Immolation Ex: The Knower (COMPLETED)

Chapter XXXVII

"That makes no sense, Cain. How do you know that Eve is not the soul of Adam?"

"Because..."

Dustyn raised an eyebrow. "Because, what?"

"I know, because I killed him with my own two hands."

Dustyn crawled backward from Cain a few inches. "You what?"

"I accidentally killed my father and destroyed his soul's energy."

"But, why? Why would you do that?"

"Demon rage. I found him soon after the Fall...I am not even sure why I went looking for him, but he was still alive, albeit barely. He turned his back on me when I tried to apologize for what I had done. I became angry and when you couple that with the energy of a Watcher, it's like Mount Vesuvius...which I was there for by the way."

"I would say that's cool, but right now I am trying to figure out if I should curse you, fight you, or run like hell."

Cain shook his head a few times back and forth for emphasis. "I wouldn't try any of them, although the cursing part has been handled."

"Okay, say you are right, then how did this Watcher fool Holok?"

"After the Fall, this Watcher, his name is Semyaza, disappeared and went into hiding. He had been the catalyst and the ringleader convincing the rest of the Watchers it was okay to mate with humans. He loved to mess with humanity in often very sick and creative ways."

"Like pretending to be Adam to get into the resting place of humanity?"

"Yeah, exactly. Well, between his Heavenly transgressions and Samael's defiance they nearly tore Heaven apart. Anyways, I imagine the second that Holok realized something was wrong with the soul he was about to burn away and found he couldn't, he conjured up his worst fear, and for some reason it must have centered around my father, Adam, but who knows. Either way, that ageless knowledge along with all of the knowledge of all of the lifetimes of humanity, especially the intimate information about my father's soul, was handed over to Semyaza without Holok's knowledge and boom, you have a fantastically powerful and evil Watcher transformed into an innocent little six-year-old child pretending to be Adam or now, billions of others. And honestly, who thinks small girls are any kind of threat?"

"Now? Holok."

Cain shrugged his shoulders, "Besides that fat ass cloud?"

Dustyn nodded. "I get your point."

"Regardless, when Holok became frightened, I guarantee you Semyaza extracted all of the information from his golden noggin and ran with it. He might have even planted some sort of fear into Holok's head. His nickname was 'The Knower' after all, and is and has always teetered on the edge between dark and light, ever since the beginning of Creation. After the Fall, the darkness took over. You know, the holy books should have made Semyaza the bad guy in their texts. He is the one everyone including Heaven, Holok, and the Watchers should fear! I imagine that son of a bitch has been planning this thing for millennia, keeping an eye open for just that perfect moment to make himself available for a Grigori to pick up."

Dustyn stood. "Well, thank you for rescuing me, but I need to go. I have to warn the others!"

"Not yet. Sit!"

"Not yet? And why not?" Dustyn asked a little perturbed. He plopped back down next to the old man.

Cain reached out to Dustyn's chest and the young man flinched. "What are you doing?"

"Sit still, boy!" he said and reached out once more. His hand began to glow and Dustyn blacked out.

Dustyn woke covered in a filthy olive drab blanket and nearly gagged. He flung the pungent material from his body and began to sit up. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled and quickly lay back down. His chest was on fire.

The young man took a deep breath and slowly eased himself up, grimacing from the pain of what felt like invisible hot coals searing his flesh. Dustyn noted as he rose there appeared to be another person lying on the other side of the alley. He assumed it must be Cain and painfully crawled over to speak with him.

"Hey, Cain? Wake up. What did you do to me?" Dustyn lowered the tattered blue blanket from the man's head and face to find a decomposing corpse that resembled something from a museum display. Once exposed, the body disintegrated into ashes and drifted away with the breeze that passed through the alleyway.

Scrambling away from the frightening display, Dustyn clutched at his painful chest. He leaned his back against the rusty, blue dumpster and gritted his teeth. "Damn, this hurts!" Dustyn reached under his filthy t-shirt and ran his fingers over the highly-sensitive mark on his chest. It was different. He raised the shirt and looked down to find it was no longer Azazel's mark, but someone or something else's.

A piece of paper fluttering in the wind caught his eye. It was anchored to the ground by a broken cinderblock peeking from beneath the edge of the corpse's blue blanket. Dustyn grimaced as he leaned forward to retrieve it. He turned the paper over and began to read.

"King David, I have lived far too long and have done many terrible things that I cannot atone for. May God have mercy on me and one day find it in His heart to forgive me for I cannot forgive myself. In an attempt to recompense for my transgressions, I have given you a gift. A gift that some may call a curse, but after observing you I believe you are the one soul that I have met over the course of my lifetime that may be able to wield this unimaginable power without it corrupting you. Please, my dear King David, take the power of Samael and save Heaven and humanity. –Cain"

Dustyn lowered the note and ran his fingers over the mark once more. "Oh, shit."

Texas Grande Hotel

"I can no longer feel Dustyn's presence!" Azazel exclaimed as the group of beings stepped into the hall preparing to jump to find Danny. "That witch Bezliel must have..." Azazel glanced over at Angel and stopped talking.

Angel's saucer-like eyes began to water. "Dustyn's dead?" she asked, her voice quivering. "Are you sure? No, you're wrong!"

"Why would they kill him?" Carter asked the Watcher. "I thought they needed him."

Azazel lowered his head. "I don't know."

"Oh, no, no, no..."Angel said. "This is NOT happening!"

"Maybe it's just a spell, kinda like what they did to me. You couldn't feel me when I was in Fort Smith, right?" Carter asked, stepping over to give Angel a hug.

"That is correct, but..."

"No 'buts', do you hear me, Watcher!?!!" Angel shouted. "Dustyn's alive, I know it!"

Azazel nodded.

"We're gonna get Dustyn and Danny, both! That's what you said, Carter!" Angel was frantic.

Louisa put her hands on each side of the cheerleader's face. "Hey! C'mon keep it together. You can't help either one of your friends if you are a basket case, you hear me?"

Angel blinked and then nodded.

"Okay, good. Now, I don't know how to teleport or whatever, so I need you to help me. Can you help me, Angel?"

"Yeah, I can help," the young woman said, summoning up her energy to make a jump. She wiped the tears from the edges of her eyes. "I'm getting sick and tired of cryin', ya'll."

"So, you're good, Angel?" Carter asked.

She gave the group a thumbs up and took Louisa around the waist. "Hang on, this might get a bit bumpy."

Michael and Azazel flashed away and pulled Carter, Angel, and Louisa with them.