·
「Fifteen minutes ago.」
Father Natas carried an old-fashioned oil lamp, descending at a steady pace down the black stone steps that had been carved out over a century ago, heading deep underground.
Before long, Natas reached a dim, candlelit cavern. The air was thick with a putrid stench that had steeped for a century. But to him, the sll—strong enough to make a person vomit on the spot—was as refreshing as the aroma of food in a fine restaurant.
An Inverted Pentagram Array was painted on the cavern floor in black and red pignt. It was filled with densely packed ancient text and symbols that looked as if they were ford from bloody, severed limbs—baring fangs and brandishing claws, twisted and evil, making no attempt to hide their malevolence.
In front of the Inverted Pentagram Array stood an altar, upon which lay an open Ancient Book. The illustrations inside were bloody and cruel, depicting the many atrocities Demons committed after taking control of the Mortal World.
Pale candles scattered throughout the cavern burned with an eerie light, illuminating a massive pit. Inside, countless shattered skeletons were piled high, all picked clean. There were so many that they nearly filled the entire pit.
Natas glanced at the pit, then looked away.
Since the ti of his great-great-grandfather, his family had been loyal followers of Satan. The bones and remains here were their family’s masterpiece, crafted over hundreds of years.
Ninety-nine percent of the people who had gone missing from Akita Town over the centuries were in this pit.
Father Natas approached the altar, slowly turning the pages of the Ancient Book before him as he muttered to himself:
"Father, Grandfather. Ever since I was old enough to understand, I’ve wondered... does the Satan we worship truly exist? If he does, then our family has worshipped him for centuries, offering him countless sacrifices. A faith this loyal would have been immortalized in epic poems in ancient tis, praised and celebrated for generations. But why has he never once responded?"
"And if he doesn’t exist, what was the purpose of our faith? What was the point of centuries of sacrifices and belief?"
"Later, I ca to understand. Satan doesn’t exist, and neither does God. They’re just fabrications of religion, a spiritual crutch for their followers. Worshipping Satan was nothing more than an excuse for our wicked family to kill indiscriminately and vent our violent, evil impulses."
"I must admit, it was a great disappointnt."
"A very great disappointnt."
He had been indoctrinated to believe in Satan since he was a child, and he had been a faithful supporter for as long as he could rember. The Natas of the past could have been called Satan’s most devout follower. He dread of one day descending into Hell to see Satan with his own eyes, or of having one of his sacrifices answered. But as he grew older, he discovered that it had all been a lie from the very beginning. The object of his faith simply did not exist, and everything his family had done for centuries was utterly aningless.
This left Natas utterly disillusioned. He put an end to the family’s centuries of uninterrupted sacrifices, decisively cutting ties with his past. He then earnestly resud his role as the priest of Akita Town. Even though he knew it was all aningless, being a priest who worshipped God was clearly far better than being a heretic who worshipped Satan.
Respect, admiration, money, sex... all of it was his for the taking.
But not long ago, Natas made a surprising discovery: he possessed a mysterious Supernatural Power.
—he could influence people’s emotions.
After his initial shock, Natas began to practice using that Power.
He effortlessly duped countless won and young boys and just as easily beguiled mature adults, making them obediently hand over their hard-earned savings.
Natas indulged his whims without restraint for a long ti, until his ambition and greed grew ever larger—he wanted more.
One night, on a whim, Natas rembered the Pagan Books he had sealed away. He dug them out and began experinting with each of them.
And he actually succeeded!
A Ritual Array recorded in one of the Ancient Books produced an unprecedented Transformation when activated. An evil Power surged into his body. After several attempts, Natas discovered he could manifest a tall, pitch-black avatar. This avatar needed to be fed with death, chaos, and humanity’s Seven Original Sins.
Natas secretly kidnapped several vagrants for his experints. Their deaths did indeed increase his avatar’s Power, a Power he could clearly perceive and control. He beca increasingly fascinated, and from that point on, there was no stopping him.
And so began the string of bizarre murders in Akita Town.
The killers in those cases had all been beguiled by him, which drove them to commit such violent murders. As for the people who went missing, they all ended up in the belly of his Demon Avatar.
As death and sin mounted, the Demon Avatar and Natas’s own Power grew stronger. His Ability began to radiate outward, influencing the entire town. He could even take complete control of people, turning them into puppets to help him kidnap more sacrifices.
’This Power... how is it any different from that of a God?’
Now, all traces of benevolence had vanished from Natas’s face. A crazed smile spread across his lips as he whispered in excitent:
"There is no God in this World, nor is there a Satan."
"But tonight, I shall beco Satan! And in the future, I shall beco the God who rules this World!"
Turning the Ancient Book to the page recording the Spell, Natas stepped back, stood within the Inverted Pentagram Array, and loudly chanted the ancient, obscure Spell.
The next second, a torrent of black miasma erupted from the Inverted Pentagram Array. A colossal figure materialized behind Natas. It had the eyes of a fly, the horns of a goat, the Wings of a dragon, and the scales of a serpent...
User Comments
0 comments from readers