Sermo
Book 1 Chapter 03
Baptism Of Fire
The army of zeraks diminished considerably as Valdenn and Eli continued the fight. From that moment, even inside the zeraks hurricane, they could see the sky and some buildings of the city, as the armor of Valdenn glinted under SonnSol City's full moon. The knight spotted Lissya from afar on the roof she stood on and hesitated for several seconds, waiting for a clear opportunity.
"Don't do that." Eli said quietly as to add a more serious tone to the suggestion.
Of course, the rush of adrenalin in the young man's blood went as far as to decide for himself, and his body moved forward, flying in the direction of the evil summoner. Lissya raised again her arms and made more zeraks appear for her technique. Unable to keep up with the tremendous amount of dark energy the summoning required, she bowed the knee to prevent herself from falling, weakened by her efforts.
Valdenn easily dodged the monsters, making his way through them by flying from left to right and vice versa until he could reach his target, without using his sword once. At the approach of the hero, Lissya stood, staring at her assailant with her eyes filled with despise and hatred. She watched him rush towards her and waited for the right moment to make sure he receives the surprise she prepared for him.
At five meters from Lissya, Valdenn pointed his sword at the occultist, and she responded by spitting a good amount of a black slime which hit the knight at the right wing. Too tired to even avoid him, she then watched the knight fall right on her, and they both passed through the roof like two spirits, engaged in a fierce and deadly battle.
"The hell?" a man dressed with only a short whispered at his window while he looked outside, trying to understand why there was such a strong wind in the middle of the night. Convinced that the weather broadcast did not mention the occurrence, he then looked at the sky, unable to see the zeraks summoned by the sorceress, and even more unaware of Valdenn fighting her right behind him in his bedroom.
Lissya took advantage of the spiritual realm by attempting to spit the black slime at the man looking through his window. Valdenn stopped the shot by sacrificing his left wing and found himself completely unable to fly. The sorceress smiled at him, ready to use that in her advantage. With the knight at her mercy, she decided to take the opportunity of finishing him. However, when she tried to attack the knight with another technique, she found herself unable to release the necessary dark energy for the summoning.
She looked at her hands, surprised by the occurrence, and did not even get the time to take a glimpse at Valdenn, already in the momentum of a counter attack, as his sword violently pierced her stomach. Gone at full speed for his attack, they both passed through several walls and soon found themselves falling from the last story of the building to the ground.
Eli released a huge and strong beam of blue light from his rod, and blinded all the monsters surrounding him. He then proceeded to transform his rod again to a whip and destroyed all the remaining zeraks. As his rod went back to its initial form, he stood in the air and looked around him for any sign of a monster summoned or the sorceress herself. Not seeing any of the two, he then sensed an evil presence which dark aura emanated from the ritual's location.
"Fools." he quietly said, his eyes widely opened, realizing what the summoners had just done. Maybe there was still time, he thought, flying toward Astin's house.
Some of the occultists noticed something strange on the seal, something that they were unable to explain at that moment. One of the four points of the star on the seal was lit with a vivid yellow light. Astin looked at Orozias, unable to even mutter anything in front of the massive and impressive supernatural entity. All the cult members bowed before Orozias and Astin quickly imitated them, an act of reverence which somehow prompted the evil spirit to break the silence.
Flying as fast as he could, Eli glimpsed Valdenn and Lissya lying on the ground near a large waste bean in a dark alley. But he could not resolve himself to stop for his apprentice he deeply cared for. Since the mission comes first, the mentor sped up in order to prevent an extraordinary catastrophe to occur, with the hope that there was not another sorcerer in the way.
"Who are you?" Orozias questioned, his lit and yellow burning eyes locked on Astin. His deep and echoing voice made all the cult members shiver in a strange mix of fear and amazement.
"Great. Oh great Orozias, your servants have gathered on this special night in your honor." Astin said, not daring to look at him longer.
