I woke up at approximately at 8 am in the morning, Druella was not in the bedroll since the tent was bigger on the inside than the outside to the point of looking like the inside of a yurt, I stood up and put in my “royal” uniform, I believe I already described it, but in a nutshell, it looked like the uniform of a 1850s king but with fewer medals, I really did feel uncomfortable, even though I come from a rather well off family, I never felt comfortable with wealth, she knew this which is why she tried to take out some decoration in the room, but she insisted on having her armour, which looked less like an armour and more like a steel bikini, or wears her officer uniform “It's to show status sweetie so that people know I'm their mistress”. So I went out of the tent and I could see the rest of the group, Druella had her back facing me, facing the log she was sitting on, it looked like she was cooking something on the pot, Lucas noticed me as I was approaching Druella
-Looks like the bedsheets got stuck, did you oversleep?
-Eeeh, sort off.
Druella turned around to see me and she smiled as she stood up, and claimed my lips once again
-Good morning my love, come and sit next to me, I have prepared you a hearty breakfast just for you.
I sat next to her as she took the small plate, she cut a piece of sausage, pinched it with a fork and lifted it over to my face.
-Say ahh.
I opened my mouth and chomped down on the food. One thing I find it very odd about her is that she is very doting in an almost devoted manner, kind of like a mother, but at the same time be a very upbeat and sanguine woman, to put it on one way she makes both the perfect girlfriend and the perfect mother, in some ways it is emasculating since I feel she is babying me.
-Let me eat my own meal Dru, I'm not a boy.
But Druella, bless her soul, is too kind, she may be very lustful but her kindness and her devotion to me often take priority.
-Aww, sweetie, I'm only doing my duty as a wife, no need to be bashful.
-I'm a grown man, not a cripple who has had both his arms cut off.
Druella pouted and frowned when I said that.
-Come on sweetie, why do you have to be so reticent to my ministrations, I'm only being a good wife.
I smiled at such a cute expression she was putting, but still, I do not like to be pampered in this way, more than anything because it's new to me, I was the one doing such things to my girlfriend, to have it happen to me is rather odd and emasculating, but I had to make a few sacrifices.
-Alright, you can continue.
-Yay, thank you, sweetie!
She kept feeding as Lucas looked like he was about to laugh his sides into orbit.
-Say one word about this and I will break your jaw.
-What? I'm not saying anything.
-Good.
As we finished the plates the dark mage and the centaurs stood up and got our attention, then the dark mage spoke.
-Mistresses, my lords, the carriage is ready, we are ready to reach Lescatie by midday.
To that Druella smiled.
-Good, good, everything is going perfectly.- She turned then to me.-You are going to like the castle sweetie, especially the hero and his wife Willmarina, she is such a sweetheart.
-I’ll take your word for it, Dru.
I took my bag from the tent and then the dark mage magicked away the tents, we all went into the carriage as the mage started to put the reins in the centaurs, then the carriage started moving, from then I just started to daydream, just thinking about the mission I was put in. How can I do what it took St Peter decades to do, creating an entire church with its rites, prayers, sacraments, and institutions? Even St Peter, with all his knowledge, took him a herculean effort to kickstart the Church, how would I, a simple layman with extensive but still incomplete knowledge on the Church’s mechanisms and even active supernatural elements working in this world, do this? as I was thinking Druella kissed my cheek to bring my attention to her.
-What were you thinking about honey, you seemed troubled?
I trust her enough for her to know what I was thinking about.
-Just thinking about my mission I was put in, specifically, how am I gonna do it.
-Do you mean introducing your faith to counter the faith of the Chief God? I must admit it is a very high order, how was it done in your world? Surely you had other gods to contend against.
-No, we didn't, we had other faiths to contend against but not gods.
-No gods? Then shouldn't have been very difficult.
Ah, Druella, if only you knew, you once mentioned you wanted to know everything about my world right?
When I said that she perked up and so did Medith, Lucas also turned to me and smiled.
-Before I start I will say this, any questions you might have I will answer them at the end. Now, several years after the resurrection of Christ Our Lord the apostles set up the foundations of the Church, to make a long story short it was once a religion of the jews, another religious group, then a man called Paul the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles, started to proselytize and spread the Word, to gentiles, which were non-jews, those were called the Pauline Christians, and after the destruction of the Second Temple, the jews stopped being dominant, and us gentiles lead the faith, but that wasn't the end of it.
-No?.- Asked Druella.- So far it seems you had no problems.
-I’m brushing up many of the details like the Jewish rebellion that massacred the Christians and Romans in Jerusalem. But then it would take us all day.
