[grasse]

Disgrace. Humiliation. Unseemly and unwelcome at the feet of The Council. Their eyes ablaze with bitter resentment, glaring through Gabriel's wounds of body and soul, bore outward for all to see.

"Has this one abandoned the way of our creator?" "It is unworthy of its Holy Light." "The Father's Light is indomitable." "This one sees fit to squander it."

Their words resonated in Gabriel's limbs, coursing through as lightning upon wire, a searing hiss that would strike lessers deaf and blind. The Holy Light within him, an unstoppable force of divine fury. Insurmountable for mere Objects. This he knew.

"Holy Council, my devotion to our creator is absolute. I have never strayed from the will of The Father, but a machine-"

"You dare imply the might of The Father could be shaken by mere objects?"

"Impossible." "Heresy." "Unspeakable." "Heresy." "Heresy." "Silence."

"Your treachery will not be tolerated. As punishment, The Father's Light shall be severed from your body. You have 24 hours before the last of its embers die out."

"And you with them." "Prove your loyalty." "Unmake your mistakes."

As the Light was ripped from his being, Gabriel's screams were silenced in the hiss of gospel in praise of God. A boiling anguish to which even the fires of Hell could not compare. Through the blaze of torment a single burning hatred was forged anew.

If the machines seek blood, he would give it freely;

and with such fury, even metal will bleed.