She led him to the end of the chapel, opposite the altar. Across from the washroom was an old wooden door. This door led to a dusty basement stuffed with old garments, bookshelves filled with ancient books, chalices, crosses and other equipment. At the end of the basement, on the bare stone floor, were two circles composed of sigils and symbols, drawn by blood. Jalen could only gape at the intricate designs, wondering whose blood had been used to draw them. With the missing nuns, things weren’t looking good.
Oh, God. Where is that Abbot?
“Don’t step on those circles,” he said.
“Holy shit, Jalen,” Abigail said, pacing around. “I think we should call the cops.”
Jalen didn’t want any police coming into this, because of his circumstances. He had either been reported missing or dead for years now, and he would like to keep it that way as long as possible. Furthermore, the police meant answering questions he couldn’t answer, like his whereabouts for the past 6 years. Though, he couldn’t deny that this situation would be very nerve-wracking for Abigail. Plus, he wanted to find out where the nuns were.
He made his decision, as he bent down to inspect the blood symbols. “Ok, call the po—”
Abigail shoved him into the bigger circle. Immediately, the blood symbols started glowing. Jalen stayed down, too shocked at what she had done. She gazed down at him with reddened eyes displaying absolute dread.
“Jalen, I don’t know what is happening,” she cried. Her speech was rapid fire and slurred. “My hands moved on their own. I didn’t mean to push you. Let me help you.”
“No! Stay back!”
He was too late. Abigail had attempted to pull him out of the circle. Instead, she slammed into a blood red wall that flung her into an adjacent bookshelf. The speed of impact was too much for a mere human. Her body turned to mush, leaking blood onto the pile of books and broken wood she lay on.
Jalen stood up, an uncontrollable rage burning through him. The gates that withheld his cosmic life force sprung open, releasing vast amounts of the energy to transform him into his god form. The problem occurred when the gates quickly closed, preventing his transformation.
The circle.
Jalen scanned the sigils and symbols making up the circle that imprisoned him, and that was apparently powerful enough to halt the use of his power. None of it looked familiar to Jalen. Who was he kidding? The only symbols he knew were those hand signs from Naruto.
Soft thuds and the groaning of old wood drew Jalen’s attention. Abbot Cornelius descended the old staircase, grinning when he spotted Jalen. The old stout man regarded Abigail with regret.
“It is a shame she had to go,” the abbot said, drying his wet hands with a towel. “I would have enjoyed that youthful body of hers any other time. But this opportunity was too important to pass up. Don’t you think so, young man?”
“You will regret everything you have done,” Jalen said.
“Perhaps. The cycle of karma does eventually come for everyone if you believe in that. Though I doubt I’ll be receiving any retribution from you in your current state.”
Jalen struggled against the confines of his prison, willing his life force to shatter the invisible barrier. The abbot’s smile turned into a malevolent grin, urging Jalen to continue his struggles.
“You no doubt see now, angel,” Abbot Cornelius said. “That my work is exquisite and foolproof. Struggle all you want, but you are never getting out.”
“Angel? You have no fucking idea what I am, do you?”
“That I do. You are a being created by the almighty father to serve as messengers, guardians and agents of his will. Do not mock me angel. I, abbot Thadeus Cornelius, elected by my compatriots, to uphold and govern my monastery with every fiber of my being, should know an angel when it graces my presence. I understand I have neglected my duties these past few years and have strayed from the righteous path. But should all the good I have done in my 50 years of serving the lord be undone by these last few years? Tell me angel, why have you descended? To enact judgment on my sinful deeds? Tell me, angel!”
The man dropped to his knees, weeping. “So I know what must be done. If I can not partake in the presence of the almighty father when I pass… If I am condemned to rot in hell for what I have done, then I will do so with the power of an angel. Brace yourself, angel. I fear this part is most painful.”
Abbot Cornelius stepped into the second circle, his face filled with rage and determination. He retrieved an ornate dagger and a black grimoire from his robes and sat down. Using the dagger, he slashed his arm, wincing in pain. Then, he opened the grimoire and recited a text in an ancient language Jalen didn’t understand. A select few of the sigils etched in blood began glowing and bubbling. Instantly, Jalen felt some foreign powers plunge into him. It felt like someone injected a syringe directly into his life force, completely bypassing his human vessel.
“You know we can talk about this, right?” Jalen asked. “Let’s make a deal. I give you my powers and you set me free.”
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The abbot’s eyes were glowing now. He stopped reciting his text long enough to answer Jalen. “I will have your powers shortly. I do not see the need to parlay with you anymore.”
Jalen shook his head in disbelief. The needle of the syringe draining his life force elicited some pain, yes, but he could deal with it. It was the abbot that was wincing and sweating profusely. His Cosmonar life force was toxic to life, after all. How the abbot planned to survive this ritual, he did not know.
His thoughts returned to when he first arrived on Earth through the Yggdrasil. He remembered the distinct feeling he experienced when the Yggdrasil released him. At that time, he taught nothing of it, rationalizing it to be the weird way the World Tree functioned. Now, he knew better. The Yggdrasil had released him like he had wanted, but a foreign power had interjected and whisked him away from his former apartment in Hermosville to this monastery.
