Chapter
4 – Sacrifices from the Dead for the Living
The spies of the vampires report to
their lords the news of what happened because of Rinaldo and Raven.
“Who cares about those rumored
Corpus! All they do is sulk in the shadows and do their penance. They are bound
by God and rarely if ever pose a problem for us, which is our sign of victory.
God has abandoned this world and given it to us just as the demons have told
us,” a vampire lord says.
“Still, we must give them the bodies
they desire. We have enough corpses for them to start bringing their army over,”
another says.
“Why rush our complete takeover of
the earth? Savor the desperation of the humans because when they’re gone, we’ll
only have ourselves to fight over,” yet another lord points out.
“If it’s desperation you want,
perhaps we should bring a single demon over or maybe multiple demons in a
single body. That will cause absolute despair in the hearts of those cowards in
Rome and be more for the Corpus to handle.”
“Oh, dear, you know better than to
tempt me with that, but because I’m so curious, let’s try it out. Prepare the ritual
and the corpses for the ceremony.”
While this is happening, Rinaldo
and Raven enter a large cave big enough for their horses and themselves to
enter with enough room to fit wagons for supplies to go in and out, and the
wheel marks in the dirt show that wagons, horses, and people have gone in and
out of the cave. There are no torches or sources of light in the cave, which
forces Rinaldo to light a torch as they continue further deeper into the
mountain. The sound of stones moving and footsteps put the two on high alert
as they look around for the source of the noise.
“Hello? We mean you no harm. I am
like you in search of answers to my God-given purpose,” Raven says.
“Ha! Harm. If you could harm or
even end our lives, that would be a grace. If you are like us, then you are not
in search of anything and are instead directed here like how your horse was directed
to this mountain,” a hissing voice says from the dark.
“Then help me understand. I’m
begging you!”
Dark figures approach the two from
the darkness. Raven thinks these figures are cloaked in shadow, however, on
closer inspection, it is revealed that these figures are actually pitched black.
They are like a walking skeleton with the teeth of a vampire, very few bits of
flesh left on them, and a hollow center and eyes. Both Raven and Rinaldo are a
bit startled by their appearance, but the horses are not because of their holy
presence. Many of them look the same with small differences in their bodies in
faces though all look eerie to an ordinary person.
“So, you want to learn?” one of
them says.
“Yes,” Raven answers.
“Wrong. You are being given the
grace of this information through us who are simple mouthpieces. Follow us as
this truth is told.”
On cue, Raven follows the Corpus
further into the cave with Rinaldo following from behind.
The Corpus continues, “You want to
know the answer to an obvious question. When we are alive, it is through grace
that we are able to change for the better, and through sin, our behavior decays. When
we are dead, the state of our souls is frozen in place for God to judge and
nothing can change it, but just like the souls in Purgatory, we are only
perfected if we reach Heaven. This is why you still may commit the same evil
deeds you did when you were alive, however, you will not be held accountable
for them since you have no control over yourself and because you are already
dead.”
“My brother, Raven, is no unrepentant
sinner,” Rinaldo points out.
“I have sinned many times in my
life and many of the times that I confessed, I confessed to a different
confessor so that you would not hear my shameful acts,” Raven admits without
really wanting to, “Even though we prayed for our enemies before battle and
fought for justice, I did feel lost in the slaughter every now and then.”
“That would explain your loss in
control, but your virtue should’ve outshined your vices. Why would God resign
you and these Corpus to the fate of a vampire?”
“It is something God only knows and
God has resigned most of us to a fate of penance in the dark as you can see,” a
Corpus says as they reach the inner chamber of the mountain.
Though Rinaldo cannot see very
well, he can see hundreds of Corpus in the area all of which have the same
eerie appearance.
“Here, we all starve both for food
and for a purpose. We all came here against our will and yet not against our
soul’s natural inclination to follow the Divine Will’s command,” the Corpus
continues, “Some of us were no different from the vampires outside. I was once
a lord who commanded many armies until the grace within my soul caused me to repentant
and embrace an eternity of penance. Some of us even leave this cave to do the same
things we did in life only to come back much like how we sinned and eventually
came back to God over and over again.”
“Is there no end to this penance?”
Raven asks.
“If God so wills it. There are some
who simply fade into the dust after a period of time or leave the cave to do
some deed then never return and share the same fate as the first that I mentioned.
Still, we do not know if all of us will enter Heaven, but that could just be the
despair that I struggled with talking. Perhaps we all will enter Heaven since
our bodies are holy enough to fight the vampires hand to hand. Even still, we
have few to no one who prays for us unlike the souls in Purgatory, so our
pain is all the more amplified by the length of this fate.”
“Isn’t this a bit much even for you
whose bodies follow the will of God?” Rinaldo asks.
“The price paid for each of us to
be vampires is the death of an innocent infant and the price paid for our
redemption was that of innocence and truth itself on the cross. Even one sin is
one sin too many. The cost of a single sin is too steep, too expensive for any
of us to pay, and yet, we’ve acted like the price was worth it. We trade our souls
for the vanities of life and in the end, come out with less than what we had
because of it.”
“Enough of your sulking. If you
want to be freed from your penance, then pay the price to the last penny. I’m
here to find what God wills of me to do,” Raven states.
