Resurgence: A History of the Supernatural War

A Note On This Tome  It goes by many names: “The Crisis,” “The Dark Years” “The Supernatural Blight”, “Heaven’s Wrath”, and of course, the official designation, “The Apocalypse.” For me, personally, it’ll always be “The Angel War,” and while many protest giving an explicitly Abrahamic designation to such a global conflict, they will be hard-pressed to discover a more globally accepted term for the creatures that almost caused our destruction. By the order of the Archangels the Apocalypse was allowed to happen; by the fanaticism of the lower angels the Apocalypse was not thwarted once those orders had been given. The word angel remains a devastating term, unrivaled in its power to conjure up so many memories, and it is these memories that are the subject of this book.

Some critics will, no doubt, take issue of the concept of a personal history book so soon after the declaration of the end of worldwide hostilities. While it is true that the Apocalypse itself lasted barely two years, the rebuilding and scars of what it has impacted on us still remain to this day. Yes, the coming years will provide hindsight, so that we may be able to look upon memories with a clearer and calmer light. But many of those memories are fading, fast, trapped in bodies and spirits too damaged or infirm to see the fruits of their victory accomplished. It is no great secret that the global life expectancy is a mere shadow of its former self. Even in the United States, with its powerful economy and universal healthcare, malnutrition, poverty, and pollution are rampant. It is clear that there are not enough resources to care for all the physical and psychological casualties, though the world’s powers are rapidly trying to catch up. It is because of this enemy, time, that I have chosen to forsake the luxury of hindsight and publish these survivor’s accounts. Perhaps in the future, someone may do what I did, and record the recollections of these older, wiser, survivors. Perhaps I might even be one of them.

A note must be said on the inclusion of the supernatural in this book. While I cannot deny that the supernatural world is fully, or at least partly, responsible for the devastation of the Apocalypse, their own memories cannot be forsaken simply because they are of a different race and species from us. Their memories of the event are just as powerful and potent as any one of us, and due to their advanced (and in certain cases, infinite) longevity, their word may be the only remaining one after time has passed. While all our perspectives of the war may be different, theirs may be the most, and that is why I have decided to include their interviews in this book- so that we may be able to look on the other side.

A final note: the formatting and style of this book was heavily inspired by the authorship of Max Brooks in his fictional work World War Z. While Mr. Brooks himself had unfortunately passed away during the War, his estate survives, and I would like to do him some tribute by writing this homage to his work. So I shall quote him, “This is their book, not mine.”

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA 

'''[The coup that overthrew the government of Papua New Guinea in 2024 was widely suspected to have been led by demons. Indeed, demons can be seen walking the street here in Port Moresby, unconcerned of the consequences that their presence shows to the wider world as a whole. Indeed, my interview today is with a demon, Jaryn Andras, a businessman, author, and surprisingly, a fighting veteran of the Apocalypse.] '''

You know, the thing I never understood with humans is that your kind always needs someone to blame. I’ve been alive for a long time, and let me tell you something, the kind of shit humans get up to is pretty damn terrifying. The Spanish Inquisition, the Dreyfus Affair, the Holocaust, and most recently…

[He raises his hands in the air and shakes his head.] 

This sorry little war.

'''Tell me about your involvement in the Apocalypse. '''

[He scoffs.]

See, kid, you’ve got to understand that not everyone downstairs [1] was willing to fall in line behind Lucifer once he broke out. And if you recall, those big animal thingies? Not Lucifer. It may come as a shock, but Satan himself fought to end the Apocalypse, even if he planned to rule it all afterwards.

But still, Lucifer still intended to end humanity.

Of course he did! He fell from Heaven because of you stinking little apes. But that wasn’t his biggest concern, oh, no, it wasn’t. It was Trihexa, the Darkness, that ancient, amoral Primordial that predated God Almighty.

[He winces.] 

