Auralogy - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Made on 12th December 2011, Revised on the date specified.

Bloodshed Saint

No mercy in a fight or you would die tonight.

The warm sunlight sneaked into an occupied classroom in Allocer High; Comfortable enough it was to make the class alive. The teacher was teaching Chemistry and Ryan stared at the vacant seat nearby as he gasped. None of the chemical equations or calculations on concentrations of both reactants and products written on the blackboard could get his attentions. He decided to spit his feelings out through words on his notes and he folded one to be passed to Winry who sat beside him. He asked about the Jackie’s absence in his note and Winry had a pause from her noting. She replied very quickly and the reply was “I have no idea”. “Maybe he was just sick of having more impact with us”, that was what Lukas wrote as he assumed so when Winry who sat by his side passed him the note. The note was then passed back to Ryan. Fortunately, the teacher enjoyed teaching her favourite Chemistry so much until she didn’t notice that her students were chit-chatting via folded notes and was still talking about the livelihood between Alkanes and Alkenes enthusiastically. Ryan almost had both of his eyes popped out upon seeing Lukas’s brilliant guess written on the paper. “It can’t be, it’s so ridiculous that even an ostrich won’t believe it” He tried to calm himself down by telling himself that Lukas’s assumption was absolutely wrong.

“Believe it or not, anything is possible with Jackie. You could never know how distorted are his thoughts now. We have to prepare for the worst, Mr Law.” Lukas whispered about Jackie’s disappearance softly. Ryan covered his ears and wished not to hear the hypothesis. He rubbed his head and sighed, “Maybe Lukas was right; Jackie is fed up of all of us for being overly concerned. We shouldn’t have talked to him last night.” Winry hit Ryan’s head gently with her reference book, “No use of regretting of what we had done, the only thing we can do is to move on, steadily.” She said quietly. Ryan slightly nodded and smiled as he thanked for her consolations. Winry replied, “Just because men are useless the most when they are in sorrow and it is my duty to help rubbish like you to stand again.” A mischievous smile could be clearly seen on her face and Ryan went speechless as he shook his head.

The classroom was extremely quiet that day without Jackie because the “Four Joyful Musketeers” which Lukas newly joined was lacking of one. Lukas tapped his notebook with his pen repetitively and went pondering of possible solutions for Jackie’s problem. So, where has Jackie gone to?

Speaking of his location, Jackie was actually at the Goetic Train Station, the place where magical trains come to fetch passengers to unknown areas that are mostly sacred. He was waiting for the train to the Silver Church to come. The passing trains horned violently as if they were showing the nature of the mercilessly quick flow of time. Jackie grabbed his ticket hardly as he was afraid, not of fighting with demons but of going on a mission with a partner instead. He was so sure that the tragedy that would happen to him soon was not the first but certainly not the last as long as he had a partner by his side. “Will he survive?” Jackie halted a while and continued after getting calmer himself, “Survive or not, that’s not the thing I could bother. I better not to get distracted by these unnecessary thoughts.”

Opening :

The train had arrived and he went into it. The ticket tore itself and flew into the ticketing machine upon entering automatically and the driver turned back to him with a look of passions. Every single bits of happiness could be seen on his face – a typical smile which could be seen on someone who enjoyed doing the work very much. Well, that’s what Jackie actually observed on his aura. He let his guards down as he found the driver not suspicious and he kept his staff and the ticket stub which was left with him just now.

“Ah, so you are Malphas’s godson right?” The driver’s line surprised Jackie a little since not much people knew his uncle’s real name and Jackie nodded to answer. “Hmm…… Great, you are so lucky to become one, my boy.” Jackie did agree his second line and he nodded again with a faint smile this time.

The driver took off his hat as he bowed and introduced himself as Mr.Alphorus, the loyal butler who served the Idref family for more than 15 years. He is also the designated train driver in Goetic Train Station for the noble Idref family members all the time.

“Well, take a seat would you my master?” Mr Alphorus asked Jackie to sit down. Jackie sat down and the train started moving. He looked at the sunny blue sky through the window.

“If my sky is that blue……” he mumbled.

Mr.Alphorus flicked his fingers as the train entered the tunnel of altering spaces and the whole train got warped to the front of the church instantly. “The Silver Church……” Jackie remembered the time when his uncle brought him to the church years ago.

