The next gospel and further history of the Doomsday Prophet

[Seifer Black]

Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

William James

Present day

I find myself in another country… Some people relish in the chance to travel around the world but for myself I find it tiring after a while, week by week I find people I care about the most becoming more and more distant, I have not seen her for so long… In isolation I stay till others tell me otherwise and I grow weary of it all… I think about what happened in Ireland and it brings a smile to my face, the war to come is what’s keeping me driven to do more and more…Last time I opened the starting barrage of the war on a new victim, the new victim by the name of Purse… For now I can’t think of that, I need to focus on the task at hand which is why I went from Hong Kong and travelled into mainland China to get some time truly away from everything that is going on… Right now I find myself walking around a hill full of trees at 2am wearing my normal gear with my lantern in my hand, my devotee Samael walking behind me ready with the camera…

Seifer: Samael…

Samael: Sir.

Seifer: Is everything prepared?

Samael: Yes it is my lord; all the sacrifices are in place…

Seifer: Did you get the right ones; I can imagine it was difficult…

Samael: It was difficult my lord but I was able to get the perfect examples…

Seifer: I have no doubt, now prepare the camera…

Samael: Right away sir…

I stare out at the nights sky as I think about where I am, so many stories have been told about this place and they are not even certain if the legends are true, so much like other things in the world that are believed without the proof being there it both confuses me and astounds me, makes me laugh at the end of the day because others are so blind to the truths of this world…

Samael: Everything is ready my lord…

Seifer: Let’s get this started then…

I turn around and see him with the camera out and ready, as I take a moment to think everything over… I lift my head and close my eyes and take a deep breath getting into the set mind to be ready for what I am going to do…

Seifer: Now…

I hear the click on the camera and I lower my head with a big cold smile on my face…

Seifer: You know what each and every time I think about it all why didn’t I see it coming, why didn’t I see the end of that match coming with such a man on the outside looking in… Why didn’t I see the scum known as Logan try and come in and take some of the glory for himself… You know what, I have no time for his petty needs but I say this, get in my way again I will make you regret it…

I pace a little laughing about everything else that happened afterwards…

Seifer: But it was all made worthwhile when it all came together, my first devotee making the impact I know he was capable of when it counted, all culminating in a glorious fire… The opening shots in my war, a war which will stretch near and far and soon enough it will all end in the glory of gold… For now I take my first shot at one of the heroes, the type of people that need to exist in this world because if they didn’t my life would be far too boring….

I laugh again turning around and taking in my surroundings for a moment…

Seifer: Where are we now may you ask, there is no place like this in Hong Kong… Well you would be right, I am not in Hong Kong right now… I am here in China, at a places steeped in legends and mythology… I am here at the grave of the first emperor of China, at least so they say… You see in my opinion this place is a perfect metaphor for humanity, you have this great hill of trees what people would call a piece of natural beauty… But scratch underneath the surface and you see a darker and more sinister underbelly… The main reason that no one knows for sure if the emperor is here is that according to the legend in the maze like tomb that crawls under our feet there is meant to be rivers of mercury running underneath where I stand, all the toxins and poison that has built up in the air over the years has to be one of the most dangerous things too traverse into… Just like clawing into the psyche of the human animal, you scratch underneath the surface and all people are out for nothing but themselves … The human animal is naturaly selfish wanting for things they will never have and year after year that toxin of greed builds up more and more till they can take no more and they snap…

I kneel down and brush my hand over the grass underneath me…

Seifer: They snap because they want to strive to be better and they can’t, where men like me I have worked it all out, I know how to solve the human problem… And that is to destroy it all, take the idols that humanity has held up to the light and bring them down to our level… I will start with Purse in due time, I have made my intentions clear and I await his response…

I stand back up and smile once again, staring straight at the camera for a moment…

Seifer: But that is off in the future isn’t it? What do I do now, I am getting bored once again what should I do to get rid of this boredom? Two fresh victims should do it don’t you think Samael?

