Temptation of a High Priestess [Chapter III]

[Miracle]

40 days.

40 nights.

The hunger and the thirst has become unbearable in her body. The mirages offered up by the desert only made things worse for the young High Priestess as she wandered the desert recently destroyed by the Night Angel's power, even then it still proved to be a large obstacle weighing down against her shoulders. Fatigue threatened to stop Miracle dead in her tracks but she forced herself to carry on. Praying to God to give her strength as the harsh weather conditions tried to collapse her down to the sand which wanted to bury her underneath.

All of this weighed against her very soul until finally, she could stand no longer. The High Priestess of Yahweh fell down to her hands and knees, clenching the hot desert sand between her fingertips while trying desperately to stand up but while the will was strong, the body was weak. She could hear the hunger crying out for food, feel how dry her lips were as dehydration started to kick in, causing her to throw up on the deserts sand. A fever overtaking her while the body sweat from both the heat of the burning suns and the dehydration making itself known in the very fiber of her being. But even with all of this she had no other choice than to press on. Crawling through the sand and continuing to pray for the Lord to have mercy on her soul. For she knew Lord Beelzebub would not.

[Lord Beelzebub]

Miracle came like a lamb bred for the slaughter, the remnants of the once great desert proving too much for even she to weather. Realistically no child could withstand the sands outside of Jherrazad, no child would be able to survive a single day out here on their own with just the clothes on their back, let alone 40 days and 40 nights but somehow, someway, through sheer act of will, the child has lasted the same amount of time as her Savior did 2,000 years ago. It was all too familiar to the Lord of Darkness. Miracle was clearly a wise name to bestow upon the child for that sum up her survival in the desert.

Miracle.

The smell of cold fresh water would drift towards the prodigy daughter of Aircano, luring her in with promises of life from the well up ahead but once the water reached her lips the High Priestess would discover that it would not quench her thirst. Miracle's body would submit to starvation and dehydration as she fell against the cruel sand as the well proved to be merely a mirage.

The harbinger of her death.

[Miracle]

Miracle's eyes lit up towards the well up ahead, dragging her body through the sand to reach it in time. Using what little strength she had left to pull down on the rope and bring the wooden bucket of water up to the top of the well, grabbing it with her hands and tilting it over to bring the water to her lips. Just seconds after the water touched her lips did she drop the bucket and watch it break on the ground, her legs giving out from under her again as now the High Priestess laid on her stomach.

"I.... I should have known!"

She was unable to speak above a whisper at how weak she was. The well in her sight vanished as nothing but desert remained. The strength she had left faded away and try as she might to keep her eyes open, to hang on to life, her mortality has finally caught up to her. Eyes looked up to the sky one final time before closing, the body giving up the spirit, allowing the immortal soul to drift up towards the heavens while the sand became her tomb.

When her eyes came into focus Miracle saw that she was in a long, dark tunnel. Light soon shined out at the end of the tunnel and she cautiously moved towards it, that was until she saw a figure amidst the light of familiarity to the child. A figure that represented everything she stood for. The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. A bright smile appeared on the High Priestess' face as she ran towards her one and only Savior.

"Lord, Lord!"

Miracle's voice cried out to her Savior whose back was currently turned to her, even now that she was only ten feet away from his position.

"Lord! D-did you see it? All the wonderful things I've done in your name?"

Miracle looked hopeful, waiting to hear the words "well done" by the man himself but her smile would soon turn to that of sorrow at the words uttered to her.

"I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Those words. Miracle couldn't believe she was hearing those words after everything she's done in the name of God. They were the words that no true follower of Yahweh wanted to hear. The words that doomed the receiver to an eternity of hell. What has she done wrong to deserve being told such a thing? How could she have warranted this? Miracle could think of nothing after years spent surrendering her life to the Lord. Even being willing to let innocence die for the sake of balance. Why? Why was this happening to her?

"Lord, please! I-I don't understand! What have I done wrong?"

"I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

"I don't understand!"

"I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

"Lord, please. Have mercy on my soul!"

In another flash of light Jesus started to disappear. Miracle ran towards him, trying to catch a piece of his robes in her hands but he was long gone and her hand felt nothing but air from the empty space now all around her. Falling to her knees the High Priestess weep openly.

