Jean wore his Sunday's best early in the morning. He looked in the mirror. A clean-shaven, porcelain-like face stared with its piercing brown eyes and its somewhat thin eyebrows raised.

Jean checked his mouth for any remnants of the eggs and rice he ate almost half an hour ago. Then, he turned off the bathroom lights, ignoring his dirty clothes wrapped in his towel on the hamper at the door.

Jean opened his filing cabinet with his keychain and looked at his accounted expenditures. He wondered briefly about future purchases and profitable investments. Jean shook his head and locked up the cabinet.

Eventually, Jean slipped on his shoes and the standard-issue black clergy cassock. 

It was time. He had deacon duties to do.

The drive to the Renningberry Catholic Church took only minutes. Jean stepped out of his neat and tidy blue Ford Bronco. Although it was getting old, he took diligent care of it.

Jean jingled his keys and opened the rusty doors of the Church. Its noise brought peace to his mind. Even with all the tweeting of birds, it was nice to hear noises that could alert Jean.

Jean held his duties with solemn dedication and maintained the aging organ among many other things. Hours passed and soon, he was done.

Jean laid a Bible in his lap as he sat in front of the organ. His fingers danced across the keys, practicing different arrangement of Gothic music.

A loud thrum of a sputtering transmission broke into the melody, but Jean did not stop. Soon, Pastor Nick arrived. His large form comically contrasted his position, yet his aging appearance showed he did not lack experience. He was a decent-looking man in his fifties, after all.

"Jean! You're here early, like always, huh? You're such a good kid. Are you going to lead the liturgy again?" Pastor Nick called, walking towards the altar.

"Yes, Brother Nick. 'For the Lord Grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.' Proverbs 2:6." Jean replied. He stopped playing.

"I still don't know why you come in so early. A talented and good-hearted kid like you should be sweeping the entertainment industry!" Pastor Nick chuckled. "You play music like a Heaven-sent angel, you know that, Jean?"

"I have faith the Lord guides me to help others. 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.' Proverbs 3:5." 

"Jean! You don't have to be so stiff. Why do you need to quote the Scriptures when both of us are well-read?"

"We must stay true to our teachings. 'Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.' What better advisers can there be than the Scriptures themselves?"

"Well, I knew I shouldn't have argued with you. You keep drowning me in your faith. Lighten up a little, huh?" Pastor Nick scratched at his stubble.

"I'm just joking with you! I'm young but lacking experience. If I want to enjoy the world, I have to make my own fun, right?" Jean winked at Pastor Nick.

Pastor Nick jarred in his step as he was walking to his office in the basement, suitcase in hand. "Y-yeah. Life's too short to worry so much about. Just don't go overboard. You keep reminding me of old Pastor Francis."

"Fine, Brother Nick. I'll see you at Mass."

Jean continued playing the organ until the main congregation filed in.

Jean rang the bell as Pastor Nick stood behind him. They went through the Rites lethargically. When the hymns came up, Jean lively led the Choir and congregation. Jean preached for the sermon and homily about truth and happiness. He noted the tragic end of William and Veronica, with their children. The Profession of Faith and the Prayers passed quickly.

Small baskets were passed around for donations as offertory began. Soon, the end neared.

Pastor Nick only offered Natalie the pitiful amount of wine left in the chalice. She was recently accepted by Yaler, long served as a volunteer for the homeless and needy, and always had good behavior. 

After the drink, she became a little flushed so Pastor Nick helped her sit on the side. Pastor Nick blessed the congregation but said Natalie told him she wanted to confess her sins privately before leaving on Tuesday.

Members of the congregation shuffled out, slightly tired but invigorated by the teachings of Deacon Jean and Pastor Nick. Their cars slowly pulled out and left only three behind.

Jean softly smirked. He cleaned up the pews and after the Mass methodically. Today was special.

Jean stretched and decided he took long enough. Pastor Nick closed the Church doors for his private session with Natalie. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was doing.

Jean tucked his thick, hardcover Bible under his armpit. He slowly walked down the steps, appreciating the history of the stone foundation. At the door, he heard muffled noises. Jean unlocked the door and then knocked.

"Brother Nick? It's getting late. Shouldn't Natalie get home soon?"

Jean opened the door mid-sentence.

There, Pastor Nick stood, half-way thrusting into the sprawled form of Natalie. Her hands were bound by taut rope to sconces on the wall and her mouth was filled with a ball gag. Her legs similarly were spread apart, tied, and weakly moving in resistance.

Pastor Nick's arm was drawn back, with a riding crop in hand. It fell out of his grasp. Already, long red lines drew across Natalie's skin, slightly bleeding.

"Jean, wait!"

Jean stood in place, imprinting the memory. How many years had he known this was going on? Too many, that's how many. Father Francis didn't go to the grave willingly, and Jean knew this too...

"Jean, I can explain! This is… yes. She wanted this! We're just having adult fun! There's no need for you to be here!"

"Brother Nick," Jean said, coldly. "I was going to debate the Scriptures with you. 'My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes." Job 16:16. Is that not what I see from Natalie? 'Shouldn't someone answer this torrent of words? Is a person proved innocent just by a lot of talking?' Job 11:2. Can I trust you anymore, Brother Nick? Shouldn't I trust the words of Natalie?"

Pastor Nick slowly pulled up his pants and walked over to the door.

"Jean. Forget this ever happened. Next time--"

"NEXT TIME?!" Jean thundered.

"Jean!" Pastor Nick bowed to Jean for forgiveness. "Please!" They stood in silence.

Jean began mumbling quietly.

"What was that, Jean?" Pastor Nick asked. Another moment of silence passed.

"I called the police. They're going to arrest you."

"What?! NO! I CAN'T END LIKE THIS! HOW DARE YOU, UNGRATEFUL WHELP!! I WILL KILL YOU!!"

Pastor Nick charged at the door. Jean fled, dropping the phone.

They both ran up the stairs, and Jean let Pastor Nick catch up.

Pastor Nick tackled Jean's legs and screamed in fury. They both fell forwards.

"Let go! Let go! LET GO!!!" Jean yelled at the desperate man.

Pastor Nick pummeled Jean's androgenous legs as Jean tried to slip away.

Jean smiled brightly.

His Bible fell like a guillotine. A cold snap broke the air, and with a swift kick, Pastor Nick fell down the stairs like a ragdoll. A sickening thump splattered the end of his fall.

Jean slowly walked down the stairs, enduring the pounding his legs encountered.

At the bottom, Pastor Nick spawled like broken toy, probably looking like what the many women he groomed and tasted felt like. A pool of red began forming.

Jean bent down to feel his pulse. There was none.

Jean stumbled over to Natalie. He removed the ball gag to hear her sobbing and slowly untied her limbs. She cried endlessly, so Jean patted her head.

"There, there. It's all over. 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.' Revelation 21:4." he cooed.

Jean hugged Natalie until the police arrived.

The city launched an investigation into the incident. Many women attested to Jean's innocence and Pastor Nick's vile ways. There was enough physical evidence to put Pastor Nick behind bars for life and even more. People whispered rumors and spread gossip about Father Francis. Yet, Jean stayed a devout and proud Catholic Christian who acted in heroic self-defence. 

Jean took over the Renningberry Catholic Church. Pope Jon Paul the Great commended Jean and took measures to condemn the sexual misconduct of the Catholic Church while apologizing to victims.

Jean continued living normally, albeit with more respect and publicity. He removed one more shackle, all in the eyes of the public. He could use even more subliminal messages to imprint his alibi into the mind of the public. Jean smiled more brightly in public. It was all going to plan, after all.

Wasn't the best disguise in plain sight?

The camera views the actions of an aspiring serial killer. 

How far and how close can he come to reality?

(Written on my phone to spite Rebirth of A Serial Killer by Kotrem and because I always wanted to write  a serial killer series. 

Any similarities to real people, places, and works are not to be taken seriously.)

