Chapter
3 – Burn the Curse, Burn the Moon
To her surprise, Ivy awakens
unchained in a rather luxurious room. She finds that her whip isn’t by her side
and that nothing has been done to her. Her wounds from her fall have even been
healed. Part of her is thankful that she doesn’t have to help the worshippers
of God anymore, but at the same time, she feels worried about them being corrupted,
especially Bernice. To see where she is, Ivy looks out the window to see that
she is in a castle with neighboring castles around it and smaller buildings around
them that are puny in comparison. Her curiosity about Bernice and the others then
moves her to exit the room.
In contrast to her luxurious room, Ivy
finds herself in a hallway full of cells where people are being corrupted and tortured.
Her want for justice slowly begins to burn as she sees this and finds herself
unable to do anything. Going further along, she finds a room where a person is
becoming a vampire god. This person smashes several holy objects until they are
cursed with the blasphemous baptism and covered with the blood of a baptized
infant. Black spikes come out of the new god’s neck, go through its face, and
emerge at the top of its head as if crowning it. Seeing the infant die a gruesome
death and the other lords and gods celebrate it forces Ivy to act even though
she is easily seen by the gods who wished her to see this.
“Ah, we were just going to wake you
up and bring you here. You will be a god like us. Isn’t this a grand blessing?”
one of the gods says.
“Why? It’s not something that I
want,” Ivy says.
“Because of your power and because
of your sinful soul. A person can only become a god like us if most of the
light of God is lost from a person’s soul and yours is perfect.”
“I can’t use that power without asking
God for it.”
The gods look at each other and
consult one another. Even the new god has a say in this.
One of them speaks for the rest as
it says, “That will be of no issue. With you allied with us, God will no longer
be able to use you against us. As a god, you’ll live eternally blaspheming God
with every action, every breath of your life. You will have true freedom to do
whatever you want.”
“I don’t care for God, but I don’t
want this! Above all, I don’t want an innocent infant to die for my sake.”
“You don’t have a choice in this.
Besides, we can see from your sinful soul that you would like nothing different
than the pleasures that only sin can afford, or do we need to remind you?”
“I think we do,” a god interrupts, “I
think we should have her pleasure herself with the body of the holy woman.”
“The what?”
“One of the women who was with you
was a fine treat indeed. She prayed out loud for her God and you to save her.
Here, we have no more use of her corpse.”
The god throws over to Ivy the mangled
body of Bernice who is barely recognizable to her. Ivy looks at her face in
horror and begins to sob as she silently apologizes to her.
“That woman was something else. If
there was anyone holy among that herd of sheep, it was her because of how
strongly she resisted us until her death. Having our way with her was some of the
best fun I had in months.”
“I’ll kill you!” Ivy says with her
fists raised.
“With what? Your bare hands? Your nonexistent
fire powers or perhaps this?” the god says before showing Ivy her whip and then
crushing it with its hands. “You have nothing to fight us with. Perhaps you’ll
find something later.”
“We would like a good challenge
since the Church of God doesn’t give us any.”
“It would be nice, but for now
since you’re so resistant, we should get you to relax. Perhaps sin a bit more before
you become a god so that you’ll become more powerful.”
“Maybe we should actually have her
pleasure herself with that corpse. Oh, what beautiful corruption will be born from
that!”
“Perhaps we should.”
The gods activate Ivy’s curse and
put it into overdrive.
“I’m sorry, Bernice,” Ivy says to
herself.
“Get up. You can still fight this,”
a voice says in her head.
Inside her mind, Ivy sees her
guardian angel.
“I can’t do anything.”
“You can allow God to act through
you.”
“But I can’t. The only thing that I
can feel like I can do is to give myself over to my sins.”
“I felt totally out of control of
myself too once, but submission to God is true freedom,” an unfamiliar voice
says to her.
“I was afraid of the destiny God
put me in. Still, I trusted in Him and triumphed with the help of my friends,”
another voice says.
“I let my pride and zeal overcome
me, and yet, God gave me a second chance,” yet another voice chimes in along
with many others who give their testimony of service to God.
“Who are these people?” Ivy asks
her angel.
“These are your saintly ancestors.
They are praying that you overcome your challenges and are giving you the opportunity
to do so. The choice is up to you.”
“Why does it have to be me? I’m
nothing but a worthless whore.”
“You are not that to God. You are
His precious creation that He died for and even now, He wants you to live and
redeem yourself.”
Touched by this, Ivy’s strength
begins to restore itself.
“I know you can do it, Ivy!” the
voice of Bernice says from beyond.
Hearing the voice of Bernice and
finally beginning to understand her purpose in life, Ivy prays to God, “I see
now or at least see as best I can. Okay, God. Do with me what You will. Let the
flames of justice burn through me and put an end to this eternal night.”
At her word, Ivy and everything and
everyone around her begins to catch fire. This fire spread from not only this
castle and the surrounding castle but quickly spreads throughout every inch of
the world to burn the evil from it. Cities and long lasting monuments easily
crumble while the vampires and their serfs of all kinds burn to ash as well. While
this is happening, Ivy is struggling to keep this fire alight as it burns her
as well. Despite the pain, she holds on preferring the freeing pains of the divine
fire over the dark pleasures of her curse being inflicted on her by demons. Her
angel, her ancestors, and Bernice continue to strengthen her with their prayers
to keep her going.
Eventually, the castle around her
crumbles, but her angel protects her from this. The entire world burns until
finally, a flare shoots out from it to blow up the false moon to bits. After a
short while, Ivy’s fire subsides and the world is free from the slaves of sin
and false gods. Looking around, Ivy sees the ruins of the castle around her. Not
many survived with her in this location with all of them saying that a light
protected them, a light that Ivy explains to them was their guardian angel.
The smoke from the flames then dissipates
to reveal the sun’s light that hasn’t shined on the earth for generations. It is
then that Ivy realizes that the curse marks on her are gone and that she feels
freer than ever.
She then gets down on her knees and
says, “Thank you, God, for being so patient with me! I promise you that the
sinful woman that I was burned up and the woman that you want me to be has
emerged from her ashes. Please, continue to grant us your aid and help us
rebuild a better society in Your name.”
Ivy takes a couple of the infants that
survived, kisses them, and leads the survivors of the fire to a better tomorrow
as she follows the light of God that now lives within her.
The End
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