“Okay, Beatle.. Lesson 1!” smiled his older and wiser predecessor. “What you may think makes the most sense… Makes the easiest answer… easiest way… Might not be the best.”
“What do you mean?” asked the younger Beatle, in his Superman-esque costume. “So… Sometimes… what looks pretty in my eyes isn’t pretty at all?”
“I remember there was a Greek rhetoric… from my time…” spoke the Nazarene. “Something about three men in a cave. I always thought it was foolish… to go outside… and leave everything you knew about… Because it is not sunlight that they see at the end of the cave… It’s… fire.”
“That allegory was meant to explore the illusion of knowledge and show natural reality.”
“Mine is a parable. Let’s say the three men were lost in a cave… however, there were bats to feed on… And then, one day, they see lights on both sides… One man was sent to see what is going on… He went to both sides, both sides giving a scorching heat, but one led to sunlight, and the other led to lava… Either way, neither way would ensure survival.”
“I would stay in the cave,” said Beatle. “Did I get the right answer?” he asked with pride.
The Nazarene merely smiled and chuckled.
Beatle asks. “What would You have done?”
Now…
Beatle gulps in fear…
Morningstar smirks.
“Dude?” asked Dark. “You have that look again… Do you wanna have some ice cream?”
“Ah… I’m fine… I am fine,” said Beatle.
“Don’t tell me one of us is a Judas,” said Askal.
“No… God, no…” chuckled Beatle, looking at the sky. “I’m going in.”
“But… you will be punished,” said Askal. “The Voice thinks you are rebelling from his plan.”
“My deal with the Voice isn’t that simple. I will… tell you the truth. It was a thousand years. Not 800.”
“What?” asked Dark.
“The Silent Centuries… are upon us…”
“Silent wha?” asked Askal.
“It was a thousand years… NOT 800…”
“You said you were 800 years old,” said Hercules. “I remember the past being 800 years old as well.”
“My deal with the Voice is that I shall keep Cosmic Events that will keep the world from acknowledging the Silent Centuries… The Truth…”
“WHAT!?!?” asked Dark.
“The truth is out… I apologize. But I must go…” Beatle began to walk forward. “I fear… I’m… afraid…” Beatle opens his phone and calls Sabbath.
Sabbath, who is with Billy and Grub playing tic-tac-toe, opens the phone. “Hey. What’s up?”
“I love you,” said Beatle.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Sabbath immediately stands up. “Beatle!? BEATLE!!! NO!!! WHAT THE HELL!!! DID YOU… DID YOU TELL THEM!?!?”
Beatle offers the phone to Dark. “Take care of this family…” Beatle enters the cave. “I’m setting myself off… They have hidden in a corner somewhere… The creatures are far too powerful… My death…”
Their eyes widen.
“Shall become a gate for you to reach the next worlds…” said Beatle.
“STOP HIM!!!” yelled Sabbath.
“DAD!?!?” asked Billy.
Grub covered her mouth. “What is he doing!?”
The Reaper grabs his shoulder. “Don’t…”
Dark, Herc, and Askal stop Beatle, struggling to hold him back, trying to pull him back. He lets out a shockwave that causes them to crash away into suburban houses.
Beatle punches The Reaper, but the Reaper flips him to the ground.
The Reaper growls at Beatle. “I won’t let you break Anna’s heart.”
“Like you did yours?”
The Reaper squints his eyes. “This isn’t about her.”
“It always is…” Beatle blasts heat vision at the Reaper who block with heat gauntlets.
“BEATLE!!! NO!!!” yelled Star Reaper, blasting poisonous Demon Blood gas into his face, but Beatle fell to his knees. A Philippine Eagle appears in the sky, as Beatle crawls forward, and continues toward the dark castle.
The Reaper pushes Beatle away. “I WON’T LET YOU BREAK HER HEART!!!”
Beatle smiles. “I finally got the answer…“
The Reaper roars. “ANNA LOVES YOU!!!”
“Of course she does…” Beatle laughed. “But I chose this… I chose this… I chose the universe. I chose the Truth. I chose… a side… The cave is a side as well… It always was…”
“What in the world are you-!?”
Beatle hammers his fist and knocks the Reaper out.
But the Reaper regenerates and pushes him forward, pinning him to the ground and beating him.
Beatle returns to full strength.
“I CAN’T… I CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!!!” yelled the Reaper.
“The question wasn’t ‘which side will I choose?’” Beatle smiled, and Reaps realized they’re already inside the castle. Beatle hurls him outside.
The Reaper’s eyes widen.
“It was a leap of faith…” said Beatle, as light began to emit from his body, and a burst of wind scathed from his skin that peeled off everything he ever was. For the first time, he looked into the Reaper’s eyes. “Psalm 23.”
And with a blinding flash of light, the clapping stopped, and the temple was destroyed…
From the hole beneath them, the Aswang, Myrmex, Lord Marvel, and Sime Tutorial emerged.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” cackled Morningstar.
“What’s so funny!?” asked the Aswang.
“IT WORKED!!! The Demons!” she laughed. “He blurted out the secret because the demons had something to do with the SILENT CENTURY!!! AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!”
“Where’s Beatle!?” asked the Aswang, tearing up. “HEY!!!”
On Sabbath’s side, she was already gone, flying off into the incoming battle.
The Aswang grabs Morningstar. “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!?!?”
She just kept laughing at his face.
The Aswang pushes her, but he instead falls and even hits his skull on the ground. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” He released a guttural scream. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO BEATLE!!?!”
Morningstar mocked him and began kicking him over and over while he wept and had a panic attack. “Waah! Waah! Waah! Don’t you GET IT!?!? THIS WHOLE THING WAS A PLOY FROM BEATLE AND I TO GET HIM KILLED!!! Because YOU… YOU PIECE OF SHIT… YOU PATHETIC… ANIMALISTIC THING WHO THINKS YOU’RE HIM!!! HE DIDN’T LOVE ME!!! HE. LOVED. HER!!!”
The Aswang turns into an Aswang and Myrmex grabs him to ease him.
“Oh, LET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM!!! He doesn’t need you! Look at him! Primal! Monster, the really fucking is! I killed him… and he killed himself BECAUSE FEAR… ALWAYS WORKS!!! It brings you back to YOUR MOST PRIMAL URGES!!! YOUR TERROR!!! AND WHEN YOU’RE BACK UP INTO A CORNER!?!?” Morningstar approaches, and the Aswang falters to the pillar behind him, where Beatle died. “YOU FIGHT!!! He needed to die, kid. And he was wrong. Because I know the incoming war? You will fail! Looking at you now? You are SO READY to kill me for killing your little BFF!!!”
The Aswang growls, fists up, wings ticking. “I’m certainly thinking about it.”
Morningstar smiles. “Good. Miguel… Or shall I say… Aswang Saint King!?”
The Aswang gives… a rather terrified look of a man who learns he’s a father.
Fin…?