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After the damnation of his childhood friends and parents and the deaths of his new friends, Adler chases his brother, Mikheil, the king of the world, and the Light to the capital where he seeks to end this battle between them and put the world back to its original state. Because this involves the reintroduction of conflict, death, and suffering, Adler is weighed down by doubts, pain, and tragedy of the past, all of which may be the end of him.

Hatred Spurned by Love: Chapter 4 – Not Over, Just Beginning Again (Text Only)

Chapter 4 – Not Over, Just Beginning Again

Liron and Iris are communicating and uploading the information we found to our allies while Crane and Nadine are resting, watching the news, and keeping an eye on how the world is reacting to what we did. Meanwhile, I’m sitting by myself still trying to control my burning rage. Mikheil and the Light are out there in the capital, close by. This entire conflict can end this instant if the Sufferer allows it and lets me loose on him, and yet, He is silent. Still, another voice inside me is pushing me forward and denounces my friends for being stupid for waiting while the iron is hot. I am the leader of this group with the closest connection to truth Himself, so I should know better than everyone here what needs to be done.

As I look at the TV and see the faces of Mikheil and the Light staring back at the camera, the expression on their faces further fuels my rage. Their smiles are begging me to go after them and the feeling I’m getting from looking at them is that we’re actually looking at each other in the face. “That’s it! I’m going out there to finish this and you can either join me or stay hidden,” I say as I get up and storm out of the door.

“Adler, you can’t just…Wait. Does anyone else hear a beeping-get down!” Explosives blow up in the hideout from all sides as everything in it is destroyed apart, including the statue of the Sufferer.

In the smoke, I see men dressed in dull gold armor with guns at their hips and sharp blades that stick out of their hands. Before I’m able to transform, I’m hit by a flurry of hits and knocked out.

When I wake up, I see that I’m in a dark room, tied to a metal bed with my hands and legs restrained, and Mikheil and the Light standing in front of me. “Took you a while to wake up, brother. I told the assassins to go easy on you, but I can’t blame them too much because they’re all mad at what you did to the capital.”

“I’m actually impressed at what you’ve managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time. You did more to the capital than our home city in the week that you’ve been there.”

“I’ll show you what I can do if you let me fight you, man to man, or if you’re going to kill me, then you should just get it over with!”

“Ah, always so hasty. You know if you hadn’t caused so much damage so quickly, I wouldn’t have been convinced by the Light and Lyana to go after you. Also, I don’t want to kill you. It would be a better image for us if I converted you to serve alongside me, but if you want death, that will also look good in the history books for me because of all the destruction and death you’ve caused. Either way, I’ll let my friend here decide which fate you want.” Mikheil and the Light fade into the dark and a new person emerges from it, a woman who has a form not too different from a Necessary form except hers is more horrifying to look at.

She has mouths for eyes, an excessive amount of fingers on her left hand while missing one on her right, three sets of breasts on her upper chest, what appears to be a face in her midsection along with another set of breasts, long black hair, and red lipstick to top it all off. “I am here to feed your every pleasure, Adler. What would you like?”

“I’d like nothing more than to kill you, Mikheil, and the Light.”

“Shame! I cannot give you that. I can give you your old friends back. I have their corpses, wear their skins, and be them for you. I know that you want Morticia, your girlfriend, out of all of them. Back in the day, I used to have her power of Necessary Death, but I gave up that curse and gave into the Light along with the love of my life who you killed a month ago. Do you remember him? He had the power of Necessary Suffering like you do and he suffered so that everyone could live in everlasting happiness and peace. You can do the same and take me as your wife if you take your brother’s offer.”

I scream out and say, “He’s not my brother and I’m not taking anything he offers!”

I transform and break free of my restraints as the woman retreats into the darkness.

The woman jumps out at me from the darkness, gets in my face, and says, “There’s no use resisting.” I cut her throat with my long black knife-like fingers only for another copy of her to jump out and say, “You’ve lost. It’s already over.” I stab this copy through the head with my fingers and another copy jumps out. “You never stood a chance.” I kill this copy by crushing her head with my hands. Yet again, another copy jumps out. “The Sufferer abandoned you. He gave you up to us and you know that He had the power to prevent this.”

Yelling out hysterically, I grab the woman’s head and forcefully separate it from her body. “Face me yourself instead of sending these copies at me!”

