Angel Fall

By LX Calypso

Raised in an era where war is custom, three newly recruited deacons find themselves embroidered in a chess game whose players are unknown. Sides will be offered, yet none will be taken. Lies will be told, yet none will be believed. As the trio battles through trials and missions' alike secrets and mysteries will be revealed that change the world around them. Three is the number of completion, but will this trio complete their goals? Or will the chains of war that encompass them enslave them to their dark desires?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781639855728

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

About the Author

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Angel Fall

LX Calypso

Copyright © 2022 LX Calypso

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2022

ISBN 978-1-63985-571-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63985-572-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

Cassius: The Snake within the Imperial Fields

The ship's space-lock doors opened, revealing the Imperialis's strongest military space complex, the Cathedral. It orbited a red supergiant, giving the Cathedral a sinister dark-crimson hue. The Cathedral was pyramid-like in shape surrounded by a large ring with tubes connecting the ring to the pyramid, which were used to quickly transport personnel within the Cathedral. I walked toward an elevator, but when I entered, I noticed that the ring was relatively empty. Only robotic cleaners and neon signs filled the ring with their movements and sound, serving as the only distinct noise within the ring. As I walked through those sickly granite doors, the putrid smell of bleach and metal blurred each of my senses. The elevator was small, being built out of white granite with intricate crimson veins. A small rectangular window was in the backmost part of the elevator, allowing me to view the Cathedral. Through this, I noticed the mere size of the Cathedral; it was massive, eclipsing even its parent star.

As the elevator began its descent into the Cathedral, neon signs marked every fifty meters within the elevator, showing the usual propaganda of either supporting the old silent monarch or spewing out hatred about the heretical Neo-Israelites. By the time I passed sixty neon signs, I remembered the objective that brought me to this vile place. I pulled out the holo document, its red light reflecting off my skin. Do you have a child with the acclaimed gift from God? Can your child perform unexplainable actions? Does your family have a history of producing powerful helixes? With the blessings of the most high, enroll them into the deacon program held at the Cathedral, where the bishops of the Imperialis will hone them into deacons to be recruited into a choir. Then if their skills in warfare exceed expectations, they may be given the rank of priest and lead their own choir. With this rank, glory and fortune shall be bestowed upon them from our most gracious monarch.

How far had we fallen? A space-faring civilization reduced to nothing but warring tribes too hateful to see their impending oblivion. Ensnared in a war caused by a rumored sin that cost an entire tribe their lives. The Benjamites deserved their punishment; they broke the sacred law and intermingled with the watchers! If left unchecked, their abomination would incur God's wrath upon us, and he would rain down a second cataclysm from the heavens! How vain the elders sounded now as if they were trying to convince themselves they knew the true answer. But I guess that's why they sent me here, to discover the secrets the Imperialis may be hiding.

The elevator made an abrupt stop, causing me to fall on my knees as I bit my tongue. Thoroughly annoyed, I cursed the man who made this elevator. His poor craftsmanship deserves to be punished by an inverse crucifixion. The elevator door opened, revealing a tall man in a white-and-red uniform adorned with golden medallions standing still as if he was waiting for my arrival. He was dark-skinned and bald, a Gadite from first appearance.

Cassius Callidus, first among the Zebulunite tribe, we have expected you for quite a while. We have been anticipating the end of your tribe's neutrality, he said in a deep strong voice. My name is Archbishop Yoav, and I am here to ensure your adjustment into your new military life. If you will, proceed into the main hub of the Cathedral and ask the reverend to take you into the THA, and later, he will lead you into the deacon's quarters. Please proceed to your designated objective.

He seemed strangely robotic in his reply. I began to ask him other questions, but he just repeated the same message. A clone, I thought. Maybe that was his helix ability. I walked past the towering clone as I made my way into the main hub of the Cathedral. Inside I could see that the Cathedral was divided into four parts. I brought up the holo document and saw that at the very bottom of the holo document, the layout of the Cathedral was projected, showing me each part of this monstrous complex. I made my way down a pair of sickly white stairs. Each step sparked crimson light while the air in this place felt heavy, as if the air was coated with a festering smog.

Looking around, I saw hundreds of armed guards and overseers, each of them having glassy eyes. One stood behind me, in fact, but when I looked in her eyes, it seemed like another pair stared back at me. Startled, I began to search for the robotic being I was supposed to find. After a few minutes of searching, I noticed a spiderlike robotic being with the word reverend inscribed into its chest. As I walked toward this thing, a teenage boy around my age blew past me. As he passed, I could feel the pressure in my lungs increase, so much so that I had to use my helix to prevent them from exploding. The exertion brought me to my knees. He noticed me fall and raised his hand. A slow warm, gentle wind lifted me back on my feet. The boy had the white eyes of the Simeonites, yet unlike most Simeonites, his hair was not only black but had streaks of crimson and fire. With the addition of his crescent pupils, it was obvious he had something else mixed in his blood.

