—†— CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE —⸸—
The Weight of Everything
I knew things were going to get rough in the cathedral, but I never expected any of this to play out like it had. Why would a Power be involved in what was happening here in St. Cloud? From the way Marcus and Remiel had reacted when they found out what he was, the enormity of the situation hadn’t hit me until just now.
I didn’t have to ask to understand the implications. I knew that slamming into the barrier hadn’t killed that thing. It’d only destroyed the host.
I didn’t know how much more time we had before it found another body to inhabit.
We were going to have to figure out what we could do and try to make it out of here alive. But it was hard to concentrate with the notification flashing in the peripheral of my vision. I finally opened it, and a new window appeared in front of me.
☿ ARCANE-SYSTEM: QUEST UPDATE
The Mystery Of St. Marys Cathedral Location: St. Cloud | Year: 1920
Congratulations Jarek Donati, you have completed the secondary objective: Trust of the Cloth! Party member Sarah Brennan has completed the primary objective: Sanctuary’s Secret!
Trust of the Cloth — Gain the confidence of St. Marys clergy OBJECTIVE STATUS: COMPLETED
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES Sanctuary’s Secret — Discover what the clergy hid within St. Marys Cathedral OBJECTIVE STATUS: COMPLETED
QUEST REWARDS Current Rewards Earned: 3,200 Experience Points Objective Rewards: Each completed primary objective grants 1,000 experience points. Secondary objectives award 500 experience points each.
ATTRIBUTE ALLOCATION You have 7 unallocated attribute points. Level up! +2 Willpower, +1 Intellect
New Status Effect: Exhausted (Recovery required)
Quest Status: ACTIVE
I flicked it away. Sarah had made it through. That was all that mattered.
The world had gone quiet, and the weight of it was pulling hard at my consciousness. I was leaning against the cathedral wall, my hands shaking with visible tremors that wouldn’t stop even when I clenched them into fists. My mana was completely depleted, drained entirely by the barrier. The ward had taken everything and then demanded more—a debt I paid with health.
The barrier should’ve made me feel safe, but instead it made me feel trapped. Outside, the demons were still waiting, and we could hear them. Even through the stone and stained glass of the cathedral, they were making themselves known. They threw rocks at the barrier that passed right through and slammed into the bricks on the outside of the building as they taunted us, screaming obscenities.
Occasionally there’d be a different sound. A terrible sound. The screaming of a possessed townsperson as the demons hurled one of their own against it to test whether it was still holding. The barrier would flare, and the screaming would stop.
Outside, the demons were still there.
Azazel materialized a few feet from me, solidifying out of smoke like he was gathering himself back together from pieces. His form flickered. Unstable. When he tried to stand, his leg gave out, and he had to catch himself against a pew. He still looked like he was struggling to hold himself together.
“Don’t,” I said quietly, and he stopped trying to straighten up. “Just… don’t move for a minute. Christ, Az, you look like shit.”
“You should try to look in a mirror, Mud. You don’t look any better.”
Remiel appeared next to me, and the angel looked even worse. His armor was cracked in places, and there was something wrong with the way he was holding his left arm. When he tried to move, he flinched.
“The barrier is holding,” Remiel said. His voice was thin. Strained. “But it will not hold indefinitely.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Hours. Perhaps a day, depending on the assault. The ward was powerful enough to stop the Power from getting through. But at a cost.”
“How long before that thing can take another host?” I asked, my voice weak.
” Very little is known about the Powers. And I’ve never heard of an instance of them taking a host in creation. But with how things have been going this evening, Not long enough,” Remiel said.
“I don’t know if the rest of you got a notification but she did it,” I said. “Sarah… she completed the trial.”
Marcus moved toward the hidden staircase. “Father Hoffman was an ambitious young man. He didn’t deserve to die like that. He stopped for a moment, looking back towards us. I’m pretty sure it was Father Hoffman who informed Rome that we were hiding something here. Emil had been…” Marcus, stop for a moment. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
I pushed my weight back into the wall and sat back to listen to the sound of the barrier and the demons outside.
The slab in the wall that concealed the staircase slowly pushed open and Sarah emerged from the darkness below.
She moved like she was still trying to find her bearings. Marcus rushed to her, pulling her into a fierce hug. Even through her smiles, though, I could see the weight of something heavy on her shoulders.
“So did you have to fight the spirit?” I asked, coughing.
She sat down on one of the pews that was still sitting upright.
“What happened down there?” I asked.
Sarah was quiet for a long time before she answered.
“His name is Ethriel,” she said finally. “And no, I didn’t have to fight him.”
“The trial wasn’t exactly what we thought.” She said, taking a long breath. I was there to bear witness. Like a juror in a trial.”
I could see the heaviness of her thoughts on her face.
“What did he show you?” Remiel asked.
“It’s complicated,” Sarah said. “I can tell you the rest of the details another time, but here’s what’s important: the relic was something called a World-Stone.
Remiel and Azazel exchanged a look, their eyes wide.
“Sarah,” Remiel said, and I could hear caution in his tone. “Ask the system to identify the stone, please. I assume it’s in your inventory.”
“Yeah, not exactly,” Sarah said. “It’s the one for Anatheneia. Purgatory.”
“So you know of the other stones then?” Remiel asked.
Sarah got up and walked over to me. She studied my face.
“You made the barrier,” she said dodging Remiel’s question for the moment.
