Chapter 20
All over all the lands, east and west and north and south, of Arabin’ya, Par’si’e and Heleste, stood the discomfited Osirian angels, in groups, tens of thousands, unseen by mortals, and considering how best to proceed to overthrow Jehovih and His worshippers.
Meanwhile, messengers and mapmakers bore the disastrous news to Osiris, who in turn sent word on up to De’yus, the self-Lord God, who now, through Osiris, his most favorite God of power, sent these commands:
When night comes and mortals sleep, my hosts shall fall upon the ashars, the guardian angels, and drive them away, obsessing every man, woman and child, in these great divisions of the earth. What do I care about altars, temples, oracles and arcs? Possess the mortals before tomorrow’s morning sun. Hear the command of De’yus, the Lord your God, through his high-raised son, Osiris!
And the well-stationed messengers plied all day long to the near and remote parts of the assaulting armies, giving De’yus’ commands. And before the sun went down, the whole billion knew their work, and were wheeled in line, to march with the falling darkness, and pounce furiously upon the ashars of Jehovih.
But the true God, in Craoshivi, had been warned by Jehovih’s Voice of the course of events, and he had sent his messengers with all speed down to the earth to warn them of the enemy’s designs for that night; which the messengers only just accomplished, for when they completed their most exhaustive work, the sun had already dropped below the west horizon.
So, at the midnight hour, the terrible approach began on all sides; and to each and every guardian spirit, enemies came, in tens, and hundreds, and thousands, shouting: Be gone, you Jehovihian fool! The Lord our God and his son, Osiris, command! Away from your sleeping mortal ward, or by the voice of God we will cast you, bound, at Anubi’s feet, food for hell! Be gone!
Each Jehovihian answered: To Great Jehovih I am sworn! Though you bind me and cast me into hell, by the Great Spirit’s hand I will free myself and come here again and teach His sacred name. And repeat forever my peaceful mission to raise up this heir of Jehovih!
Again the threatening adversaries stormed, and wondered while they stormed, how one alone could stand so boldly in the face of such great odds and not fly away at once. And every ashar laid his hand on the sleeping mortal in his charge, for by this, his power was multiplied a thousand-fold, and raising up his other hand, he addressed the All Highest: By Your Wisdom and Power, O Jehovih, circumscribe this, Your sleeping heir, so that whoever touches the mortal part shall cut himself off from Your everlasting kingdoms!
And, with the words, a circle of light fell about the place, bewildering to the assaulters, who, having once halted, opened the way to recoil within them, their own cowardice, a most valiant warrior against unrighteous deeds. And so a war of words and arguments ensued, till again the morning sun rose upon the almost harmless assault, and left the Osirians discomfited and ashamed.
Though not in all places, for in some extremes they did not wait for words but rushed in and laid hands on the mortals, gaining sufficient power to hurl clubs, stones, boards, stools or tables about the house, and so roused to wide awake, the mortal occupants. Who, seeing things tumble about by some unseen power, were quickly up and frightened past composure. Some hurried off to the rab’bahs, some to the oracles and temples, to inquire about the trouble between the ruling Gods. ||
And in these few places, once De’yus’ spirit-soldiers gained possession, they fastened on in thousands, even quarreling as to who had most honor in the hellish work. And yet not one of the ashars in all the lands was seized or borne away.
And now, as the sun rose, the messengers of the Lord God flew hastily to Osiris’ kingdom, where he sat on his throne, expecting news of an overwhelming victory. And when they told him about the most pitiful failure, except in so small a degree, Osiris raved and swore: By my soul, I swear an everlasting curse, that I will fill all the hells in hada with these foolhardy ashars! Yes, even if I have to go down to the earth in person, and with Baal and Ashtaroth go from house to house throughout the world!
Osiris again sent word to De’yus, who was of vast experience, and not so hasty; a wiser God, and better acquainted with the tides in mortal energy to serve Jehovih. So De’yus sent back word to this effect: To rest the soldiers three days, so that the surveyors could measure the stature of mortal faith, and so make the third attack more successful. And he concluded with these words:
Because of the long spiritual peace among mortals, there must be many grown to intellectual disbelief in an All Highest. By groveling down in the earth to measure the rocks, and to study the habits of worms and bugs, for generations, their seed has brought forth many skeptics, believing nothing of spiritual kind, but rating high their own judgment. With these, because of their lack of faith in Jehovih, the ashars are powerless to ward off my soldiers. Mark them out in every city and in all the country places, and again at midnight, fall upon them, crowding away Jehovih’s ashars.
Besides these, find the ignorant and superstitious among mortals, who are lazy and of lustful desires, because by their habits the ashars have little power in their presence. Mark these also, and, at midnight, fall upon them and possess them.
And go among the rich, whose sons and daughters are raised in idleness and pleasure; whose thoughts seldom rise to heaven; for the ashars are also weak to protect them, they being most excellent subjects to spirits fond of sporting pleasures. Mark them also, and at midnight fall upon them, driving away the ashars.
For the present, abandon the altars, arcs, temples, oracles and all the strongest, most zealous Faithists; except those few who still flatten the head and are dull in judgment, whom you shall also possess. ||
Accordingly Osiris, Baal and Ashtaroth prepared for the third assault on Jehovih’s angels and mortals. Their millions of groups were kept in constant drill, ready for the work. The first fire and flush of boasting was already gone from them, except for a few, and the serious aspect of a long war stared them in the face.