In the darkness, I hear her laugh and then say, “They aren’t copies, my dear. They are illusions created by a friend of mine who also used to serve the Sufferer. Take a closer look at who they really are.”

When I realize who I actually killed, I revert to my normal form. I’ve…I’ve killed my friends, Crane, Nadine, Iris, and Lirion. “I’m…I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Believe it or not, you did good, Adler. Ah, how you’ll make a good servant of the Light. You used your own strength and listened to the tempting voice of the Light rather than relying on the powers of the Sufferer. If you had, you might’ve heard your friends screaming at you as you killed them. You may not think it, but you’ve already given up on the Sufferer without thinking about it.”

My hands are now shaking with rage as I hold back my tears. “If you want me to use my own strength, I will so that I can rip your throat out with my hands!”

“Ah, ah, ah! Not yet! You still have to deal with my friend here.”

Four assassins surround me. One of them says, “One of us is the one who is making these illusions while the others are the people you turned against the Light. Better figure out which is the right one before you take the life of another friend.”

I transform and feel myself change into something different as my anger and hatred overtake me. “I’m not going to play your games!” My fingers can now grow the length of a sword and easily cut through everyone around me. “Haha! How’s that for choosing the right one?! One of them had to be the right choice!”

“There we go! Now, you’re one of us!” Homing in on the woman’s presence in the room, I leap at her, tear her throat out, rip her face to pieces, and then use her left arm to beat her to death.

“So, this is what real power feels like?! If I knew it’d be more satisfying to bring justice to people this way, I would’ve done it earlier! Oh, Sufferer, how you deprive me of everything that makes me happy!” Using my fingers, I rip my way out of the metal cell I’m in and start tearing a bloody path toward Mikheil and the Light by ripping apart every guard I come across. “Do you want to die for your god?! Do you want your reward of eternal damnation?! Come and receive it from my hands! Hahaha!” As I near my target’s location, I also sense two others who are on my hit list. I break my way through the walls to reach them and stare at them with a wide bloodthirsty grin.

Hazin, my nephew, and Lyana, Mikheil’s wife, sit in a camera room with a dozen guards surrounding them. “Uncle Adler, it’s a pleasure to see you after so long. I can see the potential in you that the Light was talking about. Maybe you can even overthrow my dad and become the world’s new king.”

“Don’t say that and get behind me, Hazin,” Lyana says as she steps in front of him. “I’ve told Mikheil that you turned into a monster and should take the Light’s advice. He wanted to save you and even questioned his fight against you, but I knew the Light knew better and you just proved our thoughts were right.”

“Ah, but you’re wrong. I’m not just a monster. I am death! I am suffering itself, damned to live in pain as the Sufferer’s tool until he grants me a well-deserved, miserable end!” I tear apart the guards in the room and make Lyana watch as I twist Hazin’s head around in circles until it falls off. After, I turn my attention to her and rip her to pieces with my fingers. With both of their dead bodies in my hands or rather what’s left of them, I take them to Mikheil and the Light and throw them at his feet. “Was this part of your plan too, ‘brother’? All who love and follow you will suffer the same fate! Haha, I’ll make sure of it!”

Mikheil’s face twitches as he tries to keep his confident smile on his face. Once his face settles back to his normal expression, I can hear the Light’s voice come out of his. “It was. You can serve alongside me or try killing me and taking the world for yourself. In either scenario, the world wins and becomes a happy and peaceful place again. It’s what we both want, isn’t it?”

“All I want is the both of you dead and bleeding!” I say as I charge at them and then immediately blown through a wall by a burst of dull golden light that comes out of them.

“There’s only one way for you to survive this, Adler, and that’s by submitting yourself to me. You’ve already done it through your emotions and finally giving in to them after I’ve sent you so many temptations. Why not take the final step?”

“Because everything you offer is a lie! All I want for you is to die and myself to die afterward! Let’s end this once and for all!” I get blown back into room after room until I end up in a room with the broken statue of the Sufferer.

“I can grant you part of your wish, but not the other. Look up the destroyed remains of your God. See how He’s left you to this pathetic fate and the damnation of your soul.”

As I look at the broken statue, I see a white snake coming out of it that has cuts all over its body and red eyes. “Adler. Come back to me.”

“Look at this wretched thing you call a servant. I told you he would turn his back on you when tested.”

“Stay out of this,” the Sufferer says as Mikheil and the Light are blown away by a force of light and darkness that comes out of Him. “You’re not too far gone to repent.” The snake comes out of the statue and wraps itself around me, turning me back into my normal self, and clearing my head of my rage, hatred, and despair.

