The Flaming Vermin

After navigating a series of winding hallways and secret pass-coded metal doors, the final gate opened in front of Julian. The gate struggled to slide, accompanied by groans and shrieks of the material. The door was leading to a large open area which originally served as a junction of the underground sewer. It was now filled with his army. They were such an uncultured swine. Many of them sat around the periphery of the junction, and some of them standing around talking to each other. The only one who was standing properly to greet him, was their leader, with her rifle clutched tightly across her torso with both arms.

"Ticho," he greeted her.

"Prophet," she greeted him back.

"I was hoping for an army," he gestured with his right arm to the band of gossiping savages behind her.

"You have them," she said, unmoved by his attempt of showing contempt at their unrefined behavior in greeting their Prophet, their supposed savior. He reminded himself that she might not sense his subtlety, inferior as they were.

So he decided to be blunter, "they should be greeting me with more proper behavior. Don't they realize who am I?"

Ticho only squinted her eyes. Julian was glad that finally, he could strike a chord in her dense simple mind.

But then she was yelling, "RATS! ATTENTION!"

Like a magical mantra, the disorderly creatures quickly move about efficiently and formed formation, and standing still similar to their leader, clutched rifles across their torsos and whatnot. Julian was impressed, both by their fun little choreography and by the name they gave themselves. It was fitting.

"Is this what you want, Prophet?" Ticho said. Julian sense some poison in her words, "do you want a capable army or circus performers?"

He was taken aback, "wha…"

"If it is the latter you want," she continued, "I'm afraid we can't help you."

Julian smiled, tried to hide his contempt, "beware of what you're saying, Ticho. I am the Prophet of Bel. I am capable of blessing you people with a better life or curse you with the exact opposite extreme of it. Choose your next words really carefully, daughter…"

"We are not afraid of you," she shot back without any hesitation in her voice, "we can ask you to find another army that capable of doing what we're doing if you don't choose your next words really carefully, Prophet."

Julian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He counted to ten to let his anger dissipated. This was a fragile relationship, he should not put it in jeopardy this early in the game. He would let it pass for now. They would pay, he thought. In time. Nobody would escape the wrath of Bel.

He opened his eyes and forged his smile, "I apologize, Daughter," he finally said, "it is not my intention to offend you. You know how exhausted I am being the servant of the high and almighty Domaney. My time with them blinded my purpose, distracted me from our eternal duty to the Goddess. You are right, sweet Ticho. We should focus on our greater destination."

"I'm not 'sweet'," she snapped back, still with her unmoving face.

"Ah yes! Hahaha," he was so ready to tear this whore apart, "I again, apologize."

"Apology accepted," she answered dryly, "we are ready, Prophet."

"Ah yes of course," he did a half-bow looking at her, then put his arms behind him and puffed his chest to address the whole company, "People of the Goddess! I know who you are!"

All of them looked intently towards him, their faces unreadable, just like their leader. He could only see the fire in their eyes. He was ecstatic. He marveled at his own brilliance to involve them in their plan.

"You are the outsiders. Being cast away by the old kingdom who value your strength and dignity until they have what they want: the world where values get to die." He looked around to see if his words landed correctly. He then continued, "After they got what they want, the world of 'freedom', as they said, they forget about you. They cast you out, becoming rats, hoping that you do not exist!"

"I too feel the same way," his voice trembled and he looked to the ceiling, "my duty in this world is to reinstate the laws of our Makers, but we, the priests are now just a tool. A façade, for the ruler. Just to show that they are men and women of Goddesses," he paused. There was a sinking feeling in his chest before it was exploded into anger, "I know that this is the end of time! The time for the Goddesses to right what is wrong! To give balance to the perfect world They once created!"

"But," he exclaimed, "we cannot just wait and see! We need to act in Her plan! We need to prepare for Her coming! Bel!!!"

The stupid army just stared at him, unmoving.

"Say it with me!" he said, "Bel!"

"Bel!" Ticho answered, then turned around to face her people, "FOR BEL!"

Now they were shouting in unison, "FOR BEL!"

"I had planted the groundwork for our cause," he said, "I have poisoned the air of Angkara. I prepared the vassal for the leader of the Goddesses, eldest sister of Bel, Aster!" he paused to let those sink in, then continued, "now I only need Her Victor to be awakened, but oh…" he fell on his knees.

"What happened, Prophet?" Ticho asked. She now sounded concerned. Good. She was on his side once more. He was humored by how easy it was to control them.

"… the last part of Her Victor. Her Catalyst. Her Odradek is not in our hand just yet. That's why I needed you."

"We want our freedom," Ticho said, "we want our revenge. We will do whatever the Goddesses want us to do."

Good. "The Catalyst had appeared! You only needed to find him…"

"Him? A man?"

"Yes," Julian stood up, "a man who doesn't know his part yet. A man who indulges himself in sin and violence. You must bring him to the Angkara Hospital, to finish our work for Bel!"

"FOR BEL!" the rats exclaimed.

"I don't know where he is," he said, "so you have to scour Angkara for him. Find him! And bring him to the hospital!" now a finishing touch, "for Bel…"

The army of the savages stomped their right foot in unison, before yelling, "FOR BEL!"