Wake up dead (Chapter Six)

Dark power and confusion surged through Clarence, threatening to drive him mad. His transition from twisted cries to inaudible laughs pushed him on the edge of sanity, a tiny thread away from unintelligible rampage. He slapped his forehead repeatedly, cursing, until his knees and palms fell to the ground with his pride. He had no idea of what was happening to him, only oblivion of his plight, tearing and throwing him about in unfamiliar memories of the monstrous bulk that remained behind him with one knee to the ground and its iron head bowed in a show of servitude, a power mad soul waiting for its human commander's orders.

Light tumbled  through the wall of Clarence's self made reality, crashing and breaking into bits of nothing, finally forming into a steel-willed version of Bunmi.
"You're not lost Clarence," he said, standing metres away from the dangerous Judge.

Clarence turned around and bared his teeth.

"You return to your death Bunmi" he barked and shot himself up. The black flamed supernatural armoured half giant understood its master's wish and spun around in metal screeches, preparing to dash towards Bunmi.

"I don't want to fight you Clarence. I know what is happening to you. You have to trust me."

"Save your words for your last prayer. You will need them to help your afterlife."

The twisted Judge peeled away from Clarence and sprang towards Bunmi in superhuman speed, but Bunmi was faster. He unwrapped the seven pieces of wood and threw them in the air towards the advancing Judge. Green blinding light exploded and stopped the Judge. Bunmi pulled out his Sango wand and pointed his free hand at the flaming warrior.

"The King Judge commands the Avenger Judge: Return to Heaven!"

There was blast of air, followed by a pained roar from the warrior as it staggered about wildly. Bunmi turned his Sango wand and rushed towards the Judge. He leapt and dealt it a strike with his wand. The force of the explosion of magic sparks on impact blew Bunmi back and he finally tumbled and rolled to a stop, looking up just in time to see smoke disappear where the Judge had been. He stole a glance left in search of Clarence, who laid spread-eagled on the ground after a fit of convulsion. Bunmi rushed towards Clarence and helped him up.

"Power you don't understand can kill you" he told Clarence, who came to after Bunmi touched him with his wand and a few healing incantations.

Clarence looked at Bunmi.

Sanity struck him and he pushed his rival off him.

"If you helped me regain my sanity back to soften my hate for you, think again. Nothing will stop me from avenging my father's murderer."

"I know. That is why you've been chosen as a Judge." Bunmi replied. "You're the Avenger Judge."

"What are you talking about? Where are we?"
"This is your Judge dimension, your alternate reality. You brought yourself here."
"What do you mean? This is obviously one of your illusion spells created to...." "....shut up Clarence. You have no idea of what you've become. Only I do. And if you want to know you have to trust me."
"I'm not as stupid as you think I am. This is your illusion spell....." "......so break yourself out of it" said a fed up Bunmi.

He walked away towards the pieces of wood lying about.

"It is your spell Bunmi. You should undo it" Clarence called, desperation suddenly grasping his voice.
"You're the all-knowing Suppressor. You don't need my help to break out of any illusion I create" Bunmi replied as he wrapped up the pieces of wood and picked up the calabash containing the ritual items. He turned to face his brother.

"Your ignorance is why our bond ended. You trust only yourself and believe only what the surface tells you. I don't need you to continue my mission. I prayed you were selected so you could protect yourself if the fallen angels returned. It is my duty as your older brother to protect you, and I have. How your story ends depends on what you choose to believe."

"I believe you're behind this, and whatever your plan is you don't mean good."

Bunmi shaked his head.

"You're stupid" he said and conjured a teleportation portal.

"I have a fate to protect. You can refuse your role as Avenger Judge. The longer you take to make up your mind gives the fallen angels more time to orchestrate their return. I might just begin to believe your ignorance is deliberate and regard you as the enemy. Accept or refuse as quickly as you can, or I might be forced to bend your fate."

With those words, Bunmi disappeared through the portal.

