The battle at Sangre de Cristo became a turning point. The unaffected throughout the world were given hope, but something strange began to happen to everyone else. Every man, woman, and child who had received the laser tattoo began to break out in boils. Not just a few boils. There were boils and skin eruptions on their faces, their chests, their backs, their legs, even their feet. Walking became unbearable . . . sleeping was impossible.

Then came the mouth sores. Around the walls of the mouths of each person whose hand was tattooed, there developed strange, pus-filled canker sores. Their tongues were raw and inflamed and began to swell. They found it excruciatingly painful to eat and to swallow.

Through their pain, they swore allegiance to their god-king, Mark Beaulieu. Through their pain, they cursed and reviled God for bringing such suffering upon them.

In Babylon, it was no different. The body of Mark Beaulieu was covered with sores, as was the body of his consort, Joyce Cumberland Wong. The body of Tauriq Haddad burned with pain.

The form of the Antichrist appeared. He shook his fist at heaven, and roared, “I will defeat You! I will pull down Your throne! We’ve won! We’ve won! You are the loser, not me!”

“Tauriq,” the Antichrist said with Mark Beaulieu’s voice, “the final showdown is at hand. We will assemble a mighty army from all over the world. Then we’ll summon all the forces of our lord, Lucifer, and his principalities and powers.

“We will march to Jerusalem. We will subjugate that city and take it from Jehovah. We will defeat the rebels on earth, and we will defeat the angels in the air. The prize, Tauriq, is not just earth—it is the very universe itself!”

BUT AFTER THE BATTLE of Sangre de Cristo, a temperature inversion took place over the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. The air did not move, and the sun beat down unmercifully. The first week, the temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The second week, it reached 100 degrees. And, the third week it was over 110 degrees. By the end of the month, the heat varied between 120 and 130 degrees. It was becoming unbearable.

The land baked in the hot sun. The marshes of the Shatt-al-Arab between Iraq and Iran dried up completely, as did the mouth of the Tigris-Euphrates rivers. The branch of the Euphrates River that flows through Iraq slowed to a trickle, then dried up completely.

The Antichrist raged within his palace. He had all the money in the world. He had at his disposal the finest medical minds of the world.

Yet, no amount of money or science could cure the sores on his body and in his mouth.