The Apostate
Drusus I
Awake Vulcan,
For tonight the skies will bleed!
Lit your forge brother,
We shall defend this last keep.
Time has not withered it down,
Nor will any horde;
Jupiter may be dead,
But his seed is strong!
Scaevola I
We have bathed in the blood of a thousand battles.
Sat on thrones of bones,
Upon pyramids of skulls.
Seen walls of flesh rise,
At times stretch for miles.
Whom do they defend?!
The empty graves of the wicked,
Who met salvation in our hands.
Caecus I
Beautiful Diana,
Bless us with your sight.
In the darkness we shall fight,
Until we see your brother’s light.
Can you hear them breathe?
Swiftly they approach,
They do smell us,
A feast like in the days of old!
Scaevola II
The hunt makes the hunter,
He craves moments like these.
What a pleasant sound,
The beast’s howl;
The heart faster beats.
All warriors make a simple pact,
Either remember the dead,
Or join their endless dance.
Vulcan
My steel will serve you true,
And my hammer is thine.
My father’s vengeance I shall claim,
For my fury on them is about to rain!
Here Drusus, the Spear of Mars,
Renewed, it hungers once more.
If you’re true to your name,
This will mark the dawn of thy reign.
Drusus II
Let them come!
I, Drusus, son of Jove,
Of the noble House of Gaia,
High Defender of the lands of the free,
Slayer of the Manticore of Persia,
Champion of the city of Antioch,
Avenger of the Olympians,
Shall seal the fate of the Damned!
* * *
I
A thundering roar was heard,
And ten thousand more joined the call;
The Gates of Hades sprang open,
A quake shook all to the core.
The bellowing wave came to crash,
Made of corrupted creatures of every sort.
They were wearing night’s coat,
Eyes were ablaze.
Some had one, some two, others more,
Yet served them for no good,
For this throng was blind.
They were tuned to one sound,
It bounded them to its will,
Helots to its stern command.
Tormented was their mind,
Price of peace was to feast on their kind.
II
They rushed like mad dogs,
Displaying their sharpened teeth.
Victorious in their path,
Planting cataclysm’s seed.
Still on their rusted spikes,
What was left of the fallen martyrs.
The odor that ruled the air,
More poisonous than the fumes of Lerna.
They cried out loud,
Who would be first?
Who would be first?!
To taint Minerva’s cloth,
To taste the flesh of the holy,
Relish a sip of the sacred blood!
I, Death, have arrived,
to bring end to all pain.
III
Caecus unsheathed an old gift,
A bronze dagger from Montu.
Sharp was and had been,
Made by the finest atlantean smith.
Right in the heart of the fastest demon it he threw,
First blood claimed for his kin;
Whose ancient temples they had defiled,
Warmed their empty shell by burning the truth.
And the gore,
The gore that had turned the Nile red.
With it he had painted his face,
With it he had painted his hands.
The Last Medjay jumped to claim what was his,
Drew his curved blades.
For the hour of justice had come,
This time there would be no regrets.
* * *
Caecus II
His father had written a poem once,
In those moments he remembered every line:
“The drums roll in Ta Mefkat,
And dancing shadows form a circle.
The torchbearer is in doubt,
To extinguish or let the fire burn?
Without light they would die,
Without light they would not be seen.
So he set himself aflame,
And no shadow could cause him harm.
His flesh did not burn,
Nor heat could be felt.
The Great Sage had been rewarded,
Becoming the Sun of Man.”
Drusus, Scaevola and Vulcan were behind,
This would be the Battle of the Times!
* * *
IV
It were the Fates,
Whose hearts and souls,
The muses first deeply struck.
For to thread a story like this,
A magnetar in the history of man,
In the tears of Chaos you must have swum.
Those engraved words on stone,
Who but few can understand,
Are part of Apollo’s purest melody;
One without beginning, one without end.
All over the universe,
That tune is played again and again.
