Inner Sanctum
"The portal to hell is paved with good intention."
Prelude
Amidst dim candlelight, several humans dressed in a black robe circling a sacrificial table in the middle of them. Their mouth muttering a seemingly alien incantation in perfect synchronization, only occasional breeze penetrated through the holes of the ancient structure was the only noise emitted in the main rotunda. One of them was looking at the sacrificial altar with gleaming eyes, it was his works, his research that would bring him back into the eyes of the Spain emperor and bring victory to his homeland with prolonged war against the Portugal.
The others then stopped their muttering and shot him a look, it was the last affirmation to proceed into the main ritual, and with this, his dreams will surely come true. A black tome soon presented on the table, its leathery cover already rotted with time and its writing was ancient. He scanned the alien symbols intensely, deciphering what was written on the pages before he raised his gaze and nodded to the other attendees. "Sí, ahora es el tiempo." [Yes, now is the time.]
One of them then brought out a majestic bird, its plumages were purple with some white strips running across its face. The bird was silent during the whole time, its eyes glued to the table that adorned with candles and pentagram, a circle in the middle was where he was put later. Showing no resistances, the leader smiled and began to lift his hand, barking an alien incantation and soon followed by other attendees.
The candle fire intensified with each echoing incantation was spoken, as there was a presence of something else lurks within the shades of the ancient structure. A trail of smoke soon manifested out of thin air, ricocheting through the room with terrorizing groans, filling the rotunda with enigmatic smoke as the leader saw the fruits of his work. Satisfied, he ruled the smoky creature towards the sacrificial table with other lines of incantation written in the black tome. The pentagram soon glowed with intense light when the spirits entered its area, where the bird was waiting silently in the middle of the satanic ritual with a blank stare.
Ensnared within the magical force-field of the pentagram, the smoky creature roared a frightened screech, sending chills through the attendees of the ritual. The leader, however, only smiled when he saw the astral creature banging the magical wall with murderous intention laced in its roar, just like what he was planned and proceeded to the last part of his plan; the one that surely will bring victory to his homeland and restored back what was his.
The lights were flickering as the creature barraged the magical wall ceaselessly; the other ritualist started to sweat to keep the force-field up, knowing the dreading outcome of they failed to do so. The leader barked a loud unfathomable words as the bird started to lift through the air.
Yes, this is it, there's no turning back, the Portugal will know what they encounter when they mess with the Spain, is all the thing that running in his head as he watched the astral creature circling the floating bird. His eyes were wide and his heartbeat was galloping at its maximum speed when he watched the assimilation of the creature into the bird, before all of the sudden, the lights went out.
"Estãn aqui!" Screamed someone from outside with a loud bang from a gun just meters away from their place. The ritualist began to run frantically, before one by one, they grounded with Portuguese's guns. The leader's hatred evoked when he heard their filthy language filled the temple's ambience. "Perra! Ellos no nunca…" his words were cut when a bullet pierced his legs and promptly made him crumbled onto the cold-dirty floor, screeching in pain as the bullet supercharged his senses. [They are here!] , [Bit*h! They never…]
He carefully grabbed the sacrificial table to helped him stand up, only to be greeted with a ricocheting bullet wounded his hand, and succumbed him back towards the dirty floor. He looked over his bloody hands while he sat down on the sacrificial table that acted as a cover. He knew that the Portuguese will kill him when he found him, or worse, included a torture that could make him rather beg for a fast and painless death.
The sudden silence made him ponder if the siege already ended and decided to take a peek. His legs were weak from the bullet that embedded deep within his flesh and his hand unable to get a good grip over the table. Regardless, he managed to lift himself and looked over the darkness that surrounded the room, and his gaze soon casted towards the ritual table, only to find out that the bird already laid on the table, motionless.
His fury sparked like a bonfire, it was his dream; his mission to finally tackle the Portugal away out of Brazil and claimed the land for the Spain empire. But the whole ordeal already crumbled his hope, his heart went cold when he realized that he will die in vain. He struggled to lift himself out of the floor as his soul cursed the Portuguese, swearing an eternal hatred towards them and looked at the death that blanketed the room, blood and corpses anywhere.
He rested his body on the table while he recovered from the adrenaline wore-off, causing his pain to become more immense and made him screamed. His eyes still glued towards the pentagram in the center of the table, still denied that his plan already fall apart.
His eyes widened when he lifted his head and saw a gun already pointed at him; Grim Reaper was having a feast when the last bang from a gun was heard that night.
"Isso está tudo?" The general asked and scrutinized the ancient temple. [That is all?]
"Sim, Senhor!" His men answered, and brought a satisfying sigh to him. [Yes, sir!]
"Excelente, agora destroem este lugar para o chão," The general ordered. "Eu não quero essa ação blasfemo em meu país." [Excelent, now destroy this place to the ground.] , [I don't want this blasphemous act on my land.]
His men nodded and began to set the explosive around then temple before they set the fuses and leveled the ancient temple to the ground, erasing any signs of its existences within the Amazon jungle.
The wind from the explosions reached the rotunda, fanning the pages of the tome until it arrives in the last part of the ritual. A single line was written with blood, which said:
"Who dares to play with the shades, shalt see the eternal darkness."
The eyelids of the seemingly dead bird in the center of the pentagram sprang open, and within its bright red eyes, lies its hunger for souls…
A/N: Finally this story is published. Inner Sanctum is a story that I already planned since the start of Love's Eternal Light, and I hope you like what I wanted to bring here. And I've waited for Halloween as the starting of this story.
For you who asked, yes, it's still shared the universe of Love's Eternal Light, albeit, the characters from the story will only appear as a cameo, or maybe not appear at all.
This is a prelude, so the length won't be that much, but I promise (Pinkie promise) future chapters will be much longer than this - if I had time to write this story that is since I have Next to You and probably Desolation... great, I'm advertising my stories in my story...
And Happy Halloween to ya'll (I'm late, again.)!; Happy Nightmare Night!