.  I have never seen evidence of an all powerful god.  If there is a God, I cannot believe that He would have allowed the lycans and the vampires to have come into existence.”

Shoryu wrapped an arm around Lexi’s shoulder and said, “The closest thing to a god I have ever witnessed was the remnants of the Builder’s technology in my world.  That technology is what infested my world with Zoanoids and created the Guyver armor that is a part of me.”

Faye nodded as if she believed every word that had been said.  “I know that this is going to be hard for you to believe, but there really is a God.  Perhaps not quite the God of the Catholic religion or other various religions around the world, but there really is a God.  Rachel and I are direct evidence of that.  A long long time ago, God dispatched two hundred angels to Earth to observe the early humans and to track their progress.  These angels were called the Grigori.  Soon after that, the Grigori learned of the defection of one of Heaven’s most powerful archangels, Lucifer the Lightbringer.  Knowing that it was Lucifer’s intention to corrupt the early humans, Samyaza the leader of the Grigori, convinced his brother angels to take human form so that they could prepare the humans for Lucifer’s plans.  They did this, and for their crime of teaching forbidden knowledge to the early humans, they were cast out of Heaven and became fallen angels.

It didn’t end there though.  After many decades of living among the humans while staying in human form, the angels began to think and feel as humans do.  It became harder and harder for them to deny the feelings and emotions that were coursing through their bodies.  That was when they convinced themselves that it would be acceptable to take wives from among the human population.”

“Let me guess,” said Shoryu with rising interest.  “They began to have children, right?”

“You catch on quick,” said Faye.  “These hybrid children were called the Nephilim and they all had incredible powers.  Soon after the Nephilim were born, the fallen angels were all cast into the Abyss.  For a long time, the Nephilim rampaged unchecked across the Earth.  Finally, the archangel Michael was dispatched to end the chaos.”

Shoryu interrupted again.  He could barely contain his enthusiasm.  “That giant that we fought.  He was a Nephilim right?”

“Yes.  I too am a Nephilim and so is Rachel.  The difference though is that Afrael is still in his first form.”

This statement seemed to confuse Shoryu.  “First form?”

“The Nephilim had immortal souls but were banned from entering Heaven when they died.  So, we were forced to continuously reincarnate over and over throughout the millennia.  Usually, as in the case of Rachel, the Nephilim do not have any previous knowledge or memories of their previous lives.  Afrael is one of the few Nephilim who has survived since the Great War.  As such, his power is unbelievable.  I, on the other hand am somewhat special.  For reasons that I won’t go into right now, every time I die and reincarnate, I remember everything.”

That seemed to stun Shoryu.  It was bad enough that the woman he loved was over eight hundred years old, but now there was this young looking girl who claimed that her mental age was in the thousands.  He shook his head to clear out the cobwebs.

“That explains a lot of things,” said Lexi slowly.  “It explains your obvious maturity as compared to Rachel.  But how does this Azazel, whom Rachel is clearly in love with, fit into all of this?”

Faye grinned impishly.  “Noticed that too, didn’t you?”

That comment hit Shoryu like a nail on his head.  How did he miss that?  “What?  Wait, back up…Lexi, how did you know that Rachel was in love with this Azazel guy?”

Lexi and Faye shared a mysterious grin and the Lexi said, “Woman’s intuition my love!”

Faye chuckled goodheartedly and said, “Azazel was one of the Grigori.  At the height of the great war, the archangel Michael realized that Lucifer and Satan were pulling some of the fallen angels out of the Abyss in order to recruit them to Hell’s side.  These fallen angels owed no allegiance to either Heaven or Hell but they were still powerful beings in their own right.  The archangel Michael began to rescue some of the angels as well, but the vast majority of the Grigori went over to Lucifer.  Azazel is a one of a kind.  He was not rescued by either side.  He did something that no being has ever done.  He became one with the darkness that is the Abyss.  In doing so, he became the first and only true dark angel with all the dark powers of the Abyss at his command.  During the Great War, after he climbed out of the Abyss, the archangel managed to recruit him and eventually, he fell in love and married Rachel’s first form.  These days, he acts as Rachel’s guardian while fighting many of the small battles that keep cropping up.”

Shoryu digested this new information.  He had a dozen questions that he wanted to ask, but somehow the one that he vocalized was:  “So, why aren’t they together now?”

Lexi slapped his arm and said, “That is none of our business!”

Faye laughed and said, “It’s complicated.”

“If this Azazel is a noble creature, he probably has realized that Rachel is a different person than the one that he married and is simply waiting to see if something can happen between himself and Rachel.”  Lexi turned back to Faye for confirmation.

“Wow, you’re pretty good!”  Faye beamed at Lexi and then said, “It’s a little more complicated than that though.  Anyway, in this world, Rachel’s first form created the sword Excalibur as a soul killing weapon, capable of killing Nephilim for all time.”

Both Shoryu and Lexi were silent for a while as they mulled over the information that they had just been given.  In the end, Shoryu spoke up first.  “So, Faye, where do you fit into all of this?”

Faye looked uncomfortable.  “In my first life, I was a double agent.  I tricked Rachielle – that was her original name – into creating Excalibur.  These days, I’m just trying to atone for all of that and I try to guide and teach Rachel to use her powers.”

“So, how did you come to find us?” asked Shoryu.

“A couple of days ago, I felt the very fabric of this world being torn.  Azazel was away at the time, so I investigated.  It took me a while and a lot more energy than I had anticipated, but I managed to finally locate you just as the Lilin were walking into the cave.  I managed to catch some of what they said before Rachel came home and we zipped out to help you.”

“What are those creatures that attacked us?” asked Lexi.  “What exactly are the Lilin?  I got the feeling that they were like vampires because they kept calling me a mongrel and Shoryu my bondie.  That seemed to imply that they were full blooded vampires.”

“To call the Lilin vampires would be a little inaccurate.  Let’s just say that they are demons that relish in blood.  Sometimes, the victims of their attacks survive and turn into ghouls who also feed on blood.”  Faye’s face took on a fearful expression.  “They are dangerous creatures with very few weaknesses.  If Rachel and I hadn’t surprised them like that, that battle would have had a much different outcome.”

“What about this Mother they kept talking about?” asked Lexi inquisitively.

“The Lilin respect and take commands from only one being.  Lilith is the mother of all Lilin.”  Faye shivered.  “Now that she’s involved, I’m really scared.  Like the fallen angels, Lilith doesn’t really have an allegiance to either Heaven or Hell.  For her own purposes, she sides with Hell most of the time, but that’s only because no one from Heaven will have anything to do with her.  If she is helping Afrael and the rest of the evil Nephilim, then this war has progressed into an all new stage.”

“And who or what is Lilith?” asked Lexi with a frown.

“Lilith was the first woman of Eden.  Adam’s first wife.”