Reverence is a short novella written by young author, Nathan Thornsbury, and it is a direct sequel to Centrallia College, while being a massive crossover with many other stories from that author.
The story follows the return of Lucius after he escapes Hell itself as a now maddened rogue god, causing chaos and havoc and terror. Due to there being no one to man the helm of Underworld, the Gates of Hell have closed, so since the souls of sinners have nowhere to go, sinners have simply stopped dying.
The story follows two intertwining and interconnecting sides, between Caine's Case Investigations (A troubled detective who gets involved with stopping Lucius after a case gone awry), and the rest of Reverence (A dual-possessed priest and his band of strange companions trying to find the Devil to stop the roaming of undead Sinners).
Reverence has its own character page!
This book provides examples of:
- And This Is for...: At the very end of the story, the entire group gets this towards Lucius... One of them goes a bit too far though.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Wrath is the literal embodiment of the sin of the same name.
- Caine also had to deal with the other personifications of Sin earlier on.
- Apocalypse Wow: When they say that without someone in the role of being the Devil, that AfterLife itself will collapse in on the mortal realm... They aren't kidding.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Olivia literally see's the appearence of Azazel and Nickolas, but she doesn't believe that they're really what they claim to be.
- The Atoner: Caine still feels guilt for having to kill his brother Abel. Even after Abel is revealed to be "Alive".
- Booker also seems to be atoning for the events at the end of My Life Stuck In Someone Else's Body, where despite stopping Rapture, he still did cause the death of his former best friends descendant.
- Badass Preacher: Father Dominic
- Bittersweet Ending: Lucius is gone forever, but in order to stop the afterlife from collapsing in upon the mortal realm, someone has to take Lucius'es place as the Devil... And Ezekiel has to be the one to take that burden.
- The Big Damn Kiss: In the end, with Father Dominic and Olivia.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Very much on Caine's side of the story.
- Brutal Honesty: When Azazel is trying to convince Olivia that he really is a demon, by telling her exactly what her Hell would be, knowing each of her deepest and darkest fears and insecurities, and exactly how to use them against her with the most effectiveness.
- Cain And Able: We do have the brothers, Caine and Abel, and one of them did kill the other before the start of this story. Caine definitely feels regret for it though, accepting that he was supposed to be "His brothers keeper".
- Crossover: Reverence actually ties together many stories from author Nathan Thornsbury.
- The story features both Olivia, as well as Ezekiel from Non-Existent... An Ezekiel that people can actually see since he was freed from Jacob.
- Caine's Case Investigations: It at first seems just like they are Working the Same Case, but the group or characters in Reverence actually do run into Caine and his partners, forming The Crusaders.
- When they are heading through Texas, Father Dominic and his friends run into a special organization that is willing to help them stop Lucius... NOCO.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Despite vowing against doing so, Zano needs to eat flesh in order to stop himself from further decay or losing his mind.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: We go into the final battle between Lucius and the Crusaders, thinking that this will be a Curb-Stomp Battle in favor of Lucius... As it turns out though, their fight may be a little more even than expected.
- Death Is Cheap: Not with the main characters, but since Sinners don't seem to stay dead, this is the case.
- Driven to Suicide: In the literal very beginning of the story, this is what is happening to Father Dominic... Thankfully, it doesn't work, due to some special intervention.
- Godzilla Threshold: Caine decides that the situation is so dire, maybe having a literal embodiment of sin, and an ancient Babylonian demon on your team isn't the worst idea... It is still a pretty bad idea though.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: After being banished to Hell at the end of Centrallia College, Lucius seems to see the future that comes about from this, and it is this vision that sends him into Mad God mental territory.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The entire idea of "Eternal Recurrence" seems to be this.
- Have You Seen My God?: Not God, but they are trying to hunt down the Devil.
- Heel–Face Turn: Both Wrath, and Aiu.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Ezekiel decides to join the group, one of the reasons being to keep an eye on Father Dominic to make sure that he doesn't make any moves to get back with Olivia, despite the evidence that their ship has sailed.
- Insistent Terminology: They are never called zombies directly, but instead things like "The Returned".
- Love Dodecahedron: By the end of the story, Father Dominic is back with Olivia, whom he used to date before she ran off with Ezekiel, but now that Ezekiel can't be with her due to being the new Satan, she can go back to Father Dominic.
- The Men in Black: We see this when Father Dominic's group is in Texas, and they run into agents of NOCO.
- Mythology Gag:
- There are plenty of references from things like Dante's Inferno, among other Hell and afterlife related works.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: When Aiu is mentioned, those who read Centrallia College know to be very concerned... Rightfully so.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Well, they aren't mindless flesh-eaters, but they actually retain their mind completely... They are just still decaying as they walk around.
- Prolonged Prologue: The prologue contains a suicide attempt with a changed mind, angels and demons, a car crash, waking up in the hospital, a call to adventure, zombies, and even more.
- Revenge: The main reason that a few characters join Caine's side, including the embodiment of sin, Wrath and Aiu.
- Sarcastic Confession
- Satan: Lucius.
- Seven Deadly Sins: A large motif with the story, especially with Caine.
- Shoutout: Plenty.
- Preacher; The Wolf Among Us; Murdered Soul Suspect; Chew; among others.
- Slasher Smile: Lucius gets this frequently.
- White Mask of Doom: Caine gets this whenever he went into the mind control stages in the "Years Lost" section of his story. Those mental triggers are still ingrained into Caine.
- Whole-Plot Reference: A Badass Preacher, an Action Girl ex-girlfriend with the name of a flower, and a supernatural beast go on an adventure to find one of the masters of AfterLife... Where have we heard that before?
- Working the Same Case: It seems to be this with Caine and his friends... Up until they meet that is...
- Yin-Yang Bomb: The simultaneous possessions from both an angel and a demon gives Father Dominic some pretty interesting abilities...
