Dagger’s breadth, venom drenched,
Pierces through supplicant flesh.
Righteous dog held in scorn.
Poisoned blood
Spirit torn.

Born into opposition
Child of war
Merciless retribution
For all that has come before

Adversary; Prince of earth and air
Emissary, beyond the veil
Morningstar, in all your faces
Adversary; Prince of earth and air

As flame veiled in flesh
As struggle itself incarnate
As pain given shape
The great beast unbound from the chains of culture

Adversary
Prince of earth and air

As flame veiled in flesh
As struggle itself incarnate
Adversary.

The stone guardians crumble
And the sanctum is laid bare.
Demon winds rise in fury
Blowing monoliths to sand.
Aura stripped away
The structure is revealed;
Architecture of man’s design
Unhallowed, desanctified.

The myth and the mystery
Live in flesh.
The myth and the mystery
Transcend death.

I am the gateway
I am the key
As ancient as stone
As clear as morning light

Into the treasuries of Heaven
And the armories of hell
Into the confidences of elders
And the intrigues of the adept.

When the guardians made of stone
Are brought to kneel
and the sentinels of paradise
Meet steel.

More ancient than stone
As clear as dawn’s first light.
I am the gateway, I am the key
Beyond the myth.
Through the heart of the mystery

On the crest of raven’s wing,
Frozen in lightning strike.
Man, undone, plummets from
The heights of the cliffs of slate.
In the mania of harrowed flight
The frenzy of escape
The intoxication of vain denial
The terror of iron fate.

On raven’s wing, tumbling
Frozen in vile illumination.

Grasp at the fabric of history.
Cling to the wheel of time.
Kneel before the inevitable.
Fall from the cliffs of slate.

On the crest of raven’s wing,
Frozen in lightning strike.
Torn between delight and lamentation,
Beneath the burden of will.

As it was
As it is and shall be.

As it was
Forever locked in combat.
Vision, at odds with faith,
Man alone in the throng of the blind.

As it was
Restless, longing
Endlessly searching, Seething, spitting,
Kicking at the mire.

As it is and shall be forever
Legend

Legend, amidst the bastards;
Above the rot.
Legend, bathed in glory;
In death, as is our lot.

Forever locked in combat
Vision at odds with faith
Legend, bathed in glory
Legend in death; as is our lot.

Invocation, seven rites.
The pillars of this cursed firmament
Are brought to life.
Each before me revealed in flesh
Offer elixir to abate my death

In return for tribute,
A duty pledged;
A mortal offering to divine ends.

“Will you free me from my past?
And release me from my shame?
Unshackle me from my burden
This prison I have made
This labor of choice, this weight unnamed?”

The light of grace veils the chains of servitude.

Invocation, seven rites
Bring me darkness; forsake the light.
Beyond redemption: (as I have always been) for it is not yours to bestow
Above reprisal: (the right I have claimed) for I am the master of all that is known.

All that I have been
and all that I’ve strived to be.
Beyond redemption, Above reprisal.
The right that I have claimed
Will you hold this vision?
Will you tend to the embers?
Know that this death
Is not defeat.