Samael: Of course my lord…

Seifer: Exactly, two new victims to fall prey to the doomsday paradox…

I walk through the trees as Samael follows with the camera focused on me as I reach a small clearing in the trees with a man tied to a tree with barbed wire, a hideous abomination of a human dressed in black trousers and a white t shirt with an offensive slogan which can only be one man…

Seifer: Alexander Richards… You are somewhat of an enigma sir, well at least to others… You sir are nothing but a joke to me, you claim to be this sociopath and that you are a dangerous man… Don’t make me laugh, you are nothing but an imitation of what a sociopath truly is…

From behind the camera Samael passes me an ornate knife; I hold it for a moment in my hand to feel the weight of it before turning back around to the man…

Seifer: You are nothing but a Halloween joke to me Richards, you go around with your inane jokes and the narrator talking to you in your head and think to yourself that you are something special, you think that you are hard core… I have seen many others like you in the past and each one of them fell before me one after another recognising that there is only one true demon in their midst…

I take my knife and I place the point of it on the skin of the man’s arm for a moment before slicing into the skin and tearing across making the man scream out in pain…

Seifer: Each and every scar on my body attests to a war that I have fought, each one is a badge of honour…

I place the knife against the top of his chest just above the neck of the shirt before again tearing into his skin drawing it down tearing the shirt also and as the blood starts to flow the white shirt starts to stain red…

Seifer: I wear each one proudly and I am more than looking forward to each and every one I will attain in the future… Richards do you do the same? Do you eagerly await each and every fresh scar with a sense of excitement and pride? Do you truly think that you will beat me come Slam?

Suddenly I reach up at the man’s face and take a hold of his upper lip and I place the knife inside his mouth.

Seifer: I truly recognise that you can be a dangerous man, a fool wouldn’t admit that at the end of the day… And maybe under different circumstances we may have gotten along, but now you are nothing but another human that has been placed in my path which is all I care about… So you go around in the fantasy land that your own vices has placed you in, think about nothing else around you and soon enough the darkness will be there to devour you whole…

Pushing on the knife I slice through the man’s cheek making him scream and sob in pain before placing the knife on the inside of the other cheek…

Seifer: Doomsday is coming Richards, your own personal doomsday shall be executed at the hands of the prophet…

I tear the blade into the other cheek ripping straight through it as the blood spurts out again… I take a step back and I start to laugh…

Samael: Why the laughter my lord…

Seifer: He truly has a smile on his face now doesn’t he…

We both laugh for a moment till I quickly stride forwards killing the laughter instantly and place the knife against the man’s throat…

Seifer: Last laugh for you Richards, time to die now…

Tearing into his throat I plunge the knife in and tear it across… The blood flows out like a fountain and I start to laugh again as I put my hands under the blood and turn towards the camera…

Seifer: We are all artists in that ring, you like your slogans and your fun Richards lets have some now…

I take the blood and write something on his forehead…

Seifer: Hope you had fun kids, there is more where that came from…

As I walk away the camera as Samael walks towards the victim seeing what I had wrote on his forehead in his blood as the words show on the skin saying “YOUR FATE”…

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

Winston Churchill

Many years ago…

I open my eyes and instantly I know I must be dreaming again, a dark figure stands in front of me dressed all in black, I blink once or twice to see the figure as he comes fully into focus…

Seifer: Adrian, what’s going on?

Adrian: Why don’t you tell me Seifer, do you recognise this place…

I look around and see an old traditional Japanese home on a hill, it’s his home… And if I remember right this night was the start of a chapter rarely spoke of in my life…

Seifer: Its Takamichi’s home, this is where…

Before I can carry on and finish my sentence a thick set man wearing a pristine black suit with a black shirt and red tie walked up to the gate leading up to the home looking directly at me…

Man: Seifer Black San?

Seifer: Yes…

He says nothing else, he just opens the gate and gestures for me to walk through as I turn to Adrian…

Seifer: I figured that was the extent of his English…

Adrian: So you did go to meet the man then?

Seifer: I had nowhere else to go, there was no space at the dojo and I was only new so I hadn’t earned the right to be there after it had closed…

I walk up the path towards the home and little details around me kept on filling themselves in almost like an artist painting his painting around the main features everything started to come back to me. I reached the main door as the man turned in front of me and signalled for me to stay there before walking into the house…

Adrian: Surely you had to suspect something by now…

Seifer: To be honest I never thought much about it, in hindsight maybe I should have realised but the age I was I didn’t know anything of this life…

After waiting a moment I hear the door open and a Caucasian woman a little older than me dressed in a black corset dress greeted me…

??: Mr Black?

