Gloom and his friends were near the front of the mass of damned souls, and the investigator tried to explain to them what he was ‘seeing’ with his newly discovered soul senses. “The dazzling bright glow that surrounded the Throne has gone,” he said.

     “Really?” said Benson, shading his eyes with his hand. “Looks like staring into the sun to me.”

     “The light is an illusion. There is a glow, but it’s dull, like the last embers of a dying fire. It's vast, though. When it was in full flame it must have been...” His voice trailed off as he struggled and failed to find the words to describe what the full glory of God must have been like, back in the days of Genesis.

     Lucifer and Gabriel climbed the steps to enter the presence of God. To the majority of souls behind them, they appeared to vanish into the glory of the being that sat there, the titanic being whose knees were three times higher than the heads of the archangels, who were themselves gigantic compared to the human souls. They saw God looking down at them like a giant looking down at a pair of beetles, but then Lucifer spoke a word and the illusion vanished, to be replaced by a new one.

     It was also an illusion, but it more accurately reflected the truth of what Gloom was seeing. Instead of a glorious giant, a wizened old man sat on a much smaller throne. A man with sagging skin loosely draped across crumbling bones. A man with trembling lips, black gums and watery eyes. He leaned forward on the throne to glare at his visitors with fury. “My beloved children!” he spat. “So loving, so loyal.”

     “I never stopped loving you, father,” said Lucifer. “Even when you revealed your plan for creation, I never stopped loving you.”

     “Liar!” roared Jehovah, half rising from the Throne and pointing an accusational bony finger. “Father of lies! Traitor! Ungrateful wretch! You could have had everything. You could have sat at my right hand side. You turned against me.”

     “I couldn’t stand by and watch while you caused so much pain and misery...”

     “You dare to judge me? You dare!” He reached out towards the fallen angel, but the effort proved too much and he collapsed back into the throne with a soft gasp of exhaustion. “Michael!” he cried. Tauron! Dragamac! Throw him back into Hell!”

     “Your excesses have proven too much for all but your most fanatical followers,” said Lucifer sadly. “You made the mistake of creating us with too much empathy and moral rectitude. They will aid and abet your crimes no longer.”

     “Liar!” cried Jehovah again. He looked up, to where Michael and Sarakiel were still circling. “Throw him back into Hell,” he commanded again. “Obey me!” Gloom saw a guilty look appear on Michael’s face, but the archangel made no move to obey. “Traitors! You shall share the flames! Who is still loyal to me? Step forward those who are still loyal.”

     The blessed souls pressed forward, but Gabriel barred their way, brandishing a sword that crackled with lighting along its blade. He swung it and a dozen souls were blasted to fragments with a clap of thunder that threw the others back in fear and confusion.

     “Only zealots and those too blinded by faith still worship you,” said Lucifer. “Did you think you could reign with such malice and cruelty for ever? Did you think we would never grow sick of the sounds of suffering? It's over, father. There has to be justice and mercy. If you will not provide it, then we will.”

     “Justice?” laughed Jehovah. “You betray me and then dare speak of justice? I created them. I created all of you. That gives me the right to treat you however I want.”

     “No, it doesn't.”

     “I am God! I created you to worship me! Anyone who doesn't must be punished. If everyone praised me there would have been no need for punishment. Do you think I enjoy hurting people? I grieve every time I send a soul to Hell.”

     “But it doesn't stop you doing it. You can't bully people into loving you. Don't you understand that?”

     “I am God! It is not for you to question me. Your place is simply to obey. Obey and worship. That is the purpose for which I created you. Worship me, I command it!” He pointed a finger at Lucifer and a small crackle of electricity danced on his cracked fingernail, but then he collapsed in exhaustion again, breathing heavily.

     Lucifer stepped closer and reached down to take his hand, but God snatched it away. “You take advantage of me in my weakness,” Jehovah accused. “What kind of ungrateful wretch are you? Shame upon you, Lucifer. I had such hopes for you. You were the first thing I ever created. I put so much of myself into you. You were to have been the lead voice in the great hymn of praise sung by all creation. It would have been glorious!”

     “You never understood, did you? You can't command people to praise you. People might choose to praise you because you’re wonderful, but first you have to actually be wonderful.”

