Curse of Cognizance: Chapter 1 – Black Flame of Redemption

Chapter 1 – Black Flame of Redemption

The Flame of Cognizance was lit when man first sinned and confessed his sins to God. If man wanted to continue to know what was good and evil, then he had to keep the flame alight with acts of sacrifice and penance and let the flame burn away the sins from his soul. Without the flame, man is unable to know the truth and why he should care about it. A man once called more devil than man whose name is Tenebris seeks to stoke the flames to keep man’s capacity to know truth alive. He’s been blessed by the new head bishop for this task, and even a holy man like him has no clue why Tenebris has been put on this task.

While traveling, Tenebris stops at an abandoned farm to find whatever edible fruit that he can eat. When a person loses their capacity to know the truth, they become humans known as Purposeless. These Purposeless will stand, sit, or lay around doing nothing like the people who owned this farm Tenebris is at. On the other hand, the Purposeless will kill themselves, unconsciously do the routines they did when they had their senses without any deviances from it, or do whatever makes them feel good. It is not known why certain people turn into the Purposeless faster than others though those who don’t see a purpose in life typically turn the fastest. For the family at the farm, they sit together starving while holding each other’s hands. This sight makes Tenebris remember his wife and children. He goes into the house and tries to feed the family their crops, but they don’t even open their mouths to eat. They just stare blankly at one another while ignoring Tenebris as if he is not there.

Seeing that there’s nothing he can do for them, but fulfill his vow, Tenebris heads off to a city known as Ecclesia where all the buildings appear to be various cathedrals of different sizes with statues of different angels and saints decorating the squares, parks, and street corners, however, the original beauty of the city has been destroyed by what seems to be a battle that is still going on between those who are for and against the continuation of the flame. Tenebris heads to one of the churches in the area and finds Purposeless people attending mass in a loop. In another one of the churches, he finds a single man talking to himself while repeatedly bowing and hitting his head on the floor.

“Penance, penance! Keep the flame alight with penance!” the man says, “Penance, penance! Let not our sins quench the flame!”

Tenebris leaves the man to his penance and continues walking through the city. He arrives at a blacksmith who is hammering away at swords.

The blacksmith sees him and says, “I’m not Purposeless yet. I still have work to do and it looks like that sword of yours needs work. Let me take a look at it.”

When the blacksmith takes a better look at Tenebris’ sword, he remembers who Tenebris is. Even so, he works on it and tries hammering out the bugs and black flames from the broken blade.

“Ah, I remember you, devil. I’m surprised that you didn’t become Purposeless or like the Divinus out there making your own truth out of nothing,” the blacksmith says while Tenebris says nothing, “What? Nothing to say? That’s fine with me. Word has already spread that you vowed to keep the Flame alive, which did give me a laugh when I first heard it. Those who vow to keep the Flame alive when the Pillars have abandoned their post typically become saints, but someone like you, heh, you’ll be lucky to burn as cinders in the Purgatory of the Flame until the end of time.”

The blacksmith turns to Tenebris to see his reaction and is disappointed to see that he didn’t get any kind of reaction.

“Whatever your reasoning is for your vow, you should watch out because the Pillars will not give up the keys to the Flame easily. I better not hear soon that you died or gave up. Also, watch out for the Doves. The same messengers who spread news around the land could also be allied with the Divinus and the Pillars. Here’s your blade. I could barely do anything to repair it with those damned bugs and flames on it, but if you could get some blessed holy water and pieces of the cathedral he resides in, I could improve the blade.”

Tenebris takes his blade, bows, then heads off.

“I don’t need your silent thanks. Crazy fool,” the blacksmith says as he gets back to work.

Tenebris continues to wander the town and goes towards the sounds of screaming. He hears evangelists speaking of the Divinus on street corners.

“Bow to he who gives truth and nourishment! We worship at the altar of the One Clothed in Crimson and Gold! He who was beyond our comprehension was given flesh and now dwells among us!”

“Give your bodies over to the Woman in Black! She who gives bodies and warmth to your desires! Become a master if you are willing to enslave yourself to the goddess!”

“Do not listen to the squabbling of these fools! These Divinus can hardly defend themselves, so give yourself to a man who can. The man dressed in the blood and viscera of his enemies!”

The evangelists fight and argue over the Divinus that they’ve chosen to worship while Tenebris takes advantage of the chaos to slip through them. He doesn’t get far until a group of people dressed in light armor and who wear black dove masks ambush him from the rooftops.

“Go no further, traitor,” one of them says in a muffled voice with their blades out, “Leave this city or we’ll cut your cursed flesh to pieces.”

Choosing his own option, Tenebris uses his arm that burns with the black flame and unleashes fire from it to burn the doves. Most are burned to ash while very few manage to escape with few burns on them. Tenebris quickly gets rid of the ones closest to him then finishes off the last one while narrowly dodging the last one’s attack. When this is done, he sees more doves on the rooftops watching him, however, these ones are wearing white dove masks.

One of them applauds him and says, “There’s that swordsmanship that’s common to the black doves. Here I was thinking that you’d rejoin them and that your skills would be rusty after being in jail for so long. I’m glad that you proved me wrong but know that we will be watching you and will strike you down if we think that you’ll turn against the Flame.”

The white doves walk away from Tenebris but not too far. Finally, Tenebris makes it to the central cathedral in Ecclesia. This massive church is where all roads of the city lead since it’s the place where one of the primary pillars, Fidem, rests at. Sitting on his throne is the archbishop who abandoned his duties with his followers and priests around him who are giving him homage.

