44 The Wandering (1/2)

Leo was asleep.

He thought he saw a flash of light, and it did indeed blind him.

Leo could not see.

He was surrounded by parched and cracked land. The land stretched far, and far. Even if he could see, the end of the end of the desert he was in was nowhere to be found.

It was cold. The night was cold in the dry desert, and Leo was cold. He felt that he only had a small portion of magic energy remaining in his body. So, he cast a small flame and started walking, slow.

The wind threatened the small flame he held before his face. He walked for half a mile, when the flame died.

He shivered in the wind, and he eventually stopped.

Voices. Screams. Wails.

Leo was reminded of all of the people he had killed for King Brimstone in his early youth. He remembered each scream distinctly in this moment.

He felt the stench of death: it was warm—a sickening warmth. He wished he was back in the cold at this moment.

The weight of his sins crushed him.

But, then he saw light upon light, and glory upon glory descend from the heavens, and he saw figure within it.

The figure said, ”Leo, Leo, why have you persecuted me?”

Leo said, ”Who are you, Lord?”

The figure said, ”I am Jesus who you persecuted on behalf of King Brimstone. You have killed many of my children in his name, while you were under the yolk of bondage.”

”Lord, what shall I do to removes the weight of my sins. I am a man, unclean in my manner and speech. What shall I do to be saved?”

”Surrender to me, and I will quicken your mortal flesh, and you will become the rod that breaks the back of King Brimstone. Greater is the Holy Spirit that will be in you than, the minion of darkness King Brimstone—greater than the master he serves, the prince of this world.”

”But Lord,” Leo said, ”Why do you allow demons into this world? Why do you allow corruption? Are you not greater than sin? Have you not defeated it? Why should I believe?”

Jesus answered, ”Child, you know not what you speak, but I will explain. If God were to pardon sin without a sufficient payment, then he himself would be corrupt. He is a holy God, and if the God of the universe were to break his own rules, he would have sinned, and God does not sin.”