Chapter
1 – Returning and Saving Home
The finale of my redemption is at
hand. After two long weeks of waiting, the Church leaders finally decided to
move against Priscilla and gathered the forces needed to defeat her. I’m
surprised it took this long given how simple the situation is. My wife,
Priscilla, is currently ruling the Americas and has most if not everyone in it
under the control of her dark spell that plays with people’s perception of
reality and controls them. A conventional war against her is useless because of
this, so we’ve instead gathered many strong, faithful soldiers and warrior
priests and exorcists to break her spell. I will be leading these forces since
the Lord has allowed me to break through her spell while carrying around the
monstrance that contains Him in the form of a single piece of consecrated
bread.
I haven’t spent the last several
days in vain or participating in the petty squabbles and politics of the
Church. Instead, I’ve been deepening my prayer life to God and learning how to
fly with my new wings, which came along with my spiritual rebirth. Part of me
used to take pride in being able to talk directly to and hear from the Lord,
but He’s been silent in recent days. My son, Harald, visits me from Heaven to
spend time with me and tells me that the Lord still constantly speaks to me.
It’s just that He now speaks to me through my now clear conscience, the events
unfolding around me, and the people that I talk to, a comforting thought though
I do prefer to hear His voice.
It's funny that I think that now
since it wasn’t too long ago, I absolutely hated the Lord and just wanted to
subjugate Him to my will and add Him to the number of gods and goddesses I
conquered. In reality, I was the one who was conquered by my sin and I am glad
that the Lord broke down my pride and became the conqueror of my heart and
soul. Now, I live to serve Him in everything I do, say, and think, and when I
go to save Priscilla, the last part of my past will be redeemed. It’s my fault
that she’s corrupted in the way she is. It was me who had her raped and
tortured, and it was me who corrupted her mind to bring her to the state of
mind she’s in now. I also blame myself for Harald’s death since Priscilla
killed him when he was born as a sacrifice to gain the power she has now.
Looking down at the waters of the
Atlantic Ocean, I observe the scars left on me as a result of the things I’ve
been through. A lot of my skin is pinkish and grey while my eyes are white,
gold, and red as if there are miniature suns in them. I haven’t bothered to
shave off my black beard or cut off the four grey horns on my head since I
think they look fine on me, as far as I know. I’m wearing a brown shawl and
skirt with a grey and black fur belt to keep it up, all of which comprise a
penitential outfit that is itchy to wear, but not irritating. The edges of my
wings are black while the feathers are grey, and this along with my horns,
signifies me as a Nephilim type of beastman. I used to think I was a god
because of this, but I am nothing more than a variant of a human. Nothing more,
nothing less.
My reflection of my appearance is
halted when I hear my fishmen friends saying goodbye as their ship breaks off
from the fleet and heads towards their floating city ship on the ocean. I say
goodbye to them and that the Lord blesses them all the days of their life. They
were instrumental in my conversion, and now, I must be content with leaving
them, for the time being. My friends are sailing along with leaders from the
Church who will be negotiating trade deals with the fishmen of the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans as ordered by the Lord. If anything, I guess it’s a good sign
that the Lord is ordering them to do something that seems unimportant in
comparison to the importance of stopping Priscilla. This must mean that victory
is more than assured for us, and how can it not be? The Lord is on our side and
wants us to stop her from putting the entire world under her spell.
Before I know it, I see land ahead
of me, the same harbor city I left the Americas from. I’m finally home and here
to fix what I started. Everything looks normal around here with people going
about business and greeting us. The Church’s soldiers seem to let their guard
down and even say hi to those who greet us.
“Keep your guard up and souls
secure. Priscilla can deceive all your senses without you knowing,” I remind
the troops.
As I expected, a dark golden fog
erases everything and everyone around me in seconds, and in it, I see
Priscilla’s black, red, and dull gold eyes, her black and red hair, and her
sharp teethed smile as if she’s one with the light.
“Leif. Where have you been all this
time? I’m surprised that you came here with troops from the Church,” Priscilla
says.
“I have been on a life-changing
journey and now embrace the Lord as my God. The Church and I are here to break
your spell and make you repent,” I say.