Seifer: Yes…

??: I am Lorelei, pleased to meet you, Mr Takamichi asked me to bring you through to the main room to meet him…

Seifer: Sounds good to me…

She opens the door a bit more and walks down the hallway as I follow behind…

Seifer: I had forgotten about her…

Adrian: How could you forget about such a beauty Seifer?

Seifer: It’s been many years, I am sure she has forgotten about me also…

We reach an old oak door with a insignia on the door, a dragon surrounded by cherry blossom petals…

Lorelei: He is waiting inside for you…

Seifer: Thank you…

Lorelei: Any time…

She flashes me a smile before walking around me and down the hall before I take a deep breath and knock on the door…

Takamichi: ENTER!

I open the door walking into a splendid room with artwork on the walls and a full suit of samurai armour on a stand behind a desk where Takamichi was sitting with two men either side both of which wearing the same suit as the man outside, one a smaller skinnier Japanese man and the other a gigantic Caucasian man…

Takamichi: Seifer san, please come here take a seat…

Seifer: I couldn’t tell you how nervous I was at this time Adrian, but not wanting to show it at the same time was a hard task…

I walked towards the chair in front of his desk sitting down on it as instructed…

Seifer: Thank you for inviting me sir…

Takamichi: You don’t have to call me sir, you saved my life Seifer san please call me Takamichi…

Seifer: If that is all right?

Takamichi: Of course it is…

He lets out a slight amused laugh and smiles…

Takamichi: I wouldn’t have said so if it wasn’t…

Seifer: Very true si… I mean Takamichi.

Takamichi: Very good, now Seifer how long have you been in japan?

Seifer: Only for a few months now…

Takamichi: Good, and you said before you were brought over for wrestling training?

Seifer: Yes, I decided where better to learn than here in Tokyo, home of some of the greatest wrestling in the world…

Takamichi: I would have to agree with you, considering I run the very dojo you train at…

Seifer: I didn’t know that Takamichi…

Takamichi: Well you wouldn’t, I sort out the financial side and Misawa sensei handles everything else…

Seifer: He is a great teacher…

Takamichi: That he is, I talked with him tonight about you… He says for a gaijin you put in a great effort into your training… His words not mine…

Seifer: A gaijin?

Takamichi: Non-Japanese… Now enough chit chat let’s get to the main of the matter at hand, what you walked into today was a big mistake which should have never happened…

He looked slightly at the skinny man next to him making the man wince a little…

Takamichi: But that has passed now, I am still here and they are not that is what’s important here… And I have you to thank for that and I am now in your debt Seifer san…

Seifer: You don’t owe me Takamichi, a lot of it was self-defence…

Takamichi: I understand that, but in that act of self-defence you prevented me from getting killed by those men did you not…

Seifer: Yes…

Takamichi: Exactly, which is why I have an offer for you Seifer san… I would like to invite you to live here while you train, my hot springs are one of the best in the area and you have free use of that…

Seifer: Wow, I don’t know what to say…

Takamichi: There is one catch though, a condition as you will.

Seifer: What is that condition Takamichi…

Takamichi: You dedicate yourself fully to your training, give it all you have and prove yourself as worthy as I believe you are…

Seifer: I promise I will do that, wrestling is what I live and breathe for…

Takamichi: Very good, now one more thing… I have a gift for you…

Before I can say anything he talks to the man next to him and he picks up a big case from next too him and places it on the desk…

Takamichi: Please come closer…

I stand up and walk up next to the desk to look at the case as he opens it up revealing the same sort of weapon I used earlier that day, a over five foot long baseball bat studded with metal pins…

Takamichi: Do you know what this is?

Seifer: No…

Takamichi: This is a kanabo Seifer san, where your western demons wield scythes ours wield these… This is my gift to you…

I place a hand on it looking down at an insignia near the base of a dragon surrounded by cherry blossom leaves…

Seifer: This insignia…

Takamichi: This is my family’s insignia Seifer san, this kanabo was used by my ancestors to protect what was there’s many years ago, after seeing you use the crude one earlier I had my men bring this from the vault for you, a piece of my family’s heritage passed on to you for your services…

Seifer: Thank you so much, I am honoured to be entrusted with it…

As I look up the world around me dissolved away until only me and Adrian was standing there…

Adrian: So you are now a part of them Seifer?

