Conviction

Noor landed gently onto the ground as she let go of her hold on her student. In front of the two, soldiers dressed in the Muscat Empire's dress formed a barricade and behind them flames rose to the sky.

Noor began walking forward and Azrael promptly followed behind her . He was already in a trance. The soldiers parted letting the two walk past them when they saw Noor's uniform. A female soldier noticed Noor from a distance away and came rushing towards her.

" Crowned Noor, we are almost done investigating the scene, we will begin burying the...."

Noor waved her away as she and Azrael continued marching forward. Although Azrael had heard stories of villages being burnt down and the death that ensued, he had never really felt it like he did now. He was an altruist and empath at heart but there was a vast difference between experiencing the disheartening reality firsthand and hearing it from word of mouth. Even when he saw the wounded, he had subconsciously regarded it as a fortunate event they had made it out alive and that there was hope for them. That was what he had focused on, hope. But this was something else.

The crimson moon had risen into the sky dying the landscape red but there was no need for that. The ground itself was a sea of scarlet. He wasn't sure at what point it had happened but he noticed his feet sink into the ground, it was blood. Wherever he cast his gaze, all he saw was blood, for a minute he questioned if he was dreaming.

He felt Noor tug his arm as she forcefully pulled the distraught young man forward. 

Farther ahead was a mound of corpses, laid upon each other in a sick fashion. No they were not corpses, they were not even human anymore. It was a mountain of flesh and liquid. Here there was an eye, there was an arm, over there was a piece of male genitalia. It was disgusting and foul to look at, as if staring into the most perverted thought of the devil.

Azrael looked even farther ahead and there he saw an even more gruesome show. Noor cast her gaze to her broken pupil, his hands were shaking and his knees buckling. He could barely stand. 

Ahead of the hill of flesh were spears that shot out to the sky and on top of these spears were the skulls of men and children, their spines still hanging off them, swinging in the night wind. Their eyes remained wide open gazing at those beneath them. Some of the heads were missing eyes, others had nails driven into their ears and noses sliced clean off. Down the shaft of the spears were the guts of the dead tied around, some fashioned into crude ribbons and characters written at the bottom in blood and body parts

 I HOPE YOU ENJOY OUR PRESENT. THERE'S MORE INSIDE. 

 Azrael felt his puke rush out threw his nose, he turned his head away only for Noor to set it back straight. 

"Look!"

 Noor dragged Azrael forward, past the hill of flesh and farther past the spears. Ahead of them were corpses of men lined up leading to what seemed to be the town's cathedral. The corpses were nude and lay upside down planted into the ground from the neck . Their genitalia was cut, no ripped from their crotches, the heads of the deceased were then laid next to the bodies and the mouths stuffed with their genitalia. 

It was an oppressive welcome. Azrael's instincts fought, begging him to turn back and not head into the cathedral but his body moved and he knew Master Noor would not let him go.

The double door of the cathedral opened under the force of Noor's push. The interior was dark but Noor conjured a flame in her palm that illuminated the interior.

Inside were the bodies of women of all ages, the elderly, the middle aged, the youth, children and even infants. All of them lay naked, their souls visibly no longer residing in their bodies. The smell hit him hard, it was worse than the smell of blood and burning flesh outside where the wind had cleared it up. Here it was a potent revolting mix of faeces, blood and semen. 

Azrael winced as he closed his eyes. His eyes teared up and he felt the warm liquid streaming down his cheeks. 

Some of the bodies lay there with crude objects stuck inside their orifices, others had their bodies split in half from their pelvis. Azrael recognised something from the corner of his eye. He ran towards the lifeless body that lay amongst the other corpses.

He couldn't even scream, he slid on the blood and fell, crawling towards the tiny body. His tears were now flowing uncontrollably, mucus coming out of his nose freely, his eyes were bloodshot. 

Noor watched on stoically, she seemed to wince a bit when Azrael crawled on all fours bawling his eyes out but she soon returned to her poker face.

Azrael's tears washed the child's blood covered face, with each tear, the face becoming even clearer, his chest tightening even more. Soon he could vividly make out the face of the girl, it was Lana. The same Lana that he believed had hope for the future. The same bundle of joy that was adopted and he now claimed had found happiness. The same Lana he would share stories and perform tricks for. The same Lana that would have nightmares and needed to be comforted by only him. The same Lana that curiously prodded his relationship with Zahra. It was Lana!

And now she lay in his arms, reeking of blood and semen, her lifeless body covered in bruises, a wooden pole pressed against her rear until it protruded through her mouth. That Lana! 

Azrael let out a cry, he could not process anything. He felt a wave of sadness, ire, confusion and regret as he screamed. 

" Well...do you have conviction now? How many more do you want to see like this until you find conviction? You have the power to protect these people ! Do you still lack conviction Azrael?"

Azrael rocked back and forth as he felt the heat of his body be sapped into the corpse in his embrace. He lit her body on fire, her wounds closed up but her eyes remained lifeless, the tears in them the last thing she left in this world.