[ SELOM, THE DEVIL ]

Abesselom could not believe his ears, he couldn't believe the man just said he will burn in hell fire. How will he burn when the hell fire was already in him? He would have preferred burning in the hell fire, instead of it burning in him.

The hell fire was the reason he was forbidden in every kingdom he knew, and also the reason he was living in isolation. It had taken a lot from him and he feared what else it would take, and most importantly, the hell fire in him was the reason he lost the one he loves. Only if the devil in him can let him be, he will be a free man and live a normal life.

It sounded funny for him to know someone wanted him to burn in his own fire. How ignorant those men are. They are worshiping a god that had been reincarnated, not just once but twice. And they are making sacrifices he never asked for, he really felt like lecturing them, but there was no need, since their minds were already made up.

"Why would I? weren't they given to me? Sacrifices are gift and I haven't sinned. What about you? Who knows the other sins you have committed according to the rules of this kingdom, apart from stealing and killing." Abesselom asked.

" Rules?" The man scoffed. "Nobody in this town follows those rules, we do what we want. We are ready to stand by the Selom Lord in hell." He said boldly.

" Am sorry but you won't." Abesselom said. His voice calm, and his power emitting around him like colorful vapor.

A loud scream came from outside the temple, and the men turned their heads towards the doors. The wooden doors shredded and quivered under the force of the people trying to get in. Abesselom had to clear his throat to get their attention back to him.

Their sight shifted between the doors and Abesselom, their eyes wide and their mouth open frantically. "To be sacrifice to the Selom Lord unwillingly must be really scary. I suppose." Abesselom said. He wiped Chesa's tears and picked her up, she snuggle against his neck and shoulder.

Abesselom had little idea on how to care for a child, he had never had the duty of taking care of one before, but he knew carrying them made them feel safe and protected. Maybe he would have known more if Azura had not been with someone else.

All it took was a flip of his hand and the corpse attacked the nearest person. The other men tried to pull the corpse off their friends, but he cried and begged, screaming for them to stop. The corpse had sunk it teeth in his skin, around a mouth full of his face. When they were able to get it off their friend, it chewed on the skin hungrily, not minding the beatings the men gave it.

"Who....who are you?" The leader asked, stepping backwards, away from his men and Abesselom.

"I am the one you call Selom Lord, but other people know me as Selom, 'The Devil'." Abesselom replied.

The men dropped to the floor on their knees before Abesselom, with their hands up and body shaking. "What should we do to them?" Abesselom asked Chesa. She just looked at him and shrugged her shoulders, then she snuggle against him again.

Abesselom robbed her back absent mindedly. "Well, I guess this men can start with an apology. It's not kind to sacrifice people unwillingly." He said.

"You can't fool me. You are not the Selom Lord." The leader said as he got back to his feet. "The Selom Lord do not care about apologies or kindness. He had killed thousands of men or even more in a spine of week, for nothing but because he was hungry for the taste of blood." He confronted.

" That's true. I did all that, because I was cursed and couldn't stop myself from killing. But you can stop yourself from doing heinous things." Abesselom said and the man remained silent.

" I think we don't need your apologies. You can say what you want when you find your place after death." Abesselom said and started walking away.

He passed by the men, humming as he petted Chesa's back and herded for the door. He lifted his hand and covered Chesa's face. "This isn't for the eyes of a child, please close your eyes." He said and removed his hand, and when he did, Chesa had her eyes shut tightly.

He opened the door of the temple to reveal hundreds of walking corpse, which roamed the wooden town, attacking the living that dared to abuse the malignant energy that dissipated the town.

"The Selom Lord was the reason this town was created, and I will be the one to burn it down. And I will make sure people like you perish alongside it." Abesselom said to the men and walked out of the doors.

The leader run after Abesselom, to try and sneak though the doors, but before he could, the door slammed shut. "Please, am sorry for everything, I apologize." The leader cried from the temple through the wooden doors, and so did his men.

There was loud and more screams from inside the temple, and the heavy smashing of things and the numerous running foot sounds, traveled to Abesselom's sensitive ears.

Abesselom could still feel the emerse energy in him and he could feel every single one of his walking corpse still under his control, serving a purpose or another for him.

