The group gathered to the 2nd floor as the first floor was on fire, Bianca however stayed on the 1st floor to put it out. How, Andrew could not guess, nor was he energetic enough to care
Mike carried him on his back to the room Franz was protecting the children in. The Arch Prelate Father and the Senior Prelate Sisters came along.
As they arrived to the room and were shocked.
The children were fine
But...
Franz was missing.
"Th-they took him." One of the boys mumbled.
"The goat men..."
"!!!"
"They... Kidnapped him." Mike whispered "But why...?"
Then suddenly disconnected ideas clicked into place in his mind as an epiphany.
"They didn't come for the children or the senior Prelates..." He whispered.
"Five Mages in a single House... They came for us." Bianca finished for him, having put out the fire.
Andrew panicked at the reveal.
"W-We have to find him...!" He exclaimed hurriedly.
"Pipe down, we need to think about this rationally." Mike said. "The children need protection but..."
"I'll go." Bianca said to everyone's surprise.
"Ma'am...!" Mike began but was cut off by Bianca.
"I assume you all can handle the children?" She asked sternly, already knowing the answer.
"..."
Mike whispered "Of course ma'am..."
...
Drowning...
Drowning...
Drowning...
Franz was drowning...
Water filling his lungs, no... It wasn't water, this was something completely different... It was pure Od, and it flowed everywhere, yet it felt polluted... Heavy...
He was drowning in an ocean of it. He opened his eyes, stinging from the "water" as he saw light shining on the surface.
His breath was running short so he began to swim towards the light, the surface. His hands and feet moving in desperation through the murky depths.
Beneath him, within the abyssal darkness, instead of a seabed, he could see visages of dark forests and black swamps filled with dead trees, deep water above them like some strange filter.
What happened? He wondered.
...
Right... The demonic Goat men... Their monstrously large mouths and glowing eyes... They knocked him out and kidnapped him...
He tried to use his powers, but he was too occupied with protecting the kids to properly defend himself... A flank from the right, a hit to his neck, and he was out cold.
He surfaced from the water, breathing in the air and coughing, wheezing for breath.
He panted as his dizzied senses returned to normal.
He felt something grainy in his hand, sand.
He was on a beach, he coughed but no water came out. He wiped his eyes and looked around.
He was on an island, the rose tinted sea gently lapping at his feet, leaving behind bubbly froth. The sky was a pinkish dusk, the sun half dipped on the sea's horizon, small clouds hanging in the sky.
He looked behind him and saw the sands transition into palm trees, it was some strange tropical island.
At its center was a large pointed mountain, one that reached beyond the clouds.
It was then he noticed the strange things floating in the air.
He quickly stood up, tugging and fidgeting with his scarf.
Floating above the rose tinted sea were wheels...?
No... They were far stranger.
Four wheels covered in eyes and set on fire, nested within four larger wheels, also covered in eyes and set on fire. In the middle of them what appeared to be embryos, of various animals, levitating serenely in their centre as the wheels floated without wings and stared around all things.
One of the wheeled things descended in front of him as he stumbled back falling in the sand.
"BE NOT AFRAID, CHILD OF PURIFICATION."
A loud booming voice rang, not of sound, not something in his ear, but something he felt directly in his mind and body, or... Was his mind and body the same here? They felt... Indistinguishable...
As it descended its shape shifted, the embryo took the form of a winged, tall, 10 foot featureless humanoid silhouette, with no features of either gender, shining a brilliant light like the sun, around him the wheels with eyes continued to spin.
Franz felt a strange sense of sublime completeness and action. When it spoke again, its voice felt gentle, as if one with the ocean breeze.
"Greetings, Child of Purification. My name is Sandalphon, I lead the Galgalim. You have been invited into this realm of abstract time for a purpose, dear Franz."
The strange sense of action and rest calmed Franz down as he listened.
"Uh... Where am I...?"
The entity sat down on the sand, not that it helped the height difference.
"Welcome to Asiyah, the threshold where mind is not yet matter nor has matter fully returned to mind, the link between heaven and earth. I am the one who makes truth of metaphor, the one who grounds wind daimons into breezes and water spirits into flowing rivers." He spoke with a sublime calm.
He continued.
"That mountain."
He pointed to the mountain in the middle of the island.
"That is Mt. Meru, the path of Tav which leads to the Astral Planes of Daimons and Spirits before they are made into perceivable objects. Humans descend from soul to body when they are born from there, as I imbue them with Phallos or Mater Coelestis which act as their guiding fire." It explained, gesturing to the sands and the trees.
"B-But the children-!" Franz protested, worried about what would happen to the orphans.
