After the cardinal had disappeared into the chapel, the demon could be heard laughing with a hideous cosmic voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, like an echo connected in a never-ending stream. With the fearlessness of youth, Alon and John wanted to follow, but Lev and the others held them back. Morelli stood beside them and looked through the opening. “He has to do this alone. Whatever you do, don’t enter the chapel.”
“But why?” Alon asked, his voice trembling and his body shaking. “We’re the ones who found that damned book and brought it here. Why does he have to go in there alone? You heard what that thing said; one priest is not enough.”
Morelli winced and pulled at his Roman collar. “He’s a cardinal, a Prince of the Church and the one God has chosen by name to enter and face the demon. We must not interfere.”
They all stood looking through the opening as another series of violent quakes shook the ground and the crumbling ruins of the catacombs around them. A few glanced up at the ceiling above, not knowing how much more shaking the ancient tunnels could withstand before the entire area caved in.
Leo stuck his head into the chapel, momentarily catching a glimpse of the cardinal standing before the demon and speaking to him. The creature’s hideous face was now inches from Lundahl’s, breathing in and out and filling the air around them with a warm and nauseating stench. The Devil’s breath. Time seemed to stand still as more rumbling and growling noises could be heard from within. Suddenly, the cardinal cried out.
In the blink of an eye, the room filled with a brilliant light, and the foul smell of the demon was replaced with the aroma of roses. Leo stared unbelievingly at the sight that began to unfold around Lundahl. Seven enormous angels encircled him, bathing the cardinal in their golden light. They were beautiful. Their shining brilliance made it difficult to look at them. Their features were blurred, but Leo could still see their faces and the kindness that flowed from within.
Leo’s mind was barely able to absorb what he was seeing. Somehow, he knew that these were no ordinary angels, but archangels, God’s most powerful and faithful soldiers. The others gathered around the opening and stared at the astonishing sight before them. The priests and cardinals who had accompanied Lundahl immediately dropped to their knees and began to pray. Leo, Morelli, Lev, John, Ariella, and Alon stood transfixed in front of the opening, unable to speak or move.
The cardinal was now standing with his arms outstretched. The dazzling light emanating from the angels reflected off the cardinal’s golden cross as they spoke to him in inaudible tones. Only Morelli seemed to know what they were saying and began to tell the others. “They’re identifying themselves one by one to the cardinal and the demon.”
Morelli paused for a moment, a smile spreading across his face. “The first and tallest one is the archangel, Michael, meaning he who is like God. He is God’s most faithful angel, and his main function is to rid the earth and its inhabitants of fear.” The angel spread his long wings and held his sword high before turning to face the demon, his mere presence forcing Satan’s most powerful soldier to recoil in fear, for these two had met in battle before.
Morelli paused again. The otherworldly voices of the archangels that only he seemed to hear had caused his entire facial expression to change. “The next one is Ariel, the lion or lioness of God. This archangel is a fierce protector.”
Ariel spread her luminescent wings forward around the cardinal and looked sweetly back at Leo and the others. Her presence gave comfort to those watching from outside, especially Ariella, who saw the angel’s eyes meet hers for a brief second.
“The third is Chamuel,” Morelli said, “meaning he who sees God, and he is endowed with the power to protect the world from fearful and lower energies like demons.” Chamuel advanced on the lesser demons, causing them to shriek in fear and take on a vapor-like appearance. The angels were also communicating with each other and looking over their heads at a vision only they could see.
Morelli looked upward in an effort to see what they were looking at but could see only the stone ceiling. Despite the fact that he had the look of total peace on his face, his whole body was shaking.
“What about the others, Father Anthony?” Ariella asked.
Morelli shook himself loose from the grip the experience was having upon his physical body and peered back into the chapel. After a full minute of silence, he staggered away from the opening, unable to go on.
Leo watched Morelli with concern, waiting for his friend to regain his strength, when, without warning, Father Leo suddenly found himself seized with the ability to hear the archangels speaking within the chapel. Tears of joy began to stream down his face. The angel’s voices were the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Leo knew no choir in the world could stir such emotion. He inched closer to the opening and listened before speaking to the others.