“Ah, you’ve come, Tenebris. I see that the black doves aren’t with you, so I assumed that you’ve made your choice in where your loyalties lay”, the archbishop says as Tenebris approaches him, “Tell me, why have you chosen to stay loyal to the old traditions when you know a better way exists?”

Tenebris bows when he approaches the alter and crosses himself.

“Ah, so you still show God and me respect? I’m pleased to see that, but why chose to try to keep the Flame of Cognizance alive when the time of the black flame has arrived? I’ve read your research and testimonies and was inspired when I saw that the black flame was a superior direction for man to take than keeping to the Flame of Cognizance, not because of the black flame’s power, but the idea of it. Because humanity will no longer merit Hell and punishment for its actions when it submits itself to a childlike ignorance.”

Stepping off his throne, the archbishop makes his way to Tenebris while continuing, “The Flame of Cognizance keeps humanity aware of good and evil. For a soul to merit eternal damnation, it must sin and sin mortally, but no one can sin if they are not aware they are sinning. They will be like the animals and plants of the world, and from here on out, no one will go to Hell anymore. Is this not the right thing to do?”

Tenebris shakes his head and points his sword at the archbishop then to the door.

“I’m not going back to that duty that I once had. My true duty as the head of the church on earth is to ensure that my flock makes it to Heaven, and I will do that no matter the cost.”

The archbishop’s skin falls off as he grows horns of black flame and more black flames burn out from his mouth, eyes, the top of his head, and his swords. One of these swords is as cold as the shadows while the other burns with the intensity of the black flame. More black flames burst from the archbishop’s back that are like the wings of a devil. All the congregation bows and praises the archbishop for this display as they proclaim him as a good shepherd while Tenebris readies himself to fight him. Immediately, the archbishop flies into the air then strikes down to create an explosion of black flame that Tenebris manages to dodge while the congregation is incinerated.

“I am not like the Divinus who create their own truth. Do not worry about the people around us, Tenebris. They are Purposeless and will not go to Hell for their sin of idolizing me,” the archbishop says.

Not wanting to hear the archbishop’s excuses for killing his own flock, Tenebris uses his black flames to burn away the archbishop. The archbishop thinks he’s invincible because he has the black flames, however, he starts to feel flames burn him away.

“What is this?! Why are your black flames burning me away?! What’s different about yours?”

An arm and then a leg fly off as the black flames bring the archbishop to his knees. Tenebris then leaps into the air and cuts off his head. His body then starts to explode and burn down the building. Seeing that their idol is dead, the congregation flees from the cathedral in fear. That is until they see arms and eyes made out of black flames come out of the cathedral as it comes to life.

“I am reborn!” the cathedral says with a voice that sounds like the archbishop, “This is the true power of the black flame! This is the power of humanity!”

This gets the Purposeless to abandon the Divinus they worship with some of the Divinus even worshipping the archbishop. The white doves from before approach Tenebris from behind and take out cannons from the rooftops.

“Look at the mess that you started,” the white dove from before says to Tenebris who gives him a dirty look, “You’re right. We can’t blame you too much for an archbishop who’s supposed to know better, but thanks be to God, we have cannons on certain rooftops of the city that were meant to repel attackers. I’m sure these cannons will do fine against this beast.”

The defense cannons fire at the cathedral and it appears to be defeated until it gets back up and shoots out fire from all the windows and broken part of the cathedral that sets the city on fire.

“I’ve been proven wrong today, so why not once again. Do you have an idea?”

Tenebris nods and clenches his fist as the black flames within his arm strengthen. He then crosses himself before heading into the cathedral while spewing fire from his arm to get the attention of the monster who runs toward him with its large mouth open. Tenebris’ black flames beat back the black flames of the archbishop, and once inside, Tenebris stabs the black burning heart of the cathedral, which collapses the building. The white doves are sure that he is dead until he comes out just fine with the key to the Flame of Cognizance that he needs along with a piece of the building, some holy water, and an artifact.

“I see now that me being so wrong today is God humbling me and not to bet money on anything because I’m horrible at predictions,” the white dove says, “Fine work. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

Tenebris silently nods to the white dove and heads off while the Divinus in the city become Purposeless and the Purposeless within the city seek new idols to worship or just fall to their knees or stand still as if affected by a petrification curse. Word of what happened quickly spreads and stops some from becoming Purposeless with groups of people being blessed and starting to head out to where the other Pillars are to get the rest of the keys. Meanwhile, Tenebris gives the blacksmith what he wanted much to the blacksmith’s surprise. While he is working, the blacksmith is surprised to see that the holy water doesn’t quench the black flames and strengthens them instead.

“I don’t know why your black flames are so special. Typically, the black flame is the flame of sinful humanity that not only smothers the Flame of Cognizance, but also the flames of our consciences. Yours is different for whatever reason. I can see sparks of the divine Flame of Cognizance in it. Because of this, the improvements that I’m making to the blade are small. You’re something else that I can’t explain,” the blacksmith says.

The blacksmith then gives Tenebris’ blade back to him who gives him an artifact from the destroyed cathedral.

“I don’t need payment for doing so little work. Besides, you’ve done so much already by getting the first key.”

Ignoring what he said, Tenebris leaves the valuable artifact on one of the blacksmith’s tables before heading out.

“Haha, foolish as always. Now don’t be getting any more foolish by getting yourself killed!”

Tenebris takes this advice to heart as he heads out from Ecclesia to his next destination, which is in a state of constant civil war, bloodshed, and self-destruction.