Author: Craig Weidhuner

A Brief Excerpt from Mystical Force Vol. 5

A Brief Excerpt from Mystical Force Vol. 5

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Chiyoko felt her insides churning. She was overcome with sadness, hurt, anger, and betrayal. Even though she should have known this, remembering what Akuma told her earlier, It’s everyone for themselves. If ya git caught, it’s ya own fault for not being fast or strong enough. Deep down, she knew this would have happened but somehow hoped she’d be wrong. She couldn’t help but feel foolish for thinking otherwise. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that now, for another feeling was smothering all others; the icy hand of fear and its cold grip on her heart. Just like her family, she had been abandoned by uncaring people. She was left all alone to fend for herself. At least, that’s what she thought.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” a familiar female voice shouted. Everyone turned to face the door where the survivors had escaped just a few minutes ago. Now another person was standing at the door. It was Shi-ria.

The leader of the cult members turned to face her. He could sense Shi-ria’s powers. “You’re the one the prophecy spoke of,” he deduced. “The one who is not of this world.”

Thanks to her Taman senses, she realized this strange cult was tied into the prophecy about her seeking out the true light within the darkness. “I assume you’re familiar with the prophecy then.”

The cult leader nodded, “‘The descendant of the darkness will cause the shadows to rise, and darkness will envelop the world. Then the one who is not of this world will seek out the true light within the darkness, and the shadows will open the gates to the netherworld,’” he recited. “You intend to stop the Kage Dai Yokai from cleansing this world of the human filth that defiles it. We cannot allow that.”

“What is this Kage Dai Yokai?” Shi-ria asked. She recalled Tokijin once telling her it meant Great Shadow Spectre, but beyond that, she knew very little of it.

“The one who will destroy all humans on this planet so that it may be reborn,” the cult leader explained.

“Why does this Kage Dai Yokai wish to do that?” she asked.

“Because humans are nothing more than ignorant, violent, primitive savages. It was their inner darkness that gave birth to the Kage Dai Yokai in the first place,” he continued. “Hundreds of years ago, in the feudal era, various feudal lords fought each other for control over this land. Hundreds of people fell in battle. The souls of all the dead formed a creature from the darkness of the human heart—the Kage Dai Yokai. He seeks to destroy all humans because that is what humanity seeks—to destroy, maim, and kill. Look at the state of the world: war, poverty, discrimination, crime, disease, famine, climate change, and no one cares. Humans look upon the suffering of others and the destruction they bring upon the planet, and their only thought is, ‘how can I profit from this?’ They willingly destroy their world because the accumulation of currency is more important to them. There is only one true pandemic that is ravaging the world; a disease called the human race! Humans are a cancer infecting this land! A plague to be wiped out!”

Shi-ria was tempted to point out that not all humans were like this; many were trying to save the planet and help solve the world’s problems. However, she felt her words would fall on deaf ears. But more than that, she noticed one glaring flaw in their beliefs, one she was surprised they failed to realize themselves. “You know that since all of you are humans, that means that if your mission succeeds and the Kage Dai Yokai is resurrected, you will be eliminated as well. Are you not, as you put it, the very ‘cancerous tumours’ that are also destroying this planet?”

“Those the Kage Dai Yokai deems worthy will survive to build a new world,” the cult leader boasted.

“Somehow, I highly doubt this Kage Dai Yokai will find you worthy,” Shi-ria countered.

“SILENCE!” the cult leader barked. “You will not interfere in our mission!” The cult members drew their daggers and moved toward Shi-ria. Using her Taman alchemy, she conjured up her sword. She dismissed using this same power to disarm her opponents since there were too many of them. To use her Taman alchemy to break down each of their weapons atom by atom would take too long. Besides, having to dodge multiple attacks would make it even harder for her to concentrate. Thus, as they lunged at her, she let the Taman guide her movements instead. She effortlessly dodged their attacks while using her weapon to deflect theirs. Relying on her kudai chenmol, or “air form,” Shi-ria twisted, spun, jumped, and dodged her attackers like air currents. Unaccustomed to this, her attackers grew more desperate. They began swinging their blades wildly, desperately trying to land a blow on her. As they grew more exasperated, their movements became wild and clumsy. Taking advantage of this, Shi-ria switched from defensive to offensive. Using her sword, she swung at them, striking their blades, forearms, and hands, forcing them to drop their weapons. Then she spun and kicked them, knocking them to the ground.

Chiyoko stood there watching with shock. Shi-ria appeared to also have whatever power Chiyoko had that warned her of danger. Not only that, Chiyoko couldn’t believe that Shi-ria managed to conjure up a weapon out of thin air. Now she was effortlessly evading the assault of multiple attackers. Chiyoko recalled having visions of Shi-ria. Could this be another one of her gifts? Was she predestined to meet this strange woman? Something deep down inside Chiyoko kept insisting that Shi-ria’s coming to save her wasn’t just a coincidence. Suddenly, another feeling arose inside her—a warning of danger. Chiyoko had been so focused on Shi-ria’s battle with this strange shadow cult that she forgot that they still wanted to kill her for “polluting” her demonic lineage with “human filth.” Thus, one cult member turned back to her. She lunged her dagger directly at Chiyoko. Fortunately, Chiyoko sidestepped her attacker. Reaching out with her right hand, Chiyoko grabbed this woman’s arm and twisted it, then pushed it back, resulting in the woman stabbing herself just below her right shoulder. Raising her free left hand, Chiyoko punched her in the face. Another cult member, this one male, turned and began slashing at her. Once again, Chiyoko dodged his swings, instinctively knowing where his blade would be and where to move to avoid it. It was the same power Shi-ria had. Chiyoko wasn’t sure how or why she knew this; she just knew it to be true. Thus, with their strange gift, the two women managed to take down these cultists. In the end, some of the cultists had fled, while most were sprawled on the floor. Chiyoko wanted to leave, figuring that the police would arrive soon.

Shi-ria seemed to sense this as well. She turned to Chiyoko, “Come with me.”

“Why?” Chiyoko asked.

“So we can talk.”

“About what?”

“About your future.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I turn you over to Shinjo, and he arrests you for your crimes.”

Chiyoko looked Shi-ria directly into her eyes, which she found difficult since Shi-ria had two pupils per eye. Having never seen such a thing before, Chiyoko found it unsettling. But what was even more unsettling was the fact that she had a feeling Shi-ria wasn’t joking. Ordinarily, Chiyoko would have run, but something compelled her to stay. Was she afraid that if she tried to run, Shi-ria would catch her? Was she afraid that if she tried to fight off Shi-ria, Shi-ria could take her down? Or was she afraid she might run into more of these cult members and wanted to stick with Shi-ria in hopes that she’d protect her? Actually, the more Chiyoko thought about it, it wasn’t fear that kept her from running, but hope. Deep down inside, she felt that what Shi-ria had to offer was something better than a lighter prison sentence. Chiyoko couldn’t explain it, but she felt that meeting Shi-ria would set her life on a new path. Where that path led, she had no idea, but she was more than curious to find out.

To awaken or to sleepwalk

To awaken or to sleepwalk

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I recently had a conversation with one of my co-workers, I mentioned a video I watched about someone claiming that Gen Z’s are having financial problems because they’re drinking too many margaritas (the person in the video incidentally own a restaurant that serves margaritas for $13 to $17). While my co-worker agreed that said person’s claim was ludicrous, he quickly made the unusual leap that most of the problems in the world are due to “woke garbage”. Ignoring the fact that our conversation had nothing to do with woke, I still found it rather odd that he came to such an equally ludicrous conclusion. To claim woke is to blame for most of the world’s problems is like claiming firefighters are to blame for fires starting in the first place, as if house fires wouldn’t happen if there weren’t firefighters to put them out.

