Awaking three Kings (Finale)

Caught by torchlight I held myself at the lip of a stairwell questioning whether or not to descend. Stone jutted out of everywhere, in most irregular of shapes, prisms with sharp uneven edges from the ceiling, non-euclidian squares piercing up from the floor and other amorphous craggy shapes jettisoned out from all the other places. The longer I waited at the entrance the more the stairwell seemed to warp as if it was moving around and changing in some way. With a strong sigh and a hard swallow, I pushed forward. But it wasn’t as if I wanted to. It was like I was Compelled to by something….some unfathomable transcendental force like the hand of God hovering above playing pretend with his toys and woo lucky me my limbs just so happened to get picked to be manhandled, jostled, and moved around without my knowledge. I started down the craggy steps one step after miserable step. Every step on bringing me closer to the thing at the bottom. The demon at the bottom of the well, a monstrous zealot, blood starved from martyrdom, and unfortunately my boss. Gods the thought of even seeing let alone smelling him, my nose twitched and my body tensed. Nausea soon set in, the pain unbearable, as if my own stomach was fighting a war against itself and losing. Finally, after a battle it happened, my contents escaped, doubling over I puked. Coming out of me in voluminous quantity, ranging in color and particulates it didn’t ease the fact I would have to sit down with that thing once again. I looked back up the stairwell and down to where I was in proportion to the bottom of the endless dark well. Trudging forward, amorphous stones from before returned and both with a vengeance and with multiple friends. Now the craggy stones had multiplied. Jutting out from everywhere meeting in the middle and crossing like the swords of soldiers during a salute. Looking down it caught my eye, it being a small barely noticeable crawlspace created by the inter-mingling stones. It was if the stones were taunting me. Walking towards the crawl space, my heartbeat began to ring in my ears. First nothing more than a small pulse, badum, badum, badum. Like the murmurings of a maddened raven. Bending down my knees meeting the ground I soon placed my hands out in front of me. Crawling my once quiet heartbeat began to grow ever louder. Badum, Badum, Badum. Growing ever stronger every second I spent down on the cold ground. The Otherside of the crawlspace met me with only darkness, my torch could do nothing against such impenetrable darkness. From behind came a voice, a whisper, a voice I could faintly make out. Like that of a distant conversation.

“Oi Ro…...Roxas” The voice was raspy, soft, and felt like nails on a chalkboard to listen to. Yet I proceeded onward anyway as if They wanted me to meet them at the bottom. Down the new flight ahead of me, left paw, right paw. Down, down down.

“Hey….Roxas you still re…...eading that one book?” The voice grew louder, it was as hoarse as ever and it was unmistakable similar. Something in my mind began to simmer and come to life as a myriad of emotions old and newly found flooded into my brain. But the voice while it sounded similar it also sounded off, as if it was run through a sieve and all that remained was the few bits and pieces of a voice it could mimic. “It wasn’t speaking” I thought “It’s just mimicking, probably just the wind” I asserted however the more I walked down the third flight of stairs, the more the horrifying noiselessness became clear. There wasn’t any wind. Whatsoever. It was just a silent corridor leading to a landing. Step after grueling step I pressed onward. The landing just before me and beyond that, I could see by Jove! A lit hallway decorated with torches. However, as I drew close, that voice came back. A chill running down my back, as if it was breathing down my spine.

“Why did you abandon me, Roxas?” It spoke clearer than a day without rain and the chill gripped my shoulder. Refusing to let go. There I stood at the mercy of this “voice” this unmistakable voice.

No no no no no!!!! It….gods why? Mikolash why must you haunt me. Turning around to face the chilling voice. The sight alone would have driven lesser man mad.

A rotting skull, skin draping it like a wedding veil barely working to keep the bone underneath hidden. Maggots small yellow foul creatures danced a sickening number in, around, and even on top of the loose yellow flesh. Crimson, like wine paired with a meal. The color red painted the flesh and all too visible skull. Splattered on the eyes, cheeks, and on the cranium. Running down like tears and dripping to the ground. As its jaw hung open a more petrifying scene appeared to me. A mouth torn in a civil war between decay, rotting flesh, and blood-stained bone. All accompanied by flies festering, mating, and making a home in the flesh. Maggots burrowed their way into the cheeks and even through the bone. Small holes, were all over. It was abundantly obvious that this thing had been dead for too long.

