Chapter 24 Awake to Justice: Haunting Past
Find Anna...The words ran wild through Sparda's mind in a frantic jumble of confusion, oddly chaotic yet focused. Barreling through Hell with high velocity, he seemed to be pushing the very atmosphere aside as if it were slowing him down.
To Sparda, Hell now seemed a wasteland. Whether it was his coup that had completely ruined his "idyllic" memories of his former home, or his awakening that had altered his perception, he was unsure. Dead ahead of him lay the portal, wide open, ready for any demon to walk through it. He burst through it in a flash of light, carrying a trail of hellfire and rolling black smoke. Soon, he hoped, this would be over, and he could shut the gateway, and place Hell itself under lock and key.
Anna and the rest of the Resistance stood staring at the Tower. For hours now, the Tower had been behaving strangely, surrounded with frenetic energy like a caged beast threatening to break free. The surrounding area seemed to shake not more than fifteen minutes previously. It behaved as if it were under stress, like something was happening in Hell to disturb it.
The group consensus among the Resistance supported the idea that the Final Battle was coming, the last assault from the demons, and the most violent.
"Come on, let's get ready..." Anna said. As a leader, she knew that the chances of winning a head-on fight against the demons were nonexistent; but she knew, as the rest of humanity, that simply sitting down and letting the evil overcome the world was unacceptable. Men bid farewell their wives and children, locking them securely in underground bunkers, determined to prevent the demons from reaching them. There were women and even some children, who had lost their families to the darkness, that joined the initiative, ready to the give the demons hell.
Those who were ill-equipped to fight, like the wounded from previous battles, watched helplessly in what they thought were the last hours of this world. Others still, like Ivan the alchemist, stayed behind and worked tirelessly at what he did best: producing weapons for the frontlines.
The small army of humans moved outside and towards the Tower, ready to make a stronghold for however long they could, a last line of defense against the demons. Anna walked as confidently as she could, leading the group.
As they approached the point where they would make their stand, a burst of fire erupted from the gateway a top the tower, and Anna heard the crowd gasp and jump back in unison. She turned to them an attempted to rouse their courage.
"I know this is not easy, but we must stand together! We cannot sit idly by and wait for the Darkness to claim us!" No sooner than she had finished the sentence, a rush of wind whipped past the crowd; With a streak of dark crimson and black, Anna was caught up, removed from the sight of her army.
Everyone stood in shock. With their leader gone, one by one they left to hide with their families. In one fell swoop, all that had held the army together was taken...
Before she knew what had happened, Anna was several hundred feet in the air, gripped around the waist by what she knew was a demon, but could only hope was Sparda.
"Do not be afraid..." She was relieved by the human language spoken with an unmistakable demonic inflection: Sparda's voice. She quickly became aware that he was bringing them back down to the ground on the opposite side of the Tower. She soon regained her composure when Sparda landed and placed her on her feet. A storm of furious words was ready to tear Sparda apart, but his clawed hand quickly moved to her lips.
"At any other time, I would be willing to suffer through our standard ritual of you rebuking my 'evil ways' and my 'lack of compassion,' and me blaming the inherent absurdities of human culture for my confusion and inability to conform to your impossible values. But right now something big is happening, or is about to happen, and I need your help to stop it."[1]
He took his hand away from her mouth, indicating that he had finished speaking. She realized that, by the tone of his voice alone, he was anxious about something.
"I think I already figured out that an army of your 'brethren' is about to blast through that gate and kill us all."
"No....not yet at least....right now they are trying to cope with what I have done...reconstitute themselves. Then, an army with strength and numbers that you cannot even imagine will tear this world apart."
Anna stood perplexed, "But...why? Why wait?"
"Because, with no order to guide their chaos, they will run in circles chasing their own tails." He looked at Anna, who still looked confused. "No King, no Kingdom."
Anna's eyes grew wide. "You killed the Devil King! I thought that was impossible! There is no way you can be that powerful, is there? How..."
"I am not sure how myself, but we do not have time to wonder now," Sparda replied.
"So....what do you need me for?"
"Soon the entirety of Hell will learn of Mundus' death and seek revenge, on me, and on your people. Taking away their ruler will not stop the invasion for long; as long as Hell exists, demons will be drawn to the human world by an innate desire. This desire will never subside or die, but it must be...locked away." Sparda's words permeated Anna's mind as she contemplated, almost word-for-word, what he said. Her hand fell to a satchel on her side, holding, among other things, a very important book given to her by someone she loved dearly. It seemed like a lifetime ago…
"You were there, when all this began. The key that unlocked the gateway to my world is the key to locking it away once more. I cannot do this alone, and you are the only other living person I can trust."
