Malique

Chapter 13.

I remembered the brilliant light that had surrounded my mother and the queen and saw that it had somehow managed to create a form of a shield for protection. I could touch them because I was as pure as they were, but if one of these demons would touch them, they would be immediately destroyed.

"The effect here has been maintained! Darkness always yields to eternal light and anything impure also yields to the pure! I can crack the wall because I am pure, but I am affected by the fire because I have no light to protect me. I have no choice but to find a way to enter the city using the front gates."

I turned back and begun investigating the doomed people and how they had managed to enter. I could see that they all wore a dark robe that covered their faces and they had been chained. As they walked towards the city gates, the foreman at the gates would stop them and open a scroll that he had. He would then read them their names and if they nodded, they would pass and then enter the city to their doom. I had to get my way through. Looking around me, I saw the dark robe of the burnt guy had fallen to the ground, but no one had picked it up. I took it and wore it, and immediately could see all the wrongs that the person had committed. It was also very heavy, and I understood why.

Closing my eyes to his numerous sins, I quickly joined in the procession and followed them to the entrance into the city.

"Name?" The foreman asked me, his voice coarse.

I stood still because I never knew the name of the person, and I was suddenly filled with fear. Just before I had made up my mind to flee the area, his name came into my mind.

"Carter." I quickly said, and waited for his reply.

"Carter Willowsmith. Crime; first degree murder to over one hundred women. Classification; serial killer. You may proceed into the city. Next!"

I was relieved! As I passed him, I was very eager to remove the robe because it was weighing me down, but I had to enter the city in order that I would remove it. Once within the walls of the city, I stopped short and stared in amazement in what was before my eyes.

The city extended as far as my eyes could see, and it seemed to stretch on forever. Everywhere I looked, it was divided into very large tracks of fields, mountains and valleys and only separated by walls that seemed to snake their way everywhere. The city wall itself stretched in accordance to the vast expanse and ended only where my eyes could see. In each and every divided section of the city was reserved for as many punishments as would warrant the doomed person. Punishments like being burnt in a golden river that was reserved for those who prided in their riches, being chased by very ferocious dogs being reserved for those that had prided in their own safety, being eaten by very scary monsters as reserved for those who were proud of their food and many more very worse and unimaginable punishments and tortures that I could see. I felt like fainting.

Those who had entered after me only looked and began walking towards their destinations of punishment. They all seemed to be under some form of a trance, and even by me shaking them would not have stopped them. I realised then that this was surely the worst fate someone would have brought upon themselves, and I was thankful that I had decided to live my life in purity. I had to move since I realised that if I was to stall longer, I would easily be noticed, and so began walking. I had earlier spied Zurk's enormous castle and had noticed that even there those who had done the worst of the worst crimes would go to be personally tortured by him. I thus decided to follow those that were going in that direction.