"Who are you?" Orozias asked again.
Nervous and sweating, because of both the fear and the unbearable heat of the entity, Astin managed to reply:
"My name, is Astin Neal Keldon." he said, placing his hand against his chest. "All your servants here are members of a cult we founded in your honor. The Order of Orozias."
"What is your desire?" Orozias asked, still staring at Astin without blinking once.
"Our goal is to summon you in this world master, to free you from the dimension you were imprisoned in. We want you to reign here in this world, and unleash your fire of destruction" Astin explained, making big gestures while also taking furtive glimpses of the entity's face.
"Answer my question." Orozias said, literally raising the temperature in the room.
He quickly understood that he had to tame his emotions and answer the entity with wisdom, so that Orozias does not wreck havoc on his cult. Astin's eyes met Marcel's, who just nodded in trust and confidence about what the former had to respond.
"Our desire, oh great Orozias, is only to remain beside you during your reign of fire." Astin said and waited for the entity's reaction.
Eli soon saw Astin's house from afar. A bright yellow light was visible on one of the windows as well as numerous zeraks around the place, attracted by the presence of the malevolent entity. The blue light outlining his body and his rod intensified to get him ready for the upcoming battle that would be more dangerous than the previous one.
"What is your offering?" Orozias asked after several minutes of silence.
Suddenly caught off guard, Astin looked at the other members as they were all looking at each other, conscious about the fact that they did not prepare any sacrifice. They looked back at Astin, putting the whole burden on his head, and expecting him to answer with diplomacy and wisdom once again.
"Great Orozias, on this night of glory, what can we have to offer to you that is more valuable than your freedom?" Astin questioned back.
"I asked you a question, human. And you dare question me in return."
"Great Orozias, I only—"
"Silence !" Orozias yelled. At that instant, two members of the cult were struck with a spontaneous fire that burned them to ashes in seconds, not even letting them scream.
The other members, including Astin, fell on their backs and looked at Orozias, expecting him to make more victims on his next move.
"You talk of things you don't understand. You tell me that you freed me and you disturb me without preparing an offering!" Orozias added, burning several others in the room.
"We just wanted to fulfill the prophecy!" Astin said, trying to calm down the evil spirit.
"I said silence! And you dare defy my authority. Even the great witch herself think thoroughly before summoning me. Therefore, I shall not be submitted to mere insects like—"
"You will obey to my command spirit! You're bound to the seal of fire!" Astin yelled at the entity, presenting him the locket in his hand.
"The seal of the elementals." Orozias said, correcting Astin, who did not know how much the spirit despised the main item required to summon it. Without saying much more, Orozias released a tremendous heatwave from his whole body to silence the defiant and ignorant occultists who dared play with fire.
On his way to the ritual's location, Eli stopped its flight when he saw a phenomenal fire consume the whole house in a matter of seconds. The fire then got absorbed very quickly and entered in the symbol on the floor to disappear completely like it never existed. The only thing left of the house and the cult members was a pile of ashes, gently scattered by the mild wind of SonnSol City's dawn.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Fools." Eli whispered again.
As soon as he said that word, among the concerned neighbors that came out of their houses amazed by the supernatural occurrence, his eyes caught a few zeraks who escaped the blazing fire rushing to the scene to feed on the residual dark energy. Filled with anger as he witnessed the voracious attitude of the vile parasites, Eli attacked them, while hearing the sirens of the approaching firefighters.
Valdenn opened an eye, still weak after his fall while fighting Lissya, awaken by her muffled whispers. He then opened his other eye and looked at her, trying hard to stand up in front of the sorceress. His wings still covered and neutralized by the black slime, he managed to stand next to her, his silver armor mirroring the dark blue color of the sky.
"Glo—glory—to Oro—Orozz..." Lissya said with her mouth filled with blood.