"Do not worry Chosen One." Sandalphon assured. "They are safe, time has not ticked a second in the Kingdom, for Asiyah lies beyond the entropy of time. That ocean-."
He pointed to the rose tinctured sea.
"That is the Ocean of causality."
"It channels outcomes within the framework of time, the moment before a decision is made is framed in this vast ocean of Protoplast... When one swims up from its depths, the dense bounds of gross materialism, they shed their body and enter this realm temporarily, in a state called a 'Bardo'. Such a state is most common after death."
Panic rose in Franz, yet his voice was as soft as ever.
"Am I... Dead?" He asked, his voice a whisper.
"Not quite... One may also gain Bardo upon a state of Gnosis. And yours specifically was incited." Sandalphon reassured.
"Then why am I here...?" Franz asked.
"Asiyah merely does not turn matter of metaphor but also limits thoughts itself, acting as a channel filtering the Daimons of The Astral to ideas, reducing the way beings "perceive" them. A mage attaining a Bardo have their reality threshold loosened and thus can use their magick with much more potency." Sandalphon explained.
"You have always been shy and introverted, that means you can look internally much easier than most people, the outside noise was easy to discard, the choking 'water' that filled your lungs was that noise and yet..."
"You arose from them into Asiyah. You have a great purpose for your friend, but know that the journey ahead shall be filled with peril, but I know you shall prevail." Sandalphon finsihed.
Sandalphon drew a strange sign in the sand.
"Now our session comes to an end." Sandalphon said, standing up. "I must send you back to the Kingdom. Goodbye, this shall not be the last time we meet, dear friend."
Franz was stunned as the entity reached forward and tapped his forehead.
"Goodluck."
...
...
...
He awoke from what felt like a dream, yet he knew to be more real than anything he had ever seen, any of the noise and distractions in his life until then.
He sat up and rubbed his head, looking around. He was inside the Adytum, appearing serenely dark and gothic in the quiet stillness of the night. It was a humble and small Adytum.
He was in the Luminal hall where sermons took place, his head against the Beacon, the raised area where Prelate would give sermons.
In the darkness he couldn't make out anything beyond the rows of seats, his vision not even reaching the entrance in the deep Darkness.
He looked behind him, expecting to see a statue of Sabaoth on the wall, the noose around his neck. Yet...
It had been defaced.
Where there should've been a faceless man, dressed in simple garbs with a noose around his neck and a halo behind his head was vandalized.
A decapitated rooster head was placed on top of its head like some grotesque headwear, it's glassy eyes staring blankly, two dead garden snakes nailed to his feet, hanging off the wall like rope.
"Like what I've done with the place?"
A voice rang out from the darkness.
He turned his head to see the source, his heart thumping.
Something from the shadows emerged, garbed in the same uniform as the goat abominations yet it was a completely different monster.
A pale, smooth, featureless face, shaped like a slug, ending in writhing pink tendrils, lashing and licking at the air like worms.
Franz's eyes flickered to his hands, his fingers like the tendrils on his face, wrapping around a large gun, a sniper.
"It's a Barrett XM109." The beast said with a sense of pride, carrying the heavy sniper in one hand like an assault rifle.
Franz steeled himself quickly standing up. He felt his Psy buzzing up and wrapping around him like a shield, it seems the pep talk from the Angel did more than just boost his confidence.
"Hah! So the Bardo worked! Good... Good." The monster chuckled, its tendrils writhing.
"That being said if I were you..."
He suddenly pointed his sniper into the darkness to his side.
It was then Franz noticed, eye peering from the dark, those of the goat men, along with more slug like things like the one talking to him.
...!
He was the only one who could talk out of them, he must've been their leader...
The beasts threw something at the monster's side like a ragdoll, right below the barrel of his sniper.
!!!
It was Juno... Tied up, being used as a hostage.
"You see dove boy..." The beast spoke. "We knew there were quite a few Mages to snag here, so we brought out the very best of our specialists... But who would've thought...!"
The beast gestured grandly.
"Three Chosen Ones in one place!" He exclaimed to a cheering crowd of monsters before gesturing them to quiet down.
"Well, we did snag quite a few Mages but..." He poked the barrel at Juno's face. "I figured we'd get some of our other jobs done as well..."
Suddenly the door to the Adytum shot open, letting in the moonlight.
Everyone turned to the source, surprised.
!!!
"Miss Bianca..." Franz uttered.
She stepped forward, the sleeves of her jacket torn, gun in one hand and a long sword in the other.
She grinned.
"Old place, had one lying around." She said in a taunting manner.
The Beasts approached but we're quickly shocked and afraid after gazing at the sword.
Wrapped around its blade was the cut off sleeves of her jacket, etched on it a strange star-like symbol.
