Wednesday 14. September 1994
(C) Joona Palaste


                The Coming of the Power
                --------------------


This time it would be perfect. I had it all planned beforehand. I had chosen a
deserted castle from the 13th century for the site, and had all my equipment
ready and waiting. Tonight the world would witness His coming.
  I tried to open the door. The door headstrongly refused to become at the very
least ajar. "The fool", I thought, "it doesn't know the extent of my unspoken
powers!" Silently I muttered a spell which I had learned from the Holy Book my
tutor had given me, and the door gave way.

Inside I went straight to the ballroom. It was the largest room in the castle
and so the only one which would seem fit for the Lord. I poured my equipment
from the case I had kept them in. With a morbid thump, they fell to the floor.
  I placed the body right in the middle of the room. It was a body of a dead
necromancer, which I had robbed from its grave. It had already began to smell
foul and vile, even though it only had been in my case for two days. Then I
took out the candles.
  There were thirteen candles in total. Twelve of them I placed in a ring
around the body, and the thirteenth on top of the body's breast. I lit the
candles and poured the venomous fluids of the Power into the flames. The flames
changed colour to black and emitted noxious fumes which would have blinded me
had I not the power to see thoroughly in the dark, in the realm of the Lord.
  I stepped towards the body. I placed the skull of a new-born child between
its legs and stood behind the feet, with the Holy Book in my hands. Trembling
from the Great Power I was about to disturb, I hesitated a little. But then I
realised that the ritual must go on. Otherwise I would have no purpose in life
and would only seem fit to join the dark legions of the unliving.

I screamed out the first invocations. A wriggling mass of giant larvae appeared
on the body. They were the Children of the Lord, His spawn to rule the
Underworld. Instantly the larvae uncoiled themselves and began to eat the body.
Slowly I walked to the biggest larva and called out its evil name.
  The larva rose from the body it was eating and faced me. I stared deep into
the circular cavity that was its mouth. Its bloodstained fangs opened and
closed its mouth and foul-smelling drool dropped from it. It began to crawl
towards me, obviously intent on placing its thirsty fangs in my juicy flesh.
  Slowly walking away from the larva I said to it: "Leave me alone, for I wish
to call thy Master!" The larva hissed in reply. "Thou art a foolhardy man. If I
or my Master choose to detest thee, then thou shall never live again!" But
then, it stopped, stood completely upright and called the evil name of its
Master, whose name no mortal man must ever mention.

Then, the Lord appeared. He called the larvae back, and they disappeared into a
small dot in His hands. Then, the whole room seemed to vanish, so we were in
utter darkness, just the Lord and I. "Greetings, mortal! What is it thou
wantest of Me?" He spoke.
  Still dizzy from the Power of His coming, I replied. I said: "Have pity on my
worthless soul, o Lord, but I have come to see the One power that is greater
than even thee." "What hast thou got to offer as a payment?" He asked me.
"This", I said to Him, handing Him a small case full of gold.
  "Gold? Mere gold?" He said, furiously. "Not just gold, o Lord, but very
special gold. These are the ornaments a daring highwayman has stolen from the
heart of the church. They have been used as an offering to the False Prophet,
and now their power can be thine." "I am pleased", He said. "I have heard thou
wantest to contact the High Power. So be it."

So the Lord disappeared and the utter blackness in which we had stood dispelled
into a retina-burning brightness - it was the Holy Light.
  And behold! the True Power came to me, and I combined with it. Now, my
knowledge and power would be complete, infinite and invincivle. I savoured
every drop of the Power I had at my disposal.
  Just as I had received the Power fully, the door burst open and the Holy
Light vanished. The body and the candles were back again. The candles had
extinguished, and putrid corporal fluids dripped from the bite-wounds in the
body.

From the door emerged a priest, an infidel believer in the False Prophet. He
held out his heretic holy book in front of me, with the enemy insignia burning
towards my soul. He said the words which they used to banish daemons, the
servants of the Lord.
  Undeterred, I drew my pistol and fired it towards the priest. Through the air
soared a silver bullet which, in the hands of the Enemy, would have sufficied
to kill a werewolf or a vampire, but which at my disposal would kill any
unbeliever foolish enough to disturb me.
  The bullet pierced the priest's book right in the centre of the cross, where
the False Prophet's heart had been. Then it hit the priest and his back
exploded in a delightful shower of blood and flesh. He dropped to the floor,
lifeless.
  "What a fool", I thought. "He was no match even for my former self. Now, I
shall truly wipe out the infidel!" I swept the priest's body into my case and
went to the music room, where I played ghastly tunes on the piano for the rest
of the night.