My adversary was not kidding.
I didn’t know how serious was my situation.The surprise started a series of events. The following night would be filled with lots of surprises. And I was about to learn the real extension of the immense power I faced.
Right after the call, I contacted Sérgio. I wanted to share the awful news to plan our next move. I pressed the button and almost shouted inside the tiny media booth:
“Roger here. Calling Cel. Whult. Are you there Papa Bear?” I was in such a hurry I didn’t bother to use proper radio protocols. All I wanted was an answer and fast.
I waited, expecting a grumpy response because of the Goldilocks joke that didn’t come.
The device was silent.
I cursed my luck. It didn’t matter to me how busy the he was. I had to talk with him and before leaving for my meeting with our enemy. I raised the volume of the device to the max. The silence become a loud and intermittent static buzz.
“Roger calling Colonel Whult.” still ignoring the protocols, I added, “Come on, do you copy colonel? We need to talk. I have terrible news.”
I pressed the listen button and waited again. yet, nothing but static came out of the speaker.
Being a total control freak such as myself, I was about to punch the metallic panel in front of me.
If the call of our enemy was hard enough to accept then being unable to talk to Sérgio freaked me out. We needed a contingency plan before I visited my enemy’s lair. The invitation was a trap.
Why else would the evil mage reveal himself?
I called for Ramiro instead. I hoped the latino guard had information about the whereabouts of the colonel.
I called, waited, called again, waited and grunted. The sound of the damn static bothered me. His radio was also not working.
As a last resort, I made a general plea to the security team. Someone had to know about the whereabouts of the colonel or Ramiro:
“Roger calling security. Roger, I mean, detective Roger Soares. I am at the media booth in the Sports center. I need to speak to Colonel Whult now. Can anyone please pass the radio to him? He is not responding on his own.” I knew I was not following the right protocols but I couldn’t care less.
Useless. Another precious time lost for nothing. After a few more attempts I gave up. I put the device back on the table.
The radio looked back at me like a dumb old carcass. Our only means of communication stood there reduced to a paperweight.
It was not possible for an entire team to vanish like that. Or the enemy interfered with our communication; or the team already faced them and lost.
The second supposition made me tremble. Yet, it led me back to the call moments before with Monsignor Fernando’s words in the back of my mind:
“Come fast or every single one of your friends will suffer the consequences.”
The evil magician's warned me saying he gained the upper hand. His actions were obvious.
“Every single one of your friends...”
The bastard didn’t call to make an invitation; he wanted to brag, to show me how feeble my attempt to stop him was. The doctor was not the only one of my collaborators captured by him. They were at the mercy of that psychopath.
That led to a greater discovery: Luciano, and Thomas, were not the only ones working with the necromage.
Those words proved the existence of a vast new sect led by the black mage.
I suspected of an existing working force acting on behalf of my adversary before, because It was the logic assumption. The two young priests won’t ever be able to fulfill all the needed requirements by themselves. But, I didn’t know the extent of my enemy’s reach, and that was my biggest mistake. I underestimated his resources. He was a High Priest with power and connections, It would be easy for him to find people to aid in his wicked deeds.
You can always count on human greed and stupidity and that doesn't exclude the sacred places.
I thought I studied every angle of the situation to preview any initiative from my adversary.
And yet, I didn’t see that coming.
He isolated me from the team. And that was, I hate to admit, a master stroke.
It reminded me of the famous Friday the 13th. When the forces of King Phillipe of France obliterated the Templar Knights by a precise and simultaneous attack on every order’s base. They killed and arrested most members of the templar order in a single day.
Well, my enemy did the same with the security team and my collaborators in a matter or hours.
The only way to achieve that feat was by having his followers always closer to the teams. Infiltrated members inside security and the doctor’s staff.
Spies plotting right below our noses.
What could the necromage offer to a bunch of novices and priests to gain their confidence? A chance of immortality, the possibility of surviving the night?
If that was the case, my adversary was also cruel and a liar.
