EPISODE 20: Four Pillars
As the bridge, the portal Aolani had torn open from the Abyss, sealed itself closed, Veera Sarin watched his uncle Banerjee vanish, swallowed whole by the dark.
The portal to the Abyss closing - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
The silence without Banerjee left him hollow. A piece of his heart...lost. He exhaled, ragged, carrying grief into a world he was not ready to face alone.
But his homecoming was not gentle, as the portal returned them to bedlam. It was London, the year, 1940. Sirens wailed across the city as the Luftwaffe were carrying out the Blitzkrieg on the city. Raining bombs from the skies. He, Aolani, and Herakles stumbled from the void into streets of ruin, where brick and debris fell like rain.
Back on this plane, Veera was much more powerful then when he left. Able to teleport he and his cohorts away from danger in the blink of an eye...
Appearing at Black Manor, the former stronghold of the Order of Wormwood, they sought refuge. But what they found instead was only a shell. The Order had splintered after he and Banerjee were cast into the Abyss by Orem Black.
Only a few members remained, among them, Hui Chen’s granddaughter, Ling, holding watch in case the lost ever returned. She whisked them out of the city and onto a ship bound for New Zealand, the Order’s new sanctuary.
On the voyage, Veera learned of all that had transpired in the forty-six years he’d missed: Orem Black’s rise, the resistance led by Broderick Zayne and Gérard Roux, the hidden battles shaping the world beneath the shadow of war. The world had shifted -- drastically, and dangerously.
For Aolani and Herakles, strangers to this century, the shock was even greater. Each new glimpse of modern life struck like a blow, a strange new rhythm of existence they could never have imagined.
But there were pressing matters...Information the trio from the Abyss brought with them, was eye-opening for Ling and her ragtag band of magicians. She shared with Veera the attempt Orem was making to locate the Eater of Souls to enact a procession...The name sparked a memory for Veera.
He remembered the story of Ammit that his uncle Banerjee had told him in the endless void. Ammit was the original entity to serve as the Grim Reaper, but betraying that duty, devouring souls meant only to be ferried onward. It was a ploy by Ammit to grow powerful enough to conquer existence itself. The gods intervened. Ammit’s essence was ripped from its divine form, transformed into a mortal soul, and buried somewhere it could never be found...that’s what Orem was scouring the world for. Veera and the others needed to find the soul first. An arduous task indeed and one that required help.
Veera could still feel Banerjee in his mind’s eye. Wandering the Abyss, seeking to thwart the dark’s masterplan in any way possible. Though the psychic bond was faint, stretched thin across planes of existence, it was there. And served as a whisper of hope.
In the endless night, Banerjee caught the faint echo of Veera’s message. Finding the Eater of Souls would not be easy, but Banerjee had always loved an investigation.
Here, his clues would come as fragments, read from the wretched. Answers torn from demons and lost souls he would necromance, bending them to his will to divulge what they knew of the growing shadows. Demon’s whisper to one another in the dark, sharing secrets, it’s what they do...
Banerjee necromancing a demon for information - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Banerjee followed trails, threads, slivers of the prophecies of the Processions. Demons held information for the dark and were quick to spill their knowledge when manipulated...but the damned think in riddles and circles, so deciphering the information would take finesse.
His first real clue would come as he learned more about the Four Pillars. The generals chosen to lead the dark army, picked after Herakles was corrupted by the demon slayer Kharos.
Despite the stumbling block, Satan took a different approach, the Generals for his army would be not flesh and blood, but souls matured into malevolence.
Ordinarily, Death would consign the condemned directly to Purgatory. But the Dark Prince selected four blackened entities, that were spared exile, left to recirculate in the mortal current, feeding, festering, hardening into something darker -- known as the Four Pillars - Deception. Hate. Delusion. And Suffering.
The Four PIllar to lead Satan’s Army - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Deception was born out of lies and vilification, the embodiment of bad faith. A sour soul, drifting through the ages, leaving only suffering in its wake through denial and deceit. Its host’s always seem respectable, trustworthy - politicians, religious leaders, cornerstones of communities, yet beneath the surface, liars and cheats. Deception using each as a vessel to poison the lives of others. As a Pillar for the dark, Deception will be used to possess the masses to turn a blind eye, leading an army no one will see coming.
The next soul, Hate, was one of the oldest in existence. Ripened by blind anger and hostility. It lived in the cruel and the petty, growing ever more spiteful with every age. One lasting moment came in 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, while Hate resided in the body of a downtrodden woman named Sarah Good. Despised and shunned, Sarah was accused of witchcraft. She swore her innocence, yet was convicted and hung. On that day, at the gallows, Hate wholly embraced the belief in revenge, and every life after burned with violence and disdain --its destiny cemented to serve Satan. As a General, Hate will drive the Dark Army with rage, a tide of wrath bent on destroying mankind.
The third Pillar, Delusion, is arrogance made by flesh. It has lived within kings, nobles, tyrants -- those blinded by grandeur, declaring themselves saviors, messiahs, and Gods. But meeting ruin always, by way of their own narcissism. In the Absolution, Delusion will command the ground forces, pushing them to fight at any cost, being utterly blind to fear or defeat no matter the odds against them.
The final Pillar, Suffering, was spawned from agony, both physical and mental. Its first host was an abandoned child, left to die near Blombos Cave in South Africa, forty thousand years ago. Ever since, every life it touched was marred by pain and tragedy. This soul will instill an unyielding, gnawing anguish within the demon hordes, that will not cease until total victory is achieved.
Not all the Pillars had yet been harvested, still moving through existence, growing stronger with each rebirth. But in learning of their maturation, Banerjee believed he uncovered a clue to the fate of Ammit, the Eater of Souls. Transformed into a mortal essence, it was hidden somewhere in the stream of life. Perhaps even in plain sight, living out lifetime after lifetime, unaware of its true nature, waiting only to reawaken. Satan didn’t know where the soul lay either, but his agents of darkness were searching, intent on wielding it in their war against mankind. Banerjee could thwart the Dark Prince’s plan, IF he could find the soul first.
TO BE CONTINUED…