Raving Metropolis 2

The Demon was hungry. Fed for centuries with souls and blood of throngs of foreign populations, slaves and servants brought from overseas, it never was sated. Nestled in the depths of the Metropolis, vital system of the Metropolis itself, its hunger was the city’s hunger. The Pale Lords, concealed in to shady offices or in to sunny dwellings on the hills, perceived the Demon’s craving and they were afraid of it. It had been grown too much during the centuries past since the founding of the Metropolis, and it still grew. Some of the Pale Lords dreaded it would drain every vital fluid of the nation, others simply laughed of their fears, already completely subdued to the Demon’s desires.

The Metropolis, with its millions of unaware to be servants, lived those days without thinking that its destiny laid underneath of it, in the guise of a unhinged creature, ready to doom the city and lose it in madness and rage. But the Pale Lords could clearly see increasing tensions, the points where the social fabric was wearing out due the Demon’s  insatiable hunger. The commerce got on, new works of art and technique were made every day, youth from other nations crossed the sea to study in its schools. But new nations and old foe powers looked up in the mist of far off lands, the merchants came back full-loaded of tasteless fruits and foods which didn’t feed, the works of the artists repeated themselves alike and were forgotten soon.

But it had to get on feeding the Demon. It was unavoidable. Feeding the Demon meant to make the Metropolis live, starving the Demon to make him powerless meant to kill the Metropolis. New life was given to the city through the entropy, otherwise the city would have languished until burn out. The banners were called, the men were drafted: the Pale Lords were planning a new war. But the nation was in decadence, little remains of the ancient empire, the grip on the colonies was still lethal and yet unsure. The inventiveness and the genius lacked among the local population, while more and more foreigner climbed up the social scale undermining the Pale Lords’ power.

The struggle began. The population were induced to sacrifice their lives to the Demon: spirit, flesh and blood. The Demon had to be fed, because its strength was the nation’s strength, it was the Pale Lords’ strength. It was a perfidious and not proclaimed conflict, to weaken the neighbour states, to re-establish the posses on the overseas riches and get of new ones. The internal weaknesses were laid on the poorest foreign classes, on who were considered expendable. The wealth was directed to sustain the war effort and the overseas armies, to strengthen the mechanism of power. As worse the population conditions became as stronger the Demon grew. As bigger the Demon’s strength became as bigger its hunger grew. New riches flowed irregularly for a provisional flourishing of the nation, but the beneficiaries were less and less at each time as the Demon’s share became bigger. The real struggle was to sustain the Demon.

Above the Demon’s dwelling, people walked unaware. They lived their lives in a more and more repetitively manner, they loved every day less and less, listening to the invitations to greed and hatred. People lost something of themselves every day, but didn’t pay attention to it. The memory of the past and traditions became blurred. Curiosity and interest in what was not everyday life became drowsy. Many lost the ability to experience them at all. Hedonistic pleasures were raised to dogmas to fill the void of their lives up. Many were not alive any more, but they didn’t cognize it. Hatred and dissatisfaction brewed into hearts which didn’t pulsate; delight for life has been sacrificed to the necessity of sustaining the war effort. When the rage burst among the most miserable, it was suppressed with method much worse than blood-shed: the spirit was ripped out from the flesh and killed, then indifference to everything and everybody was drafted in its place. The Metropolis grew crowded of strangers, of cold people unconcerned of each other. Everything has been taken away from the masses: dignity, love of life, capability to appreciate the beautiful things and to believe in something superior. In exchange they got the belief to be the chosen people. The sacrifice to the Nation, the sacrifice to the Demon, had become their unutter religion.

After had killed the Spirits of Earth, the Pale Lords got ready to kill Earth itself to rip its riches off and feed them to the Demon. And the Demon, laying into the darkness of the Metropolis’ underground, laughed, emitting demented gurgles.