There was no way for the dimensional prisoner, hungering for a feast of souls for years, to spare anyone. A hundred years inside the prison was enough for the demonic thing to starve. My adversary knew this and counted on the creature’s famine. The one holding the knife during the sacrifice would have the power to subdue the creature. And would be the only one to survive after the ritual. All he had to do was to offer the souls of the entire school for a renewed immortality.
I had to think about the call from a fresh perspective.
Why, after a preemptive strike, he made a call revealing himself and forcing me to meet him face to face? Why would he call me after getting the upper hand? Why didn't he neutralize me, using his team before I knew what was happening? Was he after revenge?
No, that made little sense. It would be easier to kill me when I distracted myself, too focused on the case or worried about Vol. They had plenty of opportunities to do it after the Foliage attack in the principal building.
There was more to it, some other purpose. I knew He needed me alive. Why? What recent change made him also change his mind?
For starters: He didn’t count with Luciano’s artifice to survive. IInstead of Sarah, the use of a homunculus as a sacrifice disrupted the summon. The undead creature arrived without an anchor to our reality. With no bound between the Lich and his master.
In his state of decay all the creature wanted was to remain alive. No wonder it ignored their duties to prolong his own existence.
Yes, that was the reason.
Without the Lich, monsignor Antonio needed a better replacement to find the grimoire, I thought he had it, but if that was the case he would simply have us all killed.
He needed me alive to find the contract for him.
We both needed to find the acursed book during the last hours before the ritual.
It was a race. So, why not blackmail the adversary and make him do all the work?
What the necromage didn’t know was I already put someone to search for the book. The success of my plan relied on finding the sacred book before the ritual. Bayon, my Imp friend could track the amount of dark mana coming from the magic pages just like the Lich.
Yet, the terrible necromage cornered me so he could invalidate my plan. I didn’t know if he expected my move or not. But, In a single stroke, he isolated me from everyone I knew, and left me no other choice than showing up on his lair.
What was bad for me?
Going to his sanctum would render me unable to keep track of my game. It would be Impossible for me to know if my pieces were in the right positions.
I cursed the situation. Feeling angry and vulnerable.
For a psycho with no regard for human life, the old necromage proved to be a challenge. For the first time since the case began I understood his tremendous power. It tasted sour to recognize it, but I faced a brilliant foe.
As brilliant as me or more.
Monsignor Antonio Fernando, was not only a quasi-immortal opponent with magic powers. He proved to be an admirable adversary. Way beyond the brainless antagonists I used to confront. The cogs of an evil mind worked in the shadows for years planning that Amber Moon and its outcome.
I could see him like a giant spider spinning a sticky web to trap the flies. And what a hungry spider he was. A patient hunter waiting for the right moment to jump on the victims. To savour his victory by feasting on their flesh, while they were still alive.
To stay in the media both would be worse. So, I swallowed my pride and rushed to the metal stairs. I had to see by myself what happened with my mother and the girls. In a hope the mage was lying, or they left me a hint about what happened after I left.
I held my breath and advanced. Avoiding to look down in an effort to ignore my acrophobia, I climbed the stairs one step at a time.
Distracted by my worries I lost balance and almost rolled down. It was hard to keep focused instead of behaving like a madman. With my heartbeats behaving like a drum, while droplets of cold sweat went down my face.
But instead of stopping, a greater fear forced myself down.
When I reached the safety of ground level, I was so relieved I dared to jump the last metal steps.
I didn’t stop there. I crossed the field and rushed to the other side. A set of wide marble steps lead me to the underground corridor with the lockers and the small office. I ran down as fast as I could with my mind working non-stop.
I halted when I reached the door panting and almost breathless.
Inside the underground small office I examined every nook and corner of the local. There was no sign of struggle nor any evidence of kidnaping. Also, no evidence of use of magic.
On the walls the four sigils remained untouched.
I found a similar situation in the male and female lockers. Not a single clue to help me understand what happened.
The psychopath was telling the truth. He had my mother and my companions at his grasp. Either they got out the room themselves, or the enemies they faced were normal humans.
Frustrated and furious I moved back to the court.
