Ch.1-Ruin and Creation
Sin, it is the highest of all crimes in the eyes of man. The fear that every action they must do has to follow the limitations given to them by their creator, the Almighty. Therein lies the question, who possess the power to disobey Him? How can one entity have so much will over us as we have will over ourselves? The answer to this question is obscure in our path of life and can only be found throughout. Even when everything is given to us, free will, mastery over the creatures of the land, air and sea, and power to rule each other in a way that all are content, the eyes of man are blurred by the simplest of emotions.
Wrath breeds violence, Lust breeds contempt, Greed breeds scorn, Gluttony breeds misery, Sloth breeds atrophy, Envy breeds hate, and Pride breeds ignominy. Those who live without these seven deadly laws are granted a life of prosperity and an afterlife in the subliminal utopia. This seems a simple task, but when we look upon ourselves as we would any other creature, we are but animals living with a mind that allows us to discourage ourselves from the better known beasts of this world. We are all comprised of blood, tissue, and organs. What allows a human to have humanity and not instinct? We give whim to the insecurities of death which awaits all living things by looking to a higher power. This power which exists beyond death and gives us condolence by offering an escape from the reaper's grasp. All we must do is follow His rules and refuse succumbing to that which turns a blind eye to His teachings.
In life, we sometimes loose our humanity and commit crimes against fellow men. This absence of dignity is from the instinctive pulse that drives our primal fears into reality. We become angry, we attack, we become hungry, we eat, we become threatened, we kill. To one living around such savage actions, it may seem a disgusting act of treason to cause injustice to one another, but when a whole community, nay, a whole society of people are flourishing in these acts, the nature of a pristine lifestyle is second to the urges that spontaneously erupt our deepest fantasies and nightmares into the world. I speak not of deceitful tales and fanciful stories, but of history, the history of the Creation and Destruction of Babylon.
The story most were told includes many different ideals that are supposed to bring wisdom and insight to help achieve piety in life. This was just a story, something with a moral, a theme. For what occurred, there is nothing to be learned, except for how one event, an act of defiance, could conspire calamity and redefine the idea of existence that would send a rapture throughout the course of thousands of years. Events occurred in that city that forever etched its cataclysmic end into the world. Let us start from the beginning, when and where time was great and the people were content.
From the eyes of the Almighty, a vision was formed, one of a place where the creations of the earth could thrive in happiness without the need for senseless violence or suffering. His miscalculation, one and only, of allowing only two of His creations to thrive in His garden would not be repeated. Instead of only two, He endowed the Earth with a small community of people and made each with their own individuality, or as they would call it, Free Will. An idea was bestowed upon the people of His image, one of living in harmony with each other and spreading steadily to fill the new and barren Earth. To populate and grow in order to rule the land as the True Creations, that of which could not do harm to one another or the land that was so graciously given. Thus was born one of the planet's first cities, with a name as extravagant as the city itself, Babylon. The will of the Almighty guided them in the beginning, as a Shepard would guide his flock, and said unto them to chose several Kings; one for every mountain surrounding their newly found and sanctimonious region. The people could only think of them, the men who possessed the most righteous presence. They were Aventine, Palatine Capitoline, Caelian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. Of those Kings, each ruled with authority and compassion making sure neither of the other Kings belabored more than they should. Under the rule of the Seven Kings, the people established within the city buildings and residential homes to house them and their devout families.
Every person had a dutiful job. There were streets filled with merchants who exhibited goods and riches for people and Kings alike. Everyone was jubilant, no one wanted more than they needed and they all lived by the pious laws passed unto them. Time was endless like a constant, purifying river that flowed into the heart and souls of Babylon's citizens. To a wanderer, the people of this fair city looked like nothing more than blissful citizens enjoying life to the fullest. Indeed, the city of Babylon was the ideal city, but as with all good things, they must come to an end. Along with the laws passed by the Almighty, He gave the King's a premonition. He told of a trial that would take place within Babylon's walls which would scourge or bless its lands. Fearing this, the King's marked their city with the marks of the Almighty to hold of their end and prevent the suffering. Unfortunately, the end of Babylon was much more prolonged and tortuous than any instantaneous ceasing. Their trial would become a force that would revolutionize mankind and the whole plane of existence.
