Chapter 34: Curses
"So you’re not inviting me in?" he asked, a small smirk on his lips. The wet drops from his body were stained with filth and dirt, as if no matter how long the rain tried to cleanse him, the dirtier he became.
"Getting kind of cold here," he said. "I might get sick, aaa... aachhooo!"
The old man tried to look at the individual, his blurry eyes seeing the man shaking in the cold.
"Come in the—"
"No!" Claude protested, but the words went unheeded, and the permission was granted, as he smiled and walked in. His body was no longer shaking.
His eyes blipped yellow for a couple of seconds, like a crocodile’s, before returning to normal.
"Oh, pretty cold," he said, coming close to the fire. "Hey shawty, didn’t know you were also here," he said toward Claude, then slowly sat back.
Claude gradually stood up, his hand in his coat, grabbing the ring, but seeing Amon raise his hand, Claude sat back down, his hand still holding the ring.
"Haha, you trained him well. Does he bark too? I hope he doesn’t bite, otherwise I’ll call him a bad, bad boy."
Claude’s lips twitched, but Amon too was sitting still, not doing anything. From his knowledge, they had a deal going on. He didn’t condone it, but what could he do or say if the golden guardian himself had made it?
"So you know each other?" the old man asked, curious as to how a man like the golden immortal knew someone like... him.
"Ha! Know me, old man? We go waaayy, way back, like eons or something. By the way, I am super hungry. Can I have what they’re having?" Baal asked.
The old man poured some, passing it along. "Here you go. Amon’s friend is my friend..."
"Huh... you know, old man, I don’t like lies, but... Oooh, smells deeeliccoouuss." He tasted it right away, but the moment he ate it, he stopped, his mouth wanting to spit it out, yet he gulped it anyway.
"That... tasted new," he said, putting the bowl down. "Excuse me, I know, I know, I need to work on my manners."
He sat comfortably, looking at the golden man, hoping the man would say something to him. But he stayed quiet.
"You lot are so boring, let me make it spicy," he said, looking at the fire. "She was right... you are lacking divinity."
Amon’s gaze stayed on the fire, not shaken at all. "Just tell me why you’re here."
"Simple... I want to kill you," he said, plainly.
Pause.
"But because of this curse, I can’t even touch you, you know. Like, I can’t even scratch that skin of yours. Give me some leeway here... can you?" he asked, almost begging, as red marks all over his body started to grow visible, symbols and enchantments covering his skin, with that thought alone.
"And I said, if you honor our deal, I would take that curse back. Did you forget, or something?"
"Ha! Damn, I have to do as you say just to even kill you. Nasty boo—" he said, but fell silent, seeing Amon’s golden gaze on him.
"Ahem, alright, alright. Here’s the detailed report I was going to send... Can’t even joke nowadays," he said, taking out his phone and sending a message.
Ting!
Amon’s phone rang, and Claude finally figured out who was messaging him all along. All that time, during the devastated city, Baal had been notifying Amon about all those attacks.
"Since when...?" Claude asked, the fire growing wilder as the old man placed more wood on it.
"Oh boy," Baal said. "You haven’t trained him properly, it seems. You know you’ve got to keep your people on a leash, a tight leash, so they won’t even questi—"
"I don’t need advice from someone whose entire species betrayed him," Amon retorted, cutting him off.
Baal stared at him, and he stared back at Baal, and something inside him boiled more and more. Then he jumped.
"Fuck this!" he bellowed, his eyes turning yellow as horns started to grow, his hand turning into a scythe, swinging wildly at Amon.
Amon did nothing, as the scythe stopped right before his face, and Baal? He just started to burn, the marks and enchantments around his body burning him down.
"Fuck!!!! Fuck, this hurts!!!!..." he screamed. "I will kill you. I will take you down to hell, golden immortal, mark my word!" he screamed, still trying to swing at him, but failing and burning more and more.
