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If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
~ Job 41:8-29

Leviathan is a primordial beast of darkness and chaos and a king of Hell referred to in the Tanakh and the Bible. He makes a major appearance in the Book of Job as one of God's first and mightiest of Earthly creatures that rules the seas in contrast to Behemoth who rules the Earth and Ziz rules the skies.

Overview

The Leviathan is the primordial sea monster that was created by God and is one of the more well-known interpretations of the Chaoskampf. He is an ancient beast of the seas, originating from Jewish folklore and different versions of Christian theology.

In Christian views, it is said to be the Demon of Envy or the embodiment of Satan and would devour sinners during the End Times within the Lake of Fire.

History

Genesis

The Leviathan was perhaps the first beast created by God, followed by the Behemoth and the Ziz, as the embodiment of the chaotic waters that cannot be tamed by man and only by God. At the time, however, the Leviathan did not dwell within the Earth but resided in the Abyss until he was tamed by God after the creation of the Heavens and Earth. It is said that the Leviathan was not too fond of being under God's power and would express its frustration by thrashing violently in the abyssal waters, threatening to flood the Earth and swallow the stars but would be stopped by God each time.

It is even suggested that the Leviathan was envious of God's dominion over the Heavens and the Earth with the beast wanting to have a domain of equal value and vastness. And so, God gave it the Earth's oceans knowing that the Earth was, in His eyes, His greatest prize to be given to His greatest creation that being humanity. After the creation of the Behemoth and the Ziz, the Leviathan appeared to be content for a while and more so in regards to living alongside its cohorts who dwell within their own respective realms; Behemoth having the lands and the Ziz having the sky.

War in Heaven

However, it was not until Lucifer's rebellion that things only grew dire once again, especially since the Leviathan's envious nature could only be quelled for so long. The war was said to have disturbed the abyssal waters below the conflict in Heaven. In a fit of anger, the Levithan opened its enormously gaping maw as it shot its body upward, taking in the dark waters into its mouth, breaching the surface all while its mouth remained agape, and upon piercing the Heavens, the fires of Paradise ignited a spark upon contact with the waters that it collected during its ascension. Heaven's fire mixed with the chaotic waters created a maw of infernal flames, also creating the dreaded Hellmouth.

Seeing the Leviathan breaching the walls of Paradise, Jophiel took notice of the beast making its way towards the moon with the intention of devouring it. The archangel took up her sword and with a swift but mighty swing, managed to cut through the Leviathan's seemingly impenetrable hide, detering it from its course in sheer pain, and forcing it to flee. The piece that was cut from the Leviathan was said to have fallen at the exact time Lucifer and his armada of rebel angels were defeated and cast out of Paradise before colliding into the Abyss. This torn piece of the Leviathan was said to have taken a life of its own from the mixture of Heaven's fire and watery chaos, becoming its own entity which soon found itself among Hell's ranks whilst the primordial beast was confined inside the Earth's oceans.

After the War in Heaven, the very fundamental nature of creation itself shifted dramatically and among these disturbances was the animal kingdom turning against one another for the sake of survival as well against their former masters that being Adam and Eve. This also affected the three primordial beasts; Behemoth, Ziz, and the Leviathan itself. The effect caused them to turn against one another thereby spurning the three layers of what makes up the Earth as well as those that dwell within them into chaos. As a result, God was forced to separate these three mighty beasts lest they caused untold natural destruction upon the planet and its inhabitants.

Prophesied Death

It is revealed that during the End Times, Leviathan and its brethren shall be slain and its flesh will be served to all those deemed as righteous. This essentially means that when the time comes, God will slay these monsters to save His creations but only His followers will be allowed to feast. According to the Talmud, the Leviathan's skin will be flayed and cover the tent where the feast takes place and if one does not consume its flesh they will be given clothing made from its skin. The remaining skin will be spread across the walls of Jerusalem where its brightness is said to illuminate the world.

As per the prophecy, Hellboy took the corpse of the Leviathan all the way to the stronghold within the Hollow Earth that was established when the Ogdru Hem devastated the Earth and had its skin flayed to be cooked and cover the walls of the stronghold with said skin as a form of protection. Leviathan's death was likely caused from a terrible wound it sustained during its battle with the Behemoth during the Apocalypse when the forces of the Dark Knight Initiative diverged the direction of the great beasts from their appointed destination and instead lured them towards each other in a titanic clash.

Powers and Abilities

Leviathan is one of the most powerful beings in creation with its sheer presence being enough to make even the bravest of men tremble at the spot. According to the Book of Job, no creature in the depths of the oceans is its equal and looks down upon those who are proud and arrogant. The only two primordial beasts that rival the Leviathan's power are the Behemoth and Ziz, of which were created alongside the Leviathan at the dawn of creation. The Shepherd of the Illuminati also states that among the beasts, the Leviathan is the most difficult to tame with its tablet piece. Rabbi Johana writes that if he would put his head into Paradise no living creature could endure the odor of him.

The Leviathan's hide is indestructible, far more durable than even the Behemoth whose hide could not even be pierced by Dante's own sword Rebellion. The Leviathan's skin is like a double-coat of mail, with overlapping scales as large as shields on its back, and as sharp and hard as broken pottery on its underparts. Swords, harpoons, and even bullets will simply bounce off such protection. The Shepherd of the Illuminati proclaims that no weapon of any earthly or even supernatural caliber can penetrate it so much so that it completely shrugged off attacks from the Los Angeles-class fast attack sub pods, four of the Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers, and was unhindered from Klaus's Brain Grid Blood Battle attacks. Only a sufficiently powerful high-powered missile, such as the DF-45, was enough to actually deter it from its original course and draw its attention to its attackers. Much like his fellow primordial beasts, the Leviathan holds total dominion over the ocean's inhabitants as it was witnessed being surrounded and flanked by a multitude of fish and other marine creatures.

The Leviathan is capable of projecting "burning lights" that can destroy almost any man-made structure. The Leviathan is shown to perform this through the use of innumerable bioelectric feelers around its mouth which collect the photokinetic energy of the sun from the water's surface and through its own body to produce extremely powerful blasts of energy that can destroy ships in a single hit. The Leviathan can even create smaller versions of these attacks by having various patches of only several conjoined feelers. Even then the force of these miniature blasts were enough to have Klaus create Keil Barrikade to shield him from the attacks which barely prevented them from inflicting damage. Even just charging the attack makes the Leviathan's area of space fatally deadly as the water becomes extremely superheated.

Myth and Legends

In legend, it is said that Leviathan's own body serves as its own realm of Hell and preys upon souls that attempt to escape from the Inferno, devouring them and sucking them inside its stomach, where they are forever to be burned in the flames of its body. According to Michaelis' classification of demons, Leviathan was a prince of the Seraphim who tempts people to give into heresy, and is opposed by St. Peter.

Leviathan became associated with, and may originally have been referred to by, the visual motif of the Hellmouth, a monstrous animal into whose mouth the damned disappear at the Last Judgement, found in Anglo-Saxon art from about 800, and later all over Europe.

Gallery

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