“I…I don’t know if I can repent. I’m not worthy of mercy or pity. I am not worthy of living anymore or your love.”

The Sufferer puts His head up to mine and says, “Your sins are the reason I have mercy on you and suffer for you. You were loved before I created you and still are no matter what you do. Your tears and honest confession are enough penance to make up for your sins. Come, my servant. There is much work to be done.”

Trusting in the Sufferer, I thank Him and hold him close to me.

“What a precious moment,” the Light says with Mikheil’s voice mixed with his. “What’s the point of repenting? You’ve messed up before and will sin again. It’s in your weak nature to do so, so you might as well give into it.”

“The Sufferer also created me with the capacity to repent and become a better person, the person who He originally created me as and you have the same capacity, brother. Stop being a puppet of the Light and serve your true God with me.”

“Oh, I’m your brother again? Whatever the case is, you’re the one who is a puppet here and who is still at a disadvantage. You won’t be escaping here alive now that you’ve crawled back to your master’s feet.”

I pray and embrace the pain of my stigmata as I say, “I was at a disadvantage, but now I have the strength I need to defeat you.”

My transformation is different again, but this one feels right, more right than my Necessary form felt. A torrent of golden and black mist comes out of my hands, filling the building we’re in, and pushing back Mikheil and the Light as I walk towards me and they uselessly try to charge at me. “I now see that the Light has been clouding your true self. How could I not when he’s always been behind you like a puppet master controlling his doll?” I point at Mikheil and shoot a beam of light and dark energy to pierce his heart.

“What…what did you do to me?” Mikheil says his voice is now the dominant one and both he and the Light still try to appear confident.

“Put a crack in your heart of stone so that the Sufferer may reclaim it. Simply reach out to His already outstretching hand and allow Him to save you. You can finally be free from the Light and we can fix the world together. Please, brother.” I see the expression on my brother’s face change before the Light snaps his fingers and the two are teleported away in a flash of light.

Now that my work here is done, I leave the building along with those who are repentant as we leave while leaving everything else behind us in the dust. Since there’s not enough room for me in the trucks and cars parked here, I let the repentant take them so I can walk alone with the Sufferer and my thoughts.

“Mikheil and the Light escaped again. What do we do now?” I ask the Sufferer while wandering on the road.

“Chase after them. Our final battle with them approaches,

“What about those who were lost? What happened to their souls?”

“The souls of your friends that you’re referring to are saved, but Hazin and Lyana were damned since you hadn’t used your powers so I could break into their hearts and attempt to change their minds.”

“I…I’m sorry. I knew the answer, but I just had to ask. Hazin was so young.”

“He was past the age of reason and knew what he was doing. Do not grieve over him nor the lost chance to save him and simply pick your head up and continue on.”

“Can I really? I’m back where I started with another set of dead friends, family members damned to Hell, and chasing down Mikheil and the Light.”

“It’s okay because I will be with you as I’ve always been. You’re stronger now and closer to me than ever before and more ready to take on your brother and the Light. The world will be free and know real truth and love soon.”

“Okay…okay. Thank you, Lord. Lead on.” Again, I wander the roads chasing after my brother and praying along the way. Mother Mary, Father Joseph, be a mother and father to me now. Guardian angel, be at my side to protect and strengthen me. Sufferer, grant me strength, knowledge of truth, and the will to always return to you, my first true love.

 

The End

Hatred Spurned by Love: Chapter 3 – Worse than a Traitor (Text Only)

Chapter 3 – Worse than a Traitor

“Adler, wake up! Breakfast is ready and Liron has a plan for us today,” Iris says while gently shaking me.

I get up from the couch and join my friends for breakfast. On the TV, we hear on the news how the riots have calmed down and those murdering for and stealing drugs on the streets are down. That’s good because we’ve been waiting for that before going out on another mission.

“Maybe we bit off more than we could chew. Just look at what’s happened to the capital over the past two days. Everyone has been affected by our actions.”

“There’s no such thing. We’re at war here so people are bound to get hurt and killed. It’s what happens.”

“I-I know. It’s just that…is there a way to make sure that as few innocent people get hurt as possible?”

“Innocent. Tch. If you knew the sins of people like I do, like the Sufferer does, then you’d know there are only two kinds of people in the world; wretched sinner and repentant sinner, and most people out there are wretched. The best thing we can do now is take down Mikheil, the Light, and those that follow them so that people either repent and join our side or face justice and die.”