Sorry, you know how it is. We demons can’t exactly say God without hurtin’. ''' Please, continue. '''

So, as I was saying, not everyone in Hell supported the whole ending-humanity thing. You see, after the Great War between us and the fallen angels, we had a...whatchamacallit...population decline. The Old Satans, the rulers of Hell after they deposed Lucifer, they wanted to continue the war, or at least, their kids anyway. Then you had these guys, the Anti-Satans- they didn’t want to continue the war against the fallen, and so you had a civil war. End result? The Anti-Satans won. It was around that time that Hell stopped being a nasty place and actually started turning into a decent civilisation.

So in any case, there I am, with my peerage [2], and we’re just setting up shop in Paris. I ran a maid restaurant in those days- pretty Lucifer-damn gay, I know- but it actually served good food. Service With A Smile~!, look it up- the website’s still on the Net somewhere.

Now the thing you’ve got to understand was that there was this guy. Salazar Bagrezia. He worked with this other guy, named Rizevim Livan Lucifer-

'''Rizevim...Li...what? '''

Oh, Rizevim. He’s the one responsible for this sorry mess. A descendant of the Prince of Hell, Apollyon, who deposed Lucifer and took on His name. Technically he should be Rizevim Livan Apollyon, but he’s dead now. So in any case, he was the one who tried to break Lucifer out. When he failed, he went for the big game. He went for Trihexa.

'''So this Rizevim, he was responsible for the Apocalypse, right? '''

Well, you could say that. He was responsible for all the grunt work- you know, finding the spell ingredients, casting the spells, breaking the seals, all the good stuff. But the angels, see, they knew about this! And they didn’t do a damn thing to stop him. Worse, they allied themselves with us, said they wanted the same thing we did, you know, “No one wants Lucifer out,” that kind of stuff. But they were working against us all along. I gotta quote one of the motherfuckers- “If Lucifer rises, Hell rises with him.”

'''Us? Could you define us? '''

Me, my peerage, and Team friggin’ D. And James Bradley and his ilk. Yes, that James Bradley, the rich one. We fought to stop Rizevim from gettin’ Lucifer out, and we stopped him! But by the time I suspect he had gotten wind of Trihexa, and that was something even the angels didn’ want to let out, though by the time that Rizevim unbound Trihexa, I guess the angels just said ‘fuck it’ and decided to go all out on the rest of the world anyway. And yeah, don’t let all the human media confuse you. Maybe a majority of demons fell behind Lucifer once he escaped, but don’t think we all did. There were some who resisted out of spite, you know, ‘fuck Lucifer’, and all that. But there were some who resisted because we believed in it. Issei Lucifer-damn Hyoudou and his crew, now, when they rebelled that turned a lot of heads. And maybe not to you little humans, but for us the Apocalypse was one whole big game of tag. Lucifer running around trying to get relics and shit, us running around trying to stop him, Heaven running around trying to send a holy smite down on all of us. And in the middle were caught your little scared governments, hiding behind mountains, behind rivers, behind barriers, waiting for the inevitable end.

[He spits.] 

So much for all that nationalist bullshit that’s popped up postwar.

[He leans back.] 

So that’s pretty much Lucifer-damn it. Us rebels, we fought against Lucifer and Heaven and the Darkness, and when Trihexa left and Lucifer and Michael duked it out and fell into the Cage, well, we all got honors from the returning government, you know, Order of Infernal Excellence, First Class, that kind of shit. It was really much the same, really. The exact kind of propaganda we use to make the demons toe the line. There's a thing about us demons- we follow the one who has the most power. Without good old Lucifer to make us kneel and worship, we're a chaotic lot. Hence, the government, and hence the crackdowns, and hence the rewards and promotions for those of us who fought Mr. Fallen Archangel himself. Opium for the masses, that's what we are, we happy few who dared to rise.

[He points a finger in my direction.] 

You know, I could vaporise you right now if I wanted, splatter your guts all over the veranda. But see, that’s the kind of logic your governments want to see. The bloodthirsty demon, the cold, marble angel, yeah, that’s the kind of propaganda your governments trumpet. And they use this-  [He spreads his arms wide at the surroundings] 

-as even more propaganda for the human masses. Like I was saying earlier- you humans need something to blame.

[He sighs.] 

And we walked right into your trap.

[1]= Downstairs; a colloquial demonic term for Hell. [2]= Peerage; a group of servile demons, often created from former human souls.