It always amazes me how people can be blinded to their own hypocrisy. My co-worker for example, often complains that “we’re babying people”, yet whenever a mass shooting occurs and there’s talk of gun regulation he starts whining about such laws only hurt the “good” gun owners. He once told me, gun control laws won’t stop mass shootings but will only hurt the paintball industry and thus the economy. I’m not sure how big a role the paintball industry plays in Canada’s (or America’s) economy but I’m sure it’s very, very small. He claims people are “too sensitive” yet during his rant he was getting all upset about the trans community; insisting that there are only “two genders”, ignoring the fact that it’s not about creating a new gender but respecting people’s right to choose which gender they identify with regardless if it matches the gender you were born into (not to mention our conversation had nothing to do with transgender). His justification being that some people look androgynous, thus he doesn’t know whether to use “he” or “she”. It sounds to me like he’s saying people shouldn’t be allowed to choose their gender identity because he’s afraid he might accidentally call them by the wrong gender pronoun. Seems to me like he’s the one whose overly sensitive. My co-worker is also very critical of Putin’s unjust invasion of Ukraine (he’s not wrong about that) yet his solution to the problem is for the rest of the world to simply invade and attack Russia like their doing to Ukraine. In other words, stop the war in Ukraine by starting World War III. He was also married to a woman who wouldn’t get an abortion due to her religious beliefs, despite his wish to not have children – as he pointed out, they couldn’t afford to have one – yet he seems to object to abortion rights on the grounds that (in his mind) women seem to be arbitrarily aborting their unborn children because the whim randomly strikes them at the spur of the moment (which again is totally inaccurate). I also find it ironic that he’s a militant atheist who criticizes religion for encouraging people to blindly follow the church, yet also stated that the problem with young people is that they “think for themselves”. So he doesn’t want people to follow religion but also doesn’t want them to think for themselves? He wants them to blindly follow someone else? His views and beliefs maybe?

As a “woke progressive” myself, woke is about treating others with respect, about acknowledging the problems of the world and working to find solutions to them. It’s about opening your eyes and seeing the truth, that we are all one and by hurting one another we’re indirectly hurting ourselves. That’s what being woke means; as in you’ve “awoken” to see the truth. To see through the illusion that we’re all separate. Yet according to my co-worker, that’s a bad thing? Trying to fix something that’s broken will somehow make things worse? The best solution is to ignore problems and they’ll just go away? That’s like being on a ship, lost at sea, in the middle of a storm. Being tossed around at the whim of the wind and waves. Knowing your vessel could capsize any minute. And when someone comes along and offers to show you a way out of the storm, to guide your ship safely back to shore, instead of accepting their help, you blame them for being trapped in the storm and insisting that continuing to let the waves toss you about will somehow get you safely back to shore. It’s as the law of attraction states, “what you resist persists”. The more you view the world as a negative place full of problems, the more problems you see everywhere you look. Let’s be perfectly honest here, most conservatives use “woke” like “socialism” or “communism”. When they use these terms, it really means “I don’t like this”. “Pay poor people a descent wage?! WE CAN’T THAT’S COMMUNISM! THAT’S WOKE!” “Universal healthcare?! THAT’S SOCIALISM! THAT’S WOKE!” “Starbucks discontinued my favourite frappuccino?! THEY’RE RUN BY WOKE COMMUNISTS!” Ironically my anti-woke co-worker supports better wages for the working class and universal healthcare. (I don’t know about whether or not he likes Starbucks though, but that’s another matter.)

As I stated in my next book, Mystical Force: Vol. 5 Shadows and Darkness (which should be out early spring):

While her [Chiyoko, one of my characters] life was far from perfect, it was all she’d known. That was one of the strange things about people; they often seemed more afraid of uncertainty. A life of hell still seemed better than the chance that paradise may not be as perfect as we’d like. Better the devil you know, Chiyoko recalled hearing on more than one occasion.

Ultimately this is the real reason conservatives attack “woke” as being a bad thing. They’re lashing out in fear of that which they don’t understand, or don’t want to understand. Because they fear change, that which is different/unfamiliar; thus they’d rather continue on the same path our society has been on for centuries, even when they know it’s not getting us to where we say we want to go as a society. As someone once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” So be not afraid of change dear reader, for you can no more stop society from progressing, from evolving than you can stop the sun from rising in the morning, or cause the river to reverse course and flow upstream.

As Greta Thunberg once stated, “They are starting to get more and more desperate. This shows that we’re winning.” and she’s correct. Conservatives and the radical right are so desperate to stop “woke”, despite having no valid arguments to support their claims that they’ll say anything. They’re so desperate to fight woke, that any argument, no matter how convoluted, baseless or without fact or merit is still valid in their mind.

I should also point out that my co-worker has numerous health problems and has missed several days of work due to health related issues. The sad truth is, my co-worker brings most of these problems on himself. We all know that stress and poor mental health can cause physical ailments. The irony is that in doing so, in “worrying yourself sick” you make yourself sick, which in turn causes you to miss work, lose money and in turn creates more stress. Thus it becomes a vicious cycle. While a part of me genuinely feels sorry for my co-worker and his son who also has medical issues, another part of me – I’m sorry to say – also thinks, “You brought this on yourself. You have no one to blame but yourself.” Forgive me if that sounds cold but I’m simply being honest. I admit I sometimes have a nasty habit of telling the truth, even when people don’t want to hear it. People say you need to “pick your battles”, so ask yourself these questions, “Is this the hill I’m willing to die on? Is it really worth it?”

The real problem here is the choice being made. Ultimately, all of us have only two real choices in life: do we embrace love, or do we surrender to fear? Which do you choose?
Spirituality and Health

Spirituality and Health

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I recently received this in an email. While I’m sorry to say I forget who originally wrote this, what I found here was too valuable, too important for me to simply keep in my email until I read it and deleted. So to whomever originally wrote this, I thank you for sharing this and I’m grateful to get to share it myself. Hopefully you dear reader will find this as insightful as I did. Namaste!

TO YOUR HEALTH:

Everyone has their own, very personal definition of spirituality. No matter what parameters the concept of spirituality is given, science has begun to realize that it plays a very important role in one’s well being.

Numerous studies have shown that spirituality can help improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases like cancer. According to a recently published study, spirituality can also have a positive impact on the quality of life for heart patients. It further concludes spirituality should be considered a potential target for palliative care interventions to improve patient-centered and clinical outcomes in these individuals.

“Patients who have heart failure experience a poorer quality of life compared to their peers, with high levels of depression, anxiety and spiritual distress,” said Rachel S. Tobin, MD, resident in Internal Medicine at Duke University Hospital, and lead author of the study. “Contributing to diminished quality of life is the fact that heart failure, unlike many other chronic diseases, is very unpredictable and can lead to hopelessness, isolation and altered self-image.”

The American College of Cardiology and other major cardiovascular societies recommend palliative care for heart failure patients. Spirituality is a core domain of palliative care, with the goal of identifying and addressing spiritual concerns and providing patients with appropriate spiritual and religious resources. However, limited research has been conducted on spirituality’s impact on patients and there are no known tools designed to measure it.

