Arthur's faked death.

DARK MANTRA

Arthur’s fake death.

Arthur’s faked death had worked well. He was 74 years old and knew the police wouldn’t bother to investigate too much. He had no close friends or family, and as far as anyone could tell he seemed to have lived the life of a recluse for many years.

All the contact he had made with Wilf was mainly via secret meetings, or untraceable telephone conversations. He had seen to it that any information, in general, that may have connected him with Wilf had been destroyed.

The police investigation was rather matter of fact, and a verdict of accidental death was upheld at the inquest. Arthur had successfully made the whole thing appear as an accident, as though an urn full of earth and flowers, had dropped on his head, killing him instantly. It was made to appear, that Arthur’s cat Sheba, had knocked the urn off of its high shelf and straight on top of his head, killing him outright, and instantly.

Anybody not looking too deeply would see Arthur’s outer appearance as reasonably normal and boring. It was a very clever disguise, because to those that knew him well, he could be described as a truly evil man, and a very powerful evil man at that. This was largely due to the fact that he had been stealing and inhabiting different male bodies for over 200 years. He had learned this practise from the book - ‘Dark Mantra’.

His initial incarnation in early 18th Century England was where it had all begun. He had been the son of a minor noble. And like a lot of wealthy young men at that time, with so much time on his hands, he had become interested in the occult.

As the ambitious soul that he was, he had succeeded in rising to the higher ranks of most of the occult groups that he belonged to at that time. As a result of this, over time, he became a leader and spokesman for the occult community in most of the more civilized parts of Europe.

With his rising to the top, he had achieved a certain amount of negative notoriety within the occult community. And because of a lack of understanding by many of the ordinary suspicious folk of the day, he had been lucky to escape with his life on several occasions. This had taught him a valuable lesson, and in his many future incarnations he saw to it that he kept a very low profile, especially when it came to who knew what about his personal life.

It was on a trip to Morocco in 1766, at the age of 23 that he had first heard about the ‘Dark Mantra.’
Rumors of this book had intrigued him for many years, and the more he heard, the more he desired it. It was a book, that according to rumour, described how to achieve immortality through the nefarious art of stealing another person’s body while they still owned it. It was written in an ancient runic formula, that very few could understand. Arthur was determined to be one that could.

And so it was, at this point in time, that becoming the owner of this book became his obsession. Although it took him several more years, much expense and hardship to finally achieve his aim, once he had achieved it, he made it pay well.

He found to his delight that the book did indeed explain in detail, how to seduce, and take over, a live persons body permanently. It precisely taught how to push their spirit, and personality out, and put your own in. Not the most honorable way to achieve immortality, but honor was not one of Arthur’s strong points, so it didn’t concern him.

In this most recent life he had been a pretty ruthless businessman and it had served him well to be a sleeping partner in some pretty big operations. Keeping a low profile meant he worked in the background, behind the scenes. He was also a high adept of black magic, and the combination of, low profile outer work, and high-energy inner work, was lethal, in many ways, to any unsuspecting soul that came within his presence.

In this present time, with all of the practicalities dealt with, including getting a new body from Wilf, he could once more get on with the task at hand. Nobody, even those within the tight knit community of the occult world, actually knew what this task was. There were some who believed Arthur didn’t know either. Some felt that it was a power trip of some kind, and that was all.
The general opinion of those who knew him was that there was no limit of power manipulation and control in his hands. He was only five feet six tall, but when he was kitted out in the robes of the Black Magus, he seemed a hell of a lot bigger, and commanded a great deal of respect.

So the faked death became his secret from everyone,
and when the verdict of accidental death was concluded, everybody that knew him bade they’re farewells and moved on. Some scratched they’re heads, wondering how this could have happened to such a man. But even they, after a time, decided that it was just meant to be, and moved on.

Because of the close relationship he’d procured with Wilf, he new enough about him to fit nicely into his life. Wilf had been a loner too, so like Arthur he had no close friends. The only tricky part would be his relationship with Gwen, Wilf’s long-suffering partner, but he was pretty sure he could handle that.

The first thing on his agenda was to get back into the European occult orders in the guise of Wilf, and rise to the top as quickly as time would allow. Wilf, as Wilf himself, was well known and popular to most of the important members of several of the outer orders, Arthur had seen to that before his swift exit.

It didn't prove too difficult to get involved, and for him, as Wilf, to confide in the people that mattered.This assured him of a fast rise to the top. He had to convince them he was the one they needed to do the work at hand. This was easy to do because of his close ties with Arthur, while Arthur was still around. He was very good at reading people and telling them just what they wanted to hear.
Arthur, now in Wilf’s young body felt stronger and more confident that ever, he was unstoppable.

Within an amazingly short period of Nine months Wilf had proved his worth, and had convinced all those that needed convincing, that he had inherited all of Arthur’s knowledge. Some swore that Wilf was channeling Arthur from the other side, but in actual fact, Arthur was talking to them live through the medium of Wilf’s body.

The ritual initiation ceremony took place on the eve of Arthur’s death anniversary and Wilf was made overall leader of twenty-five occult groups across Europe. He was the youngest person ever to achieve such a feat in such a fast time. In linear time Wilf was 32 years old, but in every other sense of the word he was very old.
He was at least 200 years old, and with the added benefit of possessing the secret knowledge of the, Dark Mantra, he was, in his own mind at least, unstoppable and immortal.