That one hour had already elapsed, though there was no trace of her master Yuma. She could no longer stand straight as her breath was coming in pants. While gasping heavily for breath, Charna prepared those lengthy black wings of hers as she forcefully flapped them therewith, sending the nearby priests flying immediately by creating a strong blow in the air.
The burns on the left side of her face would be regarded as slight compared with that huge and severe vertical scar on the right side of her injured visage. However, those wounds couldn't just be abridged in her brief face; every single inch of her half-human, half-bird body included serious harm — caused by the prayers and the weapons that were wielded by those priests.
Charna was almost empty of energy; still, she didn't intend to give up on fighting. Surrendering would bring nothing but dishonor and disgrace upon herself as a warrioress, as well as shaming the name of "Sirin", a race that was well-known in the Unholy Mountain as honorable and reputable warriors in the battlefield. Additionally, fleeing from the battle while her master is trying his best against that paladin would lead to nothing except ignominy for Charna.
Incidentally, that red piece of clothing, which had covered her chest, couldn't be seen any more; it probably had been burned too by the priests' glowing and destructive attacks. Therefore, those two seductive breasts were completely visible for anyone to catch a glimpse of it. That said, it didn't seem Charna would care about it even the slightest. There appeared no sign of embarrassment on her expression because of this nudity; it seemed so insignificant for her to even think about it. The only way that she would get embarrassed and ashamed was either due to a defeat or an escape from the foe; a mere apparent skin of her body couldn't be a concern for Charna.
Notwithstanding all of those deep wounds and injuries, which each of them could kill a normal human being alone, Charna's pride as a warrioress and her beauty as a female hadn't utterly vanished yet. She had to bear the pain as a true warrior and continue to fight until there would be absolutely no strength remained in her.
"Now!"
A grating outcry of rage acquainted her of an attack from behind. As a result, she turned around and formed a defensive posture; nonetheless, the priests could attack from every side since she had been completely surrounded by them.
"Kill the beast!" 
"Don't give it time!"
Charna could no longer continue as well as before; therefore, she decided to keep her energy just for defending those charges while meantime waiting for her master to come.
The enemies had various types of weapons, but the type wielded by most of them was the spear. As a great quantity of the priests started to rush at her to decrease the existent distance, another group including a considerable amount of individuals still stood back. 
"[Night's Star]" "[Light]" "[Redirect]" "[Repentance Blaze]" "[Thorough Shine]" "[Blessing of Heaven]" "[Circle of Resistance]" "[Capacity Growth]" "[Holy Range]" "[Light]" "[Gifted Fire]" "[Divine Effort]" "[Blaze Sight]"
They were using several types of prayers for strengthening the charging priests — who were becoming closer to her over time — while causing a picturesque scene because of those colorful flashes of the light, which had begun to move speedily toward her direction.
The priests were decreasing the gap between themselves and Charna as the lights of the support could be seen coming one after another. It didn't take a while for them to reach her as they thrust forward instantly.
Avoiding all of these foes at the same time would be impossible; there was no way to evade those whole prayers either. However, she could still escape from one simple thing, the reality. Hence Charna was able to fight without fear and stay, although the physical limits of her body would definitely stop the inner will of hers.
"[Magic Shield]" she screamed aloud, creating a lucid range of energy around herself to block the forthcoming attacks.
It came out to be neither effective against the onslaught of the nearby priests nor powerful enough to handle the destructive prayers caused by all those spiritual forces. Consequently, Charna had no choice but to use all of her remaining strength to answer their attacks by an offensive.
"[Rising Blaze]"
An unexpected tremendous flare instantaneously entered the priests' range of vision as it thereupon streaked through the air outstandingly, sending a substantial amount of them flying by its power.
She shouldn't have possessed such a great remaining power since Charna had been fighting unceasingly until then; thus anyone would surely get surprised by the massive damage that this offense forced the priests to handle.
Her struggles against that large quantity of the enemies were truly commendable, though it appeared completely useless as no perceivable or significant change could be observed. No matter how much she tried, the black crows of the sky wouldn't disappear from her sight.
In place of a fallen leaf, another leaf would fill the empty space of it momentarily. The dropped bodies of the priests would consecutively be replaced by more uncompromising soldiers of the zealotry. Any attempt for clearing the image of the thunderstorm off this fanaticism didn't seem sufficient as though even the world itself was unwilling to be modified by the light of Sun; the chained Heavens extremely feared from the alternation that the sunrise would bring afterward.
The blood over her skin and the wounds beneath it had concealed the human elegance of her upper body as the appearance of the other parts, which looked birdish. Although the clouds would send innumerable drops of rain from the sky and drench everything in the way toward the ground, the weight of the gore on Charna's shoulders was much more sensible than the pressure of the raindrops, which had continuously hit her during that time; even an enormous flood couldn't wash the blood on her figure and make it clean from the redness of those deadly scars and inflammations. The only liquid that could be identified by looking at her was a sanguine and conspicuous fluid, flowing steadily on her semi-human form. While Charna couldn't be called a human, her blood nevertheless appeared unadulterated red.
Her will would never break as a brave Sirin, yet, something else was also helping her to stay and continue to fight. By every touch of the rain, she could also touch and sense a great amount of power along with the motive to stand in the battle.
She had been with her master for a long time; accordingly, she had a thorough knowledge of Yuma's abilities and spells. Charna knew this uprising of the strength inside of her is because of nothing but this rain, a special spell that could be used by him.
Thanks to her master, she could stand up to the priests' attacks and their thrusts by remaining under the rain; even so, it didn't seem as effective as before. It would be clear to get that Yuma was being defeated by that paladin, thus weakening the effects of this long-range spell. Without considering that, this could also be understood by Charna who was emotionally bound to Yuma with a strong magical bond.
She absolutely didn't like getting wet; the water would be the last thing that Charna wanted to feel on her skin, even though she had no choice but to get used to this situation since her master's specialty was at the wizardry of the water element.
The strength that the droplets would give her could no longer best those deadly wounds as the presence of her master was concomitantly becoming unidentifiable by Charna's senses. Because of the fatigue and exhaustion, she didn't have enough energy to lift her wings by using the large muscles beneath them, thereby leaving no choice for her but to struggle under the descent of the rain from the Heavens and the charges from the priests.
Fighting in the sky was no more possible for her, so she began to gradually come down and get close to the ground. As the weighty drops of the rain were descending upon her shoulders and body, Charna meanwhile was trying her best to give attention to all those foes around her since being inattentive would lead to nothing but a sudden and unexpected attack from the enemy, which would thereafter end up with her immediate death.
When Charna alighted on the earth, the birdish soles of her feet couldn't still sense the surface of the ground; the street seemed enormously flooded as the level of the water's surface would continue to remain constant by the passage of time, notwithstanding it hadn't reached above her ankles.
Moving one's feet in that huge amount of water on the street would be truly difficult, but fortunately, this quantity of it could still be endured since no massive surges of water would be generated in such an extent. Nonetheless, it would still be a great deal for a normal human to handle.
In her current condition, she had no choice but to fight on the ground, which was why she preferred to not face another problem; even for her, it would be burdensome to get under an enormous water wave caused by her master's spell, this rain. Charna was a birdlike creature, after all; as a result, she would naturally and instinctively hate getting soaked like that. However, it wasn't the right time to care about those matters. She had to fight without even the slightest bit of hesitation, in absolutely any situation.
Some of the priests followed her as they grounded on the nearby spots; the others got close to her from the top while their forms had shadowed her figure overhead. The splash sound, which the landed priests made by descending on the ground and rushing at her, plus the stentorian war cry coming from the above enemies, warned Charna of another thrust from the adversary.
"Everyone attack at once!"
The long aerial battle had then changed with ground warfare; she could easily understand the imminent danger from the enemy, so she thereupon readied herself for another clash of spell and spear. Using massive spells would be useless as it had no considerable effect on the enemy's total strength, and would waste her residual magical force withal.
Hereupon Charna used a special spell of hers to solidify her soft wings, making those two sizable wings as hard as steel. It was more like a "skill" than a spell, so it didn't take a lot of magical force from her. This skill would be really useful for demonic beasts like Sirins; they lacked the physical power in melee combats, so having an ability like this would certainly help them in the close battles; she had to concurrently defend the attacking prayers nonetheless by either avoiding them promptly or using defensive spells.
Being injured and exhausted didn't give her so many options to choose among, yet, she had enough remaining might to stand right then. As the first waves of the priests got close to her, from both the ground and the air, her nearby surroundings contained nothing but the presence of the enemy.
Now that their formation had become compressed, Charna could use this chance to get rid of them in one single blow by using those solidified and sharp wings. She struck forward by swinging her wings around, hitting all those priests who had besieged her while inflicting a large and deep scar on their bodies. Still, Charna failed to finish them off in one strike, so she tried to attack again.
Notwithstanding, just focusing on the offense would leave her with so many openings in the defense. This was why she had to kill as much as she was capable to make her onslaughts as efficient as possible, spending less energy in overall — compared with fighting against all of them distinctly — while lessening the chance of getting attacked by the surviving ones.
Even with this strategy, the fact that her capabilities had become weakened because of the limited stamina and those wounds, would prevent Charna to fight with the same outstanding efficiency against them like before.
The blood of the priests reddened the flowing water on the street as she was speedily striking everything that existed around herself. Luckily, when her muscles became fatigued and tired, the assailants began to withdraw at the same time.
"It's no use... all pull back!"
By the time that the thundering priests started to draw back and leave her vision by becoming dispersed all around that space, a new group of them appeared in that gap. They comprehended that a close-range fight would, without doubt, be disadvantageous in such a circumstance; the only way to fight was to use the long-range prayers and stop any further and unnecessary damage while simultaneously keeping their descents on their enemy, Charna.
Unlike before that each of them had used different types of prayers against her, this time all of them were uttering the same words coordinately with an unpretentious and soft tone.
"And modify our wants according to the will of the divinity. If it be possible, let it happen, and if not, enlighten us by your might. Show us the blessing of your magnanimity; nevertheless, not as we will, but as you will."
Those words reached the Heavens as the magnificent and divine help of the deity reigned over the sky and Earth by launching a glaring refulgence all around that wet and gloomy atmosphere, sanctifying it by the shining light — descended from the ascendency.
"[The Rain of Blessing]"
Since the priests had assembled their forces altogether, the outcome of this prayer was much more striking and stronger than before, very very stronger; it would be as expected because the association of the spirituality coming from such a countless group of individuals would certainly be immense.
Charna had no other choice; she used the residue of her magical force entirely to defend the falling beams of that inevitable massive force. The holy pressure of the Lord's light would exceedingly hurt her since she was a demonic being; her skin would burn by the blaze of God's will, caused by the prayers of those men.
She let out a sound of affliction, squealing while covering herself with those vast wings. If she still had control over herself, Charna would unquestionably stay quiet; letting out a voice like that had nothing except shame for her as a warrioress. 
Nevertheless, she didn't squirm around even with that intense burning pain. It wasn't like her body didn't intend to do so, the divine presence of the energy, up against her shoulders and figure, wouldn't let her move a muscle; all she could do was to scream in agony.
The holy existent elements of this world were considered as the most lethal and dangerous opposites against the Unholy creatures. Enduring this situation seemed unconditionally impossible for her; even by the passing of time, the severity of it wouldn't become lower; the weight on her form didn't weaken by the slightest.
However, even in that harsh condition, her screams sounded womanish, yet sharp and piercing, loud and long, containing nothing but pain and suffering. It was truly a shame and disgrace for her; to think she, as a brave Sirin, can make a sound like that. Her pride had already been broken by undergoing this intolerable ache.
The downhill of the golden radiance — approaching the ground from the superior world — looked astonishingly blinding and effulgent, as one would expect of help given by the Heavens, truly befitting of the deity.
But nothing could be absolute in the imperfect world of men, not even the blessings of God. By the time that the rays of brightness began to vanish from the air, the black-and-white scene of the streets and modern buildings along with the lugubrious sight of the rain ruled over the space once again.
Wounded and weary, alone and injured under the rain of sorrow, she could no more stand up on her lanky birdish feet as those soaked gloomy hairs had come in her eyesight, covering her face with their long size. Even though the pain wasn't as intense as before, and there existed no pressure from the holiness, she looked so exhausted and damaged to keep herself straight; therefore, Charna could not help falling down, not anymore.
As her sore back touched the flooded ground, almost half of her figure was under the continuous water. The color of the earth had become red by the blood once more, though this time, it didn't belong to the priests'; she appeared to be the one who was bleeding steadily, filling the streams of the fallen drops with her gore.
The sight of her surroundings became dim and faint; the light left that lightless-godless vision as she was crawling toward the sidewalk, which had less congestion of water. Even in the last moments of her life, her instincts despised the feeling of getting wet.
The only thing that would delay her death — even though by a little — was the presence of those raindrops, touching her aching skin while giving her an insignificant amount of energy to still stay alive; her master's spell, notwithstanding her horrible condition, helped Charna to have the required magical force to remain conscious.
The extreme weakness prevented her to hear the excited call of the victory from the overhead priests. Her expression didn't show any specific emotion, nothing except infirmity and frailty that were caused by her own defeat.
Still, even by considering the fact that she had lost, Charna was happy that she was going to die in her master's way; she was pleased that she fought until the very last moment and didn't pull away from the battlefield. The upcoming death of hers would definitely be graced by the glory of fighting as a loyal servant of Yuma, her master.
Charna didn't fear death; she could feel the peace while lying on the stony paths of the sidewalk. Her ears could no longer hear the sound of the rain as though she had become deaf completely. The only obstacle between Charna and her destiny was the time.
What many people would consider as a gate to the Heaven and Hell, she saw it as a glory, a glorious end in a fighting life as a Sirin. The last thing she wanted was to be alive when her purpose — her summoner — wasn't there anymore. So dying with whatever she had would be the best choice after all.
The devoted attendant of Yuma Takahashi waited for her fate, which she knew from the first, as she understood the absolute absence of her master's presence at the same time.