According to the researchers, spirituality is hard to define, but they reference several definitions that describe spirituality as how individuals find meaning and purpose in life, which can be separate from religious beliefs.

For instance, the Institute of Medicine defines spirituality as “the needs and expectations which humans have to find meaning, purpose and value in their life. Such needs can be specifically religious, but even people who have no religious faith or are not members of an organized religion have belief systems that give their lives meaning and purpose.”

“The literature suggests not only can spirituality improve quality of life for the patient, it can help support caregivers and potentially help patients from needing to be readmitted to the hospital,” Tobin said. “What we have suggested and are now doing is developing a spirituality screening tool, similar to the ones used to screen for depression. This can be used to identify patients who are at risk for spiritual distress. However, this is just a start. More research needs to be done.”

What do we know about humanity?

What do we know about humanity?

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DISCLAIMER: IF YOU’RE OFFENDED BY WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ, THEN YOU’RE PROBABLY ONE OF THEM…

I received this email which I just had to share. It makes a very profound point:

What do we know about humanity?

That humanity can take literally anything and ruin it.

Take modern day American evangelical Christianity, for example.

They managed to take Jesus-a wine drinking, peace loving hippie who loved the poor and preached about loving your neighbor-and made him into a symbol of hate. They took Jesus and made him a symbol for transphobia, homophobia, and islamaphobia, not to mention not liking immigrants, poor people and being against free healthcare. Which is absolutely insane, considering:

1.Jesus never preached against being trans.

2.Jesus literally never once condemned homosexuality and never taught that gay couples went to hell.

3.Jesus was literally an immigrant himself.

4.Jesus was poor. In fact, he was at times borderline homeless.

5.Jesus literally gave out free healthcare. He never charged for his healing services, not once.

Modern day evangelical conservative Christianity is one big fat lie. It resembles nothing like the true teachings of Jesus, and if Jesus were here today, he would be ashamed and shocked that these people even call themselves Christian.

Jesus preached love, not hate. Remember that.

This statement makes a valid point, even God says so. In the book ‘Conversations with God’, God outright states:

  1. The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus died, the people who wrote the new testament never actually met Jesus.
  2. Many so-called ‘devout’ Christians wouldn’t know Jesus if they bumped into him on the street.

This is why I consider myself a spiritualist. God, again in ‘Conversations with God’, says to seek spirituality not religion. Because spirituality teaches us to look within to find the answers. It shows us that the answers we seek are already inside of us, we’ve simply forgotten them. Religion by contrast teaches us to ignore our instincts, our inner wisdom and blindly accept what others say as indisputable truth. The reason many people do this is because it’s easier that way. It means you don’t have to think for yourself.

Now I should point out that this doesn’t apply to all religious people (not just Christians). I’ve met some religious people who are perfectly descent people. People who love and accept others regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs (or lack there of), politics and/or income level. The one’s I object to are those who feel a sense of moral superiority and feel it’s their right to force their beliefs on others, ironically while using arguments of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ to justify it while simultaneously trying to deny that same ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ to anyone whose views don’t conform to theirs.

Ironically the same can be said about atheists. I’ve met some atheists who are descent people, who love and accept others and don’t care what their religious beliefs (or lack there of) are. I’ve also seen atheists who like these devout conservative evangelicals, think themselves superior for not believing in God and openly mock anyone who believes. People who can’t or simply refuse to see the difference between spirituality and religion and lump them both together. I’ve heard people debate whether atheism should be considered a religion with some arguing that it isn’t because there are no rules to follow. I find it ironic that there are those who would argue in favour of the later because of the lack of rules yet still insist that spirituality is no different that religion when there also are no rules in spirituality.

I suppose what I’m really trying to say here is it’s all about accepting others for who they are. It’s not a question of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ but ‘what serves you’. If your beliefs serves you than keep them. If they bring you happiness, then enjoy and cherish them. If your beliefs however, cause you problems or distress, then perhaps it’s time to look within and re-examine those beliefs. Also, if others have beliefs or viewpoints that you don’t agree with, that cause you distress, then may you should ask yourself, “Is it because their view is ‘wrong’ or is because I’ve chosen to label it as ‘wrong’?”

“When you see beyond yourself than you may find peace of mind is waiting there. And the time will come when you’ll see we’re all one and life flows on within you and without you.”

– Within You Without You,

The Beatles
Two profound books to read (besides my own)

Two profound books to read (besides my own)

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I received this email from my father and thought it was so profound, that I just had to post it and share it with everyone. The following words are my father’s, not mine, however I do agree with what he’s saying. My own words are the brief snippets in bold, encased in brackets “[ ]”. I wanted to share this with you for the same reason I am writing both “Mystical Force” and “Liberator: the People’s Guard” to help encourage you to think for yourself. As the “Complete Conversations with God” says, most people don’t want to think for themselves. That’s why they follow religion, people on social media and elect certain politicians because it requires no independent thought. We’ve seen it with these Trump supporters/Capitol rioters whose only defence seems to be “I was only following Trump’s orders.” When people choose not to think for themselves, it removes all responsibility from them (at least in their minds). Then they sit and wonder why their lives haven’t turned out the way they wanted. They’re left wondering “where, when, why, how did it all go so wrong?!” Again, as the “Complete Conversations with God” says, It all went wrong when you abandoned your mind, the greatest creative tool you were ever given. Now with my foreword completed, I give you the email I received, courtesy of my father:

“A Journey of Souls” A must read book for those interested in what happens when you pass over to the other side. Why am I recommending this book? Because it verifies, clarifies and explains the things my father-in-law [my maternal grandfather] told me after his visit to the other side [the afterlife/spirit world, call it whatever you like] after his heart attack. Doctors and scientists call it a “near death experience” because they can’t accept the fact that someone can die for a few minutes or 40 minutes or more and then be revived or come back because it’s not yet their time to leave the earth plain. Someone can be clinically dead for a few minutes but have spent hours, days, weeks, or even months in the spirit plain. Time has no relevance between the two realms.

After his heart attack, my wife [my mother] and I went up to visit him. My mother-in-law [my maternal grandmother] came to me and said “Dad wants to talk to you alone in the bedroom and lock the door” He was recuperating from his recent heart attack and so spent most of his time in bed. We had a nice long talk about his experience. He told me “I love my girls (he had five daughters [my mother and four aunts]) but they don’t mean anything to me. They’re not my family on the other side.” That statement intrigued me and this book explains it. There was a women in the book who when she passed over was expecting to be met by her father from this incarnation whom she loved and was very close to. Instead someone else met her and later she saw her father in the background. He eventually came up to her and greeted her, but explained that he could only stay briefly and she couldn’t follow him because she was not part of his family. Once she met her own family (soul group) and her memory of her previous lives returned to her, she understood and was happy to see all her friends and family in the spirit plain.

We had a nice long talk about how the church is all wrong and actually keeps people away from God. The Christian Bible has been rewritten so many time by various ecumenical councils to say what the Church leaders wanted in order to maintain control that it no longer has any relation to what Jesus taught 2000 years ago. For example, the Book of Joshua which is referenced in the Bible and was once part of the Bible has been removed because it told the truth and that was something the church leaders couldn’t allow. In it Joshua tells how Moses and his council (the leaders of the various tribes) decided that they needed a set of rules or laws to govern their people. They went up into the mountains and created a set of rules and decided that in order to give them some authority, they would say these were commandments from God. In “The Complete Conversations With God” (another book I recommend) God tells the author “There is no such thing as the Ten Commandments”.

