From above him, Rob heard a loud groan, looking up he called out. “What is the matter my Lord, did you bet on the wrong contestant.”
With a look of contempt at the sky, and ignoring the pain and his injuries, Rob left the fallen giant, and, constantly on his guard against another attack, headed towards the mountain range. No further attack was made against him, and after an hour of walking, with every step reminding him of his wound, he heard a loud noise coming from behind him. Unnoticed until now, a large sand storm had been creeping up on him, Rob let out a groan on seeing it, and he increased his speed, fighting against the increase in pain caused by the additional strain he was now putting on his injured ribs.
The outer edges of the storm finally reached him just as he in turn reached the edge of a high cliff, and there on the ground below he could see the fortress, about thirty minutes’ walk away, after the stiff climb down the cliff face. Because of his injuries Rob did not relish the climb down just now, however, he knew that to delay his descent any longer meant death by sand storm. It was now that he sighted an extremely old and partially destroyed fortress showing through the stinging sand, and it was sitting on the very edge of the cliff, and it was only a few hundred feet away from him, and further along the cliff top. With his head buried within his jacket, Rob hastened towards the fortress, the pain in his body no longer noticeable quite so much because of that caused by the stinging sand. He finally reached the fortress wall; here he was able to shelter behind it, out of the stinging sand that felt as if it had found its way into every crevice of his clothes and body. Rob looked down the length of the wall of the crumbling edifice, seeking sanctuary within the fortress, and there, just a few feet further on, was an open doorway. Rushing inside he found the ceiling was still intact, only the roaring of the storm now told him of its malevolent presence.
Walking further into the crumbling fortress Rob saw that the walls still held a number of fading pictures that told stories of the long distant past. The first related undoubtedly to the Dreamscape, it showed a man standing before an altar, undoubtedly a Satanist, or maybe a doctor, he was mixing a potion of some kind. Further along the wall the painting showed the man crouching down, his face showing fear, and then it portrayed the same man as a shade, still dressed as before. In the final part of the picture, the shade had all but disappeared, when all his life-force had been drained by Lord Asbaritch, who also appeared in this part of the picture.
The picture on the second wall showed dead souls being led through one of the many doors painted upon the wall. Each person, when alive, had committed a different crime, and each was to receive an appropriate punishment.
The last picture in the Great Hall showed what Rob thought could only be Tartarus, it showed the most malignant of souls, their forms twisted and distorted, being led through another door, and they were greeted by the most terrifying demons that Rob could only hope not to meet.
Rob sank down to rest his weary body, and for half an hour was able to doze, he suddenly woke up with a start, then he realised why, all was so very quiet, the sand storm had finally abated. Rob left the shelter of the old fortress and hurried, as quickly as his ribs would allow him, to the cliff top, for to delay would invite another of the local denizens to launch an attack upon him. In his current state of health he could not afford to encounter too many of them without the creatures weakening him so much as to endanger his quest, which was of course, to rescue Christina, and to secure the Key of Tartarus.
The rock face that Rob had to climb down was in no better state than the rest of this terrible land, some of the rocks crumbling at his touch, but with no other option, he started down. The rock beneath his feet crumbled now, it was as he put all of his weight upon it, and he slid painfully down before coming to a stop on a wide ledge. He cried out in agony but forced himself to continue the climb down the hill, sliding down the hill yet again, and coming to a rest upon a second ledge, this time he stopped for ten minutes, while his body stopped torturing him. Finally, though he made it to the bottom, scratched, dirty, and almost exhausted, he wondered how, in spirit form, his body could hurt so much, but he was too tired to ponder the problem, and so he gave it up. Instead, he sat on a large rock and rested for a full five minutes before standing up, but even this simple action hurt his chest, and stopped him from moving off until the pain abated. When his pulse rate came back down to normal levels, and his strength back up to somewhere near to its normal level, he walked towards the fortress, although whether his body would permit him to use it to defend himself was another thing. Now the going was easy, over flat ground that seemed drained of anything living, he could have done with a cool drink of water, however, this was something that the Dreamscape lacked, and no amount of imagination could produce even a drop. The way forward was devoid of any living or undead being, not even a Shade or two to cause him a problem, and this surprised him.
Shades had once been human beings, but evil ones such as the Satanists who were currently causing him so much trouble. They had all lived a grand life on Earth, but with their deaths, they had been sent to this land to be preyed upon by Lord Asbaritch, who fed upon their life-force. As Lord Asbaritch did so, the bodies of the Shades dimmed, becoming more transparent the longer they lived in this terrible land, although of course they were not alive, no, they just existed to be tortured, and as nothing more than pale tragic looking ghosts.
