Debauchery of a Soul-Eating Wraith

–Volume Three–

[Warning: This Chapter might be a bit graphic!]

***

Miles from Evian and his traveling group, practically all over on the other side of the Verlice Kingdom, in its own corner of the region, standing tall like a marvel to be gawked at and adored— As a collection of structures meant to invoke the purest of thoughts and Spiritual Candence was 'The Sacrosanct'.

The Holy Star gazers informed that the stars would align on this special day and at night, all Devouts were to say prayers to the Gods of Spirituality and be blessed with a special enlightenment, the kind which only came once every hundred years or so.

And so the Holy City was boisterous with preparations. From Adult to child, everyone was ready to receive this boon and would not let themselves be distracted by the mundane.

They had been fasting the whole month in preparation to free their bodies and they all claimed they felt light. Their chest filled with joy to receive the blessing of the gods.

That night, inside The Sanctorum (The largest Church ever built in the Kingdom. One that had stood for millennia), and outside of it, devouts held their hands tight in solemn prayer.

The stars indeed aligned and there was an increase in the Spiritual energy density in the air and as the most keen sensed felt it, they let out sounds of awe while their eyes turned misty as they were moved by the grace the gods had decided to show them.

And then a bright light shone from the highest tower of The Sanctorum dazzling them all with brilliant golden light.

*Gasps*

"It's his holiness the Pontiff!" a voice called out and everyone around agreed with murmurs. No one saw the 'most holy being in the Verlice Kingdom' but they all believed they did not have to.

His radiance was enough to tell of his existence.

He was the closest being to the gods and he existed only to make do their will. At least, so said their scriptures.

The light that shone from the Santorum began to move and then formed into five circles all connected by sacred golden lines and all surrounded by a thicker and larger circle that coalesced the dense Spiritual energy in the atmosphere and turned them into rays that doused the praying devouts below, allowing them to better assimilate the blessings.

"All hail the Pontiff!"

"Eyes of the gods— Breath of the gods— Sacrosanct loves you, Verlice Loves you, the World loves you… May your reign be long and peaceful!!'"

The chants continued to sound all over and it seemed that with every passing second the sound only got louder and was said with even greater zeal.

Closer to the Church, a man stood in an ordinary black robe and he immediately looked like the odd man out. Not because of his dress but rather his mannerisms. He didn't seem at all taken by the chants.

The man looked to the side at his neighbor with a wolfish grin,

"Preposterous, isn't it?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" asked the neighbor with a frown. He wasn't pleased that his chant had been interrupted.

The man in black didn't seem bothered by the frown, he just chuckled,

"It's just, it seems like a lot of sobby cries for a freakin' light show," he said with a shrug.

"I will have to ask you not to interrupt my prayers, sir," said the neighbor, and the man in black gave him a mocking apologetic look before making a zipping motion over his lips and making a show of tossing the invisible key away.

"Papa, what's wrong?" asked a small voice as a small boy showed himself clutching the leg of the upset neighbor.

The eyes of the man in black widened as though he had not realized the boy was there until now,

"Is that your boy?" he asked.

The neighbor said nothing.

Again, the man in black seemed unbothered and reached toward the boy,

"He's so cute…"

"You stay the hell away from my son!" said the angry neighbor as he slammed a palm against the chest of the man in black who froze and then grinned even wider…

… He grinned wider than was humanly possible and his face got sunken and grey. His eyes became sunken and red, giving off an unnatural chill.

"Oops," he said. His voice was strangely alluring despite his horrific appearance.

The angry neighbor pulled his hand back and saw it was oozing the same chill he could feel coming off the stranger's black eyes and now entire body. He felt cold and saw his skin growing paler by the second.

"Papa?" called the small boy in worry. His lips trembling.

"You shouldn't have touched me," said the man in black while licking his thin lips.

"Wh-what is happening to me?" the angry neighbor asked.

"'Death touch'. Just wait, it gets even more fun— For me, at least."

"Ah!" the angry neighbor yelled as he doubled over and then he leaned back as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, losing all personality. He became gaunt and almost skeletal while turning those lifeless eyes on his son.

"Pa- Papa?" the boy called in fear and then his father lunged at him.

*Swish*

A hand swiped at the boy and he only survived because he fell over, his eyes bugging.

At that point, other devouts were starting to realize something was wrong.

The man in black threw his head back and pealed out a wicked laugh,

"KEKEKEKEKE. Oh father against son, what could be more Spiritually fulfilling than that? I dare say I just made a prophecy come true. HAHAHAHAHA—"

"Who the hell is that psycho?" a devout asked, "And what's that man doing to that kid?"

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"Hey, where did the laughing psycho go?" another devout asked.

Indeed the man in black had vanished in a haze and the first devout to speak up was now showing the same symptoms as the crazed father.

The entire payer scene was in pandemonium in seconds. Hundreds were hit with the Touch of death and they transmitted the 'disease' with every injury they inflicted on their victims. That was the ordinance they received from their creator, the mysterious man in black; They were to create more of their Kind for as long as they were allowed.

The warning bells rang all over Sacrosancts calling for denizens to return to the safety of their homes while Arcanists especially trained in combat and containment poured out into the streets to handle the horrifying situation.

As for the man in Black, he returned to where he started and found his angry neighbor lying spread-eagled with a hole burned through his chest but the boy was not lying close to his dead father.

"Where are you? Where are you?" the man in black mumbled while looking around and then he found the boy in the arms of an Arcanist trying to fight his way out of a Zombie encirclement,

"There you are."

The Man in black approached the valiant Arcanist, the Zombies forming an army behind him and it didn't take long for his approach to catch the attention of his target.

"You!" said the Arcanist with a knowing look as he gazed upon the man in black with his pale aesthetic and his body oozing the same energy that came off the zombies.

"Yes, me," said the man in the black with a grin, and then his eyes widened when the Arcanist cast a beaming spell at him.

A move to the side was all the man in black needed to avoid getting struck.

The Arcanist, with one hand holding the boy secure against his body and the other handling all his spell casting, cast more in quick succession only to grit his teeth in annoyance as none hit their mark.

The man in black cranked his neck and flexed his back before taking off his robes to reveal four extra limbs jousting from his torso with hands holding on to each other in strange seals.

With a sound like a gong that spread all over and agitated all the zombies around, the man used the formed seals to cast a spell that encased the legs of the Arcanist in ice.

The Arcanist tried to pull free…

*SKSH!!!*

*Crack!*

… But an icicle oozing a cold from the abyss struck his head, breaking his neck and splitting his head open stopping the attempt.

The boy didn't scream. His eyes just widened unnaturally as he was, in one night, revealed to horrors his father had used as stories to scare him off to bed or get him to eat his veggies.

And then, as he fell from the dead Arcanist's limp arms, he was caught by two of the four extra limbs that the man in black had been hiding away. Except now the boy knew this wasn't a man…

… This was a Monster!

"Shhhhhh," the monster said with a finger on the boy's lips, "I'm doing you a favor. A life seeking pointless vengeance or stuck in trauma does you no good."

The Monster, his gaunt face still quite man-like, grinned as he gripped the top of the boy's head,

"Better to end it all now."

And with that, he twisted and pulled until the head was detached from the young neck, and with a fiendish grin and red eyes alight with desire, he raised the body and chugged the blood down his evil gullet.