At the North, stood Belial, red eyes focused on Dantalion, his demonic form divided into two entities, the angel of light and the angel of darkness. An aura of death lingered over the South, the familiar glow of crimson flames surrounding Satan. His eyes, red orbs of glass, seemed to penetrate my core when I approached the room. Lucifer, identical to his brother Satan, stood in the East, once Cherubim, fallen son of the morning, wearing his sin of pride. Leviathan, guardian of the Infernal Realm of the West., was the most hideous of the four. He appeared in the form of a serpent, his reddish eyelids the color of dawn. Fire burned from his mouth and I could feel his powers attempting to stranglehold what was left of my human spirit.
Fifteen robed initiates stood within the circle, awaiting the ritual, unaware it was into the Brotherhood of the Four Kings of Hell they would be sworn into and not the Skull and Bones.
Dantalion and the others nodded for me to join in the circle. I reluctantly moved closer, toward the blood smeared altar nearest to my guardian angel. His shape shifted form appeared distant and strange, not like I remembered him. One of the initiates handed him the ancient book, and so the ritual had begun. Chanting commenced, a low drumming that echoed across the room. The smell of sulfur and death lingered in the air, and my close proximity to the Four Kings of Hell made the brands burn from the tops of my forearms down to my fingertips. I tried to withstand the pain as everyone in the room appeared to be staring straight through to my soul.
Dantalion read from the ancient grimoire, "Tis the hour, the passing of two ages has come. We sacrifice blood to call upon and summon the four great kings of Hell… Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Belial… short will be the tyranny over us."
Satan never took his eyes off me from the moment I entered the ritual. "Who will be the blood sacrifice for the oath?"
Dantalion cast him a deadly stare, knowing the entire reason for my coming here was to reverse the evil they had cursed me with… to save my life, though my blood sacrifice wasn't part of his plan. He knew the secrets of the mage… that everything in the book of grimoire is derived from the word of God. The words used are for the invocation of angels and also the evocation of demons. They must go through an eighteen month purification , and only after that time, can they then speak with the Holy Guardian Angel who could sign the oath. From what Gabriel told Dantalion, none of these four demons would ever have the chance of purification or redemption. He hoped he would buy more time, holding off my slow and inevitable demise.