Many of the Corpus look at him
because of what he said.
“If you are knights, then you are probably
here to fight with us in a very particular battle. One that may finally give
the vampires control over the world if they win it.”
“If they win? We are invincible
against them. How can we not win?”
“Remember that we are completely
subject to God’s will and if God wills that the vampires win, then they will
win.”
“What is this battle fought over
anyway?”
“The vampires are giving a legion
of demons a single body made of an uncountable number of human sacrifices. If
the demons obtain that body, then many more will despair and fall into the hands
of demons while the few remaining become lifelong slaves.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s
head out to where this is taking place so we can put a stop to it.”
“Again, we move when the will of God
moves us, and right now, it appears that you were the one we were waiting for,”
a Corpus interrupts as a large portion of them gather around Raven.
“I haven’t done anything but starve
and pray for years despite wanting to do something, and now, I feel like I have
the strength of a hundred men. I am ready to fight,” another Corpus says.
Many more say similar things in how
they are ready to fight the vampires after being inactive for so long.
Raven gets off his horse then says,
“Thank you for showing me my purpose. Together, we will do this great deed for
our penance to save not only ourselves from the pains of our sins but also the
world.”
The Corpus cheer and quickly clear
out of the mountain at lightning fast speeds as they finally have something
that will pay for a majority if not all their penance.
Raven is about to join them until
Rinaldo calls to him and says, “Wait for me! I must join you in this battle, brother!”
“This is our penance to do. If you
want to join, then try to keep up,” Raven says before quickly catching up with
the rest of the Corpus.
They exit the caves of the mountain
and go through the forest moved by the will of God in the direction of their
target. By the time they reach it, it is almost time for the sun to rise,
however, instead of the sun being on the horizon, there is only a black sphere
that gives off an uncomfortable warmth to the mortals who see it. The humans
who look at the black sphere become tempted with a multitude of demons and the typical
ways of resisting their influence such as prayer, ignoring it, and renewing the
trust of their soul in God’s hands hardly works. On the other hand, the Corpus
aren’t tempted at all and briskly continue on their way to the huge castle where
the legion of demons is being summoned at. This castle is an amalgamation of parts
of churches and kingdoms the vampires conquered like how the lords decorate themselves
with the flesh and bits of the kings, popes, generals, and more men and women
of valor that they killed.
As the vampires start the ceremony,
the Corpus give the guards outside no time to react to them as they assault the
castle head on and from the sides. Raven leads the attack and wastes no time
charging through the enemies as thoughts about the innocent people and his son
who could be affected by the demon’s arrival fill his mind. He soon arrives at
the site where the demon is going to be summoned and finds that this area is
covered in the corpses of a seemingly uncountable number of bodies and a portal
made of black stones that have various carvings in it and flames spewing from
it. The vampire lords sit in their thrones with their weapons drawn. One lord
sits in a throne of gold, another of naked mortals, one in a throne made of
flesh, and the final one being made of exotic kinds of food. There are other
destroyed thrones near them some of which look to be in the process of being
made.
“We expected either vampires or
humans to come to stop us, but we didn’t expect a corpse to come to us, and you
least of all, Raven,” a lord says.
“It’s over, you wretched sinners. The
Corpus and I will stop this ritual of yours and there’s nothing you can do,”
Raven says.
“Speaking about that, the ritual is
nearly complete so whatever you do is useless, and you call people like us
vain. The one thing you can do is go through the portal into the Hell to shut
it off from the other side. That is the only way to stop it. From what I’ve heard,
you have no real control of yourself, and your soul is bound for Heaven, so will
God abandon you and send you to Hell just to save the world? I’m curious to see
how this plays out.”
More Corpus enter the room in time
to hear the way to stop the ritual. They look at each other and wonder what to
do, especially Raven.
That is until Raven sets his heart
on his goal then says, “Whatever happens, I submit all of my being to serving
God. Even if I must enter Hell and stay there forever, I will do so if it means
that God’s will is done. I’m already dead after all.”
The Corpus fight the vampire lords
while Raven leaps into the portal. He feels in sync with the will of God that
moves him as he enters the fire. In Hell, Raven sees a multitude of demons
around the portal and many more sinners burning in Hell below them. Not wanting
to waste time, he breaks the portal with his two hands. The demons are about to
attack him but are then stopped by a tornado of flames that consume him. To his
surprise, this tornado transports Raven further into Hell until he appears in Purgatory
where his flesh burns away until only his soul remains.
Now that his soul is purified,
Raven enters into Heaven and is happily reunited with his family and united
forever with the Heavenly family. The battle quickly ends after this as the
Corpus overwhelm the vampire lords with might and sheer numbers. In the sky,
the black sphere disappears signaling the vampires’ defeat. News of this
defeat quickly spread throughout the world and faith is restored to many
kingdoms as the vampires are fought back to near extinction within a month. During
this time, Rinaldo teaches Raven’s last son, Nevar, how to fight in appreciation
for his brother and way to apologize for being late to the battle. Meanwhile, a
small band of vampires plot their evil schemes in the dark, but as long as the
light of faith and love of God shines in the hearts of men, sin will not rule
the world.
The End
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