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

She was alone. For the first time in her existence. She was truly alone.

[Lord Beelzebub]

And with the quoting of scripture Miracle's fate was sealed, abandoned by her god and left to rot in the endless tunnel until suddenly, the heat started to rise. Temperatures so intense they created a strain on her very soul. The wailing of men and women could be heard from behind her position, faint at first but growing ever louder and when she finally turned her head, flames could be seen engulfing the tunnel. Coming for her. It was unyielding, devouring everything in it's path as it continued onward for Miracle's soul. The fires of hell. Arms could be seen sticking out of the fire, the faces of weeping men now apparent the closer the flames came. It licked the feet of the young female, pulling her towards a world of never-ending torment beyond her very comprehension.

She fought, still crying out for her god despite his departure from her life. Nails digging into the tunnel's floors as the hands of the damned grabbed her, tearing her clothes and looking to curse her with their own fate. As to be expected by an ice-cold god, her cries went ignored. Judgment having already been past. Her reward for a life-time of service at his heels would be; torment. She had survived the clenches of devils, lived to tell the tale of the Arashi and resisted the temptations of the Seductress. Only to die and burn with the others, as a part of the damned.

[Miracle]

Her worst fears became reality. The tunnel walls tore away and she could feel cold chains tightly wrapped around her wrists and ankle, they were the only cold objects however as the scorching hot flames burned all around her. The young High Priestess was brought down to her knees, her wails joining the other damned souls in the pit as an invisible force that felt like the lashing of a whip connected with her back, ripping more of her clothes away and growing scars on her back as a result. Miracle wanted to flee, to get away, but she could do nothing. The chains bounded her to the fire that continued to burn her. Soon her body began to break away in the most terrible of ways, making the Nightmares that plagued so many back on Genesis pale in comparison. Just when she thought death would take her the process would start all over again, but in a more creative and agonizing way than the last.

"Please....! Let me die!"

But death would not claim her, death did not exist in this world. Only the sorrow of an afterlife without god and the torment which caused the wailing and grinding of teeth. Miracle folded her hands and bowed her head, trying hard to imagine herself being anywhere else but here but that was an impossibility. There was nowhere else her mind could go. The tearing and rebuilding of her body made sure her mind was on the pain at all times. She wanted to believe this was all a dream but knew it wasn't. Everything from the pain to the dread was far too real to be replicated. All she could was weep and scream. Crying out to her god. Praying for her Savior to reconsider his decision. But there was no light to bring her home. Nothing but the torment.

[Lord Beelzebub]

Even in the face of her own damnation Miracle cried out to Yahweh to save her from this destiny. Fate was a cruel mistress, allowing the High Priestess to be born and endure what all she has endured in the name of God only to burn in hell anyway. The one place that every creature in this universe has feared at least once during their very existence. Footsteps inched closer to the child now at the devil's mercy as a man in black robes now stood before her, the fires of hell reflecting off his eyes but his eyes were not one of evil, but of growing pity. Sorrow for the child who has sacrificed so much only to be thrown aside like yesterday's garbage. This was the thanks she received from Yahweh, his old friend, for all the good she has accomplished on Genesis and for the rest of the universe. Surely now she could see just what kind of god Yahweh truly was. Surely now she realized that Lord Yahweh was nothing more than a tyrant who thought so little of his own servants that he would cast them off into the fire without so much as a second's hesitation.

"Still think I'm the enemy?"

His voice would serve as the most soothing sound in all the underworld. For a brief moment the torment Miracle has felt was ceased to be, while the wailing of the other damned souls continued Miracle would feel a tiny moment of relief that many dreamed of, and often begged for, in the pit. Miracle would be the first person granted such a relief after being plunged into the fires for reasons that not even Lord Beelzebub could understand but regardless of the reasons Beelzebub knew, they were unjust. Lending out his right hand towards the child he spoke.

"Take my hand, Miracle. I will free you from this terrible fate."

