APOCANGELICA Wild Beasts

By Paolo Foti

APOCANGELICA
The arrival of the Apocalypse is near. The angels of the Light and the demons of the Darkness struggle to gain a decisive strategic advantage: the “Omega Formula”, whose fragments are spread throughout the minds of seven humans, the “Forgetters”, unaware of being custodians of this mysterious wisdom. If, on appearances, the identification between the Righteous and the Wicked seems spontaneous, in reality the differences are less: the High Commands of the Light and the Darkness maneuver, in tacit agreement, so that nothing disturbs the status quo lasting for countless eons, moving their agents as pawns on a chessboard, sacrificing them without hesitation, in order to keep the illusion of dichtomy alive between Good and Evil.

***

Part I “Wild Beasts”
In the exhausting race for absolute power, Light and its loose splinter group, the Luminous Inquisition, devastate human lives without mercy. When the factions on field are entirely composed by angels, everyone does not seem to understand who is right or wrong.

Switzerland. Ada is the first of the seven Forgetters. She is a fifteen year old girl, locked away in a mental hospital by her parents, as her mental disorders got worse: the Von Hilkeneim’s Asylum. In between psychiatric sessions with a very renowned professional and the imaginary escapes to a primordial earth, The Pangea, Ada falls in love with Efreniel, an Angel who will fight for her, rescuing her life from other angels’ filthy purposes: Stormriel and his crew, who were ordered to kidnap her, to get the most desirable treasure from her mind: the fragment of the “Omega Formula”.

The Stormy Manor: Three lads, Jorg, Evi and Kurtz, will be involved in a youth indoctrination program, aimed to form loyal adepts to a reformed movement. The brutality of the training will make them open their eyes to the true nature of the movement, to which they had confidently entrusted their lives.

The Castle. In the background of an enormous castle, inhabited by fantastic and monstrous creatures, the stories of Ada, Efreniel, Jorg, Evi, Kurtz and the Stormriel’s hunters intertwine until a dramatic and perturbing epilogue.

Part I “Wild Beasts” is a full of action fantasy novel about lost innocence, delusions and redemption. It is the first chapter of five books’ saga, based on the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, where a distinction between the two is not that easy to see, if not even impossible at times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paolo Foti
• Release date: Aug 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9786050410303

Book preview

Ringraziamenti

Wild Beasts

Part I

PAOLO FOTI

The pentalogy of Light and Darkness

Part I

Quotations

"What does not kill me, makes me stronger."

[Friedrich Nietzsche]

"The pain once again does not kill me,

the pain once again makes me stronger,

but tonight with this strength I don’t know what to do.

Really."

[Akira Mishima -Overminder]

Prologue to Pentalogy

Why all this? My God... We are about to kill some men!

That are going to kill some animals!

But...

That are innocent beings. Here’s why: to protect innocence!

"But they’re only animals."

"And they are are just humans."

The girl lifted the barrel of the rifle upwards.But carnivorous animals kill other animals to eat them. I mean, Sergeant Instructor , is in the very innate nature of their creation, that animals kill each other, I mean... and humans too are animals after all, so if...

Mark brusquely took his eye off the viewfinder and turned his head.Stop it, Cleo! Do you always have to turn to philosophizing at crucial moments? Think about your mission and that’s it, fuck!

The woman nodded in denial with her hand."No, Mark. It is fair that Cleo exposes all his perplexities. This is your baptism by fire and it is a crucial moment for all of you. Any kind of reluctance must be overcome, every doubt must be dissipated, so that the action is absolutely clear and does not leave any mark in your young minds.

You see Cleo, how you’ve pointed out earlier: those men are the animals of the Creator... and are going to kill the other animals of the Creator. However, those humans do not kill to feed themselves. They’re going to kill those animals and will not eat them, but will take away their skins and that’s just for financial gain... money, understand? They crave for money and to get it, they will sacrifice the body of those innocent creatures. They do not follow the laws of Nature, but those of financial gains. They are impious, in the most despicable sense of the word."

Yes... Yes, but they are human beings insisted the girl, with an unconvincing tone.

They are impious human beings pointed out the woman.And they must be stopped she concluded peremptorily.

