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"I have long awaited your arrival,"whispered a voice that sounded like the most beautiful of stringed

instruments.

The voice of the monster was suddenly silenced, drowned out by the enlivening sounds of a cosmicsymphony—and despite his dire predicament, Aaron reached out to communicate with this latest entity inhis teeming mind.

"How is that possible?"Aaron asked
"How
could you know that 1 would be here—
that 1 wouldcome?"

Aaron could sense Leviathan's growing annoyance. Something was blocking its access into his mind, andthe monster did not care for that in the least.

"1 knew that my torment would not last an eternity,"said the angel Gabriel, the celestial music inside his head building to a near deafening crescendo.
 
"That my successor would eventually
come and complete the task assigned to me,"the  angel's voice crooned.

Aaron didn't completely grasp the meaning of theArchangel 's words.
 
"Successor?"
 
he questioned.
"Idon't understand."

The angel's eyes again began to close.
 
"There is no time for misunderstanding,"
 
the angelic beingwhispered, the sound of his voice growingsteadily weaker.
 
"You are as I was,"
 
he said.
 
"A messenger of God."

"Wait!" Aaron screamed aloud as he was dragged away from the digestive sacks and up toward the

monster's face. He squirmed in the tentacles' clutches, the broken bones in his wrist grinding together painfully as he tried again to establish contact with theArchangel . "What do you mean?" he shouted. "I still don't understand!"

A tentacle, its thickness that of a tree trunk, reached down from above the struggling youth and snatchedhim away from the lessor appendages, drawing him upward.

Aaron found himself hanging upside down by the leg in front of Leviathan's monstrous countenance. Thebulging eyes on either side of its head studied him with great interest; its enormous circular mouthpuckered and spat as it spoke. "What is there to understand?" asked the horrific sea deity, its voice likethe last gasp of a drowning man echoing inside his head. "Your struggles are futile. Surrender to mysupremacy and know that it was your life essence, and those of your companions, that finally enabled meto procure my freedom."

Somehow, Leviathan had not heard the angel Gabriel's words. The monster did not hear the angelicwarrior proclaim him as a messenger of God, and Aaron began to wonder if it all wasn't some kind ofperverse trick on the part of the sea beast—to give him the slightest glimmer of hope and rip it savagelyaway.

He was brought closer to the gaping hole of a mouth, and Aaron saw himself pathetically reflected in theglassy surface of its bulbous, fish like eyes, dangling upside down, waiting to be dropped into thecavernous mouth of the ancient, undersea behemoth.
Messenger of God my ass, 1 don't have a chancein hell,
 
Aaron thought as he prepared to be consumed.

"That is what it wants you to believe,"said the barely audible voice of the Archangel Gabriel.
 
"That is

how it has defeated us all, by making us believe that which is not true."

Aaron squirmed, the angel's words chasing away the monster's infusion of self-doubt.

"When will you realize the futility of your actions?" Leviathan asked, giving him a violent shake. "Why do you fight when you cannot win, little Nephilim? The time for struggle is past. Now it is time to surrender."

Aaron found the words streaming from his mouth before even realizing what he was going to say.

"I will not surrender to you," Aaron said, a powerful anger building up inside him. He began to thrash,

attempting to free himself from the ancient beast.

Leviathan laughed, tightening its grip upon his leg and lowering him toward its yawning mouth. "Courageeven in the face of the inevitable," it gurgled. "Perhaps it shall make your life stuff all the more sweet."

The stink that wafted up from the monster's gullet was enough to render a body unconscious, and Aarontried desperately to hold his breath. The flesh of the sea monster's tentacle was slimy beneath his clawingfingers, and he could not get a good enough grip upon the skin to render any damage. He felt theappendage's hold upon him loosen, and prepared for the fall into oblivion— when the angel Gabrielspoke again.

"1 give again to you, my weapon of choice. Take itnow as you took it the first time you struggled within

the grasp of nightmare. 1 give to you Bringer of Light—
use it well, messenger of God."

Aaron felt the blade of the messenger, Bringer of Light, appear in his hand, and the sharp, grinding painfrom his broken wrist immediately eased as the bones miraculously knitted themselves back together.

"What is this?" Leviathan growled, its enormous eyes attempting to focus on him and the weapon that

sprang to brilliant life in his grasp.

Aaron felt invigorated. The shroud of despair that had held him in its grasp dissipated like the morningfog in the presence of the rising sun. He swung his body out and swiped his blade across one of thefishlike eyes that ogled him. Bringer of Light cut across the wet surface of the bulging orb, slicing open thegelatinous organ. Leviathan screamed in a mixture of agony and rage—and Aaron was released from itshold.

The monster continued to shriek in pain, itsgigantic mass thrashing in the close quarters of the underseacave. Aaron landed precariously atop the cluster of sacks hanging from the front of the raging Leviathan. He tried to grab hold, to keep from being thrown from the swaying stomachs. His body slid across therubbery surface of the digestive organs, sounding much like it did when rubbing a hand upon an inflatedballoon. Aaron sunk his fingernails into the fleshy surface and held on.

The sea monster was bucking, bellowing its rage throughout its cave domain, its injured eye swollenclosed, weeping streams of thick yellow fluid that resembled egg yoke.

"You shall suffer for that, Nephilim!" it screamed as it bent its body in an attempt to locate him with its remaining sensory organ. "I shall make your internment within my hungry stomach last an eternity. You shall be my favorite meal, and I will savor the taste of you for a very long time!"

Aaron began to slip, his purchase upon the tumorous sacks insecure. His face pressed against thesurface of one of the opaque membranes, and he again found himself peering into the wane face of the Archangel Gabriel, floating within the digestive fluids of the behemoth.

"Messenger,"a voice probed weakly within his brain,
free me."
 
