The World in Dissonance (Volume 1)

Chapter 1 - Part 3

Part 3

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One and half an hour passed.

Alyss and Sonya were already back in their room at the Regency manor. Alyss was resting on her bed while Sonya was sitting on a chair next to the windows. The younger Liddel twin held the telephone in her hands and was waiting for someone to answer on the other side of the line. Obviously, the one she was calling was her elder twin.

"Have you lost your mind? You really played with fire back there, always doing something crazy like that.", Alyss was sermonising her sister. "It was an astral projection right? And what was that darkness that followed you? It smelled like the odor of countless rotten corps."

"Ya don't hafta worry 'bout me. I said I will find a way to deal with the witches, right!? ‘Dat was the solution I've came up with. Everythin' hast been calculated to achieve the current situation. Now, ya two can focus on yer part without any disturbance from their side."

"I am more worried about Laurencia, I am sure if it was an astral projection, she had to watch over your body to prevent Psychopomps from mistaking you with a dead person. That may have scared her. Whatever will happen to you, will happen. Just don't involve our sister in your crazy ideas."

"Yeah, ya right!! I shouldn't have involved her...", the tone in Dedicatus's voice changed. She could have criticized her twin that she herself was irresponsible for leaving their little sister alone before Dedicatus herself could come back. But the girl with medical eyepatch was not the kind of person to blame others, and she knew that her twin sister was just worried about their little sister. Well, she overlooked it this time. "One last thin' Alyss."

"What is it?"

"Big Sis loves ya n' Sonya!! Take care of yerselves n' never hesitate to seek her help. She will fight even the whole army of hell for ya two."

"Fine!", answered Alyss blankly. But despite the way she answered, she blushed slightly after hearing those words.

"Also, tell Sonya she hafta take care of her butt for me."

As usual, Dedicatus never forgot about that part and before she could finish her sentence, she heard the ring of the telephone being hung up.

"Darn it, she didn't lemme finish again. Such a shy lil' sister.", murmured the girl to herself.

Christian and Witches,

They were like the yin and yang.

They wouldn't clash directly as that time had not arrived yet. Despite that, both sides would often try to mess up with one another, mostly the witches. They were persecuted for a long period by the Church and were often forced to retire deep in the forest. So if the occasion were to happen for them to avenge themselves, they wouldn't hesitate at all.

Dedicatus was more aware of that than anyone else. And to avoid any harm caused to her sister, she didn't hesitate to put her life on the line.

Astral Projection was a state where the spirit moved out of the physical body to a different place. With enough meditation and visualization, one could move his spirit outside his body in order to go to a place he had perfectly visualised.

But the process was risky, as when the spirit left the body, it was mostly because one had died.

According to many religions, entities such as Psychopomps were guiding the spirits of dead people to the hereafter. Thus, if one were to make an out-of-body experience for too long, those beings would mistake the person for a dead person and would proceed to harvest his soul.

Going to a witch cult and facing witches directly was one kind of insane, but doing an astral projection was another one.

"That's the kind of person she is.", declared Sonya while looking at the desperate Alyss. "Dedicatus has always said that knowing how your enemy operates would help you win the war. Let her do her thing, as long as she doesn't bring harm to anyone, especially herself."

"Well, what she did was crazy but now, we can rest well without any fear of a witch trying to cast a bad luck spell on us."

"Still, let's take some precautions in any case.", proposed Sonya while holding her Bible. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Amen"

Psalm 23 was one of the most famous verses in the book of Psalm. There was an adage saying the more things were repeated without convictions, the less they would have a concrete impact. But for experts like Sonya and Alyss, they knew how important those verses were. There was no trace of doubt in their heart.

"Let's rest for now. We can continue our investigation tomorrow.", proposed Alyss.

"Got it. And based on your vision, I guess we can expect to visit the campus..."

"There are still some unclear images I saw in my visions. Hope we'll get to know them soon. Well, I'm counting on you on that part."

The sun went to bed for quite a long time.

The Moon was in its highest position.

It had begun.

The Witching Hour had begun.

The whole congregation led by Johann Fawkes was in the forest, on the other side of the town. All dressed in dark robes, they were forming a circle. A sacred geometry design with runic patterns was drawn on the ground. In the middle was an altar. It was the Witch's Sabbath, so everything was set up according to their folklore.

On the other side of the forest was standing a single witch. She was in her 16th, wearing what looked like a dark wedding dress that gave her a macabre impression. Her long dark hair gave her a captivating look, and her right eye was covered fully by her bangs. The girl had a beauty mark right under her left eye. She was standing on the other side of a Devil's Bridge, like one that could be seen all around the world.

The ancient looking bridge was 10 meters long and had the design of an arch, just like in many folklore. Its entrance was decorated by thorns which were shaped to look like a doorpost. At its sides, one could see some old looking candelabras twisted in rusty iron.

The girl made her advance slowly, and once she passed the doorpost made of thorn, sulphuric blue flame lit on top of the candelabras.

In her field of vision was the person of Johann Fawkes, standing next to the altar.

He was dressed in his usual dark priest robes, holding a cane, which gave him the look of an aristocrat. On the altar, she could see an opened book.