Amon looked at the old man. The old man was stroking his beard as he simply waved his hand, and the noise stopped, and Baal himself was gone.
"Nice friends you have," the old man said.
"You were once nice too, or let’s say nicer than him," Amon replied.
"Haaa, I am old now. I already learned my lesson over all these years, and I don’t know when I will just leave this world," he said, giving Amon a sidelong glance.
Amon didn’t care. He looked outside; the thunder and rain were still there. He knew, from that alone, that what the old man was saying was utter bullshit. If he had the chance, he would be at his throat once more.
"Come on, junior, give it here," Amon said.
The old man sighed, took a bottle of water, and threw it on the fire. The fire went out, covering the whole hut in smoke.
Cough! Cough!
The old man coughed, and so did Claude.
He took out his ladle, scuffing away the burnt wood, and beneath the charcoal, a golden, dirty, coiled-up book remained.
The old man waved his hand, and it floated toward Amon.
Amon caught it and smiled like it was a prized possession, seeing it slightly burned at the corner. Only slightly.
"It must have taken you a long time to damage it this much..."
"...Sixteen hundred and thirty years..."
"One thousand six hundred and thirty years?" Claude questioned, asking in awe.
"...Yes," the old man replied. "That’s how long it took to burn that cursed book this much. More than half my life spent trying to destroy it."
Amon simply puffed, blowing the charcoal and dust away. The golden shimmer was still there, and the moment Amon properly held it, the burned side turned back to normal.
Seeing it, Claude turned to the old man. And his face, that reaction, Claude knew it perfectly.
It was rage and despair.
The rain outside intensified, thunder crackling even more, but Amon didn’t care as he turned the book to a specific page, memories starting to pour in just from seeing the title.
The Odyssey.
The Rise and Fall of Gods.
The First Human War.
The Secrets of Heaven...
Claude saw a page and a title. It read: The Comeback of a Lost Brotherhood, Michael and Lucifer.
But Amon kept searching for another page. When he finally stopped at the Peak of Darkness, Amon’s face turned grim.
"Hmmmm, I had my doubts, but..."
"But what, Amon?"
"Nothing... It will be done. We will reach our destination."
Claude looked at his reaction. Well, he knew it wasn’t nothing. What could make Amon, the golden immortal, make that face? Not even Baal had made him do that.
Amon closed the book with a sigh, throwing it back to the old man. The old man caught it, barely, again looking at the place that used to be burnt.
He looked at Amon.
"Amon, please... did I not suffer enough?" he asked.
Amon didn’t reply as he stood up. "Let’s go, Claude," he simply said, walking to the door.
"That’s why I don’t like revisiting memories," he complained instead.
"Wait!" the old man shouted. "Free me, golden immortal. I cannot suffer like this, in this old body..."
"You betrayed me..." Amon finally replied. "That much I didn’t forget. I didn’t erase it, so stay here. I already gave you the solution to your curse, Judas.
Destroy that book, and you are free."
With those words, he and Claude walked out, as the old man’s cries were silenced within his own hut, the sky crying with him.
Claude didn’t know what to say as they quickly walked across the rain-soaked road. He had questions, a lot of them, but he didn’t ask, couldn’t ask.
"What’s the shortcut, then?" Claude asked instead, not having the nerve to ask what mattered most.
"Liliana..." he simply said, taking out his phone, the rain hitting the screen, as he read the message Baal had sent. "We’re lucky, it seems. She’s on her way here."
"Liliana, isn’t she...?"
Claude almost said more, but stopped himself, as in Amon’s memory, he had not met her at all. But he had met her plenty of times, in his cycles, as she tried to kill him and forced Amon to grieve for some reason.
"Yeah, you haven’t met her," Amon said. "But you will meet her soon. Like I told you, she’s like you, another disciple."
Claude gulped, nodding. "O... okay."
"It’s going to be a fun reunion, numbstick. Cheer up!"