Touched by the pitiful spectacle, Valdenn still did not know what to do to help her at that point. Lying on the floor with Valdenn's sword still deep in her stomach, she looked at the sky with her eyes filled with pain, while several leaves and junk papers carried by the wind, rolled over her body. Before the first rays of sun appeared, Lissya breathed for the last time. A few minutes later, her body turned into ashes carried by the wind as if taken to the new destination of her damned and disturbed soul.
"Don't move." Valdenn heard his mentor's voice behind him.
"How did it go there?" Valdenn asked, completely ignored by Eli who removed the black slime from his apprentice's wings with one blast of blue light from his rod.
"Let's go!" Eli replied, then flew away towards their apartment.
Valdenn sighed as he watched Eli get further away, already preparing to get scolded by his master. He spread his wings and followed his master in the air. The sun enlightened the city, progressively dressing the buildings with a bright and warm yellow color, and filled the heart of the knight with the hope of a new day deprived from evil activities. A wishful thinking that he himself knew could never be true as long as the mission had to be fulfilled, for the good sake of the whole world, and his family in particular.
Far away from the violence of both the spiritual and the normal realms in the city, a man of great importance slept peacefully, lying in bed next to his wife. A tender piano melody resonated in the whole villa according to his own recommendations, in order to appease him when he needed to rest. Surrounded by his linen curtains and his soft carpets, the mildness of his sleep soon reached an abrupt end when his phone rang. He immediately opened his eyes to the sight of a chandelier glistening like a diamond. The man reached out for his phone without looking and answered the call.
"Yes?" he said as soon as he picked up.
"Mr Mayor, it's Wes. I got some important news."
"What's that?" Simon Ribburts asked while his wife started to stretch.
"There was a fire in some house at Volan Park, it was rented by a firefighter named Astin Keldon. The guy quitted his job and nobody ever saw him since."
"Any casualties?"
"I can't tell, we all waiting for the experts for now. Neighbors say everything just burnt to ashes in seconds. Can you believe that?"
"Good job Wes, send the address to the driver so I can be on my way, and all the details to the others." the mayor said while leaving his bed. "This gonna be some good material for my campaign." he then added.
"Alright Mr Mayor."
On the way to the bedroom's bathroom, he composed a number to reach another person, already rubbing his hands in the depth of his heart. Simon closed the door behind him and went to stand in the front of the mirror as the recipient's phone started ringing. On the other end of the line, in a small apartment contrasting with her employer's villa, a lady jumped from her bed and ran in the direction of the fixed phone to pick up the call.
"Yes?" she nervously said answering the call, then realized her early morning blunder for not addressing her boss the right way. "Yes Mr Mayor? Good morning Mr Mayor!" she added trying to rectify the shot.
"There's been a fire at Volan Park."
"A fire? Oh that's so—"
"Listen Reecia, instead of getting your ugliness sleep, you better write a good speech for me this time. Not that other day trash or you getting fired before sunset. Wes will send you the details. Be on your way." he calmly said before he hung up.
Reecia heard the tone of the ending call, her face stuck into a blank expression while she stared into the void. Immobile for several seconds, she did not even realize that she still had the handset glued to her ear, until the discreet notification tone of her smartphone echoed in the dead silence of her apartment. She snapped out of her daze, dropped the handset, and started wondering how she could begin to deal with the task at hand, while scratching her head through her curly black hair.
Later on the same day, the two heroes were spending a quiet afternoon working on their regular job in order to subsist. Sitting in the living room with knives in hands, they carved through pieces of wood, sculpting magnificent statues and other objects, all of them inspired by the wonderful things Eli had the chance to admire during his missions as the 6th Valdenn. With the television set turned on, they listened to the Mayor's speech after watching the latest news about the serial killer in town. Simon Ribburts stood in front of the remains of Astin's house, with Reecia on his right and Wes on his left, speaking words of care and empathy:
"...for the good sake of this city despite his terrible trials. A man who gave his all, to keep us safe from disastrous accidents, just like the one he has just been victim of. He may have lost a lot by losing his house, but we pray and we wait for the experts' analysis, with the hope that he did not pay the ultimate in that fire. This city is shaken by very brutal and sad events, it's the truth, and it hurts. Concerning the killer, I can assure you that everything in our power has been set in motion to neutralize that threat, and justice will be served. But, on the other end, if Astin is alive, we have the duty to find him, to help him, because we are all part of the big family of SonnSol City. Therefore, we can't leave one of our own in distress..."
