By positioning the unknown victim in this manner, to a group of spirits to whom power meant everything, the generals succeeded in motivating each pupil for attack. The vast congregation that had been gathered grew progressively more impatient as Lucifer kept them waiting longer and longer. Eventually, once a couple of fights had broken out, Lucifer led out the accused who, at that stage, had no idea that he was the defendant.
The fights ceased and an excited shout erupted from all eighteen divisions. The spirit who was led out was Oliver, the same who had delivered the special invitation to Caleb. The victim looked absolutely stunned to see the vast audience that was before him. Oliver had felt honoured to receive a personal invitation from Lucifer to attend a gathering of great importance, and was chuffed when Lucifer said he would come by his abode personally to collect him. Oliver had marvelled at the special treatment that he was receiving, and he thirsted for the power that Lucifer had promised him at various junctures. After Caleb’s speech had gone so poorly he had been a little concerned that Lucifer may not be pleased with him, but that fear had departed when he received the invitation, and the personal escort, to this gathering.
As he was led onto the stage by Lucifer though, a certain fear came upon him. He tried to reassure himself that the fierce-looking spirits strategically placed to block his exit were just a coincidence. He looked above him and his fear increased as he spotted similarly fierce-looking spirits hovering directly over him, blocking an aerial exit. As Oliver stood by Lucifer, attempting to reassure himself, his esteemed leader spoke.
‘My just and true soldiers, I thank you for gathering this evening to see to the carriage of justice. I am so appalled by the crimes that have been committed on this occasion that I will be prosecuting the defendant myself.’
Oliver glanced around hoping to spot another spirit looking as uncomfortable as he felt, and who might aptly fit the description of ‘defendant’. To his disappointment he spotted no one to fit that profile. Any remaining hope that he had was crushed by Lucifer’s next statement.
‘My brothers, I present to you, Oliver, who is charged with treason to our cause!’ cried Lucifer.
A look of death immediately came upon Oliver, as well it might. Lucifer continued. ‘I will outline to you, the jury, the crimes that have been performed by this spirit, and by the end of these proceedings, I have no doubt that you will find him guilty.’
There was truth in Lucifer’s statement. He could indeed have complete confidence in gaining the verdict that he desired, as this particular jury would have found a saint guilty.
‘Once you have found him guilty, it will be my role to pass sentence,’ explained Lucifer.
A little unconventional perhaps, but so too was a trial that was a foregone conclusion.
‘This spirit, my brothers, may have cost each one of us very dearly. It was he whom I assigned to deliver a message to Caleb just prior to his betraying us so terribly.
‘I regret to inform you that Oliver here has been involved in a most devious plot,’ said the prosecutor circling the prisoner once while speaking, before becoming very animated.
‘He and a co-conspirator were the ones who swayed Caleb from our cause back to Father and Mother’s!’ he yelled, pointing his finger at the prisoner.
Lucifer was immediately rewarded with a shriek of outrage from the vast jury. It didn’t appear to matter that the revelation was news also to the accused.
‘Yes, it is true my colleagues. Caleb was on the verge of delivering a brilliant speech in favour of our cause when he was fed all kinds of lies by Oliver. All of this he dared to do after I had entrusted him with the honour of inviting Caleb to meet with me. I need not remind you how dearly this could cost us. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we would definitely have gained a majority at the grand council, had it not been for this act of treason.’
Lucifer took a little more time to appeal to the self-interest of those gathered, something that was certainly a hot topic.
‘My leaders of the new order, if we gain a majority every one of you will receive great honour. Unfortunately, I’m now not sure that I will have the opportunity to give you all that you deserve,’ he taunted them.
At this there was fury within the ranks of the jury and a couple of skirmishes immediately broke out. Lucifer allowed them to continue for a few moments before calling the spirits to attention.