Anna felt torn, "But....my people need me..."
"Yes they do. By helping me here, you will help them more than you ever could if you were them now."
Sparda walked past her, towards a large gate to the Tower, "Come, we haven't much time."
As they entered the large door, a sudden gust of cold hit Anna; it was so cold, she felt like her blood were about to freeze. Anna held herself close to Sparda instinctively, trying to keep herself warm despite his endothermic body. As they reached the other side of the large room, they were met by a huge wall of ice, through which they could see the center of Tower. The sound of a huge chain suddenly rattled behind them. Sparda turned, Anna still in his arms, and was instantly face-to-face with Cerberus.
As the hoary Hellhound glared at them with three pairs of eyes, slush-like saliva dripped from his three jaws, freezing instantly as he exhaled. At that moment, Anna felt like any hope she had had about a last line of defense against the demons was an empty lie, as if she was supposed to fear and tremble at his sight. And she did.
Sparda readied himself to attack, but Cerberus stood down, allowing the frozen door to melt away. "Power is what I answer to. I acknowledge your ability. You may pass; you have my blessing." They passed through into the vertical corridor of the Tower. The ice reformed, and Sparda thought he could make out a faint nod and the gleam of bared teeth from the Hellhound.
They quickly continued deep into the Tower, reaching another Guardian's Room: The Firestorm Chamber. Agni and Rudra stood waiting for Sparda. The headless hosts that wielded the sapient demonic swords knelt before him.
"We could be a great help to you..." one said.
"Surely we could, brother...We have waited for someone who could wield our furious power, someone stronger than us. You are that one," said the other.
"So true, Agni…you will take us with you, then?" they both asked in unison. Sparda was taken aback, amazed at how so many here, the fearsome Guardians themselves, were unhappy with Mundus. But, he could not accept their offer for so many reasons. He brushed past them, "Maybe next time..."
"Wonderful." "Excellent." "We will await your return."
With that, Anna and Sparda took their leave. As they left the room, they could hear a faint conversation echoing through the hall:
"Brother?" "Yes, brother?" "Do you think he will truly return for us?"
"Well, brother, that depends." "Depends on what?" "Why, whether he returns at all, of course. Others might not be as hospitable as we two are." "Hmm, quite right, quite right! But, brother…what is 'hospitable?'" "Well, hospitable is when…"
It is a good thing I did not bring them after all, I would not have been able to bear such vacuous dialogue. Let some less fortunate fool suffer through their inane babbling…Sparda thought to himself.
As they came upon the next gateway, Sparda swung open the door, Anna close behind. What she saw there shocked her: Giant iron cubes, floating and twisting in air of their own volition. She turned to close the massive metal door leading to the Firestorm Chamber. The demonic scimitars could still be heard conversing with one other.
Both she and Sparda peered over the edge of the platform they stood on. The huge dark room was dizzying, even to Sparda. After a few seconds seemingly entranced, he looked up at Anna. "Those cubes' movements have a pattern. You can get down safely, though it will take time." He snapped his wings, ready to jump.
"Wait, can't you just...take me?" Anna asked.
"No...I have something I have to take care of."
"So, you're just going to leave m—"
He burst into flight, and through a door at the bottom of the room. Anna mumbled something under her breath, and grudgingly began the tedious descent.
What Sparda saw in the next room was sickening. Huge torture wheels running through lava, humans hung from the ceiling in every contortion possible, cages for extending the anguish of captives. He knew exactly whose room this was, and that they would not be as even-tempered as the other two Guardians had been.
"I can see that you've made yourself right at home, old friend..." A roar bellowed from above, followed by a huge taloned foot. Sparda was instantly buried in the stone ground.
"You reek of betrayal!" Beowulf scraped Sparda up with one hand, and tossed him in the air. With the other hand, glowing with demonic white light, he hit Sparda dead center, sending him into the wall across the room. The force of the punch alone knocked Sparda a few feet into the wall.
"Why have you done this, Sparda? You disgrace your own kind for these weaklings? What of your great destiny?"
"You do not understand, old friend. This is my destiny and I cannot let anything get in my way. I do not want to fight you, so grant me passage."