And the angel opened his eyes, their

intensity inspiring him to act.

Aaron pulled back his arm with a yell andbrought it forward, hacking at where the digestive sacksconnected to Leviathan's chest. The heavenly blade passed through the connective tissue with ease, andthe dangling organs fell from the monster's body like ripened fruit from the tree.

Leviathan continued to bellow, throwing its body against its stone prison, causing parts of walls andceiling to crumble, raining rubble down onto the cave floor.

Aaron let himself fall. He had done his best, cutting away as many of the stomach prisons as possible,but there were just too many and he could not reach them all. Landing atop a pile of the fleshy sacks, hebegan to cut into the fluid-filled organs, attempting to free those trapped within before the beastovercame its fury.

Thick, milky liquids drained from opened casings, coating the ground in a layer of foul-smelling digestivejuices. Leviathan moaned woefully, its great, serpentine mass leaning against the undersea cave's wall,seemingly thrown into a kind of shock—
perhaps as a result of being cut off from its food source,
 
Aaron guessed wildly, but he knew deep down that the beast would not remain docile for long. It wasonly a matter of time before its anger would fuel it to strike back at the one who hurt it so.

"You have hurt the beast," a voice said from behind him. Aaron turned to see the emaciated form of the angel Gabriel. His once glorious armor was now the color of a dirty penny, hanging large upon his dripping, skeletal frame. TheArchangel swayed, barely conscious, in a puddle of viscous fluid. "Now you

must finish the task we failed to complete." He gestured with a skeletal hand to the other sacks, and those

still lying within. Bracelets that were probably once worn tight upon thick, muscular wrists jangled

loosely, threatening to slip off. "In the name of the Creator, slay the beast Leviathan."

Aaron came toward him. "I ... I can't do that," he said. He offered Gabriel the sword. "Here," he said.

"You do it."

The angel fell to his knees upon the fluid-saturated ground. "That is not possible," Gabriel wheezed. "Todo battle with the monster would only quicken my inevitable demise."

Aaron returned to the digestive sacks. "Maybe one of the others could help you," he suggested, fitfullygazing down at the still forms of the other angelic beings that had been held captive in the bellies of thefearsome monster. Many had curled into the fetal position, trapped within a world of Leviathan's making.

"Most are in as dire condition as I am," Gabriel wheezed in response.

Aaron knelt down beside two sacks, which contained his dog and Camael. "Will they be all right?" heasked, laying a trembling hand upon theLabrador 's side, feeling for a heartbeat or any sign of life.

"They have not been prisoners of the beast forlong," theArchangel said. "They will survive—if Leviathan

does not reclaim them."

The monster stirred, a low, tremulous moan echoing throughout the underwater cavern.

Aaron stood, Bringer of Light still clutched tightly in his hand. "Do you have any idea what you're askingme to do—you want
me to
 
kill
that?"

Gabriel tilted his head to one side. "Do you have any idea the extent of power within you?" the angelretorted.

"Nephilim!" the monster raged, its muscular body stretching as high as the ceiling would allow, its injured eye swollen closed and dripping. Its head moved from left to right as it searched for its prey. "I will find you—and all that you are shall belong to
me!"

Aaron stood rooted, watching as the enormous, sluglike monstrosity began to undulate in his generaldirection, its tentacles writhing in the air, as if somehow replacing the sensory organ that had beenviolently stolen away.

"Even the monster knows what resides within you," the angel Gabriel said. "And still you deny it."

Leviathan shambled closer, its tentacles lashing out, snatching at the air as it attempted to find its quarry.

"Where are you, Nephilim?" it spat.

"The power I had inside me ... I think it'sgone," Aaron stammered, eyes upon the sea beast.

"I've tried to communicate with it, but it doesn'tanswer. I think Leviathan might have done something

and—"

"Is that what you wish happened?" theArchangel asked. "Or is that what actually occurred?"

At first, Aaron didn't understand what the angel was suggesting, but the meaning was suddenly clear.

"I've been inside your mind, Nephilim," Gabriel said, touching the side of his own head with a long,

delicate index finger. "I've seen the fear that fills your thoughts."

"I... I don't think I'm strong enough to control it," Aaron said flatly, watching with terror-filled eyes as

Leviathan drew closer.

"And if it were gone," suggested Gabriel, "you would no longer have to be afraid."

Aaron nodded, ashamed of his fear and that it would allow him to put the lives of his loved ones—-aswell as the fate of humanity—at risk.

"The power of Heaven is your legacy," the angel explained weakly. "It is this might that exists within you that will allow you to perform your sacred duties as messenger." Gabriel again climbed unsteadily to his feet. "It belongs to you—you are its master."

And Aaron came to the realization that his angelic power had not gone away, but had been there allalong, hidden beneath the shroud of his uncertainty—waiting patiently to be unleashed.

"Own this power," the angel said, turning his attention from the boy to the quickly approaching foe.

"Show that you are an emissary of Heaven."

Leviathan was almost upon them, and Aaron closed his eyes and looked upon what he had created tokeep the power at bay. He imagined standing before a gigantic gate of his own construction, made fromthe logs of some mighty tree. It waslike something he'd seen in the movies used to keep King Kong on his side ofSkullIsland . Within the faceof the gate was lock, and in the center of the lock, a keyhole. He produced an old-fashioned skeletonkey and tentatively brought it toward the keyhole. The gate rattled and shook, as if something ofenormous size were waiting the other side, eager to be set free. He could hear it breathing; slow, steadybreaths like a locomotive gradually building to speed. ' .

Tentatively he brought the key to the lock. He knew that this was what had to be done—he could nolonger be afraid of the force that shared his body; there was too much at stake for fear. With a deepbreath, Aaron turned the key and listened to the sound of the lock as if came undone with a tumbling
 
Clack.