The bone itself a skull maligned and necrotiesed with portions and sections missing. As if the skull had been surgically cut into and dissected with extreme percisun. More maggot holes riddled the skull more so than the loose flesh itself. Then the cadaver lurched forward. Its dead and empty eyesockets meeting my own. My heartbeat echoed in my ears yet again.

Louder than it ever was, BADUM! BADUM! BADUM!! Taking a step back my mouth curled into a grimace as all I could possibly understand was the debilitating scent, Picture this.

Imagine the scent of a rotting corpse. Pretty bad amirite? It has nothing on whatever or whoever this thing is or was. A scent that I could only fathom as a blend of feces, malice in human form and the smell of a mass grave. And it wasn’t stationary. The scent and the body it wafted off of followed me like a trained bloodhound. Every step I would make the body would follow. All the while maintaining unbreakable eye contact. With a shrill ghastly scream that escaped from deep within my being, I backed down turning my back and fleeing my tail between my legs. While fleeing like a blithering fool I hadn’t noticed that my foot had been had been misplaced. My body tumbled forward and the world spun around me as I fell down the stairwell. Hand went over head and legs crossed all happening in less than an instant all as I tumbled down. Steps came and went slamming into both my arms and legs. Then it stopped, I was safe on the landing. Soft amber light from a hung torch guided from a position none too far away. All the while a soft. Tap tap tap came down from wence I came.

“Rox!” the voice was further away and yet it felt as if it was in my face. So close to my face in fact that I could swear I felt the breath on my muzzle. From the landing was it, the final stretch one final case before meeting his face. Badum badum badum badum baaddduuuum! My heart raced a mile a minute. My hands shook as I reached them out feeling around in the darkness. With each step, I took towards the ever-present abysmal black depths felt as though I was only walking mere inches. My legs, MY legs were shaking, quaking harder than ever had before. Every breath felt heavy and labored as I took a step my very lungs shook with terror. One step, then another I slowly made my way down. One step at a time. Another halt in my progress came, a large wall suddenly appeared in my path. Bumping into I forcibly made an about face and turned towards the ever crawling darkness. The impermeadble marsh of inky blackness that stood in front of me.

Turning left I made my way down a long hallway, cold and chilling it lead downwarrds. Not in the way you’d expect, especially my chronically of my journey down to the Master. But it lead downwards by a long slanted slope. Unpaved and flooded with smal stones, no defined bottom at the end just a long slant that lead further down to the mouth of a hungry waiting void. Planting my paws down and pushing forward down, down and even further still I went down. At the bottom awaited me a small well lit stone hallway adorned with paintings and other such things. Gruesome paintings of people burning tied to crosses as the world erupted into chaos around them. Others depicted scenes of people being torn apart limb from limb, faces contorting into that of sheer divine mortality as they cried out to a God that wouldn’t listen. All the while their tormentor smiled amicably. Passing by these paintings one recurring element became clear to me. A certain tall looming shadow that hung around in the back of the portarits. Its mouth agape. Large mitre titled to the side and hands limp hanging to the side. All the while its eyes seemed to follow me as I walked. Even from the furthest corner of any painting I could feel those eyes, those sickening eyes burn into my skull. At the end of the hallway was a small door. However next to it was a painting of a man being executed. Hung upside down and all the while that same pope figure stared at me. Its eyes meeting mine and I swear I saw it blink. Grabbing the doorknob I threw open the door and pushed myself through it faster than I could think. There I saw it, one final stairwell carved from unpolished stone. Multiple large chunks of rock laid in a spiral descending dowarnds. All the while an overt malice hung in the air like a stench. Catching myself on the jagged wall as my legs shook I gazed down at the endless bottom of darkness. Taking a second to catch my breath I paused. Without thinking I threw my torch at the bottom of the stairs. It bounced here and there against the stairs and landed at the bottom. Making a loud thud as it did. However as I looked down only a soft orange light pierced through the darkness. Taking a step forward I begrudnly continued my descent.

The cold stone steps beneath my paws were a feeling I wish I could forget. As I continued downward I couldn’t help but cringe and grimace as my heart caught in my throat. The orange glow grew closer and closer and finally I was upon it. The ground was warm, oddly so. The moment I grabbed my torch a series of unlit torches hung on the wall. Burst into flames, all in a row leading down a small passage with a large stone door on the end.

From the stone archway, the air began to chill. Hanging off the walls and slowly walking towards me with a menacing aura. As the harsh frozen air, brushed past even under my thick coat the chill sliced into my flesh. Shivers ran into my body, the urge to run away growing stronger and stronger.

