Of Kings and Demons (7 page)

The
Ordo of Tutor of Fides,
or Order for the Defenders of Faith, was a secret organization that had existed
for close to a millennium. Through the turbulence of history, they had been
steadfastly loyal to the cause of the Archangels and fought alongside the
Guardian Angels and Kings of Men.

Their existence was one of the
most closely kept secrets, unknown to the human world, but ironically closely
intertwined with the fate of civilization. Members of the Order had served as
protectors of Kings and kinglings, and had worked hand in hand with the Angels
in a broad partnership to defend civilization from the destructive hordes of
Demons.

They are not dissimilar to the
Knights Templar, only that the Knights defended the bloodline of Jesus against
the enemies seen by the naked eye and the
Ordo
defends the Kings,
leaders of men, against the unseen enemies—the Demons.

The millennium-old Order was
born under extreme conditions in a turbulent moment of history. The year was
741, a critical juncture in human civilization when senseless wars and cataclysmic
violence mushroomed like poisonous fungus amidst a landscape of bigotry, with
waves of decimating carnage committed all in the name of faith.

It was a hot summer when tens
of thousands of seasoned warriors descended from the Pyrenees Mountains like a
crescendo of darkness with the hunger to subjugate another civilization. The Demons
had infiltrated the hearts and minds of men and drove them towards senseless war
and destruction.

There was much chaos in Paris
as the courts deliberated about a hasty evacuation to the east. However, sane
and strong men were in command and a certain Charles Martel, mayor of court,
rallied his men. On the eve of battle at Tours, where thousands of Saracens came
for blood, Martel rallied his faithfuls.

Amongst his knights was a
certain man named Guy de Godfrey, who hailed from southern France. He arrived
on the scene with a platoon of hardy men, peasant boys and wanderers. At forty years
of age, Guy was a handsome man who stood taller than six feet and blessed with fair
complexion and long silvery hair. He was well-regarded amongst his
contemporaries for his integrity and skills with sword. Guy de Godfrey was also
legendary for his steely faith in God.

On the eve of the battle,
unrecorded by history, the Saracens ambushed the French forces, with the
intention of eliminating Martel. However, the plot was uncovered by Guy, who
led his men to quell the assassins.

In the course of battle, Guy received
a blow on his right temple and when he regained consciousness shortly, he began
to witness the presence of astonishing beings. Alongside the combatants, he saw
creatures that belonged, he so assumed, to wild fantasy and childhood stories.
There were monsters, green and black in complexion, with wings and horns like
mountain goats. They were fighting with men in white, with huge wings and armed
with swords and shields—angels that he had seen carved on walls of churches.

They were no figment of the
mind’s mischief. The freak accident had given him the ability to see things
that were usually invisible to mortals; the beings that were very much part of
the existence of mankind but imperceptible to the human eye.

The battle ended with the
Angels victorious. Amongst the winged men in white, was the burly Maganus,
Friend of the Woods, mentor to Kings of Men, and he was pleased with Godfrey’s
prowess and character.

For his valour, Guy was given a
mandate to be the guardian of Kings in the human realm and with that,
immortality. His thirteen brother warriors each received three hundred years of
lifespan, the lease of which would be transferred to a fresh generation upon
the expiry of the old warriors. Under their command were two battalions of
warriors steeped in the faith and trained and skilled in the warfare against
Demons.

Thus was born the
Ordo
,
an order of exceptional individuals with a lease on immortality, valour, and
fighting powers. Bellator was the chosen surname, which meant
warrior
in
Latin, underlining the great mandate they received, to fight alongside the
Angels and Kings against the hordes from Hell.

Over the years, the
Ordo
had chalked up countless acts of courage and self-sacrifice in their defense of
the Kings and kinglings. Their successes were never, never recorded in the
annals of human civilization to protect their identity. Publicity was fatal to
the fundamental mission of an organization whose enemy existed in the cloak of
clandestinity and darkness.

#

After Pologus and Marz returned
empty-handed from their
search of the kinglings, Gwyneth and
Maganus took to the skies
. As
they
combed the terrain
, they s
ight
ed
a growing miasma of darkness
that engulfed the landscape
,
and their hearts. The
Demons
are rampant.

Maganus decided to rally his
animal friends. He clasped his hands and murmured his prayers. The Heracles
Horn neatly materialized into his palm.

The Horn was a brass relic that
was as old as civilization and was once the possession of Heracles, the
mythical Greek hero. After Heracles’ demise, the horn passed through many hands
before landing in Maganus’s when he was appointed the Guardian Angel of Kings.
At six feet of tubing coil, the horn was an exquisite artifact, with images of
angels and griffins engraved on the surface.