Always the usual snorted Mark while approaching his eye once again towards the viewfinder. After a moment, he raised his head and while turning it towards his teammate, and said:Look at it this way, Cleo. The guy with the baseball bat down there is going to break your mother’s head just because she is desperately trying to protect your brother from a bastard who wants to flay alive. And you? What do you want to do, Cleo?

Cleo stared at Mark for a moment, and then his expression changed. The facial features saddened and a flash of determination passed across her eyes. With a snap, she put the shot in the barrel, rested the butt of his rifle against her shoulder and pointed it towards the wide valley ahead.

Mark winked at the instructor, who pleasingly gave him a nod.

The boy resettled into the shooting position. He became aware of the weapon which he was wielding, which he made it become a part of his body. He put his eye back to the telescopic viewfinder once again and framed the head of his target in the center marks.Recite your prayers, my friend.

Prologue Part I

I’m not crazy.

Why do you believe that I think so?

As I might be.

Do you believe that all those who know you, they may think it too?

"Those who know me enough."

"And you? You know yourself enough?"

I

Let’s talk a bit of Pangaea. Okay?

If you insist she said, while puffing away her boredom.

Well, I think the time has come to dissect the thing a bit, don’t you think?

You are the one who decides, Doc. Ada stroked her short brown hair behind her ears. She pulled up her feet, lending support to the heels on the edge of the chair, and clasped her legs to her chest, tightly gripping them with her arms. She laid her head to rest it on her knees and, while remaining in a fetal position, she settled down to a long digression about her alleged delusions.

How come you have named it like this? asked the doctor, to initiate the discussion, given that his young patient was, as usual, reluctant to talk.

The young girl stared at the silvery pen holder on the doctor’s desk. It was finely carved and polished, so much so, that it seemed to have been freshly polished, who knows, she wondered, if he took it up himself every morning as the initiatory rite of the working day."So... For my seventh birthday my parents presented me a book full of illustrations. It was about the prehistoric days. I used to read it regularly. I liked it so much, it was full of colorful figures. Really… full, full, full! There was a big picture. It took both the pages: an overview of the prehistoric land. The caption read: Pangaea, the super primeval continent that will give life, breaking itself into several pieces, to the current continents. It was written just like this, I would have read it a million times. Have you seen it, Doc? The Pangaea[1].

Anyway in the picture, one could see lush green lowland, full of strange animals that grazed calmly… Since then, I have always thought that heaven has to be like this: a place uncontaminated and full of lush green plants and trees, as far as the eyes can see. White Mountains touching the horizon and a clear sky at the top illuminated by a bright sun. Peace and serenity, everywhere." Ada was lost with a blank look on her face.

And so? the doctor urged her.

Ada looked at him while staring blankly.So, when I found myself in there, right away I found it familiar... I pondered about that picture and boom! I decided that I was finished right in Pangaea.

Okay the doctor said, he used to use that word as a leap to give the patient a positive and reassuring sign.A couple of days back, regains flipping his notes sorted in an immaculate folder and without the slightest of crease,you told me that at the beginning you found yourself there inside without the control of the transit, let’s call it so, right?

Yes, it just happened at the beginning. It’s one of the reasons why I do not think I have created it... otherwise, I should be its Lady and its Mistress, isn’t it? Isn’t this how it works, Doc?

Maybe you are, but you don’t know of it pointed out the doctor.

You mean that it is the birth of my subconsciousness or whatever? In short, a part of my subconscious mind creates it and throws me in whenever it decides?

Something like that. After all, correct me if I’m wrong, you’re a passionate reader of novels he glanced at his notes again.Fantasy and science fiction are your preferences, right?

Yes, I read everything. By the way, don’t you think that the library here needs some updating? What do you say?

Didn’t you find what you were looking for?

Yeah, well, but there are some authors who write cycles of novels, you know? Every three or four years, they publish a follow-up and it would not be bad idea to have the latest volume of the main fantasy sagas. I am certainly not the only one who reads, right?