I get up and gave him the glass. I observe his back that looks really going to open up. I walk toward him and hug him from behind as I gently kiss his back. It might be aching him. 

"Feel better?" I ask him. He pushes my arms and face me. He wrapped my arms around him as he pushes his chest on me for me to lean on, hugging me tight. He let me heart his heartbeat as I lean my ears on his naked chest. 

"This heart of mine, never beat like this." I can hear his heartbeat clearly. It skips a beat and it is loud. I feel so small in his arms. He is tall and bit muscular… has a lean body. 

 After taking a bath, I let him choose the dress that I should wear for the mass. It was a catholic mass. Catholic or Christian is a religion for them since it is Sunday, every Sunday they held mass. A pure white dress that has a red ribbon around the waist. The collar is wide and low that makes my breast almost peek yet my shoulder is covered until to my elbow. The dress is under my knee and he told me to wear the black heels stiletto shoes that they called. It has a high heels that looks like a stick so the woman that will wear it will look taller.

 After the breakfast, we get ready and left following his parents car with his. I look around to see lots of families together, couples and old people going inside the church and the cars are lined up. The church wasn't that big but it was wide. There's a cross on the roof and bells are ringing. He open the door of his car for me and I hold his hand as I got out. 

"Hey, Clarence!" we both turn to a group of teenagers. Three boys and two girls. 

"Damn…" he mutter. He wave at them giving them fake smile. 

"There are your friends, say hi to them." His mom told. 

"They are not my friends." He gritted. "They are bullies." He hold my hand possessively. 

 We enter the church and I was amazed on their paintings above, full of man with wings and skies. They show heaven yet it wasn't heaven looks like. The face of the God that they painted wasn't the real face of God. And there are statues that wasn't the face of the real God. 

"Aren't you going to introduce us your friend here?" The boy who waved at him a while ago, followed us and throw his arms on Clarence's. 

"Terrence, this is Guinevere." He said lousily. I nod at him with little smile. The Terrence guy stop in front of us and held out his hand. I took it and he kissed it with those playful grin and lustful eyes. 

"I'm Terrence." I glanced at Clarence's who's eyes are burning in anger. 

"Guinevere." I said coldly and pull my hand from him. "Terrence, does hurting somebody's feeling makes you happy?" I can see it in his eyes. He was a sadist who love hurting girls and others. But deep inside is sadness and the felt of being unloved. He stopped about my question. "You cannot find happiness if you keep hurting others. Love only gives and if you try to open your heart and give love to others, you will received love back from them." He gapes on what I said. Clarence took my hand protectively and pull me away from him. 

 He take the sit beside his parents and as the mass started, I listen on their scriptures. They are talking about Jesus who save people from their own sins. Everything are true yet some of them may not. I won't judge their beliefs because it is what keeps them to have faith. 

We kneel again to pray and I pray for my father to enlighten these people's mind. I can hear their prayers and most of them are asking for things… keep asking and asking. But there is only two to three person who are asking for his forgiveness admitting their sins, keep asking for forgiveness. Some are thanking for the everyday things that the God gave including the love. 

 I can hear from Clarence's parents that they keep thanking God that he give Clarence to them though he is not their blood. After the mass, Clarence hugged me with a peek on my cheek including his parents. Outside, we stayed for a while as his parents are talking with friends. 

"There are beautiful places here in town. We could go around." 

"We have a class tomorrow." I told him a little coldly. I don't know why I always sound so cold, maybe I was born that way. 

"I wanted to leave that Academy. Do you know that? But I had promise Patrick that I won't leave without knowing about the cases behind those students that keep on dying." 

"I will find it out so soon." I said determined. He blinks on what I said. 

"Is it the reason why you are here, Outside?" 

"Yes." I cannot lie or deny that. 

At least I have a trust on him because he is my warrior and soon to be my guardian. I turn to see a girl walking toward us. I glanced at Clarence to see him looking all stop. The girl was beautiful, there's no doubt that he had fallen in love to her before he find out about his gift. However, the girl hurt him and cheated on him. He was broken and glad that he left the school. 

"Hi Rence." She smiled beautifully at Clarence. I look at him again and his emotions was nothing. Still, he is flashing back their happy moments. I felt a little tingle of pain inside my chest. Am I jealous? 

"Clarice." He acknowledged. "How are you?" 

"Still good as ever. I haven't seen you for ages, where have you been?" 

"I transferred in the school where I belong." 

"Is it because of my mistake?" 

 I feel like an air between them. Not even there. It makes me feel a little annoyed about it. I stepped a little away and feel left out while they are talking at each other reminiscing their pasts. I am really going to kick his balls if he still have an affection toward her. And he seemed he still has. Damn him! I tell him that I will wait somewhere else and quoted a sarcasm on roaming around alone, in French. So that the girl wouldn't understand. 

