Chapter 4: A gift from Hell!

The beautiful woman had spoken, intervening in the council's matters, she was present at the meeting, but the way the rest of the council members looked at her, it seemed like she was just a figurehead, like she wasn't supposed to give her opinion. Jeff looked away from her:

"To question the decision made by the Ambassador and the religious head themselves is insolence even for a Princess, we are the ones making the decisions now, just keep that agreement in mind", despisingly he talked to himself, though it was obviously and intentionally loud enough for everyone to hear "Royalty of the colonies should know their place, thinking of themselves as nobles, always on their high horses"

The princess stayed quiet, still, the disgrace could be seen on her face, she was completely shamed and moved back. The council decided the course of action was obvious and should be implied upon right away.

--

A regal carriage halts before a huge stone wall, with an enormous wooden door. The door is opened by the coachman of the carriage, he moved to the side of the door and bowed. Down the stairs came Aldaon and Lord Jeff from the council meeting. A soldier in a different uniform than the rest but bearing the same crest on the uniform rushed to their side as a couple of soldiers in similar uniforms opened the wooden gate.

"We have kept him from falling unconscious again, Sir. As you asked Lord Fiend is himself going to tend to this one as soon as you give the word. Currently, he is in the lord's personal chamber. And the mages have been at stand by for your arrival."

The Head mage nodded and they went inside this Fiend's chamber, as it was called. Both of them were surrounded by the mages in an orderly fashion.

"We have thoroughly inspected him, my lord; we did not find anything except for that abominable curse mark."

They went deeper into the prison looking place. And into one of the rooms with a plain-looking door, but inside that door was a terrifying view. A really gruesome sight. The first look inside the whole place explaining why the lord of the fort was called the fiend and why this was the Fiend's chamber. Amidst all of the torture tools and fresh blood, the man in question was hanging to iron chains.

A soldier of the fort came in, "Lord Fiend has arrived". A really tall man wearing black head to toe came into the room. Jeff looked terrified of this man, more than he was when he heard about the Devil's power being wielded by men.

"Is this how a man of noble birth dresses and presents himself! in these rags!" he thought to himself.

They all stared at the accused, Aldaon, the head mage stepped forward "I hear you deny having any memory of the heinous crime you have committed, in fact, you feign complete ignorance, memory loss."

The man still hanging, looking down at the ground in a very low voice said, "I don't know what crimes you are talking about. I don't know who I am. I don't know why I am here, but if I have wronged then I am sure I should be punished; by whom is the question."

"Damn you, you think putting up an obvious act and stating you accept punishment will let you off the hook, protect you from god's justice", Lord Jeff yelled.

"Huh? You torture men for their lives, give yourselves title's like the Fiend, and think you are carrying out God's justice for him, what a joke."

Both Jeff and The Fiend changed their expressions from despise to anger. The fiend moved forward and with a quick movement pulled out one of the hanging man's nails with his bare hands. As he went on, Aldaon stopped him,

"Now then, how long have you been a mole in the army, or were you always one right from the beginning since before you joined the national troops?"

"I told you I don't even remember anything at all!"

Jeff gestured Fiend with his head and he pulled out another one of the accused's nails.

"Ahhhhh... You certain this is holy old men!?? Ughh" As soon as he yelled that he lost one more nail.

"Let's start with your name, shall we, you go with a really ironic one seeing the position you are in right now, they call you Karma, right..."

This man supposedly called Karma reacted by violently moving as he screamed at the top of his voice at the very mention of this name. He could feel it, though it was not a direct reaction to the name, he felt an overflow of information rushing into his head as he heard the word Karma, that information was the reason for his pain. So was his name a trigger for his lost memories? Is that the information that was flowing into his mind?

He moved so violently that even the Thick iron chains he was bounded by started shaking their very core out of place. All the mages and soldiers reacted in a flash, they moved to grip the chains binding him and using magic to try and hold him down. The earlier black colored tattoo-like curse mark was now glowing crimson, sinister energy was overflowing the room. Aldaon was simply observing from his seat, he seemed calm, in fact. Thankfully, before he would have needed to make a move, Karma fell unconscious due to the pain.

