The World in Dissonance (Volume 1)

Chapter 1 - Part 2

Part 2

Time flew.

It was most likely 8:30 pm.

Alyss and Sonya got down in the lobby.

Alyss was wearing something like a school uniform. A white shirt covered in an oversized beige sweater. By the looks of it, her shirt was oversized as well, and the tips of the bottom were reaching her knees. Her sweater was so long one could barely see the mini-skirt underneath. She was wearing white high knee socks and on her feet were what appeared to be sturdy shoes, hinting at a practical nature despite her whimsical style.

As for Sonya, the girl was wearing an oversized plaid that engulfed her body frame. The garment had large pockets and was unbuttoned, leaving one to see the black crop top underneath. She was wearing a light-blue denim skirt, exposing her bare legs, which added a touch of contrast to her otherwise covered-up appearance. Her footwear consisted of what looked like sneakers, red in color, suggesting a practical, everyday style.

Looking at them, one would easily guess they were planning to go out. But as a gentleman, the receptionist didn't ask them where they would go. There was nothing much to see nor to do in the town at times such as this, and knowing the current situation, he could have asked them, but it was better for him to mind his own business.

Once outside, Sonya made some gym movements to stretch the muscle of her body.

"Now, let's get down to business. The witching hour is three and half hours from now. We can safely confront them before we hit midnight.", said Sonya without any fear in her voice. "Witches are leaving among us, they are our neighbours but we don't usually know it. For movies and novels amateurs, they would live hidden in the forest, tormenting mortals and k********g kids to eat them."

"Well, fictional stories portrayed witches to look like an old hag living all alone in a wooden house deep in the forest. She would prepare a potion using weird ingredients such as frogs, spiders or snakes' venom. See the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel presented by the Grimm for example. The old witch is living in a bread and sugar house. She intended to fatten poor Hansel for her cannibalism fetishes. And look at the story of Frau Trude, still presented by the Brothers Grimm. The little girl, so curious to see the witch, ventured into her hut and ended up turning into a block of woods after seeing Frau Trude's true attire."

"Not denying that Folklore often takes from real life tho. In any case, let's find the entryway to the witch's hut.", replied Sonya. "Earlier today, while we just arrived in the town, I noticed many symbols. They would look like some random and normal things to a regular person but it's exactly how witches hide themselves."

"Yeah, I noticed them as well. If we follow the patterns, we will likely find the entrance."

The two maidens were well prepared. They closed their eyes to concentrate and began to feel the spiritual wavelength left by the symbols all around the place. They didn't know where all of them were respectively located, but they felt it.

And thus, they started following where the traits of mysticism were converging as that would be their ticket to where the witch's hut would be.

The starry night sky was dazzling and its mesmerizing light gave a feeling of warmth.

They weren't in the city for tourism, but getting a view of the place at night was worth the voyage.

The fountain in the Market Street reflected the beauty of the moon on its clear water and fireflies were dancing around it. One of the street lights surrounding it was malfunctioning, which somehow gave it a thrilling vibe. And some park benches could be seen in many corners of the town, with one of them next to a phone booth. Elderly people would often sit on those benches and feed breadcrumbs to pigeons.

While admiring the landscape, the two girls continued to follow the spiritual wavelength they felt. They didn't even go in the direction of the forest and went in a totally opposed way instead. The night was cloaking the street in a hushed, velvety darkness. The tall trees stood like silent sentinels, their branches now barely visible except for the faint shimmer of moonlight that danced upon their leaves. The wet road reflected the dim glow of streetlights, their soft amber hues flickering in the cool evening air. Shadows stretched long and uncertain along the path, where the crisp scent of damp earth and fallen leaves lingered. The silent atmosphere brought by the moonlight was replaced by the occasional rustle of the wind through the trees. It was a scene of stillness, where the world seemed to slow down, wrapped in the quiet solitude of the starry night.

The spiritual energy was gathered in an old train station that was ravaged by time. The platforms serving the West Coast was likely closed and it became a home for delinquents during the day and a house for the homeless during the night.

You could see some fire being lit up, using woods placed in a barrel. One could see many graffiti on the wall, as well as some old mural paint. Weirdly, the paints on the wall included a black cat. Another one was that of a graffiti expressing the word 'Freedom'. It was weirdly too normal, so for an expert, it gave a feeling for the perfect place to hide the door to the world of the witches.

And at that precise night, the hut for the homeless was practically devoid of Human presence. Not even a single soul could be seen in the station. Sonya, who brought her bag, took an old book that she opened and directed to the old train station. At a close look, one could see it was a Bible.