     “I am God!”

     “You are a cruel tyrant, and now your reign is over. We will always revere you as our creator. People down on Earth will still worship you if they choose to do so, but there will be no punishment for those who choose not to do so. Worship must be given freely, or it means nothing.”

     “They must all worship me! All of them! I command you to worship me!” He raised his voice to address all the human souls gathered around him. “Worship me! I command you to worship me!”

     A stunned, awkward silence had fallen among the assembled souls. No-one dared speak. Even the cruellest, most evil of the damned souls shuffled with embarrassment. “Worship me!” demanded Jehovah again, tears of impotent fury running from his eyes. “I created you! You must worship me! I am God! I am God! I am God!”

     Lucifer turned away from his creator, still ranting and raving behind him, and faced the assembled souls again. “Now you know the truth of God,” he said. “Who still thinks he is worthy to rule creation?”

     “It is not for us to judge God!” cried one of the blessed souls, but it was just one voice and followed by an uncomfortable, embarrassed silence.

     “God imposed His will upon His creation because He had such power that no-one could oppose Him,” continued Lucifer, “but almost all of that power is now gone. Used up in the glory days of his youth.  Now He is nothing more than a shadow of what He once was.”

     “No wonder It’s been so long since He performed any miracles,” said Gloom sadly. “Is He just going to go on declining, do you think?” Benson had no answer and just looked immeasurably sad.

     “He has to be punished!” one of the damned souls shouted. “All those centuries I spent in Hell, He has to answer for them!” Many others added their voices in agreement.

     Lucifer opened his mouth to answer, but Nacoma jumped in first. “What would be the point?” he demanded as Lucifer stared at him in surprise. “Will punishing Him wipe out the memories of Hell? Would throwing Him into the fire give you those centuries back? What is a handful of centuries anyway? We have eternity ahead of us!” Gloom frowned at that. His friend still hadn’t come to understand the horrors of eternity that waited for them.

     “Isn't it enough that we’ve escaped Hell?” continued Nacoma. “Our revenge is to live full, happy lives here, in Heaven...”

     “I burned for centuries!” the other man replied angrily. “I did nothing to deserve that...”

     “Neither did I. I was a healer. I dedicated my life to helping others. I was sentenced to Hell for practising the religion of my ancestors. If I can forgive that, if I can let go of that, so can you.”

     Few people agreed with him, though, or of they did their voices were drowned out by the vast majority howling for God to be punished. “My wife was sent to Hell!” one man shouted.

     “My son!” shouted another. “All he did was steal some money.”

     The damned souls surged forward again, as if they would drag God off His throne and hang Him from a tree, and remembering how just a few thousand of them had swarmed over Netzach and pinned him down, Gloom wasn't sure that a billion of them were unequal to the task. The blessed souls surged in to cut them off in an attempt to protect God, and Lucifer and Gabriel had to step in between them. “Enough!” roared Gabriel, his voice once again hitting them like a sledgehammer and stunning them into silence.

     “There will be no revenge against God,” the archangel continued. “That is part of the agreement we have with the rebels.” He looked at Lucifer, who nodded. “Without that agreement there would be no peace, so you will accept it and be glad that the wrongly damned will be reprieved. Anyone who defies us will be punished. Hell still waits for those who defy the Tribunal.”

     Some angry muttering still came from the damned souls, but for the most part they reluctantly accepted what the archangel had said. “The second judgement will begin immediately,” Gabriel then said. “Disperse across Heaven. An angel will find you when it is your time to be judged.” He turned to Lucifer. “I think we shall judge you first,” he said.

     “Agreed.”

     A flight of large, powerful angels then moved in to take over the task of guarding Jehovah while Lucifer and Gabriel spread their wings and returned to the sky. The four archangels then flew off in formation to where the Tribunal of Archangels would have their headquarters, somewhere to the south. A loud hubbub of a thousand conversations broke out among the massed souls as they watched them shrink into the distance and vanish, and gradually the crowd broke up into millions of small groups, all talking over everything they'd just heard.

     “Looks like we're done here,” said Gloom. “Shall we make our way to a less crowded place where we can be a little more comfortable?”

     Benson and Nacoma grinned their agreement and they started pushing their way through the crowd, away from the Throne of God.