Clarence fell to his knees, weak, tired and troubled from the near-ghastly drama. He knew this was not Bunmi's illusion spell but he did not want to admit it. He had accused Bunmi as a desperate attempt to justify his hate for him. He understood everything Bunmi said but did not want to come to terms with the divine decision. He heard the words Bunmi used to suppress his new astral fighter, and his surprise that his enemy and rival was the King Judge shattered his faith and beliefs in the society he worked for. If Bunmi was chosen as host to the spirit of the King Judge by the highest astral plane, all Bunmi's actions were justified, and his self-imposed duty of avenging their father's death was wrong all along. He wondered who else had been chosen, and if the Society were aware of the looming threat of destruction. It was written in the holy texts of Suppressors that the warrior spirit of Judges only appeared when fallen angels returned for war, and if the selection was complete, the Society had failed and battle was close to birth.

There was so much he did not know, and he knew only Bunmi had answers. His pride wouldn't let him accept that he was wrong, even though he knew he was. He couldn't solve this mystery on his own because unlike Bunmi, he was many steps behind on knowledge of the shadows behind the scenes. He needed to return to reality. He dipped his hand in his pocket and felt for his stone.

It was not there.

Clarence frowned his usual.

Bunmi always had a way around everything.

The moon was heavy with blood that forced the night sky from black to fire and smoke. The smell of copper mixed with new ash. Seeds of death were buried in broken hearts and tears lost from shattered will.

Huts burned bright and pale. Those who managed to escape and survive somehow had the mystery behind fate and time working for them. Those who did not survive the attack probably fell from grace.

Blood trickled down from a cut on Mint's close-to-white forehead to her sagging chin. She was surrounded by more than twenty hooded Suppressors, most of them bleeding or injured or contorted badly from terribly dealt spells. Mint supported herself on her walking stick now, tired, but still soaked in battle frenzy. She was standing in a protection spell she made on the wounded night ground and held off her attackers with a beckon daring them to attack again. The Suppressors kept their distance cautiously, but never broke the circle they had created around her no matter how bad the injured ones bled.

"You all have spirit" She told them, her voice rising. "....but your fight ends here."

Before the Suppressors digressed her words, fire and gas burst from her support staff, eating its way through the weakened night air towards the Suppressors. They conjured air shields to block the attack but there was no stopping it. Heavy blasts broke through their defense, seized control and threw some of them back in smoke and singed cloth. The rest tried to form the circle around Mint again but it was too late. She struck where she stood and wild tree branches burst out of the earth. At her orders they snaked around the Suppressors and after every solid grip, they tightened around their captives with so much force bones cracked and blood sprayed out from flesh. One Suppressor threw a clawed palm towards Mint and as his lips moved to speak his spell, his arm was torn off its shoulder by a wild, possessed branch that quickly returned speedily to deal the fighter another strike. When the remaining noticed the tables turn, they threw messages and spells to summon their masters, but before they could escape Mint cut them down in another vengeful flood of fire.

Slowly, the circle she stayed in for protection disappeared in hiss and steam and she walked forward with her staff, searching for surviving Suppressors. She found one crawling away in pain, pressing his palm on his bleeding chest.

"Who gave the order?" She asked him when she reached him. He didn't reply. He was hanging off his last breaths so Mint struck him with her staff and ended him.

She looked around her. There was fire, smoke and death. The illusion spell cast by the Suppressors to deceive the public eye was slowly falling apart. She could not stay to mourn her loss or answer a thousand questions from the local authority about what had happened.

It was time to revive her husband.

She weaved spell signs with her old finger to summon the ritual items, but it failed. She knew the battle couldn't destroy the calabash because she had protected it with charms after her son brought it to her the first time. She tried to summon it again but there was no response to her magic.
She heard faint noises. When she listened carefully she knew time was against her. There were distant shouts from neighbours and calls for help. The illusion spell had fallen, and the chaos of that night laid bare to public eye. She needed the ritual items but she couldn't wait any longer, so in a whisk of smoke she disappeared, angered at the wound in her plans. She would not forgive her son if he had stolen the items to double-cross her, but she was sure he did not. She had invested so much mind control charms in Bunmi even she couldn't break him out of it if she wanted to. Her astral body always kept watch on him to study every move he made. She was sure Bunmi could never turn against her, but wondered where the ritual items where. As she traveled through space, her worry threatened to dent her pride, but she shoved it aside. When she reappeared, she would contact her son. She needed to know if he had buried the seven arms of darkness as she told him to. If he had, then reviving her husband from the dimension of keys.