Darkness engulfed the consciousness of Eithne, or more precisely, the two halves of contradicting consciousness: priestess Eithne Noceur and her previous identity. The two half consciousnesses were stitched loosely to each other by thin crimson threads, and it seemed they would fall apart anytime soon.
Eithne could feel that her previous identity was an independent consciousness, and it was trying to run away somewhere while dragging her along. She could feel that it was badly injured. Both of them were in a terrible condition, and there was fear circulating in the minds of both.
The part of the priestess's consciousness was sunk in desperation. She almost gave in to let the other half take over, when suddenly, a huge illusion of a mirror appeared. It was the same hand mirror that Eithne picked up before, with a maiden face and a beldam face on two opposite edges, but it was about four to five meters tall this time.
A soft praying voice came out from the mirror’s dark surface. It was speaking in a strange ancient language, seemingly even older than the language that the priests normally used in rituals. This old language was even more mystical and more profound, provoking the thought of Eithne that she was listening to the calling of cosmos from millennia ago.
Somehow, her mind could decipher out the prayer’s meaning.
“Lofty Mother of Void,
You are beginning of all lives,
The Primordial Serpent who sees nine fates
I beg for your benevolence to descend on this world once more…”
Upon hearing the prayer, Eithne’s left half body - the past self quickly pulled the whole body toward the huge mirror. Eithne could sense the excitement coming from her other half body of mind.
“Mother of Void? Primordial Serpent?” – Eithne was shocked. She had no memory about this, nor did the original priestess ever learn any history about this existence. And why did this Mother of Void- Primordial Serpent carry her previous appearance?
All of her previous life… Was it just a fabricated memory? All of the things she knew, she used, she experienced… all of them were fake?
“Then…
… who am I right now?”
The half of Mother of Void- Primordial Serpent dragged half Eithne to enter the mirror’s surface. They stepped through the mirror as if they were passing a veil of smoke. Eithne could feel the familiar coldness that appeared whenever she used the dark power. It seemed that the power in this mirror and her dark power had the same origin.
A small source of light suddenly appeared before them, like a lone star hung beneath the night.
Jumping toward the light spot, the loosely patched Mother Void and Eithne Noceur arrived at a magnificent grayish castle.
The castle’s adornment was very simple, but it had a deeply prehistoric aura that struck a huge impression in the mind of visitors. This place was illusive, yet so realistic in the memory of awe. It tiptoed between the boundary of light and shadow, being comprehensive and ambiguous at the same time. Sometimes it was solemn, sometimes it was messy, as if the normal rule of nature was broken in this place.
They stood in a hall that was as wide as the War temple’s prayer hall. The walls and columns were white like marble, but there were complex grayish lines of energy moving frantically over the surfaces like electric flashes. If one had to imagine what madness and chaos were, Eithne would think of the patterns on the castle’s walls. There seemed to be endless encrypted knowledge in those patterns! It almost burned her half-mind when she tried to observe them.
On the highest stage at the end of the hall placed a majestic golden throne. The throne’s back was decorated with the symbols of nine eyes overlooking the castle and a serpent curling up around a resplendent sun. The mysterious throne emitted an indescribable attraction to Eithne and the left half consciousness. Both of them developed an idea to approach the golden throne.
Ten rows of attendants abruptly rose up from the castle’s floor. All of them had a humanoid body, wearing uniform formal suits, half top hats and holding dark wooden canes, but fifty of them had snake heads and the other fifty had fox heads. One hundred attendants then got down on one of their knees, welcoming the owner of the castle.
The scene was very shocking to Eithne. She had yet to get over the surprise from seeing this scene, when she heard the Mother Void- Primordial Serpent spoke using her familiar old voice:
“Give up resisting. This is my kingdom. You have nowhere to escape now, let me devour you and take over.”
Her tone was calm, but it was a declaration for Eithne’s demise. Eithne intended to give up before, but now that she learned about the truth about her past memory, Eithne suddenly had a frustration and refused to give away her control so easily.
The Primordial Serpent – Mother Void could feel Eithne’s resistance, its consciousness then decided to advance to the throne.