"Tch... The Elder Sign" The slug beast snorted.
"So you know what we are." He whispered.
Bianca shrugged, showing off the other side of the sword, having an upside down noose symbol, a common symbol used against demons.
"I prepared for both." She said.
The beasts all backed away from her as she lifted the gun to them.
"Give them back. Now." Her tone was deathly serious.
"Heh, I'm afraid we're the ones with the cards here-" He turned to look for Juno to his side but she was missing.
He turned to Franz who had Juno by his side and had erected a psynotic shield around them, already tearing the ropes off of Juno.
"Carried her to you using your psynotics, eh? How heart touching..." The beast mocked, pointing it's rifle at the invisible shield.
Bianca descended on the horde with her gun and sword, them disappearing on contact with the sword, the very Od making up their physical body returning unto the Aether.
They fired their guns however another psynotic shield was erected around her, protecting her.
"Thanks Franz, owe you one! Running a bit low on Od at the moment..." She said, slashing and shooting through the hordes.
The slug beast fired at Franz's shield, which although not having an impact on the sheild itself was draining Franz of his Od.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sniper fired off its high caliber rounds, cracking the invisible shield, as Franz stumbled from the impact.
Juno was extremely concerned, now out of her binds.
"Crap... Hang on Franz! Think! Think! Think!"
Her mind raced, fingers pressing into her scalp as she thought of something to do, anything to do, to get out of this situation.
The Beast continued to fire wantonly as Bianca hacked and slashed through, although... Franz's Od was already depleting and Bianca alone was getting overwhelmed, even with the Elder Sign.
"Don't... Don't think." Franz whispered
"H-huh?" Juno asked, confused.
"Don't think of the world as it is... Think of what's real and beyond... All this noise... Feel internally..."
"!!!"
She remembered then, from the Codex Targum.
"Don't think... Feel..." She murmured to herself as the stress and noise in her mind gave way to silence. She remembered the sayings of Sabaoth.
'Words are the ornaments of idols. Silence is the altar of the Holy.
When you cease to chase the name, you may finally hear the voice that speaks in the hush between your thoughts, the breath taken between words.
And you will know not by knowing—but by falling away.'
'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.'
"..."
She spoke.
"Elohim Essaim, Essaim Elohim, I implore thee, Tze'vaot, ye lord to send me part from thy hosts, so that I may overcome adversary in thy unknowable name!"
As she spoke nooses made of light materialised out of thin air outside the shield, from the Odic symbol multiple Tulpas manifested.
Black wolves, blood red eyes, larger than a bear.
They descended on the group as they shot at them, the wolves gazes seemed paralyzing, stopping the beasts who met their eyes, just long enough to get torn to shreds.
The talking slug beast held back one's maw using his sniper, it's teeth tearing into it the metal.
It was Tulpa against Tulpa.
"Are those...?" She asked.
"Yup... Your magick... Tulpamancy..." Franz replied weakly.
Hack! Slash!
The battle continued until just the slug beasts remained. Franz's Od was depleted and he collapsed. Juno, too was tired, having used magick for the first time, but she made sure Franz was safe as she did not faint.
The goat men were all wiped by The wolves and only the Slug monsters remained, their amorphous texture proving immune against bullet, sword or teeth.
The main beast's tentacles writhed as he shot the last wolf, the other survivors not occupied by Bianca gathering around him.
"Hehehe... Ahahahaha!" He laughed. "It seems like we've achieved both our goals..."
It's head flicked to the still fighting Bianca, slashing through a slug beast while holding another de-armed one in a headlock as a body shield, bullets being absorbed into its amorphous mass.
"We'll take the fiesty one!" He exclaimed.
"Tough luck." Bianca said, looking back outside of the Adytum. "They're already here."
"What? Who-" before the beast could finish he heard a word.
"Fire."
A squad of Hermetic agents entered the Adytum.
"Backup." Bianca finished.
Fire, water, psy, wind. All tore into the slug beasts, returning their bodies into Aether, very explosively.
Bianca wiped off a bit of slime that was on her face from an exploding slug.
"Got any more tricks pal?" She asked the beast
"Hehehehe... None left I'm afraid. I'm done here."
Suddenly a portal made of Od opened swallowing up his body. Before they could react he was gone, vanished in a second.
Teleported to somewhere else.
...
...
...
The Beast stepped through the portal into a dilapidated building still laughing.
He pulled out a strange walky talky from his pocket, arcane designs around its sides. He called it.
"We've lost Eidolon Phalanx Unit-74 "Iron Hand."
"..."
"Of course Commander."
"Things are going... Exactly as planned."
"Exactly as planned..."
"Hehehehe... Ahahahaha!"