The Dark Mage

Chapter 3: Living Alone

     After having reunited with his sister Inari, Victor returned to Saint Nicholas Enlightener of the Kitsune Clan monastery where he first learned the ways of life in the Middle Ages. But upon returning to the monastery of his youth from so many centuries ago, his heart was heavy upon seeing it. There was no one left but himself. His abbot had reposed more than a century ago. He had no spiritual father to guide him anymore, and there were no more brothers alongside him. There were only the statues and icons of his reposed spiritual children to comfort him as the stone walls fell into disrepair over the many decades of abandonment. Even the paint and adornments of the icons and statues began to fade and flake away with no one to care for them.

     And even though Victor had been renown across many nations for his great feats, in his heart, it felt as nothing. Though he had destroyed the heresies of the arch heresiarchs Corvin Seiveril and Apollonius, he felt as if though he had not achieved anything. Even though he singlehandedly destroyed the idolatry of okami Inari and the debauchery of her cult of avarice for centuries with only his asceticism and generosity, he felt as a heathen. And despite being one of the most righteous men to ever live in his clan, he felt as the greatest of all sinners. And when he had entered the once beautiful sanctuary, he fell down before the tattered image of Christ and the images of the Saints surrounding him.

     He then lied there feeling unworthy to even face the image of Christ at the center of the sanctuary and prayed as tears flowed from his fluorescent cyan eyes, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. I have nothing to show you of my own self that is of anything good. All of my works are corrupt, and my sin is forever before me. I am not even worthy to be Your slave. But in your goodness and mercy, a true sacrifice is a broken and contrite heart. Wherefore blot out my sins and transgressions and remember them no more, for are a good God who loves mankind. I ask not for comfort nor for a cross, but I only ask that I fulfill your will on earth as it is in Heaven. I ask Your intercession, because I cannot complete this task You have set before me by my own strength. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit both now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

     Victor then remained making prostrations and long prayer rules until one of his only living spiritual children came to the monastery. But he wasn't there to see Victor, because he didn't know Victor had returned to the Kitsune clan. All he knew was that he was tired of seeing the place that changed his life for the better fall into such a sad state. So, Todd Reddington purchased some heavy body acrylics that wouldn't fade for centuries and painting tools to at least repair some of the artwork in the monastery, even if he wasn't very good at it. As for Todd himself, he was a 9-tailed Kitsune with the fur pattern of a red fox but one with a pure heart and someone anyone could talk to.

     Todd then began to mix his acrylic paints to match the colors of the icons that had faded over the years and had begun to flake off. And he started with the icon of Victor's first spiritual father, Saint Nicholas, the founder of the monastery. But because so much of the icon had flaked off, what was once beside Nicholas was no longer recognizable, and the second name was no longer readable. So, Todd painted Victor where the image had flaked off and let it dry within minutes.

     Todd then spent the next few hours with his restoration project, even if his skill level was nowhere close to the iconographers that first created the beautiful imagery. But even if Todd's skill was not close, his heart was fully in it. And that's when he noticed Victor on the floor of the sanctuary still prostrate as his joints ached from so many prostrations on the cracked marble floor. But not knowing what his spiritual father was doing, Todd rushed to pick him up and give him rest.