‘As if what I have told you isn’t enough, I’m afraid to say that my further revelations will shock you the more. By conducting a thorough investigation, I have discovered that Oliver has been corrupted by a colleague, and has been regularly sneaking over to the other side of the Kingdom. Whilst there, he has been informing Michael of all of our plans.’
At this juncture, the outrage within the jury resulted in a few spirits breaking ranks and charging at the accused. Lucifer commanded his guards to step between them and Oliver, not wishing to do so himself. Lucifer spoke, but was very careful to speak the right words in the right tone on this occasion.
‘My worthy brothers, please! You will have your opportunity to inflict punishment soon enough. Please show just a little patience so that you can be as one in this matter.’
The overly eager spirits moved back into divisions one to six. Divisions seven to eighteen had not broken ranks, as they had been briefed on the fact that they would first witness a demonstration by the experienced divisions, before being permitted to conduct an attack of their own.
‘Now my brave spirits, before we vote on the final verdict for this despicable cretin, I would like for you to picture him pretending to be one of us and then going directly to our enemies to tell them our dearest secrets and our most brilliant strategies. Next, I would have you picture the glory that you would have been guaranteed, were it not for these actions. Then finally, my brothers, I would have you vote. Such have been the outrageous actions of this meddler, I would be happy to accept one third of the vote within this gathering, as a majority,’ said Lucifer, as a shadow of things that were to come. 'I have no doubt however, that we will be unanimous.’
He was correct of course. Poor Oliver stood in stunned silence as over one hundred and eighty thousand hands were raised to the square, condemning him of crimes that he had never committed. He might have wondered what it was that he had done. His only crime was to have been the only one that Lucifer could possibly blame for one of his greatest tactical errors. If he didn’t blame Oliver, then he might have had to look at himself, and self-analysis is such an unsavoury pastime for a devil.
Having received the verdict that he was seeking, Lucifer passed sentence, which just happened to be for the victim to endure an attack at the hands of divisions one to six. Before they attacked, however, he let divisions seven to eighteen know that they would not miss out. He assured them that there was a second accused who would also be found guilty, and that they would be privileged to attack that fiend. Having reassured the other battalions, he sanctioned the attack on Oliver.
Oliver had no idea what an attack would entail, or else he might have at least attempted an escape. Of course it would have been futile, so he did not lose anything for standing there like a stunned mullet throughout the course of the trial. The attack was long and frightful and Oliver would never be the same again. It would appear that one with potential does not always profit in the ranks of evil if another use for them becomes apparent along the way. By the end, the new units were thirsty for an attack of their own, but they would need to await the proper carriage of ‘justice’. Oliver was not the only esteemed guest that had received a special invitation from Lucifer to this gathering. Indeed, there were two others.
The first was Bruce. He had particularly enjoyed proceedings thus far, and laughed wholeheartedly to see Oliver tortured in such a manner. Bruce was a tier three student of no abnormal ability. Lucifer had noticed during that week that he didn’t seem to have any friends and he was confident that he would not be missed. Bruce, like Oliver, had revelled in the fact tha
t he had received a personal invitation from Lucifer, and upon arriving at the gathering he was thrilled to be seated in a special seat. Other than Lucifer, he was in the next highest row of seats and there was only one other spirit seated in his row. From the seating arrangements it appeared entirely as though he had been seated there to underline his importance.
Bruce had attempted to speak to the other guest in his row who was seated four seats to his right, but he had only received an aggressive grunt in reply. This made it abundantly clear to Bruce that it would be unwise to attempt a second communication. Nothing could dampen his spirits however, and he instantly concluded that if this companion was his only competition, then he would be sure to outshine him in the eyes of Lucifer.
Bruce didn’t know Oliver and he was disgusted at his crimes. There was no doubt in his mind that he had deserved the punishment that was inflicted upon him.
After sentence had been passed, and the punishment delivered, Bruce sat eagerly awaiting the next segment, as Lucifer had made it clear that there had been another offender, one who had been a co-conspirator with the despicable Oliver.
