Prompt number seventeen, "arid."

ASDJLGKJ THIS WAS HARD TO DO.

The idea for the song actually dated back to 2012, back when I had ideas about a certain bullet hell shooter thing called Project Chaplaincy. I devised a low fantasy story where Britain would be ravaged by demons, which several clerics and their friends would embark on long journeys to help dispel. One cleric in particular, seeing that his hometown was untouched, answered calls from several friends of his and took some friends with him on a round trip through England. His efforts banished the demons nearly everywhere... until he realised that his own hometown may have been the hardest hit.

When he and his friends return, it is completely arid ground, cracked through to reveal the infernal ooze that the demons have left behind when they laid waste to the town. Many people are seeking shelter in the local hospital, in community halls, and in churches (including his very own parish). Many are made ill from the acrid air left by the demons, and some are found to have been tainted by them to varying degrees. This was meant to be the background music for this awful homecoming.

The theme is a paraphrase on a plainchant, Ave verum corpus. For the purposes of the soundtrack to that game that never saw the light of day, I borrowed plenty from liturgical music, and this one is no exception. I attempted to do it in 2012 but it was too emotionally difficult for me to finish -- and at the time, I couldn't mix to save my life, so the piece didn't have the desired impact. I never finished it, and the original FLP is lost forever as far as I'm aware. This was my attempt to start and finish it in a single night for the purposes of the Lenten Challenge.