-Oh okay then, please keep going.
-So then we had several persecutions, one especially brutal by Caligula, who, thinking that we were behind the burning of Rome, had all the Christians in Rome killed, they were put into colosseums to fight lions, they always got mauled to death because they wouldn't fight the lions, they would be crucified and burned, sometimes used as torches, and many such atrocities.
Both lilims widened their eyes at that, Druella clenched her fists, seemingly repressing anger
-That is worse than any torture the Order did, what type of abominations lived in your world, how did your faith survive knowing the repercussions?
-Through perseverance, we earnestly believed that we would persevere and bring Rome to the Light, and we did, it took us 300 years but we did it, St Constantine the Great brought Rome to the only true faith, that's the snap-notes version of how we ended up spreading even under oppression and persecution from both Romans and jews.
Druella then took my hand and offered me a smile as she leaned to me
-Then why are you, afraid sweetie? Your ancestor managed to do it
-The thing is that not only do we have to deal with active supernatural intervention but also actively fight against a collaborator of Satan. I know most “gods” in here are not malicious, hell some of them might support me like Eros, and so I don't want them to die, because they have done much good in this world, maybe in their own way but they have done much good, but for that, I practically have to make them subordinates to the Lord, and they might not see it as a good thing, and about the Chief God, the less said about that apostate the better.
Druella put her hand on my right cheek so I looked at her in the eyes, she then kissed me on the lips, after 5 seconds she pulled off.
-As you often say, sweetie, have faith, we will solve it together, I'm sure you can come up with something, and if you can't I will, we will succeed, I will be there to make sure you do. Just stop thinking about it too hard, you do have a long time to do it, in fact, I remember hearing the woman a few days back that you wouldn't die of age as long as you still needed to succeed in your mission. This takes years sweetie, it took me several decades to plan the conquest of Lescatie, I'm sure you won't be able to do it in just one year.
I smiled at her, she is right, the Church took 300 years to take a form that vaguely resembles what is now the Roman Catholic Church, I shouldn't think we can do it even in 10 years, still though I should at least get the foundations of it started. As I started thinking again we got word from the dark mage.
-My lords, we are reaching Lescatie as we speak.
I went out to the window and I saw the city as we passed through a barrier, as I saw the city I saw a dark environment, like in eternal dusk, the “sun” looked like it was setting but it wasn't set and it wasn't a sun, the buildings looked building out of some type of gothic architecture, with high buildings with towers, from which there were sculptures at the top of those towers. The walls were more decorated, they had gargoyles watching over the horizon like stone hawks, torches that seemed to spew out an ethereal flame that somehow did not consume the torch, even the materials used in the wall didn't look like stone. At the entrance, an entourage of living armours and dullahans clad in some kind of dark armour were lined up at each side of the entrance reaching up to 5 meters. Seems like Dru wanted to make a big entrance, this became apparent when I stared at her and she smiled.
-Dru, how much time have you been away?
She kept her smile
-Why, I don't know what you’re talking about Juanito, my sweet.
I raised an eyebrow at my new nickname.
-Juanito?
She giggled
-Fuufufufu, it's cute right.
-Only Lucas is allowed to call me that.
-Hey Juan, don’t put me in the conversation.
Medith intervened before it became an argument.
-Quiet, all of you, we need to look dignified.
We quieted down and then stepped out of the carriage, then the dullahans and living armors came to us and bowed down, one of them spoke.
-Mistresses, we received the news, the whole city has.
The dullahan then turns to Lucas and me.
-My lords, we await your coming into the city, a big celebration will be held for both the return of mistress Druella and the coming of her husband, all of the Lescatian nobles will be there.
I sighed internally, another festivity, I'm not particularly fond of parties even after all these years, even those made by the Army in New Year’s Eve. I frowned and addressed the dullahan.
-Arise
And she stood up.
-When is the celebration held
-This dusk my lord.
So I have several hours to prepare myself and do what I must before finally attending a feast for the high class, good, that gives me all the time I need to learn a bit from the texts of the Tecne Alaha, I need to know a bit before I do anything else. Druella then said to the dullahan.
-Good, everything is in order, now let us go to my house.
