A World Darkly (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 3)

by John Triptych

  “Perhaps it is a reminder to always obey the gods, yes?”

  Valerie shook her head in frustration. “Don’t you see? These people are all dead. Whether they deserve punishment now is pointless since they can’t affect the living on earth. Maybe if they were born again, but if they forget all the memories from their previous lives then how can they possibly learn their lesson? Punishment ought to be temporary and it ought to mean something.”

  “One must look at the nature of suffering,” the old man said. “One must ask if suffering is caused by the gods, and if it is true, then one must ask why. In my life, we were taught to serve the gods. We were instructed to keep quiet lest our noise bring upon another great deluge that would kill us all. My people would enact many rituals on a daily basis to placate the gods. We believed that the gods created us in order to serve them. There were many times that we would pray to the gods for a bountiful harvest or to spare us from the ravages of disease. The gods served us just as we served them. When I was struck down by illness and all my friends turned against me, I asked if I had done anything wrong. One of the gods answered me and brought forth a sorcerer to heal me. It was then that I praised Marduk.”

  Valerie as confused. “Marduk? So I guess that means you aren’t Job after all.”

  “Job? Who is he?”

  “I read the Book of Job a long time ago,” Valerie said. “It’s about a kind old man who had a big family and lots of possessions. God makes a bet with the devil to see just how righteous Job is. Then God kills Job’s family, kills his animals and puts a disease on him but Job never falters, he refuses to denounce his god. In the end, God restores Job’s possessions and gives him a new wife and family.”

  “This God you claim to be in this story, what kind of god is he?”

  Valerie pointed to herself. “In my religion, there is only supposed to be one god. He is lord and ruler over everything.”

  The old man shook his head. “Oh no, the story of my life is a little different. I worshipped many gods and I thought I placated them all equally. It seemed that I offended Marduk and he cursed me with an affliction and made me lose my job, among other things.”

  “What city were you from?”

  “I was born in Sumer.”

  Valerie’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re Sumerian then? When you first told me your story, I thought you were Job, because your story is so similar to his own. Paul told me that the Sumerians were considered to be the world’s first civilization. Many stories from the Bible were transplanted from Sumerian sources, he said. I guess it makes sense then.”

  “What makes sense?”

  Valerie sighed. “That the story of Job was copied and then changed over the centuries. So I guess you’re the original Job. Or the Sumerian version, at least.”

  The old man stroked his beard. “Yes, I can see the similarities in the story. It seems that these Hebrews you mentioned changed the story so that instead of multiple gods there is only one. But that begs the question, why would a single god inflict that kind of cruelty to his most loyal worshipper?”

  “Like I said. It was a bet. A wager.”

  “So in this story my entire family was killed over a wager? That seems even more cruel and pointless.”

  “Yeah,” Valerie said softly. “It just shows that the gods can do whatever they want and we just have to keep suffering for it.”

  “In my world, we have many gods,” the old man said. “We can pray to one god if another is cruel to us. We can ask another god to intercede on our behalf in order to right the wrong. Yet if there is only one god, then it is he who is responsible for everything. Tell me, what did this Job learn at the end of his story?”

  “Nothing,” Valerie said. “God tells Job to suck it up and that’s it. Yeah, it’s a pretty sad story. If there is just one god behind all of this I can see that he isn’t a just god at all. He’s just a brutal and evil monster.”

  The old man pursed his lips. “Yes, that is indeed a very cruel tale. That brings us back to the nature of suffering. Cause and effect. When I suffered, I asked myself many times and I assumed that I was guilty of some sort of offense against the gods. That there must have been a cause as to why these cruelties were afflicted on me. There were no signs as to what kind of offense I had ever done, and as to which god I had done it to. I had thought perhaps that I had offended Marduk since it was he who sent a healer to cure me. As I think of it further, perhaps it may be another god that I had offended and it was Marduk who took pity on me, that it was his magic that overcame the curses of the other. In all my time travelling these wastes, I have never found the reason for the offense. It is all a mystery to me, the ways of the gods are ever mysterious, their own motivations impossible to understand. If you look at it from the point of view of our own existence, then it becomes clear.”

  “What becomes clear?”

  The old man pointed to her. “People can be evil and good, because the gods made us this way. Perhaps the reason they made us is because we are so much like them. You see, the gods need us too. They need someone to worship them, to placate them, to acknowledge their presence. They are prideful creatures and that is their weakness. Without us, they are but forgotten and pitiful. They may have the power to rule the earth, but to rule over nothing is not in their nature. Perhaps that is the reason why these hells were created. To fulfill our own inner desires.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you remember what Beelzebub said? He said that his world is a reflection of human desires,” the old man said. “Perhaps it is not the gods who want to inflict the endless cruelty on us. Perhaps it may be just us.”

  Valerie looked down at the wooden floor of the boat. She thought about it for a minute. “Are you saying that all this, all this unlimited torture is being done on these sinners because they feel that they themselves deserve it?”