“I wouldn’t be as brutally blunt as Adler is, but he’s right, Nadine. The quicker we end this, the more souls can be saved.”

“Let’s get to it then. The shedding of blood, disregard for virtue, and sins of the people in the capital call out to me for the deaths of sinners or their repentance.”

“Then you’ll be happy to hear that we have a juicy target today, the Church or Catholic Church or Universal Church as it’s called today.”

“They were once the only worshippers of the Sufferer who were supposed to carry on His mission of salvation, but they betrayed Him in favor of obtaining worldly power and riches from the Light. They were also the first to fall to the Light’s service and then all other world religions followed suit. Because of that, they’re worse than traitors since they’re supposed to be the world's teachers, protectors, and evangelists.”

“Making an example of them will show the world that putting your faith in the Light is the picking the wrong side, especially since the Light gives them so much to keep them on his side.”

I don’t know why, but I’m more excited about this mission than any I’ve been on. I’m not sure if it’s because we haven’t done much in the past couple of days or because of who our target is. All I know is the people who should’ve been on our side are going to get what’s coming for them. Liron goes over the plan and how we’re going to attack the largest cathedral in the city where the heads of the church are. Most of them are details I don’t care about. Plans usually change on the spot and they must when you’re dealing with the Light. He definitely knows what we’re up to. He has to. This is his world, people, and possessions we’re messing with after all.

When we arrive at the cathedral and enter it, my blood boils more than it ever did. Everything here gives praise and worship to the Light. I can hardly see the original stained glass windows, paintings, and statues that were once here as if the ghosts of the past were trying to make themselves real in the present. Now, they all show the Light and his servants, and this isn’t the only sacrilege in this once holy place as many use it as a place to see their goods and services and offer to teach people about the “goodness” of the Light. A part of me wants to immediately start driving people out, overturning tables, and tearing the entire place to shreds, but I hold back since I won’t have to wait long to do that to people who deserve it.

Junkies wearing fine, priest-like clothes come in and cause a scene by demanding to see certain people to get their fix. This gives us an easy way into the depths of the cathedral while the guards deal with them. It’s a good thing that we’re finally out of the main hall since the place smelled eerily familiar to the clubs Iris and I were at not too long ago, which I bring up to the group once we’re alone.

“Yeah, the priests use the same drugs in their ceremonies and make the smell of it running through the ventilation system. It’s to hook people on them and keep the addicts coming to church, and if you think that’s bad, I hear that people put it or a variation of it in the food. I’m hoping to confirm that theory if we find the records down here.”

“It’s one of the many despicable actions that they’ll dearly pay for.”

“Keep the chatter low and transform. I think we may be getting close to something.” We do as Liron says and arrive at a floor that looks like the clubs with the smell of drugs in the air and degenerate acts being done in the nearby rooms.

A man who is more skin and bone than anything stumbles out of the room. “Hey, are you guys here for the never-ending party? You sure look like it.” He’s one of the Aged, those adults and elderly who lived for more than a hundred years and now facing the consequences of doing so since the Light’s influence on the world is fading.

The old man is so out of his mind that I almost feel pity for putting him and everyone like him on this floor out of their misery. Almost. Those that I do actually feel pity for are those born just to be used as objects of pleasure down here. They were never in their right mind and always had their minds clouded by drugs or feelings of pleasure. In their sober moments, they prayed for someone, anyone to help them. Now

that they’re free, they’re also dead because they relied on the drugs to keep them going. The salvation of their souls plus the few perverts and junkies who repented soften my anger for a few moments until it flares up again at the abuse that is happening within the halls of this once holy building. “They’ll all suffer for this.”

“I’m with you, brother. Let’s put the fear of the Sufferer in them.” Further into the cathedral, we find a place full of priests and guards. Crane uses his fear power to make them run and fight themselves while I allow the Sufferer to damn or save them.

Meanwhile, Iris is using her power to make the priests hunger for knowledge and lead her to the halls where they keep their secret information.

Nadine knocks out those in the room with her power to make them feel empty or light-headed. “Am I being useful?”

“When do are you not? You’re doing great.”

“Keep it up!” Liron says while empowering us and our powers at the same time. Once the dust settles, and the few who are redeemed leave the area, we join Iris in a library.