[Miracle]

She could breathe. In the middle of all this unbearable pain, she could breathe. But once she realized who offered her this brief moment of happiness in a land that had none, the smile was wiped off her face. One glance and the High Priestess knew who stood before her. Lord Beelzebub. This moment of peace gave her the chance to think more clearly, about everything. Crystal City would not be abandoned. Even in her absence the fight was not yet lost. The world still had the Night Angel, the Legendary Dark Knight, the Hybrid, the Firebird and their many allies. Solomon would take up her mantle and continue the cause she believed in, his personal feelings be damned. Miracle had nothing to worry about back on Genesis. Her violent eyes narrowed over the hooded figure that stood before her now. Showing no love for his presence, and only contempt at his offer. Feeling disgusted that a being of such darkness would even come to her.

"Get thee hence, Satan!"

Miracle rejected his offer. She refused to have her life owed to a monster. If Lord Yahweh believed she belonged in hell for all eternity then she belonged in hell for all eternity. Miracle would not question his decision and accept her fate as a prisoner of the underworld. A damned soul fated to suffer with no end. It was something she had prayed to never face but she would face it. What other choice did she have? Without God she was nothing. Without her Savior, she was damned anyway. Refusing to look back Miracle closed her eyes and readied herself for the torture to resume.

Forever.

[Lord Beelzebub]

She had turned him down and accepted her fate, no matter how terrible it was accepted as is. Unconditional from the very beginning. Lord Beelzebub withdrew his hand and straightened up while Miracle awaited the agony to resume, another ounce of pain would not befall her however. Instead the young High Priestess of Yahweh would feel the wind blow through her wild streaks of violet, her white as snow robes, the hunger and thirst from before quickly returned. She would feel the sand beneath her hands and feet, covering up the fingers and toes as the dual suns in the sky shined down on her position, Beelzebub still only five feet away.

"Incredible. Your faith has no weakness. Even in the face of eternal damnation."

It would occur to her, that what she experienced, has been a nightmare. Miracle's soul never left her body, it never walked down the tunnel between afterlives and dragged to the world of the damned. It was all an illusion, the most realistic illusion anyone could ever experience. Everything she felt was as good as the real thing, perhaps better in the pain it could inflict and even then, she did not submit to his temptation. A blinding light would soon appear to their right, a band of angels standing there ready to tend to Miracle's hunger and thirst. Lord Beelzebub faced them and bowed.

"This round is yours."

Beelzebub looked back over to the child who piercing glance threatened to slice open his face. It could only be expected after one was literally dragged through hell.

"We will meet again."

Beelzebub turned his back on his new enemy, walking into the sandstorm up ahead and vanishing into it. The events of today was that of a battle which would go down in history. A battle unlike any other. A battle that could not be won as past battles has. But a battle that could only be won by the sheer force of will in the face of utter defeat. Today Miracle held the greatest victory in all of Genesis. Today she held victory

over darkness itself.

[Miracle]

The light. It was so bright that it threatened to blind her. She quickly closed her eyes, readjusting to the desert scenery after being plunged into the underworld and having believe her very own god abandoned her. Her eyes finally opened to look up at Beelzebub with a look that would kill if possible. The stories did not exaggerate the extent of his power by any aspect. If anything the stories didn't do them justice. He had took her worst fear and harnessed it into a weapon to make her fall from her faith but it didn't work. It didn't work. It was true what her father used to always say. "Not every battle is won with a sword." This has been put to the test today. In an attempt to stand tall the High Priestess slowly pulled herself up to her feet, barely able to stand after the punishment the god has inflicted on her body, mind and soul but she managed to stand in defiance of his power.

Then she fell forward towards her knees quickly being caught by the angels who ease her down onto her knees and tended to her weakened state. They gave her bread to satisfy her hunger, the growls of her stomach finally settling down upon the consumption of the bread. They gave her water to drink to quench her thirst so dehydration would not bring her further closer to death. They held onto her and guided her through the desert to bring her back home where she could rest for as long as she wished. In heaven's eye she deserved it. Miracle has done what no mortal or immortal being has ever done before and she did it, without the power of God holding her by the hand.

"I knew.... I knew he wouldn't forsake me."

The angels shush her, wanting her to reserve her strength as they flapped their wings, their grip tightening around the child as they took off into the air and soared through the skies of Genesis. Miracle falling asleep within the comforts of their arms and the warmth of God holding her close, proud of what she accomplished here today.

The End