Chapter 12: 12. Within One’s Own Silent Hell, Prelude – Heresy City Arc

12. 12. Within One’s Own Silent Hell, Prelude – Heresy City Arc.

 

Serafim hurled backward from the impact of the attack, rolling on the ground and barely holding onto his scythe, footsteps quickly following up on him.

   The figure cloaked in darkness with a hood looked down at him, their half mask with a ghoulishly exaggerated nose that curved downwards like a beak, covering their forehead.

   “Get up exorcist!” The figure yelled, their voice was calm but it had a threatening, aggressive edge to it, planting a foot on his chest to emphasize their point. “Give it your all exorcist, or do you want me to kill everyone you hold dear?”

   Serafim grabbed at the figure’s foot and used his qlifot-reinforced strength to flip them over, they landed on their feet a few feet away.

    Their golden-hued ink tattoos on their right arm let out a faint shimmer as the figure dropped into a fighting stance well suited for spellcraft.

   Serafim swooped forward with a kefitzat haderech-powered movement, slashing fiercely in quick, rapid arcs, forcing the figure to dodge and weave their way out of his onslaught.

    Using their lithe frame to swoop forward out of his scythe’s range, their clenched fist struck Serafim’s stomach with an explosive thud, a shockwave of golden energy emitted on impact.

   “And you call yourself an exorcist, pathetic!” The figure said, emphasizing their point all while dominating Serafim at close quarters, beating him with a ferocious succession of quick strikes that seemed to double the impact of the prior strike. A golden-hued light exploded upon impact until he was propelled backward with the force of a cannonball. “To think you can protect innocents from Klipah. The ones you hold dear, the ones you want to protect. If you can’t hold your own, they’ll be snuffed out in front of your eyes. Like this.”

   There was a flash of an ethereal gold in the moonlight, followed by the sound of flesh ripping and a spray of red liquid. Serafim’s eyes widened, a gasp escaping his mouth followed by a stream of blood.

   His gaze fell to the mystical saber made out of golden-hued energy that coursed through his veins like some sort of venom in his bloodstream, whatever this type of energy Serafim knew it was the natural enemy of the Abyss and since he drew his power from it, it was his natural enemy.

      Serafim hacked out a series of blood-fueled coughs, leaning on the bark of a nearby tree, his blood staining the grass of the forest.

   The figure sighed, strolling its way up to him. “Fifth time wasn’t the charm was it now?

  The figure took off its mask, and the face of a bronze-skinned girl scowled down at him, similar to the violent figure she was portraying.

   She made a flourish with her hands, the golden-inked concentric circles on each of her hands shone, lighting up the multiple indecipherable eldritch names of long-forgotten gods around the first ring with the final circle completing the ritual circle.

   “Guess I’m bad at fighting ba’alei shem,” Serafim said with a smile, multiple inverted keshaphim runes surrounded his stab wound, the ethereal sword fading away. “Did you have to go all out though, Malaenna?”

    “The Kraslucists will show you no mercy, exorcist,” Malaenna replied, her golden tattoos faded once the healing had completed, strands of Serafim’s flesh swirling around each other like some expert seamstress re-stitching a damaged patch of clothing. “Always remember, when fighting a ba’alei shem, flesh crafter, or Klipah that uses incantations you’ll need to reinforce your body with qlifot right before impact. It’ll be easier to withstand attacks. It’s getting late, let’s call it a night.”

      

  Back at the castle grounds, a large section of fleshy mass continuously protruding writhing, spiky tentacles that flailed around, stained in a scarlet red of its victims like the awful reminder of the battle it was.

    Remnants of broken blades, shields, and half-burnt grimoires littered the outside alongside large boulders and rubble. Ornate bronze statues of the God-Queen and her demigod children replaced that of the flesh goddess Yhan and her apostles.

     Serafim’s attention honed in on Leaifa, two other figures stood beside him, he recognized Suman but didn’t recognize the other guy.

     Hermés and Saewynn were already there, standing at attention, waiting for their arrival. One of Serafim’s brows raised at the sight of Saewynn in a dark red exorcist cloak, his heart freezing for an instant. Those bastards, what is the Order planning this time?

    “Nice to see you doing well exorcist,” Leaifa said as he flicked ashes and blew out a bit of smoke. His eyes closed with a smirk on his face. “Hope our lovely Malaenna didn’t give you too much trouble now did she?”
    “Silence, old fool.” Malaenna snapped, crossing her arms, and tying her shoulder-length black hair into an unkempt ponytail.

Leaifa raised his open palms in surrender, a smirk still on his face.

   “We’re doing this out here?” Hermés asked, his attention shifting to the majestic, marble statue of a woman garbed in a half robe, shackled at the wrists alongside a variety of other god-like figures immortalized by the ba’alei shem.