  “It does make sense if you think of it this way,” the old man said. “Almost every one that I encounter in these forsaken lands doesn’t want to leave. A part of them seems to think they deserve to be here. Could the gods have created this blighted place to serve their worshipper’s innermost desires for self punishment? Perhaps they must go through an endless cascade of pain in order to experience something before they are reborn again? Or perhaps as a way to cleanse the stain on their souls?”

  “You’re saying that it’s humanity’s collective guilt that’s created Hell? Surely people don’t want this. I just can’t believe that.”

  “Perhaps they say they don’t want it, but deep in their hearts, they feel it is what they deserve,” the old man said.

  Valerie snorted. “That doesn’t answer why the righteous ones suffer though.”

  “Perhaps the righteous ones were never fully righteous.”

  Valerie looked at him blankly. “So even the most pious of people still deserve punishment because of some deep down desire of being guilty of something? What about children? They get killed all the time. They don’t know any better, yet they suffer as much as adults. Where do you draw the line?”

  The old man looked down. “I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that. That is why I am still journeying across these planes.”

  Valerie crossed her arms. “Good luck. If you haven’t found the answer by now, I really have doubts that you’ll ever know.”

  Loud clanging noises could be heard out in the distance. The sound of banging metal and trumpets were punctuated by howls of derision and screams of pain. They could see there was a riverbank in the distance. The fog had given way and an endless shore of blackened sand revealed itself. The far horizon was an infinite wall of fire, it was as if they were inside a gigantic furnace with walls of flames.

  Not far from the riverbanks were endless armies of half dead creatures. They looked like blackened, burned out corpses but they were clearly alive as they moved and screamed like men. Each of them were armed with swords, spears and every weapon known to man. Hordes of them would continually form up and attack eac
h other, using their blades and clubs to tear into one another. Valerie gasped as she saw one of the creatures get decapitated by another, only to see the headless creature bending over to pick up its severed head and place it back onto its shoulders before turning around and fighting once more.

  The wanderer stared blankly at the carnage by the shore. “We have now passed into Acheron, the river of woe. This is a place of endless bloodlust, of constant battles between armies of what were once men.”

  Valerie shook her head in disbelief as she kept staring at unceasing butchery that unfolded. “My god, what are they fighting for?”

  “They fight for the sheer pleasure and anger of it,” the old man said softly. “The ones who die will be reborn in a vast smoking pit of ash not far from here. After that, they will try to find weapons before rejoining the battle. There are plenty of armor and swords lying around. The ones who lived and ruled by violence are condemned here.”

  “None of them ever want to get out of this?”

  “A few,” the old man said. “Occasionally, one does lose their nerve and tries to get away. When the others sense the cowards in their ranks, they will torture the victim for a long time before killing them. Once the victim returns to the pit, his memories have been forgotten, and the seasons of murder shall begin again for him.”

  High above them was a stone city that seemed to float in the air, hundreds of feet above. Valerie could see smooth walks of black basalt that formed a sort of outer wall. The city seemed to be attached on top of a gigantic boulder that was several hundred miles across as it lay suspended in midair. Valerie immediately had a tingling sensation at the back of her neck as she stared at the city above them.

  “Oh my god,” she said. Valerie could feel his presence, his very soul was calling out to her, like a beacon in the endless night. “Paul’s up there! I can sense him! We need to get to shore so we can find a way up there!”

  “That is the city of Dis,” the old man said. “It is a place of torment for those with malice in their hearts. Cruel words and malignant lies all have their place within those floating walls.”

  Valerie’s heart began to beat rapidly. Sweat started to form on her forehead. “We’ve got to get up there! I have to get to Paul!”

  “If we get there, you will be subjected to the cruelty of words. These will be like daggers of sound aimed at your heart. You will be consumed by despair and guilt,” the old man said.

  Valerie grimaced. “I don’t care! All this, this whole nightmare of a trip is nothing if I can’t get to Paul! I’m not leaving Hell without him!”

  The old man gestured at Charon to take them closer to the shore. “Your dedication to your loved one is admirable. I felt the same way when I searched for my second wife here.”

  Valerie kept staring at the shore as they got closer, her determination building up. “Oh yeah? Did you find her?”

  The old man nodded slowly. “I did, though it was too late. She had drunk of the river Lethe and had forgotten about me. She didn’t want to travel with me, despite my insistence. So in the end I let her go and moved on. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

  As soon as the boat touched the shore, Valerie immediately jumped out and started running towards the floating city, only to stop in mid stride. She realized that she had no idea on how to get up there. Valerie turned and looked back at the old man who slowly placed one foot onto the sandy shore and then another. Valerie’s impatience nearly caused her to lose her temper but she was able to hold it in check. She had managed to calm down by the time the old man got closer to her.

  Valerie kept looking up at the city in the sky. “Please, we have to get up there.”

  “Very well,” the old man said as he started a low whistling tune that she didn’t recognize.