It began one day as any other would, men and women conversing and children playing as they should. In the midst of a calm summer-lit day, a being entered the hallowed borders of Babylon with a shadow of malevolence about her. She crossed the streets without a single glance by the people, who went about their business as usual. A line of running children came at her but they swerved passed her without so much as a apology, there was no reason in apologizing to something that wasn't there. She continued through the parade of children's play up to the domain of the Kings which lay upon the center mountain; it was the most ravishing piece of architecture ever endowed into the city that resembled a gothic church but lacked the insecurities in structure of its later generation. Her ascent was fated to unleash an evil like nothing any of the people of Babylon could have imagined.
With every step, a single speckle of sky began to darken as if to signify her path to the King's summit, making its way through the air like a black plague slowly enveloping the entire region in darkness. Through the streams of light still gleaming into the hall where the Kings dwelt, the tattered canvas that covered her body began to slide tenderly yet slowly off her as she entered the doorway that gave the seven Kings the full view of anything that passed through its hallowed doors. The Kings demanded to know who she was. Her reply was a simple chuckle and a disenchanting sigh followed by a gentle hand curling upwards to unlace the canvas about her revealing her true identity.
As her cover floated to the ground, her dark, luminous curl cascaded softly across her shoulders and face. Her lips shone with a dark, blood red color and her eyes glistened with a similar glow. Following along her neck was a ruby pendant which only accented the black-crimson corset and garter belt that clung seductively to her fair body like the gouging fingertips of demons. The Kings could only look in bewilderment at this woman who presented herself so flagrantly in the midst of this sanctimonious domain.
As if by some strange compulsion, the Seventh King, Viminal, who had always seemed to be the most unreliable, suddenly rose from his throne and presented himself to the woman by kneeling before her and gracing her presence. It was most unbecoming for anyone, especially a King, to be so outwardly libidinous, even with one's own lover. With a wisp of her hand and the mouthing of words in a tongue so foul that even the summit groaned and cracked in pain from its presence, the Seventh King crumbled to the ground and writhed uncontrollably for what seemed to be an eternity. The other Kings could only watch, paralyzed with fear, as their fellow leader began to slowly stop moving and rise to his feet. His eyes were glazed and red as a manic smile grew across his face. The same shade of red, the one of blood, the one of sinister motives, was like her's, the embodiment of defiance to the Almighty. It's sickening color brought contorted expressions of agony and fear to the revered Kings' faces.
He took in a breath and began to speak, "Thank you. My..." his voiced hushed and the very breath of the word sent chills through the spines of the sitting Kings. He turned to the others slowly with a hand across his chest, "My brothers, fellow Kings, let this woman show you the treasures that she bears. She and I have been consorting under the cover of midnight's dark grasp for some time for the future of Babylon. Let go of your former lives, the teachings and laws we foolishly held onto, and become part of the New Order. This woman is the key to all our greatest dreams and happiness. We need not live in fear of that tyrant of an Almighty anymore!"
One of the other Kings, Caelian, stood up and exclaimed, "You speak blasphemy, fool! How could you turn your back so easily and yield to this wretched woman?! We knew after the completion of Babel you were becoming corrupt but the lowest pit could not describe your treachery!"
The First King, Aventine, in the center of the others lifted a steady hand, "Calm yourself brother, this is far beyond anything we can object to. Can you not see it? That man is no longer our brother."
Aventine stood up and looked deep into the crimson woman's eyes, "You, I know why you've come. You are His servant, the one prophesied to be the being that was sent to test us? But this isn't right, if you are to be the guide to salvation, why are you trying to ruin this land?"
The woman smiled maliciously and uttered a light chuckle. The sound echoed in the Kings' ears and caused them to wince involuntarily. As she began to talk, an ominous succession of whispers filled the air like the chanting of children, but their words were unintelligible and foreboding. Inside the chant, an undertone emerged slowly of a dark voice that spoke in that same tongue of Damnation. Her words became knives that pierced the Kings' souls and caused their ears and eyes bleed profusely. They could feel the slithering of her power grasping them and burning their minds, purging their reverence.
Through the blur of blood and pain, Aventine reached out to the Seventh in an attempt to regain his brother. His words were stuttered by pools of blood emerging from his mouth as he spoke to the Seventh, Viminal, "B-brother, you have doomed this land with your treachery. Nothing will save you now, the Almighty will purge this evil once and for all. Y-your a f-fool, and now you will join your whore in Hell!"
A dark hiss came from the entranced King as he stared at him with his clouded, crimson eyes, "Do not speak to me as if I am to care! What has He done that I must be grateful for?! I pray and receive nothing!"
