The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell

by Douglas Howell

  “So, in other words the purpose of the soul is to believe in the religion?”

  “I guess. Your guess is as good as mine. So I really don’t know. I guess you would have to ask Vaistll if it means that.”

  “Naw. That’s all right. Please continue.”

  “Do humans practice some form of a monotheist religion?”

  “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “How was its founder inspired to come up with it?”

  “We have three of different versions of monotheism: Judaism, which came first; then Christianity, which was founded by a Jew; and finally Islam. All three of them were founded by a holy man who was in direct communion with God.”

  “That’s sounds much better than how the Hyyuk’ma religion was founded.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I don’t know how old the religion is. Problems with keeping time in my birth time period. Lack of interest on RMX. I do know it had to be between 50 to 70 generations old in Ydxx’od’omaa’s day. It was founded on the shore of Yynol’bkko. It was said that the founder of the religion was a king who lost his entire family in a storm. It was also said that out of grief he went into the desert to die. While he was in the desert, a storm came to torment him. Now… what you have to remember that to you it’s just a storm, but to him it was the gods.

  So there he was in the desert, it was raining, and the gods were tormenting him. I guess that’s where they got the saying of, ‘In the rain nobody can see you cry.’ Eventually the sun came out and chased away the storm clouds. Or should I say, the sun god came out to chase away the other gods. After that he had a divine revelation. He traveled to a nearby powerful king and gave him a proposition: if he, the powerful king and his people, convert to the new religion, then the founder of the Hyyuk’ma religion would give him his kingdom. And the founder would stay on as the high priest.”

  “Why WOULD people convert to it?”

  “Because it gave them hope and strength in the belief of a better tomorrow.”

  “Come again?” Parker started to show deeper curiosity when he heard that.

  “Do you know about something called dualism?”

  “Yes, it sees the universe in terms of opposites. Love-hate, good-evil and so on.”

  “Dualism was big in my birth time and before then. We had two very different types of moons. There were two very different types of sentient life forms on our planet. And of course,… there were two very different types of females. You can see why dualism influence the Hyyuk’ma religion.”

  “Yeah I got that. So how did it influence the religion?”

  “The God of creation had two sons, Salvation and Damnation. The two of them fought so much that the Creator God had to separate them. On our planet not in heaven. Being the outcast in the family, Damnation decided to hatch a plan to receive the love, respect and appreciation that he felt that he deserved. His plan was to assumed the identity of his brother and then to become the leader of the people. By ‘people’ I mean my species.”

  “Yeah I got that. So what happened next?”

  “At first Damnation was a good leader. One who was well like by the people. But eventually he changed, revealing his true colors. When Salvation learned of what his brother did, he promptly put a stop to it. Out of anger and revenge for being exposed, Damnation killed his brother. When the Creator God found out what happened, he demanded an answer. Damnation, both referring to himself and to the people, said something that summed up the incident. He said, ‘Did I not lift a finger?’

  With that, the Creator God decided to punish both the people and Damnation. With the people, he said that they are responsible for killing their own salvation. And therefore, they are responsible for all the evil in this world because of their pride. He then added that as punishment they will forever have to prove that they are worthy to enter into heaven by passing a test.

  With Damnation, he was turned into a curse of evil. He became Bulnik’no (bull-nick no), the Monster of Damnation. Forever to walk the universe to remind the people that their pride was more important to them then their own salvation. For the only way to kill him is to answer two questions. How can evil exist in a world filled with saints? How do you save salvation and damn damnation, when your pride killed salvation? And there are no more saints.”

  “Did he have any supernatural powers?”

  “No. He didn’t need any.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he had only one power that mattered - resurrection. The ability to rise from his ashes.”

  “Phoenix.”

  “A what?”

  “Phoenix was a mythological bird that consumed itself upon a funeral pyre and then rose from its ashes in Greek myth. Why would resurrection be considered more powerful than something like that of flying, invisibility, invulnerability, and so on?”

  “He first starts off as one form of evil such as rape. Then, when he is killed, he comes back as a new form of evil like that of murder. And if he is killed again, he may come back as alcoholism. Now find all the possible combinations between those three, which is six. Those combinations are the lesser evils. The ones that creates an ethical dilemma for people. Such as: what if you have a rapist who knows that what he does is wrong, so he becomes an alcoholic. Then one day he kills one of his victims. What the Hyyuk’ma religion is saying, is this: there is no ethical dilemma. Evil is evil. And those who are good would have sought help. If Bulnik’no, as a monster of alcoholism, rape, and murder, is killed one more time, then he would come back as a new form of evil. And thus,… there would be twenty-four lesser evils. Six times four, times five, times six, and so on. Now you can see why he doesn’t need any superpowers.”

