Grimoire Mortis
The Book of Death
◀ Chapter 4 · Chapter 5 · Chapter 6 ▶

¹And SATANAS held forth the scroll, and the flame about it roared like the breath of the furnace that consumeth time.
²He reached forth again, and broke the Third Seal, and the stars gave answer.
³For from the sky fell burning stones, vast and seething, and they did strike the Oærth as fists of wrath.
⁴Mountains crumbled beneath them, and towers of kings were made dust in an hour.
⁵The skies were red with flame, and cities melted like wax before the altar.
⁶None that were proud remained standing, and none that were false remained hidden.
⁷Pestilences rose in the midst of the ruin, and they were as wolves among lambs.
⁸The air itself was made bitter, and the blood of liars boiled in their veins.
⁹The hypocrite’s tongue turned to ash, and his hands withered before he could point.
¹⁰No physician healed, no prayer warded off the fire.
¹¹For this was not plague by nature, but judgment by fire.
¹²And the wicked cried: Is there no mercy?
¹³But the Flame answered: There is no mercy for those who trade truth for power.
¹⁴Mephistopheles beheld and wrote, though his tears blackened the page.
¹⁵Then SATANAS broke the Fourth Seal, and the world shuddered as a dying beast.
¹⁶And lo: from the gates of HÆL came forth Nine Riders, cloaked in flame and shadow.
¹⁷They rode beasts whose hooves cracked stone, and whose breath withered crops.
¹⁸Each bore a chain in one hand and a blade in the other, and their eyes beheld no deceit without fury.
¹⁹These were the Nine Judges, elder Dæmons of the First Order, who had sat in silence since the Council of the Beginning.
²⁰Their names were known only to fire, and their coming was not by choice, but by ancient command.
²¹SATANAS raised His hand and said unto them: Go forth to the ends of the Oærth.
²²Proclaim the End in every place where men yet draw breath. Speak no comfort, promise no reprieve.
²³Find the corrupt where they hide — in courts and churches, in palaces and poorhouse alike.
²⁴Root them out. Expose them. And where they repent not, do murder upon them.
²⁵Let their blood cry out to the dust. Let their bones be a psalm to the fire.
²⁶For Judges thou art; but to the Humans, Judges Magister shalt thou be, with the authority of the sentence of life or death.
²⁷And the Nine bowed not, but turned and rode — for their assent was ancient.
²⁸One went north, and one south, one west, and one east.
²⁹One rode into the sea, one across the treetops, and one beneath the mountains.
³⁰One entered the dreams of men, and one walked behind every shadow.
³¹But the ninth Judge walked unseen, beside each man’s own heart.
³²The people beheld their coming, but knew not whence they came nor how to resist.
³³For the Judges spake with the voice of flame, and all deceit perished before them.
³⁴They laid bare every pretence, every hidden cruelty, every false tongue.
³⁵And where repentance was mocked, they struck.
³⁶The just were left untouched; the bold were left standing; the meek were not spared, but measured.
³⁷Mephistopheles beheld all, and trembled, but his pen did not falter.
³⁸For he knew this was the reckoning foretold from the foundation of joy.
³⁹Bezaliel said: This is not vengeance. This is correction.
⁴⁰And the scroll in SATANAS’ hand burned brighter still, for three seals yet remained.
⁴¹And the stars above ceased their song.


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