"...The body can only take so much after all" were Aldaon's words.

"Sir head mage we had a messenger while you were busy interrogating the accused" a soldier waiting by the door of the chamber spoke as soon as Aldaon came out, while holding a scroll in his hands.

Jeff was gestured to accept the scroll by Aldaon.

"So, what does it say?"

"The religious head has declared the execution of the heretic come morning!"

"But we haven't even interrogated him properly yet. Does he have anything to say about that?"

"He says that we don't need any sort of information out of the likes of a heretic, god will prevail without his information. Also, a part of this message addresses Lord Fiend,

'I call upon Fiend to enforce the Lord's will upon the heretic as strongly as possible, before, the ceremony to exterminate the evil within him tomorrow, arrives'; it says

Aldaon murmured "These religious guys with power, on their high horses cannot comprehend common sense, now can they?" As he walked out of there with a disappointed look.

--

"That monster! He is getting punished for what he did to all those people!"

"I heard this guy's a scapegoat the kingdom framed to save face even though he is nothing like the man the witnesses saw"

"They say he is a huge monster of a person with a scary face"

Rumors of all sorts were circulating around the kingdom the next morning, the morning of the public execution.

Karma was brought in, heavily injured, in a gruesome state, everyone who was shouting for the monster to be punished, were shut quiet on seeing his state, the ones who'd lost someone in the incident were the only ones still sobbing, crying, cursing Karma.

Karma was still torn up between the pain his body was going through and the confusion from the memories and experiences of a world completely different from what he was seeing before him right now.

The execution ground had everybody present at the council meeting along with the other local and imperial kingdom's nobility and a lot of common citizens in attendance in separate stands of the arena like set up, with the altar right at the center.

The religious head was standing by the altar, he looked at Karma, then he addressed the people in a loud voice, "Look, look closely and relish the sight of this heretic, who we have guided in repenting for his sins, and whom we are gonna free from those sins and their burden, today, by sending him to God, for only God can rid him of his evil"

"No!! Don't kill him he's innocent, Karmaaaaa!!!! " One voice arose from all the curses by the people in the stands trying to defend him and fell onto Karma's ears. He again got triggered at the mention of this name, Karma, what was it about this name, rather this word, that caused this inflow of memories. But this time he remembered a very specific memory.

--

Ray's encounter with Satan was this memory, he remembered right when his soul was about to fade away from Hell.....

"Oooh and there's one more thing, kid, I am gonna entrust you with one of the powers of my domain, you'll figure out how to use it when you do, for now, at least know that it's called jud____"

--

The person who spoke in Karma's favor was brought forward, dragging them through the crowd, at the order of the religious head, the person was a woman who identified herself to be Karma's sister, the religious head looked happy,

"Is there a better way to make people repent, than doing to them what they have done to others, God has given us an opportunity, in the form of this girl, bring the witch sister of this heretic here we shall deliver him punishment through her. If she isn't willing to help in cleansing her brother's soul than she shall also be condemned as a heretic and suffer " The crowd was baffled at this development.

"Everything is clear..... " Karma quietly spoke to himself.

"What did you say? The religious head looked at Karma."If you want to speak something then you should be praying, Son. There's still time to show remorse to the people you have wronged so you can at least stand before god"

"Son, huh? You know even he talks like that,.....Satan, I mean"

Everyone was flabbergasted, they were frozen in place, after hearing this. Sweat dripped down their faces. Had this man just said sealed his own fate? For them this confirmed their suspicions, there was no doubt in their mind anymore that he was the culprit.

"Blasphemy, comparing God's messenger with The Devil. We shall cleanse him completely before sending him to God!!"

"I see right through you,..... "

Karma who'd been looking towards the ground this whole time finally looked up, his naturally red eyes were glowing fiercely like a flame, there was not a shed of fear in them, his face was confident, thirsty for vengeance. His voice turned demonic, as he spoke rising from his knees to stand up on his feet, everyone was horrified,

"For you who have strayed far from the path of peace and love,

For you, who have misused your authority in order to satisfy pleasure and grudge alike,

For you,

I come bearing a gift from hell,

JUDGEMENT! "

Fin.