  “Nice trick.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I once heard a Christian priest mention that the greatest trick that evil pulled was to convince people that it did not exist. But after hearing that about Bulnik’no, I would have to say that what those priests said is a load of bullshit. Because of what you said about Bulnik’no, that IS that greatest trick of them all. Case in point: you have a monster like Hitler who comes to power and becomes the savior of the German people. Hitler along with his allies forms the Axis powers, and began the conquest of Europe. But they fell. At the end of the war, the Allies learn that Hitler is responsible for genocide. All because of his intense hatred of the Jews. At war’s end, thirteen million people died in gas chambers because of Hitler, 55 million people died because of the war, and 30 million people are displaced. Four-out-of-five people died at the hands of the Axis powers. Why did so many people died? Because the Allies target the cities, while the Axis powers target the people.

  Hitler formed something called the Nazis party. And of course, at the end of the war the Nazis were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But sometime after that, the Nazis party was reborn as the Neo-Nazis. And the Neo-Nazis became far more powerful than the Nazis ever did. What made the Neo-Nazis so powerful was the fact that they were a non-state, and nobody had the political will to lock them up.

  The trick that I am referring to is this: evil convinces good people to do evil; which would, or should, call their salvation into question. And the only reason why their salvation is in question, is not because they were tricked, but because of their pride. Then they become responsible for the death of their own salvation. And then they have to watch evil become resurrected after it is killed. To become something far more stronger, and powerful than ever.”

  “Spoken like a true believer in the Hyyuk’ma religion.”

  “Okay… I now understand the religion very clearly now. So what did you learn about Natas Ovast?”

  “Do you know what this is?” She pointed to something that covered only the back part of her head.

  “Some type of a skull-cap perhaps.”

  “It’s actually part of my skull. There are four parts to it: the hard black part that covers the back of my skull; the black marks on the side of my neck and on b
oth sides of my head right above my ears; the red marks on the hard black part; and finally, the three small finger-like thorns on it.”

  “So what is it?”

  “Half-Wits and Apollinarians evolved from the same creature. With the Half-Wits being closer to what it looked like. The Half-Wit lemur stayed on the ground, while the Apollinarian lemur went into the trees. In order to survive its natural predator, the Apollinarian lemur evolved to look like this one reptile. The Half-Wit lemur on the other hand evolved to look like tree bark. The natural predator of the Apollinarian lemur eventually became smart enough to tell the difference between the lemur and the reptile. So the Apollinarian lemur had to become smart enough to evolve to learn the behavior of the reptile and then to mimic it.”

  “So how did the Apollinarians become the master race?”

  “Because the Apollinarian lemur had the ability to learn the behavior of other animals. That gave them an advantage over all other animals. At first they started to control the Half-Wit lemurs. By doing that it actually improved both species chances at survival. When the Apollinarians were a primate… the word chimpanzee comes to mind, but I don’t know what it is. Well anyway, when the Apollinarians became a primate, that is when they started to become a proto-master race. Once again it was another way for both species to survive.”

  “Why would that improve their chances at survival?”

  “Because of super-predators like that of the dragon.”

  “Did it breathe fire?”

  “No. It used sound waves.”

  “So how many super-predators preyed upon the Apollinarian primate?”

  “Eight of them. Three of them preyed upon the Half-Wits.”

  “So why did you bring up about that black thing on the back of your head?”

  “Because you can use it to identify which ethic group a person belongs to. With one ethic group the black marks on the neck covers enough of the neck to make it look like a collar. With another ethic group the size, shape, and color of the red marks are different than mine. With the thorns, which are not thorns but a form of very tough hair, there can be up to four of them. From most common to least common in the number of those so-called thorns are: two, four, three and finally one. With one it is very rare. The Iomiyyan people had three. And the Hau’rino people had two of them.”

  “So where did Natas come from?”

  “Since Colnynol spent his life traveling all around the Sea of Fire, he pretty much knew the people, the culture, and the places fairly well. And he could tell from Natas… well what you call a skull-cap… that Natas came from western Xiy’o’tlo.”

  “I thought people didn’t live there.”

  “Technically no. But on the southern part of Xiy’o’tlo, along the coast, they did. To the southeast of the Gates of Hell, in a natural harbor, there was a dual city-state called, Pytrol-Ketrl’nos (petrol ke-trol noose). Colnynol said that they should have, in their library, more information on Natas past. They knew Colnynol and had a very good relationship with him. Colnynol gave me a royal letter with his seal upon it, an emissary, and a few men.”

  “Why did you need the extra men?”

  “Because of the tribes in the area. When I got there, this is what I learn about Natas. First, are you familiar with the story about the Noble Warriors?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well… that saves some time… doesn’t it?” She said. Parker didn’t say anything, he only smiled.

  Iakuoyr continued on. “Natas ancestors were the Elders of the Profane. He may have been of royal descent, and/or, had a high priest as an ancestor. When the Noble Warriors, of which their leader was an Iomiyyan, destroyed them, the Elders of the Profane left and went to Xiy’o’tlo. They then settled in the region of the Gates of Hell.”

  “Why in the universe would they do a dumb thing like that?”

  “Because of their religion.”

  “How’s that?”

