Chereads / The Book of Abbadon / Chapter 41 - Reprisal

Chapter 41 - Reprisal

You begin slowly walking up the path towards the smaller area where Sowzo is standing as you speak to him.

" The Chamber of Mind? I thought that the mind was more of Noeh's domain. "

Sowzo giggles and punches his head maniacally as he responds, staring at you with a smile.

" The Mind is a domain in which Sowzo and Noeh share! Each of our domains are balanced and fair! Noeh dealt with knowledge, memory and wisdom. He dealt with what's real in an organized system. Sowzo deals with chaos, madness and dreams in a disorderly fashion with unreal extremes! Father created Sowzo and Noeh as two halves of a whole. Each type of god, Light and Dark, has an opposite role! "

" I see. "

You say to Sowzo as you stand next to him at the center of the chamber.

" So you and Noeh were opposites because you deal with fantasy and delusion while he dealt with intelligence and fact. The same thing can be said about you and Izael. You're the God of Chaos and he's the God of Order. All Light and Dark Gods have an opposite relationship with each of their siblings with the exception of Aatu because Aatu was the God of Balance and Perspective. "

" Yes! Yes! You are quite the bright one! "

Sowzo says before throwing his arm around your shoulders and silently turning his gaze to what looks like an irregularity in the aura that's floating above the projection of Aria. You follow Sowzo's gaze and notice that it looks like a large portion of the aura that's above some sort of city is missing. Curious, you ask him a question.

" I assume that's what you brought me here to show me? "

Sowzo nods subtly before he lets you go and you both begin floating over to where the irregularity is.

" Sowzo's chamber lets him see where his followers are. The aura shows the location of worshippers near and far. The more mortals pray to Sowzo, the more they dream and the aura becomes brighter. The mortals who dream are Somniohm's suppliers. The dreams go inside the chandelier, and when mortals sleep, the dreams become released into Sowzo's dimension. This leads to something serious Sowzo would like to mention. "

Sowzo pauses as you both reach the anomaly in the aura. He then looks at you with a deathly stare before continuing to speak to you.

" This part of Sowzo's aura is missing, but Sowzo has many followers here. The minds of these mortals have been corrupted, Sowzo fears. That's the only explanation for why this part of the aura is gone. For you to restore Sowzo's aura over Voldoor is what Sowzo wants. "

Voldoor again? That's where I caught a glimpse of Ariel when I used the book to defeat the Valghul… but that has to be impossible because I saw Ariel die in the memories that Noeh showed me. What are the chances that she actually survived all this time? What about the chances that Noeh's memories were wrong or tampered with? I know that the vision the book gave me was real. The Holy Omniverse Transcript is too powerful to have shown me something false or make some sort of error. Ariel must be in Voldoor.

Tom also said that Voldoor was our next stop to help strengthen the gods after we visited Moriarch. The King of Moriarch mentioned something about people going missing right after we encountered that mysterious man in the robe… What did the man say again?

You think back to when you saw Tom standing over the man with no eyes right before Tom absorbed his Light. The man's words echo inside your mind clearly as you recall what he said.

" This world will fail… day by day HIS FORCES GROW STRONGER… doomed… no God can save us… we all belong to THE NONE. "

Sowzo is right. The None has already been corrupting the minds of people, and he must be doing it through their dreams.

You then remember what Tom said to you when you were both sitting in Faerah's cottage in Havnahm.

" All mortals who know of the Omniverse are susceptible to having NIGHTMARES about The None, which is usually how he plants a seed WITHIN THEIR MINDS at first… "

That's exactly what it is, and Sowzo would be the first one to know about it because nightmares are Sowzo's domain.

You turn to Sowzo and ask him a question.

" Sowzo? Would it still be possible to see the dreams and nightmares of the people who live here? "

Sowzo shakes his head with a look of disappointment.

" No, mortal, unfortunately not. This predicament is more tricky than Sowzo thought. That's why Sowzo needs you. To go into a mortal realm is too dangerous for Sowzo to do. Something in Voldoor is tampering with my domain. If we do not stop it soon, it may become Somniohm's bane. "

Sowzo then spreads his arms wide open and the projection of Voldoor zooms in until you can see a building. Surprisingly, the building looks unlike the medieval buildings that you saw in Moriarch. The building that Sowzo is showing you looks like some sort of futuristic club illuminated by neon lights. Sowzo speaks in a foreboding tone.