 I am not expecting him to hold me and told me that they are done talking or whatsoever. I just walk away getting suck of this shoes. I had learnt few twangs and accent of the people here. Gibson taught me a little to sound normal in this world. 

 I removed the shoes that is sticking on the grass. I wish to go back to Academy so that I could tease Gibson about him making love with Rosy. I had seen the scene and they look so into each other though she's a little drunk. Desire put a big spell on both of them. And Love is slowly giving them hint. 

 I saw a tree where I can rest for a while. I sat down there and lean on the trunk. I shall relax my mind and to collect souls again listening to their prayers and wishes. My soul shall sleep too for a while so I sleep under the tree very fast and I am unconscious about my surroundings. 
 
A jolt of chills, shivers wakes me up and I can feel a hand caressing me under my dress, sucking my neck. He smelled different… not Clarence. I open my eyes to see Terrence in those dark lustful eyes molesting me. I was about to push him but he flew away from me. He was thrown on the tree. Clarence look furious and was about to hit him another in very fast movement. 

"No. Stop Clarence!" I demanded. Clarence glance at me. I shook my head. I run toward the unconscious body and he really look beaten. "It's not him, he was possessed by dark spirit." 

"Then, get away from him." He tried to drag me away but I hold him to calm him. 

"I'm fine." I kneel in front of the body. "I shall remove the dark spirit." I close my eyes and slowly taking the dark spirit that I am sure one of Abyss's stolen soul. I concentrate and put all of the power that my father gave to take the soul. I shall cleanse him so he won't be evil again. 

 I stood and he is slowly moving wincing on the pain. Clarence become alert again and he pull me away from him. 

"It is fine." I told him with authority. 

"I'm sorry for not being with you." He bow his head. I scoop his cheeks looking up at him. 

"It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself." 

"Damn, can anyone help me?" he glare down to Terrence who is suffering. "What happened? Man! I don't remember anything." Clarence seemed enlightened so he help him up. He look at us quizzically. I saw Clarence started to burn his eyes on Terrence because of the way he look at me… full of lust. 

"Don't stare at her like that!" he growls pushing him with his arm in front of Terrence chest. 

"I-I'm sorry." Terrence mutter. Clarence is growing really protective. Matured yet still unable to control himself. 

"Clarence." I call him and he calms down. I pull him away from Terrence. I scoop his cheeks. "Stop it now. We will just leave and this never happen." He is trembling in anger. I kiss his lips to calm him and his nerves. He immediately kiss me back. I heard Terrence complains. The kiss went far from this world… like we were just alone in this world. 

"Are you okay Terrence?!" I heard that girl's voice yet Clarence didn't want to stop kissing me. 

"I need help. I think I have broken bones." Clarence gives me a time to breath and he smiles. 

"I am tired, let's go back to the Academy." I walk toward the tree and took my shoes. He took it from me and carried me like a bride. I wrapped my arms around his nape and lean on him to relax my body. 

"Let's go out." He mutter. 

"We are outside." I mutter back. 

"I mean, a date. I like you so much." I had fallen asleep after I felt his kiss on my forehead.

It started when Catastrophe led to a mysterious castle after she partially escape from the people who wanted to kill her. Everyone thought that she was Adhiti, the girl who was missing for years without any trace. But she has Adhiti's opposite attitude on every way, how could she be Adhiti where her only face are alike? 
But Nicholas is very much certain that she was his Adhiti, the love of his life. How would he show her that he still love Adhiti? 
Would Catastrophe accept his love that once he had betray Adhiti? 
Would she survive inside the Mystical Academy despite of her enemies around the school?

Chapter-3 Awakening

Blood is all you need. Only in the blood do we discover the truth.

Dracula (series)
____________________________________

In the bedroom

Cain changed his clothes, to a simpler one, and lay on the bed of red cotton sheets with laziness.

He lifted his head and looked up at the stone ceiling of the room with a little anxiety appearing in his red eyes.

Cain knows that Remilia and Fran are going to Japan alone to take refuge and this will happen many years later. That means something happened with Selene and Ettore so that the girls would have to flee to Japan.

Cain then remembered the extensive list of his family's enemies and remembered the day he went to his family's library.

In the Scarlet family library, Cain saw in an ancient book that told, the past of the ancestor of all vampires Count Vlad Tepes Dracula. He was a noble but religious man, he believed firmly in the glory of the Lord of the Bible, unfortunately when he lost the war in the name of God. God abandoned him without thinking twice.

At that moment Dracula asked God's forgiveness but was only answered by silence. After that day, Dracula saw his people starving because the plantations no longer gave grain, he saw the people thirsty because the rivers dried up, he saw the people die by a plague that spread throughout the territory.

No longer able to stand the suffering of the people, Dracula made a decision that would change the world and make it famous for millennia.

He made a pact with Lucifer himself in exchange for power and immortality. Lucifer, of course, accepted one of the world's most determined faithful willingly.

That day, an immortal monster that quenched its thirst with blood was born, Vlad the Impaler became a real monster.

After achieving what he wanted with Lucifer, Dracula began a reign of terror throughout the continent of Europe.

He did not kill innocent people, he killed monsters, he killed monsters in the form of humans, the Catholic Church was the majority the target of his attack.

Until the war against the church broke out completely. Creatures called vampires appeared, they had the strength much stronger than any normal human. They ran so fast, normal people would only see a blur at high speed. They cured an inhuman speed and drank blood to quench their own thirst.

The Orthodox Church announced the crusade against the creatures of darkness. The war broke out completely, the continent of Europe was flooded by the flames of war.

Dracula with his immortal army, against the whole Orthodox church. Clearly, Dracula would win the war, but almost in Victory, Dracula had seen Western monsters allying with the Orthodox church and had no time to readjust for war.

Griffo's, Ogres, Trolls, elves, almost all the voracious monsters marched together with the army of the Orthodox Church in the crusade against Dracula, the Son of the Devil.

In the end, Dracula lost his entire army of immortals and lost all war. Gravely wounded, he fled to the depths of the darkest lands in the world.

Remembering Dracula's story, Cain thought his family had many potential enemies, waiting only for the location of the Scarlet Family.

The church especially must hate his family very much. Cain only sighed sadly but soon showed a gaze full of determination in his eyes and whispered the phrase he had seen in the old book. "Blood is all you need. Only in the blood do we discover the truth."

After thinking many random things in his mind, Cain finally came eyes to enter the world of dreams.

The next day

Slowly Cain's light blue eyelashes trembled before opening his eyes to show the world two reptilian red eyes.

Cain slowly got up from the bed and changed his simple clothes into a formal vampire suit of pure blood. A black suit with a red medal on his chest in the shape of a crescent moon. Around his neck a white scarf held by a gold brooch, later he placed a ring with the Scarlet family crest on his finger.

Cain then took a black cane with a red tip and a dragon-shaped fist and opened the doors of the room and left with slow but steady steps.

Unlike the usual silence in the castle, the air in the castle was a little tense. Cain ignored the maids cleaning the rooms that bowed to, he and I continue to walk along the long corridor of the castle in silence, only the sounds of Cain's footsteps echoed in the corridor.

Arriving at one of the only iron gates in the castle, Cain tried to open it with a little force, but the door didn't move an inch, so he put all his force in his arm and pushed the massive iron door.

*Old door opening slowly*

After the iron door opened, Cain looked down the dark staircase and slowly began to walk down it. The staircase had small steps and spiraled down to the depths of the earth.

After an unknown time, Cain finally finishes descending the thousands of stone steps and sees an oval entrance shining lightly.

Crossing the bright oval entrance, Cain sees a gigantic cave beautifully decorated with black trunk trees and red leaves on all sides. And in the middle of these black trees, an all-red lake, smelling a strong smell of blood. On the ceiling of the cave, small red crystals lit up the small forest, giving it an even darker but "peaceful" feeling.

Cain looked at the red lake and felt that his heart began to beat strongly, which he never thought he would again. He began to feel his mouth dry and his throat began to burn to show the strong thirst Cain was feeling, but he controlled himself not to jump directly into the lake of blood and waited for instructions to arrive.

"Formidable! Young vampire, you are the first to resist the call of your parent's blood." An aging voice echoed in Cain's mind that began to look to the sides trying to find where the voice came from.

"Don't look for me, young vampire. I'm speaking directly to your mind." The aged voice spoke in Cain's mind with a little fun in his tired voice.

"Let us begin your awakening, Young Vampire. First, take off your clothes and gently immerse yourself in the lake of the ancestral blood of vampires, you will feel strong sleepiness when you enter the lake, so don't panic and relax your body and let your awakening happen naturally". The aging voice echoed once again in Cain's mind, who followed this elder's instructions and took off his clothes, then slowly plunged into the lake of blood until he disappeared completely into the lake.

"I expect many things from you, my descendant." Feeling Cain asleep in the deepest part of the lake of blood, the aging voice spoke alone in this scary little forest.