AMORC (The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) traces its origin to Mystery Schools established in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III 1479 – 1425 BC. According to the Rosicrucian records after the incident at Calvary, Jesus went to the arcane school that the Essenes had at Mount Carmel and taught his wisdom to the students there. He lived a long life and when he passed, the buried him in a secret spot. Jesus did not die on the cross until some centuries after his death when Constantine had the Bible rewritten to say that Jesus died on the cross because the church needed a martyr. The current Christian Bible only has 12 disciples and they are all male. Whereas Jesus had over 120 disciples and almost half were women. The most prominent was Mary Magdalene his partner and wife. I don’t know what Constantine had against Mary or women, but he had the Bible rewritten to say that Mary was a prostitute and so the Roman Catholic churches campaign to subjugate women and relegate them to second class status and servants of man began. How is it that I’m familiar with Rosicrucian literature? I’ve been a member since 1975. [my father is a member, I am not. Also I wasn’t born until 1982].

In the “Complete Conversations with God” there are several discussions about the current bible. The author questions God about the bible, he quotes “Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord” and God replies “I never said that. One of you made that up, and you believed it”. God also discusses about how he is portrayed in the bible. He says “These behaviors are the behaviors historically demanded of their subjects by monarchs – usually ego-maniacal, insecure, tyrannical monarchs at that.” He explains that the God in the bible does not represent Him at all. He tells the author to “Return to spirituality. Forget about religion”. When the author asks why, He replies “Because it is not good for you”. And that is obvious. One only has to look at countries where religion is dominant such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Taliban in Afghanistan with their control over women. And then you have the Taliban’s Christian cousins the Roman Catholic church and the Evangelicals with their extreme conservative views on controlling women’s bodies. But everything discussed in the book matches what my father-in-law and I talked about.

These two books I recommend for your reading. Why? To make you think, to open your mind, to free your soul so that in can evolve, grow. You have free will. You can ignore this or you can read the books and make up your own mind. Either way makes no difference to me. God says to “Love everyone”, and I love everyone and wish the best for them. And some people I know who mistakenly sincerely believe that they are faithful Christians [“Conversations with God” even states that most so called Christians wouldn’t know Jesus if they bumped into him on the street, even those who wrote the Bible never met Jesus. The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus died], I wish the best for them. And the best thing that could happen to them is that they have the same beautiful life changing enlightening experience that my father-in-law had. What their reaction will be when they discover that their church has been misleading and lying to them I can’t say. But it will do them good to learn the truth.
Sneak Peek: Liberator, Volume 1

Sneak Peek: Liberator, Volume 1

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Before I begin, I’d like to apologize for not posting anything last month, unfortunately I caught Covid thus was laid up for a while. While I had tried to use the time for my writing, when you’re feeling ill it’s hardly a conducive atmosphere to writing. When your sick it’s hard to focus on anything else. That’s also the reason why I haven’t done my usual vlog of this posting as Covid, coupled with the air pressure has left my throat feeling swollen, as a result it’s hard to record a vlog when you’re constantly sucking on lozenges so you don’t feel like gagging all the time. Hopefully once I’m over this, I can record myself reading this blog post. In the meantime I present to you a brief excerpt from volume one of my newest series, Liberator: the People’s Guard, which should be out shortly. Enjoy!

Inside the plane, the Premier and his aides were sitting down and going over their itinerary for their visit. Two armed guards stood at the front of the plane. As far as anyone knew, they were simply there for security. The truth, however, was that these two and the pilot were actually members of the Nihilist movement. Their goal was to kidnap the Premier, take him to a remote location, and hold him hostage until the government of Ruthenia agreed to their demands. One of the aides noticed both guards were carrying AK-15 assault rifles.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked. “It seems a little like overkill.”

“After what happened at the parade, one can never be too careful, ma’am,” the guard replied

nonchalantly.

As if to prove their point, they were distracted by the sound of banging coming from directly beneath the floor. The guards turned and looked at each other. Neither of them knew what exactly it was, but they had a feeling someone had discovered their plan. Reacting on instinct, they decided to spring into action.

“A stowaway!” one shouted.

“Probably another terrorist,” the other one lied. Both guards figured it was a government agent who learned of their plan and snuck on board, trying to stop them. The guards looked at each other and nodded. They decided their best course of action was simply shoot to kill. “Stay here!” the guard told the Premier and his aides. Before they could check it out, the door to the back of the plane opened and out stepped the Liberator.

The Premier and his aides stood up in shock. “How did you get on board?” the Premier asked.

“I climbed in through the landing gear, into the wheel well,” he replied. “I then forced my way

up, through the floor and into that room back there.

“Why would you do that?” the Premier demanded.

“Because I have reason to believe this plane isn’t going to Helvetica,” he answered. “I overheard some guards talking on the ground, mentioning that the plane would go off course.” He then turned his attention to the two guards. He noticed how nervous they both looked. He could almost hear their hearts racing in their chest. “The guards on the tarmac mentioned that ‘their pilot was onboard.’ You two wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

The Premier and his aides turned toward the two guards. Despite the relatively comfortable

temperature inside the cabin, everyone noticed how the two guards were both sweating profusely.

“Sir,” one of the guards spoke directly to the Premier, “I regret to inform you of this, but we have reason to believe that the Liberator is secretly working with enemy foreign agents. As a result, we’ve been forced to take a different route to deliver you to a more secure location.” This was, of course, a lie. No one had anticipated the Liberator would have caught up to the plane as it was taking off, and they certainly hadn’t figured on him making it into the plane. While there had been many reported incidents of people stowing away on planes by hiding in the wheel well, the lack of oxygen, coupled with low air pressure and temperature, meant most people who attempted such a feat didn’t survive, even assuming they weren’t simply crushed to death when the landing gear retracted.

“And why wasn’t I notified of this?” the Premier asked doubtfully.

“It was for your own safety, sir,” the other guard lied. “We couldn’t risk him finding out,” he

nervously gestured toward the Liberator.

“Then why did the soldiers on the ground say they were sending fighter jets to escort it? Just in

case the Premier or his aides managed to regain control?” he demanded.

The guards looked at each other nervously. One of them turned to the Premier. “He’s lying,

sir,” the guard stammered.

“You’re the ones who are lying!” the Liberator shouted as he slowly moved toward them. “Who

are you? Who sent you? Are you part of the group that hacked control of the tanks and made them

attack the Citadel?”