‘I thank you, my generous colleagues, for finding it within your souls to deal with the first accused so justly,’ began Lucifer, trying pointlessly to disguise the delight he had taken in Oliver’s torture. 'It is now my grave responsibility to bring to your attention a second offender who, in my opinion, is far worse than the first.'
Lucifer paused after this statement, allowing it to be digested by a crowd whose mental faculties left a little to be desired at times. Once he was confident that most of the jury was with him, which required a very pregnant pause indeed, he continued.
‘Although Oliver was the one who corrupted Caleb, there is one who was responsible for corrupting him. While posing as one of us, this spirit has had regular interviews with Mother and Father during which he has been deviously briefed on how best to thwart our plans. After these meetings he has been sneaking into our ranks, corrupting as many as he can, and encouraging them to betray us. He had great success with Oliver, and unfortunately you will find over the coming weeks, that he has had success with many others,’ said Lucifer, taking a moment to establish a basis for the attacks that would be necessary to train his future divisions.
For the next few minutes, Lucifer outlined the treachery of this spirit in great detail. As he did so, divisions one to six wished that they were allowed to attack this spirit also, while divisions seven to eighteen salivated.
Bruce was indignant. Who would dare to do such a thing, and why on earth would they want to disrupt Lucifer’s brilliant plan? Although he wasn’t part of the army, he wished that he could still participate in the attack, as he was truly outraged.
Having prepared his men, Lucifer thought it time to identify the offender.
‘Brothers, the time has come to direct you to this traitor, who is among us today.’
There was a shout of rage and excitement as each spirit looked suspiciously at those around him.
‘Would you like for me to reveal the traitor?’ asked Lucifer, knowing the answer.
If the arena had a roof the reply would have blown it off. The commander was left in no doubt that he had prepared his men well for the coming attack. Having done so, however, he sought to employ a little restraint, knowing the type of beasts he was dealing with.
‘Now my wonderful men of divisions one to six, I know just how eager you are to see to the carriage of justice, but I must remind you that you have had your turn. This second attack will be conducted by divisions seven to eighteen.’
At this reminder, divisions one to six reacted angrily and began fighting with one another.
Having set the stage perfectly, Lucifer spoke with the intention of revealing the accused.
‘Alright, I will reveal the one who has committed such crimes and who still dares to sit amongst us, confident that he will not be discovered. His name is Bruce and he has placed himself in a high seat to gloat at us!’
As he yelled, Lucifer pointed directly at the Bruce that we have considered, who almost fell off his high seat in surprise.
There must be some sort of mistake. He hadn’t been to the other side of the Kingdom for many months and he never met with Father or Mother anymore. He had also never met Oliver or sought to corrupt anyone against Lucifer’s cause, which sadly he thought was brilliant. None of that mattered now, however, as he was ushered aggressively onto the stage by Lucifer’s guards, whereupon divisions seven to eighteen piled into him with a fury that belied their limited experience. As they did so, Lucifer realised that he had forgotten to put the matter to vote. No matter, such an omission was an immaterial oversight in this court.
Lucifer only watched the attack for a minute or so before heading in the direction of his third esteemed guest. We know him already, his name being Masias. Unlike Oliver and Bruce, Masias had not been invited as a victim; he had been invited so that Lucifer could conduct a little experiment. Lucifer had been specially preparing Masias and wondered how he might fare in an attack, even though he had not been formally trained within a division. For months now he had been torturing Masias with false information about his former love Cindy, and her new love interest. Each time he did so, Masias maddened further, until ultimately he was completely incapable of any sort of contact with the world outside of his abode. He thus remained in a self-imposed isolation, with Lucifer his only contact.