“The fourth archangel is Gabriel,” Leo said. “His name means God is my strength. He is known as the angel of resurrection and is the patron archangel of the clergy.” The others gasped at the mention of his name, and the priests in the tunnel crossed themselves. He was considered by many to be the rock star of all angels. Gabriel had placed himself between the demons and those outside the chapel.
Leo felt himself losing control. His body was not responding, and he feared that he was on the verge of collapse. Gabriel turned and looked directly at him with an expression of understanding and kindness no human would ever be able to imitate. He fixed the priest with his unearthly eyes, giving him the strength to go on. Leo could no longer feel his body. He had been transported into another dimension, a dimension filled with joy. He was looking into the eyes of Gabriel, the very angel who had been present with Jesus at the Resurrection.
Leo wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “The fifth archangel is Raziel, meaning secret of God. He knows all the secrets of the universe and how it operates. The sixth is Uriel, meaning fire of God. This angel illuminates situations and gives prophetic information and warnings to mortal men who are receptive to his messages.”
Leo strained to hear the last of the archangels give his name. “The seventh archangel is Raguel,” he said to the others, “which means friend of God. His chief role in heaven is to oversee all the other archangels and ensure they work together in harmony.”
Leo stepped back from the opening on the verge of total collapse. In all their lives, these men of God could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that they would ever be blessed enough to be in the presence of an archangel, much less seven of them. Tears of joy streamed from everyone’s eyes as they watched the scene before them.
The cardinal stood steadfast, surrounded by the seven archangels. He then shouted at the demon, forcing it to grow physically smaller. It had become quiet and was cowering in a corner of the chapel.
The cardinal advanced on the demon, the angels surrounding him. “In God’s name, we command you to leave this holy place.” He walked in a circle, spreading holy water and sanctifying the chapel. The winged demon, Agaliarept, recoiled even farther into the corner while the lesser demons shrank from the sight of the angels. The Devil’s general began to shriek, his features contorting in obvious agony in the presence of so many powerful beings from heaven.
Lundahl now prayed to the angels surrounding him for their intervention, calling out their names in the order he had received them and asking for the demons to be cast out from the chapel. The lesser demons in the chapel were becoming transparent, as if they were slowly evaporating before the eyes of the cardinal. The black-robed figures literally floated through the walls, leaving only Satan’s second in command to face the cardinal and the archangels.
The demon paced, flickering in and out of the earthly plane he had entered, swinging his monstrous head from side to side like a primitive beast, weighing his options. The hideous ancient tormentor of humanity summoned all his strength and called forth a burning wind that blew throughout the chapel.
The archangels grew brighter, causing the demon to shriek in apparent agony before he suddenly seemed to gain strength from an unseen source and grow in size again. The monstrous demon advanced once more from his corner, heading toward the cardinal and the archangels. He then lifted up into the air on outstretched red and black leathery wings, taking flight around the chapel, hissing and growling, his eyes changing from red to yellow and then to black before he landed in front of the wall by the altar. Behind the demon, a reddish pattern began to form on the stone of the chapel wall, spreading outward like bloody streams from a wounded river.
The cardinal felt the presence of Satan himself. He began to tremble but stood steadfast, refusing to let the demon see his fear. In an instant, the archangels formed a line between the cardinal and Satan’s hissing and spitting general standing defiantly in front of the bloody apparition spreading across the wall behind him.
The angels seemed to be speaking to someone. They stood in front of the shrieking demon, their golden light emanating around them. Without warning, a brilliant white light filled the chapel, and a feeling of total peace flowed through those witnessing the event. It was as if God himself was present among them.
In an instant, the apparition forming on the wall withered from sight, and Agaliarept once again fled to a corner of the chapel. His eyes were hollow pools of darkness that gave no indication of emotion. He seemed trapped and abandoned as he gave up a final, pathetic howl-becoming nothing more than a misty shadow before finally fading from sight.
