The last in the Divinity in Darkness trilogy is done and out today with all pictures included

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Now at the end of his journey, Adler faces his brother and the Light alongside a new group of friends and the help of the Sufferer. Using all the experience that suffering has taught him, Adler sacrifices all he can to free the world from its false savior even as the Light tempts him from every angle from within his dreams to more physical threats, and prolongs his trial in the final fight of true love versus false love.

Quelled by Pain: Chapter 4 – Brother’s Keeper Till the End (Text Only)

Chapter 4 – Brother’s Keeper Till the End

What’s this now? It must be another dream, so I pray-

“This is a vision of a possible future,” a voice says that sounds similar to the Sufferer’s.

Possible future? What do you mean?

“Enjoy your time with your wife and kids. It will not last long.”

“Adler, it’s time to take the kids to school.”

“Huh?” I see my kids, a boy who looks like me and a girl who looks like my wife. Together, we eat, and they tell me all about our lives and today’s schedule. The details about everything go over my head as I marvel at my kids, how beautiful they are, and the joy I take in just seeing them happy. Since today is Bring Your Dad to School day, I get to go along with my kids to school and be with them more. I watch as my boy intelligently describes the human body, how medicines work, and his plans to make better medicine to help people. My girl gets up and wonderfully sings a song from one of her favorite shows that she dedicates to me. During this entire time, I tell my kids how proud of them I am and how talented and smart they are while holding back tears of joy and sadness.

The end of the day quickly comes, and as I embrace my wife and kids in one big family hug, the feelings of joy switch to feelings of desperation as I feel the time with them coming to a close. “No, wait! Give me more time, please! I beg you!”

I wake up from the dream and see that I’m by myself on a couch in the room of a rundown house with a leaking roof. That dream felt too real to me and I have to fight the feeling of crying and hating how my life currently is.

 

“I knew that would do the trick. Make a person feel happy and they’ll forget all about serving their God.”

“Leave me!”

“You need me to be happy. Come to face me at your ruined hideout, the church, alone, or everyone in town will die.” Before I can say anything, The Light disappears. I didn’t hear a trace of my brother’s voice in the Light, and yet, I still feel him within the Light. Taking the Light’s words to heart, I immediately get up without waking anyone and head to the ruined church.

“I’m here. It’s time to end this.”

“It is and you have a choice. You and I can join forces. Break off the burden of the Sufferer and you will get the life that I showed you in a dream. It’s what you want and you know I can give it to you. This part of history isn’t a lie in that many before you who were blessed with Necessary Suffering came to this point and accepted my offer. Your brother may die, but if you sacrifice him for me, I spare your new friends in town and make them forget about their dedication to the Sufferer so they’ll stay your friends. I’ll even make that woman, Kami, fall in love with you on top of it. She reminds you a lot of Morticia, your first love, doesn’t she? She has much of the same style though she isn’t as shy.”

“I refuse! There’s more to life than being happy and that dream just made me angrier than anything.”

“Then try to kill me without also damning your brother or send your brother to Hell with me. He does deserve it after all.” I leap at the Light, reach inside his heart, and attempt to separate him from my brother. While I am doing this, he slashes and stabs at my face and chest with his knife-like fingers. “Why suffer and die for someone that hates you?”

“Because the Sufferer loves and is love, and suffering and dying for someone is the greatest expression of it.” With a firm grip on the Light, I rip him apart from my brother and throw him aside. His skin melts into itself, becomes a black snake, and slithers into the ground.

All that remains of my brother is a bleeding barely living man, and at the same time, the injuries that I suffered for him catch up to me and make me fall to the ground. Mikheil holds me and says, “Why, Adler?”

“Because you’re my brother and I love you. Our time here is about to come to an end.”

“It’s such a shameful, uneventful end. Someone like you should’ve died more gloriously that the history books would’ve written about for what you’ve done.”

“That doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is doing the right thing and doing my best to save you.” I hold my bleeding hand out to Mikheil. “Will you join me in Heaven, brother?”

“Stop calling me that! I don’t deserve to be called your brother for what I did to you!” Mikheil shakes me when I don’t respond. “Adler? Adler! Don’t let me now!”

“Adler is dead and by my side,” the Sufferer says.

“No, no, no! Bring him back to me! I need him to help me…”

“He has done everything and more. The final choice is up to you.”

“…okay. Okay! I give myself to you. I truly do and not just to save my soul, but because it’s the right thing to do like Adler said. Don’t let my little brother’s sacrifice be in vain.” Mikheil soon bleeds out and finds himself with me in Heaven.

“Brother!” I say as I run and hug him, “I’m so glad that you got here.”

“Heh, I should be the one who is gladder than you. Why do I still look like this?”

