Free Commitment - Predatory Ethics: Book II by Athanasios

was outraged and impressed at the same time. Melchom reminded his partners of the civil war that raged in Hell centuries before. It had coincided with the Black Death of the Middle Ages on earth. A time as the one they were in, when much of humanity believed their lives and souls would be collected.
    The struggle for power had been between Melusine’s father, Asmodeus who wanted Lucifer’s throne, and the Fallen Cherubim himself. It did not rage long in Hell, but burned brighter than the sun, the forces unleashed bubbling up and causing a great deal of misery on earth. The repercussions were felt much longer with the Little Ice Age lasting for centuries and more horrible with the Black Death decimating more than a third of the known world. When it was over Lucifer’s Nephilim disposed of any and all the rebellious devils and exiled all friends or kin of the rebels suspected of complicity. The exiled came to earth and joined others who were part of the ruling class, lords and ladies who went on to comprise the Dark Nobility and the first Thirteen Families. It was common rumor and accepted gossip that Melusine Rothschild was one of the refugees who had come and prospered on earth.
    “Exactly. She played the dutiful contributor to the Master Plan since before anybody can remember. Most of the Great Families would not exist without her. The Lightbringers may never have happened without her.” Xar-eel was slowly thinking that his hope for advancement in station could either rise or fall with this information. He could also be crushed if these two nobles of Hell and Earth collided. Would he have to take sides and if he did, which one should he support?
    The plan the three adventurous fiends finally concocted was to bribe the Redeemer with blood and souls now seemed trivial. Lucifer’s son might even become an afterthought to Him if the Constant Widow was indeed planning to war upon Hell.
    Time: February 10 th , 1974, Whittier Mansion, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
    Balzeer McGrath’s opulent surroundings were too ostentatious for Bernhardt’s liking. Despite his high station, Bernhardt was a career soldier. Even in his boyhood he lived hard, adventuring in the countryside and constantly on the go. His heroes were Alexander the Great and Qin Shi Huangdi. To his mind booth men were ruthless without being overly cruel. Bernhardt believed that when judged against others in their league, such as Napoleon or Hitler, they were justified.
    All were astounding conquerors, and the independent Hapsburg admired something about each of them. The thing they all shared was success, with only Alexander and Huangdi unsullied till their deaths. Both Napoleon and Hitler were brought down by arrogance and, in no small measure, cruelty. Both Hitler and Napoleon had overreached and were nationalistic to the point of cruelty. Alexander and Huangdi did not revile any culture or people. They tolerated their own people and did the same for most others.
    The distraction of hatred for Jews and Bolsheviks did Hitler in. The hatred of everyone who wasn’t French did the same for the Bonaparte. Both were called little corporal and both were men of small stature who had much to prove to the world. They crashed against the unyielding face of Russia and the vastness of its wastelands and brutal winter. These soldiers had risen from low ranks to rule the cattle. Bernhardt had wanted to rise up in the same way among the predators and achieve as much as his heroes had.
    His distaste for Balzeer’s tarnished, gilded finery was in his every move, but he kept his mind on the Great Plan. Not many ever knew the complete details and Bernhardt was one of the few trusted with the whole of it. He was one of the Watchers who looked at all the cattle and the preoccupied predators and manipulated them through history. Not even his heroes had known they were part of a Great Plan, the Builder’s Great Plan. The Builders were the Templar Grand Masters shown the Plan