Chapter 31: ANDREW calls ELI and asks him to do some research into the Tarot in order to discover secrets in the gematria and numerology. ELI, confused and worried, agrees.
Chapter 32: ELI is caring for NEVYN at ANDREW’s apartment, and is beginning his research. JEN arrives one night during an out-of-season snowstorm, and the two have pizza and beer before NEVYN turns into a werewolf and someone blows up the front door, knocking out ELI and his wife. When ELI finally wakes, the front door is in splinters, there are bullet holes in the walls, and NEVYN is laying on the floor, in dog form, swallowing the last of the pizza.
Chapter 33: ANDREW contacts ELI again and informs his friend that he is now in France. ELI relays what happened at the apartment, and ANDREW is hardly surprised to discover that NEVYN is a Watcher. ANDREW later enters a cave and receives a Cathar initiation.
Chapter 34: ANDREW, NILAIHAH, and MOLOC are called to Malta where they meet a vie-pyre named NICO and his assault team. NICO hurries them into jeeps, explaining that MARA is at the ocean shore and that MICHAEL is preparing to put her on a boat and take her to an undisclosed location. The assault team arrives at the rendezvous spot, and a gunfight ensues. ANDREW sees MARA on a dock and rushes to get her, while MOLOC leads him on. Fearing for his new friend’s life, ANDREW dives to take the shots aimed at MOLOC, and plunges into the salty water, riddled with bullets. MOLOC pulls ANDREW from the ocean, and mortally wounded, the beast transfers his energy into the man’s body. NILAIHAH screams for MOLOC to stop, but her partner, spent of his energy, is already dead.
Chapter 35: ANDREW has been fully restored by MOLOC. He is both saddened by MOLOC’s death, and angry that the Watcher sacrificed his life for him. NILAIHAH consoles him, and they await further instructions from MANTRELLA.
Chapter 36: MICHAEL and MANTRELLA meet high above nowhere to discuss the terms of the game.
Chapter 37: ANDREW visits the ruins of Malta and discovers that the stones are beginning to “sing.” NICO informs him that they must leave the area, and he is taken to Pico Island in the Azores:
There had been much debate and controversy concerning the legend of Atlantis. Its location was as much a mystery as its existence. Varying theories put the lost civilization in Cuba, Central America, the Yucatan, Crete, Antarctica or the South Pacific, Sardinia, Bolivia, and finally the Azores. If one followed the works of Edgar Cayce, the Azores were the last remaining vestiges of Poseidia, the last of the sunken remains of Atlantis. It was claimed that Plato’s Timaeus and Critias placed Atlantis west of the Pillars of Hercules and that the pre-ice age Azores fit the bill for the great Atlantean empire that extended its authority throughout the ancient world from Europe to India and to the Americas. It was said that a line of fallen angels, the Nephilim, created a race of pre-humans as slaves. These creatures interbred with Adam and Eve, and the new gene pool and subsequent DNA combinations created modern man. The offspring of the fallen were said to be evil, and great battles occurred between the varying races. The two trees in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life were said to represent the two strains of DNA that compete for dominance over the earth. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent had therefore become surrogate fighters in the war between God and those who opposed Him. Much of the early fighting was said to have taken place in Atlantis, which included not only the island continent, but also its worldwide empire. This, some speculated, was why so many myths and symbols were shared among highly divergent cultures that supposedly had no ancient contact. With vast technological resources, the Atlanteans may have surpassed that of modern civilizations; a theory that flew in the face of modern man’s ego and its archeologists. Yet one idea remained fact: Several secret societies referred to Mount Pico of the Azores in many of their rituals. These same societies claimed knowledge of the lost Atlantis.
ANDREW contacts ELI for the last time and tells the man that he is sending him a ticket for Mexico, and that ELI must have his research complete before he arrives. 290 miles northeast of San Francisco, two scientists working for SETI receive a message from outer space.
Chapter 38: ELI arrives in Mexico amidst a UFO hysteria and is taken to ANDREW’s hotel by a Watcher. ELI relates his findings to ANDREW and shows how the Tarot in fact contains the story of a being attempting to dream itself into existence. ELI is then whisked away abruptly and MANTRELLA arrives at the hotel.
Chapter 39: ELI is brought back to the airport and is redirected to a private jet by NEVYN. The commercial airliner ELI was supposed to board blows up over the Gulf of Mexico.
Chapter 40: MANTRELLA, ANDREW, NILAIHAH, NICO, and others arrive at the ancient ruins of Chich’en Itza for what is to be the final struggle to join ANDREW and MARA. MICHAEL appears at the top of the great pyramid, El Castillo, and MANTRELLA, at the bottom of the structure, challenges the Archangel. They accuse each other sacrificing the nature of the universe, and MICHAEL reveals his plans to keep mankind in darkness and to control the universe. MARA stumbles out of the dream-chamber at the peak of the pyramid and screams at MICHAEL, calling him a liar. ANDREW rushes up the pyramid to save her, and as the two meet, MICHAEL uses his power to snatch them out of the air. Minions of the Archangel bleed from the sides of the pyramid, and gunfire erupts in the square as MANTRELLA’s Watchers open fire on the winged creatures. Soon, hordes of the Dogs of Isis come out of the surrounding forests and help NILAIHAH and NICO in the battle. With the pair gone, MANTRELLA transforms into a knight clad in emerald armor and storms up the pyramid to cut down MICHAEL. But GABRIEL, URIEL, and RAPHAEL, from within the pyramid, gather their power and strike MANTRELLA out of existence.
Chapter 41: ADAM, restless in his slumber, rolls over on the shore of the brook and struggles to aid MANTRELLA. In the heart of the pyramid, the gold once encasing MANTRELLA begins to melt and he is released. He blasts his way through the structure and discovers MARA and ANDREW encased in coffins of onyx. Pulling a sword of pulsing blue light from the air, he frees them:
When the dust settled from the final explosion and the Angel of Light stood heaving in the prison chamber, his aura glowing into the darkness, he saw a pair of onyx slabs on stone foundations, and he knew them to be the coffins of Andrew and Mara. Raising his hands over his head, he split the suffocating air as he pulled open the fabric of reality and retrieved a sword of blue light.
Blade pulsing in his grip, he laid the weapon on the first of the coffins, declaring, “Here is your purification by fire.” Like his own prison, the onyx began to melt, first into gold, then into white light, and soon the prostrate Andrew appeared, naked and unconscious. Next, he approached the second coffin and performed the purification as he had with Andrew. When the white light finally dissipated into the rough stone walls and Mara, lying as Andrew did, emerged from its wake, he brushed the strands of black hair from her dark face with a single finger.
MARA and ANDREW free and awake, MANTRELLA leads them through the pyramid and blows a hole in a wall. They walk out into the bright morning as Venus rises on the horizon. The three are greeted by NILAIHAH, and they all leave the park. A newspaper article details the reactions of the locals to strange explosions and lights witnessed from the park. The text attributes the phenomenon to NASA. Thus ends Book I.
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