The horn’s summons could only
be picked up by the sensory capacity of Maganus’s animal friends and some of
the ancient tribes of allies residing on Earth; totally inaudible to the naked
ear of the ordinary man. Maganus’s most trusted allies, the
Amicitia
, animal
friends who were allied to the Angel, would never fail to respond to his
summons.

These animals had at one time
or the other received help from Maganus and their relationships were strong as
oak. Maganus’s credibility earned him the title of Friend of the Woods,
Guardian Angel to the entire animal kingdom. In addition, Maganus had the unique
mastery of tongues to communicate with beasts of all sorts, both of that world
and the others.

Today, Maganus’s summon,
however, drew a feeble response. After three attempts, Jan and his squadron of
friends arrived, followed by the hawks and magpies, but there were few of the
rest. The absence of the other regiments of
Amicitia
raised questions in
his mind. Despite his jovial front, Maganus hid an unspoken fear in his heart,
that they might have encountered some form of danger.

He and Gwyneth decided to delve
deeper into the woods to investigate. They had walked for no more than five
minutes when Gwyneth grabbed her temples and hunker down. Maganus reached for
her. “What is it, my friend?”

“I felt something. I sensed something.”

Gwyneth shut her eyes as brows
crumpled in an acute frown. Her forehead grew damp with perspiration as her
grip on her temples remained tight. She struggled with a powerful insight. A
vision had invaded her mind.

“What did you see Gwyneth?”
Maganus asked.

Gwyneth finally opened her
eyes. She was pale and her lips were dry. “I had an insight, flashes of light
and a dark miasma.”

“Could you place it? The
location?”

“I cannot put a name to it, but
I saw a lot of tall buildings.”

“A city?”

Gwyneth lifted her head to the
skies. “My insight is obscured by miasma.”

“The Demons are already here?”

“I need to be sure.” Gwyneth
bit her lips.

“The moon?” Maganus suggested.

“Yes, my friend.” Gwyneth
smiled at their chemistry. “The lunar power will enhance my sensory powers. I
must be in the skies.” She continued.

“This is so sudden. You are
leaving.” Maganus exclaimed, his bushy white eyebrows rose in shock.

“Yes.” Gwyneth was firm. “You
must manage on your own.”

Maganus forced a smile. “This
is my neighborhood. However, I wish you stayed.”

“I take my insights seriously.
This is not something I can ignore, my friend.”

“Go if you must but call to me
when help is needed. I shall respond.”

“I will be back shortly.”

“I shall
wait for you.”

“Old friend,”
Gwyneth whispered and patted the doughty Maganus on his shoulders. “Before I
go, I have to tell you about the siblings that we are trying to find.”

“I am all ears, Gwyneth.”

He had lost count of the number
of years spent fighting the Demons. Is this the eight hundredth or eight hundred
and tenth year? Jin had been so immersed in the battle that time as a variable had
grown meaningless. He thought he should ask the captain of the Guardian Angels,
Alastair, when they saw each other again.

However, endless stream of time
had not diminished his appetite to seek and fight the Demons, whether it was on
the Alps Mountains, Gates of Vienna, and Waterloo, the deserts of North Africa
or in plains of China.

After parting company with
Gwyneth and Maganus, Jin had sensed the familiar foreboding that lurks like a
black cloud in a sky of blue. It was one of those feelings that he felt before
those enormous and cataclysmic encounters with the Demons.

Gwyneth had felt the same way,
and she was a lot more sensitive.

Experience had taught him that
the Demons would head for the schools, the incubators where the kinglings were
educated and guided.

His paramount task was to visit
the prominent institutions where the kinglings had been placed. With a keen eye
on the dark miasma, Jin searched vigilantly from spot to spot. At each
location, Jin summoned the guardian spirits, entities nominated by Angels to
safeguard the locality from Demons. There were members of the human race who
were distinguished individuals in their living years. Men and women, young boys
and girls, who had chalked up records of selfless service to fellow men, and
their faith made them ideal allies of the Angels.

After hours, he was relieved to
hear the reports. No detection of dark forces. Jin then made a spin of the
hospitals, areas where there was a high concentration of weaker members of the
human race—old, sick, and young.

The inspection went smoothly
until he reached a public school in the town of Charlton, Massachusetts. By a
boulder along the edge of the woods, he received a visit by friends of the
Angels—the tree fairies. They arrived in pairs and illuminated a soothing blue
as they emerged through the green of the woods.

“Jin the Silent,” the taller of
the two fairies said as he bowed in greeting.

“Fairies of the woods
? What
a pleasant
surprise.”

“We are the designated guardians
of these woods, Lord Jin. My name is Greenie and this is Gracie.”

“What brings you here?”

“The detection of the dark presence,”
Gracie said in a voice as brittle as ice but just as soothing.

Jin was confounded by the first
confirmation of demonic presence.