       “That’s right,” Leaifa said around a mouthful of smoke, a lit cigarette in between his fingers. Suman and the raven black-haired girl shuffled away from the smoke, waving it away and coughing. “To ensure your bodies can’t be manipulated by the Kraslucist’s flesh craft, you’ll need to strengthen your qlifot-reinforcement skills, and to help with that we-“
    Serafim bent over, his hand shot towards his left eye and covered it, prickles of pain stabbed at his eye. He looked up, honing in on the mysterious girl and drawing his scythe.

    Hermés drew his blade and pointed it in the ba’alei shem’s direction. “You dare harbor a Klipah in our presence?” Hermés growled. His narrow shadowed eyes filled with utter contempt radiated pure evil. “What’s the meaning of this?”

   “If you two idiots would let me finish, I was going to say Yesenia and Malaenna are Hollowed,” Leaifa said with an unnerving calm, dropping his spent cigarette and stomping it out. “I understand how small-brained you exorcists could be but from what I know you have to observe and eliminate Klipah, such an iron-clad objective would promote senseless violence so your organization decided to create her kind, the Hollowed.”

         “A pleasure to meet thee, exorcists,” Yesenia said, her raven black hair was styled in a ponytail and long bangs framed the sides of her face. Serafim barely noticed the bandages covering her eyes, etched in similar symbols and runes to the inkwork found on Malaenna and Leaifa’s skin. “I promise I mean you no harm despite my accursed nature.”

    “A Hollowed?” Hermés asked, a high inflection in his voice with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve heard of no such thing, don’t accuse us of collaborating with those abominations.”

    “Hermés,” Serafim said, his extrasensory perception didn’t pick up a hint of malice akin to most Klipah from the girl. “She doesn’t emit any eiva that most Klipah release… and there’s no sense that she’s using leha’alim either.”

    “Heed my words, exorcists,” Malaenna said, manifesting in front of Serafim and Hermés, an ethereal blue saber in hand and drawn in their direction. “If you wish harm upon me then you’ve condemned thyself to be felled by my blade.”

   Harm upon me? What the hell is she talking about?
     Before each party could get hostile, a mellow bronze glowing wave erupted between, crackling out sparks that forced both parties back.

   “It’d be best if we don’t start fighting yeah?” Suman said, his arm outstretched with a patchwork of bronze tattoos rippling and twisting around his arm like a serpent. “We’re supposed to work with the exorcists, Malaenna, for Edenia’s sake.”

   “Tch!” Malaenna said, her ghostly blue blade dissipating from her grip. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to Hermés and Serafim. “You of all people know the unspeakable atrocities the Three Holy Dukedoms and their dogs have done to our city, you forget your mother so soon.”
    “Malaenna…” Yesenia began before Leaifa cut her off.

“That’s enough.” His voice silencing everyone in an instant, Hermés sheathed his saber, his suspicious gaze still on Yesenia. Serafim sheathed his scythe as well.

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    Saewynn remained quiet throughout all this, almost as if something was bothering her.

   I’ll talk to her later, and what the hell is this girl? A Hollowed? Is such information reserved for exorcists of higher rank? Serafim gritted his teeth and wrapped his fingers into a closed fist. It’s always secrets with the Old Order, what exactly are they hiding?

   “Everyone’s ready?” Leaifa asked, his gaze turned to Yesenia, nodding to her. “What you’ll be doing today is something we ba’alei shem call memory work.”

   “Memory work?” Saewynn asked.

 “In addition to their ability to manipulate their soul to transform their flesh or create weapons of the flesh,” Leaifa explained, using sardonic waving gestures to emphasize his point. “There are some gifted enough to manipulate the flesh of others. We think it would be best if you strengthen your qlifot reinforcement skills to prevent this.”

    “Because they can’t manipulate the flesh of souls filled with qlifot?” Hermés asked in search of confirmation, although his tone indicated it was rhetorical.

  “Bingo, Peacock Boy.”

Hermés scoffed, crossing his arms and looking to the side.

    “And for that, we’ll need Yesenia’s help,” Leaifa said, nodding in Yesenia’s direction. “Very well then, proceed Yesenia.”
   The sigils on the talismans wrapped around her eyes began to glow a bright shade of crimson, she raised her hands in their direction, and delicate shards of scarlet began forming into heavenly petals.

    The petals swirled around the three of them, and all three of them gasped at the unearthly beauty of the incantation that resembled an ornate rose window one would find at a church.

   “I wish you good luck, children of God born in the darkness.”

With those final words, the petals melded into a shimmering cocoon-like structure resembling a closed, lotus flower, trapping them in their own silent hell.