We started to walk towards the city, as we entered the city gates we were greated by a great mob of people cheering, whistling and throwing roses at us, there were many monsters here, and their husbands were out with them too, Druella was more open about it and waved her hand and expressed her gratitude, so was Lucas and Medith, I joined in on it, as I tried to put on my best smile and waved to the crowd, if only to show courtesy, these are the people under my rule, the least I could do was to show some appreciation, as we reached the castle I took some time to marvel on the view, it was a 20 story castle, it's style matched that of the gothic castles made in Spain and France, a large wall surrounding the castle with gargoyles in ledges of the walls, salamanders, living armours and hellhounds could be appreciated there, and their armours if they wore them, were of a black metal which gleamed as the “evening sun” shined in it. As I passed through I also looked through the crowd, all of the monster races which would normally belong in a demon realm could be appreciated here, there were succubi, hellhounds, devils, even the occasional demon, all of them had rather… inappropriate dresses, but since MGE is MGE, it was inevitable that this would be the case, the men were also there, I couldn't help but notice something that they had expressions of genuine happiness, happy that their leader had come back and that she brought her husband, something like that in Spain would have been unthinkable unless you went back 60 years back in time. We reached the castle court but Druella stopped, the rest of us stopped as well as we waited for what she was about to do. Apparently, she wanted to make a speech, to address the people. The people quickly went silent as she started to speak.
-My gallant subjects, people of Lescatie, I thank you for your reception to my return, today is a joyous day, for finally after many years, I have found my soulmate, my beloved husband who now stands beside me and has married me, he shall be lord besides me, with him the final liberation of the northern territories of Lescatie shall finish, and with it a new dawn will come to the region, bringing us one more step closer towards the liberation of the Order. Their armies have been routed, their heroes desert to our cause every day, and with the order falling a new era will come, on where no man will feel unloved or rejected, no boy will go without a family and no more useless wars for tyrants and maniacs will be called! Rejoice, people of Lescatie, for tomorrow, marks the dawn of a new age!
An even bigger acclamation followed after that speech. I was endeared by their reactions because seeing such passionate reactions were very rare, their expressions, their screams, their acclamations, their claps, everything was done with such genuine emotion, I will never forget it, even if the speech itself was nothing special. We entered the castle after her little speech, and the castle was dark, so much so that the light of the torches seemed to be absorbed by the dark, the castle itself was made out of dark smooth stones, and the interior of the throne room, where we were, was very majestic, a high ceiling decorated by 19th-century ceiling lamps, statues of what I assume are famous heroes from the monster faction, and the walls were of smooth stone as the pillars were. Druella then looked at me with a gleeful expression.
-Well sweetie, what do you think so far?
I smiled at her, clearly impressed by how Lescatie and, specifically, her castle
-I love it Dru, you clearly did a great job.
Her eyes sparkled and she hugged my side, I enjoyed her affections for a while before we turned our sight forward to the sound of a door opening, in one of the doors that were adjacent to the throne I saw two figures came through, one of them was a man that looked in his late teens, the other one was a what I assume was a roper, the boy then spoke.
-Pardon our lateness, we had many matters to attend.
They saw Druella hugging my side and their eyes went wide like plates, but after two seconds the roper girl smiled.
-Goodness, is he the husband you wrote about mistress Druella?
She faced the roper girl with a proud grin as she hugged my back.
-Yes Wilmarina, isn't he handsome?
-Indeed he is.
Wilmarina suddenly got nervous.
-Oh my, where are my manners, I am Wilmarina Noscrim, the former princess of Lescatie and now part of the court as an advisor to my Mistress. And this gentleman at my side is my dear husband Emet.
The boy stood up and introduced himself.
-As my wife has said I am Emet Noscrim, a former hero sent from the land of Goethia and now Supreme Judge of Lescatie, I am pleased to meet my new lord.
I then spoke to them
-I am pleased to meet both of you, my name is Juan Moreno, husband to Druella and the new lord of the realm of Lescatie.
Then came Juan’s turn
-And I am Juan Fiestas, General Secretary of the Embassy of the Demon Realm.
Emet spoke after we introduced ourselves.
-I am pleased to meet you, my lord, it is a blessing to have you come to Lescatie.
-I am sure it is, on your part Emet, however, I have a greater purpose than just ensure the victory of the Demon Lord, however, it must not be discussed in a room full of potential enemy ears
He gave me a questioning look, the thought of spies must not have crossed his mind.
-Pray tell, what is that purpose, lord Juan?
-Before I say it we need some privacy, may we discuss such matters in your room?
He gained a surprised expression on his face, as a deer caught on headlights, not expecting a request like that.
-Y-Yes of course, please follow me.
We followed him out of the throne room, I immediately began to question the decision, once again I spoke before I thought, cold sweat started to form on my forehead, was it really a good idea to say it? Druella accepted it and so did Medith, but maybe her subordinates would not. As we passed through the hallway we stopped at the end, and to our right a broad brown door was present, Emet opened it and revealed his chambers.