"You are a King of Babylon, the most prosperous city in the world, and you call that nothing?" The First wiped his mouth clean of blood and stood wearily, "You were chosen to be a leader of this utopia and yet you slander it!" He leaned back and spat blood into the Seventh's face, "The people were wrong to choose you! You strive for power and greed! Everything we were to oppose, you uphold as a necessity!"
As soon as he finished, he coughed and gagged as Viminal gripped his throat viciously. He his and glared into Aventine's eyes making him scream in pain, his eyes began to swell and cloud with the same shade of crimson as the Seventh. Aventine, in an attempt to uphold his loyalty to the Almighty, uttered a small prayer in the sacred tongue bestowed on those who were of Babylon. The only word that would be heard was his last which was not spoken, but thought of as the last of his humanity was stripped from his soul. "Sons." He collapsed onto the ground and convulsed like the Seventh then rose to his feet. His eyes too were now gates of the ungodly inferno that awaited the others.
The piercing look struck horror into the other Kings. Their eyes were fixated on the woman who had not moved an inch but only stood there laughing. Who was this woman and what earthly power enabled her to do such gruesome things to mankind? Before the Kings could formulate an answer to these quandaries, their minds became clouded as their sight blurred leaving the image of the inscrutable woman embedded in their minds, or what would be left of it. The seven wise Kings of such great consecrated leadership had been seduced and subdued by the woman in the scarlet dress.
The days that followed this macabre affair was nothing unusual to the people, but to the Kings, they began the fire that would erupt into the blaze of despair and pain. It began with the issuing of the cancellation of all laws forbidding the citizens from anything regarding the laws and restrictions made by the Almighty. The sudden upheaval of everything they believed in outraged the people. When they came to complain to the Kings all they saw were the harems and sties of the much revered Kings and left infected with the same reddish glow in their eyes. This glow grew and spread to men, women, and even children thus initiating the disintegration of all morality and social conduct amongst these once pious people.
The ones who had such strong faith and rejected the ideology of their neighbors had been the victims of most of the crimes. Their pacifistic nature made them perfect targets for the deranged Babylonians since those who fought back were dealt even worse torture. One family though, had remained hidden throughout this time of rapture. A woman, and two children, only two or three years apart, had escaped into an area where no one ventured except on rare occasions. It kept them safe for many months with little food but at least they were alive. The two boys were entertained by their mother who told them of tales from their father. He was a great man, who loved everyone, especially his children, and gave his mind, body, and soul to the Almighty in order to keep the city prosperous. As their mother told them of their father's benevolent deeds, they clutched what all left they had of him, two small crosses with an engraving on the back in Babylonian. They never let them out of their site and constantly prayed to Him that their father might return to them, as he used to be. Days, even weeks, would pass as the three survivors stayed locked in the prison of their city constantly praying that this life would end.
There was nothing but sin in that city, where everyone gave into their selfish desires of lust and greed. Crimes and criminals ran rampant through the city leaving only pain and suffering wherever the blackened hand saw fit. Rape, robbery, and rebellion was too common for these people and yet no one did anything to change it, but rather endorsed it by committing it themselves. The shameful acts were pursued by all and the worst of which were the Kings from which the sickness that crippled this prosperous originated.
In their dwellings were nothing but darkness shielded only by the stifled light gleaming through the cerise curtains revealing the once renowned Kings laying amongst random women, drink, and the occasional pool of blood that spattered the walls and floor. At the head of this immoral seven, was the woman from which the Kings found their new lifestyles. Her finger constantly curling her dark locks as she watched the world around her crumble. Her laughter rang out like a siren song, only urging the people to commit more and more sin.
Then, one fateful day, where the acts of Lust and Greed met their peak, the woman stood with the Kings up on the balcony to proclaim to their people. In that instant, the woman took from Her side a dagger, gleaming with its own devilish glare, and walked to the Seventh King. Slowly, She began slitting the throats of the Kings spilling their blood into the crowd. The crimson shower was greeted by the greedy tongues and palms of the people who clawed wildly at the sky like parasites to a wound. The other Kings merely laughed as one after another was slain before them and their citizens. The Kings' bodies began to steam and boil with a dark bile that profusely gushed from their lacerated throats. Their eyes began to lose their reddened appearance as they regained their sanity. Their eyes welled up with tears as they saw the slithering fingers of death clutch their souls. As their minds slipped away, they saw what would become of them in the horrific stare of a shadow which began to swallow them completely. With every throat cut, the dagger began to darken building and black mist about it until at last it shone a grim shade of black and crimson when the last King had been killed.
