The Akashic Mandate

Chapter 10

Elijah stood up. He felt the anger building inside his chest. He hated the Gods. He hated the Angels. He hated the system that turned human suffering into a game.

"I will protect you until your body fades," Elijah promised. "I can fight."

Without thinking, Elijah clenched his right fist. He wanted to show the warrior that he was strong enough to protect him. He pushed the energy from his chest into his hand.

FWOOSH.

The pitch-black fire erupted over Elijah’s right hand, burning brightly in the dim cathedral. The dark purple light cast terrifying shadows against the stone walls.

The dying warrior stopped breathing.

His eyes locked onto the black fire. The sadness and pain in his eyes were instantly replaced by pure, absolute terror. His face turned as white as a ghost.

"No," the warrior whispered. His voice trembled violently. "No... it cannot be. The dark flame. The purple rim."

The man started pushing himself backward, ignoring the terrible pain in his chest. He dragged his bleeding body across the stone floor, desperately trying to get away from Elijah.

"What's wrong?" Elijah asked, confused. He took a step forward, holding his burning hand out. "It's okay, this is magic I took from the hounds! I can use it to help—"

"Stay away from me!" the warrior screamed. It was a scream of pure, instinctual panic. "You are an Eater of Sins! You carry the Devourer's Mark!"

Elijah stopped in his tracks. The system had called him a Devourer too.

"What does that mean?" Elijah demanded, his voice echoing loudly.

"It is the forbidden law!" the warrior cried out, pointing a shaking, bloody finger at Elijah’s burning hand. "You do not just kill... you erase! You consume the eternal soul! You are a Heretic! If the Angels find you, they will burn the entire universe just to destroy you! You are worse than the demons!"

Elijah stared at the man in shock. He looked down at his own hand. The black fire suddenly looked ugly to him. Was he holding the power of total erasure? When he absorbed those golden orbs, did he completely erase those creatures from existence?

Before Elijah could ask another question, a deafening sound shook the entire cathedral.

ROOOOOAAARRR!

The sound was so loud it made the heavy stone floor vibrate under Elijah’s boots. It was not a normal howl. It sounded like a hurricane of metal and bone.

High above the altar, at the very front of the church, was a massive, circular stained-glass window. It was beautiful, depicting a golden sun.

Suddenly, a massive shape smashed directly through the center of the giant window.

CRASH!

Thousands of pieces of colored glass rained down like shiny, dangerous rain.

Elijah jumped back, raising his arms to protect his face. Through the falling glass, a monster the size of a small house landed heavily on the stone floor.

It was the Alpha Hellhound.

It was terrifying. It was three times the size of the hounds Elijah had fought by the river. Its bones were not white; they were a dark, stained gray. The swirling black shadows around its body were thick and heavy, dripping onto the floor like hot tar. It wore broken pieces of old, rusted armor around its giant neck and shoulders. Its glowing red eyes were the size of dinner plates, burning with a furious, intelligent hatred.

The Alpha did not land gracefully. It landed with brutal, crushing force.

It landed directly on top of the dying warrior.

SPLAT.

The sound was sickening. The heavy silver armor crumpled like tin foil beneath the beast's massive, bony paws. The stone floor cracked underneath the impact. The warrior did not even have time to scream. He was crushed instantly, his body flattened against the ground.

"NO!" Elijah yelled, stepping forward, his black fire flaring wildly.

The Alpha slowly lifted its massive, bony head. It looked at Elijah. It sniffed the air, smelling the black fire on Elijah’s hand. The beast let out a low, rumbling growl, recognizing the magic Elijah had stolen from its pack.

But down on the floor, beneath the Alpha's massive paws, something beautiful was happening.

The broken, flattened body of the warrior began to turn into pure, white ash. From the center of the ash, a ball of light floated upward.

It was not a small golden orb like the monster souls. This was a human soul spark. It was large, bright, and glowing with a beautiful, pure silver and gold light. It hummed with a sad, gentle melody. It was the essence of the warrior, escaping his destroyed body, preparing to fly away to reform back at his Vanguard camp.

The Alpha opened its massive jaws, revealing rows of giant, black glass teeth. It lunged its head forward, trying to eat the silver soul before it could float away. It wanted to consume the man permanently.

"Leave him alone!" Elijah shouted. He thrust his burning right hand forward, preparing to shoot a blast of black fire at the Alpha's face.

But the fire did not shoot out.

Instead, the Akashic Mandate inside Elijah’s chest suddenly woke up on its own.

It did not ask for permission. It did not wait for Elijah to attack. The system recognized a free, powerful soul floating in the air, and its cosmic programming activated automatically.

A sudden, terrifying pulling force erupted from the center of Elijah’s chest. It felt like a black hole had suddenly opened inside his heart. It was a vacuum of dark, hungry magic.

The silver human soul, which was floating toward the ceiling, suddenly stopped in mid-air. It vibrated wildly. Then, pulled by the invisible, powerful force of Elijah’s Mandate, the soul changed direction.

It flew away from the Alpha. It flew directly toward Elijah.

"No!" Elijah panicked. He tried to step back. He tried to cover his chest with his hands. "No, stop! I don't want it! Go away!"

He did not want to eat a human soul. He wanted to save humanity, not erase them.

But he could not stop it. The power of the Mandate was absolute.

The beautiful, silver soul slammed directly into the center of Elijah’s chest. It sank instantly into his flesh.

Elijah screamed.

It did not feel like the warm, comfortable energy of the monsters. It felt like swallowing a lightning bolt. It felt wrong. It felt dirty. The pure silver magic clashed violently with the dark, demonic fire already in his veins. Elijah fell to his knees on the stone floor, clutching his chest. He felt the memories, the fears, and the entire life of the warrior dissolve into nothingness inside his body.

He had just permanently erased a human being from existence. He had done exactly what the Alpha wanted to do.

Bright red text, dripping like wet blood, violently flashed across his vision.

[Human Soul Devoured. Entity permanently erased from the Cycle.]

[System Warning: Consuming human essence violates natural order.]

[Humanity -1]

[New Skill Unlocked: Vanguard Agility.]

The red text vanished. The terrible pain in Elijah’s chest faded away, leaving behind a cold, empty feeling. But physically, his body surged with incredible, supernatural speed and lightness. The warrior’s years of training and agility were now violently stitched into Elijah’s own muscles.

Elijah slowly lowered his hands from his chest. He stopped screaming.

The cathedral was completely silent. Even the Alpha Hellhound had stopped growling. The giant beast stared down at the small human, its red eyes blinking in sudden, unexpected caution.

Elijah slowly stood up from the floor. He didn't feel like himself anymore. The deep sadness and horror of what he had just done were quickly being pushed down by a cold, dark, rising anger. The Mandate was feeding his rage. It was altering his mind.

He looked at his hands. The black fire flared higher, now mixed with streaks of stolen silver light.

Elijah looked up at the massive Alpha Hellhound.

His face was completely blank. All human emotion was gone. And as he stared at the giant monster, Elijah’s normal brown eyes suddenly changed. The white part of his eyes dissolved. His irises melted away. In an instant, his eyes turned completely, terrifyingly pitch black, like two empty holes leading into a dark, bottomless void.

"You brought this to me," Elijah’s voice echoed in the ruined church. It did not sound like a human voice anymore. It sounded deep, overlapping, and monstrous.

He raised his fists, entirely wreathed in dark flame, and took a step toward the giant beast.

"Now," Elijah growled, the void in his eyes promising absolute destruction, "I am going to eat you, too."