-Please, do come to my lords.
We came in and sat down on one of the chairs present next to a round table in the centre of the room, Emet and Willmarina sat down at the opposite end, Willmarina broke the silence by inquiring:
-Now, what is the matter you want to discuss, milord?
I swallowed the saliva that built up in my mouth as an I prepared myself to reveal them an important truth.
-My other objective here apart from guaranteeing the victory of the Demon Lord, is to make sure the one who calls herself “Chief God” is brought before the Almighty.
Complete silence followed that statement, it was as deafening as the void of the universe, of course that silence was not present in the minds of Emet and Willmarina if their expressions are anything to go by. Emet managed to keep calm enough to ask me further.
-I - I’m sorry my lord but w-what did you mean by the Almighty.- He asked while stuttering
It was a bit amusing seeing him stutter like that, although it was understandable, he was raised thinking that a demon was God and someone told him that the demon is actually all that he fought against.
-What I mean is that everything you thought you knew, even now, about the “Chief God”, is false.-
Willmarina piped in the conversation.
-Yes, we know.- she asserted.- we know she isn’t all-loving and she is just afraid of humanity.
I gave a small smile, rather unusual for me, since I rarely smile, especially like this, but for some reason, my uncertainty was fading and confidence was growing in me like a newly sprouted flower.
-But you don’t know the full story miss Willmarina. Do you know what the true title of the Chief God is?
Now she looked interested. Good, I have her attention fully, now I can break the truth to them, the initial survival of my plan is contingent upon the reaction of the two people in front of me, even though they are, technically, my subordinates, they could make my life impossible in the shadows.
-No, what is it?
-The Apostate.
Emet and Willmarina gave a questioning look towards me.
-Why, who gave her that title?- Willmarina asked further.
-Her former lord, the only one worthy of the title of God, Yahweh, the Lord of Heaven, the Eternal.
And with that another silence befell over the room, now comes the moment of truth, their reactions will determine what happens from here on out, to say I was nervous would be a big understatement, finally after what seemed an eternity of silence, Willmarina turned to Druella.
-My Mistress, he isn’t lying, right?
Druella first turned to me, smiling, as if reassuring me that she would take control of this situation, she was a more trustworthy figure than me after all.
-Yes, my sweetie is telling the truth, and I saw one of the subordinates of the Lord of Heaven with my very eyes, a woman that is both human and yet more than that, clad in white and blue silk and an aura that radiated kindness, purity and love.
She was, of course, talking about the Virgin Mary, who appeared to me when I first met Medith as I ran to Druella’s bedroom in a fit of rage and despair, but those sentiments are long gone from me, but I am digressing. Druella was telling them of the apparition of Our Lady in her bedroom that fateful night, she also told them of the revelation the Virgin Mary told me about.
-You see now my dears? This changes everything.
Emet seemed shaken, his entire worldview had been demolished to its foundations, not only was the teachings of the Order untrue when it came to monsters, they were wrong on just about everything, including the divinity of the Chief God, he looked like he was holding back some tears, his neutral poker face of several minutes ago turned into a scowl.
-I-I know it might seem intrusive my mistress, but may I and Willmarina see your memories concerning that event.
-Yes, of course, my dear.
And she closed her eyes and Emet and Willmarina touched her forehead, after 5 minutes of silence Druella opened her eyes and Willmarina and Emet backed away from her. Emet was actively crying now, Willmarina was also holding back tears while her cheeks reddened and her eyes became filled with tears, Emet was the first to talk.
-I-I- dammit all, not only are the poor people in the Order realms deceived, everyone has been lied to including us, that absolute-b-bitch has deceived everyone while usurping a role she doesn’t deserve, and the worst thing is that she collaborated with the pinnacle of sin to do this out of jealousy!
I stood up from my seat and went to him, then I put a hand on his left shoulder as I said.
-The Adversary is a cruel and deceitful enemy Emet, it is not your fault, everyone has fallen for this lie, but now you know why I am here.
-I- I guess I do now.
-Do you want some time alone with your wife to process this? I know this must be hard on you.
-No.- stated Emet abruptly, as he tried his best to recompose himself.- You came here to make a request of me, and I think I already know what it is, you want my support to propagate the belief of the one you call “Yahweh” right?
-Yes.
-Then I will support you my lord.- He said as his tears dried.- It would do us good to be on his good graces, and some like him, to send you to redeem the errors of the Chief God, does not like a wrathful and evil entity, there is a catch I imagine right?
