“My
work is my gift
My
blood is my witness
My
vengeance is swift
It
will be as written
I
have been in captivity
But
my God will have the final victory”
- A Psalm of St. Matteo the Black Thorn
Chapter
4 – Men Against gods
As Valerius and his followers wait
for the approaching army of gods, they do not become anxious until they hear the
sound of them approaching and see them in the distance. Already they can tell
they are outmatched in terms of gear and ability, but they do not shake or let worry
overcome them.
Valerius stands before the army and
asks in a thunderous voice, “Have you come to repent?”
Some of the gods hesitate at
hearing Valerius with his loud voice again with some chattering among their
fellow gods if they should even challenge him.
Lucian uses his influential voice
in return, and says, “Submit yourself to justice and we may have mercy on you.”
Lucian’s voice isn’t as commanding
as the one that speaks through Valerius and both sides can tell this.
“I’m done serving your form of
justice. Repent or perish!”
“Before I used to think that you had
the most sense out of everyone, but now that I see I am mistaken. Let us see
who the one true God deems is right.”
An entire castle with walls is
instantly raised from the ground around Lucian and his pantheon with gods
already in towers and key points of defense. Valerius and his followers are
shaken and starting to doubt their cause. Even his uncle and father are
beginning to wonder what they should do.
Lucian continues, “How can a God
that allows us to do this be against us? I don’t know what happened to you but
come back to the light of God.”
Valerius knows how everyone is
feeling and steels himself as he lets God inspire him and says, “God is in
everything including the darkness.”
A darkness comes out from Valerius’
body in a storm that envelops the entire area and prevents any light from
shining in. The abilities of the gods are muted while Valerius and his
followers are able to quietly move through the darkness without being noticed.
One by one Lucian’s pantheon falls while he is confused as to what to do. While
Valerius goes into Lucian’s castle, he murders every false god that he sees. His
bloodlust begins to get to him as he starts to take his time with them by
scaring them or cutting off one of their limbs before finishing them off. His
kills become less quick and painless and start to become slow and sadistic. Once
the area leading up to the top is cleared, his mind clears and he begins to
worry about what he did.
“Please, God, forgive me for what I
did,” Valerius confesses, “I let myself be too engrossed in the battle and I
lost myself…please tell me that you forgive me. Please tell me what I should
do.” After a minute of reflection and panic, a strange calm comes over him as
he realizes something. “I know what I should do. It’s right in front of me and I’m
still alive, which means I still have the chance to atone for my sins.”
Valerius enters the top floor and
kills Lucian’s guards with their lives being snuffed out before they can react to him. He then shows himself to Lucian and the two look at each
other.
“I’m amazed that you were able to
do this all in a short amount of time. You must truly be blessed by God then.
Can you tell me what happened to you?” Lucian asks.
“I spoke to St. Matteo, God opened
my mind to the truth, and now we’re here. What else is there to say?” Valerius
responds.
“Heh, I guess nothing, but I still
believe that you’re in the wrong. I’m sorry to do this to you.”
Lucian consumes the artifact and
becomes a god with a single face comprised of seven faces, six bodies, and five
limbs, however, Valerius is unafraid even as reality bends around him. He is
unshaken by the visions and voices in his head, the attacks that come out of nowhere,
and the pain that the very air causes him. This battle is felt by everyone in
and around the castle walls as Valerius’ uncle, father, and followers retreat.
They count everyone and notice that Valerius is gone but can see from the light
at the top that someone is still fighting. Assuming it to be Valerius, they
pray and cheer for him.
“Why doesn’t the pain affect you?!”
Lucian asks.
“It is my offering to God. My
suffering is the proof of my love for God because without it there is no love,”
Valerius answers.
“What madness are you speaking
about?!”
“I speak the truth who has freed
me.”
The darkness surrounds Lucian and
he is unable to see or sense Valerius as he is slashed at and his heads are cut
off. With his last head, he tries to pin point Valerius for one last attack
only for a blade to go into his chest where the artifact is. Now that it is damaged,
the artifact begins releasing immense energy that tears apart Lucian from the
inside.
“Wait! If you destroy the artifact,
it’ll kill us both!” Lucian says.
“I don’t care. It’s worth it to
save your soul,” Valerius says.
“You’d die for me?”
“Yes, I would. Take my hand and
come with me to Heaven, old friend.”
Captivated by Valerius’ brotherly
love, Lucian takes Valerius' hand and repents of what he did as Valerius
destroys the artifact and blows them both up along with the entire castle and surrounding
walls. Basil, Gregory, and the rest of Valerius’ followers manage to survive
with no casualties on their side, however, every one of Lucian’s pantheon is
dead.
Looking over the destruction and
seeing no sign of Valerius, Gregory puts his hand on Basil and says, “Your son
was braver than both of us combined.”
“That, your nephew, was,” Basil responds,
“I’m sorry for what I said to you before and putting you in prison for
preaching the truth, brother.”
“Don’t worry about it. You are my
brother and I should never have hated you. Let’s not waste what Valerius has
given to us.”
“What should we do? Should we
finish off the pantheon in the Crown?”
“Not unless God tells us to. Let’s
wait for the right opportunity before we strike.”
“Good idea.”
The brothers gather their forces
and go to the Void at the bottom of the world to wait for God’s command. After
knowing of Lucian’s defeat, the pantheon of gods in the Crown manipulate the truth
and pretend that he was a god-saint who gave his life to face the Crow of
Death, which is the name they gave to Valerius. Life continues on as normal for
the world except an invisible impact has taken place with the death of so many
false gods and the destruction of the artifact that made men into gods. A few
weeks pass and Killian, a young friend of Valerius, is praying at the Church of
the One True God as it is being destroyed. He feels a voice whisper to him and
the wind pushes him in a direction. Killian follows this feeling and bumps into a
familiar garbed in black.
“I’m sorry,” Killian says to the
man while looking at him.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m fine. Is
there something, boy? You look troubled,” the man responds.
“Oh, the Church of the One True God
is being torn down and worship of Him is being devalued in favor of the other
gods.”
“That is a tragedy especially since
the gods will forget who lets them have their power. I have something here that
was handed down to me by St. Matteo. I have no use for it anymore, but since
you seem to be devoted to the one true God, then you might like it.”
“Really? I’ll take it if you’ll
give it to me.”
“Promise me that you won’t show it
off. You may get in trouble for it.”
“I promise!”
“Give me your hand then.”
The garbed in black takes Killian’s
hand and a small vine of black thorns crawls up Killian’s arm and attaches itself
to him. He looks at the thorny vine in amazement.
“It certainly is something special.
This must be a real relic of St. Matteo.”
“Does the pain bother you?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“That’s strange for someone to say
especially when so many people try to avoid as much pain and suffering as possible.”
“I don’t mind pain as much as other
people. It’s what you need to help grow after all. It’s what I heard from
somewhere from someone. You remind me of him actually. What’s your name?”
When Killian looks back to where
the man was, he sees that the man has disappeared as if he were not there to
begin with.
“There you are, Killian! What are
you doing out here?” a girl’s voice calls out.
Killian quickly hides the vine of
thorns and says, “Oh, it’s nothing!”
“Come on, we have to go back to
training!”
“I’m coming!”
The End
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