 

*  * *

    Adin stood in the midst of twelve of Veelon’s most powerful men and women, one wrong word, and his life could end in an instant.

   The headquarters of the Old Orders wasn’t a place every exorcist could come back to, so for him to be summoned here, by the V12 Senate, the highest-ranked individuals in the Old Order was a scary thing to Adin.

   My friends disappeared when summoned here, will I be next?

  The hooded exorcists at the edges of the room had a brooding, ominous spiritual presence about them that made him tremble at the sight of them. The Six Azrael? The Old Order’s Black Hand? What’s the meaning of this?

   Twelve directors sat on a roundtable blanketed in shadow as if sunlight moved around them, these mythical figures of six men and six women had held their seats of power well before Adin was even born.

    Seated above them in a massive, ornate golden chair embellished with unimaginable amounts of jewels and depicted strange crests of outer gods and tales of some sort of creation myth with a shackled woman.

   Six golden chains held up the throne of the king of Veelon, dropping from the hands of multiple angel-like statues that looked down at the porcelain floor, beautiful fireworks of orange lights danced overhead.  The king was in their midst. Alywnn, the Deathless King.

    Adin had heard rumors that they had contracts with some immortality Klipah or mind Klipah to grant them immortality and link their psyches together. Bunch of nonsensical rubbish.

   All Adin was sure about was that in his eyes they were all stuck up, self-righteous, and strict machiavellian bastards.

   “My lords,” Adin began. “The Watchers state the silence from the ‘Root of All Evil’ will be disturbed. The apostles of darkness will awaken from their ‘slumber’ seeking to fulfill whatever nefarious purposes he has planned. In other words, the Maleficent Earl’s incarnation must be stopped at all costs.”
   “How long would it take for him to be reborn?” A feminine voice asked him, a clear sense of superiority in her tone almost unnerved him for a moment. From what he heard she was V12-5, her reputation amongst her servants was memorable, to say the least.
“The Earl’s incarnation is inevitable, my lady,” Adin stated, raising his head down, even though he couldn’t be sure she was looking at him, he could feel her spiritual presence pierce through his body. “I believe this is a matter we must take very seriously.”

   “I see.” King Alwynn finally spoke, sending the whole room into dead silence. Small shuffling from those waiting to be addressed by his majesty in the lavish benches facing the throne in a V-shape. A few high-ranking exorcists and nobles from the gorgeously designed balconies overhead faced the throne and immediately quit the conversations and faced the king. “However these may be mere assumptions made by a madman, what if the resurgence of Klipah could be an after-effect of the Ma’avak Era? I believe we should wait a little longer before we investigate.”
     “Your highness, the Blind Augur’s foreshadowing hasn’t faltered in centuries despite his mental state being… shall we say rather different from his prior self.” Adin defended his father, a small tinge of pride for his father’s gift when he was a child resurfaced, and even the king calling him a lunatic was taking it too far.

    “Nonsense! What could be capable of such a blasphemous feat as bringing the Earl and his fiends to our world?” King Alywnn’s voice boomed, causing Adin’s eyes to widen at how it made his body tremble almost as if there was a hint of spiritual power in his voice itself. “We have advanced since the Ma’avak Era when we last fought the Earl and his apostles. We have thousands of loyal exorcists, Hollowed and Possessed!”
   “Your highness.” A scholarly voice interjected, his voice was soft and well collected filled with authority, and he was clearly V12-1. “Perhaps the possibility of the Earl incarnating could explain the odd shifts in the currents of the Abyss the Research and Development division have informed us about.”

     “I agree with V12 dash one, your highness.” A powerful dulcet voice spoke out, filled with confidence. “If you would be so kind to let the Watchers find out if that is the case. It seems his majesty isn’t in the best of moods.”

  Adin marveled at how that V12 member could casually say that to the King as if talking to your coworker during a night out at the bar, his confidence was admirable.

   “If the madman’s prophecy is true, then everything and every one the Three Holy Dukedoms worked so hard to protect will crumble.” King Alwynn said, looking down to the table beneath his feet almost as if he felt disgusted by gracing the insects beneath him with some attention. “V12 dash one, I trust you’ll make sure our problems go away.”

   One of the shadowed figures, presumably V12-1 nodded and turned to face Adin directly. “Adin, of the Gentle Death. Find your sister, Macaria, of the Blessed Death. The two of you, the Twins of Tiphareth. Find the disciple of Michiel Augustin Demiurgos, you may know him as the Red-Eyed Reaper before the Earl’s apostles do so. The Red-Eyed Reaper must be secured at all costs, consider this objective above even the lives of any soul that gets in your way. Dismissed.”

 

  

   

  

 

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