The terrible burning wind in the chapel abruptly stopped, and the red mist hanging in the air slowly disappeared. Only the defeated echo of the demon’s final moments could be heard traveling underground through the tunnels. The archangels formed a circle and looked inward at one another, uttering words from an ancient language, while the brilliant white light illuminating the chapel began to fade, leaving the golden auras from the archangels to fill the space around them with an otherworldly glow.
The angelic visitation came to an end as suddenly as it began. All of the angels except for Gabriel slowly began to drift upward through the ceiling of the chapel, where they disappeared in a star-like burst of blue light too bright to look at. Leo shielded his eyes before looking at the ceiling in sad fascination, wishing they were still there, when he noticed Gabriel above him. “I have a message for you, Leo.” Gabriel was speaking to him.
Leo was unable to respond. He could only listen and squint upward into the eyes of the dazzling winged figure of the angel above him. Gabriel spoke again. “He who will heal the world will soon come, but for those who do not believe in Him, existence will be darker before that day arrives.”
Leo had just received a prophetic angelic message, one he knew was meant not just for him, but for the whole world. This was a sacred communication from God, and Leo was humbled that the archangel had entrusted it to him.
His message delivered, Gabriel drifted back toward the front of the chapel, where he touched the stone of the altar and gently caressed the cross on the wall with his glowing hand before looking upward and slowly disappearing from sight. All the archangels were gone. The sweet smell of roses was all that was left to remind those present of what had just occurred. They had blessed and sanctified the chapel, thus keeping the Devil’s Bible forever beyond his reach. Leo knew in his heart that, even though he could not see them, the angels would always be close-by and that he could still talk to them in his prayers.
Cardinal Lundahl knelt down and retrieved the Devil’s Bible from the floor, holding it at arm’s length like a venomous snake that could strike him at any moment. He glanced back at Leo and Morelli, and with a grim look of determination, he turned to face the altar and began walking forward with the book. The cardinal walked slowly, his scarlet robes brushing the still-warm stone floor of the ancient chapel. When he had reached the end of the room, he gingerly placed the book on the altar below the carved cross on the wall and backed away.
The smell of rotting flesh again filled the room as the book smoldered and then erupted in flames. Blue, yellow, and red fire burned brightly on the altar until only ashes remained. For a brief moment, Leo saw the golden sword of Saint Michael hanging in the air before it slowly faded from sight and the smell of roses once again dominated the chapel.
They had all just seen a miracle. Even if no one ever believed them, everyone present knew that what they had just witnessed was evidence of God’s presence in the world. What they had seen with their own eyes would remain in their hearts and affect the rest of their lives forever.
The skies above the city had cleared, and the demonic wind was gone. The people of Rome peered out from the protection of their shops, restaurants, and homes. The sudden vicious storm had been accompanied by howls heard throughout the city, filling thousands with the certainty that the end of the world was at hand. Many had suffered from a form of demonic possession, falling to the ground in twisted shapes, growling and speaking in ancient languages they had no knowledge of. As the darkness lifted, the people affected by the presence of the demons found themselves wandering aimlessly through the streets in a daze with no memory of what had happened to them. It was as if they had just awakened from a very bad dream, but when they tried to remember, the details were too horrible for their subconscious to recall.
Inside the Basilica, the throngs of people who had crowded together to be closer to God had felt his presence in the face of a terrible storm, the likes of which no one in Rome had ever seen before. They had fallen to their knees and prayed aloud behind the massive doors protecting them from the wind and flying debris outside. The pope himself had rushed from his quarters to the altar in Saint Peter’s, where he had prayed for the salvation of mankind.
The drama of the miracle below Saint Peter’s Basilica was still unknown to the rest of the world. None of Rome’s citizens knew why the mysterious events that had occurred in and around the city ended as suddenly as they had begun. With the sun setting over the Eternal City, the bewildered mass of people who had gathered inside the colossal church began to flow outside into the square. Together, they walked out into the piazza toward the obelisk in the center, their eyes filled with wonder at the damage caused by the storm. Broken statues, glass, chairs, and other debris littered the ground around them, but despite the terror and damage caused by the storm, an unexplained sense of peace had settled over the city.