"For your dishonor, I will grant you nothing but death!"
Sparda focused on Beowulf seething with anger, as his former friend and comrade snapped his own pearly white wings. Sparda snapped his, dislodging from the stone. He flew full force at Beowulf, who jumped in the air and hit the ground with his fist, sending a volcano of light upwards that knocked Sparda to the ground.
Beowulf had advantages over Sparda that no one else did. They grew up together, and know everything about each other, including combat weaknesses. "Mundus deserved his fate, Sparda, and we both knew that you would be the one to defeat him. It is for that reason alone that I suffered his arrogance for so long. But now you refuse to take your place on the throne and secure the total devastation of the human world? There is no higher treason against Hell; your blood will forever carry the foul stench of betrayal and as long as I draw breath, you will find no rest, in this life or the next."
Beowulf leapt into the air and landed in front of Sparda, looming over his traitorous foe. Sparda lifted his sword quickly, but Beowulf simply knocked it away. "You see, your time with the humans has made you weak and slow. Pathetic…"
He slammed an open hand on Sparda, pinning him to the ground. "I have always wondered what you looked like without all that armor," Beowulf said calmly. "Since you no longer deserve it, I think I will peel it from your bones..." He tightened his grip as the door swung open.
"Anna!" Sparda called out in his demonic tongue inadvertently. Beowulf turned and grinned widely. He slammed the floor hard with his foot, causing a cage to fall down over Anna. The impact on the ground sunk the cage inward slightly, trapping her. Beowulf turned back to Sparda, "And she can watch!"
A loud locking sound suddenly reverberated in the room as the tower seemed to rumble with movement. Beowulf loosened his grip on Sparda, and turned in shock to face Anna, who was reading from the book in her satchel. Beowulf's eyes grew wide, "No...No!" Beowulf, now ignoring Sparda, lumbered for the cage housing Anna. Screaming at her in a voice she didn't understand, "No! It is my job to protect this lair! How did this one acquire the Tome! A mere human is forbidden from such power, I will not allow it!" He rattled her cage furiously, trying to get it loose from the ground.
Anna screamed in terror as Sparda, with unsurpassed speed, grabbed his sword and assumed an offensive stance. With a flick of the wrist, the sword became a scythe as Beowulf lifted the cage and tossed it aside, lunging for Anna.
Sparda drew his scythe backwards and seemed to pause for the slightest moment. Forgive me, old friend…And then Sparda hurled the scythe with all his strength. Anna curled up as Beowulf's claws closed in on her. And the room fell silent.
Sparda's scythe returned to its master and resumed its form as a sword in his outstretched hand. Beowulf howled in pain, grabbing his face. Anna, covered in the bloody vitreous humor from Beowulf's former left eye, dashed out of his reach and ran for the door. Beowulf stumbled around blindly, roaring in anger and agony. Sparda ran past him, securing his sword on his back. Beowulf heard this and the door opening. "No! You coward! You cannot escape!" Sparda slammed the door behind him, and heard Beowulf's muffled tones as Anna recited another incantation from the book, "I will find you, Sparda! Your blood screams out to me and I will not stop until it is silenced! Mark my words, Sparda, I will have my vengeance! The sins of the father will be visited on the sons! Your entire lineage will suffer on your behalf!"
Anna closed the book as her voice continued to echo through the halls, finishing the spell. The locking sound from within the door rumbled again. Anna breathed heavily. "You were right, you do need me..."
"Why do you say that? I would have defeated him easily enough without you—" Sparda asked as he turned around. To his surprise, everything had changed since the last time he had been in the tower. Before them now was a staircase leading down, with what looked like a train car on tracks. "That is why..." She said, smirking.
"What is all of this? I do not remember this being here before…"
Anna hurried down the stairs. "This is what we need to use to reach that the control room of the Tower." They jumped on the train, and it sped through the bowels of the Tower. When it stopped, they were met by a long blue corridor with a large iron door at the end.
The door had cutaways that showed the massive gears within. They started down the corridor, "Soon we will reach the Lair of Judgment. There, we'll be able to lock this tower, and the Underworld, away for good." As they reached the door, Anna was taken aback by something.
A glimmering piece of red stone lay in the middle of the door. Anna ran her fingers over it. "Someone had already been here..."
Sparda, sensing that something was amiss, reached for his sword, "Or they still are..." He turned the gem, undoing the series of locks. The door swung open.
