Chapter zero： Day of Wrath - Killing Leviathan - Prelude to Genesis​

In the forty myriad years before the firmament was stretched forth, and the earth was formed, all was without shape and void, and darkness cloaked the face of the deep. The dome of heaven had not yet rained down the sands of stars, and the nascent abyss could not utter its own name.

Chaos swelled unrestrained, and the vast flood seethed as one. All things were yet undivided, and all spectacles were submerged in the endless torrents of the void.

Yahweh stood before eternity, at the wellspring of time and space, contemplating the world He would soon create.

'Emptiness,' 'darkness,' 'chaos,' drifted like endless clouds, seeping into every crevice of His thoughts.

He who could take on ten thousand forms, who possessed endless permutations, yet never attained a true name, only hollow words to vaguely summarize Him - Leviathan.

Existence or destruction, continuation or cessation, many concepts yet unborn were but illusion before Him.

He was then in the form of a great dragon, reigning in the endless abyss, the fathomless sea of depths. He came above all things, and His ever coiling mighty bulk made even time and space bow before Him.

When the colossal dragon opened its maw, unthinkable chaos-fire howled forth from the deep, bursting into the vague void.

Before His myriad eyes, all things curled and became as maggots. His body thrashed ceaselessly, weaving the first nightmare.

The Spirit of God moved above the face of the waters.

Except for the pure white that cloaked and soaked Him, all around was pitch black and chaotic.

The earth at this time was still a hollow void, and the abyss was submerged in eternal chaos.

Before Him there was not yet the beautiful sight of Paradise, nor the holy stones on the altar unveiled.

The presence of the Holy Spirit pierced the depths of the ocean, touching and provoking the ancient slumbering beast.

He coveted the spirit of all things, desiring to completely swallow up Yahweh!

The hundred headed roaring Leviathan arose from the bottomless abyss, eyes glowing sapphire, claws wantonly rending the chaotic tide.

His form was enormous, rising steep as the firmament, ever soaring upwards.

His bellowing roar was like thunder, collapsing the huge waves; His endless eyes glittered and shone, like the morning stars at dawn.

He shook the shackles of the abyss with irresistible force, and the ripples shattered the veil of the void.

His scales glittered, like the triple crystal walls erected by the Almighty.

His armor overlapped, like a surging torrent of a million shields, turning back any weapon that struck Him.

His belly was vast, like the unbreakable pillars of the deep, and all things touched by Him knelt in fealty, and all enemies before Him were crushed to dust.

Although the Great Devourer had endless facets, His essence remained one.

"Let those who curse this day curse it - those who are ready to awaken Leviathan.

Only because His complete awakening signifies the resh

Yahweh would never restrain His fury, He swore to slaughter the dragon in the abyss!

The Most High declared: "Behold, he is my enemy!"

"I will immolate his mighty flesh with purging fire, and pierce the soaring serpent with a sword of wrath. I will scour his festering nest from the deeps, and his crazed whispers will be heard no more."

The words of the King of Kings were flawless and pure, like amber refined seven times in the crucible.

Thus He shaped the entire void into a crucible, to smelt chaos and the abyss.

The furnace raged hot as refined silver, the kiln burned fierce as beaten gold. He lifted the rigid sword of justice, piercing the bloated serpent in one strike.

The Lord of All raised His mighty hand of creation, firmly grasping the hammer of judgement shaped by the Holy Spirit.

He struck terribly, shaking Leviathan's body like thunder, exploding it into disordered fragments. Fury was pulverized into scattered ash; madness extinguished the molten remains. The primordial flame forged in the crucible still slowly flowed in the hammer of creation.

In the unfathomable abyss, the dragon of chaos was slaughtered by Yahweh; his hundred eyes and heads burned away like straw; the dark fire kindled by Leviathan also dissipated in the illusory realm.

"Destroying something whole, you can only gain its skeleton. Pounding on ruins, you may collect some fragments. Grinding those pieces, in the end all you get is dust. Yet when you choose to smelt the negligible remnants, thus, you have grasped the primal flame."

-- The Sutras of Kindling

"The day will come, burning like a furnace; all the arrogant evildoers will become chaff; on that day they will be destroyed, just like the charred remains of Leviathan, God will leave them no roots or branches."

-- Habakkuk 7:12

In the blazing divinity of the Father of Spirits, Yahweh stretched forth His mighty arms, seizing the primal fire He had confined in the endless void. The Holy Spirit became invisible writhing tendrils, twisting together the eldritch flames of chaos in the realm of illusion.

The colorless first flame began to coalesce under the attraction of the Almighty's pure arcana. He drew forth the bright lamp Seraphim, forged from the distant and lofty holy mist, out of the chaos and void.

The Seraphim cried out as soon as they awoke, and thunder shook the entire cosmic crucible. Crimson fire flashed over their wings like lightning, shaped like serpents gliding through the air, a true miracle of the Holy Spirit.

They were beautifully formed, enormous and transcendent, often circling and soaring beside Yahweh. They stood over the crucible, each with six wings outstretched, bearing the glory and fire of the Lord, singing praises unceasingly.

These hymns of praise were like the sound of great waters. When they proclaimed "the glory manifested from the Lord's presence should be exalted!" the six-winged angels called to one another, shaking the heavens with "Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Hosts; the void is filled with His glory!"

Their supreme glory was also revealed.

"Behold, I Myself created the craftsmen who tend the crucible fire, and forged weapons for them to work."

"Let their wings stir up storms, to stoke the fierce flames!"

The dark fire writhed with cunning, and whenever the Almighty peeled away the cocoon of chaos and gave it a fixed form, it would hide itself again, dissipating completely into the void.

The eternal existence began giving that turbulent and obstinate flame a different name for each of its manifestations, trying to confine it fundamentally, yet each name greatly deviated from its essence.

The reason it was chaos,

Was because it never wished to receive the grace of the Creator, or submit to His ordainment.

And the origin of the kindling fire was deeply buried in the heart of chaos.

None of the names declared by Yahweh could encompass that crafty, elusive, changing flame.

Although its forms were endless, its essence could not escape the Almighty's iron grip.

The primal power latent in the abyss since birth was now kindled like tinder by the First Flame, and the throne of void began to shake, and the bottomless deeps quaked.

The flame of destruction surged from His crucible.

The unpredictable blaze was consumed each time it erupted by the invisible forge.

The furnace throat of the void belched infinite heat, blazing crimson then fading into embers and ashes. The Holy Fire turned again, becoming the cosmic hammer that forged the writhing deeps into new creation.

The ringing chorus was like a hymn of praise to the glorious Maker:

He who shattered primordial chaos, who reforged the bottomless abyss and infinite emptiness into the heavens and earth -

"He is the Alpha and Omega, creator of the world's destruction and genesis from formless chaos!"