The left half with black hair and black eyes grimaced. Deep crimson crevices broke out more on her left face and left arm, with nine eyeballs in each crevice moving their gazes chaotically.
Each step forward of the loosely patched monster was extremely heavy. The distance to the throne was not very far, however, Eithne could hear the ferocious roar of wind next to her right ear whenever they stepped forward, as if they had traveled hundreds of miles in a second!
And with every step that they advanced, the Primordial Serpent- Mother Void seemed to gain a part of Her original power back. She then forcefully pulled the consciousness of Eithne over to start devouring the halved priestess’s soul.
At that time, the corruption seemed to sweep over from the consciousness of Primordial Serpent- Mother Void to Eithne’s half. It wanted to assimilate the power of two halves.
Eithne could not stop the crimson crevices to break out on her parts. She helplessly let nine eyeballs grow up in each crevice, then the eyeballs started to look around frantically, sending the madness and overflowing knowledge that they saw to her mind.
Eithne’s mind quickly melted down from the pressure. Painful groaning escaped her right half throat.
Her instinct then drove her to do the thing that she was good at – spacing out.
“Fuck all…”
She put herself in a dazed state of mind, ignoring all the scenes and information flowing in. Most of the heavy knowledge was disorientated and failed to establish a form in her mind, thus reducing the speed at which her consciousness was fading away.
“Give up! You won’t get away with this.”
The Primordial Serpent scoffed. It was one-step closer to the throne.
The snake- headed attendants moved under Her influence. They used the wooden canes to stab into Eithne’s half consciousness, drilling her in pain to awaken her awareness to the incoming knowledge more. However, the priestess still endured all the torment to hinder the step of her left half body at all costs. Whenever Eithne wanted to disturb the focus of the Primordial Serpent, she had to escape the daze to think. The madness within the knowledge flow instantly used those gaps to spread their roots in various layers of her mind.
Eithne could not do much. Her influence was very limited, while the speed of the Primordial Serpent- Mother Void returning to their throne decreased very little.
Eithne knew it would be her end if they sat on that throne. As her awareness was fading away more and more, to the point that only her instinct remained, Eithne lost the ability to reason.
She decided to give up her resistance to the insane flow of knowledge.
The madness tore apart her soul so fast until nothing was left behind. The monster with two loosely patched halves then lost its right half body.
Eithne Noceur was truly dead at that point.
“GRRP!”
The Primordial Serpent – Mother of Void grunted in anger.
Without the connection in Eithne Noceur’s soul to the body, She could not return to the real world. The Primordial Serpent would be trapped here for a long time.
She glanced at the golden throne above. Nonetheless, the most important thing to do right now was to gain back Her authority and power, then that problem could be solved using Her full power.
Half of the black-haired and black-eyed woman then wobbled on her single leg to the majestic throne.
However, the fox-headed attendants suddenly stepped up and raised their canes to stop her. Their uniform action created a united sound, showing their concrete determination.
“What?!”
The halved Primordial Serpent was shocked. She could not control those fox- attendants to step out.
The woman opened her half mouth which bore out the long serpent’s fangs. She chanted in a low voice that carried the sinister power of hexes, causing the entire castle to shake lightly.
Darkness flew out of her fangs like toxins. The cursed power collided with the canes of fox-headed attendants. The Primordial Serpent also controlled snake-headed attendants to attack, as she knew her power was currently limited.
Twenty-five snake mouths chanted the same incantation with the Primordial Serpent, whereas the rest of twenty-five snake attendants physically attacked the foxes. Their actions were slightly out of sync, indicating the unstable control of the Primordial Serpent.
Darkness was materialized in the midair like a gigantic veil that dropped down on their enemies. Beneath the dark veil, hexes became visible in this castle’s special environment. Some parts looked like coiling dark threads devouring all the light, while others resembled a mist of plague, spreading out all the degeneration and corruption.
Stolen story; please report.
Fifty fox attendants were affected by the hexes. Their bodies quickly showed signs of rot, their skin was melted, their pointy fox noses and ears became hideously deformed like withered vegetables. Some fox attendants’ eyes rolled out from their sockets so they had to bend down to pick the eyeballs up.
