Within shadows of dead dreams
A bridge in ruin, a granite sky
The blood of the mountain
Comes alive

In these caverns, hypnotizing iron heartbeat
Feldspar whispers, amethyst eyes
Firestone halls, veins of salt
Cinder plumes of blackest pitch
And the fallen shades engorged
In katharsis with black Lycurgan broth
Beside the bellows of the Demogorgon

Of the Archaean lamp, lit by the embers of Malice
He sees through your marrow
The substance of your soul
Your fears, every hesitant thought
Your nerve, every ounce of resolve
Your heart!

On titan scales
Weighed against the skeletons of angels
How will you fare?

From glorious hallways of bronze
To the deepest gorge of odious unlight
Beckons... the voice of the Demogorgon
Marshal of Dread

Hero!

In the hindmost act of life
You chewed the gory earth
Set free your final breath
Vanquished by the seventh head of Hydra

To fall below, past the cenotaph
Past the realm of Enceladus
Past the monotonous black Stygian morass

Typhon's spawn of Lernaean venom
You dispatched me to a desolate world beneath
Which world I do not know
Imperious walls of caliginous zircon
Despotic vaults of gore
And the murmurs of a beast from the deep
So the deep... is where I must sojourn

Echoes, ghosts of sorrow, fleeting spectres of despair
Light my path to black Oblivion

Through vast stoneless graves
Through fruitless orange groves
Through bloodshot marble pillars
Come visions of life's catechism

With bountiful chalice now drained, how did you fare?
In grace, in passion, in honour

Beyond the corridors of time
At the shrines of chimeric wonder
The intractable custodian of Nihil
Shall judge your depleted cryptic heart
To be cast into the gaping maw of naught
Or through the purifying furnace of rebirth...

~ ~ ~

The trial commences, the soma cascades
A warrior in life, do battle in death
With venom of the seventh head of Hydra
Still coursing through the shadow of your veins
Take shield, and spear

The Arena Eternal, amphitheatre fit to enthrall a God
A magnificent ornate Colosseum
With circumference to accommodate the moon
An audience of Gods and shades assembles
With one Godess who intends to be enthralled
For she made the seventh head of Hydra strike true
And this, no ordinary hero

The monstrous portcullis is raised for Talos
Construct of radiant bronze and life-giving Ichor
Learned hero savvy to Hephastean design
Sends the bleeding giant plunging into the virgin ground

Chimera!

Unyielding fire from three dreadful heads
A circling storm of searing flame sets the Arena ablaze
Keen-eyed hero spies the smelting corpse of Talos
The monster drowns in a fiery pool of molten bronze
The Arena floods, there is no respite
Loathsome Cetus looms above the boiling cobalt sea
There is no trick, no Gorgon stratagem
The warlike hero slays the great Leviathan
Through Arete alone

Vast portal, obsidian storms
Gateways of unspeakable horror

TYPHON

The ground is rent, the soaring vaults are ruptured
To the hulking stride and cadence of the son of Tartaros
A hundred heads, a thousand raging storms
Gargantuan piercing eyes, and voices black with terror
Wreak havoc, wreak utter havoc
On the flesh and the courage of the hero

In crushing defeat he bites the earth
One final taste before the void

Halt! The voice of Hera...
Typhon, recede to the abyss
This man, shall be reborn
For he strives for life like a God!

The sagacious Demogorgon concedes
And casts the heart into the furnace of rebirth...

Destined to fail, no matter how blessed
At the hands of abominable Typhon
The wreckage of your flesh, still majestic in death
Was judged by divine tribunal
For defeat itself was the ultimate test
The test of your volition to try

On the crucible of Chaos
Pouring infinite mists of Erebos
Through the cauterizing flames of Aether
I pronounce you, reborn...

~ ~ ~

I breathe...
O sweet Zephyrous wind
How unthinkable your absence
O sweet rain and thunder
How readily you purify

Angelic petrychor, the dance of moonfire
Aegean voyage, caress of Aphrodite
And the greatest gift of all
Hecatomb feasts and the roaring fields of war

Worlds within worlds, spheres within spheres
Eternal recurrence, the gift of Chthon
Gladly surrender yourself to Clotho
Let her spin your thread into whatever web she wills

Wind blown from heaven, endure uncomplaining
For everything is governed
By frankincense and vitriol...