“Jackie, this is the Silver Church.” Jackie’s uncle bent his body slightly and pointed at the building as he told Jackie so with his hand patting on Jackie’s head. He continued, “Jackie, if you believe in God, God will definitely help you whenever you pray sincerely. The priests here will educate you on that, be nice okay?”

Jackie nodded. He spoke in his mind as he stepped into the church and looked around, “God doesn’t really exist, doesn’t it? If they do exist, why would they make people suffer so much? But then I am still mere, nothing I could do other than relying on God.” A terrible line spoken by a 7-year-old child, Jackie acted cold since long time ago but there is always a lining of sadness in every cold action he did. However the current Jackie disliked thinking anything of his past, he wished to leave his wounds in his mind alone to be healed or rather to be forgotten. He actually felt nothing of them but his instinct still told him to let them be.

The reminiscence ended as Jackie cleared his mind and opened the giant door. He walked in and the church was empty and so quiet that his every step could make an echo. Different colours of lights which came from different angles through the stained glass windows lighted up a way. A guy with a clerical appearance was standing there. His grin reminded Jackie of someone he met years ago at the same place and the name was……

"Wing, is that you?" Jackie approached the guy and said, it was difficult to see the face but he could tell it through the goatee and the unruly hair that Wing has. Wing smiled as he nodded his head. He said "It’s been a while since we last spoke, Jack”. Wing is the Aurelist of Dynamites, he doesn’t really like long names and “Jackie” is one of them so he named Jackie short.

“I assume you are still in disbeliefs of the existence of God, is it?” Wing asked and Jackie nodded.
“That’s pretty bad, I had seen the same you since last time we first met here, you were so small by then, maybe it’s because I am one year older than you, seeing you also reminds me of the good days with you in Allocer High, such a good time.” Wing was attempting to get indulged in the wonderful memories he had with Jackie but it was interrupted by Jackie’s line saying, “I still remember how I always win you at the fight, you were so weak by then, such a good time too.”

Wing exclaimed, “What?!” and Jackie went on, “No time to waste on chit-chatting, we better kill the demon fast before it really causes problems.”

“Geez, years passed and you are still keeping the bitter tongue and the eccentric character of yours. No wonder there’s a saying goes, ‘A leopard can never change its spots’.” Wing pressed on and Jackie responded, “Yeah and mind my fangs before they get onto you for the mere words you spoke.” Monotonous tone he spoke with yet the words were powerful enough to stop Wing’s mumbo jumbo

Wing sighed and went on with details of the missions, “Well, never mind, I’ll tell you what had happened here – a demon intruded and three sisters were wounded. The demon might had subjected to a human being and bypassed the barrier effortlessly. Also I believed that the demon should be ‘Astaroth’ since there is a mark of goat head on the victims’ wounds. It came here probably for the Silver Key which was sealed here by a mysterious bishop after the ritual during the De-Demonical Night. The key is believed to be an important item that opens the gate to the heaven. Our Godfather took a very good care of it until he died at the age of 90 few days ago.”

Jackie was not able to track the aura because he had never experienced it before thus he could not predict the type of demon and its next move. And so Wing’s piece of information came in handy.

"So it’s something related to the De-Demonical Night, the night when the greatest Aurelists, priests and bishops had an attempt to kill all the demons at once within a powerful ritual. It was a success but some of the strong demons escaped and they are highly wanted now. “Jackie mumbled something about the night in his mind; he knew it because his uncle had told him all his uncle knew about it.

It was already dusk since Jackie came; the location of the Silver Church might be somewhere at the other side of the Earth. Nobody knew as the only way to enter the sainted places like that was through the distorted portal at the Goetic Train Station tunnel. Moonlight showered the Gothic architecture and it looked somehow frightening. The moonlight that penetrated the rose window made the church atmospherically solemn but with some kind of eeriness in it.

“Looks like it had hid itself in a Hidden Dimension around here. Time to work, Jack, but before that……” Wing patted Jackie’s shoulder and then he only continued, “May an angel appear and bless you. I know it will appear anytime soon in your life for sure”, Wing said in a comforting tone and then he made diagonals with both his legs. A·Infiltration was triggered after he stomped on the diagonal pentagram he drew.