However, there was no emotion on the hairy fox faces. They uniformly pointed up toward the sky. A human voice coldly resounded from their throat.
“Chaos!”
The ancient language stirred up the air of the castle. The winds circled and roared thunderously, completely overwhelmed the sounds of chanting curses from the Primordial Serpent and her attendants.
The halved woman widened her one eye in fear. She could feel a terrifying aura coming from above her head that made her half body tremble. The Primordial Serpent looked up at the castle’s ceiling.
The grayish ceiling was gradually replaced by a blinding source of light, as if the Sun was landing on top of this castle!
The white light poured down from the blazing Sun instantly ravaged the dark power of the Primordial Serpent. She screamed in pain as her main eye was also burnt the moment that she looked up directly at the Sun. Charred flesh fell down piece by piece from her body.
The entire castle faded away as the Sun came close. The Chaos on the walls of the castle became even more intensified. It escaped the walls and joined the destructing force of the sunlight.
More and more sunlight shone inside the castle, burning everything except the throne. Even the attendants were not an exception, but they had a strong rejuvenation within their bodies to grow back the parts that were burned.
At that moment, a dark void surged out from the Primordial Serpent’s body, swallowing her halved figure. The Void absorbed all the light, protecting its Mother inside.
The light and the dark were instantly balanced. The sunlight could not damage the Primordial Serpent anymore. Even a part of light was distorted and became a part of void energy.
Suddenly, the snake attendants on the Primordial Serpent’s side aimed at their own necks!
Snap! Snap! Snap!
They uniformly snapped their own neck and brought down their snake heads. There was no blood, only tiny bits of charcoal flew out.
The headless attendants then uniformly took out fox heads from the empty air next to them like a horror magic trick. They installed the new heads on their body and transformed into fox attendants. Their necks cricked and cracked like a mechanical joint, then they uniformly turned their faces left and right to test the flexibility of the new heads.
Seeing the scene, the Primordial Serpent gritted her teeth. She lost all of her influence over the attendants when she used her last bits of strength to create a void.
The Primordial Serpent knew her territory was taken by an unknown enemy, so she decided to abandon this castle. She was already at her limit, staying longer might be dangerous for her life.
A sense of longing rose up in her heart, but the Primordial Serpent was not hesitant to leave.
The void darkened as she tried to teleport away. It was the same method that she used to run away from the War God earlier.
However, the one hundred fox attendants coldly pointed at the halved woman simultaneously.
“Void!”
They shouted.
The dark Void around the Primordial Serpent suddenly trembled, seemingly being unsure to follow whose order.
“Impossible!”
“I’m the Mother of Void. How can my authority be wavering?”
The halved monster screamed in disbelief.
The power of Void had just been interfered with. As a result, Her teleportation failed.
This was the first time Her power was interfered with. Nobody could control the Void except the Primordial Serpent. The Void had never betrayed her before!
While the Void faltered, the magnificent castle was restored to its original state. The Sun was covered away by the castle’s roof again. The fire on the attendants’ bodies gradually died down, and they quickly regained their formal look.
“Who are you?”
The halved woman stood on her one leg. Her many eyes in the crimson crevices all over her halved body glared at the fox- headed attendants, trying to figure out the one behind them.
The fox attendants were still protecting the golden throne. They stood in the same posture with the wooden canes in their hands. Instead of answering the Primordial Serpent, they raised their heads and chanted:
“Chains!”
Behind the Primordial Serpent’s back, a huge mirror was materialized above the entrance of the hall. It had the faces of a maiden and a beldam on two sides of the edges and an altar on its back. The mirror reflected the same golden throne on the high stage opposite to the entrance, but there were thick chains spreading across the seat.
The metal chains escaped the mirror and aimed at the Primordial Serpent. The monster struggled to escape the range of the chains but to no avail. The chains caught her pathetic body quickly and dragged her in the mirror world.
“NO!”
The Primordial Serpent screamed. She tried to use the Void to escape the enclosure again. There was no other method that she could use right now.
Strangely, the dark Void could not nullify the chains. Those chains passed through the Void like in a normal environment.
“What?” – The Primordial Serpent’s irises shrank in fear.
