CHAPTER 97

CHAPTER 97

VARINEO FELT LIKE an immense burden had been dropped on his shoulders. A disquieting and oppressive knowledge was what he now carried in his mind, a reality far too cruel and demonic.

At first he doubted. In an attempt to momentarily escape eternal damnation, a dark creature devoid of any compassion had revealed the unbelievable to him. Everything, however, pointed to the veracity of the statement made.

The old textbook on demonology had confirmed, hatred was indeed the cement with which Lucifer ruled his subterranean realm. And that loathsome creature, moved by that same hatred and contempt for the absolute ruler of the realm of the dead, had somehow done God a service.

Charles Varineo, for a moment, was stunned by the observation of a feeling of compassion that he felt welling up in his own soul.

What terrible punishments would that miserable spirit be suffering?

His reflection, however, did not last long. He closed the correspondence by sealing it. He looked at the address again, it was correct, there could be no mistakes. Everything was right, soon the Pope would summon the greatest doctors of the Church. And evil would once again be vanquished.

Varineo knelt down and prayed.