A soul of the earth reincarnated as the elder brother of Remilia Scarlet and came into the world of Touhou full of dangers.

See how he grows up to be the most powerful vampire in the world.

Ps: Tags: Harem, Lolicon, magic, Lolis, Gods and demons, spirits, Youkais, incest.

If you don't like the tags, please don't even start reading.

Day 3: 4:30 P.M
Osaka Streets: Blood Battalion Base
Food Supply lasts for: 2 weeks
Water Supply: Lasts for 5 weeks
Fuel supply: Too Small
Medicine Supply: Plenty
Ammunition list:
SMG bullets: 15 boxes
Assault Rifle: 21 boxes
Shotgun: 250 shells
Sniper Rifle: 40 boxes
Pistol: 50 boxes
Revolver: 2 boxes
Grenades: 25 pieces left
Time before the Night Rage: 1 hour and 30 minutes left
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were able to avoid pointless confrontation and everyone returned to preparation. The base was surrounded now with the platform that can be used as the survey platform around the walls. They also build some fences so that they don't have the risk of falling down accidentally. The whole group also begins on building the Guardpost tower to help survey the area surrounding the place. The back portion of the base is also building a similar Guardpost tower however, they have no choice but to slowly make it. The back portion of the base is not that troublesome and rarely, the undead do not really wander the back area. Might be due to the slope that made the undead falling when they tried to climb up. Still, the dead are not something they can underestimate. The dead seems getting stronger and plenty for some reason and they have to be sure that they won't be having trouble with it.


The Household Group brought the dinner with them. Before the battle, they needed to have a hearty meal first to last for the night. Pastor Shin lead the prayer for the food. Since not everyone are Catholic they just bow down to pay respects while Steven, Nathalie, Cindy and Risha are catholics and also did the sign of the cross. The prayer of Pastor Shin was very heartwarming, allowing them to feel the peace and gratitude to God for a while.

The hearty and happy meal lasted for a while before everyone returned to their jobs. Kyosei suspected that the dead are still evolving and he suddenly remembered that the spawns are still around the nearby houses. Kyosei remembered that the Mosquitoes did not appear last night making him sigh in relief. However, now, he almost forgot that there are spawns around the area. The mosquitoes are troublesome enemies during Night Rage. If possible, destroying them before they mature is the best and probable way of eradicating the Mosquitoes.

Kyosei ordered everyone to continue the survey and he will do an extermination process to do. Everyone nodded. Guarding the base is the most important thing and while the Night Rage is still not occurring, they have to make sure that there is no danger lurking in the surroundings. Kyosei also explained that he needs to look for some spawns. It will be really troublesome if they needed to defend against the dead and also defend against the Mosquitoes. That will be too tiresome.

After obtaining everyone's agreement, Kyosei brought the AR15 with him. He can't possibly smash there and risk himself getting infected by the hatched spawns. Since it is already almost nighttime, Kyosei begins to pack up a lot of bullets. If he is caught up during the Night Rage, it will be too hard to return back into the base.

Kyosei arrived in front of the SUV. He looked at it and he felt that he want it replaced with a Pickup Truck. It can also be good to attach a crane on its back and the pickup truck has a good amount of storage space. Looting a lot is not a problem and many items can be stored. Moreover, he can contract Big Man Joe to refit the car. Kyosei shook his head before he goes inside the car. Kyosei wanted to play safe. If he saw a horde, he can just ram the car directly into them, which will be an easy way for destroying a horde. He did not mind damaging its bumper. Cars might be good rammers but he can't keep on relying on it. The dead are all easy to kill, just ram their heads into the ground, and bam, you killed an undead without help.

Souichi and Nejima opened the gate and the SUV reeves up. Nanami pull her thumbs up meaning that everything is ready. Kyosei steps on the gas and the SUV pulls out and speds out of the streets.


...



Day 3: 4:39 P.M
Osaka Streets
Time before the Night Rage: 1 hour and 21 minutes left
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyosei steps on the gas and not too far from him is the horde that passed by silently from the base. Hearing the revving engine sounds, the undead look at the speeding car and shows their hungry faces, ready to jump towards the car. Kyosei has no intention on stopping the car and with another push on the gas, the car speeds up to the group of the dead. In result, mashed up meat pastes slams into the car. Flesh and blood are all splattered into the windshield and the bumper of the car. Kyosei cared less about it. The dead were bulldozed by the SUV, breaking them all without thinking twice. After making sure that the horde are all smashed on the streets, Kyosei stopped on the nearby streets. Finding the Spawns are not easy. He might stumble on them but he is not quite sure about it. And the time is getting limited.

Kyosei randomly enters a building. Holding the kukri and the Colt 45 on both hands, he walks inside. The interior of the building are dark. It might be difficult for Kyosei to see so Kyosei uses a flashlight to light up the area. Since the flashlight is attachable into the head, Kyosei attached it to be more convenient in his situation.

Kyosei proceeded carefully into the darkness. He is not sure if spawns are in here and hoped that there was a nest so that he could hunt the other places and finish it before the Night Rage begins.

In the area where it seems to be an office has two undead standing there motionlessly. Kyosei sneak on them and uses his kukri to stab into the other one and kicked the other one, causing it to fall down, in which Kyosei took chance to pierce its brain.

Kyosei proceeded to loot the area but did not find anything useful except for the smartphones that they possess. Kyosei moved around the area once more and seeing no enemies, and signs of spawn, Kyosei has no choice but to switch another building. Before he can move to another building, something fast movements caught his eye. It is abnormally fast and he didn't get to see it directly but he is sure that it is not a human. Kyosei gritted his teeth. Another enemy perhaps? He was just looking for the spawn, this is not good. And for some reason, Kyosei can feel the bloodlust on the surroundings. The dead are now evolving, Kyosei can feel it. This enemy is an evolved form if not a mutated one.

Labeled as a delinquent and bad influence, high school student Kyosei Ichinose choose to stay out of the people around him, indulge himself to his headphones, pick fights against other people and stay alone. 

He was later famous for being a dangerous fellow that even his fellow students and his teachers feared him.

One day, everything is normal until the world is now in turmoil after the appearance of a mysterious disease that turns humans into mindless cannibals, infecting humans all around the country in an alarming state.

After receiving a distressed message from his former friend, he reluctantly returned only to find the school overrun by the dead. Armed with his house keys, a revolver and a duffel bag containing a few items to aid the rescue, he returned to the school without knowing why he still need to rescue a former friend.

--------------
Updates depends on Author. Usually 1 chapter a day or 2 chaps a day if I am in the mood.
5-10 chaps every Friday depending on the rank.

Ps: I won't go premium so you all can read at your hearts content!