  Two black dots appeared in the ash colored sky. Within moments, these objects started getting larger. Valerie saw that they were creatures that vaguely resembled men, but they had bat-like wings and naked, muscular torsos. Their man-like faces were twisted and deformed into perpetual fanged grins of hatred. What was most horrifying of all was that they didn’t seem to have any eyes, just a blackened depression beneath their skull-like foreheads. The two demons landed less than ten feet away. Strange, glowing symbols that signified some sort of infernal writings were magically suspended at the top of their heads, as if they were written on air. Every time the creatures moved, the luminescent symbols would follow.

  “Ah, who is it that calls upon us but our old acquaintance, the Righteous Sufferer!” the first demon said.

  Valerie turned to look at the old man. “Is that what they call you?”

  “In this world, yes,” the old man said. “I do have many names. These two beings standing before us are the Malebranche, part of the order of the fallen ones who attend to the souls in this plane.”

  “What is it that you wish of us, o' Sufferer?” the second demon asked.

  The old man pointed to Valerie. “My companion here has a loved one that is trapped in the city above. I must ask you to take us there.”

  “A task requires a price,” the first demon said. “And we are sick of gold coins.”

  Valerie took out a small plastic bottle of holy water from her jacket and offered it to them. She had been keeping it with her ever since the demon Dantalion pulled her and Paul into the underworld. “Here, maybe this would be worth something.”

  The first demon took the bottle into the palm of his clawed hands and laughed. “Ah, water from the earth! How foolish is it that men think that the fallen would be vulnerable against such a liquid. Very well, I shall carry you up to the city of Dis.”

  “Don’t forget to wait there for her, for she will come back down once her task is completed,” the old man said to the demon before turning to look at Valerie. “I am sorry, but all I have is another gold coin, meaning I shall have to stay here and wait for you.”

  Valerie nodded. “I understand. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Now it is time for us to depart to the walled city of Dis,” the first demon said as it grabbed Valerie by her shoulders and leapt up in the air. Valerie shrieked at the suddenness of the demon’s flight and nearly pulled at her gun before she was able to calm her nerves. The demon laughed maniacally as its flapping wings made them both ascend hundreds of feet in the air in a matter of seconds. The second demon waived at them from the ground before it began to converse with the old man. As Valerie and the first demon flew higher up, the ones on the ground soon became nothing more than dots on the landscape.

  Within moments, the demon had flown parallel to the dreaded black walls of the floating city. Valerie thought that the city walls were featureless at first, but as they got closer, she could see human like forms and faces etched on the façade of the rock itself. Valerie immediately sensed they were lost souls of the damned that were somehow embedded within the rocks.

  The demon that carried her sensed her curiosity. “The foundation of these walls are what we call soul slabs. The city of Dis had its walls carved out from the souls of doomed men. It is through their suffering that allows the city to float above the lands below us.”

  Valerie pointed to a distant black tower that looked like a stone skyscraper. “Over there, take me there.”

  The demon laughed as it shifted its body so that they changed direction as they headed for the tower. “Oh, you will like that one, mortal. Your agony will help power the city.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Valerie said as they hovered above the tower. “Put me down slowly on the top level.”

  The demon giggled, letting go of Valerie as they floated thirty feet above the apex of the black tower. Valerie screamed as she fell but she was able to hold out her arms to angle herself. She landed at the edge of the top part and her momentum nearly made her roll off the side of the roof. Valerie grimaced as she dug her fingers into the blackened stone so she wouldn’t slide off. The demon continued to laugh as it circled above her. Valerie stood up and gave the creatur
e her middle finger before looking around the roof for a possible way inside.

  Sure enough, there was an opening in the middle of the top floor. It was a smooth hole with steps that led downwards. Valerie hunched her shoulders and started to make her way down. The stone steps were winding and it made her dizzy as she descended deeper into the building.

  As soon as she made it inside, the very walls around her suddenly shifted and merged into each other and she soon found herself in a small room. The walls seemed to be made of mud and brick. It was daytime, but she couldn’t tell where the light was coming from. As Valerie looked around, she saw that she was in fact standing on where the ceiling was. Her shoes crunched the dried straw roofing as she took a step forward. Up above her was a wooden table and two chairs that seemed to be stuck up at the top. A bowl of fruit was on the table, but it was suspended above. It seemed like a part of some ancient house, but everything was upside down.

  Valerie saw a wooden doorway and she made her way towards it. As she entered the adjoining room, it looked like a sort of bedroom. A rickety wooden cot was suspended in the ceiling along with a small table and crude blankets. Sitting in the middle of the room above her was a man. He had his back turned to her as she could see he was wearing a modern day sweater. His thinning hair had streaks of grey in it. That was when she knew.

  “Paul!” she screamed out loud. As she tried to reach out to the top of his head, her hands were too far. She tried to jump but it seemed that she couldn’t launch herself. Her feet seemed to be stuck.

  “Paul!” Valerie said again. “It’s me! I’m here!”

  Paul Dane looked up at her briefly before turning away. He had been sitting on the edge of the cot. His arms were crossed over his chest. His face seemed expressionless, his body language had an uncaring sense about it. “Go away,” he said softly.

  Valerie was confused for a moment. “Why? What’s wrong, Paul?”

  Paul just stared out in the distance. “Elizabeth will be coming back soon. I have to wait for her here.”