¹And the vision was given to me. I was commanded to scribe. And the vision was as such.

²The clouds were as eyelids that opened after years of dormancy, drowning the daytime sky with eyes, which did not blink.

³And a beast was sent down from the heavens, to raze, and it appeared as a lion with large wings like the wings of a dove, and it showed an unnatural, ravenous roar, but no sound did come out from its maw. The beast was devouring all the earth, and all human construction, and all living things. ⁴And the beast was on the earth though all the earth was held inside it.

⁵Then I looked, and I heard the voices of all the earth as one, speaking Hebrew, ⁶crying out for mercy, and pleading hellfire upon the beast, which devoured ceaselessly, and flew with wings which did not flap. ⁷All the water of the streams, and rivers, and oceans of the earth rose up, and threatened to cover all of the land, and the sound of the rushing water drowned out the cries of the condemned.

⁸The trees of the forests began to grow monstrous, and the branches of the trees connected with one another. The trees shed their leaves, and were naked, then sprouted again with swiftness yet unseen, then shed, then continued in this manner. ⁹The trunks of the trees expanded to the size of palaces as they became one with one another.

¹⁰Snow fell from the skies, shining white, and soft, and burned the skin of all those who touched it. ¹¹The snow blackened the ground like ash, and did crush many beneath its weight.

¹²All of the materials of all of the homes of the land became as glass, and only the homes which were constructed on the tops of hills and mountains sustained themselves through the earthquakes which shook the land, and which shattered many homes. ¹³People fled, and for themselves they did not find shelter.

¹⁴The faithful ran into the fields ¹⁵and called out to the Lord to take them, and they opened their skin on sharp grass, and bled only water, as no blood came out of them. ¹⁶And a trumpet from the heavens declared that they will be saved.

¹⁷The fires were blue, and burned away stone, and the fires tore through the land, shattering the glass homes, burning the ashen snow into smoke, and consuming the faithful and their children. ¹⁸Then the beast turned its gaping maw to the fire, and swallowed it whole, and there was a time of quiet.

¹⁹The first time has passed. There are still times to come.

²⁰And sent down from heaven were wheels, ²¹which moved inside wheels, and bore many eyes; ²²and the wheels came into the homes of all and took all of the children skyward, away from the terrors which were to come. ²³I heard the parents ²⁴cry out for their children,

“Lord! I have raised my young faithfully and in your image! Why have you forsaken all you promised to keep secure?”

²⁵But it was made known to them that their repentance had come too late.

²⁶And I saw another angel coming from the heavens, who stood on the back of a swan, and whose head was like the stars, and whose legs were like burning metal. ²⁷The angel carried a spear in one hand and a whip in the other, and though he threw the spear, ²⁸it was also still in his hand. ²⁹He came down and began lancing all of the creatures that still walked the earth, and when his spear touched the animals, they would crumble as would dust.

³⁰The ground was lifted up from the oceans, and water spilled out over the land, as new mountains arose, separating sister villages from one another, and separating trade routes. ³¹Castles fell off of the ground, which ground was red, and which was new.

³²Another angel was sent down from on high, who wore shining chainmail, whose breath killed grass, and trees, and life was destroyed wherever he breathed. ³³The angel went to all of the doors of the earth, and began to close them, and whichever doors he placed his hands upon could not be opened by man. ³⁴Homes became prisons, and dungeons became tombs.

³⁵And then a sound washed over the earth, like the clap of thunder, of a thousand footfalls of oxen. ³⁶And in the heavens, and on earth, there was a time of silence.