Red moon shone brightly in the Hidden Dimension. The area was fully covered with red grasses and some goat’s statues. A shadowy figure appeared in the red moon grass field. It must be the demon, they wanted to have a closer look but the grasses suddenly grew very tall and they formed rows of circular walls. The walls surrounded the demon in the middle as if they were summoned by it. The goat-shaped statues cracked and aggressive goat monsters popped out from them. As you all see, some of the demons are not that absent-minded too; sometimes they will summon traps or obstacles to protect themselves rather than getting attacked directly.

“I will show you how much I had improved all these years, Jack. Watch and learn how your senior fights” Wing said confidently as he traced the sign of the cross with his hand and he changed into on his Aurelist robe in a flash. “Oh sure, call me whenever you need some help” Jackie talked as he covered himself with his dark aura and changed into his Aurelist robe too. “Never a need.” Wing rubbed both his palms and two dynamites formed. All his limbs can form lighted dynamite anytime as he wants. He threw one up and down as if he was provoking the minions to attack.

A dark lamb pounced to him but he dodged and set one of his dynamites on its head. A goat wanted to pounce too but he kicked right on its face and set the other dynamite on its face. Both of them exploded immediately and vanished. He set few bombs on the two running underlings that wanted to attack him from both sides. He leaped and stomped two bouncing lambs down with new dynamites set on their heads. He also threw a few dynamites when he was in mid-air and turned around to get himself shielded. The minions decided to attack in flocks rather than in pairs. However, he somersaulted and he slammed generated dynamites onto them when they fluttered onto him from different sides. His dynamites caused an instant elimination to all the minions. He skipped nimbly and explosives were left on his footsteps. The minions that were chasing him touched the explosives on the ground and got blown up into ashes.

“This is taking too long.” Wing installed bombs on the wall made out of hardened red grasses as he ran around it and exploded all of them at once afterwards. The huge explosion attracted more goats and sheep. He swung and more bombs appeared as he waved his hands, he bombed them by kicking the floating bombs onto the minions. Wing hopped up high after stepping onto a jumping sheep and threw a large pack of explosives. The explosives destroyed the whole circular maze as he slowly landed with elegance. “I see. You had grown more agile.” Jackie muttered.

“Let’s move on” Wing said and he ran to the darkened area where Astaroth stood a while ago. “Rapid raid it was”, Jackie praised Wing for his quick attack. “Oh you terrible demon, don’t you dare to hypnotize my friend to say sweet lines to please me! Jackie can’t be this good!” Well, Wing’s reply was absolutely sarcastic enough. Wing claimed that it was just a nasty joke from him and meant no offence to Jackie. Jackie just did nothing other than staring at Wing with slight disdain.

They approached Astaroth but then they noticed that it was not Astaroth but an ordinary human instead. Wing had his eyes widely-opened as he could not believe of whom he saw, “Why...... why are you here......?” It was discovered that the human was actually his long-lost brother, Sky who went missing last year. Without hesitations, he ran towards his brother and hugged him tightly. Tears rolled down his cheeks and Wing mumbled about how much he missed his brother. Jackie wanted to end this brotherly love scene as he felt it to be somehow weird but then both his legs got tightly tied up by the speedy growing red grasses unexpectedly. He wanted to shout on top of his voice but a broader red moon leaf covered his mouth. He could neither talk nor move, he struggled like a wiggling worm. Wing was telling his elder brother that he would not let him go even if anything happened.

Sky smirked suddenly and Wing had no idea on what had happened. Sky dragged Wing and threw him up high; he slashed Wing with his spiritual claw. Jackie was shocked of what he saw. It finally happened; the curse eventually caused another tragic death, not even a temporarily partner could escape from the curse. Blood was spilled everywhere and some blood was still dripping out from the serious cut. Wing coughed weakly and tried to fight back with the dynamite in his pocket but Sky hurled him to the ground viciously. And that's not it; Sky bit Wing’s stomach and started eating his organs. Wing was dead, brutally dead.

At least to be rather fortunate that the red moon grasses were tall enough to cover such a bloody scene, but the sound of Sky eating Wing could simply make people to have Goosebumps throughout their bodies. The red moonlight in the Hidden Dimension made everything looked so much creepier.

