The Awakening ch.20

    The Elite Paladins have driven to the charred remains of the camp in order to investigate the aftermath of the carnage they had been witness to. They exited from their trucks, and crisscrossed the camp on foot in a grid pattern to examine the wreckage and the grizzly remains before them. It was like a war zone; amongst the ashes of the fallen structures were the many charred remains of people. The leader of the Elite Paladins shook is head in disgust as they approached the now closed black gate. Before they could get close a sudden land slide from the hill above covered the gate as though the pile had been pushed down by some invisible force. The lead Paladin yelled for his men to scramble atop the other side to see what caused the avalanche. They found nothing, no signs anyone had knocked the sand down.

 

     The leader announced, “It looks like they all have moved off and either this door was covered by an accident or some left over magic. Let’s keep searching for any survivors.”

 

    With a resounding, “Yes sir!” the other six followed to the back of the camp past even more burned up buildings.

 

      After several hours of searching they found the crushed remains of Dr. O’Conner in one of the few buildings that wasn’t completely destroyed.

 

     The lead Paladin shook his head and made a cross over his chest as he said, “Poor bastard.”

 

    Just then one of the other men, a shorter guy with red hair, yelled out, “Hay, Over Here! Its Brother Al’Suad, he’s still alive!”

 

    They all rushed over to find Al’Suad with many third degree burns and many broken bones.

 

    One of the Elite Paladins leaned down to the lying figure of Al’Suad, while doing so he said, “We need to get him out of this unholy place as soon as possible.”

 

    The lead Paladin called in for a helicopter while the other men made Al’Suad as comfortable as possible. While they waited for the helicopter they tried several times more to call for Rick with no success. More than an hour later after the helicopter had arrived and taken Al’Suad off to the nearest hospital the Elite Paladins searched for Rick, using the locater that had been part of Rick’s suitcase communications apparatus, finding it abandoned with Rick’s jeep.

 

    The lead Paladin shakes his head and reports in his field recorder, “With the evidence present to us, and the condition of the battle ground I have no choice but to announce Brother Rick as missing in action and presumably dead.”

 

    Roughly a week later the lead Paladin is in the secret head quarters of the Knights of the Golden Cross in the Vatican to give his report in person to the Head Inquisitor.

 

    Inside The lead Paladin walks up to Brother Keene behind his desk and addresses him, “Brother Keene would you please call the Head Inquisitor I have need to give him my report, he told me it was urgent I give it to him as soon as I arrived.”

 

    Brother Keene calls the Head Inquisitor on the internal lines and after putting the phone down tells the lead Paladin to please wait in the discussions chamber per the Head Inquisitor’s request. The lead Paladin leaves from the waiting room down the hall and goes to the left hall when the great halls fork past the library and continues down past another bend to the discussions chamber.

 

    Brother Keene and The Head Inquisitor rushed down together from the right hall turning the corner to find a brown haired man wearing a down coat, this man stopped them to ask the Head Inquisitor, “What’s going on?”

 

    The Head Inquisitor turned to Brother Keene and whispered, “Go to the discussion chamber and tell him I will be there shortly.”

 

    Brother Keene rushed off down the hall leaving the Head Inquisitor

speaking with a man Brother Keene knew as Brother Mike.

 

    Shortly after Brother Keene had told the leader of the Elite Paladins that the Head Inquisitor would be in to join him in a moment, the Head Inquisitor himself stepped through the door.

 

    The lead Paladin with a chuckle says, “When you say a moment you really mean a moment Brother Keene.”

 

    Brother Keene cracked a smile and excused himself to return to his duties

while the Head Inquisitor and the lead Paladin spoke with each other.

 

    The leader of the Elite Paladins commences to give his report to the Head Inquisitor, “As you will read sir in my report upon arriving at the scene there were two groups of monsters fighting each other, one side consisting of what we believe to have been Litmet and a red Doh-Rong female. The other side consisted of two Were-Dires and one Olym.”

 

    The Head Inquisitor holds up his hand to stop the lead Paladin while asking, “Were-Dires and an Olym? and you have recorded proof they exist?”

 

    The lead Paladin says, “Yes sir, I believe so I submitted my recording binocs to the lab upon arriving here sir.”

 

    The Head Inquisitor looks thoughtful for a moment before saying, “Very good, please continue.”

 

    The Lead Paladin continued his report, “We were about to engage them when a golden robed angel appeared before us and told us not to attack until after they had fought each other.”,

 

      “An angel?” interrupts the Head Inquisitor, “Are you sure?”

 

    “Yes sir.” He answers, “As God as my witness I am sure an angel saved our lives by keeping us out of that fight.”

 

      “Saved your lives?” asked the Head Inquisitor, “How so?”

 

    The lead Paladin dropped his eyes as though embarrassed as he continued, “Had we gone into that fight I am certain me and my men would now be dead, especially after what we saw. The Japanese cartoon like energy beams, strange attacks, and the sheer destructive power, there is no way we would have stood a chance. Even after most the combatants were injured three more Were-Dires and even a large Dire female entered the battle ground rescuing their fellow monsters and even capturing the Doh-Rong before leaving. This Litmet cat demon also left after that, leaving us to sift through the chaos left behind.”

 

    The Head Inquisitor added, “And Brother Al’Suad was the only survivor, correct?”

 

    “Yes Sir.” answered the lead Paladin with a quick nod of his head.

 

    The Head Inquisitor dismissed the lead Paladin to return to his duties as he thought over the report. The Head Inquisitor went to his office and once more removed from his desk drawer the small handheld black pyramid.

 

    After reading the written version of the report fully and thinking, “Brother Rick is dead and an angel saved my men.”

 

    He asked the black pyramid, “My lord, please tell me what you make of these occurrences.”

 

    The black pyramid spoke in its deep voice saying, “The angel was real, he protected your people from certain death. Litmet alone would have been too strong for them to handle with the minimal weapons they took, let alone those other monsters.”

 

   The Head Inquisitor looked distraught as the black pyramid continued, “However there is some good news of sorts in all this as Brother Rick is not dead, however there is no telling if he will return on the side of the light.”