" Sowzo believes that the interference is coming from this place. Behind those doors, the unknown awaits. Sowzo has sent many followers to investigate but each time has lost their trace. If we wish to save Somniohm, we must make haste. "

You read the neon sign on the outside of the building as you look at the projection closely.

" The Devil's Den. "

Suddenly, the chamber begins to shake violently as if there's some sort of earthquake disrupting Somniohm. The aura over the projection slowly disappears and you look up at the chandelier to see that it's not funneling white smoke into Somniohm anymore. You start to see the cloudy walls of the chamber slowly become transparent, and you're startled as you hear thousands of agonizing screams come from all around you. In a panic, you look out through the transparent walls of the chamber into the rest of the dimension to see what's happening. You're horrified as you watch every person who's dreaming in Somniohm, from the older woman who was dancing with her husband to the young boy grieving his dead dog, rip out their eyes with their hands as they claw at their bloody faces in a panic. Your stomach turns as you hear the thousands of blood curdling screams all combine into one horrible sound of agony. You turn and look back up at the chandelier to see it slowly decaying.

" Oh fuck… "

You say before the chandelier falls and smashes down onto Sowzo's throne, completely destroying the center of his chamber in a violent crash. Smoke and clouds collide with one another and fill the entire area until you're surrounded by a colorful fog that limits your ability to see far distances. Then, all in unison, the screaming stops abruptly.

You turn and look at Sowzo in fear as an eerie silence fills his once chaotic realm. Sowzo looks back at you quietly with a frightened stare as he lets you both down onto the floor of his demolished chamber before he disappears into the aether to hide. As you look back out into Somniohm, you're met with a familiar event that sends shivers down your spine.

A black bolt of lightning immediately explodes down in the distance outside the gates to the palace. However, right when you think you understand what's coming, two more black bolts of lightning follow afterwards cracking down into the same place as well.

Three of them? Didn't Tom say that only one Valghul appears in a universe at a time?

You're abruptly caught off guard by the thousands of mindless voices that speak up who belong to the people that just clawed their eyes out. They all speak together as they stand up and look outside of their dreams at the figures who just came down into Somniohm. The voices sound ominous, as if the people have become evil and brainwashed as they chant one name in a haunting demeanor.

" NONE… NONE… NONE… NONE… "

You stare out into the fog and you see 3 silhouettes take shape. You can see them approaching slowly amidst the chanting, and with each step they take, it seems to fracture and corrupt Somniohm underneath their feet. You can see the red pollution spread from their wake to the surrounding environment and crumble the entirety of Sowzo's dimension behind them as they continue to slowly approach the castle. Their eyes glow a deep red and you see all three of them look up and immediately make eye contact with you as if they know exactly where you are.

Looking back down at them, you take a couple steps backwards to break the eye contact. However, after you walk backwards, you stumble into something that's standing right behind you. You look up over your shoulder and see that it's a giant 10 foot tall demon with a muscular build wearing armor. It glares down at you with a sinister gaze and its glowing red eyes pierce your soul before two more dark figures emerge from behind it and surround you. One of the dark figures looks to be a 7 foot tall demonic woman wearing armor as well, and the other dark figure seems to be an 8 foot tall man-like monstrosity with a rotten face wearing a robe.

Before you can react, the giant demon behind you puts its hand on your shoulder to prevent you from moving or getting away. The sheer weight and strength of this demon's hand feels like it's crushing your entire shoulder blade as it holds you still. The womanly demon then giggles sinisterly as she sees that you're in obvious pain and discomfort. You stare at the robed man with a look of disgust as he speaks to you through the bloody shredded flesh where his mouth is supposed to be.

" Did you believe that Our Lord was going to tolerate an act of direct defiance to his will in this universe? "

You try to break free from the demon's grasp, but it closes its hand slowly on your shoulder. The pain of your bones being cracked and shattered keeps you still and obedient as the man in the robe continues to speak.

" The Valghul that you defeated was merely a peon in Our Lord's forces, Lamenter… the time is nigh that you become None. "