“Oh, aren’t humans ridiculous? They always prefer love than rationality. They are stupid indeed. Lucky me to obtain this corpse to pass through the barrier easily. Old magic casted by old bishop won’t hold me long. But still this corpse was certainly the finest and maybe I could share you a piece if you want. Friends taste way better than strangers, eh? Mr Idref.” He was truly not Sky but Astaroth. It removed its guise and became back into its goat self. It had been just hid itself under Sky’s body to get everything easy all the time. Jackie frowned and tilted his head.

Astaroth dashed towards Jackie and tried to make an uppercut on him as it thought he was armless and immobile. However Jackie’s dark aura emerged from the ground and tanked its attack.

“If you think that such a dirty trick will work, then you are obviously WRONG!” The dark aura ripped the red grasses on him and formed a staff in front of him as he spoke. He grabbed his staff and clashed Astaroth angrily as soon as he finished his last syllabus. Astaroth was knocked back hardly and remained stunned.

“Astaroth, the fallen Aries who escaped from the De-Demonical Night centuries ago, I shall declare death penalty on you and no let-up is given.”

Jackie began charging his staff with ominous aura, the earth started shaking, Astaroth was attempting to run away but a barrier formed by Jackie’s aura blocked its way, it was then tightly tied by Jackie’s dark auras. Astaroth was trapped.

“Stained Judgement!” Jackie unleashed his dark bolt and his spectacles cracked. Astaroth was completely wiped away by the dark bolt. Jackie grabbed his chest and gasped once.

The red moon sank and the grasses flew away like dandelions as the Hidden Dimension collapsed with the death of their owner. Wing’s corpse disappeared into dusts too. Nothing could be done to save him as his aura had already been eaten by Astaroth.

Jackie fell onto the bench and sniffed helplessly.

“Wing, I shouldn’t have taken that deal, I shouldn’t do all these.” He mumbled. Ryan, Winry and Lukas only then arrived at the scene.

“Jackie, what happened? We heard from your uncle saying that you are killing Astaroth with a priest here when we asked him your whereabouts.” Ryan spoke.

“Has Astaroth been killed? Where’s that priest?” Regardless of Lukas’s questions were out of curiosity or concern, it hurt Jackie from his inside. Jackie didn’t reply and Winry added on, “Jackie if there’s something terrible happened to you, you can always tell us, we are partners right?” Still, Jackie didn’t talk but he flinched a little and vanished into dark mists. He really didn’t want to discuss about this anymore, he thought he would feel nothing yet he was still injured inside.

“Wait!” Lukas shouted. Winry explained that Jackie must have returned to his mansion to have some silence and to cool himself down. Then they also left the church by taking the regular train back to Ferdiarua.

Jackie was back to the private train which was driven by Mr.Alphorus. Mr.Alphorus seemed to have known what had happened so he kept quiet and started moving the train. Jackie leaned against the window and glimpsed at the moon mindlessly.

On top of the Silver Church, muffled voices came from a shadowy figure, "Something is wrong with Jackie’s aura, I could see it especially when he used his 'Stained Judgement'. It seemed somehow getting out of control but luckily he could still inhibit its wildness. Well, got to have some fortune-telling now.” She took out a Tarot Cards deck and shuffled. She kept wiggling her fingers and three cards were drawn.

“Hmm…… this card is ‘Death’, that card is ‘Wheel of Fortune’, the last one is…… wow, ‘The Tower’. What had been messing up with this young man’s luck nowadays?” She muttered as she observed the drawn cards carefully. She kept them back to the deck and said, “More fortune-telling is needed I guess……” Then she covered herself with all her Tarot Cards and was gone after that, leaving one card on the roof of the Silver Church – “The Magician”.

On the way back to the Goetic Train Station, the cell phone in Mr Alphorus’s pocket vibrated and he stealthily peeked at Jackie who was in deep sleep due to excessive exhaustions. He cautiously slid his phone out of his pocket with his slim middle finger and accepted the call. “Yes, my lord”, he whispered and subconsciously nodded repeatedly.

“The priest, as what you had predicted, died.” Mr Alphorus said so as he continued to peek at Jackie to see if he’s awake.

“So there seemed no gag from him. Your contributions are appreciated; see you next time, my brother, Halphas.” Mr Malphas answered on the phone so at his office and then he hanged up. Guiltiness and joyfulness had been twirling in his old thoughts since the very ancient age.

“Test has arrived, Jackie my boy. No jokes from our great lord for your presence, Satan” Said Mr Malphas with his fingers crossed to each other.