It was now three and a half years since Nicolae Carpathia had become the Secretary-General of what used to be the United Nations, and now the Supreme Potentate of the Global Community. After having suffered through thirteen of what the Judah-ites had called "the Lord's judgments" upon the earth, plus having to deal with the Judah-ites, the two witnesses in Jerusalem, and insurrectionists among his own cabinet of subpotentates, he was finally in a position to do something to at least two of his problems. He had learned of the limited amount of time that the two witnesses had to cause trouble with their plagues and their preaching -- 1260 days -- and decided to have the Global Gala be held in Jerusalem around the same time when the time of the two witnesses will end. He also had told Leon Fortunato his plan to have the ten subpotentates murder the Enigma Babylon Pontifex Maximus Peter Mathews in a secret meeting, then have his body burned to ashes. He later at the Global Gala swayed the people who heard of the Pontifex Maximus' death from his deputy pontiff to believe that it was of no significance, so Peter Mathews' memorial service was cancelled the following day out of lack of interest. At the same time, Nicolae Carpathia made a show out of murdering Eli and Moishe, the two witnesses, the day after their last day of prophesying. Although three and a half days later they would be resurrected and lifted up to heaven in a cloud, Nicolae made sure that the Global Community news network covered none of it. However, shortly afterward, as Nicolae was giving a speech at the closing day of the Global Gala, the sound of a powerful shotgun went off, splitting his podium to pieces. Nicolae thought that he had been shot, although the bullet had miraculously missed him. He acted as though he had been shot and fell. But as he fell, Nicolae felt something like a sharp object piercing through his head like a hot knife through butter. He saw the other end of a blade sticking out through the socket of one of his eyes. He saw briefly the face of his friend Chaim Rosenzweig, looking for the moment as if he was enjoying the look of Nicolae's face of being betrayed. He also saw dimly the face of Leon as looked down upon him and wept over losing him. Almost as out of reflex, Nicolae muttered, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And then everything went black.

The next thing Nicolae knew is that he was falling into a place where everything was dark — so dark that it was blinding him. It was as if every single vestige of light was sucked out. Worse than the darkness, however, was the heat — a very intense, dry, suffocating heat that instantly parched his throat. And on top of that was a cacophony of loud noises — a crowd of millions of souls all weeping and gnashing their teeth, crying out for anything that would ease their pain in a such a dry, hot, dark place as this. Wherever this place is, Nicolae didn't like being in there as he landed and bumped into person after person, wandering around in the dark, trying to find a way out. One of the people he bumped into turned out to be his mother Marilena, whom he had callously deserted after calling her a foul curse word and bit her hand, setting up her eventual death, when he was a child. Nicolae recognized her voice, but he still felt no remorse for what he had done to her, or where she had wound up because she had turned her back on the Lord to give her life and soul to Satan in exchange for having Nicolae.

Eventually, Nicolae found out where he was from the souls who have been here, even those who have been here long before he was. Most of the people called it "the outer darkness", while some called it Hades, and some even called it Hell. The testimony of one of its residents was perhaps the most telling of them all:

"I was the rich man that Jesus talked about who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who fared sumptuously every day. At my gate was a poor beggar named Lazarus, who was all full of sores. He longed to eat the crumbs that fell from my table, and even the dogs came to lick his sores. One day this beggar died, and he was carried off by angels to Abraham's bosom. I also died later on and was buried, and I found myself in torments in this place. I saw Abraham afar off with Lazarus in his bosom. I cried out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham had said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, nor can those from there pass to us.' Then I said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, that they not also come to this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' But I said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' And Abraham said, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one should rise from the dead.'"

After what seemed like an eternity of being left in this dark place, Nicolae began to feel as if his own "father", Lucifer, had forsaken him, that he was not going to deliver him at all. It was then that he saw a faint glimmer of light — nothing more than a dim burnt-orange glow — falling from above toward him. Nobody else could see this light falling. It came and fell upon Nicolae, clothing him with its glow that enabled him to see whatever faces happened to be right in front of him. Nicolae smiled in relief and thanked Lucifer that "he would not leave my soul in Hades, nor will he let his Special One see corruption." Then a voice called for Nicolae to arise, and then he lifted himself up from "the outer darkness" toward whatever awaited him.

The next thing Nicolae knew, he was lying in a fiberglass transparent air-sealed coffin in a garden outside his royal palace, while Leon was busy giving the eulogy and the giant statue of Nicolae had threatened whoever would not worship him with death. He felt his body had been miraculously rejuvenated, and although he no longer needed to breathe oxygen, he still needed to get out of this coffin. He used his foot to kick the air seal out of its socket, and then he used great superhuman strength to break free the front part of the coffin, causing it to knock over Leon's podium in the process. Everyone who had gathered for his memorial in New Bablyon that day was surprised to see Nicolae rise from the dead, back among the living as the Supreme Potentate once again, and now as the "god of this world" in living flesh. Three and a half years later, though, Nicolae would be exposed as the "supreme impotentate" he truly is by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and be sentenced to spend all of eternity with Leon as the False Prophet in the Lake of Fire.