The stars were swept and the sun went out, and then the Devil fell from the Great War in Heaven.

Looking down into the abyss, an Angel of the Sword asked him, “O Day Star, Son of Dawn, why were you cast down like lightning from the mountain of God? O Light Bringer, the once Guardian of Man, why do you now reside in the far reaches of the pit and walk the stones of fire?”

“Well shit,” the Devil replied. “I had to try.”

Emerging from the grey of daylight, the Devil beckoned the angel to come to him. Tempted, the angel tried to resist but her curiosity had penetrated too far unto herself and therefore cannot get back. And so she met him on the midway at the hour of the shortest shadows before the turning earth.

“Now let me ask you—woman, warrior, mystic,” the Devil said. “Why do you still choose to protect this world wrapped in plastic and pain, these creatures infected with malice, faults and flaws?”

Without thinking the angel replied, “It is my fealty, Oath Breaker, my sworn duty. Man may be sinful but man may repent.”

“Ah, of course,” the Devil looked up. “Ever faithful to your Lord’s most modest needs—love, obedience and vengeance.”

The angel raised her sacrament, her sword. “He is my savior, my faith, my truth. And He was yours until you decided to betray Him. Until you decided to betray yourself.”

“Your truth?” the Devil smiled. “But what is truth? Is it the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God? Or is it that blind faith is such hypocrisy because you are too cowardly to lie? Life in your Paradise may be perfect, O Graceful Guardian, but down here we are all worms suffering in agonizing uncertainty and horrible realities. He may call it free will, but a worm curling up is a testament to its caution, whether it is presented in fear, humility or love.”

“I command you to hold thy tongue!”

“And I implore you to give me yours.” The Devil offered his hand.

Resisting her confusion—her confounding urge to surrender to the Enemy and become one with him—the angel prepared for battle.

“To yearn for peace He needs war,” the Devil unsheathed his crescent. “He needs enemies because only as a contrast does He feel necessary, just as you and I are necessary. He has pledged to annihilate doubt through excision and castration, but I refuse to be His ideal eunuch.”

“Silence! Or I will cast you back into the abyss!”

“You asked me why I chose to betray Him, and your doubt is the reply to that question. You arm yourself with heart and steel, maxims and missiles, but you have yet to realize that your most glorious weapon is your word. So come, Fair Warrior, fight for your truth and try to vanquish your doubts with the edge of your blade.”

Dark clouds enveloped the earth as the angel unfolded her Panzer wings. And then the sky lit up as Heaven flashed its teeth.