With their cover blown, the guards aimed their guns at the Liberator and opened fire. Like when Petro tested Tovarich by shooting him with the handgun back in the lab, the bullets struck the Liberator straight in the chest, torso, and head, only to bounce right off him. They stopped firing and stared at him with pure dread. Even Tovarich was slightly surprised by this. Unlike Petro’s “test,” these were full automatic AK-15 assault rifles, much more powerful than a simple revolver.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, Tovarich thought. After all, I was crushed by a tank only a few days ago, yet I’m still alive. Compared to that, being shot by AK-15s is nothing. He moved toward the Nihilists. Not knowing what to do, they simply aimed their guns at him and opened fire again. It was a futile attempt, but then again, they probably weren’t expecting this, so they didn’t exactly have many options. However, the Liberator wasn’t concerned about himself; he was worried about the Premier. If they continued firing, there was a possibility some of the bullets might ricochet off him and strike the Premiere or puncture holes in the cabin. Fortunately, the Premier and his aides took cover behind some chairs. Thus, the Nihilists continued firing until they exhausted all their ammo. Panicking and acting out of desperation, one of the Nihilists swung his rifle at the Liberator like a bat, hoping that he could bludgeon him to death. This time, Liberator willingly did nothing. He was now confident that he was in no danger. Thus, the rifle struck him in the side of his head, only to break upon impact. The Nihilist just stood there paralyzed with fear. The Liberator stood there, giving him a cold, hard stare, allowing his opponent a moment to realize that it was truly futile. The other Nihilist, either bravely or foolishly, pulled out a survival egress knife, the kind used by military personnel if they needed to escape a downed aircraft and survive in the wilderness. He charged the Liberator, trying in vain to slash and stab him with it. Like before, Liberator did nothing. He wanted to show his opponent that it was futile. Thus, he slashed at the Liberator’s throat, but the blade did nothing, not even scratch his skin. Next, he tried to stab him in the chest. However, the blade simply broke upon impact. Raising his right arm, the

Liberator delivered a backhand slap to the man’s face. The man flew backwards, slamming into the far wall of the cabin, before collapsing dead on the floor. However, the Liberator wasn’t sure if the impact of his hand or his head hitting the cabin wall delivered the killing blow. Not that it mattered to the Liberator, this man was an enemy of the people, so he got what he deserved as far as Tovarich was concerned.

The Liberator turned his attention to the other Nihilist who had tried to bludgeon him with the assault rifle. Realizing how truly screwed he was, he fell to his knees, “Please, don’t kill me!” he begged. “Have mercy!”

“Enemies of the people don’t deserve mercy,” the Liberator coldly reminded him, quoting a

phrase that had been drilled into the heads of Ruthenians all their lives. With his genetically enhanced reflexes, he grabbed the man by his neck and snapped it like a twig with little effort. Turning his attention back to the Premier, who peeked out from behind his chair, the Liberator asked, “Are you all right, sir?”

The Premier nodded uneasily.

“Stay here,” the Liberator instructed before heading to the cockpit. The Liberator entered the cockpit. Grabbing the pilot by his right arm, the Liberator yanked him out of his chair. “Turn this plane around and land right now!” he barked.

The pilot just grinned smugly, “Or what? You’ll kill me? If I land the plane, I’ll be arrested, and

then they’ll sentence me to death anyway. Besides, even if you do kill me, there would be no one left

to fly the plane, so your threat is meaningless!”

The Liberator glared at him. The man was right. If he did comply and land the plane, he’d be arrested and given a show trial where a guilty verdict would already be rendered before the trial even began. “So what you’re saying is I should just kill you right here and now?” he threatened.

“Look out the window,” the pilot motioned. The Liberator turned his head to see two fighter

jets, one on either side, flanking the plane.

“You’ve hijacked this plane; you obviously want the Premier alive,” the Liberator deduced. “Tell those pilots to stand down. If they open fire, you’ll kill your hostage.”

“What makes you think that wasn’t part of our plan?” the pilot bluffed.

“Why go to all this trouble just to kill him?” the Liberator figured. “There are many easier ways you could have finished off the Premier. Why go to all this trouble if you just wanted him dead?”

“You’re right,” the pilot admitted, “we hoped to take him alive and force him to submit to our

demands. But since that’s obviously no longer an option, we might as well just shoot the plane down.”

“If they shoot down the plane, you die too,” the Liberator argued. He had hoped that might compel the pilot to cooperate.

The pilot just shrugged, “I’m dead either way. And soon, you’ll be too!”

“Will I? A tank at the parade ran me over, and I survived without even a scratch,” the Liberator

replied. After having survived that, he was certain that he’d survive being shot down by another plane.

“Can the Premier also make that claim?” the pilot asked.

The Liberator silently cursed as he released his grip on the pilot. He had hoped that fear would cause the pilot to forget about the Premier. The more the Liberator thought it over, there was only one way to end this.

Meanwhile, the pilot turned and grabbed the cockpit radio. He contacted the fighter jets following him, “The Liberator IS HERE! OPEN FIRE!”
NEW SERIES: Liberator

NEW SERIES: Liberator

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Today I am pleased to announce a new book series I will be working on in addition to Mystical Force. This new series also takes place in the same universe as Mystical Force, thus allowing for potential crossovers. And so I am proud to announce my new series, “Liberator: the People’s Guard”.

Before I begin, let me just state, that Mystical Force has not be cancelled, abandoned, postponed indefinitely or anything like that. I am currently writing volume 5 of Mystical Force right now. Going forward I’ll be working on both series simultaneously. Thus my series will be alternating between “Liberator” and “Mystical Force”. I’ll release the next volume of one series, followed by the next volume of the other series. In other words, Liberator volume 1, followed by Mystical Force volume 5, Liberator volume 2, Mystical Force volume 6 and so on.

Now with that out of the way, what exactly is this series you ask? The Liberator is the official state-sponsored hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Ruthenia. Now what is an ‘official state-sponsored hero’ you ask? When most people think of superheroes we think of the masked/costumed vigilantes seen in comic books. Either people with super powers, or rich people with all sorts of high tech equipment that go around in costumes, arresting bad guys and stopping crime. Most of these heroes are vigilantes who operate outside the law. My character of Shi-ria in Mystical Force is an example of this as she acts on her own without any authorization from the law. The ‘state-sponsored hero’ is the government’s response to prevent such vigilantes from taking the law into their own hands. Think of the state-sponsored hero as the superhero equivalent of a police officer. Their costume, secret identity and other gadgets are all supplied by the state, they receive their funding from the government via our tax dollars, the same as any other government department or ministry would.

The state-sponsored hero is, in a way, not to different from the Order of the Cross in Mystical Force. The only difference is that the Order of the Cross is run and funded by the Catholic Church while a state-sponsored hero is run and funded by the government of their respective country. The only real difference is that a state-sponsored hero only has jurisdiction within their own country and has no authority outside of it. For example: imagine Washington state police pursuing a criminal. Said criminal crosses the border into British Columbia, Canada. The Washington state troopers have no jurisdiction in another state or province, let alone another country. Similarly, if a criminal were to flee Ruthenia and make their way to Oyashima, for example, a hero like The Liberator wouldn’t legally be able to follow said criminal into Oyashima, arrest them and bring them back to Ruthenia. In this respect, a state-sponsored hero isn’t much different from the exorcists in the Order of the Cross. Since the Order of the Cross is a branch of the Catholic Church, and doesn’t answer to any specific nation, they technically have no official authorization to operate in countries such as Oyashima or the Democratic People’s Republic of Ruthenia.

Now as for the series itself: Ever since he was a small child growing up in the Democratic People’s Republic of Ruthenia, Tovarich Revanov was always taught about the “enemies of the people” and that “enemies” don’t deserve compassion or mercy. Now as an adult he’s going to put that to the test. Chosen to be “the Liberator” he’s the state’s newest “official state-sponsored hero”. Here to protect the workers of Ruthenia from the “enemies of the people”. Unfortunately in a totalitarian dictatorship “enemies of the people” can be anyone from terrorists plotting to blow up buildings, to peaceful demonstrators protesting their government’s poor human rights record. Is the Liberator a hero or is he the villain? Join Tovarich in this exciting new series, as he discovers for himself what it truly means to be a hero. The only real questions are: Will his definition of “hero” be compatible with that of the state? Will he be able to “liberate” himself from the dogmatic, state propaganda that’s been drilled into his head since he was a child? Or will he need to “guard” the people from their own government?

