The Final ChapterHe exited the room, sweat pouring down his face and a look of emptiness upon it. The man that the Americans had brought up to be their symbol and their weapon was gone. Whipped away by his actions in the room behind him, by the destruction of the sole remaining creator. The murder of the king of the angels finally allowed the Raven to take over, and now Jacob was no more. His mind worked, but he did not control it. His body moved, and he did not feel it. The Raven acted and his body responded, all while he was forced to watch it happen, chained in the deepest corners of his decimated mind. It was here that he would rot for the actions that he had committed. Jacob could still see the bright red blood dripping on his hands, and the sight alone only made him feel more angered at himself. He had allowed the Raven to cloud his judgment, and ultimately allowed it to use him. From the very start everything had been planned and calculated, every action and every move outside of Jacobs own control. And now his failure would bring the very world to its knees. No. Not just the world, but all worlds. Every world, every place, every person, every reality. Every everything was now open to the Raven. All it had to do was secure the point of origin and all would fall before him. It was with this revelation that Jacob knew that all was lost, and it was with this final thought when he began to feel his mind slipping away. The Raven had killed the only one who stood a chance, and know he had killed the mind of the greatest weapon built. It would seem that no one could stand a chance.

As he walked down the pure, and unmarked white hallways of Heaven the Raven could he the gunfire from all across the broken vessel. From the way each wave of fire continued to slow, he could tell that the battle would soon be over, though he could not yet tell who the victor would be.

He walked down the stone steps, feeling as each step connected with the bottom of his step. Occasionally he would slow the movement and absorb the feeling, trying to get used to using a new body. After all it had been such a long time since he could walk around freely. Eventually the Raven made his way into the first open room that was connected to the hallway, and it was here that he discovered who had been victorious. Scattered across the room were the bodies of both men and angels, although there were far fewer of the humans. A small group of them were gathered in the center, gathering the survivors and patching up the wounded. By the look of their armor they were of mixed nationalities, showing that the world had come together in order to face the angelic “threat”. As he passed by these soldiers they moved toward him as if to try and gain his attention, but he simply ignored them and continued on his way. He had more important things to do then to converse with the flesh.

His journey continued room, after room as the numbers of the dead rose and each body brought a smile to his face. As he walked his metallic mind counted each and every one. The data would be very useful shortly. After a while the gunfire around him stopped entirely and the world around him seemed to stop. The silence was comforting to the human part of him, and the decor of the next few rooms only increased his pleasure. Even though the humans had been victorious overall, they still had places in which they had

been decimated. In the first of these rooms the Raven saw that it was doused in blood. Only small fragments of the white paint could been seen through such thick coats of blood. Along the ceilings human bodies hung from thin ropes and intestines, their bodies cut open as they were left to bleed out, feeling every second of their final moments slipping out of their hands. Some humans were put on posts and skinned as a warning to those remaining in cause they wanted to continue their assault. In other rooms its seemed that they humans had been petrified as their corpses stood lifelessly, like statues. Finally in the final room before landing strip a giant beast stood dead amid hundreds of human bodies, each shredded or torn apart either by its sharp teeth, or jagged claws.

Once the Raven had exited the left wing of the vessel and entered the landing strip which acted as the Gateway to Heaven, he proceeded to find the commanders tent and tell the military leaders that his job was successful. This news thrilled them to no end, and endless offers of drinks greeted him for almost an hour after as the remaining troops boarded their ships and reentered earths atmosphere. Only him and a few of the commanders remained as they wrapped up their reports before they would be joining the troops back on earth. They would be leaving the dead overnight before returning for them the next day. All in all the day had been a great success to both the human toys, and to the Raven. His freedom had been secured and his playthings had no idea that he wasn't the Jacob that they had rebuilt, nor did they know about his plans for them. As for the angels their headquarters had been completely whipped out and taken over, and only a few small squad remained and each were scattered by thousands of light years. He had plenty of time to deal with those squads latter, but first he had one final operation to complete before the first stages of his plan could begin.

