Lilith Between Flesh And Spirit

Chapter Six: The Light Of The Real World ***

Warning for a disturbing scene ahead; nothing less to expect from this book.

"The land shall become burning pitch
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds
It shall be the haunt of jackals yea there shall the night hag alight and find for herself a resting place."
Isaiah 34. 8-14

All nature germinates in the womb's dark and the earth, and ideas likewise are born in the mind's dark before they emerge into the light. Lilith is this light among all things. The echoing steps in the night that guided the blinded Norea to become everything—the things coming forth to the things to attain.

She is the electromagnetic radiation of life in Norea's shattered world. A hope glowing in the red of hell—Lilith's hair colour that emanated in long waves tormenting Norea's heart the most.

Is it her passion for Lilith's wisdom or the lust for her body that she desires?

And Lilith ceased her steps in front of one of the many entrances to the ballroom of their castle's prison, fitting her crimson iris into a small gap between two thick velvet curtains.

"Is that's all that was written by Seth?"

Norea nods and shrugs. "The last entry and my memory of his supposed death."

Turning to face Norea, Lilith shakes her head. With her hands clench over a messy notebook as though her life depends on it, Norea still has large beads of sweat on her forehead. She quivers, a twitching movement to contain the dreadful screams of her soul that go unheard. Fear arises in Norea—the fear that weakens her, making her an easier prey to the Archons. Norea shouldn't have to suffer from it all. One question remains. "I wonder what the Archons want to know from you!"

Nervousness made Norea let out an awkward laugh instead of a genuine answer. "The Luminary's revelation, of course." She then scratches her head, curiosity taking over, making her voice soften. "Adam is earth, Eve the plants, and Seth the water, so Lilith, you must be the fire."

Lilith raises one of her eyebrows. "I'm the air, Norea, and an Archon."

Norea winces at the revelation, but Lilith only smirks.

"Yaldaboath created me along with Eden, and he is a demon, so I am. That's why, even with any harsh DNA coding, they can't conceal my real hair or eyes colour." Lilith's gaze narrows as she turns her attention back to their enemies, a sense of defeat coursing through her, curling down her lips.

"In every one of my lives, I was born ginger, then by the age of eleven, the red overtook everything in my body, my eyes grew red pigment, and my hair became darker into this awful shade. By then, I knew my time had come to leave anyone who had raised me. They can't know who I am at any cost, and believe me, this was the hardest lesson, as one sold me to a circus, another tried to lock me into an asylum, and the last one used me as a guinea pig to dissect and study under the excuse of World War II. So many lives, and no one ever learned anything!"

Norea's nostrils flare at Lilith's sad tale, but the latter calms her down. "Save that anger for the Archons!" before motioning for Norea to come closer to her, and out of the ground, Norea draws nearer to the light.

The light of the real world.

The most lavish chateau in town, brightening as the bioluminescent of the night—a surrealist ballroom where Norea is made to witness the beast in all of its forms.

It appears as an hourglass waist—the intricately branched labyrinth of a corset constructed from several animal-headed nude bodies imprisoned in simultaneous copulation and food consumption. A naked, womanly-shaped tangle with a profile that blends into the rolling contours of its hills of ornate bird cages hanging from the ceiling.

Lilith points her finger into a high balcony—the head that dictates the body to suffer in these impossible curves. "Those are the animals that live and breed in Eden!" There are five men there, the only ones dressed as birds of the sky with dirty white wings, sitting above everybody. Norea sharpens her eyes at them, unable to discern knowledge from ignorance as they are to her just five dressed up men.

"You recognised our dear friends Elaios and Lao from earlier?" Norea gives a nod of her head. "Well, next to them are Sabaoth, our most awarded actor of the year; Horaios, the heir and new king by title of our country; and Adonaois, his prime minister." Lilith pauses, shifting her attention back to Norea. "They are five out of the seven Archons."

Norea hunches her shoulders, shrinking away from their images. They are what have thrown fire into the world. They are the distraction of a movie, the captivation of a royal life, the mukbangers that promote death, the religious excuse to mass murder, and the hatred coated in political conflicts to give birth to the horror of war.

The Archons are the power that rules the world with an iron fist, courtesy of the ignorance they preach.

That is what Lilith brings Norea forth to see what she would call them, but her eyes only widen instead at the sight of Seth within one of the suspended cages.

"Now that you know what's against us, let's make a move, Norea!"

"Wait!" She hooks Lilith back by the arm. "It's Seth!" Her voice screeches as her chin quivers at her discovery. "He is alive, Lilith!"

"Not my concern!" Lilith disengages herself from Norea.

"We can't let him die after what he did to save me!"

Lilith only rolled her eyes in answer, her feet already heading to the exit doors. Norea runs after her, bumping into a man instead. He drops the mannequin he is carrying, a disembowelled doll woman stuffed with food instead of her womb. Norea yells at the glimpse of the object, but the half-dressed butler in his cat head mask only grunts annoyingly before going back into the kitchen.

There she is again alone, fallen on the ground and lost in the dark. A pain in the chest for her parents, who died recently. A downcast gaze to Lilith, who left her in the blink of an eye. Norea holds on tighter to Seth's notebook, her tears creating little pools of sadness over it.

This will not be the end of her.

Norea hits her fist on the ground, muttering to herself, "Fuck it!" as she puts the notebook away. She gets back on her feet, readying herself to walk towards the light.

She swims through the mass of flesh like she was a cancerous melanoma penetrating the skin—a girl in black clothes standing among the nude bodies.

A heaving stomach attacks Norea at the smell of the fluids coming out of the people surrounding her. A pale cast over their open act and an even pallor face upon hearing their moans of satisfaction.

Is that what humans were created for?
Is that what humans live for?

Norea feels dirty to the bones and sullies among what the Archons enjoyed most. They turn humans into mammals of lust and greed, with nothing in between.

Yet she closes her eyes and allows herself to sink into her inner peace with a deep breath before yelling at them from their high balcony with the loudest, "Hey!"

Even the desperate Seth in his cage stands up at her voice.

Norea got everybody's attention.

"You want me dead, so here I am." Her arms spread on each side of her body, setting herself as their target, and she only has one request in exchange. "Let Seth go."