There was no lifestone in the frogmen village, nor any NPCs to perform resurrections. The players could only count on those clerics who'd learned the Resurrection skill.
If their corpses were too badly damaged, not even Resurrection would be possible (at least half the corpse needed to still be intact), in which case you'd have to wait around for three days so you could respawn at a lifestone.
By now, pretty much every one of the players had experienced death before, but for the most part they'd either had a cleric nearby to bring them back to life—or, in the case of the raid on the Rotten Bones Church, they'd revived at Leah's position. Few were the players who'd ever actually had to wait three days for revival.
Invariably, those players who'd gone through it would rather never have to do so again.
Of course, after their demise, they spent their temporary afterlives in Xi Wei's Divine Kingdom. However, as a god, Xi Wei valued his own privacy, and obviously couldn't allow his faithful to wander freely through his domain. He'd long ago set aside a small area where his followers could wait out their penalty time.
The problem was that they retained their consciousness during that time period. Since Xi Wei had no powers over the passing of time, that meant those unlucky faithful were practically being confined to a small dark cell for those three days. In fact, throughout that entire period of time, they'd be unable to move their arms or legs, or even look around. It was an ordeal you could only understand through first-hand experience.
If not for their firm conviction in Xi Wei as the God of Games, along with a boost to their mental fortitude which gave them willpower exceeding the average of a person back on Earth… some of those players might have gone a little strange afterwards.
Xi Wei was aware of the problem, and a solution was already being prepared, but at present it was not an ideal situation.
It was a real dilemma for Xi Wei and his Divine Kingdom.
If he hadn't noticed something amiss with the frogmen village… if he hadn't been paying attention to Leah's conversation with the frogman elder, and noticed how much was being left unsaid… he might have erected a lifestone right in that village, so that his followers could gather there, maybe swing by for some sight-seeing in the future…
However, now that he'd heard the frogmen's story… well, it put him in a tough spot.
Although the frogman elder hadn't exactly said so, it had been made clear enough all the same: Beneath this village could very well be the last resting place of the Aquatic Lord, after his fall during the last Divine War!
The frogmen's prayers must have been feeding faith into the broken remnants of that fallen god for nearly a thousand years now. If not because they were so few in number, not to mention how their prayers were worth less than those of humans, a new divinity might well have been kindled in the Aquatic Lord's remains by now.
That being the case, erecting a lifestone in their village would be akin to starting a nightclub on their burial grounds, and inviting players to rave among the gravestones. It was enough to make the dead come clawing out of their coffins!
"How about if I set Leah as a revival point again? No, I'm not up against some simple-minded fool of a god this time. If I do the same thing as last time, they'll make me pay through the nose for it. Ah, what a pain in the neck—not that I have a neck at the moment," Xi Wei reflected. "Screw this. For now, let's just try out everything I can think up."
The players on the world below, oblivious to the concerns of their god, were bustling to make ready for war, as well as carrying their explorations into the homes of the frogmen.
However, before there was even any sign of the enemy, there was a quest update in the game system.
"Oh, wow! Are there only sixty-seven enemies this time? There's a bounty on each one!"
"Let's have a look… Taking down each target will gain us 'Reward Points'—isn't that kind of similar to the 'Revenge Points' from last time?"
"No, this time you can do more with the points than just exchange them for stuff: The top ten players with the highest scores will get extra rewards as well!"
"Summer Sun, this 'Black Whip' dude is worth a ton of points!"
"We're even getting a full map, so I guess there's no need for recon this time?"
"That's not all: It says here that the green dots are players, and the red dots are enemies. They've got no hope at all of catching us by surprise!"
"Looking for group! Looking to party! Level-22 Shadow Rogue. Let me take all the last hits, and when I make it into the Top 10, everyone in the team will get a share of the reward!"
"Party with me! Level-18 Soul Blade. I can tank, I can DPS. No Rangers!"
"What do you have against Rangers? Did one of them kill your cat or something?"
With all the data on their enemies that Xi Wei had provided, the players felt practically clairvoyant now, and were scrambling to find a team to work with. Already, they were negotiating claims on bounties with one another.
Seeing this spike in their morale, Xi Wei felt some relief. Hopefully, they would do well in this battle.
All those quest rewards would cost him quite a bit of divine energy, but it was a small price to pay to alleviate the massive headache over player deaths and revivals. With a little bit of luck, the pay-off would balance out the costs.
There was also a chance that he would come out of this at a loss, but this battle was necessary nevertheless. Not because of some noble desire to protect the frogmen—Xi Wei wasn't some burning-heart animal-rights activist. If he was going to offer shelter to some species or other, it would have to be something that was bouncy and cute, but also handy in a fight—maybe useful as a mount too, if they were in a different kind of era (even if riding something bouncy into a fight could prove deeply regrettable). Basically, nothing like these slimy toads, here.
What he was really after was the remains of the Aquatic Lord, which quite possibly lay beneath this parcel of land. If he could siphon off those divine remnants, it could grant a huge boon to his own powers, and raise him above all the other minor deities.
If he could do that, then even if the Skull God rallied the last of the Rotten Bones survivors and led them against him, Xi Wei should be able to hold his own.
He was not completely indifferent to the legacy of the frogmen and their thousand-year vigil, but there was a time and place for sentimentality. He had to keep moving towards his goals, and faith was the fuel of a god.
"Once those players have driven off the Secret Eye Society, I'll task Eleena with playing the role of a priestess. She'll inform the frogmen that their god is about to consecrate their land… This will help persuade them to build a few more structures, which means… yes, a sandy beach hardly makes for a good, solid foundation—so we'll have to perform some excavations, perfectly reasonable. Even if something weird gets dug up, and then vanishes in a flash of light… I'm sure they'll just roll with it." Xi Wei's mind was buzzing with schemes, and the more he thought about it, the more excited he became.
"More to the point: Whatever those excavations might turn up, as long as I make my move quickly enough, no one will have any clue what really happened!"
Regarding the possibility of finding nothing after all, Xi Wei couldn't deny that it would make all of this a huge waste of time.


This is the tale of an earthling, who transmigrated as a dying third-rate god but somehow rose through the ranks, gaining followers and eventually causing the Fourth Great Apocalypse.
☆
"Have you ever heard of the God of Games?"
"The God of Games..?" Eleena shook her head in puzzlement. "I have never heard of Him…"
"What if the God of Games could give you the power to defeat your enemies?" Xi Wei coaxed patiently.
Eleena remained silent for a while, before resolutely lifting her head and fixing her gaze on Xi Wei. "Then I am willing to become a believer of the God of Games!"
"Belief isn't something to only be spoken by mouth. Close your eyes and envision His name in your mind, and feel His power with your heart," he said solemnly.
"O Master of Games, grant us new life!"

MORE OF A REALIZATION OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN THIS WORLD!