All these questions and more will be answered in my new series, Liberator: the People’s Guard, which should be out by fall. As always, you can check back here for more details. In addition to my website, you can also follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Don’t forget, if you’ve already bought copies of my books; do me a favour and give it a good review on Amazon, Google and/or wherever you bought it. And if you haven’t bought your copies yet, what are you waiting for? Do it now! I need the money!!!

(UPDATE) THE WORLD OF MYSTICAL FORCE: TAMAN KNIGHTS

(UPDATE) THE WORLD OF MYSTICAL FORCE: TAMAN KNIGHTS

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The Taman Knights are a monastic religious order originating from the Planet Thalia. The character of Shi-ria is a member of this organization.

BELIEFS AND PHILOSOPHIES:

The Taman is the energy and will of the universe and all things that exist within the universe.

– Quote from the book of Taman

The word “Taman” roughly translates as universe, energy, balance or whole. The universe is energy, specifically positive and negative energies called “the Kolri and the Koldar”. The word “Kolri” roughly translates as inner good or inner light, while “Koldar” means inner evil or inner darkness. These two forces are the only constants in the universe. They exist in all living creatures and shall always exist in perfect balance. Their belief is that good and evil exist in all people and in order to maintain balance in life one must use the Kolri (inner light) to control the Koldar (inner darkness) to maintain balance, peace and harmony in themselves and thus the universe. Without this balance the universe, according to their philosophy, will be thrown into chaos.

The Koldar gives the Taman strength, but thou cannot control this alone; for without the Kolri, the balance of goodness and light, one cannot hope to use the Koldar for good but it shall use thee for death and destruction.

– Quote from the book of Taman

According to their beliefs, a Taman knight draws their strength from the Koldar (their negative emotions: anger, aggression, hatred, selfishness) but it also states that such power is inevitably corrupting and will destroy you so one must first learn to use the Kolri (positive emotions: joy, love, compassion, selflessness) to control this inner darkness so its power can be used for constructive purposes rather than destructive ones. According to their teachings, the Koldar is too powerful and only a Taman Knight with the power of the Kolri to help them, can control the Koldar and use it’s dark powers for good instead of evil. When one uses the Koldar, they grow more powerful but due to their emotions it makes it more difficult to control their powers. When one uses the Kolri their powers may not be as strong but they have clarity so they know how to use patience and strategy to defeat an opponent instead of simply overpowering them by brute force alone. Those who succumb to the dark powers of the Koldar are known as Koldar Warriors (Dark Taman knights).

According to their philosophy, matter and energy are related. The Taman Knights teach that all matter is composed of protons, neutrons and electrons, which are composed of quarks, which are energy. Thus the entire universe is a giant ocean of energy. That energy is the Taman, an energy that they use to help protect the innocent and defend justice.

The Taman knights use the Taman for the pursuit knowledge and wisdom. For peace, harmony and also defend the innocent. The Taman is never to be used for aggression and attack, nor to gain power simply for the sake of gaining power.

– Quote from the book of Taman

Since all people have this inner darkness Taman knights are encouraged to control this with their inner light. This involves meditating to attain a calming state and focusing on positive reinforcement in both thought and action. Taman philosophy teaches to respect all living creatures and to resolve conflicts through peaceful means. It encourages listening, thinking and waiting rather than acting rash.

POWERS AND ABILITIES:

The powers and abilities of a Taman knight vary depending on the individual. Their level of training, experience and personal strength are all factors in determining how strong their abilities are. Like any skill, anyone can learn these powers, depending on how much time one spends developing it determines the extent of their powers, but it’s not the only factor. Just as one person may be more gifted in the arts than in mathematics for example, some people are more in tune with the Taman than others. The following is a general list of powers used by Taman knights.

Taman Alchemy:

Since they’re taught that matter and energy are interchangeable, Taman knights have the ability to transform energy directly into matter manifesting into a physical object. Usually this is used to create weapons for self defence, but it can be used to create other things such as tools or to repair a damaged object. Likewise it can also be used to turn matter back into energy (for example: disintegrating the bullets in a gun, thus rendering the weapon useless).

Taman or Kolri Heal:

The ability of a Taman Knight to quickly heal from injuries that would otherwise take much longer to recover from. The amount of time it takes one to heal from an injury depends on the severity of said injury. Thus if the wound is severe enough, they could die before healing themselves enough for their injury to be non life threatening. A Taman knight also cannot grow back a limb or body part that has been cut off or lost due to battle, injury or disease, though they can create cybernetic limbs via Taman Alchemy. This power also strengthens their immune systems but does not ensure they will never get sick.

Taman Enhancement:

The ability to use the energy of the Taman to run faster, jump higher and so on. This also allows them to function with less sleep than a normal person, go longer without eating and even survive in a thin atmosphere (thought they cannot survive without any atmosphere, such as in space). Despite this ability Taman knights cannot go without sleeping or eating for an indefinite period of time. This ability is to help them survive longer in a hostile environment and give them a better chance to escape it.

Gravity Manipulation:

The ability of a Taman Knight to slow ones decent when falling, thus allowing them to jump/fall from heights which would otherwise kill them. It also allows them to slow other falling objects giving them time to rescue others or prevent themselves from being crushed by falling debris. They cannot however make themselves or other persons/objects independent of gravity.

Taman Reading:

Equivalent to what we known as E.S.P. More specifically: clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, precognition, retro cognition and empathic abilities. In other words, it allows them to see events that have already happened or events that have not yet transpired. They also have the ability to sense the emotional state of others, as well as to tell if someone is lying. This power is generally used by placing themselves into a meditative trance and focusing on a specific person, object or event.
(Update) CHARACTER BIO: SHI-RIA

(Update) CHARACTER BIO: SHI-RIA

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Shi-ria is a Taman Knight who was born and raised on the planet Thalia. As a young child she was orphaned and found living on the streets of the city of Kalshiya, in the Dekanta province with her adopted brother and sister Rirk and Kurai. As children, the three of them made their living stealing whatever they needed to survive. Thinking only of themselves, they believed the rest of the world didn’t care about them so they saw no need to be concerned with how their actions harmed others. One day they had been caught stealing by a group of merchants who were prepared to take revenge upon them. Fortunately they were saved by a Taman Knight named Kalai-Udon, who sensed within the three of them a strong ability to tune into the Taman. He gave them a choice: remain on the street as thieves where they’d either wind up in jail or dead, or become his apprentices and train to become Taman Knights, an ancient religious order of Thalia. Given the choice, the three picked the later, moved in to the temple of the Taman Knights and began their training.