The first time that Rob had seen the vaporous creatures, Rob had named them Shades, a name he took out of Greek mythology, what their exact terminology was he did not know. They were not comical or piteous figures though, if they once caught a hold of him, such a massive number of Shades that lived in this land would soon drain him of his life force, and he would quickly die, for the Shades were vampires, albeit ones with little or no prey to feed upon.
With his body aching, he finally approached the massive fortress of Lord Asbaritch, however, this time the fortress was guarded, and by a great many guards. He heard a low murmuring sound coming from them well before he reached the walls of the fortress; it was the inhabitants of this land. The Shades were moaning about their lack of energy, for the land supplied them with absolutely nothing to live off, to feed off, and Lord Asbaritch had positioned them all around the fortress. Upon catching sight of him, they began to hobble towards him, and a bestial cry came from their vaporous forms as they sighted something to feed off at last. Rob came to a halt, this attempt by Lord Asbaritch, to keep Rob out, was pathetic, as Rob knew of a way to get through the vampire Shades without any risk to himself. His friend Father Pritchard had used the Lord’s Prayer last time to great effect, and Rob decided to try it before using a more violent means, and perhaps more painful to his body, to get passed them.
“Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed is thy name.” Immediately the creatures began to look fearfully at him, their progress faltering. Rob seeing the reaction of the Shades carried on with the prayer, only now he belted it out.
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
The creatures now came to a stop en masse, and then they covered their tiny ears against the words of the prayer that seemed to scare them so much. Rob continued with his prayer, feeling more confident with every word, it was as if God himself was taking sides in this opening skirmish.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”
However, instead of running away, as he had hoped they would do, they simply moved back against the walls of the fortress, finally coming to a halt when they could no longer retreat any further. Rob sank down to the floor and looked at them as they, emboldened by his inactivity, began to edge towards him again. Rob could see that he had only seconds to come up with a new plan.
‘Ok, let`s imagine something that will take these creatures away from me, an
d away from the fortress.’ Rob said quietly to himself.
He then imagined a flock of sheep far to his left, and all moving slowly away from him. The flock of sheep began to form to the far side of the Shades, the bodies of the animals materialising into a stable form as Rob concentrated even more on them, and this took more than a moment because of the number of sheep that he needed to make his plan work. Their bleating came to the ears of the Shades, who now stopped edging towards Rob and began to hobble towards the sheep, as they in turn began to move away from the Shades.
As soon as all of the Shades had moved far enough away from the closed gates, Rob hurried towards the fortress as fast as his pain-wracked body would allow, and once again reciting the lord`s prayer, just in case any more Shades appeared. He had to be through the gates before the Shades returned, or Lord Asbaritch made an appearance, however, on reaching them he found that the gates to the fortress were closed. Therefore, he tried to imagine an open door set within the gates, but still to no avail, for some reason his imagination did not work on things that already existed. He then imagined a long ladder set up against the walls of the fortress, and this did work, and he was soon sitting on top of the fortress wall, although the repeated exercise was causing his cracked ribs to complain by sending fresh bouts of pain through his body. There before him was a stone flight of stairs leading down into a large empty courtyard. He hobbled down the stairs, now knowing how the Shades felt, and crossed the courtyard, he then passed through the ever-open door set within the cyclopean walls of the inner fortress, to find himself in a large entrance hall. It resembled the scene from a Hollywood picture, stairs led up to the upper levels and a pair of large doors led further into the fortress on the ground level. It was much cooler within the walls of the fortress; thankfully, about the same temperature as his apartment, and at the moment no further enemy had appeared.
‘What I need is a light to show me the way to Christina, and then to the Key of Tartarus.’ Rob said wistfully. Instantly a small firefly appeared and hurried off in front of him. ‘Surely not.’ Rob said as he hurried after the firefly.
**********
Lord Asbaritch had been covertly following Rob, and now he had discovered why the Satanists had sent Rob to the Dreamscape. ‘The fools want to enter the dimension that imprisons the first gods and demons; obviously one of them has read the ancient book full of fairy tales telling them of the Key of Tartarus, and how it would take them to Tartarus.’ Lord Asbaritch said to himself. ‘What could be of such interest to them in such a deadly dimension? Of course the golden Ark of Baʿal Berith.’
**********
The firefly led Rob down a staircase that descended down into the depths of the fortress; he slowly followed it until he came to a large cavernous room. Here, ghostly figures were appearing out of thin air, they crossed the room, moans following their progress, until they came to a large archway set into the wall on the far side of the room. They walked through the archway and down a long tunnel that led away from it; the tunnel was illuminated by a dim red light emanating from the far end of the tunnel, which flickered, making weird shadows along it walls. Screams came from the other end of the tunnel, and a terrible smell of sulphur drifted out of it filling the large room in which he stood, but strangely not moving upwards to the remainder of the fortress. ‘Surely Christina could not be imprisoned in there, is it the Key of Tartarus that is somewhere inside the tunnel?’ Rob wondered anxiously. ‘This is where the firefly has led me.’