The people cheered, drunk with the taste of their rulers' blood, and began to assail each other in a frenzy of adrenaline and ecstasy doing as they did for so many days. The woman bellowed with a hollow laughter that shook the people to their bones, and in the instant that the laughter ceased. The unholy cackling had been the catalyst that tore the people from their onslaught of vulgarity as their eyes had been opened to what they had committed. The crimson glow left their eyes along with the safety of their souls. Many cried out in sorrow, some seeking immediate redemption ended their lives with anything they could grasp with frantic wails the instant their sanity was regained, others stood there in absolute silence and horror at the atrocities they ensued. All was in vain for they lost any and all hope of escaping their fate. Not a moment sooner, the clouds darkened and only a blood-red light shone upon the woman. It was then she pointed her elongated finger at the people in an attempt to persecute them for their crimes. As if on signal, the domain of the Kings erupted sending pieces flying everywhere. Rock and debris tumbled and crashed into buildings and people as a shadow stood in the wreckage. As the smoke began to clear the people could only look on at the repugnant monstrosity that stood before them.
A gargantuan beast, of which no one could even fathom and towered amongst them more so than even their mountains could contain, stood there bearing several heads and ten horns with the faces of their Kings, desecrated and abject, upon each head. It stood with its ghost pale skin stretched over its massive limbs as each twitched and writhed intensely. The faces quickly changed to a demonic state, leaving only a snarling, driveling entity of pure evil, and, without the most subtle of surprise, expelled a foul-colored flame from its many heads and engulfed the people in the hellish flame. It seared the skin from their bodies sending a putrid stench into the air, boiled their blood causing them to belch flames from their orifices, and explode their eyes from their sockets. The citizens ran in fear cursing themselves for what they had done but all was in vain as the Beast began to destroy the city and slaughter the people without any hesitation.
Buildings and bodies were strewn about, some were eviscerated with their entrails dangling and their limbs, like rag dolls, torn from their sockets and strewed amongst the burning wreckage. Man, woman, nor child had been spared as the Beast destroyed bearing the once revered faces of their Kings which were grinning maliciously hungering for blood. The earth was stained with blood, bones, and flesh as those who laid alive for a few moments longer witnessed their loved ones violated and murdered instantly. The Beast trampled and scorched the city decimating everything until the sky ran black and crimson. Who was there to witness this charnel scene? It was none other than the now, and properly named, Scarlet Harlot who rode upon the beast as it rampaged through the city. The people were powerless and could do only one thing, pray. In the time they took to pray, the sky lit up in a radiant light that seemed to startled and stop the Beast's onslaught.
From the sky, a blaze of fire hailed down like rain. As rain performs purification upon the Earth, the burning balls of fire purged the ground of all sin, incinerating everything, including the neighboring city of Nineveh which was becoming like Babylon so it was naturally taken as well. The Beast was struck and caught in a blaze leaving its shrilling howl into the darkness followed by a cataclysmal explosion that obliterated everything in its path. The remaining people smiled in their bleeding, mauled bodies as the purging fire engulfed them and saved them from the horrific fate of their brothers and sisters. The Scarlet Harlot screeched as Her body caught fire, but not of the purging fire, Her fire was much more sinister.
In the hours following the end of the city of Babylon, there was no sign of the Beast or the Harlot, the only thing left was a smoldering piece of crimson cloth that slowly disintegrated in the wind. Everything was in ruin, no buildings stood, no bodies were left, as if they had vanished along with the Beast and its Harlot. In the far perimeter of Babylon, where the mother and children had stayed, the hut had been spared utter destruction but had still been broken down into rubble.
From the crumbling pieces of rock, underneath the mutilated corpse of the guardian mother, two bodies slowly crawled from beneath it. Severely burned to where no recognition could be found, the two dug out and laid sprawled on the ground breathing shallowly unable to move. Upon these two were marks, not any their people were familiar with, that covered specific parts of their bodies. Through the scarred tissue and completely destroyed features of their bodies, the marks glowed and emitted dark, eminent symbols that slowly slithered across their bodies until they seemingly immersed themselves into the two.
When the two laid there motionless, they glanced at each other with their eyes almost completely sealed from the burning and clasped their hands together, with a small cross around their wrists, as the darkness of the night sank into them. The darkened sky, with its swirling, abysmal fog, parted and shown the brilliant stars through as the two bodies laid underneath in the aftermath and ruins, slowly drifting into oblivion.