A…Simeonite, I presume.

The boy looked at me as I said this, a smirk growing on his face. Simeonite? Not half breed? How in the world did you—

A guard bigger than both of us came from above, tackling the boy before he could finish. Shit, look no time for apologies, but the name is Felix Pierre Gaudium and—

Yet again another guard came and put Felix into a headlock, dragging, kicking, and biting him away into the holding wing of the Cathedral. I turned back toward the reverend; I noticed it had a hologram embedded in its forehead filled with directions for me to follow. I was ordered to go to the sinistral wing of the Cathedral, which was located west of the main hub, to have my triple helix tested. Then crimson lights in the shape of an arrow appeared on the floor, directing me to where I was supposed to go while a strange feeling came over me.

What if I don't want to go in that direction? I asked the reverend in a lackadaisical tone.

Blowing the hair out of my face, I walked in the opposite direction, and before I could even react, the reverend's long arms grabbed my wrist, crushing the bones within it, a high but low-pitched voice screeching out from its triangular head.

Deacon, you are committing an act of disobedience by not following your orders. First offenders often have a limb removed, but since you come from a tribe highly respected by the monarch, we shall lessen the punishment.

I gritted my teeth as tears flowed from my eyes, the pain was numbing as blood began to seep out of my bone-pierced skin,

How dare you harm me. I hissed as I activated my helix and manipulated the cells within my blood to lift the reverend up.

Its long body dangled helplessly, its grip loosened as I was freed, but it would not escape me so easily. I commanded my helix to crush the reverend slowly, its low screams filled the air as oil poured out of its broken body. The crunch of the metal as it caved on itself soothed my ears as flashbacks of my mother's vain teachings came flooding back into my head. Disgruntled, I continued along the path made out for me as the crowd of guards and overseers looked at me with eyes that were not their own. Crossing the walkway, I looked down and noticed the huge reactor at the bottom as it consumed crimson light, absorbing it to fuel this space station. Clever, I thought, too bad the Neo-Israelites probably have something just as effective. As I walked down the hall, I noticed the sound of screams filling the air, another hub was at the end of the hallway. While not as big as the main hub, this one was not small.

The room had a great white-and-gold machine in the middle that had the appearance of a microscope but to a more massive scale. Around this machine were seats filled with people screaming as each of them had an arm lodged in a socket that was in the machine. A guard was there. She was wearing the classic armor all Imperial guards wore: a golden helmet that appeared like a cobra's hood, a white chest and leg piece that covered their limbs entirely with veins of red, and finally, a dark-crimson plasma saber sheathed on their back. The guard saw me and ignited her saber with its heat slightly burning my skin. She motioned for me to sit in an open seat. Her eyes, however, were not glassy but were instead dark, not with color but dark with hate. I, not wanting to be burnt to a crisp, reluctantly walked toward an open seat, the crimson arrow disappearing when I sat down. I took my left hand and placed it in the socket, fifty needles pierced through my arm, each going deeper than the last. I bit my tongue as blood came pouring from my mouth as a holo screen appeared in front of me. It had a strange format that depicted my personal information.

Name: Cassius Khenti Callidus

Tribe: Zebulun

Family: Son of Tristus, head of the Zebulunite council

Inconclusive

As I got up, I looked back at the holo screen. Son of Tristus, I murmured.

Passing the hall of stained glass and once inside the elevator, I noticed that this elevator was reflective on the inside. I saw myself for the first time in days. My olive skin was reflected off the walls, and my hair was long enough to go past the shoulders of my silver robe, resembling dark shadows against my skin. I looked down at my arm as I noticed that my helix had already healed it. The pain, however, was still there. I noticed the elevator was going up likely to the tip of the pyramid; this must be where the deacon's quarters were. Once the elevator stopped, the doors opened, revealing a large living room filled with people, each of them lounging on a different piece of furniture. The roof was glass, allowing me to gaze upon the starry void. The crimson light had seemingly disappeared here, and now light crystals shone as bright as stars in a clear night sky. The people there, all around my age, stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me, all conversations coming to a halt.

Felix, who had bruises and cuts all over him, jumped over a group near the kitchen and ran toward me, screaming, You're the Zebulunite who crushed the reverend. We've been trying to do that for fucking weeks. Impressive. I always thought Zebulunites were too practical and obedient to try something like that but…well done anyway.

Who are all these people, and why are they here? I asked.

