Disclaimer: It gets pretty disturbing in the second part of the chapter, so read it at your own risk.
Chapter nine: The Stranger
When Josh came back to camp, the group was segregated. Half of the soldiers cheered; they applauded him for standing up for the innocent. Others considered his actions as treason, their eyes burned through him. Some even seemed afraid. A carrier pigeon was sent to the king of Dinland. It's his decision if he lives or not.
Joshua had been silent all week since the carrier pigeon flew. He always lingered by the edge of camp. Most of the time he was alone, but there would be occasions Link saw either Niles, or Kailua there to give him company. Right now he was alone, playing a song on his flute, his back turned to camp. Link, who was writing a letter to Zelda, stopped and listened to the music. It seemed to flow with the wind. But all of a sudden it stopped. It didn't faded away like his songs usually did, it died off. Link froze. Something must be wrong. He arched to the door of his tent; his letter now discarded and abandoned. He rolled out of the tents leather door and swiftly went into his battle posture, bouncing slightly. But there was nothing to fight. Josh had caught eye with the well known postman from Termina ran awkwardly into camp.
He was a peculiar sight. He was tall and rather thin. He wore a white shirt and shorts. A mailbag was slung on his right shoulder. A flag saying in big fancy letters The Postman was attached behind him on his belt. A red hat sat upon his head. Apart from his wild clothes his face would've been normal but for the fact his eyes seemed to bulge and his lower lip stuck out more than his upper lip. His voice was abnormal too; it sounded like a kids voice would be when in the middle of puberty.
"I have a letter for Mr. Joshua" He looked wildly around the small crowd that was beginning to grow. Josh stepped from the crowd. His face was pure surprise. His jaw dropped, resulting him speechless.
"Here you are." The postman said, handing him the letter. Josh took it without speaking; his mouth closed but his eyebrows were reaching dangerous levels on his forehead. "When ever there is a letter waiting for you. Its my job to deliver it soon. In war, in strife, in rain , in snow. Look at the time, time to go!" And after saying the awkward but catchy slogan, he raced off when he first ran into the camp. You could still hear his slightly squeaky respiration. Link looked back at Joshua. He had to ball up his fist and press it against his mouth to stop himself from laughing.
But his face became serious as his eyes fell to the letter. Fingers trembling, he ripped the envelop open and read the letter inside. After reading it, he gave it to Link. His face gave nothing away. Link took the letter and began to read.
"I have found the testimony for the accusations of Sorcery case 59FG1 and declare Joshua Trition INNOCENT of the crime."
This created an argument.
"Where is the justice in this world? We are to let a murderer live?" A bullet head soldier asked.
"What do you think Jonas is then?" Another soldier demanded. There were murmurs of agreement. "What do you call a man attacking innocent families? Surely not hero!"
"The Soryujans weren't innocent." roared Shanasha, the cigar in between his lips quivered.
The argument was growing ugly. Link turned to see what Josh thought of the argument, but he wasn't there. Link silently cursed himself for not giving the postman his letter to Zelda and walked to his tent, to finish it. He wrote what just happened a few minutes ago, trying to work over the army quarreling. A few minutes later, a disheveled Josh entered the tent.
Shanasha also entered the tent, his eyes blazing. He confronted Josh," I was behind you until you saved those... those creatures. " He straighten up. Joshua didn't answer back. That seemed to piss off Shanasha even more. "I damn you Josh, Damn you too hell." and after the malediction, he left the tent, never to seen by them again. Link stared in shock. Their magic circle has been broken. He thought Shanasha was a little bit racist and like him the least of their little magical circle in the army, but he really didn't think he would leave like that. But even as this thought came to his head, another person walked into the tent. It was the soldier who defended him earlier.
"Names Apollo." He extended his arm. Josh took his hand and shook it. "You show a lot of guts for a teenager. I admire you. To stand up against Jonas just because you trying to do the right ting, well that takes guts. But now we need a leader."
Josh smiled, "You'll be a good captian, Apollo."
"Actually I was thinking of-"
There was a scream. Link,Josh and Apollo whirled out of the tent. A figure walked into camp. It was metallic, similar to an iron knuckle. But it had no head, and in its hands was a stick. A white mask was attached to it. But the mask was able to blink and look around the camp site. The stranger brought a demotic presence.
There was a crowd of onlookers, Niles and Kaliua included. Joshua approached the stranger uneasily, as if afraid he would be angry and strike him dead if he walked wrong. "Who are you?" he asked cautiously.
"An angel." in a familiar scratchy evil voice. Joshua doubted that. "Named Lobiad."
Something didn't registered cleanly in Josh's head because he stared at the angel with disbelief. The angel sensed that too, "What's the matter?"
Joshua answered," Nothing, but Lobiad does sound familiar." The angel disregarded the comment. He pointed into a tent. "Please come in." His voice scratched.
The tent he was gesturing to was a normal tent. But when the little party entered it, it was a black void. The tent walls weren't divulge into the blackness; they simply weren't there. The mask Lobiad was wearing smiled an amused smile. The group walked on a circle of stained glass, that also seemed familiar. Link looked behind him. A triangular tear in the middle of the black void gave small light. In the tear, the only thing visible was a tannish tent door, and grass. Occasionally there would be black figure passing by the tear. It wasn't till Link realized that the void was inside the tent, not them being transported into a different dimension.
All of a sudden Lobiad rematerialized in the middle of the stained glass circle. Everyone ran to him. Lobiad had his hand out in the air, his palm pointed to the ground. He raised his hand. A stunning castle made of mud and sand rose from the ground. Little mud people with carved faces appeared slouched like an emorous muddy dollhouse that was just waiting for a little girl to come and play with it.