Not at all! Reading is a very popular hobby among teenagers, especially among those who are introverts: it gives them alternative points of view which help them to compare or provide food for thought for those who are hungry for answers. Then, leaning his elbows on the table and observing the girl from over his glasses, he added:"Additionally, allowing those who feel out of place in the reality, of being able to easily escape into the fantasy world. Allows them to, so to say, be free."

Ada, in her turn, rested her elbows on the table, leaning forward.Do you mean to say that because I feel out of place in the world, I use my imagination as an escape route? insinuated with pedantic tone.

It is not me who is saying so, it is your own reflection, however, it is interesting.

You have suggested it to me and that too not so covertly. I have to think that it is what you think about me?

I am giving you a multiplicity of options to choose from, all the ones which I am able to see; but then it’s you, only you, to decide which one to adopt, Ada.

Ok she agreed, however, putting herself on the defensive mode.Okay, so we say that the Pangaea that I made up myself exists in my head. However, once I am inside it, apart from all the real feelings that I feel, for example, the wind through the hair, the warmth of the sun, the scent of flowers, the hum of the insects...

Even in the vivid dreams you may experience sensory feelings such as those described by you interrupted the doctor, taking advantage of the break taken by his young patient.

"Yes, but, I was saying, apart from all these feelings, once I put my foot on a sharp rock, and when I woke up, in quotes, in the bed of my room, I really felt like a wound on the sole of my foot... understand? Whatever happens to me when I’m in the Pangaea happens to me in reality! My physical body remains here at the hospital, but what happens to my astral body, that is the body in Pangaea, is as if it were reflected instantly to my real body."

Interesting.

Interesting?!… You think I’m a friggin’ nut, isn’t it?

Absolutely not! There are references in the specialized bibliography who report similar cases: the mind of a patient was living a dreamlike situation, so vehemently that his experiences reflected on his body, so as to emphasize the occurrence of the experience.

So you think that they are just dreams?

It does not matter what I think, but what you think does.

So why do you tell me that others have had similar experiences as mine as if they were dreams, if not to make me think like you?

"As I said before: the task of a therapist is to provide key to alternative interpretations but, in the end, the one who decides what should be true and what not, is only the patient. What matters in the therapy is that the patient lives what he feels is true, no matter if it is the reality or not. What is important is the subjective truth, not the objective one: if the life in Pangaea, for you, is real beyond the possible interpretations that I can make myself, then this becomes the concrete premise of the therapy. And in the end, what is actually important to you and to me is The Therapy and the progress or the regress that we manage to make."

Ah... So you do believe me when I say that when I walk through the tall grasses of Pangaea is all true and real?

From the point of view of the therapy, I am fully prepared to admit that your excursions in Pangaea may be true, real and concrete. However, what I would like to know the most are not your experiences in Pangaea, but the thoughts that you build and the feelings that you feel when you find yourself living in it.

And why would they be so important?

To be able to first understand and later analyze those emotional interests that push you to go in that alternate world.

Well, then... uhmmm when I am there, it is not that I start to think a lot. More than anything else, I abandon myself out there. I’m tempted to stay there forever.

Why is this?

As it is a luxuriant world and vibrant with life... but a life indifferent to me. I can stay there and that’s enough: nothing and no one bothers me. It has always been my desire to live in a place that hardly shows interest in my presence. Being able to wander without having to worry about being the center of attention is the ultimate... well, it is for me.

Is the attention of others something to be avoided?

You try to live for nearly sixteen years with the apprehensive parents. Continuously worried about the emotional instability of their only daughter. They always control you. Always! Always... Whatever you may be doing, they always keep an eye on you... or, if they cannot do it by themselves, they have those who do it for them: paid guardians to watch you. The babysitter, the butler, the gardener, the chauffeur, the cook... everyone. Jailers instructed to watch over me constantly! And then even at the slightest hint of any extravagance: callings, reprimands, warnings, and, eventually, pills and injections of tranquilizers!

You have had difficult years, Ada; but now that, in one way or the other, you are liberated from everything, you can get through all this you experienced and you can leave it behind, or at least learn how to handle it.

Yes, yes... you repeat it every time you see me on the verge of freaking out, she snorted.

"We will work together because you manage to carry out on this land, the peace and tranquility that you feel when you’re in