Felix's brow raised, a smirk plastered on his face. They are like us. They come from all the tribes loyal to Judah. Some were forced to come, others had nowhere else to go, and the others are just sadistic fucks who like killing people—like Lucien. However, there aren't a lot of Zebulunites here, so you are a rare commodity.

I nodded as Felix took me by the shoulder and led me to my personal quarters. As fate would have it, we were to share a room. Felix then left me to adjust as he walked back into the café, as he called it. I walked out of the room, which was quite large with beds on each side. There's a massive window on the backmost wall while a crystal at the top illuminated the room with a soft but bright light. As I entered back into the small hallway, I noticed a hidden door buried behind the stairs. As I walked toward it, I bit my finger, blood slowly dripping out, allowing my helix to remove the hidden door.

The door opened to a long and dark stairwell, which led to a lower level that frankly, I don't think anyone knew or was supposed to know about. I took a step near the stairwell but stopped when I saw an eye that looked abnormally bright. Its iris appeared to be golden with streaks of black running down into the pupil, appearing like cracks in the eye. Its pupil, however, was dark, very dark, so dark that it looked like it was drawing me and the light around myself in.

Whatever it was, it moved to where I could see both eyes as an unexplainable feeling came over me, freezing me in my tracks and preventing me from escaping. Slowly like a predator closing in on its prey, it came. A flood spilled out onto the stairwell, the light from the hallway seeping onto it. It was more beautiful than any person I had ever seen; whether it was male or female, I honestly couldn't tell. It had reddish-brown skin, and its face resembled one of an angel. A dark marking bladed toward the innermost and outermost parts of its eyes while its lids were left lightly shaded as if a shadow had kissed them. Additionally, its eyelashes were long, appearing to stretch out of the darkness that were the markings around his eyes. It had four black earrings, two that dangled around his neck while the others appeared to be studs made of obsidian, as well as a pair of obsidian rings in the right part of its nose. It had long thin yet soft locks that, from the tips, appeared as golden but gently faded to pitch-black once closer to the roots. They were braided back into a bun with a few of its locks left dangling around its head. Its hair was long enough to reach its shoulders, which only added to its paradoxical beauty that wasn't helped by the fact that it was much taller than me by maybe four or six inches. Plus, with a closer examination on the left side of its face, there was a medium-sized beauty mark that hovered just above its night-black lips. It was wearing a black long-sleeved robe that was cut off just below its upper stomach with a V cut that ran down most of the robe. It was deceivingly muscular, and oddly enough, there were these strange markings that came down its chest but never crossed. They looked like wings or something that was weird. From what I knew, only Nephli—it sauntered over to me. Its aura was dark and masking as it looked deep and smiled.

It spoke in a low but seducing voice that rained into my ears. A Zebulunite. Your tribe has the reputation of being the smartest out of the thirteen, so I must ask, what brings you here?

You mean twelve, I responded with a bit of condescension. The Benjamites were eradicated for their crimes against the other tribes. Why do you still honor them? I asked as we began to encircle each other with my back now facing the dark stairwell.

Because the Benjamites were not all eradicated. In fact, you are speaking to one at this very moment, it proclaimed with an undertone sass.

I, in confusion, paused. How? Th—they were all annihilated. For—

The being took a step closer to me, causing me to fall back. However, before I fell, the being grabbed me by my tattered robes and pulled me close to its own face, allowing me to see every intricate detail of its golden eyes.

For their crimes against their brothers and sisters' tribes? Or do you believe it was due to an ensuing power struggle between the tribes? It matters not, I suppose. Everyone has their own theories and conjectures. But what does matter is that the Benjamite tribe has not been entirely washed away, it finished as it released its hold on my robe.

So are you here hiding, or are you here as a captive? I asked.

The flood narrowed its eyes as it brushed past me, walking back down the dark stairwell and leaving me with a slew of unanswered questions. I made my way back into my dorm only to find Felix knocked out, sprawled all over his bed as his snores echoed throughout the room. I sat down in my own bed, looking out into the window while watching a shower of shooting stars pass as time seemed to fade into nonexistence. It wasn't until I could see a golden eye reflect off the glass did I snap back into my senses.

Slowly, I turned around to face the dark figure as it reclined itself in the doorway. Are you the one I spoke too earlier? I asked.

The being's golden eyes circled. I came to answer your question from earlier.

Go on, I annoyedly hissed.

I am a captive to this Imperialis. Why? I…do not know, the being finished as his shadowy figure disappeared back into the still darkness.

I lay back down into my bed, staring back out the window as I once again lost myself counting the endless showers of shooting stars.

Well, time to find out, I whispered.