“Kindly be specific. I have
sensed nothing here.”

“There is a contingent of Familiars
moving through the Delaware reserves.”

“Familiars?”

“Yes, and they had a number of
skirmishes with the
Amicitia
. There were traces of blood and carcasses
everywhere. We have already sent word to the clans that reside in the depths of
the woods.”

“This is worrying. What else,
my friends?”

“We overheard a conversation
between some Familiars.”

“What was said?”

There was hesitation.

“Speak.”

“We heard the name, Lord
Barbatos,” Greenie said.

Jin
squinted his eyes.

“Darius, as he was formerly
known to the Angels, if my memory serves me correctly,” Gracie added.

Jin repeated the name. Darius
would always resonate amongst his community, ugly reminiscences of a dreadful
past association.

“Lord Jin, it seems he is
raising a new campaign against the human race,” Greenie said.

“Advise me on the names.”

Greenie flocked over and
whispered into Jin’s ears.

“This confirms the vision.” He
murmured.

After he thanked the fairies,
he headed off to complete his surveillance. He started with the schools St.
Michael, St. Xavier Public, All Saints, and all seemed fine. His final stop was
St. Catherine Public, the public education institution in the state.

The campus was located to the
south of the Delaware reserves, resting between rolling hills in the midst of
idyllic greenery. From the air, it looked like a quilt of different shades of
green, crisscrossed by a network of campus paths.

Jin landed in the campus square
and dismounted from his steed. He checked the surroundings. The open lawn was empty,
with none of the usual human traffic, an uncomfortable void.

Jin shut his eyes in deep focus
to grasp the presence of demons. Suddenly, a tremor of pain hit his temples and
blinded him. There is a source of darkness, and a powerful one.

Jin tightened his fists and
summoned his strength to keep a lid on the surge of vibes but an explosion, and
a blast of hot air shoved Jin to the ground. Screams gushed towards him from
the north of the lawn and Jin soon witnessed students streaming out of the
campus church in panic.

“Good lord,” he whispered as students
ran past him. Invisible to the human eye, Jin strutted in steady pace towards
the church and stopped when he saw a figure donned in robe of white and orange,
a halo above his head, heading in his way.

“Guardian spirit?”

“Lord Jin, I am Peter
Guildford, guardian of the campus.”

“Guildford, what happened?”

“There has been an explosion
over at the generators behind the church. There are demons, familiars! I had
just investigated when there were screams from the church …”

Peter Guildford stopped
midsentence like he had sensed something. He was soon hit by a bolt of energy, and
within seconds just an unsightly mass of brown.

Jin sensed another dark force, strong
and gushing like an angry river. It was too late to duck and Jin was hit by a
bolt of dark lightning. The impact hurled him over the grounds.

The magnitude of the force was
shocked Jin. Only a very senior leader from the hierarchy of hell can muster
that sort of energy. Now he understood the attack on his mind.

In his mental radar, he picked
up an approaching darkness. Jin murmured prayers to hold it bay and barely
managed.

A voice, cold and strong like
steel, broadcasted in his mind. “My old friend. My old foe!”

Jin knew that voice. He opened
his eyes to see a familiar figure. Clad in flowing dark robes and protected by a
ring of dark energy, rimmed with gold, he was formidability at its purest.

“Darius.
Barbatos.
”

As Jin searched for words,
Barbatos lunged at him. Jin reached for his sword but the figure had locked his
hand onto Jin’s. A punch landed on his chest and Jin felt thunder rumbled
through his veins, and involuntarily fell to his knees. He felt blood on his
lips. Angel seldom shed blood and only a powerful foe could inflict such a
misery.

Around him, the repercussion of
Barbatos’s punch sent tremors that tore into the façade of the nearby
buildings, including the bell at the clock tower which swung wildly. Windows of
nearby vehicles were shattered and shards of glass flew through the air.  

Jin shook himself off
Barbatos’s grip. He somersaulted over and landed on his his feet. Jin then
threw his hands in exertion of his powers. Instantly the glasses stopped in
their projectiles and in another twist of Jin’s palms, the sharps felled
harmlessly to the ground.

Jin turned to his foe and
remarked “You have grown stronger.”

“So have you Jin.”

Jin’s jaws squared with
defiance “Explain your presence.”

“A loser does not have the right
to ask that question, Jin.”

“Good Lord. What is in your
mind?” Jin mulled.

“You will find out. I am not
going to destroy you today. I shall save that for another day.”

Barbatos delivered another bolt
of dark force that pinned Jin to the ground. The Angel rolled over and
struggled to shake off the impact of the hit.

When Jin regained his
equilibrium, Barbatos was no longer in sight. As he staggered to check his
surroundings, another explosion occurred. Soon, the campus was a scene of disarray.

The Demons had shown their hand.
Finally.