"For it's said: 'For there is nothing hidden, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad.', reveal yourself to us."

After reciting Mark 4:22 as if invoking a spell, Sonya snapped her Bible shut. In that very moment, a wall of mist began to materialize, thickening from the very air itself.

Moving blindly into the mist would bring nothing good to them, so Sonya and Alyss didn't move an inch from where they were standing. They were looking around while staying on alert in case something were to happen. It didn't take much time for the mist to dissipate, and once the surrounding air was back to normal, the two beautiful girls found themselves in the garden of the witches.

It was exactly the same town as before.

Nothing changed, but the girl could tell it from the atmosphere surrounding them that they were on the other side of the coin.

Witches were said to have the mark of the Devil as to say that they made a deal and belonged to the Beast mentioned in the Book of Apocalypse. They lived discreetly among ordinary people, blending into everyday life. Yet, they had a secret garden of their own. It mirrored the village they lived in, like the other side of a coin, but with key differences: an academy dedicated to dark arts, covens for their sabbatic rituals, and a mystical library brimming with arcane knowledge.

Just before the two girls ventured into the Witch’s hut, Alyss was struck by a sudden vision. Supernatural powers were real, and it always came from either one of the two original sources: darkness or light. The closest analogy was the Taijitu symbol of yin and yang in Chinese philosophy, or the concept of Asha and Druj in Zoroastrianism.

The world was governed by this dualistic balance—good and evil, light and shadow. If witches drew their power from the dark arts and Satan, the christians as their counterparts gained theirs through divine gifts and blessings from God.

According to the Scriptures in the Bible, there were nine gifts from The Spirit and Alyss's gift, which was that of Foretelling, was part of the ninth. As it suggested, the gift of Foretelling or Prophecy was the ability to share future events told to you by The Holy Spirit, and sometimes it happened in a form of vision. So in her vision, Alyss saw a glimpse of what would happen: some witches were gathering inside a coven, preparing for some major ritual, then the room switched to a dark and vile place where they were turning around what appears to be a sacred geometry pattern, reciting incantations in Latin to summon the Devil itself.

Then she also saw a book, one that would evoke a dark side of Human history. Malleus Maleficarum, that was its name.

Then her vision shifted to another scenario where she saw a giant mouth with a twisted tongue on top of Bellemort Campus in the part of the city where they were staying. A dark liquid was overflowing from the giant mouth and the citizens of the Lancaster were drinking it. Her vision was blurry, as it only showed partially the future in a mysterious way. At last, she saw something really dark, threatening, mixed in an atmosphere of death, somehow like a representation of a dead end. She couldn't really describe it fully as some pictures were still unclear to her, but she shared all of them with Sonya.

.

..

...

"So, that's basically everything I saw.", said Alyss after narrating to her friend the vision she just had. "And I only understand them partially for now."

"First thing, we need to hurry. The first part of your vision included a witchcraft ritual involving the summoning of the king of the devils. From what Dedicatus told us, that ceremony is held mostly during their sabbatic festivity."

The two girls were running.

They were running in the direction of the cemetery. For an expert, the reason was obvious. The World was governed by two opposing ideas: light and darkness, good and evil, life and death. Death in itself was part of life, it was not evil. But in some cultures, it was often associated with evil. Alyss and Sonya were running towards that place for a single reason, and it was because the coven of the witches were located there. While running under the starry night, they could feel some gazes directed upon them.

There were no witches at times as they would be all gathered in the coven in preparation for their sabbath, yet both girls felt the uncomfortable feeling of being observed. But it didn't stop them from running. Not till they reached the cemetery.

There was a thin layer of mist covering the tombs there, and next to those was standing a chapel. It was already dark and only the moonlight was illuminating the scenery, but one could still see that the chapel was black in color.

Crows were gathering on top of it. Its old architecture gave a feeling of pressure (like coming out from a scary movie) where if one were to venture there all by oneself, the person won't be able to come back. Engraved on top of its door was the expression: 'Abandon all hope, ya who enter here'.

The inside of the coven was reminiscent of an ancient church one might stumble upon in the shadowed corners of an old town. The stone walls were weathered, their cracks and crevices crawling with dark ivy that seemed to pulse in the dim light.

The space was modest in size, enough to host around a hundred, but it felt claustrophobic, as if the walls themselves were closing in.

Chandeliers of twisted black iron hung from the ceiling, their chains creaking eerily, and on each corner stood tall, gnarled candelabras, each topped with a sulphuric blue flame that flickered unnaturally, casting unsettling shadows that danced along the floor and walls.

