—†— CHAPTER THIRTY TWO —⸸—
The Verdict
“I know what you seek, Ethriel,” the armored man called from the courtyard below. The angel knelt shackled among others in the temple complex.
“Did you think you could hide your excavations? Those relics stay buried for a reason.”
“You know nothing,” Ethriel snapped.
He stood midway up a large ornate staircase that wrapped around the keep. A large crowd had formed below. “You had no right to come to my kingdom and dictate what I can do.”
“It was your people, Ethriel,” the man said. “They came to us begging Heaven to intervene.”
“Enough!” Ethriel roared.
“How much power is enough power, Ethriel? It’ll never be enough to bring her back.”
“And what would you know of such things?” Ethriel raged as he moved further down the stairs.
“I know that you intend to bind the relic to your soul. We know everything, and the Kingdom of Heaven won’t stand for it.”
“The Celestial Kingdom has no power here and no authority.”
“No. So we turned to your brothers and sister instead. They know what you’re attempting.”
Ethriel, who had turned to walk back up the steps, stopped.
“You did what?”
“Even now they march on the North.”
At that, he turned and faced the five bound angels on their knees in the courtyard. His face had gone white. When he spoke again, his voice was ice.
“Then they’ve made their choice, and so have you.”
He raised his hand and closed his fist, crushing all five. They collapsed into piles inside their own armor. The entire courtyard went silent as Ethriel stared at the blood that now pulled and ran freely across the cobbles.
He called out to his guards and shouted orders.
“You will move through the city and the outskirts of the North. Slay every celestial in this realm. Any who harbor them die with their entire family.”
He turned and walked back up the steps. Throughout the courtyard, guards pulled their blades. Screaming erupted. Chaos spread through the crowd.
“I have no choice now,” he said quietly to himself.
With a motion from his hand, the massive temple doors threw themselves open. He stepped inside as they slammed shut behind him.
Sarah stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching thousands fall in the streets around her. The spirit stood silent beside her. She turned and looked at him, disbelief in her eyes.
“How could that sweet child become… This?” She whispered. Tears streamed down her face.
“You once asked me, Sarah Brennan, what I did to become bound to the relic.” His voice trailed off.
“Millions died in the wars that followed. They went on for years and only ended with my forces surrendering to my sister.” The spirit looked up toward the sky.
“I did this!” he screamed. “I was selfish, and I was cruel, and I was petty, and I was weak,” he said as he crumbled down to his knees. “I know what you’re going to show me next.”
He looked at Sarah.
“I deserved my punishment and, more. But even as these streets run red with blood, nothing compares to what comes next.” He fell silent, shoulders sagging.
“What did you do?” Sarah whispered.
The world faded to black, and Sarah looked around to find herself standing inside a dark stone structure. The spirit stood next to her and looked down what appeared to be a long corridor, with the flicker of orange firelight coming from somewhere farther down. He began to walk, and Sarah followed.
“Those men that you killed at the bottom of those steps, they were angels, weren’t they?”
“Yes, My guards had caught them trying to infiltrate the relic chamber, and it was a chamber that should not have even been accessible in the first place.”
“I didn’t know that angels looked like we do, at least their faces.”
“They hide their faces beneath their shrouds, but that has more to do with the sundering of the Celestial Kingdom than with what happens here, although my actions most certainly provided the opportunity.”
“What did that angel mean when he said you planned to bind the relic to your soul?”
“You’ve seen Jay Donati’s Trinity Blade, have you not?”
“Yeah…”
“When our realms were created, there were once great guardians who protected the barriers where they intersected. These guardians consisted of three souls bound as one. The Trinity.”
“The Trinity Blade is an arcane object that allowed this to occur. The primary wielder would gain access to the powers and abilities of the other two souls that he bound. The only way to break that bonds to destroy all three souls.”
“Soul binding is a forbidden form of the Arcane. I learned the true purpose of the relic, and planned to try and bind it to my soul. To harness the power of life and death itself.” The spirit trailed off.
“You wanted to bring back your parents.” Sarah said.
“Yes. But the more power I gained in my quest, the more it corrupted me, and I could feel it tearing at my mind. I was obsessed, and I refused to listen to reason.”
My people were right to flee, and they were right to seek help, but it was too late.”
They walked out of the corridor and into a large chamber. Sitting in the center was the exact same pedestal and stone tablet, but the energy radiating off of it was different.
“Ethriel, stop!” A voice cried out.
Niceni stood in the doorway, her voice breathless.
“You should not have come here sister.”
“What choice did we have, Ethriel?”
He stepped forward toward the relic. “I can bring them all back. Once I bind the relic to my soul, I’ll control it’s power.”
“That relic was not meant to be controlled,” Niceni said, her voice sharp. “You don’t understand what you’re doing.”
“Ethriel, stop!”
One of the brothers roared from the doorway.
Ethriel’s voice cracked as he pulled a small blade and dragged it across his palm before slamming it down onto the relic.
Power surged throughout the room in blinding light.
Niceni fell to her knees as her essence torn from her core toward the relic.
“No!” A third voice roared.
Ethriel was tackled to the ground from the side, and he watched as his sister convulsed on the floor in front of him while his brothers pinned and bound him.
