“Tonight, we will kill our brothers!”

The night sky, a frozen navy blue with dashes of white clouds here and there, beyond which millions of pulsating stars were gazing at the perpetual tragedy of human history, such a heavy sky, filled with deathly silence was hanging over the battle field.

On one side, on a dark green hill, thousands of soldiers armed with swords, axes and spears, some mounted on horses, others stacked together with their feet planted in the mud, were looking at their commander – an old general – whose back was turned away from the army, staring ahead into the blackness of the night.

On the other side, through a soft mist that turned silver in the pale moonlight, another army of similar size, was staring back at them from the opposite hill. Their commander – another old general – with his back turned away from his soldiers, was looking in the direction of the enemy.

Between the two armies nothing but a thick silence that slowed down the heart beats of the men waiting to charge into battle on the plane downhill.

Suddenly, the general of the first army pulled the strains of his white horse and turned towards his soldiers. His blue eyes gazed at the sea of men standing in the dark cold with their weapons drawn, waiting to bleed and scream for the war that was upon them. This time, they were not the attacker.

With a serious expression on his old face, a powerful spark flashed in his icy eyes, his mouth trembled, and his grey beard moved gently in the wind, and with a voice like a thunder, the general spoke thus:

“My men! Tonight we find ourselves once more at the gates of hell! I can see in your eyes – not fear, for you fear no man, this I know – but sadness, a sorrow that all good, noble men feel when they are about to charge into the darkness and draw blood!”

His horse moved from side to side, as if the beast understood these profound words as well. The general gazed far across his army, staring each of the soldiers in their eyes. Deep in their hearts, they felt a bond that not even death was strong enough to break.

“As you shall ride through the night, remember that we fight not because we hate who is in front of us but because we love who is behind us! Remember your women, your wives and mothers, your daughters, remember the sun and the calm days of yore, remember your forefathers, the temples and the days of rest! Remember all that is good for that shall be your last memory before death kisses your temples! My men! Tonight we ride and die! And we shall die meaningfully, defending what is ours: this land which your deeds and your virtues had blessed! This land in which we have buried our dead!”

The general than looked up at the frozen night sky and shouted:

“My God! My God! Do not forsaken my men! I am the one leading them to the gates of hell! I am the one sinning before you, not them! They are faithful, good and loyal men, obeying my command and my command alone – so it is my word upon which their guilt rests!”

He then turned towards the army and saw that the faces of his soldiers were pale, like those of the dead. The general gazed deep into the dark eye sockets of this illusion and saw the warm blood suffocating the earth beneath the feet of men. Before his very eyes, a vision appeared and vanished instantly: the face of Christ, with thorns pushed deep into his head; His eyes were sad but kind, understanding that the nature of man is that of violence.

“I cannot pray to God to aid us in our slaughter! How could I do so! How could we ask for His grace when tonight, we will kill our brothers!”

The general’s blue eyes blinked and the illusion of the undead was gone, but the face of Christ remained with him like a glowing imprint on is mind.

Before the general stood an army of men with stern expressions on their faces. They understood that what was about to happen was not noble, but it was just and that gave them solace.

“Men! My soldiers! Ride with me now! Ride with me into the night, into the deepest darkness! Brave the cold, face your death and let all the generations that came before you and that shall be born after you know that this land, this sacred land, is ours!” And with these final words the general dashed into the black night, downhill towards the plane where the armies were supposed to clash. Quickly behind him, his riders jumped and following the galloping horses, a mass of armed men began running and shouting.

A sea of people, all shrouded in darkness, began pouring down from the other hill – the noise was deafening: shouts, hoofs thudding on the ground, uprooting patches of grass and flattening flowers, metal rattling, echoing into the night, all hell broke loose. Here and there, the flags of the two factions were spotted: different colours but the same symbol – the Christian Cross – could be seen all over the battlefield.

Each side saw the opposition as a giant wave of shadows coming towards them, but each soldier, despite being surrounded by chaos and disturbance heard nothing: their focus was unbreakable, as if they were spellbound. The men running towards slaughter had their minds not at the enemy in front of them but at the eyes of their wives and daughters, at their laughers and embraces.

For a moment, the many thousands of men – enemies by law – were united by the same love, a love for their families, for their land, a love for God, a love that was identical in each of the hearts through which a metal blade was about to be pushed. And that love, that energy that always leads towards Truth, for just a single swift second, made everyone doubt their reasons for being there. But the miracle did not last long.

The soldiers clashed and the men went berserk, slashing right and left, punching and pushing, shouting and cursing. A large sword came out of the darkness of the night and stroke the general’s face, splitting his skull in half. Warm blood rushed over his old face and his blues eyes shut as he fell down from his mount. The shock made him feel nothing and death, gently came: as the man fell among the many dead, as his corpse was stomped on and kicked around, a light, kind and warm, overwhelmed the general’s soul.

As he opened his eyes, looking around, the general saw all the men killed in the battle and in all the previous wars of mankind, all of them staring at him with soft smiles on their faces; peace…at last.