"Now we'll give them life." A small crackle of electricity flowed though the village. All of a sudden the mud people started moving in a bewildered way like they couldn't believethey were alive. Link, Nile and Apollo stood in awe as the little people started walking. But Josh looked and Kaliua. She looked back at him. No sage can imitate life or give life to anything. Only gods can do that. Josh had a feeling they weren't dealing with an angel, but a demotic god. Alsla.
The dolls started moving around like normal people. The ones that looked like guards patrolled the castle. The one that looked like a king stood in the middle of the castle, and waved his finger. Bystanders who passed the castle froze and bowed to the king. There was one little mud person that was playing a clarinet. They were clearly made second handed. Their language was just high pitch mumbling, and the only thing detailed about them was their faces, which weren't even detailed at all. All they had was eyes, nose and mouth carved into them, except for certain people who were given mustaches, crowns, swords, and musical instruments. Lobiadgestured toward what looked like a mud farm. Two little mud people were raking the fields. All of a sudden a mud cow materialized in between them. They both gave small shrieksof glee, as the put one hand on the cow and gave it a small tug for it to follow its direction. The cow didn't move anywhere, but the two mud people suddenly noticed each other. They began talking in their own squeaky mumbling, as they tried to wrench the cow in their own direction. The poor cow was thrown this way and that. Link didn't need to know the language of the mud people, to know that the two mud people were arguing over the cow. Suddenly Lobiad began to speak.
"I find humans quite interesting. Even though you are a worthless breed."
More mud people began appearing at the scene. They sided into two groups and argued with their squeaky mumbling language. It looked like a riot. But although everyone else were staring at the mud people rioting, the mask Lobiad wore began to change. It wore a disgusted snarl. But the mask's texturebegan to change. The mask at the start was soft and completely flat. Now rivets began to appear, spots of the mask began to sunken in while others began to bulge out. The mask at first was a clear oval. But now it was a demotic shape. The mask had just changed its passive face into the face of the devil.
"How annoying that sounds." Lobiad said. He outstretched his hand and slowly descended it to the ground. The other mud people began to flee, but the two who first started the argument didn't pay attention. With his hand, Lobiad crushed the two arguing mud people with his hand. When he withdrew his hand, two coffins ascended with his hand until it became one inch high. Link, Apollo and Niles stared at Lobiad in horror. But Kaliua and Josh were less surprised but no less disturbed at what Lobiad had just did.
"Fools! What fascination there are at this planet. Strange mortals with curious customs. "
Soon the other mud people who were arguing began to come back to the are. But this time they carried wreathes and placed them on the coffins. Their small distorted faces were in sorrow, as they cried.
Joshua had enough, "Why did you have to kill those mud people?"
"Why did you have to take the life of a war hero?" Lobiad paused for an answer. Josh didn't reply, but hung his head in shame. "Because its fun. Deep down inside, its amusing to take the lives away form stupid lesser beasts!Don't you agree?"
Joshua had no answer for that. Neither did the rest of the group.
"Didn't you think the people right there, were stupid and inferior? Of course it was." Lobiad looked into each of their eyes. "You wonder where hell was. There are people everywhere in the world and other worlds who wonder where the entrance to hell is. But they look in the wrong direction. The entrance is in your hearts. Every single one. " He paused to let his words sink in. "Deep down you love this, you wish to inflict the pain on this little inferior village. How amusing. You talk about there is light and dark in your hearts, but all I see is darkness and evil. Why do you waste your time to help people? Foolish mortal."
Lobiad's voice began to rise. "You want me to end it. Fine I will end it. We will have a storm now, and an earthquake if you like. You must stand aside out of danger." He raised his hand. It began to glow. Sparks began to emit from his fingers. He descended his hand down over the people, but instead of crushing them, lightning shot out of his fingers and struck them. All of them flew back. The second flash of lighting struck the castle. It struck to guards patrolling the castle. They were immediately thrown off the castle and plunged into the city below. The castle began to crumble. The mud began to crack open. Mud people fell into the abyss. The castle fell, killing every mud person on top of it. Only the king remained; he shook his finger at Lobiad and scolded him in his language, but lighting struck from his fingers and struck the king dead. Every corpse and ruins from the castle began to slide to the abyss. The fissure consumed the carcasses and rocks. The fissure began to close, burying the corpses and rocks.
Apollo, and Niles ran for the tear. But Link, Kaliua and Josh were rooted at the spot. They looked back at Lobiad who's mask was clear, and circular again.
"Never mind them." His face began to glow. Suddenly Kaliua's skin began to change into a sickly grey shade. He was killing her.
"Kaliua! RUN!" Link shouted. She couldn't. Link scooped her up and ran for the tear.
Now it was just Joshua and Lobiad.
"People are of no value." Lobiad told Josh. His mask began to change once again. "We can make more sometime and inflict pain. If we meet sometime." His mask was now a skull grinning and talking at him. "Life itself is only a vision, a dream. Nothing exists. Its just an empty void. That is the right thing to do in the world. That is the great truth."
Joshua wanted to run away, but his legs refused to obey him. He just stood there waiting to be killed. But Lobiad didn't kill him. "Everythings that says different is a lie. And to do the right thing you must prune those lies so that only the truth will shine out."
"YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A THOUGHT!" He screamed as his body exploded into black squares. The squares rushed past him, and disapeared into the void. Josh found the strength to run, and he found out another horrifiying detail. Lobiad's name was an anagram for Diablo. And Diablo meant devil.