By the way it looked, it was made of human rotten flesh, suited perfectly for a coven walking down the path of satanism, and a knife made by animal bone was placed next to it, along with a feather pen. It was new to no one that bones served as a bridge between the physical and the metaphysical realm, making it a perfect material for pagan ritual.

The moment the young witch set her feet inside the pentacle, the whole congregation started to sing what seemed to be an ancient ritual song in latin.

As she advanced closer to the altar, she could see a large table with all kinds of food behind the witches and warlocks that formed the circle.

It was a tradition for witches to have a festivity after a big ceremony.

The Black Mass,

That was how they referred to it.

Since ancient times, those who walked the path of the night were practicing that celebration in different forms, depending solely on their coven. The celebration itself was based on the Roman Catholic Mass, but just like all cults devoted to The Beast, it was mocking Christianity in any blasphemous way. Just like how the Anti-Christ had an inverted cross as its symbolism, The Black Mass inverted everything in the Catholic Mass, altering the recitation of Latin prayers to be focused on Satan.

After a few more steps, the young witch arrived in front of the altar.

"Witches and Warlocks, we are all gathered here to celebrate the baptism of this young lad, who now has reached the age to make her Faustian Bargain and walk down the path of the Beast.", said Johann as he looked at the young girl. The congregation, who was chanting latin blasphemy stopped right as he started to express himself and the young witch in a dark wedding dress kneeled down. "Young witch, do you consent to give everything to our lord The Beast of the Apocalypse, serve him and never turn yourself on him?"

"Yes, I consent.", replied the girl without any hesitation.

"Do you consent to give your first to him as proof of your loyalty, to worship him and do his bidding?"

"Yes, I consent."

Johann moved his right hand in front of her face. Like a Catholic and an Anglican high priest, he was wearing a ring that symbolised his status as a priest. The young witch then approached her lips and kissed the ring.

"Now, my child, you may write your name in The Book of The Beast!"

The young witch stood on her two feet then moved in front of the altar. Without any hesitation in her heart, she took the knife made of animal bone and cut the palm of her left hand with it.

Blood was flowing non-stop from it. Right after, she let some of the blood on a page of the book then took the feather pen. Just like all her predecessors, the girl was using her blood as an ink to write her name in The Book of The Beast.

Lilim Silverstar,

That was her name.

Once she was done writing her name in the book, the whole ground started to shake as if an earthquake was happening.

As a result, the ground behind the altar was fissured and a hellish heat was emitting from it.

Then, a bestial figure emerged from the fissure.

It had a haunting shape, with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a powerful, fur-covered goat. Its torso was bare, revealing intricate, ancient symbols etched into its skin, each one a representation of hidden knowledge and mystical secrets.

Its head was adorned with long, twisted horns that curve elegantly, like a crown, hinting at both authority and primal power over the night. Its eyes hold a deep gaze as if capable of seeing straight through a person's facade.

"Our Lord Satan himself came from the depth core of Earth to welcome you in his Kingdom. Now my Child, you may proceed to pay your homage to our Lord."

The witch girl Lilim kneeled before their deity and kissed its hooves then lastly, she crawled between its two legs and then, turned back to kiss The Devil's buttockes.

Osculum Infame,

That was the name of the rite Lilim did when she paid her homage to The Devil.

It was the initiation rite for all newly baptised witches and warlocks. As requested according to their folklore, the Osculum Infame would be followed by a feasting which took on L'Ultima Cena, mostly known as The Last Supper and inverted its practice.

The feasting would hold an orgy between The Devil and its demons with the members of its Coven, with Satan himself taking the first time of his newly baptised follower, either they were a male or female.

Time passed.

While the members of the coven were still giving into their act of degradation with The Devil and Its minions, two witches secluded themselves not so far in the woods. Their aim was nothing but to test their new begotten power, received directly from The Seed of The Devil.

"Make sure the 2 dimensional circle is drawn correctly according to The Wheel of The Year. We will sync our power with the influence of the stars according to Samhaim.", said one of them.

The circle they were drawing was engraved deeply on the ground, with 8 stones on each extremity of the eight-point swastika. On each stone, a symbol could be seen and each one of them had a different color, based on the holidays of The Wheel.

It was likely that the two witches were prepared in advance as they even had pigeons ready for sacrifice.

"Picture their face while you offer the pigeons as a sacrifice to our Dark Lord. Picture those two who dared defy our coven."

They both took a pigeon each then killed the birds while having its blood flowing down the swastika.

"O you gates, you who keep the gates because of Osiris, O you who guard them and who report the affairs of the Two Lands to Osiris every day; I know you and I know your names."

That chant should have activated their spell. In fact, it was supposed to. But there were no spells activated. They made no mistakes in their rite, yet nothing happened.

Then all of a sudden, one of them started to vomit blood.

And it also started to flow from her eyeballs and her nose. Her friend started to panic with nothing but fear in her mind.

"O Great One, Lord Satan, why is this happening to your servants?"

She couldn't complain much as she also started to suffer the same affliction as her friend.

While coughing blood, she tried to cover her mouth with her left hand and noticed something irregular. Mixed with her blood was a pigeon's feathers.

And at that moment, she realised their rite didn't work at all, not because of a bad practice, nor a wrong pattern.

Both witches came to understand that their failure was due to trying to mess up with the wrong people. And they continued coughing blood till a pigeon came out of each one's mouth, leading them to fall unconscious.