He stood there for a moment looking at the continuous line of spectres walking towards the tunnel, unsure what he should do. Before he could come to a decision, a pillar of red evil smelling smoke appeared before Rob, it was between him and the tunnel, and Rob shivered as the temperature within the room dropped rapidly, and he watched fearfully as an apparition of Lord Asbaritch slowly formed before him.
“Good morning Rob Hinds, you and I need to talk, well actually I need to give you some very important information, and it is important Rob Hinds, to your very soul.” Lord Asbaritch began.
“And why do you think that I would ever believe anything that you told me?” Rob replied quizzically. “All I need to do is to enter the tunnel and the Key is mine for the taking.” Rob boasted, although he was unsure if it would be that easy.
“That is entirely up to you; however if all you wish to do is to experience torment for eternity, then why not remain here in my dimension.” Lord Asbaritch sneered. “Human, I could strike you down where you stand, finish what the Cyclops began, do not think that because I have not done so, that I could not do it, and so very easily.” Lord Asbaritch roared angrily. “However, I have grown fond of you Human, so listen while I tell you what the Satanist Moira has planned, and how she intended to use the Key of Tartarus.” Lord Asbaritch said, angry that a mere mortal should doubt the words of one so powerful as he, and Rob noting what had been said decided to hear the demon lord out, as if he had much of a choice anyway.
“She needed the Key to enter a dimension set aside by the most powerful of all the lords, the one that you call God. Within the dimension, the first gods and demons were imprisoned for all time, thankfully, for they were so evil that even the most terrible Lord Lucifer is terrified of them.” Lord Asbaritch said, his voice for once showing signs of dread.
“The Key of Tartarus was created by your god as a lure to tempt the first gods and demons into a trap, and it was in the form of an old oil lamp, the same as the one in the Satanist`s book. They followed it thinking that they could acquire even more power, if they could possess the Key, in that they were very mistaken. Its scent drew them to Tartarus, and when they entered, it activated the field of energy that keeps them there to this day. This scent was made from the very essence of the first gods and demons, the total of all their evil emanated from it, and it is still the most evil artefact in existence.” Lord Asbaritch said in awe of the Key.
“The Key still emits this evil scent, and it has the power to influence anyone who remains in its vicinity, its power is so strong that your God could not keep it within his own domain, for your God feared that the very souls of those within his domain would be contaminated by it. Therefore, he put the entrance to Tartarus in my domain, and the Key is the entrance. It is not a small satanic artefact but a massive doorway. Moira and her friends are very mistaken in that, as other Satanists have been so many times before them.” Lord Asbaritch sneered.
“You have a hard choice human, take as long as you need to come to a decision, the longer the better, either you can enter the tunnel or stay here with me, but beware, for once you are inside of the tunnel you must continue on to Tartarus.” The apparition of Lord Asbaritch now faded away leaving a very troubled Rob to ponder on everything that he had just heard.
Someone had once said that there is always a solution to any problem, Rob just wished that the jerk were here with him to prove it, or to keep him company in hell. However, an answer sprang into his mind almost instantly, and this disturbed him, however, he had no choice other than to try it.
“Lord Asbaritch, I have another solution to our problem, hear me out.” Rob called loudly, his voice echoing within the small room.
“I am seated upon my throne, come up and join me Rob Hinds, for I dislike being so near to Tartarus.” Lord Asbaritch replied and shivered at the very thought of the hell dimension.
Rob hobbled up the stone flight of stairs, through the huge double doors, which were now open, and into a massive central hall. Rob was reminded of Hollywood as he looked at the faded grandeur around him. There in front of him, sitting on a massive throne, was the great beast, Lord Asbaritch. Rob walked forward and gave his counter proposal.
“Could you not release Christina and myself, allow us to return to our dimension with a fake Key of Tartarus, one that would allow me to save young Cassie, and send Moira to hell, which is where she desires to go?”
“Why would I want to aid you, Human, even if I could. Alas I am forbidden to willingly release
ones from within the Dreamscape, by Lord Lucifer no less, unless they find a way to coerce me, as you did the last time that you enjoyed a visit to my domain.” Lord Asbaritch said. “For while I have a power of my own which allows me to rule within my domain, and to travel into your one, I draw some of my powers from a pulsating mass of matter put here by Lord Lucifer himself. Unfortunately, it has grown into a sentient life-force, one that I find it ever more difficult to control. This is partly why you were able to overcome me so easily on your last trip, it has a developed a mind of its own that we must both be mindful of, for it is possible that its true purpose might not coincide with either of our own.” Lord Asbaritch warned, now almost human.
The Satanists Page 6