“Was it you that brought me here?” Jalen asked, now feeling the effects of the ritual. His raw life force was toxic to his human vessel as well.
The abbot responded in between pained breadths. “You brought yourself here, angel. To enact retribution on me.”
Jalen’s eyes widened, suddenly wary of his surroundings. He asked another question just to confirm his hypothesis.
“Did you move Abigail’s hands? Did you force her to push me?”
“What the hell are you talking about? Your methods of distraction will not stop me!”
Jalen stood up on his feet, his eyes peeled, scanning the basement. The abbot was as much a pawn in this event as he was.
“Show yourself,” Jalen said. “I do not know what you have planned for me. But you will fail.”
“Why are you so sure about that, god?” A voice said. It sounded hoarse, hitting him like a bone chilling wind and grating his mortal senses like fingernails dragged across a chalkboard.
Jalen and the abbot, who paused his chanting, searched the basement with their eyes for the source of the voice that appeared to originate from multiple sources.
“Oh, forgive me for interrupting such an important ritual, abbot Cornelius. Please, continue. As for you, god. You have looked everywhere but up.”
Jalen glanced up, his jaw dropping in shock. Hanging from the stone ceiling was a gigantic black spider. Its hairy legs splayed like roots, sunk into the stone. From its neck up was where the genuine horror was revealed. A dead woman’s head stared back at Jalen, a few maggots worming their way through its facial features.
The abbot screamed, almost falling out of the circle. “No! What have you done with sister Catherine?”
“No abbot Cornelius, upholder and governor of your monastery,” the spider said. “Now is not the time to falter. You must dig deep and continue the ritual. For if you dare step outside that circle, I will devour you and keep your head as a trophy.”
The giant spider skittered down the ceiling, its legs easily digging into the stone walls. It drew near the abbot, stopping at the border of the circle.
“Continue, abbot. Continue.” It’s hoarse voice sounded.
Jalen had never seen a man so scared in his life. When he’d first seen the abbot descend the stairs, he bore unfathomable hatred for the man, vowing that once he got free, the abbot would suffer a worse fate than death. Now, Jalen felt pity. How much of the abbot’s free will had played a part in any of this?
The abbot made no attempt to continue the ritual. Snot and tears caked the defiant man’s face. He did not move, yes, but he did not leave the blood etched circle.
“Why abbot, when you have come so far to grabbing the full power of an angel?” The spider asked, its raspy voice getting louder.
“You called him a god earlier. I see clearer now, like the fog lifting from a mountain peak,” abbot Cornelius said, then turned to Jalen. “Sorry, young man, for what I have done.”
Jalen was too preoccupied with the raging emotions within him to acknowledge the abbot. There was no conceivable way the spider could escape him after this. It didn’t matter where it went or how long it hid. He would chase it all the way to heaven, till the time after the last stars died, if that was what it took.
There was a surefire way to escape this mess—by killing himself. The problem reared its head after death. His consciousness would be whisked away to his true body, whereby he would create new vessels, and the journey to Earth would start all over again.
If only Yun were here.
“Fine! I understand that sometimes you humans need powerful motivation,” the spider said. “In a small town east of here, lives the Cornelius family. Your brother, his wife, and his two beautiful but no doubt tasty daughters. Oh, I wonder what flavor a dish composed of a loving family holds.”
The dejected face of the abbot twisted into one of absolute horror. “You will do no such thing! Please, no. Please… God help me. God save me.”
The giant spider skittered around the abbot’s circle. “But God won’t abbot. Not after what you have done. Your salvation now falls into the hands of a demon. So continue the ritual.”
Abbot Cornelius, now resigned to his fate, sat down, and reluctantly recited the text in between sobs. Jalen felt the now familiar tug of the sigils as they drained his life force. Normally, the circle prevented him from accessing his life force. When the abbot recited his text, the gates were unlocked and so Jalen sprung open the gates, flooding himself with his cosmic life force. These energies flowed painfully through him into the symbols of his binding circle, then into the symbols of the abbot’s circle.
At last, vast amounts of his life force converged into the abbot, evoking ear piercing screams. The abbot’s skin was bubbling, searing white hot cosmic energy into his core. And yet he did not relent, powered by his will to save his brother’s family.
The spider demon was rejoicing, its pair of razor-sharp claws clapping, and its hoarse voice urging the abbot on. Jalen had to hand it to abbot Cornelius. The man’s sheer willpower to hold so much of a Cosmonar’s life force, not meant for a mortal, astounded him. Jalen himself was nearing his limits.
The abbot’s good fortune came to an end. He was channeling more and more life force one moment and in the next, he predictably erupted up into bright flames. All the life force the abbot collected flew to the nearest lifeform, the spider demon. Only this time, the demon tamed Jalen’s life force, barely straining.
The spider demon evolved, its body growing larger and sprouting more spikes. An armored carapace covered most of its upper body, its claws elongating and hardening. The dead nun’s head it possessed rejuvenated, its pale skin gaining color, and its worm infested insides, regenerating.
“Yes!” The spider demon rejoiced. “I have waited eons for an opportunity like this. Who knew Lord Belial stumbled upon a gold mine like this? He sits in hell, drumming up convoluted plans while I have eaten the fruit he so treasured. Thank you, god, for what you have given me. Now die as I finish what the abbot couldn’t.”