No Turning Back

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Devil's Footsoldier

The voices chattered on as they fought increasingly harder to be registered in Richtofen's mind. As each entity competed over the others; their voices became a collective menagerie of incoherent ramblings. 

Some of them blasted Richtofen with belittlement and vicious words whilst others tried desperately to remain diplomatic. But they knew their attempts fell on deaf ears - there was no coming back from this. The hold they had over Richtofen all these years had vanished as the deep seated spell had now worn off. And so, their words quickly dissolved into a sea of noise. 

Richtofen had already retreated into his own world to escape their schizophrenic dichotomy of incessant pleas and venomous words. Instead, he mentally chastised himself for being so terribly deceived - both in the physical realm and the aethereal plane. 

But something one of the voices said made Richtofen think:

"Remember the path you chose! You pledged your allegiance to the brotherhood -- and ultimately to Us!"

Strangely enough, it was not the threat of penalties for insubordinace which bothered Richtofen. Rather, it was the cunning web of lies which had been spun in order to obtain his allegiance - and the ones who had executed it.

Though the brotherhood may have been founded by forward-thinking, illuminated, intellectuals; those who were now running the show were not of the same - nor Richtofen's - ilk. After his fateful reunion with Baron Wolf von Rohr - the mysterious Bavarian Baron who truly had been his father all along - Richtofen had been encouraged by him to join the Illuminati. 

And deep down Richtofen desired his father's approval. This was his chance to finally connect with the man whose attention he had tried so desperately to capture all his life. Richtofen wanted to make his father regret leaving him with the wretched woman Baron von Rohr had so unawarely impregnated. Furthermore, he wanted his father to see how worthy he was of ascending to the nobility and upper classes - where he rightfully belonged.

Of course, Richtofen also lusted after the power and control that he believed his new-found membership would facilitate. From the moment the words of confirmation escaped his lips; Richtofen's mind began to fill with grandiose ideas. The vast wealth and influence he could accumulate would make him a god on earth.
 
But that was not how things were to go. Instead, Richtofen spent the remaining years leading up to the second world war more or less as an errand boy. Each time he climbed the ranks; he found himself always answering and being subservient to another mason further up the pyramid. Richtofen felt confined being a mere cog in a much larger machine. After all, he was destined for great things. 

And so, with his unwillingness to cooperate as part of the fraternity - as well as his intimidatingly unparalleled intellect - the brotherhood knew Richtofen was becoming much too like Icarus. His "Brothers" saw him as a threat to their agenda - he needed to be kept in his place and restrained.

Richtofen knew they had begun plotting against him - which angered him greatly. But, he knew his membership had allowed for many enjoyable years being able to carry out even greater sadistic research - whilst remaining free of consequence. And he did try so terribly hard to convince himself that with each ascending rank he would find himself answering less and less to others in the fraternity. Eventually, he would be able to do the ordering around. 

And, more importantly, being in the fraternity allowed him to maintain the close relationship with his father. And that was something that he could not bear to lose again. And so he endured. Richtofen tried his best to proceed without rocking the boat - there was far too much at stake.