“Because those wounds that you suffered are your treasure that got you into Heaven. They glorify you and will look better once you get in here. At least you won’t feel the pain of it anymore.”

“Tell me about it. So, what do we do now? What will happen on earth now that the Light has been defeated and it’s without a king?”

“The Sufferer will take care of it, and if He can break the Light’s control of it despite his once total control of it, He can retake it once and for all. Our time is done and our reward awaits. Come with me.” Mikheil takes my hand and enters Heaven with me where we will live in true happiness and love forever with truth and love itself.

 

The End

Quelled by Pain: Chapter 3 – The Cost of Accepting the Truth (Text Only)

Chapter 3 – The Cost of Accepting the Truth

The sound of dripping water wakes me up, and when I look down, I see that I’m standing in a pool of water and my appearance has changed again. “Great. This version of me.” My old friends start appearing out of the water one after the other.

“Didn’t I teach you to have the fire of the fight to always burn within you?”

“Did our sacrifice not mean anything to you?”

“Why are you resting when the battle is nearly over?”

“I thought you loved me…”

I pray as I try not to let the voices get to me. These are simply visions given to me by Mikheil who is pretending to use my friends’ voices to force me to give into my anger as more of them emerge.

“Why would the Sufferer answer the prayers of someone like you?”

“You killed us in your blind rage when you could’ve used the powers of the Sufferer.”

“You gave into your anger until the Sufferer had to stop you.”

“Maybe what you want is just the destruction of others because nothing you love remains on earth.”

As I continue to struggle to pray, the Sufferer, in snake form, comes out of the water and steadies me.

“Was it the Sufferer’s will that you kill me, your nephew, by twisting my head until it fell off?”

“Why would such a “good God” allow that to happen to my son and damn him and me to Hell on top of that?”

“So many have been damned and so few have been saved, and yet, even those continue to suffer and fall away from the hand that saved them.”

“Look at me. Look at yourself. Look at the monster you were and still are somewhere in your dark soul.”

“And look at me now!” I say back to them and dispel them all at the same time. “Look at how the Sufferer has had mercy on me despite my sins! Look at how even now He allows me to be an instrument of His will as penance for what I’ve done and He’s also giving you that opportunity, Mikheil!”

The rest of the dream is dispelled and Mikheil falls back with it. “Do you truly think you can save your brother, Adler?” the Light says with his voice being the dominant one over Mikheil’s. “He is mine and his soul belongs to himself and me.”

“My brother is still clinging to life in there. I know it.” I leap up and put my hand through the Light’s chest. “Come back to me, Mikheil! It’s not too late!” The Light screams out in an unnatural and terrifying tone before disappearing in a flash of light.

Awakened by the struggle, my new friends get up, look around, and surround me. Johnny takes out his weapons and says, “What happened?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. The king was here, but I made him retreat,” I say as I transform back to normal.

“It’s not exactly okay if this is the second night in a row that this has happened to you.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to it in the morning. Just rest for now.” My friends tepidly agree with me and rest, and as they do, I feel strangely at peace despite suffering constant attacks from the Light. I guess it’s because it’s a sign we’re doing the right things. In the morning, we eat and discuss our plans for today.

“Given how the king attacked you last night, we should also do the same.”

“I agree with my brother. His end and the destruction of his empire draws near. I can feel it in my soul.”

“I should be the one to go out there, especially since it was my suggestion that led to you walking into a trap.”

The brothers agree and then Johnny says, “Osiris and I can stay here to help the new converts adjust to the truth. You can go clean up the mistake you’ve made, old hag.”

“Keep calling me that and I’ll use my power to make sure that you never call me that again and always compliment and praise me.”

“Since you mentioned that last part, I won’t call you an old hag anymore because I’d rather not praise and compliment you every single day.”

“I’ll accompany Adler and Kami and give them support with my power.” I agree with Bryce and by the time we get ready, Osiris brings our attention to what is happening outside in the town.

“Maybe I should go with you guys. It looks like they have a small army in that town.”

“I think we’ll be fine. You should stay here and defend the others, so it’s not just Johnny by himself. If any guards come this way, you have my permission to burn them to ashes.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

I start to transform and say, “There’s no room for subtlety today, so let’s go in swinging.”

Kami and Bryce agree and then transform. Bryce then says, “I’ll be your shield from the front while you two do your thing from behind.”

“This should be simple. I can already feel the hearts of our enemy wavering even before our arrival.”

When we get close enough to the town for the guards to notice us, Bryce stands in front of us and separates his body to form a floating shield that protects us from incoming gunfire and explosives. During this assault, I pray so I can embrace his pain, strengthen him, and use my black mist to envelop the town.