He felt the warm skin of the man in front of him as he bid farewell to the last remaining commander. Once his ship flew away from the vessel only the Raven remained. While under the silence of the empty Heavens he made his way to the very center of the landing strip were the humans had set up a temporary command center during their brief invasion. All around this command center were digital maps of the entire vessel showing a small dot for every casualty, both human and angel. Also in this command center was a familiar piece of technology that the Raven was very close to. A long, thick cable ran from one of the computers and into the very walls of the Heaven. He walked up to it slowly before reaching out and bringing it to his chest. It connected easily to the spot were a normal heart would have been and once it was locked on the lights on the cable activated. He had found one of the energy outlets designed to power the vessel, except unlike the one that acted like his prison, this one did not take nearly as much power, allowing the Raven to be unaffected by his connection to it. Once this connection was made the Raven was connected to everything. He could hear the smallest drip of blood from across the vessel and see every body that had been killed. All of these human senses combined with his technological perception and it made for a truly blissful experience. The powers of Heaven were his to command, and his to control and in that moment the technological vessel that was created by the creators and that housed the angelic race sworn to teach and protect lesser worlds Heaven was truly alive. Every single light inside of the grand structure went out leaving only a black abyss that consumed of of its dead inhabitants before lighting them up in a dark red which matched their bodies. As the lights switched

the wall themselves began to life and move, opening the rooms to each other and to the landing strip. The right and left wings faced each other over the middle houses and the bodies looked at one another behind dead, unmoving eyes. And now for the grand finally.

The Raven in all of his power stood at on the strip and look across Heaven at the death and destruction that he himself had caused. He closed his eyes as he leaned back and inhaled deeply. Every death had a reason and that reason would ultimately serve a purpose, one much grander than the ones they would have served before death. He looked back down at the vessel, exhaling with a deep smile and slowly raised his arms. When Jacob had first entered the ship at the begging of the invasion he had walked over to the command center in order to give intel to those in charge. While he was there the Raven had injected a very small sample of oxygen into the air. This oxygen contained millions of microscopic nano-viruses that contained his special recipe, the very one used to give Jacob a second chance at life. This tiny virus multiplied across the vessel, infecting every single body aboard it as they fought one another, and it lay dormant, waiting for the right conditions before it would activate and began its task of transforming its host. In their death the virus began to build itself slowly until it could begin to form into the technology identically to the one used by the creators to build the Ravens first metallic body. This virus had taken over every single body, and outfitted with enhancements while also rewiring their brains, and connecting them directly to the Ravens core-mind. Now all they needed was to be turned on.

He walked forward, disconnecting the cable from his body. He had downloaded the data necessary to be able to control the entire vessel remotely while also ensuring that no person could be able to take control away from him. After the disconnection he walked to the very edge of the strip as he looked out once again at the death he had caused. In a moment of pure ecstasy and bliss he slowly began to extend his arms from his side until they were just under his head in a mocking gesture of when the creators had first brought their creation to life. After the gesture everything was silent, and the Raven stood in that pose of a short time. Then they began to rise.

All at once hundreds of thousands of once dead bodies began to rise to their feet, their souls replaced by technology and metal. Although this technology had been used to bring Jacob back from the dead the Raven made changes to ensure that the minds of those he brought back would stay dead, their bodies being controlled by the Raven directly. As they rose the changes could already be spotted as their bodies were mostly repaired. Lost limbs were now replaced by metal, while missing eyes were replaced by different colored lenses and lights. Even with these repairs some of the newer dead still needed time to catch up with some of the ones who were killed first. With the formation of his first army complete, and the control of the Heaven secured he could finally begin the first few stages of his plan.

His ship landed safely at the World Military HQ, where he was greeted by hundreds of soldiers happy at their success, but also sad at the losses they had suffered. Many were relieved because they thought that their kin had not died in vain. These relaxed and happy faces were soon replaced by anger and fear once the first few portals began to open

across the sky and the transport ships began to arrive. His army began to arrive by the tenfold as the soldiers began to once again prepare for battle. They thought that they would win simply because they were at the largest military base on the planets, and because of the amount of soldiers and weapons that it had obtained, but at the sight of their dead and mindless brethren unloading from the ships their resolve weakened. The sight of their loved ones shocked them, and the almost endless waves of them only increased the anxiety and fear. Once the final ships had finished dispersing his men the humans had all but given up. Even if they had tried to retaliate they would have died and opened up their world to a massacre, the like of which the world had yet to see, but it was not time for that yet. After all the virus needed time to spread across the globe before it could be used to activate the dead.

The humans agreed to live under the rule of the Raven in order to protect what little time they had left and life went on as usual for a time. The Raven connected itself to all of the computers of the world, gaining almost complete control, while some countries fought back and resistance groups formed causing constant small wars across the globe. The fighting allowed the virus to slowly infect the world until at last the time was right. Throughout the constant fighting the tensions rose sharply in the nations under the Ravens rule until only a small spark was need to ignite the flames of war. A spark that the Raven himself would plant. One that would change humanity and bring forth a new battle to be fought. A spark that would cause the very foundations of the very universe to spiral into the flaming inferno that would become the Raven. But that story is for another time, when the world itself begins to fall apart and the world outside of the Earth begin to feel the Ravens wrath.