“Ha! I was right! They are putting drugs in the food and drinks.”

“Haha…” one of the scholars affected by Iris’ power and untouched by my power laughs as he gathers all the books and flash drives. “It’s all here. All the information of the world anyone could ever need and it’s all mine!”

“Thank you for gathering it. Now, get out of here.” The scholar is scared away. While gathering up the info the scholar dropped, I look at the computer screens and books to see what the scholars and priests were researching last and it turns out they were researching and reading about the stories where the Light took over the world and put down the many rebellions that they Sufferer inspired, all of which failed and never had any lasting impact.

“Out of all the information here, we probably shouldn’t bother with this,” Liron says while seeing what I’m looking at.

“Y-you’re right. It’s too worrying,” Nadine says as everyone takes a look.

“Don’t worry, guys. Things will be different this time.”

“I don’t care how long or hard we have to fight. We will make a difference and restore real truth and love to the world!”

Everyone agrees and cheers in defiance of history before Liron leads us to move on to the place where the traitorous priests are. I feel like I’m the only one who is disheartened by the reminder of past failures to retake the world from the Light, but I have to hold out some hope that our actions aren’t in vain. I expect that part of the world will be under the control of the Sufferer while the other will be controlled by the Light and territory will exchange hands for years to come. Who knows if or rather when the Sufferer will completely retake the world? Only He knows, and right now, the Light has been able to control it for hundreds of years and counting.

“Behind this door are our targets. Remember, once we get them and cause a panic, we look for an exit and go back home, all right?” Liron says as we approach a protected door.

After using my powers to break down the door, we’re all surprised to see a single priest in a large meeting room. “The Light expected you would come after me. The other priests you are after left yesterday, so I’m the only one here, assuming you killed everyone in the library and halls.”

“We’re fine with just you since we came to punish all who betrayed the Sufferer.”

“Am I truly a traitor? Because of my fellow priests and I giving in to the demands of the Light, the world became a happy and peaceful place to live in where no one died, went hungry, or fought each other. You, on the other hand, cause conflicts, bring suffering and death back into the world, and will put it back into the state that caused so many to turn to the Light. He’s an angel sent from the Sufferer, not a devil.”

“Don’t hide behind your excuses because you think the world is better just because it was happier. It was a false happiness and we’re bringing it to an end.”

Not wanting to waste any time talking, I use my powers, and to no one’s surprise, the priest dies and is damned for his betrayal. It’s then that my power shifts their attention without my control to everyone in the cathedral. Of course. The common men are just as guilty as the clergy for the fall of the Church and deserve punishment just as much as the clergy do. “All who have sinned will face justice!”

“Adler, what are you doing?”

“The Sufferer’s Will.” As my power spreads throughout the cathedral, all adults face damnation while the young are spared as the Sufferer also tears through the cathedral breaking it apart and making the building implode on itself. Everyone and I quickly leave the cathedral in the chaos only to see black mist reaching those outside of the cathedral and spreading to other churches to break them apart, damn the guilty, and save the repentant. The immense amount of satisfaction I feel is indescribable and the power flowing through me makes me feel as if I could take on everyone in the capital at once. “Come at me, Mikheil! You’re finished!”

“Calm down, Adler. Everyone! Let’s get out of here. Our mission is complete.”

 “No, I can keep going! The guilty have gone unpunished for far too long!” My power then spreads throughout the many buildings, destroying images of the Light within homes and businesses, and judging everyone in it.

“Adler!” Liron says as she holds me. “Please. Stop.”

Iris puts her hand on me and takes some of my pain, anger, and zeal away. “I know what it’s like to want to feel the thrills of emotion, but there are times when you have to know when to stop.”

“That torrent of emotions won’t fill the emptiness inside you.”

“The guilty have been judged, but you can’t judge them all at once. Since you have the greatest connection with the Sufferer, you know their day is coming soon, so you can give it a rest.”

The words of my friends calm me down and allow me to regain control of myself. I pray to help this process and transform back to my normal self. “I’m…I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s okay. Let’s hurry back home. The authorities will surely come out in full force soon to restore order and be on the lookout for us.”

Remnants of the rage I felt still linger within me like a tether around my heart. Was what I felt zealous righteousness of the Sufferer or blind anger brought on by the Light? Whatever the case is, we’ve dealt another serious blow to his shining capital, one that he’ll surely strike back against us soon. I can feel Mikheil’s anger and his arrival.