The Lair of Judgment. In this room awaited the destiny of all three figures that now stood within it. They were observed by the countless faces of tortured souls frozen in anguish, all of whom had been sacrificed to build the Tower. The Architect sat poised upon his throne fashioned out of human bones and demon corpses. He held a tattered leather strap in his sinewy left hand, on the other end of which was his demonic steed, Geryon. The living scar that marred his face since he had begun this unholy crusade now covered the majority of his body, making him almost unrecognizable as his former self. Before him stood Anna, with Sparda keeping guard close behind. A crooked grin formed upon his face and he spoke.
"So the traitor finally chooses to show his face…" His voice was deep and raspy and his eyes faded from blue to black as he spoke. His comments were directed toward Sparda and he completely disregarded his daughter as if she did not exist. She stood before him, holding the brown book, given to her only two years ago by Abel, close to her chest.
"F-Father…don't you recognize me?"
Still ignoring his daughter, the Architect continued to taunt Sparda, "Do you realize that you can never defeat the darkness? It is far too great….far too powerful to ever be overcome."
Sparda did not respond but instead held back cautiously, awaiting an attack. Anna continued to approach her father, or whatever was left of him, as the tears began to well up in her eyes again.
"Father….all this time….all this time I thought you were dead…but lo and behold here you stand….this must be fate…I came here for a reason…I came here to save the human race… and to save you!"
The comment seemed to catch at least part of the Architect's attention as his glowing eyes fell upon his daughter.
"It is not too late for you. I know you have done terrible things, that you have hate dwelling within you. There was a time when hate dwelled within me too, but I realized that that is not the way to conquer evil; it only makes the darkness stronger! It is not too late for you!"
Her words seemed to bounce right off the Architect as he remained cold and poised. But they did seem to seep into the mind of Sparda as his thoughts trailed off. Growing more and more frustrated, Anna continued to try and sway her father. "Don't you get it! We can end this right now! We can make it like it used to be! If you repent and fight the darkness, all the evil you have done will be forgotten, and you will save the human world…"[2]
But again, her comments went unheard as she came dangerously close to her father. This was just the moment he had been waiting for, and he attempted to grip Anna's neck. But before he could move a muscle, the tip of Sparda's blade was at his throat.
"Stay right where you are, liche."
"Hmm? I suppose the rumors of your abilities were not exaggerated after all…"
"No, don't!" Anna screamed to Sparda. "Father, please! You do not have to do this!"
As the Architect's eyes fell upon Anna once more, he spoke in an eerily hollow voice, "Why do you call me that? I am not your father. Only darkness resides here." Intoning those words, the hope Anna had sought seemed to evaporate like the morning dew. She realized that she could not save her father. He was lost to her. The Architect's attention then drew back to Sparda, "And you…"
Suddenly, the Architect lifted his hand and the color was sucked out of the entire room as he conducted his time dilation technique. Sparda and Anna moved in slow motion as the Architect leapt from the seat of his throne into the air, landing mere feet behind Sparda.
"You are not as powerful as you think, demon," he uttered as he prepared his clawed right hand for Sparda. Smoky black energy began to exude from his fingertips, writhing in tandem with his living scar as it reached out toward Sparda.
But then, just as the Architect was about to attack, Sparda suddenly turned to face him. He seemed to be moving at normal speed, albeit vibrating at a high frequency, while Anna and everything else remained nulled. "What? How is this possible? This cannot—"
The Architect could not say anything more, as Sparda grabbed him by the throat and slammed him hard to the ground, causing the muted nulling effect to shatter like glass. Anna looked around dazed and turned around to see her father being held up by his throat.
"Wait! No!"
"So…I've underestimated you….But it seems you have underestimated me as well. Geryon, attack!"
The gigantic blue horse shuffled back as if it was preparing to charge. Sparda dropped the Architect to the ground and turned to defend himself as Geryon rushed towards him. But Sparda, still buzzing with some kind of strange power, noticed something was different this time. As Geryon moved closer and closer in a streak of blue fury, Sparda raised his hand tentatively as if he expected something to happen. Instantly, Geryon braked hard, with his carriage skidding behind him and kicking up dust. When the dust cleared after a few moments, as the horse approached slowly, it did nothing more but shuffle before Sparda, making no threatening movements whatsoever.[3]
"Geryon, attack him now!"