Wisps of energy rained down as the relic pulled souls from every living being in the realm.
Ethriel looked into the eyes of his sister as she now lay motionless on the floor.
“What did you do, Ethriel?” his brother screamed as he slammed a staff into the ground and created a barrier around them.
They sat and watched for hours as the relic continued to pull souls.
“I didn’t know,” Ethriel kept saying. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was told I could control it.”
In the end, the world faded to black again, and Sarah found herself standing in the same bloodied courtyard as before.
Ethriel was on his knees and bound between his two remaining brothers.
“Look at what you’ve done, little brother. Your grief has cost us everything.”
“I can fix it, I swear, just let me…”
“Enough!” The eldest brother roared.
Then his voice softened.
“You’ve done enough.”
Sarah was startled to see that both of the brothers in the gleaming armor were staring directly at her. Her heart stopped.
“They can see me?” Sarah whispered, looking over, expecting to find the spirit standing next to her. But there was nobody there.
She realized the person bound between the brothers was the spirit itself—it was Ethriel.
“Did you see, Nephilim?” One of the brothers asked. “Do you understand what he has done?”
“The relic…” Sarah said softly. “It’s not just some kind of rune, is it?”
“No. It is a seed—a device that controls the flow of souls between life and death. Similar devices existed in the Celestial Realm and in Creation.”
The other man spoke.
“My brother was corrupted through his grief by forces that exist beyond the three realms. He never should have had access to the seed.”
“I don’t understand. Why did the relic do what it did? Why did it pull all of those souls?”
“Because Ethriel was deceived. He thought he was binding his soul to control the flow of souls, but it was a trap.”
The other brother cut in.
“And his actions turned our realm into a constant battlefield, a shattered existence. Without souls, a realm becomes what you now call purgatory.
Our realm once existed between the Celestial kingdom and Creation. A place where beings from both coexisted in peace. It was a place to study the arcane and reach ascension. Now all that remains is trapped within this relic.”
“Why can’t you just let them out?”
One of the men smiled softly.
“Tell her,” he said as he nudged Ethriel.
“To prevent the same fate in the other realms, my brothers stole the Celestial Seed and hid it somewhere on Earth. They bound themselves to the remaining relics after binding me to this one.
Even if we had the ability to just release the souls they would simply be pulled into one of the other seeds. The imbalance would destroy the remaining realms.
“Sarah Brennan, you have witnessed both the misfortunes and the crimes of our little brother. He is responsible for the deaths of billions, including our sister.”
“And our mother.” Ethriel said defeated.
He lowered his head, and his shoulders sagged.
“You were never responsible for her death,” one of the brothers roared. “Yet you accepted this grief as your own. Look at what it’s cost you, Ethriel!”
“Nephilim, you must cast judgment on my little brother for his crimes. This was something that neither of us in life could bring ourselves to do.”
“So many died,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “He’s accepted his guilt. He waits for my condemnation. But you two bear responsibility as well.”
She turned to face them, her gaze sharp.
“You left a grieving child to fend for himself. You should have known better.”
“Spirit, your suffering is justified, but it’s not over. You’re going to help me fix this. You’re going to help me find your brothers and all three of you are going to fix this shit show.”
Sarah plopped herself down onto the ground and stared up at the two men defiantly.
“That’s my verdict. For whatever it’s worth.”
They looked back at her for a long moment before one of them smiled, as if accepting her judgment.
The world faded. Sarah found herself on the temple floor, facing the familiar pedestal and relic.
The spirit now stood next to his brothers, and one of them moved toward the relic and pulled out chains of light.
He approached Sarah before she could react and thrust the chains into her chest.
“Ethriel, you are now bound to the Nephilim.”
Sarah gasped and stood as the spirit vanished.
“Wait! The relic! It can’t stay…”
Sarah looked to the pedestal, eyes wide. It was empty.
“The Relic has been bound to you as has Ethriel. Within you reside Billions of souls from our fallen realm. Keep them safe.”
“Come find us.”
The man faded into nothing.
You know you could have just told me where the hell you are!
A system window flashed in front of Sarah.
☿ ARCANE-SYSTEM: QUEST UPDATE
The Mystery Of St. Marys Cathedral Location: St. Cloud Year: 1920.
Congratulations Sarah Brennan, you have completed the primary objective: Sanctuary’s Secret! Jarek Donati and Marcus Brennan have also completed the secondary objective: Trust of the Cloth.
Sanctuary’s Secret — Discover what the clergy hid within St. Marys Cathedral STATUS: COMPLETED.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
Trust of the Cloth — Gain the confidence of St. Marys clergy OBJECTIVE STATUS: COMPLETED.
QUEST REWARDS
Current Rewards Earned: 4,500 Experience Points
Objective Rewards: Each completed primary objective grants 1,000 experience points. Secondary objectives award 500 experience points each.
NEW STATUS EFFECT
Soulbound Relic Host Of Anetheria has fused itself to your soul. Billions of displaced souls now reside within you alongside the bound spirit Ethriel. You have gained the derived attribute pool: Spirit.
Quest Status: ACTIVE