She desperately exploded her body, dividing into countless dark threads in an attempt to escape through small gaps of the chains and the castle.
The fox- headed attendants raised all arms up as if they were welcoming somebody. Then all of them saluted formally toward the Primordial Serpent. The gesture of salute was similar in style with the War temple’s protocol.
All the dark threads shuddered and returned to their original position, turning back into a halved woman figure whose hair and eyes were black. The chains then captured her again without any resistance. The Mother of Void's gaze was completely empty as if she was frozen.
Nine large eyes suddenly opened in midair. The darkness spiraled with the shining gold color in those nine eyes, twisting into different patterns like an exhibition of nine abstract paintings – one looked like fragmented glass, one looked like water puddle, blooming flowers, chaotic blocks, others resembled the twinkling starry night, an early fresh dawn, a heavy dusk, the rest were a monotone pupil-less eye and a colorful pupil-less eye.
The nine eyes focused their gazes down at the halved woman figure. Using her as a mold, a new right halved body was generated. Flesh and bones protruded out to form the internal organs, a new halved head and two limbs. Then the newly formed halved body separated itself from the left mold Primordial Serpent.
The thick chains then pulled the left half of the Primordial Serpent back into the mirror’s world, tied Her halved body of consciousness down on the chained throne.
The fleshy halved body levitated from the spot and sat right on the golden throne. A vigorous wave was then sent out from the throne to reach every corner of the castle.
Bang!
The whole castle shook and changed their layout. The columns were taller and more sophisticated in pilaster details. Intricate lamps were installed on every column to erase the gloominess of the hall. The walls had an additional golden energy flowing apart from the grayish and white. Three colored energy lines occasionally bloomed into fireworks patterns in random spots.
On the throne, the flesh wriggled and grew out the missing left half of the body. Blonde hair grew out on the head, then the eye sockets, the nose, the mouth... The appearance of Eithne Noceur was recreated, but it was not stable. The flows of madness were bobbing up and down on her body of consciousness, ultimately, they all pushed out onto the surface of her skin – forming a layer of dark scales over her body.
Eithne opened her eyes. Her pupils were still golden, but the sclerae were dyed black.
However, her awareness had yet to fully recover. Earlier when Eithne's soul was torn down by the massive knowledge and corruption, a strange force in this castle had put her consciousness in every fox-headed attendant. The madness was also shared between many fox attendants, restoring Eithne’s ability to think. In the massive knowledge that her many nine-eyes in crimson crevices saw earlier from the castle’s walls, there was information about the existence of the Chaos, the Void, and the Order – represented as Chains. Eithne had used them to fight back the Primordial Serpent.
“If not for the response of the Chaos and the Order, I can never win against the Mother of Void…”
She looked up at the ceiling, where the existence called ‘Chaos’ manifesting as the Sun reigned above, and in the huge mirror, where the being of ‘Order’ created thick chains to seal the Mother of Void- Primordial Serpent.
They were the true rulers of this strange space. Their secret was not to be pried and questioned. They were more ambiguous than deities in the real world, yet their existence was apparent in every aspect of nature.
The fox-headed attendants bowed to the new throne’s owner, then they sank into the castle’s floor and disappeared.
Eithne whispered. Her voice was ethereal like a sound that echoed from fading memory.
“What do you wish in return?”
The magnificent castle shook slightly. Sounds from the distant cosmos reached Eithne’s ears. They were in a distorted frequency that normal creatures could neither hear nor understand…
__
Three o’clock in the morning. In the opulent temple of Peace,
The prestigious Saint in his white ceremonial robe clasped his hands to pray before the large statue of the Peace Goddess. Behind him stood a few priests who did their prayer at a late hour.
The Goddess was depicted as a benevolent deity whose garment was simple yet elegant. A veil was draped over Her head, on which the stars, the moon and the sun became Her adornments. Her hands held a splendid bouquet of flowers that was said to be picked from heaven, and they had a magical healing power for all of Her believers.
Raphael waited until all of the priests left. He locked the doors to the prayer hall and came to the offering table in front of the Goddess’s feet. Then Raphael took out a crystal sphere from the offering.