” I did. But I’m afraid some things got… Sarah, Father Hoffman is dead.
She looked to Marcus, and Marcus’s shoulders sagged. “Father Hoffman is the reason we’re all in this mess in the first place. He’s the one who brought the angels here to kill me.”
“Yeah well I don’t think that they were just here to kill you, sister,” Azazel cut in. “Did the spirit explain what a World-Stone is? Did it tell you where the others are?”
“I know what the world stones are,” she said, “and the other two stones are somewhere on Earth, but I don’t know where or when.”
“Well,” I said, “Still struggling to pull myself up. “Then that’s a problem for tomorrow.”
“Jay, if Sarah has one of the World-Stones, one of the seeds, this would explain why heaven and hell are here,” Remiel said. “It might explain what drew the attention of the Powers.”
“Well, they can get fucked because they’re not going to get the stone, and they’re definitely not getting Sarah,” Az snapped.
Another screaming demon was thrown against the barrier, and Sarah flinched, a look of horror in her eyes.
I looked over at Remiel and down to Azazel. “I think we’re going to have to try and make a break for it. I take it you two are still out for the count?”
Azazel was sewing up his wound with an oversized dramatic needle and he just looked up at me, shaking his head.
“Yeah, stupid question, sorry.”
“How are we doing on ammo then?” I asked.
“I’m afraid I used the last of what we had for salt rounds and the warded slugs,” Marcus answered. “I still have a couple of bullets for the revolver though.”
“I have two magazines left for my Colts.” I added.
“All in all, I’m actually in pretty good shape,” Sarah said. “I have full stamina and fury. I also have a new attribute pool called Spirit, but it’s still charging. I’m not sure what I can do with it yet. I haven’t had a chance to go through my notifications.”
“Alright, Sarah, I need you to listen carefully. I want you to take Father Marcus over and have him use one of his ward slots for that concealment ward. Marcus, do you have something that you can wear or have on your person?”
“No, I don’t have jewelry or anything of the like.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a coin, then tossed it over to him. “This will have to do for now,” I said. “We’re going to have to do everything we can to try and conceal ourselves when we leave the barrier.”
Sarah grabbed Marcus’s hand and pulled him over toward the altar.
“Okay, you two,” I said, looking at Remiel and Azazel. “How do we get the demons to leave the townspeople?”
“I think the easiest way, Mud, is just to remove the thing they’re looking for in the first place,” Azazel said. “If they don’t have a reason to be here, then they’ll leave.”
A thought hit me all at once. “So they need to see us leave through the aperture. Can’t they just follow us?”
“No,” Remiel said. “They could try and find us in Purgatory, but they have to leave creation the same way they entered. The rules about apertures have not changed. And these demons aren’t actually here, remember? That’s why they’re possessing hosts. We won’t be able to stay on the other side of the aperture in Purgatory for long, though. It’s the first place they’re going to come looking as soon as they can.”
“All right, then. There’s probably the potential for additional hidden apertures in that… place,” I said. “We’re not going to be able to go through an aperture that’s going to take us somewhere like ancient Greece or something. And we can’t take an aperture that’s going to put us into the future either, right?”
“That is correct,” Remiel added. “We have to find an aperture that leads to a time period before your death.”
“Okay, that means we’re looking for any points of interest tied to a time between now and then.”
“I think we need to focus on any of the echoes that are associated with unknown events like this cathedral,” Az said. “I think we’re going to find that that’s going to be our best bet for finding additional apertures. And I think I got a good one in mind.”
“How far?” Remiel asked.
“I would say about a day’s walk.”
“That’s not ideal, but I think we can make it work,” Remiel said.
“Nice. Good news, Mud. You’re going to get to play private detective a little longer.”
All at once, the cathedral shook beneath us. The candles flickered violently, and the bells in the tower rang out once in a single clear note. Then the floor cracked with a fissure running like lightning toward the altar. Underneath the crack was light—celestial light. From beneath the stone, something emerged, pulling itself up through the cathedral floor.
“I don’t understand. How could he have gotten inside?” I demanded.
“Because I was already inside, Jarek Donati, before you cast your corrupt barrier!” a voice roared.
The eyes of the Archangel glowed, seemingly burning the flesh around the sockets. As the man stood to his feet, he pulled a celestial blade from thin air. Marcus and Sarah rushed him from behind, but with a swift motion of his hand and a pulse of energy, they were both thrown backward, crashing further into the cathedral.
“Where is the world stone?” the angel demanded.
“I know it’s here!”
I looked over to find Remiel and Azazel gone. My vision swam as I struggled to stay upright, pulling the Trinity blade from my inventory.
“It’s right over here, you son of a bitch. Come and get it!”
The angel moved forward with supernatural speed, grabbing me by my throat and lifting me up off the ground before tossing me.
I slammed against the boarded-up front doors of the cathedral. The impact knocked the wind from my lungs, and I struggled to find my breath.
The angel’s celestial blade changed its shape into a long-handled, double-sided axe that he dragged on the ground behind him as he approached.
“I am going to remove each and every one of your limbs, Nephilim. You will give me what I’ve come for.”
I struggled, trying to get the words out of my mouth. I could taste the iron tang of blood.
“Speak up, you pathetic fool!” the angel stormed across the cathedral, grabbing me by the neck and lifting me up again.
“I said,” straining to get every syllable out, “GET FUCKED!”
The angel roared, but before he dropped me I managed to get my hands around the handle of one of my Colts.