The look in Priscilla’s eyes is one
of shock as she takes a few seconds to respond to me.
“Ha! Hahaha! You? A servant of God?
That’s a joke. You were persecuting the Church not too long ago and raping
women and torturing the faithful in front of the monstrance to spite God.”
“I’ve changed. The Lord has erased
the man you once knew from existence, and now, I am the man who I was truly
meant to be.”
“Haha! We’ll see about that!”
A large force of soldiers and
scantily clad women approach me with weapons in their hands. As they approach
me, I hold up the monstrance and the Lord dispels the spell around me. With the
spell broken, I see that I’m still in the harbor city with the Church’s
soldiers around me who are also waking up from the spell. A semi-large force of
men with weapons in their hands and a golden glow in their eyes stand before us
ready to fight. They charge us and we do the same to them.
With my two-handed hammer spear, I
bludgeon and stab at them with one end of the weapon while impaling them with
the other. My fighting skills haven’t deteriorated the least bit since I last
fought as I’m able to carve through the enemy without getting a single scratch
on me. Seeing my allies in danger, I start to make use of my wings to fly over
to them and protect them by taking their attackers head-on. I will do whatever
is necessary to save the faithful even if I must suffer greatly for them.
Thankfully, there aren’t too many attackers, and no one from our side is
seriously injured.
Despite the spell being broken, I
can hear Priscilla’s voice even though she is nowhere in sight. She says, “Hmm.
Impressive. There’s something different about you, but there’s no way that it’s
God's choosing to help you over me. My dream reality has brought peace to these
lands that used to be in constant conflict. Now, everyone enjoys their dreams
where they live happily and worship God without a care.”
“The peace you offer is false. You
should know that. When you first came to me, you told me how the oldest man
alive and king of the elves, Evander, put the world under the same dream
reality and a faithful man of God broke it. You spoke of how the happiness it
gave was false and that it didn’t save any souls despite it forcing people to
love and worship God.”
“I was mistaken, a fool. I want the
happiness that the dream reality gave me and deserve and I want the world to be
at peace again. The torturing and violating you did to me changed my mind and
Evander’s dream reality will be restored to the world, but this time, those
that I know who are far beyond salvation, such as you, will not dream well. Instead,
they will live in a nightmare of torture for as long as I will it. I am not so
naïve as my old friend and will not have mercy on the merciless.”
“Mother, you must stop this and
repent,” Harald says as he manifests.
My infant son floats in the air, clothed
in grey, with his head in his hand, and light coming out of his chest and neck.
“Who are you? You can’t possibly be
my son.”
“Look at him, Priscilla. You know
it to be true.”
“Mother, please. Stop casting this
curse and all we be forgiven.”
“You lie! This is a sick trick you
are playing, Leif. My son in Heaven would understand what I’m doing is for the
greater good. I don’t know how you are managing to do it, but you will pay for
it!”
Everything around me catches fire
and it feels like I’m burning alive. I concentrate on offering up the pain as
penance for myself and Priscilla and hold up the monstrance as I pray to the
Lord for strength. Soon after, the fires subside and I see myself in the middle
of nowhere in a forest.
“It is you who are playing the sick
tricks, Priscilla. Listen to reason. You can still be saved.”
“I am not playing any tricks, at
least at this moment. I separated you from the Church’s soldiers the moment you
stepped on land. Your magic may have gotten stronger since you left, but you
won’t survive for long. Soon, you find yourself in a nightmare you won’t be
able to escape from!”
“Priscilla. Priscilla!”
She’s not speaking inside of my mind
anymore. Lord, please help her to repent.
“I’m sorry what Priscilla said to
you, Harald.”
“It’s okay, father. I know in her
heart that there’s a part of her that knew I was her son.”
“There is still a chance she can be
saved even as the light fades from her soul,” the Lord says from the
monstrance. “Do not lose hope.”
“I know, Lord. Thank you for
reminding me.”
As I look around the area, it feels
foreign, yet, familiar to me. Well, it’s no use standing around here, so I ask
the Lord to guide me in the right direction and start walking where I feel my
senses are guiding me.
No comments:
Post a Comment