I had no choice but to obey the necromage's instructions the way he dictated them.
Yet, there was no sign to suggest my plan failed. So, I went ahead, panting by the effort from before.
On ground level I felt my head spun and dizzy I almost collapsed to the floor. The stadium wrapped around me with its walls threatening to crush everything inside. In horror I saw myself trapped inside a gigantic leviathan belly. In an illusion where the giant dome was about to digest me and all the people inside. Transformed into an imaginary demonic beast. Filled to the rim with hundreds of innocent children and adults. People having fun in the court or in the benches unaware of the terrible fate awaiting them.
An illusion not far different from what expected me and all them if I failed.
Trembling at the sight, my legs shook and I forced my body against a nearby wall.
Something was not right with me. Did I overexert myself? Was I under the evil’s curse?
“Sorry to leave this inside your head, we depend on you, detective.”
I heard Luciano’s voice. Yet, the sound didn’t come from any direction; it was inside me.
I shook my head to fight the dizziness and regain focus. Yet, the sensation didn’t subside.
I had to calm down.
“If you are listening to this, it means I am dead, and you were the last person in contact with me. I hoped that would be the case.”
That was no ghost. It was a telepathic suggestion planted in my mind before he died. My adversary could never reach me from his lair.
And I knew ghosts can’t wander as free as they do in fiction.
I rested my back in one corner of the underground’s entrance. The voice continued to play:
“Did you forget your promise? Will you let fear win? Do not give up on your worries.”
He knew how small I felt when confronted with the responsibility to protect the lives in the school. The weight of that responsibility got me on the verge of collapsing. Luciano then encouraged me to understand and embrace the sensation of failure. To knew that losing a battle didn’t mean losing the war. To help me get out of the trance he made me review my terrible dream from before. I saw myself again, alone in a rain of blood surrounded by the decaying corpses of the people I failed to protect. It reminded me of the promise I made to myself. Never allow the school to become another unsolved mystery for generations to come.
I understood the fear of failing was nothing compared to the strength of that promise.
Luciano knew how a stubborn bastard I became when faced with the perspective of failure.
Monsignor Antonio’s move made me unable to see my hand, but despite the initial surprise, it was too soon to give up.
I thanked the dead novice for putting me on the right tracks again.
With my mind cleared and resolute to win I planned my next moves.
I had to gamble; I had to do what I do well: improvise.
So, I forbade myself to contact Voluptia.
I believed in my friends. Vol would do everything to assure the plan worked. Also, she was not alone. Sister Paula, besides her beliefs, proved to be a reliable and trustworthy asset to my team. They knew what to do to keep my adversary busy.
It was time to show my adversary the fly was in fact a wasp with a big sting.
He made a tremendous mistake when he menaced my friends. Big enough for me to seek retaliation.
I left the enormous building telling no one about my departure.
There was a van from the security team parked in front of the primary gate, as if waiting from someone. The driver’s seat was empty. I approached the vehicle and noticed that the keys were in the ignition. The two guards from before were nowhere close to the car.
I opened the front door of the van and took the wheel. With a twist of my wrist the car roared alive.
I rode to the necromage’s hidden sanctum in the catacombs below the church certain of going to a trap.
A few minutes later I approached the black silhouette of the old building. The sun hid behind the mountains giving the sky a grey aspect. The last rays of sunlight waved goodbye soon to give place to the dark mantle of the night.
And it would be a starry one, some faint dots of light showed up in the mountain view.
Another question popped into my mind. How they captured Vol and my mother while she was vigilant.
The answer was simple: they lured my friends by menacing those they cared about.
The same thing they did to lure me.
The alleged “house of God” transformed into a perverted place of destruction stood in front of me.
Death instead of hope awaited inside.
The door between the two tall dark gothic towers was wide open. There were no sentinels guarding the front of the church.
I approached the front door, it didn’t matter to sneak inside. Why would I do that since they knew I was there?
Light poured out of the church as if a ceremony was happening inside.
As soon as I entered the large aisle, a familiar figure moved in my direction to greet me.
Comments (1)
See all