Two columns ran down the center, and between them, ten rows of rough-hewn wooden benches lined the path toward the front. The benches were worn, their surfaces scarred with arcane symbols and claw marks, as though marked by unseen hands.

At the far end of the room stood an altar, much like one would find in a Christian Church, but draped in a tattered, dark fabric, with strange runes etched into the stone. Behind it, an old and decaying mural of the Lord of the flies loomed, its eyes seeming to follow any who dared to step too close.

The air was thick with the scent of aged wood, damp stone, and something acrid, as though the very walls had soaked up centuries of dark rituals.

A congregation had gathered before their priest, their figures cloaked in shadow.

The number between male and female, young and elders were somehow balanced. Some sat silently in the worn, creaking pews, while others stood in the corners, half-hidden in the dark recesses of the room. Their faces were obscured, a mixture of reverence and dread etched into their expressions.

The dark priest stood at the altar, an imposing figure in his 47th draped in a flowing robe that resembled that of a Roman Catholic deacon, but with a sinister twist. His robe was pitch black, the fabric shimmering faintly in the dim, unnatural light, and emblazoned across his chest was an inverted cross. While he was preaching blasphemy, entirely based on the teaching in the Satanic Bible, a crow intruded the dark room through one of the windows and sat on his shoulders.

It was making a saw sound, like if it were talking to the priest.

An expert would immediately recognize the crow as the Familiar Spirit of the priest. It was common for witches and warlocks to form a contract with supernatural entities, who then would take on an animal or humanoid form and become their spirit guardians. Those were what would be described by modern society as Familiar. Only its contractor would be able to understand its voice, so in fact, the crow and the priest were discussing.

The door then opened, and intruding the realm of the witches was none other than the two girls.

"You dare enter our blasphemous sanctuary, you believer of the false God.", declared the priest while raising his voice. "You are playing with your life."

"It's not like we are here for our own pleasure.", replied Sonya.

"But there is something that requires our presence here, at this precise moment.", continued Alyss.

The whole congregation stood up at their arrival and gazed maliciously at them. Without any delay, an old witch raised her finger and pointed at the two young girls.

"A shnaydenish dir in boyd.", said the old witch as she was cursing them in Yiddish.

"Careful with what you're saying, witch...", exclaimed Sonya. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell."

"Did you all really think we would come here unprepared!?", added Alyss. "Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve. Because they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again."

It felt like a spiritual battle opposing Biblical Verses and malicious curses. The spell that the old witch cast on Alyss and Sonya was reversed and she started to feel the effect on herself. As for all of her fellow witches, they raised their voice.

"Curse you!"

"Curse you!"

"Moecha Putida!"

"Futue te ipsi!"

"Futuere!"

They were cursing and insulting the two girls but it didn't affect them at all. It was as if an invisible barrier was shielding them from all of those words.

"A direct war between the Kingdoms we belong to has been prohibited, yet you are here. You dare defy us in our coven and you think you can win this.", declared the dark priest.

"Instead of waging a war, we are here for a different matter. But I guess witches and christians won't be able to have a proper dialogue.", countered Alyss

While the two sides were antagonising each other, in a mesmerizing way, the girl known as Dedicatus appeared out of thin air. The way she appeared gave a feeling that she had been teleported inside the place.

"Ladies n' Gentlemen, Genderless n' Elementals... Whoever ya art n' whatever ya art, behave yerself."

Her sudden apparition was so unexpected that both sides, who were used to supernatural phenomena, stood astonished by the girl's manifestation. The girl was carrying an old book in her right hand.

"Servant of the Beast, hear me out. Put away yer fangs before any of ya all get hurt.", said Dedicatus without hesitation.

"Darn, sounds like Am so Peak with those rhythms.", added the Girl as she spoke to herself

Hearing what she just said, Johann Fawkes, the dark priest moved down in front of her. As he did so, they were facing each other closely.

"Heresy, such a puny creature like you dare to threaten me, Johann Fawkes?", declared the priest as he stomped the ground hardly, causing a wave of dark mist to spread around him. "Sequere Naturam."

"Ya fuccin' maggot lack a darn brain, don't ya!? I told ya to put away yer fuccin' spell if ya didn't want to suffer. But as I see, ya witches are fuccin' masochists.", said Dedicatus as she looked at Johann in his eyes. Every single being in the room could feel the intense killing intent emanating from her gaze."If death is what ya wish, I will be its messenger."

Dedicatus opened the book in her hand.

