The Madness at Koresh Manor Part 14

Raphael could see the wall of the stomach somewhere be on the edge of the forest, but the more he tried to reach it, the more it seems to move away from him. He stopped only for a moment placing his hand against the tree trying to keep the metal around his body. He was getting tried, well, tried was an hour ago, now he was exasperated to new limits. He stared at the wall of the monster’s body fearing his body was about to be eaten by the acid around him. He could make to the edge to climb up the wall and then hope he could Rain find the sword he gave him after he died from pure exhaustion. Dead on the ground somewhere back behind him being dissolved into nothingness. He thought about sitting down beside the white tree closing his eyes and letting the end take him.

                It wouldn’t be so bad, he told himself.

                It would be a quick end, and he wouldn’t have to face his family anymore. He wouldn’t have to face this life anymore and most of all the lie. He sighed looking up hoping to find the hole in the stomach but couldn’t, maybe giving up was the best thing to do right now.

                But something told him not. Now wasn’t the time to quietly walk into the dark. He was a fighter, Talons were fighters. He had to keep moving, to keep trying until every bit of his energy was brunt away.

                He started moving against hearing somewhere in the woods the soft crying sound of a man. It was the first human sound he heard outside of Rain’s voice. He ran toward it hoping he could find the person and hoping it wasn’t monster playing a trick on him. He doubted it was because how many humans were roaming around in this crazy forest? It couldn’t be that many.

                The crying was from a man balled up on the ground, and to Raphael’s shock, it was Cyrus crying. He stood over the ghostly gray man wondering what to do and how he got here? He started to ask a question, but Cyrus lifted his head to see the armored figure of Raphael. The cult leader was shocked a little to see him but didn’t run or hide. “You’re a demon?” He asked.

                “No, I am not,” Raphael said. “How are you here?”

                “I don’t know,” he said. “My false god must have trapped my soul and �" “he started to weep,” I have doomed my people. I have killed the world.”

                “Hey, stay with me,” he told him. “They are not dead yet. You can help me save them.”

                “How?”

                “I need to find a way to his heart,” Raphael said showing the sword, “and you know, put this inside it.”

                “I can’t,” he said. “There is no way to stop the end from coming.”

                “Come on Cyrus,” Raphael huffed, “look around you. This is not normal, so that means there is a way to stop it. If you help me, then you can set right all the wrongs and maybe, you can ask God forgiveness.”

                He looked at him. “All I ever wanted to do was bring people to God.”

                “Then don’t send them to this Hell,” Raphael said. The man stared at the ground for a moment and then slowly rose to his feet. He tried his best to look strong by popping his chest out and squaring his shoulders, but the weight of his actions hung on him like unseen chains.

                “You are right,” He said. He closed his eyes. “Maybe, I summon portal. I have been practicing for years to do so. It’s how this thing found me.” He breath deep looking up to pray for the help and the power to cast the spell.

                He shot his eyes open looking dead at Raphael. “Forgive me,” He said before a circle opens in his chest pushing his body out into a ring. Cyrus screamed in agony for only a second before his voice was ripped from his throat and a ring large enough for Raphael to walk in to stand in place of Cyrus.

                Raphael held his breath not sure what to say to the ring and wasn’t sure how long the portal would stand open. He dashed into the blue light hoping it wasn’t about to cut him in half or send him to another kind of Hell.

When he opens his eyes, he stood in a stone room like a Greek temple with a black hulk of a heart beating in the middle of it. The low drumming of the heart echoed off the stone of the temple like thunder rolling in the clouds miles away.

He stepped closer the heart holding the sword in his hand wondering if stabbing it anywhere would work. When a cold voice spoke from the shadows. “A man.”

Raphael turns to the voice seeing a tall man in white robes with a full Greek mask on standing there. He didn’t say anything as the men stepped closer to him. “A Talon.”

“Who are you?” Raphael asked.

“Just a man wandering through,” he said.

“Taking a stroll through a monster’s heart temple, thingy,” Raphael mocked. “A normal Tuesday for you.”

The man or thing chuckled a little. “It’s not Tuesday.”

“Right,” he said pointing the end of the sword at him.

“That will not kill me,” the thing or the devil said.

“I wouldn’t mind finding out,” Raphael told him.

“You don’t have the power to kill me, not to add you are barely holding your armor together,” he said, and Raphael cursed everything because he was right. “But how about I make a deal with you?”

“A deal?”

“Yes, I take all those nasty memories for your mother from your mind, and you let my child live,” he said. “That sounds like a fair deal, right?”

Raphael glanced back at the black heart and then over to the man. What would it be like to have all those memories removed from his mind? It would be great. He could go back to living the life before he found out his mother was an assassin, the world’s greatest assassin in fact. But at what cost? To let this Lesser One lived meant another man like Cyrus would dead in vain and his sacrifice would mean nothing.

Raphael looked back at the man and said, “Nah, you are just too weird for me.” And then with all his fading might, he thrust the blade into the black heart. The heart tremble one last time as Raphael watched dipping into the blackness of unconsciousness and his armor rushing back into the space rocks in his skin.