Seifer: I guess so, I had nowhere else to turn so I accepted his offer… Little did I know how much of an impact it will make on my life…

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Present day

I walk through the trees deeper and deeper into the dark as Samael followed me with the camera behind me, the blood still fresh dripping from me keeps my mind in the moment, it keeps me sane… I eventually reach the next clearing as a familiar person reaches my sight, I had faced this man once before and now he walks into my trap once again.

Seifer: Doctor Micayle… Hence you are here once again…

I walk around the clearing staring at the man dressed relatively smart in a polo shirt and suit trousers…

Seifer: This is not the first, and most likely not the last time you will come across my path… Last time we fought you came out the victor but I am not the same man that you once stepped into the ring with that day… Like life itself I constantly evolve becoming stronger and stronger with each and every match I take and believe me I am stronger now than ever…

From my pocket I take out a small package taking a scalpel from inside, for a moment I hold it up to the light of the moon watching the light reflect off it before turning back to the man…

Seifer: Last time we fought you had some choice words to say about me, saying to me that no matter what I do it will all be second rate to someone like you, how you can hit moves better than me and how I can barely leave my feet when I am in that ring…. HAVE I PROVED YOU WRONG YET MICAYLE!

I take the scalpel and grab the man’s eyelid taking the point of the blade and pushing it slightly in I run it across as the man screams out in pain, I run the blade across the eyelid till the chunk of flesh laid in my hand, staring a moment I throw it aside laughing a cold and merciless laugh…

Seifer: Clearly you cannot see Micayle, you must not have ever seen me wrestle before then for you to be so blind to the truth…

Grabbing the other eyelid I do the same once again the man crying out again in pain as the blade slices across his flesh till I tear the other eyelid out of his head…

Seifer: Next you are so childish to bring in physical appearance into it, seriously you are going to talk about a pimple? How would you see something like that on my nose considering one of the only people to see me without my face paint on is my family, you are nothing more than a pathetic cretin who hides behind false intelligence to hide the scared child that dwells within… No doubt you have proved yourself in the ring you wouldn’t be one half of the current tag champions if you were not, I know you are not a weak competitor but you need to realise something if you didn’t know this before…

I grab the man by the chin as he begins to sob from the pain as I place the scalpel blade on the bridge of the nose digging in before ripping down the bridge of the nose and slicing through most of the cartilage at the end leaving his nose hanging on a small slither of skin…

Seifer: You are hanging on by a thread Micayle, you disrespected and belittled me last time and I do not forgive or forget… I will make an example out of you come slam…

I grab whats left of the nose hanging off and rip it off the mans face making him scream out in pain once again as the skin between his nose and lip is ripped off also, the blood streaming more and more from his mutilated face…

Seifer: I know both you and Richards have not seen eye to eye recently which would be an understatement, but this is the time for you both to stop it with your petty squabbles, or don’t… It means nothing to me either way because there is one universal truth, a mind divided is a mind that is unprepared and if you seek to take out your own issues on each other I shall sit and wait like the bird of prey circling its prey, and when it’s the opportune moment…

I throw the scalpel to one side and pick up a wooden spike from the ground next to me…

Seifer: I shall strike…

Running at the man I place the spike on the top of his head and leap up smashing my hand on the top of the spike driving it into the top of the man’s skull and into his brain killing him instantly…

Seifer: Richards… Micayle…. Both of you have been warned so do with it as you will but do not make the mistake of underestimating me, no one thought I could win the Trinity cup but I did so, I took the so called champion Steve Orbit to his limits and carved my own place inside his mind to torture him as long as he lives, don’t make me need to do the same to you men… Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost. Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. All hope abandon, ye who enter in this ring with me for May the devils have mercy on both of your souls for the angels will have none…. These are the words of the Doomsday Prophet Seifer Black Armstrong… Pay heed to my words or you shall all fade to Black…

With a laugh I walk away from the body as Samael turns the camera around to him and he stares for a moment before turning the camera off…

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

Mark Twain