Crusaders Part 30

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When you least expect, the unexpected happens; when the ground reveals a staircase down from the surface of the mesa. We were all invited to go down the stairs to inside the mesa. As we walked down the entrance of the mesa, the entrance is sealed from any uninvited outsiders. As we walked down the steps, the way ahead is lighted for us but we felt the confined space as we go down. Soon our journey come to an end, and we come before a large hall with a long table filled with food and drinks.

"Feast yourselves, gentlemen. We may had to wait for a while the storm cleared over the mesa. Perhaps I can introduce myself to the group in more intimate details. After all, its going to be a long wait and its never had been planned for me to join you in all in any battle but this one is most unfortunate. Before I forget my manners, the mutton is lovely and so is the goat's milk. You can say we know how to select the best for our taste."

"Why did your father go missing, Baal?" Micheal was the one which always raised the touchy issues.

"Call me Ben for this moment. I like that name better. My father did not go missing; he went looking for my unknown brother; a son he never knew and neither did I until recently. He thought the offspring of his was in the South so he went there but he went missing since then. My aunt Belial called on the rest to search for him but none would as if they were afraid of something. So Belial then seek the one who was my father's friend before; Gabriel. And the Angel send his best to find my father. I thought you may need help and here I am." Ben as he is now known reached for the apple and took a bite. "I love apples. They are too tempting to resist."

"So tell me...... Ben, did you send those demons to make your story good? Well, I don't buy your story anymore. So we going to terminate the pact and sealed it on our neck." Helmut never liked the idea of working with his patron. He just work on them as its his persona. But I held back on Helmut' rage with my hand. That cool down the German and he settled for a large cut of the meat with his rum.

"Please ignore Helmut. Ben, is there any entertainment we can have? We are getting bored looking at your face."

"Pardon my ignorance of the needs of you guys. Feed your eyes on the scene upstairs." Ben raised his left hand and a portal appeared above us but its not a portal of travel but of projection. We see now the storm has arrived and it deposit not rain but hordes of demons. As they land on the mesa, spikes would rise from the ground and spear them causing pain and death. But still they come and this time; falling from the skies and landing on the mesa to fight the spikes. The spikes they broke are soon replaced as immediately. But its never ending up there the battle.

"Not good enough. Then perhaps this one may excite you more." Baal waved his hand, and the figure of Mama June was brought in by two demons who looks like half bull and man. I think they are also called as Minotaur."Yes, Mama June joins us now. Perhaps she can sing to us a song. Should I asked her to sing "Where has my father gone to"?"

The woman fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness. She keep on saying she cannot tell anything as she knows nothing. Without knowing how, she was levitated to the air and then spin like on a cartwheel for sometime, then she stopped in mid air. Her body was then levitated horizontally and then it went up and down like she was bouncing on the air.

"Stop it, Baal. This is not the way we do things. We do not subject our prisoners to such tortures? Let her go as she may not know of your father's whereabout." I took to intervene as I can see the lady would not last much longer if she was tossed like that. But I was wrong as the lady spoke from her torture. Its not really her, but whoever that reside inside her.

"Baal, you disappoint me badly. I was expecting a more painful mode of torture by comparison to yours. I felt more like on a merry ride with your father on his donkey." The apparition inside the woman spoke up to ridicule the son of Lucifer. I can see Mama June lowering herself onto the ground and stood before us. She reached up to her forehead and tore away at the flesh like a suit from her body. As the skin peeled away, it reveal a demon with scaly skin.

"Skin Walker?" I shouted in surprised and reached for my rapier.

"You insult me, Sir Black with some crude naming. Mine is Jeeze, and I am a Changeling actually. I prefer that name to the one you said earlier." The demon magically produced a long sharp spear and drove it into the Minotaur on her right. It then formed another in the hand and stabbed the other Minotaur in the face.

"Beastly of them to lay their hands on my skin. They deserved the death I served on them." The demon walked towards our table and sat down at the seat furthest away from us.

"Jeeze or you all know her as Jezebel is one of my followers. I am surprised that she has appeared here." Baal was surprised as he considered her as one of his loyal subjects.

"Who is she?" Helmut asked of me. To my knowledge, she was Phoenician princess, who married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of the old Kingdom. She helped many of Ahab's followers and also himself to worship of the Phoenician god Baal. It brought the wrath of one who was named as Elijah who challenged the so called false prophets of Baal to a competition, exposed the rival god as powerless, and had of them slaughtered. Since then Jezebel becomes associated with woman of ill repute or whores as spoken by many.

"Yes, I led the warriors to you as I know you would be here...." Jezebel spoke up in defence of her leading the warriors of Light to this land.

"Silence, woman. You did lead them here but not for my meeting but of yours with my father's associated Lords. You worked for them as you once did for me, but no more for long you have left my services. If its not me who helped these warriors, they be dead by now in some dark tunnels or dungeons. So tell me the truth, Woman." The wrath of Baal was not to be trifle with as he slammed the lady to the far end of the hall and stuck to the wall.

"Whom do you serve now?" The voice of the son of Lucifer vibrates off the wall in this place.

"Your father..... Lord Lucifer." She screamed back at him. "He commands me to spy on the High Lords. I did as I was told. Its only when I was told that you have arrived here, I rushed over to see you but the others caught me. The last of it you knew as seen by your own eyes. I did not betray your House but lend my support to them on your father's command."

"Who are they; these High Lords that you mentioned have to come out now. Hide not behind the skirts of a whore and show yourselves." The walls within the mesa vibrates and the ceiling came down, but the ones that came down was not from above which are still battling. These are ten demons of a different sort; they looked like man yet they act like demons.

"Fallen Angels! You showed yourself well in this confines." Baal shout his recognition of the new arrivals.

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