Gods had an authority over Fate. They could foresee, probe in and control the flow of Fate. Through a medium, They would provide divinations for the oracles.
Normally, the one who performed the divination must pray to the Gods to gain Their permission beforehand. Raphael did pray, but he received no response.
At his level as a Saint, he knew a secret within the Peace Church was that the Goddess became inactive from the last century. She did not respond to prayers and only occasionally communicated to the Pontiff of Peace through ambiguous revelations in dreams. Therefore, the lack of response to Raphael’s prayer was not strange at all.
Despite lacking the Goddess’s permission, Raphael was going to perform divination anyway. He had other means to do it without the need for Goddess’s power.
Placing the crystal sphere in front of him, Raphael took a deep breath to calm himself down. His hand grasped in the empty air and conjured a surreal jade sword. Putting the sword next to the crystal sphere, he raised his arms and summoned a translucent church bell to seal himself inside. Raphael did not feel it was enough, he conjured two more church bells to enclose one in another. Then he took out a pure white pearl in a silk pocket to put it in his mouth. Raphael placed a small bottle of blood next to the crystal sphere, and he chanted the magic words for protection…
After busying himself for a while, the Saint of Peace was finally fully prepared. He also gained the courage to probe the secret of fate. Performing divination was a dangerous task. It was not as simple as the fortune tellers doing card tricks or deciphering hand palm’s lines in circuses. Only the true Gods had the permission of nature to see and meddle with Fate, if a mortal dared to look into the bare ‘Truth’ manifested by Fate, it was likely that the fate of that mortal would be twisted toward a tragic death.
Raphael had to seal himself inside the bells to interfere with possible corruption or surprise attack when he was vulnerable during divination. He placed his hands above the sphere, closed his eyes and channeled his spirituality toward the medium.
The candles beside him waved their small flames, like tiny dazzling paddles to push the boat of spirits toward the unknown.
Darkness surrounded Raphael's vision. After about ten seconds, he saw a crimson spot of light. His consciousness quickly headed toward that spot.
The crimson expanded and manifested into the scene on Marah river yesterday. Raphael saw himself and his two servants, the Queen and the High Priest of War, as well as the scary dark power that absorbed and corrupted everything. He concentrated his vision onto the mysterious dark power, trying to figure out any clue about it. His senses were greatly enhanced through divination, allowing him to see more hidden truth.
The dark power was surreal and empty. The law of nature disappeared inside the body of the darkness, then a tampered version of the nature law was sent back out to cast on nearby creatures. Consequently, the nearby living creatures all turned into undead monsters.
Raphael suddenly heard a maundering voice in an indiscernible language. Sinister threads shot out from the center of squirming darkness toward his consciousness.
As soon as Raphael heard an abnormal noise, he canceled the divination instantly.
“That darkness! It discovered me!”
A chill ran down his spine. Raphael quickly pulled his spirituality back to his body. Red blood dripped down from his nose onto his white robe. The Saint tried to take out a handkerchief from his pocket, but his body uncontrollably slumped down from the chair.
The jade sword that Raphael conjured had dispersed some time before. He turned his face to look at his translucent church bells in a great effort. The holy images of the angels on the church bells had been distorted into wicked devils that came to life on its own. The devils were trying to push their bodies forward to escape the bell’s surface. Raphael instantly stopped maintaining illusions of bells. He suddenly vomited out the pearl that he put in his mouth earlier – which now resembled a rotting eyeball.
“This is the Church of Peace, the protected land of the Goddess… How could it…”
His lips quivered.
The corruption could reach Raphael even if he stayed inside the territory of god! Right before the statue of the Goddess!
If not for his cautiousness that he prepared many things to defend himself, the Saint of Peace might die on the spot in the prayer hall of the Peace Church. The white pearl had substituted him to endure the dark power’s attack.
Raphael massaged his head’s temple. He felt a throbbing headache.
From this point onward, he would never perform divination on mysterious existences!
The Saint wobbled to stand up. His eyes suddenly saw a blinding white.
After that, he heard a voice in his head…
“Who… who are you?!”
He asked.
His shaking voice reverberated in the empty prayer hall.
END CHAPTER 14