Read Online Mad Gods - Predatory Ethics: Book I by Athanasios - Free Book Online Page B

sent? I hold the six marks on my body. You can feel them as I speak to
you.”
    The glowing eyes dimmed as they darted to six points
on Balzeer’s body. For milliseconds, they rested on his shoulders, his hips,
his groin and the middle of his chest.
    “You are as you say. What do you command of me?” The
demon’s voice rumbled like thunder, and some of the glass in the room vibrated,
producing peels of sharp noise.
    “Begin by stopping with the parlor tricks. If they
were done with enough skill, I would let you continue, but I tire of your
half-assed job. So, show your true self and speak with your true voice. This, I
command.”
    A grimace crossed the demon’s face. It drew back from
its accuser and winced, as if struck. It bowed its head in obedience and set
its jaw in a further grimace, a pout deep enough to reach the bull neck it had
chosen.
    From the tip of the horns, eight feet high, a
contraction began. Rippling covered every extremity moving inwards and
downwards. The frog face, stooped shoulders, tufted arms, hands and bowed legs
all agitated in the air, until a standing three-month-old baby replaced them.
It was bald, like its interrogator, but maintained the same pout, as that of
its earlier manifestation. However, the black eyes were not the same, and
concealed a watchful zeal for revenge which had not been present in the red
coals of the invented demon.
    “As you commanded.” The voice was also that of a
child, but sounded obscene. Vocal chords, lips, tongue and gums, which should
not have been able to pronounce anything other than cries and gurgles, now
spoke. “What is it you seek?”
    “The signs for the one we all await have stopped and
I want to know why. I want to know everything.” Balzeer’s earlier contempt had
faded and was replaced by a wary respect. Only the most volatile of demons were
given forms of innocence. Their forms were an insult from their masters, in
order to keep them at the height of irritation and subservient.
    “It is not known. We are also very dismayed at this
alteration of prophecy. Even our own divinations reveal nothing of his
whereabouts.”
    “That is not acceptable!!” Despite his earlier
wariness, Balzeer’s slippery control of his temper disappeared. “I am charged
with bringing this world to a point where His only son can come and prepare it
for His kingdom, and I hear this?!!” His voice began to break as it reached a
higher register. “A mere Shroud Keeper is withholding divinations from me?!!!
Be gone!!! Go back to your pit and send me your manager, you filthy little
speck!!”
    At his utterance, the demon was replaced by a thin
man with cloven feet. He shifted from foot to foot with agitated restraint.
    “What is your displeasure, Supreme Tribunal?” Like
any competent manager, the satyr set Balzeer at ease with his manner and words.
    “Your Shroud Keeper is not giving me what I require
to complete my task.” The answer was clipped.
    “We shall give you all that we have to give, temporal
lord. Do you require another Shroud Keeper?” He offered everything, held
nothing back.
    “No, the change would take too long.” Balzeer’s
responses were still terse.
    “What is your will for this displeasure?”
    “I’ll leave it up to you.” The words were an afterthought.
    The baby demon returned, but now shorter, lacking any
lower limbs. He could not stand, yet he did not bleed from the stubs, which
looked like a pair of sliced hams.
    “Now, you insolent speck, what do the divinations
you’ve mentioned reveal?” Balzeer’s instincts told him that there was something
there, but that he would have to pick it out.
    “Of late, there have been complete gaps around the
Redeemer.”
    “You are still holding back, Keeper, and you still
have two limbs.” He needed to coax out the information.
    “His birth is unique, an event that could not be
hidden from our eyes, anywhere in the world. We will find him.”
    “It’s like he’s being hidden, despite