The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (19 page)

  Vaistll continued on, “When I first arrived to be trained as a warrior I had this dream about my graduation. It was nothing more than a little girl’s dream, but it meant a lot to me. All it was, is that I wanted each of my parents to see me graduate from all three of my courses, and then to be there when I, officially become a warrior. Before I graduated from my beginner course, my dad died. Then, before I graduated from my intermediate course, Nincylste died. My birth mom died before I finished my last course. So when I officially became a certified warrior, all three of my parents were dead. Nobody, but those who I trained with, was there for me on that day.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear all of that.”

  “Natas is indirectly responsible for all three of them dying.”

  “He is?” Ramirez said quite surprised to hear something like that. “How’s that?”

  “I only found that out when I was doing research on that book that I was doing on him. Apparently, whenever he wanted to start afresh from all of those criminal activities, he would perform one of those classic, there-is-somebody-out-to-get-me type of thing. That he is only a, quote-innocence victim-end-quote. Unfortunately, the people that are around him are going to die. I mean... when you think about it, you have a group of people hanging out, minding their own business. Then here he comes, this so call “innocence victim.” They take him in not knowing any better. Then, being a typical criminal that he is, crime comes into that door as well. Then one day the people discover what his past is, or it is his criminal activities, then the people have had enough. Before they could do anything about it, he kills all of them and fakes his own attempted murder. But he needs to be convincing. No use going through all of that if people don’t whole heartily believe him. And with Natas his methods are so convincing that absolutely nobody would doubt him.”

  “So how many people did he kill?”

  “One thousand, nine hundred, and ninety.”

  “Holy shit! For real!? What single handily!?”

  “Sixty percent of those people died directly through him poisoning them. It was confirmed through that of the grave sites. Back then when people discover a place where mass people were killed, they would count the dead, and place them in a mass grave. Depending upon their ritual they would say some type of prayer. Then they would leave some type of marker with the total number of dead and the name of the village, or city on it. They did all of that out of superstition and out of respect for the dead. I guess it was out of fear of restless spirits.”

  “So how come people didn’t put two-and-two together and realize what he did?”

  “Would you have believed that an innocence victim, who survived a mass murder, would have done something like that, especially when events like that have occurred before their birth?

  That innocence victim crap did worked upon me. When I heard, and saw some of the scars, I too believe that there were people out to get him. So like most people, I too dismissed all the rumors that suggested that he was a criminal. And that’s where he got all of his power from. From the fact that he was a criminal mastermind and his method of wiping the slate clean. Although his method was crazy as hell, it actually worked upon people. If nobody had any doubts about his innocence, and if they sincerely believe that somebody is trying to get him, then they would naturally defend him when people started to call him a criminal. What’s more there are those scars. Now, I’m not talking about simple scars like mine or yours, I’m talking about those that suggest that somebody really wanted him to die. He has a raspy voice because somebody slit his throat. But it must have been deep in order to affect his voice like that. Now, who in their right mind would dare cut their throat that deep; just to fake their own attempted murder? “

  “Could somebody like your aunt heal him? Could he have taken somebody’s life force in order to heal himself?”

  “Not by a long shot. People would have already thought about that. Look... even if my aunt, or somebody else with that gift, was standing right beside him ready to heal him, they wouldn’t do it. Why? You know that type of medicine that they got out now that uses your mind’s ability to heal itself?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well... people like my aunt are like that medicine. And what he did to himself, neither my aunt, nor that medicine, would be able to help him all that much.”

  “Oh... I see. What was some of the things that he did to himself?”

  “Well to give you an idea of the severity of what he did to himself, two things come to mind. On the continent Xiy’o’tlo, southeast of the Gates of Hell, there was a murky swamp called ‘Hell’s Mephitic Perfume.’ This weird looking creature called Bruxxilly, lived there. The only thing that I know about it is what it looked like, the fact that it had a strong revolting smell to it, and it was poisonous. Bruxxilly, depending upon the language, had many different meanings; in Iomiyyan it meant ‘Sewer Serpent.’ It was called Sewer Serpent because the Mea Kryysti, in the region where Natas lived, used them in their dungeons. They used them as a form of a guard dog. But unlike dogs, it was not that very bright. Yes it could be trained, but it could only learn a few tricks - like three to six.

  Its color resembles that of the Komodo dragon. Its torso was about 8 inches from its underbelly to its back. It was at least a foot in width, and two feet in length. Its mouth was on its underbelly and was designed for extracting bone marrow. On either side of its torso were claws that look like spider legs. The claws had a razor edge at the tip for cutting off flesh. It had a tentacle for a tail that was used for grasping the branch of a tree which allowed it to hang from it. Its tentacle tail was between five to six feet in length. In the front part of its torso it had two more tentacles for grasping. Both of them were the same length as its tail. Both of those two tentacles working together could rip limbs from their joints. Its prey could have been some primate version of an Half-Wit due to the fact that, not only did Half-Wits had a fear of things with tentacles, which could be seen in their myths, but also the Bruxxilly was more prone to attack a Half-Wit versus an Apollinarian. Its poison was in its saliva.

  If the poison was ingested than all of the joints below the neck would ache as bad as a tooth ache. The only way to alleviate the pain is to raise the body temperature. I don’t know if the poison caused the body to go into shock, or if it was because the poison lowered the body’s temperature, or both, but those who ingested it said that they always felt cold all the time. The only positive effect that it had upon the body was increased speed and strength. But the downside is that the person’s life span would be reduced by 60%. If the poison was introduced into the blood stream than both the positive, and the negative impact was greater. The positive was that it gave them more acute hearing, smell, sight, and night vision. But they had increased light sensitivity. The only other positive was that it actually cured migraines, tooth aches, and help to prevent a heat stroke. The downside was that it deteriorated the heart muscle giving them roughly twenty years of life left. The other downside was it burned, not literately, that other so-called nose of ours as well as to cause it to dissolve away. When it dissolved it left a black dimple scar behind where the third eye would be. What I mean by ‘burned’ is a person will always smell burning flesh wherever they go. If a person were to take it both ways, then it would actually stop the heart from deteriorating. But they would only have a few months to live. Natas was one of those people. But the strange thing is... he survived.”

