Read Online Armageddon by Thomas E. Sniegoski - Free Book Online

cocked his head to the side. “And how did they fare?” he asked, mildly amused that humanity was still trying to fight back.
    The imp slowly raised his head to gaze upon his lord and master. “Quite poorly, my lord,” he said with the hint of asmile. “A swarm of enthusiastic gargoyles tore the aircraft to pieces before they could pose a threat.”
    A threat. The word swirled around the Darkstar’s thoughts. The humans, try as they might, would never be successful against him. But the others . . . the half-breeds . . . the Nephilim.
    Even though their numbers had dwindled, and they were scattered to the far corners of the earth, hiding from his wrath . . . still . . .
    A threat.
    “Scox,” Satan said.
    “Yes, m’lord.”
    “The corpses.”
    “Corpses, m’lord?”
    “The bodies of the dead Nephilim that I had exhumed from their graves.”
    “Ah, yes, the corpses,” Scox affirmed.
    “Bring them to me,” Satan ordered. He glanced at the Sisters, who eagerly nodded their hooded heads.
    “I hate to see perfectly good corpses going to waste.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    T he Architects felt pity for the world of man.
    Or at least it was the closest thing to emotion that such beings could feel. The twelve Architects saw imperfection and were called by duty to correct it.
    In a place neither here nor there, the first of God’s angels perched on ledges in the circular room they called Habitat, staring at a ghostly image of earth slowly spinning before them.
    “Would it not have been easier to wipe it all away with fire or some cosmic event?” asked one of the pale-skinned creatures, his large, dark eyes fixed upon the globe.
    “We’ve talked of this before,” answered another dispassionately. “It was not our purpose to destroy or create anew. We were here—are here—to guide this world to its fulfillment. The raw materials that we require are present for us to utilize . . . clay to be shaped into something wonderful.”
    “It has proven to be nothing but a disappointment,” another Architect added.
    “We are in the process of fixing that,” the one that they called the Overseer interjected.
    The Overseer was the first to have been birthed by God, standing at the right side of the Almighty as his eleven Architect brothers were brought into existence.
    The Overseer and the other Architects were the personification of the Lord’s vision for a world in the throes of birth. They were to oversee its creation, helping to bring the Creator’s vision for this wondrous place to fruition.
    And when that job was done, they were to be no more.
    But the Overseer looked upon the world and saw not perfection, but chaos, and knew that the Architects’ job was far from complete.
    And it wouldn’t be until the earth was like unto Heaven.
    A new Paradise.
    The world had yet to attain that level of perfection . . . but with their assistance, it was closer now than it had ever been.
    So very, very close.
    The Overseer’s mind could not help but wander, recalling soon after the earth was born when his Creator had deemed their services complete.
    How can the Lord think that? the Overseer had thought. This planet . . . this world . . . can He not see the pandemonium that will continue into perpetuity?
    But He was the Lord God Almighty, and to question Him—
    The Overseer remembered the horror as he watched his fellow Architects fade from existence, one after the other, as he prepared to meet his own similar fate.
    And was made nothing with just a thought.
    Nothing.
    The Overseer became slightly agitated with the recollection, as he often did when his thoughts returned to that moment. His brothers turned their watchful eyes from the facsimile of the world to him.
    “You’re thinking of our creation again,” said one.
    “Our second creation,” the Overseer corrected, for he had willed himself and his brethren back into existence.
    The Lord God had moved on to some other grand scheme pertaining to the