The Soothsayer - Descent

The soon to be extinct township away from the jagged edge of the Danish border was a vacant stare in the winter widowhood. The ghost town apparent with the knowledge of the infamous creature it once bred returned, blossomed as its children uproot and fled. For they had witnessed the tragedy that the fire beast left and it's return to his wake of destruction spelled nothing less of any disaster.

Eilert in his shiny armor of rising flames stood fixated in the mean axis of the city square. Where he once paraded with a broken signboard for the past two years. Where he was spit and kicked in the guts for doing so. Where he held the lingering breath of the nameless girl who peddled cheap sulfursticks. Where he dreamt the end of the world would take place.

Eilert dug his claws of fire deeply, exulting soot. He clenched tight his closed brows as he focused in the dark of his mind. The air stung with sulfur, gravity and electrifying hues. His flames shone their brightest in the mist of the black winter, blazing the skeletal silhouette of the ghost town.

Droplets of golden rubies sweat off his burning face as Eilert concentrated wickedly. They fell like oil on the trembling rubbles, like gold pieces in the night.

A vagabond watched the Fire Monster in awe, hiding in walls and walls of thick shadows. The atmosphere was stricken with weight and the wind screamed like banshees caught in their miseries.

Eilert concentrated in his blindness.

He could see lines, snakes, wisps and patterings of reflective lights at the back of his mind. They shimmered and wavered like seaweeds in an ebony ocean. They came with his beckoning. The wretched beauty of the human souls.

Eilert had turned his back on his destiny. Forgotten and denied the gift bestowed to him from God again and again with the weak frailty of the human mind. No more. Everything would burn. Tonight. Lutherans were wrong. Father Nathan was wrong. There was indeed a predestination for damnation. With his power as God's stigmata, Eilert would proceed to bring forth apocalypse, sending the world dreaming into His embrace. Just like in his dreams. Just like His plan.

Methodology was easy. With his ability to see souls and and burn them, Eilert focused to seek the entire human souls. They glowed and presented themselves like the wick to a dynamite. Tonight. Everything blows.

The roofs of the buildings clattered like cold teeth and the ground rumbled hungrily. The hidden vagabond burst into flames and dreamt that his son acknowledged him.

The world revealed itself to Eilert the Soul Eater. The streams of souls coiled and buoyed towards him like the mirroring of stars on the seas.

Eilert felt a wash of delirium over him as he marveled at the overwhelming souls. For a while there, he felt a sense of omnipotent. At his tender touch, the world would end, dreaming. Everyone would burn. The power of control. Eilert likened that delirious feeling with that memory where his wheelchair run over the brown cat. Sick and fuzzy.

'Halt!' casted a booming shout.

Eilert snapped away from his concentration and it pained him sharply. Few houses expanded and exploded in the fiery static. Eilert dug deep into his head for relief.

In the mist Eilert saw three people walking towards him. Despite looking like everyday peasants, they were not affected by the boiling pressure Eilert casted over the town.

The largest man began to speak with a thick French accent. It appeared that it was him who halted Eilert. He had a mouthful of beard and spotted a balding patch. He looked like a boxer of some sort, something common. Yet there was something Eilert couldn't put his finger to.

'Mister Swane.' Vvael began slowly. 'Do you even harbor the slightest idea what you are going to do to them?'

Something about Vvael that Eilert couldn't quite figure. Eilert looked at Vvael's companions. They were a pair of young expressionless couple different in their clothings. The lady with the silkiest complexion dressed in the softest fur and the finest jewels while the young man looked emaciated with his dirty leather coat and soiled boots. Something was wrong about the younger companions too. Eilert sniffed puzzlingly at his instinct.

'Come closer and I'll burn you to smithers!' Warned Eilert.

The beautiful lady in her black grown fanned herself, looking quite disgusted with the heat and tension. Eilert felt her repulsion against his abominating presence, raised his head defiantly for he was the true herald of His words.

'Look at you,' Pancia pouted haughtily, 'Haven't you realised by now?'

'Let me talk to him.' Hissed Vvael.

Eilert the Fire Beast had realised. There was indeed something different about them. Eilert couldn't see their souls. Instead, all he saw was swan-like wings when he concentrated with closed eyes. And Vvael, the seemingly leader of the three had six.

'Angels.' Eilert could not believe the words coming out from his blazing lips.

'Let us help you.' Vvael proceeded.

'To end this? God send for you to make it happen? To make the earth open up? I can't do that. Are my ways wrong? You folks are going to help me open up the ground?'

'No.' Vvael paused, 'You are ill. The flames are something else. It's your head you need help. What you are doing is wrong. Taking lives are never His intentions. Not like this.'

Eilert looked at them, hurt. He then said calmly, 'I was wrong. You are not the hosts. You are the devils. Marring my work here. Go away, or I'll kill you all.'

'You can't,' explained Vvael, 'We don't have dreams, only servitude.'

And then they attacked him, Eilert felt it in his head and before he could realised, he was rolling on the ground, screaming away like a child throwing midnight fits. His desperation cries could be heard worlds apart. Eilert stabbed his digitalis deep inside his flaming cranium, wanting to stop the pain inside him. He screamed and screamed until his vocal cords burst and continued to struggle in gags and chokes.

Vvael looked at the Fire Monster in confusion and turned. 'What happened? Did you do anything to him?' And all the angel saw was the grave digger's hollow eyes.

Kepharel was grinning from ear to ear as he drove his shortsword into Vvael's belly.

Vvael was thrown to the dust and reverted to his true form. His golden crown of a million lights overturned, the loins splashed with his red wound and his gigantic wings spanned out in long feathers.

With one boot on Vvael's blood stained chest, Kepharel pulled at one of the wings.

'How do you enter Hell without passing the Valley of Passing?' Asked Kepharel to his mentor.

Vvael coughed out blood as his wound grew with the injury of the heavenly weapon. Pancia was raising the Fire Monster up. Eilert stood up like a fire golem, having no will of his own. He was no longer Eilert Swane and possessed not a single hint of humanity. The Fire Monster obeyed Pancia's command and barked like a dog. Pancia roared with womanly laughters.

'How do you enter Hell without passing the Valley of Passing?' Kepharel repeated, this time in a song like manner. 'Find the seal where Samuel cast, and spill the blood from the wings of a Cherubim.'

'What do you think you are doing?' Snarled Vvael.

The skinny grave digger tore the white wing with the bite of his dagger, and spilled blood on the ground of the city square.

'The Fire Monster! You planned this all along!' Cried Vvael.

The world shook its worst earthquake and the ground drew opened wide like a pair of lips. The depth of the split went deep into the core of fire and smoke.

Kepharel threw the sword away and walked towards The Danish Soul Eater. 'You are right. I made this piece of work here. He doesn't burn souls, he incinerate sins. One of his usage was to lure you here, to this place.'

Vvael couldn't stop bleeding. 'What more do you want from him? What do you want to enter Hell for?'

Kepharel smiled and said, 'Father was gone for way long, and so was Lucifer. This is a sign to take back Hell and win the war once and for all. Once we incinerate all the sin-doers in Hell, burning them to limbo, the mortal realm is ours to keep.'

Vvael sighed in anger, 'Haven't you learn anything right? Father created Hell, He created Man, He created everything for a purpose, a balance. His absence is a test, not a blind eye for treason!'

'Right.' Kepharel jeered as he dragged Vvael by the underarms, 'I want you to see it with your eyes.'

The obedient Fire Monster, the beautiful diplomat, the dying Cherubim and young Kep descended to Hell.



To Be Continue...