As the speech continued, Greg could not shake an idea that kept on growing bigger and clear in his mind. Maybe that was what Eli investigated on during all his solo operations. Even though Greg thought that Eli would not give him a precise answer, Greg chose the simplest way for once, and asked the question in order to erase any doubt in his mind:
"You think that's the guy?" Greg asked.
"What guy?"
"The killer. The serial killer in town. You think that Astin guy is him?"
"I don't think so. I don't see why a serial killer would be interested in summoning an elemental spirit." Eli said.
"Elemental spirit?"
"Don't worry. You'll know about them very soon."
"Why not just tell me now? Instead of just sculpting and listening to that crook." Greg said, pointing his knife at the Mayor on TV.
"Remember what the sacred scrolls say young man. There's a time for everything."
"Time? How many years it will take till I'm completely ready for the mission?"
"At this rate and with your attitude? Maybe all your life."
"What? All my life?" Greg said as he stopped sculpting. "And what about my family? How many seconds they have until I can finally get to them and keep them safe?"
"Your mission is oriented towards the world, and your family is part of it. But since you're talking about time let me ask you this. How much time did you give to that lady?"
"What? That girl with the zeraks? What do you mean?"
"You killed her Greg, like one of those vulgar parasites. Now you tell me, how much time did you give her?" Eli calmly asked, focused on finishing his sculpting work.
Greg stood up, unnerved by the question and made a few steps away from Eli as he passed his hand through his hair. "Listen, I didn't have a choice okay?" He said, walking back to his mentor.
"Oh really?" Eli said, adding a final touch to his work.
"She was about to finish me off, you saw my wings when you came back right?"
"Self-defense or not, it's still a failure on your part, young knight." Eli replied, finally looking at Greg. "First of all, we're light pilgrims. Secondly, we're knights of Sermo. Thirdly, and most importantly, we don't kill those people on the dark side and just send them to hell, we share the light with them to bring them back to the truth. That's the mission." he said before putting the statue he just finished on the table.
"Of course. The mission." Greg said, smiling with sarcasm.
"If you don't shake that fear for your family off your mind, you'll finally get them in real trouble yourself one day. Now get back to work, it's sunset already."
The apprentice sat back and looked at his master, who leisurely picked up another block of wood and started sculpting another statue.
"You know Eli, I'm starting to wonder if you think all that because you got nothing to lose."
"Wrong. I'm confident because I trust in The Highest."
"You're the only one who sees or hear Him after all."
"Grow in the spirit and you'll be able too. You really should, because the witch is coming, and she has no mercy left in her heart."
The apprentice just shook his head and resumed his work, beaten by the calm of his mentor, while in the corridor a couple was engaged in a fierce argument about a few drugs stolen. Eli looked at the door as soon as he heard them, and the idea that came to his mind at that moment made him smile.
On the evening, sparkling with all its lights on, SonnSol City seemed to rest a little after a whole day spent without any incident. However, Eli's words seemed to materialize after he pronounced them as a threat much closer to the witch he mentioned was about to be reborn like a phoenix.
A mild wind of doom blew on Volan Park, motioning the yellow bands around the pile of ashes left after the fire at Astin's place. The pile of ashes soon began to move, not only agitated by the wind but instead by something that made its way from underneath it to the surface. After seconds, even though nobody was found under the ashes, a pale human hand emerged from it with a burn mark of the elementals' seal on its palm.