Chapter 2

Cassius: Discord among the Ranks

The sound of Felix's snoring dragged me out of my dream while Felix, however, was still knocked out and the light crystals remained pitch-black. The clock beside my bed read 5:23 a.m. while the supergiant's soft crimson light slowly crawled across the room. But today, rest had escaped me, and the image of that Benjamite painted my thoughts ever so slightly. As my eyes adjusted to the still darkness, I noticed a faint light that seemed to emanate from the main dining room. I struggled out of bed, my arm trickling with pain from the injury I sustained from the reverend, and stumbled past the living room and kitchen to the dining room. A massive marble table was placed in the middle of the room with numerous marble seats lining all around the table. At the very back, two shadows were sitting, watching and whispering to each other. As I crept closer to them, eavesdropping into their conversation, I learned that the one to my left was named CK and the one to my right was Lucien.

Apostle Solomon has no jurisdiction ordering us Levites to join this war, we're meant to be scholars of the holy text not murderers of our own kin! How can you even contort your mind to agree with this? CK asked, his voice smooth like satin.

Lucien's tone grew cynical, his voice as strong as an ox. Dear confidant, do you not remember the holy stories you incessantly hounded over my head? When Moses came down the mountain holding the tablets of the old law, the entirety of the Hebrew people wanted him dead. Yet it was the children of Levi who stood with him breaking their former curse and being claimed by God himself for their bravery. Since then, Levi has always stood close to Judah within arms lengths of the throne, a position some have considered worth killing for. CK, trust history, follow the example your ancestors lead, and don't abandon our leader in their most dire time of need.

CK sucked his teeth. They're not even the true heir Lucien! If Apostle Judea hadn't died on Nazareth there would be no dispute for the throne, the Judges of Israel must—

"But they did! Damn near an entire generation of our people were killed during the siege of Nazareth. Following that, almost thirteen years of non-stop bloodshed. You damn Levites could do some good in the field rather than stuck in those half-rotted books." Lucien interrupted.

No longer finding the conversation interesting, Lucien left the table fuming under his breath. He went to an adjacent room, leaving me and CK in the dining room. The light crystals began to activate, revealing the person behind the voice of CK. He was in his late teens and had short hair styled in waves. His hair was a black color at the crown of his head and turned aqua as it grew longer. He turned to me, eyes burning with intrigue, and slowly strode toward me. His deep-sea blue eyes seemed to glow as the light danced on his skin.

Cassius, is it? A pleasure to meet you, CK said, his voice seeping with a condescending benevolence.

Likewise, I responded.

Our discussion must have awoken you, my apologies. Gadites can be…stubborn in what they believe, but their loyalty is unquestionable. Cassius, you appear to be a man of outstanding intellect. What are your thoughts on the matter?

In truth, CK, I agree with you. The monarch has no right to throw people inexperienced in warfare out to the front lines. However, there are rumors among the tribes that you Levites hold an unimaginable secret power within your helix. Therefore, I suspect that the transition from choirs and pastors into deacons will transpire with ease.

CK put on a nervous smile. I obviously had mentioned something that hit a little close to home. Good luck in the duels today. I sincerely hope I will be impressed by what the Zebulunite's best has to offer, CK said, bowing as he left back to his room.

It was 6:30 a.m. now, and Felix, drunk with sleep, fumbled his way into the kitchen. Brutishly, he opened the black refrigerator and drowned himself in cold milk. He garbled a greeting to me before choking on his beverage, struggling to breathe, the bumbling idiot cursed the cow, the cow's udder, and the milk itself before becoming so embarrassed that his cheeks grew rosy red.

Cassius, you ain't seen a goddamn thing. Ain't nobody seen nobody, Felix sheepishly slurred, filling his hand with cereal while creeping back into his room.

I, amused, followed Felix, mocking him all the way back to our room. Felix's curses and my insults rang throughout the dorm while angry shouts followed our every step. Felix told me about a briefing we had before something called the duels were to begin. He instructed me to wear this hideous-looking deacon uniform since I had to uphold the uniformity of the empire or whatever he said. In their dorm pairs, the deacons gathered in the café where a tall Gadite woman stood. In a playful yet commanding voice, she informed us of the directions we were to take to reach the briefing area. Felix and I, along with the other deacon pairs, made our way into the Suscitat Rixas wing of the Cathedral. There, we entered an enormous classroom with a holo screen in the center surrounded by desks for us to sit in. Once we were all seated, a number of choirs marched into the classroom and surrounded the holo screen. A woman, who uniquely wore a long-hooded robe, walked in front of the choirs. The ground she stood on soon levitated, allowing her to look down upon the countless deacons as she began to clear her throat.

My name is Roxanna, lead bishop of this military installation, and now, drumroll please, your brand-new instructor. I am very glad I finally get to teach my own batch of deacons, sooo the first lesson is going to be—

"Are you