Even Troy had stopped visiting his old friend when he found that Masias got worse at every visit. Towards the end, he could not communicate with him at all. Little did he know that the reason Masias’s condition had worsened was that his hatred was being cruelly fuelled by Lucifer’s lies. Every week Lucifer would drop by to tell him about Cindy. With a little digging, he was able to identify Cindy’s new partner as Kieran, and passed on these details to Masias. Somehow knowing his name deepened the hatred that Masias felt.
Lucifer would tell his ‘experiment’ how in love they were, and that they often laughed at him. He told him that Kieran would call him ‘the most pathetic creature in the Kingdom’, while Cindy laughed uncontrollably. By these, and many other taunts, he had created a crazed spirit whose only emotion was hatred, whose only desire was to inflict pain, whose only hope for the future was revenge.
Having allowed his new divisions a little time with Bruce, Lucifer moved over to this other esteemed guest and whispered something in his ear. The reaction was instantaneous. Masias launched himself at Bruce and attacked with such ferocity that each of the one hundred twenty thousand spirits torturing him exited in fright. Unfortunately for Bruce, the torture he received at the hands of this one spirit was far worse than he had been enduring of the one hundred and twenty thousand.
Lucifer could tell this from the new and unique contortions on his face, and the even louder screams of agony, and he decided that he had to be part of it. He launched into Bruce, joining his special project and whispering new information to Masias, each of which maddened him further and worsened the pain for Bruce. Each time Bruce thought that the new level of pain was so exquisite that he could suffer no more, Lucifer managed to take his man to a whole new level. When it had finished Bruce was no more. True a spirit still existed, but he never again spoke, he never again thought. He drifted and he was, but in most senses of the word he wasn’t.
It would not be unusual for us to wonder just what it was that Lucifer whispered to Masias to elicit such aggression.
As he approached Masias for the first time, he had whispered that Bruce was good friends with Kieran and that it was he who introduced him to Cindy and told him that she was available.
Once he had joined his protégé on the inside of Bruce, he had whispered that Kieran and Bruce used to laugh at him. So as to take Bruce’s torture to the next level, he told Masias that Bruce had created a number of jokes of which he was the butt. Not wanting Bruce’s pain to remain at that level, he had told Masias that Cindy thought that the jokes were particularly funny. It wo
uld have been such a pity if Bruce was not subjected to a whole new level of suffering, so Lucifer next told Masias that Bruce had encouraged Cindy to make up a few jokes of her own. So as to reach the climax, he told Masias that he suspected that Cindy also felt feelings of love towards Bruce, on account of the jokes that they shared together at his expense.
The generals, and divisions one to six, were stunned by what they saw. Here was an untrained spirit putting them all to shame. Although Masias could only be directly compared to divisions seven to eighteen, who had also had the pleasure of working on Bruce, it was clear that Masias had succeeded in inflicting upon Bruce a level of pain and suffering that far exceeded anything that Turd, Oliver or any of the other victims had experienced. Having finished, and after collecting himself somewhat, Lucifer took the opportunity to point this out so that the experienced men would strive for new levels of excellence.
‘My brothers, I present to you Masias! I invited him as my special guest this evening so that he could demonstrate to you true greatness in battle. I pray that one day each of you can attain to his level. If you can then we are assured of victory.’
At that moment two generals, eighteen colonels and many other officers within the regiments, felt very insecure, wondering if they might not be replaced by the great Masias. They needn't have worried though, as Masias was completely incapable of ever holding a position of authority. In fact, he was incapable of even functioning as a spirit. He had become an instrument of revenge and torture, no more.
Lucifer would not calm their insecurities with this intelligence, however. He hoped to create, within the units, some fighters of the quality of Masias, but with the ability to function to some degree as a spirit. Such would be very useful. Having now fully recovered from the exhilaration of torturing the life out of Bruce, Lucifer outlined his agenda for the coming weeks.
‘Now, my good men, the grand council can only be weeks away and I fear that we may not gain a majority, but despite this I know that we can prevail. If we are outvoted then we will fight and we will gain control by force.’
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