Chapter 26:

They spent five years traveling throughout the country, spreading the message of the God. 

Physically, Mihangel had grown rapidly.  Although only seven years-old, he had grown taller than Dylan and appeared to be a man of twenty.

Through healing and other miracles, Mihangel demonstrated he was the God.  Always, he spoke his message, "Sacrifice your male parts to me, and I'll establish my kingdom here on Earth."

More and more, people accepted his message, accepting Mihangel as the God.  Men sacrificed their cocks and balls and the cocks and balls of their sons to the God. 

Dylan didn't recruit another army as he had before, but their converts traveled throughout Gwynedd and elsewhere spreading the message of the God, even beyond the borders of Gwynedd.

When they left a town, they left behind no one with a cock or balls.  None could resist the God's persuasion.  All wanted to be part of his kingdom. 

"Those," he said, "without cock and balls, will inherit the Earth." 

All were marked with his seal, the scar where their cock and balls had been.  All were cut off with a hot knife.  Only by such a sacrifice could one show his dedication to the God. 

Mihangel healed them all afterward.  None died from his sacrifice.

In the five years of their pilgrimage, aided by their converts, over one hundred thousand cocks and sets of balls were dedicated to the God.  They had achieved the one hundred forty-four thousand.

Dylan was still Dylan, though, a cut boy without cock or balls.

One day, a boy asked to join them.  Although the boy had changed, Dylan recognized him.  It was Glendower. 

Pedr and the others didn't recognize him, so much had he changed.  Although the same age as Dylan, he looked ten years older.  He'd grown fat and his face was lined. 

Dylan started to tell them to take him, but Mihangel, placing his hand over Dylan's, shook his head.  Dylan closed his mouth.  Without being told, he knew that Mihangel didn't want him to expose Glendower.

When they left the town, there were twelve of them, all disciples of the God, Mihangel.

In the spring, they came to Langaris.

* * *

Heddwynn once again had an army of ten thousand golems, but it had taken Cadell five years to create it.  It had taken less than two to create the previous army of ten thousand. 

The problem was the God cult that had spread throughout the land.  Those joining it, castrated themselves and their children, leaving no boys with man hair from which golems could be created.  Heddwynn had to range farther each year to find suitable candidates.

Every male, even infants, in towns given over to the God cult, had been castrated.  It seemed that there was no longer a cock or balls anywhere in the country to the east of Langaris.  Only to the West, where the God cult had just begun to spread, could Heddwynn find boys for the wizard to cut.

He had spies out everywhere searching for this person claiming to be the God.  If he didn't stop him, there wouldn't be a cock or balls left in the whole country, so was this new religion spreading.

Neither did Heddwynn any longer have cock or balls.  Cadell had neglected to tell him that for him to gain immortality, he would have to give up his cock and balls. 

He'd killed his own sons, thinking that, living forever, he could have limitless sons, but after he'd sacrificed his sons to Nysrogh, Cadell had told him he also had to sacrifice his cock and balls.

By then, it was too late for Heddwynn to change his mind.  Nysrogh already owned his soul.  What were his cock and balls compared to that.  Better Nysrogh feast on his cock and balls, rather than his soul.

The wizard was already cockless.  He'd given his genitals to Nysrogh over a hundred years before, granted extended life as a result of that sacrifice and the yearly sacrifice of nobly born boys. 

Heddwynn and Merfyn would also live for as long as there were nobly born boys to sacrifice, one for each of them each year.  Should a year go by without a sacrifice, though, Nysrogh would take them, instead.

That should have been no problem.  Heddwynn had had over four hundred boys of noble birth locked up in the dungeon of the castle, but they had been freed. 

If they still lived, they were on the Isle of Anglesey, out of reach for now.  Heddwynn had lost over thirteen thousand golems in his attempts to cross the straits over to the island.

Although he again had ten thousand golems -- with the God cut rampant throughout the countryside -- he couldn't make another attempt on Anglesey, even though Cadell told him that most of their army had been destroyed, too.