  “How in the hell could he survive? What was it, black magic or something?”

  “It could have been but I seriously doubt it. For one thing the Mea Kryysti was not known to have practice it. Neither did Natas wife. Natas’ behavior suggested that either he did not know black magic, or he was opposed to it. Besides, I would have heard rumors if he, or anybody else for that matter, practiced it within his palace. What I think it was is some form of mutation.

  Another thing about the Bruxxilly poison is that when it is ingested, an Apollinarian will sweat at higher temperatures than what is considered normal. Both Apollinarians and humans tend to sweat at the same temperature, depending upon the individual. But when an Apollinarian ingest the Bruxxilly poison, the only way they can feel comfortable is when it is 130 degrees.”

  “You mean they won’t get dehydrated at that temperature? Let alone die?”

  “Nope.”

  “Do they even sweat at that temperature?”

  “Sweat evaporates at that temperature.” Ramirez was speechless when he heard that.

  “So each time he’d wiped the slate clean, he becomes more powerful and influential. Making it that much more harder to take him down. And on one of those occasions he decided to use poison. The only thing that I remember is that, it was not the Bruxxilly poison. So he poisoned some grain. It was the type of grain that gets sold abroad. And because Iomiyya has major trading port cities, that grain would naturally come there. Some of it would have been sold further inland were people would buy it. And some people like my dad would eat it. Not knowing that it was poisoned.”

  Vaistll started to cry again. Ramirez, with hurt in his eyes for his best friend, said, “Oh... Vaistll... I am so sorry to hear that. I wished that there was something that I could do for you.” Vaistll looked up and said nothing.

  After awhile Vaistll spoke, “My father, like a few others was... I guess you can say lucky. They did not die right away, but... slowly. It took years for all of them to die of the poison. I wanted to spend that time with my dad but I was being trained as a warrior.

  On the day that my dad was poisoned, I was with Nincylste, and both of us were outside chopping firewood. Normally, I would have said something about chopping firewood in late summer, but not this time. I guess she just wanted to spend time with me. And I didn’t care because I was missing her before I left to spend time at home. She was the type that had a sixth sense when there was going to be a harsh winter. Both of us always hated the cold. So I know how she felt.

  At some point, while we were chopping firewood, she stopped. She had this look like she just seen a ghost. Before I could say anything, she turned to me like she was in a trance, and she told me to go inside and stop my father from eating. I didn’t say anything. I just ran inside for dear life. When I got inside I didn’t have to say anything, one look on my face told him that something was seriously wrong with his food.

  He died before I got the chance to graduate from my beginner course. Both of my mom’s where there on that day, but not my dad. Then, while I was being trained as an intermediate warrior, Nincylste died of a broken heart. So... only my birth mother was there to see me graduate from that course. Then she too died before I could graduate from my advance course. She died of the stress of losing both of them. So when I became a certified highly trained warrior, all three of my parents where gone, and only my friends whom I trained with, and my trainer, was there for me.

  It really did mean a lot to me to have all three of my parents there on that day. As long as I could remember, I wanted to be a warrior like Nincylste. I just wanted to make her proud of me. One day I told her that, and she’d laugh saying that I didn’t have to make her proud of me, because she always was. She also told me that I was more of a warrior than she was. She then told me that the only reason why she became a guard in the first place was because a fllustl typically got jobs like that. That in the field I could be the leader of men, but not in a palace. Why? Because it is a man’s world and a fllustl is supposed to support their male leaders. I kind of got the feeling that she didn’t like the role of an fllustl in society. And I felt the same way. But I didn’t care. I would rather be out in the field than coop up in some palace anyway. Both her and my dad was my hero and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with them. But that asshole Natas took them away from me just to save his worthless hide. And just so that he could have more wealth and power.

  A few days before my friends and I graduated from our class, one of them had the idea that after graduation, we should celebrate at this abandoned castle that he heard about. We asked him why was the castle, along with the surrounding village, was abandoned. He said that there where stories that said some monster killed everybody. He then added that was absurd because, if everybody was killed by some monster, then how did those story tellers knew that it was a monster and not some army or gang of criminals? He also said that he did went to check it out and it look like a battle has taken place there. This to him suggested that it was people who did it and not some monster.

  We then asked him to explain why we should do that when we could go to some town, village, or a city instead. He then said something that we all knew was true, and why he was right in wanting all of us to go there. He reminded us of the fact that we are in such hot demand that once we graduate, each one of us will get some type of a job without delay. He then added that we probably won’t ever be able to get the opportunity again, and this is our only chance to celebrate together. He then reminded us that going there wouldn’t hurt our reputation or our honor since nobody would know that we went there. And therefore people wouldn’t think that we care more about ourselves than doing our job.

  I was the one who said that we still couldn’t do that because not all of us, including myself, could afford it. I then added that not all of us are rich. I remember him standing there smiling as he said, ‘Maybe so... but my family is rich. And they don’t mind giving us money so we could celebrate for a few days.’ He then added that his family understood why we would want to celebrate our graduation, and that if they were in the same situation, they probably would do the same thing. With that... all of us agreed to go. But the strange thing is, after all of us agreed to go... I got this strong sense of death. It was like I could feel death in the air. But at the same time I had that feeling, I also had the equally strong feeling that we should go. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. Besides, I was confused about those feelings.