As an apprentice Shi-ria displayed great skill and strength. However, such skills made her arrogant and caused friction due to her reckless ‘leap before you look’ attitude, which contrasted with Kuria’s more serious, no nonsense approach. Many of the other apprentices gave Shi-ria the nickname “the fearless fool”. As a result of Shi-ria’s irresponsible and immature behaviour Kurai often grew irritated with her, causing the two of them to argue frequently. This often caused Kurai to give in to her anger. It was during one of these arguments that Shi-ria managed to drive her sister into a fit of rage, drawing on the power of the Koldar (her inner darkness), Kurai overpowered Shi-ria and almost killed her, had it not been for the intervention of their master. Following this event, Kurai was abducted by a group of Koldar Warriors (dark counterparts of the Taman Knights) who believed themselves to be ‘real’ Taman Knights, while at the same time believing the legitimate branches of the Taman Knights were a twisted perversion the original teachings of Princess Alderoth, the founder of this religion and the first officially recognized Taman Knight. The Koldar Warriors, thought that negative emotions like anger and hatred made them powerful, while love and compassion weakened them. The Koldar Warriors believed that their twisted views were correct and had tried to turn Kurai into one of them as part of their larger plan to destroy the Taman Knights and create a galaxy spanning theocratic empire where all non believers would either be forcibly converted or destroyed. Fearing that her actions led Kurai to give in to her inner darkness, Shi-ria, like a Koldar Warrior, had given into emotion rather than logic. Rushing off to confront this cult and rescue her sister without a proper plan, Shi-ria found herself alone against scores of armed enemies.

Meanwhile, the Koldar Warriors had been searching for an ancient magic scroll that would have allowed them to instantly teleport anywhere across the galaxy, allowing them to spread their dark religion and destroy all those they deemed unworthy. Originally, they used Shi-ria as a test subject and sent her off to a remote, backwards planet called Earth. There this reckless, foolish Taman apprentice found a teenage girl named Chiyoko and began training her as an apprentice. Thus the sins of the teacher were passed on to the student. Originally Shi-ria would later die only for Chiyoko to later give in to her own inner darkness and become a Koldar Warrior. However a woman named Scarlet Knightwalker would later travel back in time and alter history, ensuring those events would never happen. Thanks to Knightwalker’s intervention, history had been altered and Master Kalai-Udon along with the other Taman Knights discovered what the Koldar Warriors were doing and rescued both Shi-ria and Kurai, while Knightwalker secretly took the magic scroll, thus preventing the Koldar Warriors from creating their dark, theocratic, galaxy spanning empire.

Thanks to Knightwalker’s altering the past, Shi-ria wasn’t sent to Earth and remained on Thalia to complete her training and become a full fledged Taman Knight. This incident is what helped shape Shi-ria into the Taman Knight she is today. It caused her to grow into a more responsible, more rational, more compassionate and selfless person. She quickly excelled becoming the second youngest person to obtain the rank of Taman Knight (Kurai being the youngest by only a few months). It was also thanks to the above mentioned incident that Shi-ria learned not to be so rash and give in to emotion, learning to calm her mind so she could think her way out of any situation. As a result, she has a relaxed, easy going attitude which makes her very friendly and personal. This combined with her spiritual growth allows her to act both as diplomat as well as warrior. Being able to resolve conflict by talking while still being able to defend herself and others when necessary.

Despite Knightwalker altering the past, another sorceress named Zolida is determined to prevent history from being altered any further. Thus she later sent Shi-ria to Earth. Like in the original timeline, Shi-ria would again find this teenage girl named Chiyoko whom she would train as an apprentice. The difference this time was that Shi-ria was older and more mature. Having used her Taman powers to look into the future, she saw the original future Scarlet Knightwalker came from but also saw another possible future; one where she didn’t die and Chiyoko wouldn’t become a Koldar Warrior. Now Shi-ria, along with Scarlet Knightwalker, Mystic and Noonien work to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself, despite Zolida’s attempts to ensure that it does.
A sneak peek at Mystical Force Vol. 4

A sneak peek at Mystical Force Vol. 4

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For those of you who enjoyed my brief excerpts from volumes 1 through 3 of Mystical Force, I now present myself, doing the exact same thing with volume 4, Many are 1, 1 is 0. And for those of you who didn’t enjoy them… well then why are you here right now? But I digress, presenting a sneak peek at Mystical Force volume 4:

Location: Headquarters of the Order of the Cross, Vatican City, Holy Roman Empire

Panic filled Sister Rose’s heart. Just a short while ago, she had been mysteriously turned into a demon. Her fellow exorcists had been hunting her down, trying to kill her. She managed to flee to Tokijin’s house, where the two tried to contact Mystic. Instead of Mystic responding to their thoughts, they got what seemed to be an automated voicemail speaking directly into their minds. Before they could fully understand what was going on, Sister Rose suddenly found herself back at the Order of the Cross. She had no idea how or why. In fact, she couldn’t make any sense of what was going on. She had no idea 0 was responsible for all of this. All she knew was that she was back in Mother Superior’s office. Right back into the fire.

“SISTER ROSE!” a familiar voice hollered. Rose jumped at the sound. She recognized Mother Superior’s angry bellow. She nervously turned to face her, wondering how she would explain what happened. What Rose saw upon turning around was something she hadn’t anticipated. Instead of finding herself a devil surrounded by nuns and exorcists, she found that all of them were now the same. “You’re late again!” Mother Superior shouted. Rose didn’t respond; she was too stunned for words. While Mother Superior was still wearing her nun’s outfit, her skin was now as red as the devil’s. Her headpiece was gone, exposing her hair. But instead of hair, Mother’s Superior’s scalp was on fire. Yet she acted as if this were perfectly normal, as though the flames themselves were her hair.

Sister Rose looked at her fellow nuns and exorcists—Sisters Simpson, Valentine, and Rodriguez, as well as Brother Michael. Sister Simpson’s skin was also as red as the devil himself. She had two red horns protruding from her forehead, a long red tail with a pointed tip sticking out of her lower back, and her brown leather boots were gone, exposing her bare feet, which now looked more like goat hooves. Turning to Sister Valentine, her skin was now light brown and scaly like a lizard. Even her face bore subtle reptilian features, right down to having a narrow snake-like tongue. The whites of her eyes were now solid black, her eye colour was a bright purple, and her eyebrows appeared to be a small band of matching purple flames. Turning to Sister Rodriguez, her skin was now solid white and looked as if it were made of stone. Her once black hair was now bright blue and looked like crystals growing out of her rocky skin. Rose looked at Brother Michael. Physically, he still looked human with his short black hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. He still wore his uniform typical of the male members of the Order—a black shirt with a white collar, not unlike a priest underneath a blue jacket with matching blue trousers and polished black boots. Around his neck were two necklaces—one was a small silver cross, the other composed of brown rosary beads. The only difference was he appeared to be wearing a grey wizard hat on his head. Rose looked down at his hands; they were glowing green while a stack of papers, no doubt some official report encased in a similar glowing green energy field, hovered in front of him while he was reading them. It was as though he were using some magic spell to hold them in place. He looked up from his papers to see Sister Rose staring at him with shock. “Is something wrong, Sister Rose?” he asked.

Rose just stood there, staring at him. She didn’t sense any spiritual powers coming from him. Instead, Brother Michael radiated magical essence. “You’re a warlock!” she gasped.

Brother Michael scowled at her, “Well, duh!”

She then turned back to Mother Superior and the three nuns. Just as with Brother Michael, she didn’t sense any spiritual powers coming from them either. They all radiated demonic auras. “You’re … demons! You … you’re all … devils!” Rose gasped.

They just stared at her as if she were stating the blatantly obvious. “Of course, we’re devils,” Sister Simpson snorted. “What did you expect us to be? Humans?”

Rose was dumbstruck. Just a short while ago, she had mysteriously turned into a demon and was being hunted by her fellow Order members, but now they were demons and mages. Yet, none of them acted like this was anything unusual. Rose’s startling revelation was met with the same scorn and confusion as though she had just stated that the sun rises in the east. “What exactly is our mission here?” Sister Rose asked cautiously.