But losing the four hundred boys had been devastating.  Except for those nobles loyal to Merfyn, that had been every nobly born boy with man hair in the kingdom. 

That year, for their three sacrifices to Nysrogh, Cadell had had to use the sons of loyal nobles.  That -- of course -- hadn't set well with them.

What choice had the nobles, though?  They, too, had gone against their king and against the God.  And Heddwynn -- since he, too, had been forced to sacrifice his sons -- had had little sympathy for them. 

As he had known -- had he not sacrificed his sons, they would have been anyway, and he would be killed as well -- the nobles had known their sons would be sacrificed, and they, themselves, would have been killed had they dissented.

As had Heddwynn, the nobles had given up their sons to save their own lives.

Even counting the loyal nobles sons, there were fewer than forty nobly born boys in the kingdom with man hair. 

Fortunately, the younger boys, those without man hair, had been kept separately from those kept in the dungeon, and they hadn't been taken.  Some had since grown their man hair.

Many of those were now being bred to noble women to produce more males for future sacrifice, but there were also limited noble women available for breeding. 

Most, both women and girls, had been raped by Heddwynn's soldiers when the king had been overthrown; and once raped by a commoner, a noble woman couldn't bear a noble's child.  No more than fifty noble males had been born in the last five years.

Each year, the situation improved, and in another generation, the shortage would be past.  Now, though, given the limited supply of noble males, they were a precious commodity. 

If they lost them, the three of them, Merfyn, Cadell, and Heddwynn, would die within the year.  Nysrogh would take their souls.  They had given Nysrogh their cocks and balls.  Heddwynn didn't want to also give him his life.

* * *

Mihangel led Dylan and his other disciples through the Eastern gate of Langaris into the city.  Although the gate was heavily guarded, no one challenged them. 

The guards, both human and golem, checked everyone but them.  Mihangel's magic erased them from the guard's minds.  The guards saw them -- even stepped out of their way to let them past -- but didn't remember seeing them afterward.

The city had changed.  Golems were everywhere.  They saw few slaves and fewer still uncut males, those, all older men, too old to make worthwhile golems. 

Occasionally, they'd see a boy, accompanied by his mother, uncut, but too young to have man hair.  Apparently, all those with man hair had become golems.

The market was practically deserted.  More than half of the shops were closed, and from all appearances, had been closed for years.  There were no market boys.  Any such, had long ago been cut and had golems made from them.

At last, they came to a fortified building.  A high wall surrounded it.  "The noble boys are kept here," Mihangel said.

This time, no one came or went.  The gate was closed.  It opened for Mihangel, however.  Again, if the guards saw them enter, they wouldn't recall having seen them afterward.

The walls of the compound sufficient to keep them in, the boys weren't locked into cells as the ones in the dungeon had been. 

Mihangel and the others went around collecting the boys, taking them to a room large enough to hold them all.  The God's children, the boys realized that Mihangel was an incarnation of the God.  They followed him willingly, carrying those too young to walk.

Dylan and the others then cut each of the boys, laying him first on a bench, then slicing off his cock and balls.  Mihangel healed each after he was cut, but each experienced the pain of being cut.  That was an essential part of his sacrifice to the God. 

Each was left with a scar, a great seal of his commitment to the God.   With their sacrifice, the God became even stronger.  Mihangel used that power to kill all the uncut nobles left in the land, including all the women, except for Megan.  They were his children.  He used that connection to kill them.

He wasn't able to kill Merfyn, however.  Merfyn, already having sacrificed his cock and balls to Nysrogh, belonged to him.  Mihangel no longer had any connection to Merfyn.

With the cutting of the boys and the killing of all other uncut nobles, Mihangel knew he had won. 

There was still something else he had to do to defeat Nysrogh once and for all, but he had removed his and Cadell's source of power over him, his children, the nobles. 

Not one uncut noble remained alive, and without cocks and balls, none of them would be suitable sacrifices.  Nysrogh would gain no power over the God through them.

After leaving the compound, Mihangel and his disciples then cut every last male in Langaris.  He healed each of them afterward, but left them with a scar, the great seal of their sacrifice.