Magic stone cannon artilleries made of metallic steel rock were a concept that Eleanor told Saleen about. In the end, the prototypical magic stone artillery cost a total of more than one-million gold coins, from design to producing it.
They went through the entire process a few times. Initially, mages crawled into the cannon to put the magic arrays in place. In the end, they created a tool to put the magic arrays directly in the cannons. After a few rounds of trial and error, the magic stone artilleries were finally ready to be mass-produced. Nevertheless, the cost of producing them remained high.
If the intention was to guard key areas, then alchemy crossbows wielded by skilled archers would have been more appropriate. If the magic stone artilleries were used to attack within short intervals, their magic arrays would become unstable very easily.
Fortunately, Nailisi was not counting on them to win the battle. The demon army and the blood knights clashed. With one sweep of her long lance, all the enemies within thirty yards were decimated.
When Nailisi swept her long lance across the enemies, the broken limbs of the blood knights flew everywhere. Only the knights on the flanks were still battling the demons. The blood knights were unable to gain the upper hand. The demons were two yards taller than the blood knights on their horses. No armor could resist the impact of the demon's giant axes.
The air was filled with blood. Nailisi was attacking with her arms and legs, staring at the holy priests standing faraway all the while.
A black high priest from the Supreme Court was the one commanding the blood knights. What the priests saw from a distance shocked them. There were actually demons!
Demons!
The high priests panicked. Even the bravest in the Supreme Court still feared the demons a little, and this was despite demons being humans' most loyal companions in the past.
The humans had regressed and could no longer enslave such creatures after all.
It was finally happening. The gigantic demon that was more than twenty yards tall charged at the rear of the blood knights with a long lance, the place where the black high priest was hidden amongst the central army.
The black high priest was surrounded by about two-hundred wardens, who were all wearing blessed armor. He screamed because he knew that the wardens would not be able to protect him. The problem was, he could not retreat because another ten-thousand blood knights would be coming from behind very soon. If he tried to escape, the red Bishop would never forgive him.
The other high priests around him began to panic as well. They did not hold high positions in the Supreme Court and were only equivalent to grade-3 mages. The red Bishop was free to deal with them as he pleased and the punishment for trying to escape from battle would be death.
The people of the Supreme Court did not believe there was such a thing as 'heaven'. They might be commanding the blood knights around, but they would never court death like the blood knights were.
Nailisi was wearing gigantic metal boots. One kick with those boots would send a number of blood knights flying. In the midst of the gory battle, her legs were already covered with flesh, bone marrow, remnants of armor, and even the enemies' innards.
Nailisi was beginning to enjoy the killing a little too much. Two arms gradually grew out from her back to grab hold of blood knights and hurled them to the front. The blood knights that were unfortunately caught in her grasp were completely destroyed the moment she tightened her grip. Their blood and flesh oozed out from the gaps of their armor.
The corpses of these blood knights were thrown away, crashing into the blood knights that were charging from behind. Just like that, Nailisi came unobstructed to the front of the black high priests. There had been ten-thousand blood knights being commanded by more than twenty black high priests, who were protected by more than two-hundred wardens.
Under normal circumstances, even silver grand swordmasters would not have been able to slash their way through the blood knights to reach the central army. Besides, this was not the central army; the real commander had yet to arrive. Two grade-8 red Bishops were directing ten-thousand blood knights and two corps into battle formation.
These black high priests were merely vanguards in name as they did not possess any powerful combat abilities. Usually, the ten-thousand blood knights would have been sufficient.
Nailisi laughed wildly. Those blood knights that dared to approach her were either kicked, stomped on, or crushed. The armor that she wore was made by Saleen who used heavy gold. It did not have any special abilities, only a strong defense. This was the first time Nailisi was fighting in her devil form. Although she was not a real devil, she was still able to inflict more damage than a supreme demon.
Nailisi was having too much fun killing. She could not be bothered with the weak blood knights anymore. She leapt twice consecutively and reached the central army where the black high priests were. She bent and with one sweep of her long lance, the wardens in the front were all sent flying to the sky. The wardens' armor was clearly better than the blood knights' as none of the former were cut into pieces. When their black armor was hit by the blade of the lance, fresh blood spurted out in all directions.
Battling using the form of a devil was unexpectedly effective.
More than twenty black high priests began to chant prayers simultaneously, but only the holy priest in the front was smart enough to take out a divine spell scroll. It was too late to be chanting prayers now. The giant demon's long lance was raised and ready to swing down on them.
The divine spell scroll that the black high priest took out was a very special one, the Wishing spell scroll.
This was a divine spell that operated on probability. Since its level was too low, probability of success was not high. Now that the demon was about to strike, this high priest had no choice but to pray that fortune would favor him.
His companions were already chanting prayers. He only hoped to be able to stop the demon for a moment. After that, surely the divine spells of his companions would be able to kill off this thing?
"Stop!" The black high priest opened the scroll and was relieved to see that it was shining with white light. The divine spell had succeeded!
Nailisi felt pain in her hand because her long lance has been stopped in motion even as her body continued to carry her forward. The long lance was not a weapon that Nailisi used often. It was only an equipment that she decided to use in her devil form at the very last minute. This long lance was of exceptional quality, surpassing even her devil armor. Nailisi was not familiar with it, unlike her armor, so she was unable to use it as if it was a part of her body.
As such, the Wishing spell succeeded in freezing Nailisi's long lance.
"Ha… Oww!"
Nailisi smiled in a strange manner. She relaxed her grip and took out another weapon from her bracelet – a gigantic shield. This shield was designed for devils and Nailisi being in devil form was as good as being a target board for alchemy crossbows. The shield was eighteen yards tall and was made entirely from metallic steel rock. The shield would enable Nailisi to protect herself from the alchemy crossbows' attacks.
After using her two additional hands to slap away the remaining wardens, Nailisi laughed wildly as she smashed the gigantic shield into the ground.
Nailisi's devil form was of a very high level so there was no way it would be stopped by a low-level Wishing spell. When she smashed her shield down, the black high priests were all within attacking range.
Just like that, the black high priests, who were not wearing any armor, were crushed into minced meat along with their holy shields.
These insignificant grade-3 characters were unable to put up any resistance against the devil. Right now, Nailisi possessed incredibly strong defense and terrifying physical attacks.
Nailisi attacked with her shield, smashing all her targets into minced meat. The human knights that were charging from behind were shocked by what they were seeing. They only saw the huge figure of Nailisi rampaging amongst the blood knights, no longer without any opponents in sight. A number of weapons that the blood knights had used to attack Nailisi were sticking out from her back. The weapons only succeeded in piercing into her armor and not injuring her devil form.
Blood knights were never meant to fight against creatures of this level. Their main targets had always been human armies.
The Bitter Water Prefecture heavy-armored knights rode amongst the demons. Charging at enemies was not what these knights depended on to win on the battlefield. They instead relied on a much slower speed so that they could target their enemies' weak spots with the reverse-blade scimitars that they wielded.
Pure-blooded warhorses were at least equivalent to a grade-2 magic beast. They had high endurance and the weight that they could bear was ten times more than other magic beasts of the same size.
The blood knights retreated slightly. Nailisi raised her head and saw that more blood knights were appearing from far away. Behind these blood knights were tens of thousands of Holy See armies.
Nailisi panted and felt that she could only continue to fight this way for another two hours at most. She had completely used up the strength of her devil form and would need a few days' time to fully regain it. She put away her shield and long lance and retreated slightly.
There were two grade-8 holy priests amongst her enemies. She would have a tough time handling the both of them on her own.
At that time, another army of the Holy See appeared from behind Nailisi's army, trying to intercept their path of retreat. The south gates of Sanlian City quickly opened and an army rushed out. The foot soldiers in Nailisi's army quickly turned around and got into their battle formations.
This army was never meant to aid south city, their main purpose was to protect the rear of Nailisi and her army.
The battle was getting chaotic, but Nailisi was not flustered. The demon army had practically been left unharmed. Nailisi was able to kill more than two-thousand blood knights with six blasts of magic stone artillery. She was confident of killing at least three-thousand the next time around.
Nailisi continued to retreat before squatting down and grabbing a demon that was six yards tall. In no time, this demon grew to a height of about twenty yards.
Of course, this was only a shapeshifting spell that would not increase this demon's combat abilities. Nailisi was only trying to find a substitute that looked like her. The armor on this demon, that had just been transformed to look like a devil, provided even less defense since it had cracked a little due to the expansion in size.
Nailisi gave her long lance to this demon while she gradually transformed into a human. She summoned her own armor and the weapon she wielded was now a scimitar.
Nailisi's devil form was a huge body that would have served as a target board for the high-level holy priests. Although she was having a crazy good time fighting, she had yet to turn into a fool as a result.
Hidden amongst the human heavy-armored knights were a few men armed with elvish alchemy crossbows. In the first place, Saleen did not possess too many of such items and had even less of them after giving some of them to Sanlian City. He gave out eight sets this time around because he knew there would be holy priests.
The battle was proceeding just how Nailisi had expected. The Holy See armies were attacking them from both sides as they hoped to exterminate this powerful army. Although the demon army took the Holy See by surprise, the result was still the same. The Holy See was still fully intent on destroying them, regardless if they were human armies or demon armies.
Back in Daliang City, Saleen and Lex were already resting for the night when a lifestyle mage woke them up and informed that someone wished to see them.
"Who is that? It's already so late, can't it wait 'till tomorrow?!" Lex was a little upset because the wedding was in one more day and she needed the rest. She could not imagine who would be so inconsiderate to disturb at this time.


It is said that the true meaning of a mage is to fully understand the truth of the world. A mage named Saleen Metatrin goes on many missions as a normal mage to try and change his fate. This in turn led to many problems and adventures.  

Meeting expectations, another month had gone by without any appearance from the elusive Betty. This indicated that her creator was either being extra cautious, taking measures to avoid leaving any evidence whatsoever, or, as was far more likely, they were involved with something going on behind the scenes.

At this point, it was all but guaranteed that their enemies were hidden away within a sub texture as none of the probes they had sent to observe the various Bounded Fields on the Surface had noticed any abnormalities. Though it was possible they had ventured inside one of them without notice, the fact two months had passed without a single sign of them indicated this was not the case. 

Without any leads, other than the ones Sherlock fabricated using his unique combination of Skills and Innates, the Empire had no choice but to focus on more pertinent issues. They couldn't keep waiting around for the enemy to attack so, in preparation for whatever would be thrown at them, Vahn had been making use of the Throne of Heroes to a borderline gross extent.

With the exceptions of Sir Agravain and Sir Kay, all of the former Knights of the Round Table had now been summoned. Vahn had taken into consideration the fact he would be establishing the European Supercolony first so, with the majority of Heroic Spirits being more powerful within their homeland, it was a good opportunity to get things out of the way. As a result, they learned that Sir Agravain and Sir Kay were 'technically' both still alive but, considering Add possessed a fraction of the latter's spirit, this wasn't particularly a surprise.

Following the summoning of the Knights of the Round Table, Vahn figured he might as well go for 'complete sets', much like a collector of various goods. He would need a phenomenally powerful force to contend against the Gods and police the entire planet so, with Astolfo already existing as a central figure within the Empire, Vahn opted to summon the Paladins of Charlemagne, sans the infamous Emperor himself.

Though Vahn had been tempted to summon Charlemagne, Astolfo and the then-summoned Roland had convinced him otherwise. According to them, Charlemagne was a benevolent ruler but, as could be expected for someone of his era, he had been a principal follower of the Roman Catholic Church. He had even been christened as the Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, giving him the 'divine right' to rule over the known world. 

In other words, Charlemagne was a religious zealot of the highest order and, while many had called him just, history had always been written by the victors of conquests. Since even Roland, the leader of the Paladins of Charlemagne, was against summoning his former lord, Vahn knew better than to give in to his curiosity. This was only emphasized even more when he summoned the sibling duo of Bradamante and Rinaldo, cousins of Roland and Astolfo. The former had been someone ardently loyal to Charlemange but, given a choice in the matter, she would rather he be left to rest.

By the time Vahn had summoned half of the Twelve Paladins, any thoughts he had of summoning Charlemagne had been swept aside. The last thing he needed was a religious zealot to unify the scattered followers of the Roman Catholic Church, reviving the functionally pointless organization despite the proven existence of Alaya. 

Charlemagne was a man who had received everything from 'God' so, upon being summoned into the present, it was all but guaranteed that he would turn against the Empire that had, for all intents and purposes, destroyed the Roman Catholic Church. This would make things difficult for the former Paladins so, rather than sew discord in his own Empire, Vahn decided to simply avoid summoning him. The fact Charlemagne had Skills like [God's Resolution],  [Holy King], [Great Emperor Privilege], and [Ceremonial Reformation] further cemented this idea...

---

As could be expected from summoning large groups of related people, there was a bit of drama within the Empire but, as this just made things livelier, Vahn didn't particularly mind. Truthfully, he was just glad that people like Bradamante weren't pining to gain access to the Inner Sanctum. In fact, she seemed to have a particular fondness for her cousin, Astolfo, so Vahn had been able to see the pink-haired Knight running all over the island in order to escape the rather violent twin-tailed tsundere.