“The same it’s always been,” Mother Superior responded with annoyance. “To hunt down and destroy humans for tempting us to sin and leading us down the path to ruin!”

Now, Rose was even more confused. Not only had she, along with the other members of the Order, been turned into devils, now humans were the ones that had to be purified. “Are all the people of the world devils? All demons or mages? Do we still serve God? Is Satan still our enemy?”

“Have you gone completely mad, Sister Rose?” Sister Valentine asked.

Mother Superior stood up; she clearly had enough of this nonsense, “I don’t know what kind of silly games you’re playing, Sister Rose, but we don’t have time for this foolishness! We’ve gotten reports of human activity near Teikoku City.” She turned to Brother Michael, “Continue your report.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Brother Michael waved his hand. Rose could feel him using his magic powers to activate the monitor on the wall directly behind Mother Superior’s desk. “Thanks to my human locator spell, we’ve detected some humans in a residential area just outside of Teikoku City.” Using his newfound magic powers, Brother Michael activated the monitor. On the screen came the image of Aanjay, Jimomaru, Zolida, and 0 at their rural hideout. Rose recognized Aanjay, Jimomaru, and Zolida right away. Aanjay and Zolida’s outward appearance didn’t look any different, but Jimomaru now looked human. All his demonic features—his wings, claws, and facial markings—were all gone. His feet, once bird-like talons, were now ordinary human feet, encased in ordinary human shoes. She looked at the fourth person. She didn’t recognize him. He was Caucasian with blue eyes and short brown hair parted to the left and was wearing charcoal grey trousers and a suit jacket over a light grey dress shirt. Aanjay, Jimomaru, and Zolida all appeared to be yelling at this man.

“YOU’VE TURNED US INTO HUMANS!!!” Aanjay, Jimomaru, and Zolida all shouted at 0.

“Boy, there’s just no pleasing any of you, is there?” 0 lamented. First, he turned Tokijin from a demon into a human; then he turned Sister Rose into a demon, and now he did the same for all the people of Earth. All humans across the planet were now either a demon or a mage. While everyone with a mystical force—magical essence, spiritual powers, or demonic aura—was now an ordinary human. Though neither Aanjay nor Zolida’s outward appearance changed, both could feel it deep inside. The magical essence that once burned brightly in their very core was now gone, as though 0 reached inside their very souls and snuffed it out. Zolida tried desperately to cast a spell, any spell, just to prove that she still had some lingering trace of magic within her. Instead, nothing happened. That was when a horrible realization washed over her; 0 had been playing her all along. She thought for sure that she could control 0 with the magic scroll. Now she realized that 0 had been playing her for a fool. He had been lying to her, manipulating her all along. While her overinflated ego couldn’t bring itself to accept this fact, she couldn’t deny the fact that her magic was now gone, and she was completely powerless. She gazed at 0 with a look of pure dread. 0 simply grinned smugly back at her. “Did you really think a puny little insect like you could control a being like me?”

Soon, another dreadful thought entered Zolida’s head; 0 must have been lying when he insisted he was “imprisoned” in the other dimension, just like he was lying when he said he couldn’t initially do what they asked because his time there weakened him. So, what else has he been lying about? The more Zolida thought about it, the more she realized that she actually knew very little about 0. She knew that his species were called “the 1” and lived in another dimension. She knew they existed beyond a physical form; they were more like pure consciousness, limitless in their abilities. Could it be that 0 had been manipulating her from the very beginning? If he were truly god-like, then there was theoretically nothing he couldn’t do. Perhaps it was even possible that the scroll she had stolen, the spell on it, the belief that she could use it to send him back if he caused too much trouble, was all a game 0 was playing. Did he create the scroll himself? Could he have planted all that information into her mind? Was all of this just some game for 0’s amusement? Was she, like everyone else, just a pawn in whatever game he was playing?

“You wanted to show humans how demons and mages were superior; now they can find out for themselves,” 0 explained. “In fact, the Order of the Cross is doing so right now.” With the snap of his fingers, 0 used his powers to switch the image in Zolida’s portal to show Mother Superior’s office. Aanjay, Jimomaru, and Zolida saw Mother Superior, Brother Michael, and the nuns from earlier. Just as they had been turned into humans, the Order members were now all mages and demons. The Order members stood there staring directly at them, as though the portal was a two-way mirror, which, thanks to 0, it now was.

Back in Mother Superior’s office, the image from the other side of the portal was displayed on the monitor located directly behind her desk. They watched in surprise as the “humans” stood there, staring directly at them.

“Brother Michael, did your spell turn my monitor into a two-way mirror?” Mother Superior asked.

“No, Mother Superior,” Brother Michael protested. “They shouldn’t even know we’re watching them.”

On the other side of the portal, Zolida turned to 0, “Wait a minute, they can see us?”

“Indeed they can.” 0 grinned before turning to address the members of the Order, “Hello bozos!” he beamed as he waved.

Mother Superior and the others stared in confusion at the monitor.

“Are you sure you got the spell right, Brother Michael?” Sister Simpson asked.

“I’ve been practising magic for years,” Brother Michael huffed indignantly. Thanks to 0’s power, Brother Michael now believed that he had been a warlock his entire life. As far as he knew, he always had magic powers. “I know my spells!”

“Then how come they can see us too?” Sister Simpson demanded.

“And hear you too, Sister Simpleton,” 0 laughed.

Mother Superior’s jaw dropped, “How is this possible?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” 0 explained. Suddenly, a flash of bright light filled both the screen and the office. When it faded, the image on the monitor was just an empty room, while 0, Aanjay, Jimomaru, and Zolida were now in Mother Superior’s office.

“You … what … how did … you … ” Mother Superior stammered. She was too shocked to think what to say.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is 0; I’m an omnipotent being from another dimension. I have complete mastery over space, time, matter, and energy. In other words, I’m God.”

“You’re not God!” Sister Rose barked.

“Blasphemy,” 0 replied, faking being insulted. “You’re lucky I don’t smite you right now. Is it the suit? Would you expect a god to appear more ‘divine?’” 0 turned back into his form of pink goo before reshaping himself into the typical Christian image of God. He now wore long white robes with leather sandals over bare feet and had long white hair with a matching beard. “Is this more to your liking? Or maybe … ” 0 then morphed again, going back to his previous look of short brown hair, but this time, his outfit resembled that of the Pope. “Presenting his royal pope-ness, Pope 0 the first.”

Mother Superior and the others gasped in horror.

“Too confusing? Perhaps something more … uniform,” he looked over at Brother Michael, “I do like your tailor.” Once again, 0 morphed his appearance. Now, his outfit matched Brother Michael and all the male members of the Order of the Cross. “Ta-da!” he gestured toward Brother Michael. “Made in God’s own image, right?”

Watching 0’s antics, Rose put two and two together and figured that he must be responsible for Tokijin turning into a human, then her and everyone else being turned into devils. “Are you the one who turned us all into demons?”

“Yes, but I had a very good reason for doing so.”

“And that is … ?”

“I was bored.”

Rose felt immense fury building up inside her. “You turned me into a monster, had my fellow exorcists try and kill me, then turned them into devils while turning demons into humans because YOU WERE BORED?”

“And you’ve put on quite the entertaining show!” 0 laughed.

I hope you enjoyed this brief preview of Mystical Force volume 4. Coming soon. Don’t forget to like, share and more importantly by a copy of the book. Please buy a copy, maybe several. I need the money!