In the darkness of that night, no one saw the tears that streamed down Tassone's face; in fact, from that night on, no one in the coven ever saw him again. He fled Rome the following morning and lived in obscurity for the four years that passed. Going to Belgium, he worked among the poor, finding his way to a clinic where he could get access to the drugs he needed not only to quiet the pain in his back but to fight the haunting memories of what he had done. He lived alone and spoke to no one, gradually becoming infirm. And when he finally entered a hospital, a diagnosis was quickly confirmed. The pain in his back was caused by a tumor; malignant and inoperable because of its position on the spine.

Tassone was dying now, and it was this that drove him to seek forgiveness from the Lord. Christ was good. Christ would forgive. He would prove himself worthy of that forgiveness by attempting to undo what he had done.

Summoning what little strength remained, he traveled to Israel, carrying with him eight vials of morphine to deaden the pain that throbbed in his back. He was seeking the man named Bugenhagen, a name linked with Satan almost since the beginning of time. It was a Bugenhagen who, in the year 1092, found the first progeny of Satan and devised the means of putting it to death. It was again a Bugenhagen in 1710 who found the second issue and damaged it to the point where it could summon no earthly power. They were religious zealots, the watchdogs of Christ; their mission, to keep the Unholy One from walking the face of the earth.

It took Tassone seven months to find the last descendant of the Bugenhagens, for he lived in obscurity, ensconced in a fortress beneath the surface of the earth. Here he, like Tassone, waited for death, tortured with the infirmities of age and the knowledge that he had failed. He, like so many others, had known the time was at hand but he was helpless to stop the son of Satan from being born unto the earth.

Tassone spent but six hours with the old man, recounting the story and his part in the birth. Bugenhagen listened with despair as the priest begged him to intervene. For he could not. He was imprisoned here in his fortress and dared not venture to the outside. Someone with direct access to the child would have to be brought to him.