Meanwhile, Kami’s chains go out from her and attack the enemy from below and above, wrapping them in her chains, and changing their hearts so they fight for us. The fight is going in our favor until the same golden fog from yesterday blinds us and covers the town. I fight back against it with my dark mist as I look out for Mikheil’s arrival and where Kami and Bryce may be.

People wearing masks made of paper and other materials start coming out of the fog to attack me. Inside their souls, I see the desperation to obtain what their hearts crave such as drugs, sex, the deaths of those they hate, and more. Using my powers on these people, I find that many more than I expect are saved, probably because their addictions have been clouding their minds.

“Are you this desperate to use civilians against me, Mikheil?”

“Heel, boy. You have no right to call anyone anything derogatory after every sin you’ve committed and may still commit.”

“You’re not one to speak since your sin is passing harsh judgment on all. You’ve even deemed the Sufferer to be evil and not worth your time.”

“That is because I have felt the sting of His constant cruel punishments and stingy dispensing of wisdom. A truly good god of truth and loyalty would be more giving, explain the reason behind people’s motivations and the nature of events more often rather than leaving people in the dark to guess.”

“Us being in the dark gives us all the more reason to seek Him, and even when our prayers aren’t answered, we should still trust Him that whatever happens is for our benefit or the benefit of others. As for punishments, they show that He wants you to be corrected so you can improve your thinking and way of acting. If He didn’t care, He’d just allow us to keep making the same mistake without repercussion. You should know this as a disciplinarian. You’re closer than you think to coming back to Him.” The woman is speechless until she is grabbed by Kami’s chains and pulled into the dark mist.

My next opponent and tempter is the man who is in pieces much like Bryce. “You ask Him for everything and yet you are incomplete as those you call your enemy. Even now, you find yourself wanting for help, wisdom, and love.”

“I am as complete as He needs me to be. I used to know a girl who was blessed similarly to you. She found what completed her was in a lover, and even though what she had was little, sometimes all you need is someone to love you, and the Sufferer is someone who always loves you.”

The incomplete man is pulled into the dark mist by Bryce. “I know what it’s like to want more from life and what you give it, but sometimes, it’s the giving that’s the reward.” Unwilling to accept this, the incomplete man hardens his heart against the Sufferer, turns to ashes, and is damned forever.

Bryce and I then fight our way to Kami who is struggling against the disciplinarian. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring Johnny with you to wipe this town. Out of everyone in that group, I’m surprised that both you and him were the ones who were the most devoted to the Sufferer despite previously serving the Light.”

“Johnny, as a guard, knew the terrible things that the Light made him do and he drew the line at ending the life of his brother, whereas I was sick at serving an unloving master and took the first opportunity the Sufferer gave me to change my life. Your soul is stuck in between the two, so you better choose which side you fall on.”

Before the woman can decide, Mikheil steps out of the golden fog, crushes her head, and pushes Bryce and Kami back with his fog. “I think we can agree that people in the middle of our conflict can be pretty useless to both sides, am I right?”

“She’s damned now because of her indecision and unwillingness to pick goodness.”

“Ah, but don’t we all deserve damnation? Humanity is full of scum and villains. There is not one good person on this earth who has not been guilty of some evil. You should know that. I was even going to have you replace your brother because of the potential for sin and want for a better life within you. Come on and give in to it. I know you want to tear off his head and make him suffer for everything we’ve put you through.”

“The sin within me is why the Sufferer sacrificed Himself for me. Look with your own eyes. See how he has mercy on the world and how it still stands despite all the evil in it.” I run towards the Light and grab the heart within him. “Mikheil, brother! The Sufferer still loves you. I still love you. Come back to us.”

The Light screams unnaturally like he did last night, except I hear my brother’s voice in it. He vanishes in a flash of light along with his golden fog. I regroup with Bryce and Kami and we rush back home as we hear explosions and gunfire coming from the direction it’s in.

Thankfully, when we get there, we find Osiris standing strong. “The threat has been burned to ashes as commanded.”

I transform back to normal. “That’s a relief to hear. I also heard you used to be a guard and that saving your brother made you convert.”

Back in his normal body, Osiris says, “Yes, and I also should’ve converted earlier since there were many innocents that I hurt by serving a cause that I thought fought for justice.”

“My brother is why I can’t bring myself to hate anyone since I know there are misguided people even within our enemy’s ranks. It’s a shame that our hideout is destroyed because of the fight.”

“That’s fine because we’ve made plenty of friends back in town so we have a place to stay.” My friends take what we can from the ruins of the church and bring them to town. There, the people help us find a place to stay. Since we’re partially responsible for the destruction of this place, we help clean up as much as we can and make dinner for these people. At the end of the day when everyone is together, I see a clearer vision of a better tomorrow. This is what I’ve always wanted, a happy existence with family and friends, and am thankful for getting another glimpse of it thanks to the Sufferer.