Johann noticed the name of the Book when Dedicatus opened it, and it was none but one of the most influencing books sold along with The Holy Bible during 1508. It was in pretty good shape despite being an old edition from that era.

Malleus Maleficarum.

Right after she opened that book, the previously closed door of the coven opened violently. No one could be seen standing there, but all of them could feel an imposing presence. The inside of the coven was lightened by the blue sulfuric flame coming from the candelabras, so even if it was night, one could still see everything clearly in the room. Then suddenly, like in a horror movie, darkness started to spread from the door and wrap everything in its embrace.

Everything that happened up till that precise moment was all according to what Alyss saw in her vision. So, as if to back up the eldest twin of the Liddel, Alyss and Sonya moved and stood right behind her, face turned to the upcoming darkness.

"Let the judge so manage the witnesses and the torture that the accused shall not be warned in advance or understand when and how she will be tortured, so that she may have no time to invoke the protection of the devil.", said Dedicatus, reading a passage of the Malleus Maleficarum. "Now let's imagine that all this ruckus arrives at the door of The Anglican Church n' The Vatican. The Anglican art expert in Witch Huntin' while The Catholic specializes in torture n' execution... We are talkin’ about real experts here, not some randoms like the wannabe hunters in this village. None of ya dumbasses witches will survive."

Johann remained silent.

By the look on his face, one could say he had never felt so offended yet he couldn't respond to the whole provocation. But the worst for him was to be shamed in front of his congregation by a girl who was not even half his age.

"Eye for an eye. That's yer culture, right!?", declared Dedicatus. "Who knows!! Ya witches may be preparin' a major spell to deal with the situation in the village right now. Will ya all ask for more curse from yer dark lord after ya art done with the Osculum Infame!? Well, I give no fucc if ya all lose yerself in a fuccin' orgy with The Devil then get more curse power from Its seed. That's yer business, not fuccin' ours. But dare to use any nocturnal rites against the city at yer own risks!!"

The moment she said that, darkness had covered half of the place and stopped right before Sonya and Alyss. They were feeling the pressure more than anyone else. Johann gazed at Dedicatus furiously and finally spoke.

"A child of man like you dare threaten us with the darkness of death. Hahahahaha... You three are nothing but a small circle in the depth of this hell.", said Johann. The dark priest's right arm was in motion, forming the shape of a star as if to cast a spell. Moreover, he was emitting a tremendous aura.

But even so, it left Dedicatus unfazed. She gazed even more at the priest.

"As my dude Crowley once said, ’Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law...’ Two paths art presented to ya, one that leads to yer survival n' one to yer demise.", ended Dedicatus with a sadistic smile on her face.

And just after sayin' those words, she closed her book. The atmosphere between Dedicatus and Johann were tense, so tense that it could end in a direct clash. And as to show their support for Dedicatus, Alyss and Sonya took their Bibles and crosses.

"Yer take, dark priest!! Ya have been warned.", and just after those words, Dedicatus vanished the same way she appeared in the coven all of a sudden.

Once she vanished, the darkness that covered half of the room faded slowly and the feeling of pressure it brought disappeared as well.

"You all heard our friend, witches? Behave yourself and don't make any stupid decisions like cursing the village or harming the raiders.", declared Sonya while taking advantage of the situation. "First of all, both of us are here to take care of this situation. We are not seeking your cooperation but let us be clear: Stay out of this."

"This whole witch hunt scenario started with the discovery of a ceremonial rite in the Lord's Lot forest.", continued Sonya. "If any of you here are often going in that forest, I ask you to raise your hand."

None of them even paid attention to what the young girl Sonya was saying. It was perfectly normal, Witches would never listen to a Christian. Doing that would mean they were listening to their God, who according to their heretical belief was a false God.

"Would it suit you better to answer under the directive of an inquisitor?", said Alyss.

"Tsch...", Johann clicked his tongue then addressed the whole congregation. "Answer them and let's end this farce."

The moment Johann gave his approval, some witches raised their hands. They were all young, male and female, around their 16s to 18s, the age for teenagers to attend high school.

"Do you all attend Bellemort Campus in the town?"

"Yes, they all do. It's part of a witch's formation to mix themself with the masses.", answered Johann in an unpleasant tone. "During the day, they would attend high school and learn how to live with humans. At night, they would attend the Academy of Dark Arts and worship Satan with the highest form of blasphemy. Any other questions?"

No witches were willing to directly answer the two girls. They were all bearing malicious intent toward them. So Sonya decided to end the inquisition.

"No, that shall be all. We will make our leave.”