“I didn’t wanna see that face again” I told myself as I pushed forward. “And I doubt it wants to see me again either” I joked with a noticeable shakyness in my inflection. Walking to the otherside of the corridor, the torches behind me began to fade. One by one. All twelve like months of the year passing away before we realize. Before stood a large door. However this wasn’t an average door. No this was a door that stood from ceiling to floor. Chains around the handle and a lock that connected only to the outside. This door was meant to keep him inside. With a tug of the handle, I went inside. There an immaculate chamber revealed itself to me. Velvet carpeting, silk curtains hanging from the ceiling. An opulent bed in the middle of the room. At the far end of the large chamber was a throne. A throne with a large skull-shaped ornament carved into it. Atop the throne sat a large man. His frame huddled on the throne, one leg brought to his chest while one hung off. His hand was brought to his chin. All the while he sat there observing me with cold scrutiny
“Roxas, it is good to see you again” spoke the Cardinal from atop his throne. “So how was the trek down?”

“Just peachy boss”

“I’m thrilled” his tone lifted only slightly but his seating didn’t budge. “Did you eliminate Jean?”

“Pfft Nah didn’t even run into the bastard”
“Shame, a shame it truly is that he would abandon the flock….anyway Roxas I have a reason for calling you down here after all” The Cardinal suddenly leaned forward. His hands interlocked and he gazed at me with from what little I could gather a puzzled expression. “I have a proposition for you….or well an offer I should say”

“An offer you say….well Mr. Cardinal consider my interest piqued”

“When the church is fully developed and curtly funded….I would like you and seven others to stand by my side as my personal guard….a round of Pontiffs; a dark sermon”

“Shit seven other people…..boss ya gotta be pulling my leg or something….there’s only like five of us right now you included”

“I do not jest….I speak only the truth and the whole truth….do not misconstrue my words….others will come and they like you will have to show their strength to be promoted”

“Nah sorry boss….I’m gonna have to pass on that one….you’ve always seemed like a figurehead…..not someone I’d ever risk life and or limb for”

“I’m sorry you feel that way Roxas….well it can’t be helped and that’s ok!” The cardinal suddenly stood up and moved from the throne to a small corner at the far side of the room.

“Roxas come I would like to show you something”

I don’t know how to fully word and articulate the bubbling, boiling twisting turning soup of emotions that toiled inside me as those words rang into my ears. What could he possibly want to show me?

A million different kinds of thoughts raced here and there over in my head. My body strained as I tried to force myself to walk. Finally, I put my paw to stone and walked over to the Cardinal.

“Behold our King!” he threw off a curtain and a bright blue glow filled the room. As I stared into the tube. Losing myself in thought he placed his hand. God to call it a hand was being extremely gracious. It was more of a sledgehammer disguised into a hand. He brought his head down to my head and spoke.

“God Rest ye merry gentlemen for Nazarick the savior was born on Sabbath day” He uttered speaking in a sing-songy voice. “To save us all from Emperor’s Leone grasp...oh tidings of pleasure and pain...oh tidings of pleasure and pain” the Cardinal added before shooting backward howling with laughter.

“Roxas!” he spoke my name aloud. “Roxas….may Nazarick’s infinite kindness fill you my son”

“Thank you, Cardinal”

Looking at the liquid-filled test tube I couldn’t fully grasp that this floating body was the guy. The man I woke up to serve. The man I worship. And there he was asleep floating in some magical fluid. The cardinal concluded his fit of laughter and tapped on the glass. “He isn’t ready quite yet….at least another five years I’d wager a guess” The cardinal rubbed his chin and smiled. “He shall be known as Zodiac….my Savior hath come in my native language”

“Zodiac”

“Do you like it? It’s a name I had picked a while ago….naturally he’d take my last name…..Zero”

“Zodiac Zero….herald of the king of glory”

“Herald of the Earthly Dragon….the one true emperor” The cardinal added turning to me he placed his palms on my shoulders and shook me. “Now Roxas go ready the world for the coming of the Savior….King Nazarick is to be born soon! Go tell them about our king and his greatness”

“It would be an honor Cardinal!”

“That’s what I like to hear there’s a reason you’re my number one bishop”

“I’m the only Bishop sir”

“It has no bearing….now go proclaim and eliminate the naysayers”

“For you my Cardinal it shall be done”

TO BE CONTINUED…….???????? (Maybe!)