For no battle belongs to one world,
This one has been fought before,
And will be fought once more today,
To know the results, first you must play.
V
The tunes of Laran’s flute pleased him,
He seemed at peace with his fate,
And slowly walked to meet it;
Had he been longing to smile at Death?
Contentment we seek,
Be in it Elysium or Hades’ depths;
With zeal, we rush to our graves!
Wave after wave he blew away,
Lighting sparked from his axe;
A pulsating beacon in the heart of the void,
One that fed in the agony of these fiends.
Justice trapped in his hands,
Humbled to be the one chosen,
To purify these holy lands.
Beyond man and humane.
Beyond regret and pain.
VI
Like all dances do,
This glorious one came to end.
Another genius fades,
His worth the works he left.
The lifeless sculptures,
That the field paint,
And forever engrave his name.
Spears and swords feasted upon his heart,
Yet as they pierced,
His strength would ignite again.
Rejuvenated by a single need,
See his desired world commence.
Until like all burning stars,
He slowly turned cold.
Woke to see the stars one final time,
Say goodbye to his brothers.
* * *
Scaevola III
Be patient no more,
Roar O lions roar!
What you believe fallen,
Can rise once more.
For if one of us lives,
The Vestal flame breathes.
Your foes soon will be dust,
In you I place my trust.
Caecus III
A fire dies,
Mountains are set ablaze.
A river dries,
Oceans the world paint.
A grave opens,
Fields of poppies bloom.
The wind takes all away,
Now he is one with the stars and Moon.
* * *
VII
From one root,
Three buds sprang.
The Monad sang,
Cut the thread,
Holding the Hangedman.
No tear fell,
No rage thundered,
No anger bloomed.
Their eyes glowed,
Slowly turning grey.
What was alive,
Profane and vile,
Soon would die.
Caecus rushed first,
Vulcan followed by,
Drusus said, “aye.”
VIII
The power unleashed,
Gaia had witnessed it before;
It had brought her children to heel,
The Titanomachy, it was called.
As Aion had foreseen long ago:
“Power ebbs and flows,
The tallest tower floods,
When called, even the purest hands taste blood.”
Cries spread like wildfire,
Among the plumes, elated spirits,
One could but sit and admire.
From the empty shells, a mosaic was born,
Rich in shapes and form,
A piece of the cosmos torn.
Soon all the dirt would wash away,
Slowly rising was another day.
IX
One by one fell all the pawns,
The face of the False Prophet was shown.
Haarmab, their blood brother,
Who had sold one heart for another.
The sun, moon and stars adorned his armour,
And in his hands he wielded Jupiter’s vajra.
To display his might,
He vanquished Olympus with one strike.
Alone they could not take him down,
So the divine became one.
A creature of three eyes and six arms,
Wearing Mercury’s talaria,
Flying with the Wings of Love.
The sun had risen,
Its pure radiance to shine,
For the hour of reckoning had come!
* * *
“I”
You will reap what you sow.
Haarmab the Betrayer,
The Hall of Two Truths,
Condemns you to Tartarus for eternity!
Thy fire will never melt the snowy peak of intellect.
Your reign of ignorance ends.
Thought alone will shape a new world,
And bring finally the Kingdom of God!
Haarmab Diosutheos
Come brothers, I salute thee,
Your tombs await.
In time, man will forget you,
Worship me as only thing that is true.
I will make your legacy mine,
Greed, sloth, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, pride,
Every soul will bind.
…et vitam venturi sæculi. Amen.
* * *
X
“Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici!”
The sword severed his genitals,
The hammer nailed his limbs,
The spear pierced his heart.
Chiseled on its walls:
Search inward,
And the truth you shall find.
A forgotten empire,
Your true father and mother.
Your part in the comedy,
Your part in the tragedy.
The words you read,
In another age you wrote.
Open the holy box,
Set free upon the world,
The work of God.
From my book Morpheus
