 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
| Table of Contents LINES 202-405. THE FIRST DAY OF THE WAR IN HEAVEN As the war rages on and above the ground, Lucifer fights fiercely, defeating all who come near him. When he sees the archangel Michael cutting down squadrons of the rebel angels with the sword he swings in two hands, Satan thrusts his great shield (remember from Book I that it is as big as the moon) between the sword and its intended victims. Michael challenges him to single combat.
It is a battle like that between two planets. Each has almighty power, but Michael has the advantage of a tempered sword. He chops Satan's sword in half and then pierces Satan's side as he lifts his sword arm. "Then Satan first knew pain," as a stream of liquid pours from the wound. Of course he soon recovers; he is an angel who "Cannot but by annihilating die." Moloch suffers an even more terrible wound soon after, when he is split down to the waist by Gabriel. But again it's not fatal. It is becoming clear that the rebel angels are getting the worst of the battle. The heavenly forces retain their discipline: "In cubic phalanx firm advanced entire." Their strength comes from their discipline because they have not sinned and disobeyed.
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