But the horse did nothing. This monstrous demonic horse that stood before Sparda now acted as a loving foal, as if obeying its true master. Letting his guard down finally, Sparda approached the horse, running his clawed hands through its flaming mane.
"Enough of this!" Now, the Architect had his sights set on Anna once more and lunged at her with deadly speed. But he did not make it even five steps from her before Sparda's blade jutted out through his abdomen, almost as if it had always been there
Anna turned her head at the sight and blood flecked the skin of her face and neck.
The Architect's strange lifeblood began to flow from him as his glowing blue eyes started to fade. He gurgled as he spoke to Anna, "You….I…I know you…"
Her eyes filled with tears, Anna glared back at the Architect, "Father?"
"My….my daughter…."
"Yes, father, it's me…"
"I…I should have…."
"What…what is it father?"
Suddenly, the Architects eyes flashed a distant blue once more, "I should have killed you along with your mother!"
Anna's eyes widened as a sharp pain hit her in the chest and her heart sank. The Architect had attempted one final attack at her, but as his body moved, so did Anna's. Before she could even think, she had pulled her pistol from its holster and planted the barrel at his forehead. They locked gazes and an eternity seemed to come to an end in that single moment. Anna whispered something as a tear ran down her cheek. Before it had hit the ground, the bullet had passed through her father's skull. The gun shot reverberated throughout the entire hall until it became a faint echo. The Architect slid off Sparda's blade as he dropped backward to the ground with a sickening thud.
As his body let out its death rattle, a dark spirit emerged from his mouth, screaming and writhing in pain. It was the Rider, the demonic being that had possessed the Architect's ever so willing body. The Dark Rider[4] struggled as his body began to dissipate then suddenly he leapt at Geryon, entering its body. The horse shrieked as its body was teleported away. The horse's cries could be heard as it plunged further and further into the bowels of the tower.
Anna's slender hands trembled as she held the still smoking gun limply by her side. Her blank eyes gazed off into the distance. As she glared down at her father she could not hold back her tears. All her pain and hurt over the past few years had come down to this. Never did she think that it would be her responsibility to end the life of her father.
As she fell down to both knees, holding her father's head in her arms she wept. All kinds of repressed emotions struggled to free themselves in that moment; all the fear, all the anguish, sadness, hatred that she had experienced over the past few years was focused on this one event. But at the same time, feelings of relief and closure enveloped her heart and mind. She knew she had done everything in her power to save her father. And now, she knew that he no longer had to struggle with his own demons. He was free. His soul was now at rest,[5] and she was ready to do whatever had to be done for the rest of the human world.
Sparda peered down at Anna out of the corner of his eye, trying not to look at her directly. He knew exactly what was occurring but he still did not understand why. He did not understand why Anna was mourning a being who had tried to kill her. The connection between human beings was deeper than he could ever fathom and at that moment, he realized that he may never truly understand it fully.
Feeling as if he had allowed her enough time for here "crying," Sparda managed to speak. "Anna. We must finish this."
Wiping her tears and slowly gathering herself, Anna stood erect and steadfast. "Yes. Tonight, we end this."
And so Anna and Sparda prepared to close the portal, to shut away the Tower of Fear, and to stop the darkness once and for all…
[1] Again, "Sparda's" human speech has been reconstructed or augmented either by "Didymus" or by early compilers of the text, most likely to emphasize Sparda's inherent intelligence. Even within the context of the narrative, it is highly unlikely that Sparda could assimilate the linguistic subtleties of the human tongue in such a short time. ~Ed.
[2] This seems to be formulaic and may have been added by later religious redactors to further the doctrine of forgivness and absolution of sins. It is not in agreement with the existing ethic of the time in which tht text was written, which would have been based on honor and some version of the lex talionis. ~Ed.
[3] This passage seems to be out of place within the text and may have been a transplantation from texts from the East. My colleagues in the Eastern Religion department note that there is a heavy similarity to the passage depicting the compassion and serenity of the Budha in raising his hand to stop a rampaging white elephant. ~Ed.
[4,5] There is included here a reference to another apocryphal text known as the "Testament of Qayin" that has yet to be published, although a passage has been appended. There is an implication that the "Architect's" story is not over, and that death may not be the end of this character. Although the "Dark Rider" along with several elements related to the Architect are theorized to have been transplanted from this earlier text to give the current text a sense of authority, they are present in the earliest extant copies of the text.