  “It all goes back to the Hyyuk’ma religion, and the denominations of the religion. With the Sunez denomination, they were far more orthodox and they were the first believers. They typically practiced on the continent of Yynol’bkko and had a small group in Iomiyya. With the Tvv’y’lik denomination they practiced only in Iraxxan and were associated with groups that the Iomiyyan people dislike. They were more inclusive, traditional, populist, organic, and rights-oriented. With the Mea Kryysti sect they typically practiced on the eastern coast of Iraxxan and along the Sea of Fire. Because of their religious beliefs they were far more misunderstood. And in some cases hated by all.”

  “What did they believe in that could make them so hated?”

  “They had the belief that the Creator God would never create anything that was truly, or purely, evil. That everything, including evil, must exist for a higher reason. What is good without evil? What is evil without good? The existence of good and evil gives us both morals and ethics. They had no fear of evil things. They prefer to understand evil than to fear it. They were looking for the higher purpose of bad things. They were rationalists.”

  “Why would people be afraid of rationalists? What… were they questioning the divine? Like calling an act of God, an act of Nature?”

  “Well there’s that. But since they did not fear things that other people did, like western Xiy’o’tlo, they had no problems in living there. It was there that they found that stone with the properties of a crystal. They mined it and used it as the façade in the building of the castle in that story about the Noble Warriors. When they settled on the eastern shore of Iraxxan, that is when people learned that these newcomers came from Xiy’o’tlo. The only reason why they went there is because Xiy’o’tlo could no longer support their existence. But the Iraxxan people didn’t, and/or, wouldn’t believe that. There was a story that said that a long time ago darkness, and the bitter cold, came from Xiy’o’tlo. Of course, it was a volcano, but the people of Iraxxan didn’t know that. To them it was hell tormenting them again.”

  “So in other words, the people of Iraxxan basically believe that the Mea Kryysti sect were the legions of hell and damnation. And that is why the Noble Warriors went to destroy the castle that the Mea Kryysti sect built.”

  “You got it. But luckily, for the Mea Kryysti sect, the people of Pytrol-Ketrl’nos kept it alive well into Ydxx’od’omaa’s day. Here is a very interesting side note: in General Ydxx’od’omaa’s day there was a controversial theory that said that Zell’tlaxx was a Mea Kryysti believer.”

  “What about the people of the Hau’rino Empire and the Republic of Kase’hyn’nkk? Did they practice either one of the denomination of the Hyyuk’ma religion?”

  “The people of Kase’hyn’nkk practice the Tvv’y’lik denomination and the Hau’rino people was Tom’nk’toos (tom nick too-s). Tom’nk’toos is a combination of both ancestral worship and a new philosophical religion that was influence by the Mea Kryysti sect. That new religion was founded on Waldaxx, either 1000-to-1500 years before Ydxx’od’omaa’s day.”

  “So why would the Mea Kryysti sect be the reason why Natas ancestors would settled near the Gates of Hell?” Parker was visibly tired by this point in time.

  “In a word: hatred. They turned to the dark side. To black magic. Deeply angered by the fact that ignorant people misunderstood them. Then to be destroyed by those who value knowledge… but not theirs. It drove them over the edge. Into the hands of evil. They wanted to create Bulnik’no. And they wanted Natas to become Bulnik’no.”

  “So what did they do?”

  “I could tell you later if you don’t mind. I mean… I can tell that you are very tired and I don’t want to keep you awake too long.”

  Parker, with a smile said. “Naw. I’m good to go. Besides, you sparked my curiosity. I wanted to hear the rest. I got a lot to do later in the day so I can’t afford to sleep right yet.”

  “Aw you poor thing.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Please continue on.”

  “Well if you insist. I learn this part w
hen I got to where he was born at. Apparently, Natas’ double-great grandfather was a high priest who founded that community. Or it could have been his triple-great grandfather who did. He chose that location because of a rare celestial event that would occur on 17th of October of when he hoped Natas would be born. Do you humans believe that ghost come out on Halloween?”

  “A long time ago, perhaps two thousand years ago, we did.”

  “What about on the 17th, of October?”

  “No it’s just another day to us. Why? What’s so special about that day?”

  “Apollinarian pagans always believe that, on that day curses and…. What is Murphy’s Law? It just popped into my head.”

  “It’s the belief that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

  “That’s it. On the 17th, of October curses and Murphy’s Law is born. It is believed that evil hopes that within the two weeks before Halloween, goodness could be stop, or at least slow down by either, a curse or by Murphy’s Law. On that day it is strongly suggested that people do all of their purifications. If not, then evil will become stronger. And something bad may happen.

  Last night when I found out that Vaistll’s mission on Golden Hyperion will occur on that day, I decided to look at human history to see what it says.”

  “So what did you learn?”

  “First we need to look at the number nine in the sense of numerology. What humans say about it is much different than what we said about it. Both humans and Apollinarians believe that it represents the end of things. But to us it is also represents arrogance since all numbers can be summed up to a nine. It also is believed that under certain conditions the number nine is evil. Especially when it comes in pairs of three.”

  “It’s funny that you should mention that because in the Christian belief, six-six-six is an evil number. And if you flip it upside down you get nine-nine-nine.”