Other than moments like that, the only real drama had been a result of the former divide between the Knights of the Round Table but, as the present had nothing to do with events from more than fifteen hundred years ago, things settled down pretty quickly. It helped that Gareth had been one of the first to be summoned as it was her death, combined with Artoria's handling of things, that caused the original split. Though Gaheris couldn't completely forgive Lancelot for what he had done, the fact Gawain and Gareth had forgiven the former Knight of the Lake went a long way towards rebuilding trust between them...

In truth, most of the actual drama within the Empire was related to Vahn and the Inner Sanctum so, for reasons he couldn't quite put into words, it was nice to see other people experiencing a bit of drama. It always made for pleasant conversation while they were all drinking together and, though it was impossible to completely bridge the divide between them, Vahn felt closer to his male companions when they had troubles of their own to talk about. It had become increasingly more difficult to talk about his own so it meant a lot that they trusted him enough to bare their hearts to him, at least while intoxicated...

It was no secret that, while his position was enviable, none of the men who knew of Vahn's affairs would ever willingly trade places with him. The only two people who could truly empathize with him were Ozymandias and Alexander but, whilst they had both harbored harems of more than a hundred people, the difference in status had ensured things never became an issue. Alexander, in particular, could go months or years at a time without even caring about some of the women in his harem so, while the number eclipsed Vahn's, the effort they put in was incomparable.

To make matters even worse, Vahn's harem had become increasingly more convoluted with the passage of time. At times, it even felt like there were no real restrictions limiting its growth as, a few weeks after he first had sex with Illya, Iris, too, had shared his bed. Just recently, he had even made love to Nero, an affair that had lasted nearly thirty hours due to her sheer unwillingness to 'admit defeat'. Now, the only real harem candidates he had yet to do the deed with were Jeanne, Okita, Medea, Semiramis, and, for entirely different reasons, Medusa.

Vahn still held some small hope that girls like Jeanne and Okita would find love elsewhere but, as he never really did anything to push them away, it was, truthfully, only a matter of time. The same could be said for Medea but, as she had become very close with Medusa, there was little chance of her taking the initiative before her friend. Vahn was pretty sure they had even made a promise with each other to that extent so, once Medusa was finally ready to advance their relationship, it was all but guaranteed that Medea would follow suit.

Now, the only thing Vahn could really hope for was that Mash, Zoë, and Juliet wouldn't fall for his 'charms'. If they followed the example of Astrid, that would be for the best as, much like he had towards Tina, Vahn felt extremely awkward having basically reared them as his surrogate children, only for them to fall in love with him as a result. He wanted them to be happy and, while he would do his best to help them find that happiness, it would be healthier if they found it outside of his bed-chamber.

Fortunately, Mash had been getting along exceptionally well with Richard and, though it was more than a little troubling, Sakura had privately told him about her crush on Galahad. This hadn't exactly come as a surprise but, knowing she had enough trust in him to openly admit her feelings, Vahn felt both gratified and fretful at the same time. Ultimately, however, the former won out, so, after a very long heart-to-heart conversation, Vahn basically told Sakura that she was free to love, so long as she took the necessary considerations, chiefly her age, into account.

Though he would never allow his children to be in a toxic or exploitative relationship, Vahn had already made the decision to never interfere with their love lives. Even if they made a mistake, this was part of the growing process and, so long as it wasn't associated with a tragedy, he wouldn't even punish the men or women that had broken his children's' hearts. After all, he wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue when it came to relationships so, to prevent needless rebellion, Vahn tried to be as understanding as possible when it came to his children's problems. He would rather they come to him seeking advice and counsel rather than try to keep something a secret as, after the incident with 'future' Tina, Vahn had learned a very hard lesson about communication...

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he, and many of his children, would live forever. Any number of things could happen in that time so, rather than drive a wedge between them in the first few decades of their life, Vahn wanted to establish himself as someone they could trust when things didn't go their way. He would never proactively spoil them but, when it came to the things they needed, he would always be there to provide for them. This was one of his most important duties as a father and, though it was more painful than he imagined, Vahn was able to bear the peculiar heartbreak associated with having your children grow up, a supportive smile on his face throughout...

Soon enough, this would become a very important skill to possess as, with Isanna and Naavi both having already matured, there was a very real chance he would be tested in the near future. After all, Isanna was a troublingly promiscuous girl and, now that her appearance was almost the same as her mother, it was all but guaranteed 'something' would happen. She even floated around in her raiment most of the time now and, though her pseudo-Divinity related to Love had actually decreased from 95% to 88%, Vahn had the distinct impression this was due to the nature of the Divinity changing.

If things continued to develop as they were, it wasn't hard to imagine Isanna and Daiki becoming lovers in the near future. Both Isanna and Naavi were drawn to him far more than was normal for siblings but, unlike her 'older' sister, Naavi was very level-headed. As for Daiki, he was troubled by his doting older sisters but, despite his lamentations, he couldn't be away from them for very long without falling into a state bordering on depression.

Ishtar and Ereshkigal weren't particularly worried about their daughters ending up with Daiki, as it was 'very' common for related Gods to become lovers, but, as could be expected, Rin was more than a little troubled by the notion. Though she was one of the mothers of all three children, Daiki, in particular, was her baby. She knew there wasn't actually a genetic relation between her son and the two Vanir but, considering they were formed in the same womb, it still felt wrong. 

What really weighed heavily on Rin's heart and mind was how Isanna and Naavi looked almost identical to Ishtar and Ereshkigal, despite the fact they weren't even five years old. She had even mistaken Isanna for Ishtar once when she saw the former floating around with Daiki contentedly sleeping with his face in her bosom. It was only when Isanna called her Mama that Rin realized it wasn't actually Ishtar, something that caused her a few restless nights after the fact.

When it came down to it, the thing that really frightened Rin was the fact that her son was basically growing up with his path pre-determined. Though he got along decently with everyone, the love he shared with his two sisters was abnormally strong, far beyond even that of close kin. While this wouldn't have been much of an issue if they developed at the same rate, the fact the two Vanir already looked like young women was terrifying to her...

It had taken a considerable amount of effort for Vahn to assuage Rin's concerns over the matter, helped in large part by Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Artoria. Together, they had been able to convince her that the most important thing was for them to be tolerant and patient parents. If she started to try and distance Daiki from his sisters, that would only cause all three of them to resent her so, the only thing she could really do was try and guide all three of them to the best of her ability. 

Since most of Isanna's more troublesome aspects had been reigned in by Vahn, his words had a lot of weight when it came to convincing Rin to be patient. Children, even those born with limited-omniscience, simply didn't know better when it came to such things. They needed their parents to guide them with patience and understanding, not disgust and intolerance. Since Rin truly loved all three of them, it would only end in tragedy if she tried to intervene forcibly. Not only would her heart suffer in the process but, as a result of her actions, Daiki, Isanna, and Naavi may even come to hate her.

Hate was a very powerful motivator and, with the amount of power Isanna already possessed, the last thing they needed was for her to become rebellious. As things stood, she was actually a very obedient and responsible girl, despite her troublemaking tendencies. Though she did butt heads with Mordred on a number of occasions, she rarely used even a fraction of her power, knowing, on a fundamental level, it was wrong to do so. This was an idea that had been instilled into her at a very young age and, after considerable guidance from Vahn, Isanna would likely continue using her power responsibly into the distant future.

When it came to power scaling on the levels of Gods, authority and respect were two of the most important aspects of maintaining order. With this in mind, Rin was encouraged to become one of the people Isanna genuinely respected, not the primary source for any antagonistic feelings she would develop over time. It would take a considerable amount of effort but, with ardent support from Vahn, Ishtar, and Ereshkigal, the three people Isanna respected most, it wasn't impossible...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Gotta collect 'em all...!','Vahn, God of Drama...','Poor Rin. It can't be easy being a mortal trying to raise god-like children...')

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Vahn was an atypical youth. Due to a rare mutation, his blood had the potential to target and attack ailments within the human body. Touted as a universal cure, people had elevated his status above the norm and given him the classification "Panacea". In the media, he was hailed as a great hero who would usher in a new era or human wellness. However, behind the scenes things weren't so bright. Being a unique individual, Vahn spent his entire youth locked up in a lab with various scientists and research teams using his body and blood to perform endless amounts of experiments. The only solace in his suffering was the various anime and manga made available to him between experiments. He often imagined himself as the protagonist in a world of his own, finally in control of his own destiny. For years he nurtured this desire, until at the age of 14 he died when an organization had tried to kidnap him from the lab...

"Finally, I don't have to suffer anymore..."

This was Vahn's last thought as he faded into the endless black abyss...

"You poor soul."

Cover by Sinlaire, Edited by Frozen: https://www.deviantart.com/sinlaire

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This is a work of fiction that draws heavily upon the original source material of Danmachi. Please support the official release and know I claim no ownership or credit regarding the existence of pre-existing characters or content.

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