-Yes, for his Law to be done correctly several things in the laws of the Demon Realm must be changed to fit his Law, don’t worry, for He understands that your situation is more different than in my world, so as long as the moral timeless law is not disturbed, a radical change might not be necessary. Monsters were created in a different way than us, as such the way the Lord will deal with you will be different than the way he deals with us and how he dealt with the Israelites in the Sinai.
Emet accepted it with no opposition, if I didn’t know better I would say it was too good to be true, but its no use to keep on questioning him, so I went back to my seat. Then Lucas spoke, apparently more suspicious of him than I was.
-So you are not going to do anything? Not even a complaint.
-Indeed my lord.-replied Emet
Lucas then smiled and said:
-Good, well that concludes what we wanted to say, thank you for your patience and hospitality.
We exchanged some pleasantries before we went out of the room and were directed to our rooms in the castle, we passed through several hallways of black stone lighted by chandeliers before finally stopping. We saw two red doors in-front of us, those were the doors to our respective bedrooms. Willmarina finally spoke after being silent for ten minutes since we left her room.
-My lords and mistresses, these are your rooms. Mistress Druella and lord Juan will have the room to the left, mistress Medith and lord Lucas will have the room to the right, please keep in mind that the feast is being held this evening.-She informed.
And with that said she left as Emet followed her. I gathered that we had enough time since it was still early afternoon for Lucas and me to make the ritual and commune with God, so I turned to Druella to speak to her.
-Dru?
-Yes, was it that you want sweetie?-she asked
-Lucas and I are going to study the books you told me to, therefore I need you and, if Medith wants to come, to be as silent as possible
-Ah yes, I did tell you to study them as soon as we arrived, very well, but I’m going to be present, should you need something just let me know sweetie.
-Got it, now let’s enter.
We got into the room and I left my bag on the floor next to a large study and took out the two leather-bound tomes.
-Lucas, come over, I will need you to make notes of what I tell you.
-I don’t know Latin, I only know Greek, Juan.
-This is why I will tell you what is most important, take my computer and make a new document unless you see some scrap papers lying around.
And he came with my computer with a new document ready. As I started reading I relayed several important parts to Lucas, the nature of Tecne Alaha, how it worked, how its a small part of the power of God. A short summary of it would be like this:
-God gave the human soul a connexion to him which infused it with power, the power it received was pitiful compared to what he was capable of but gave the Holy Pair unimaginable power.
-This power was sealed when they took from the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
-Said seal could be broken by God by himself through two ways, either he would do it himself or through a ritual where one communed with God and was examined by Him, many saints that performed miracles gained that power through the latter method.
It was that ritual that interested me greatly, it was unlike the sacraments done by the Catholic Church or indeed any of the churches, it was simple to do yet it required very specific conditions to be met, one of them is that the ones involved in the ritual must absolutely be free of mortal sin the moment they are doing the ritual and even then they aren’t guaranteed to receive the power as they must be judged by God.
-Lucas, have you copied the ritual?
-Yes, this is huge, when do we start?
-Right now, Druella, make this room dark
The ritual required a state of total silence and darkness, to invite God into the room and to be examined by Him.
-Okay, but why?
-We are starting a ritual which will bring God into this room, he will examine us and if judge worthy, something important will return to our souls, the same will happen to you and Medith if you stay here.
She looked like she wanted to ask more but she complied and she extinguished the candles attached to the walls. Lucas and I knelt while Medith and Druella stood there in silence. I chanted the lines required to start the ritual and call upon God’s presence.
-My God, my saviour
I beg of you to dwell upon this world
Come down and judge me so that I can be worthy of the power sealed in my soul
Judge me so that my soul can be whole again.
And suddenly, a circle of pure light materialized in front of us, and through it came a white dove, the dove stared at us for several minutes before going back to the portal, and then a voice could be heard.
Behold, all of you have been judged, and I have found no death and no evil, you shall take the power that I bestowed upon you, my children, and do good with it, but beware, for just as I bestowed the power, I can easily seal it back should it be necessary. Should you need to be helped by Me, call upon me in your dreams and I shall answer as I did with David and Moses, for you are now complete both in body and soul. And to you children of the Apostate, fear not, for your queen has cleansed your sins and infused you with love for man, and for that, you will have a place in my kingdom and share the power of your husband and also responsibilities which are equal yet different. Farewell, my beloved children.
And with that, the voice of the Lord faded and we were left alone in the room, but I felt, complete, like a limb I never knew I had come back.
My soul was now complete.