He felt as a group of the corpse approached the door when he was not far away from it. "You deserve it. Take your revenge." He whispered and then turn to look at Chesa who quickly closed her eyes, pretending as if her eyes hadn't been open widely a while ago, exploring the world around her.

Abesselom stroke Chesa's back as he walked down the shabby wooden town, ignoring the screams and cries of agony and anguish around him. Few meters away from the temple, he stopped in front of a shop and took a piece of plain paper he saw from a stan.

With his dagger, he cut his index finger and made it bleed before he drew his symbol on the paper with his blood, and flung it towards the temple. Suddenly, the temple was set ablaze.

Some people who were clearly at a lost of what was going on approached Abesselom, and he encourage them to leave the town, but there were some people who refused to leave the shabby town.

Abesselom walked away, leaving the most greedy, rudely and hatred ones to burn alone with the temple. He stopped at the little plain land close to the lake from where he came earlier, and brought Chesa to a stan. He stood on the filthy soil and watch as the town of Selom burned, not minding the screams and cries he could still hear.

"Mister, may I borrow your spade?" Abesselom asked, calling out to a man at the lake side, the same man he had spoken to earlier. The man stood and watch in shock as the town of Selom durned. He had many fishing stuff with him and oddly, a spade was part of it.

He turned slowly to Abesselom after a while of hesitation. The piece of straw in his mouth earlier was now on the ground, and his mind was a mess of many thoughts as he gaze at Abesselom with a different eyes. "I don't see why not, here you are." The man said and handed the spade to Abesselom.

Abesselom took the spade from the man and made Chesa sit on a safer grounds. "Stay here, am going to teach you something." He said playfully, trying to cheer her up. He stabbed the ground with the spade and started digging, and in the end, he showed her how to dig a burial plot.

Abesselom waited until the town burnt completely, so his walking corpse could return to him and he can lay them to rest properly. All three hundred and fifty of them, who had come to life on his command.

This was the best he could offer them, once they are than helping him.The corpse weren't alive and walking because they wanted to be, they had followed Abesselom's order, and putting them to rest properly was his way to thank them.

He did not take any one from the town to his plot, because they were not worthy of it. And if they wanted to come after him in their death, he welcome them to the challenge. A mindless walking corpse didn't scar him one bit, instead corpse like that should be scared of him.

After all, he was, still is, and would continue to be, SELOM THE DEVIL.

Even though he could still feel the energy of the emerse power that filled him earlier in him, he still felt weak after digging for three hundred and fifty corpse and also putting them to rest. He turned to give the man's spade back to him, but he was not as he was anymore.

The man was sitting on the ground with his hands stack to the ground, as if to seek protection from mother earth. Tears rolled out of his eyes and his mouth open as if to say something, and his expression as if he just saw a ghost, and yes, he did, even worse than that.

He had seen the walking corpse running to Abesselom's direction and thought they would hurt him and the child with him, but instead, they had listened too Abesselom's every instructions and even lay in the burial plot obediently when he asked them to. How was he to stan and watch, when he felt threaten by him.

Even before Abesselom could reach out to help the man up, he got up himself and took off to his hills, not sure where he was running to. "He is alive, he came back to life, Selom is alive, the devil is back." The man shouted as he runs, and all Abesselom could do was stare at his retreating figure.

Walking back to Kelvindor city was not an option, he was in a hurry and too weak for that. But how was he to teleport with a child, what if she can't stand it? He didn't know how strong she was, but he was sure Chesa wasn't weak, yet she was a child and needed all the energy she'll get.

Chesa had seen him teleport the other day, even though he had asked her to close her eyes, peeping a little wasn't a sin, and she knew it was time for them to disappear like he did. Seeing him hesitating on what to do, she walked to him and held his hand, before lifting her head to look at him.

"Let go, am ready." She said with joy and anticipation in her eyes.

Abesselom was astonished to see how determine Chesa was, and the fact that there was no fear in her eyes, made him wonder what her actual powers was. He carried her in his embrace and asked her to close her eyes, which she did before he disappeared, knowing she might soon open her eyes to see what was happening.