MYSTERIES, A NEW LEADER, AND THE INVASION

After a few seconds of thought, I remembered exactly where I was and what was going on. Kyrie was the only thing on my mind; I had a feeling that Credo would be fine against the assassin. Credo was tough like that.

Looking out of the Opera House, I saw Gloria leading Kyrie away. She was stumbling, tears were overflowing her face.

To Kyrie, it was like that tragic day all over again. Only this time it was her brother.

As she was nearly dragged across the town by Gloria, Kyrie's feet stopped altogether. The rest of the town was a distance away, hiding in their homes and closets. Gloria turned and stared at Kyrie's now paled face, runny nose, and red puffy eyes.

"I…I don't…want…to lose him…" Kyrie choked, struggling to find the words, fighting against her tears to get them out clearly. "No…no…no." Kyrie fell to her knees and placed her palms together, and prayed: "Lord Sparda, oh Lord Sparda. Protect Credo! Please! Lord Sparda!"

Gloria knelt down to her and hugged her tightly, consoling her as best as she could. I stood over them and watched as once again, Kyrie was ripped apart. I clenched my fists. I had to do something; I couldn't let Kyrie's suffering pile up.

I jumped back into the Opera House, where Credo was holding his own against the assassin, just as I knew he was. But Credo's face was pouring with sweat; blood stained his shoulder, his moves were getting a little bit slower, whilst the assassin was hardly exhausted. His face wasn't wet, and he wasn't making any extra efforts to swing his sword.

In the end, Credo was still only human.

While their swords collided, the assassin lifted his foot and kicked Credo to the floor.

A dirty trick, effective though.

THE NEXT FEW MINUTES

The assassin jumps on Credo, one leg on his chest.

He's prepared to strike the final blow.

I can hear Credo's heart racing.

I can sense the last thing on his mind:

Kyrie.

If I had a heartbeat, it surely would have stopped.

Before it could happen, Gloria ran and attacked with her curved knife. The assassin evaded her attack and jumped away. A small cut was visible on his face and he wiped a trickle of blood away. Within seconds though, the cut healed completely—not even a scar was visible.

Gloria helped Credo to his feet; neither of them took their eyes off the assassin. "He's a demon." Credo said. The assassin scoffed and shook his head impatiently.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" He growled, then looked up at the domed roof and the broken glass ceiling that he came from. Credo and Gloria knew exactly what he was thinking, and ran at him.

The assassin pulled out two pistols—one black, and the silver one he used to kill His Holiness with—and shot at their feet. Gracefully he jumped up and bounced off the walls and sat at the edge of the broken glass roof, his feet dangled down at Gloria and Credo as he gave them a smirk.

"You're pretty impressive, for a human. At first I thought you were another one of them." He called from above, pointing at Credo's fallen men.

Credo and Gloria both looked down at them, their hoods were off, revealing their almost charred looking faces, sharp fangs, and glowing, dead, yellow eyes.

"What the hell…?" Credo whispered. He looked up to question the assassin, but unfortunately, he was gone.

SKIP TWO HOURS

Several knights came back and took the bodies to be buried. Credo asked them if they knew about their grotesque features, but no one could comprehend it.

Kyrie ran up to Credo in joy and nearly knocked him over, with him being injured in battle. She began to wrap his shoulders in gauze as she expressed how happy she was to see he wasn't dead.

Other knights returned to clean up the mess, one came back bearing information.

"Fortuna Castle?" Credo confirmed.

"Yes sir, that's what the witnesses have told me." The young recruit said, "They also say that he stole some apples and a few bottles of alcohol."

The entire Opera house fell silent for a while. Gloria's snicker broke the silence, "The poor man was hungry." Credo shot her a glare.

"How dare you crack jokes in our time of crisis. As for you." He turned to the young recruit, "In the future, you can let slide something of little importance, especially in this type of situation."

"Careful Credo, if you crease your face too much, it'll stick." Gloria joked, earning her another glare from Credo. To some it would seem that Gloria was only trying to provoke Credo, but what she was trying to do was clam him down. He could see that was her main intention, and sighed, placing his hands behind his back and walking towards his recruits.

"His Holiness, our Vicar, Sanctus, has been murdered. Murdered by a demon, a ruthless demon who has both a powerful sword and firearms in his arsenal. We must do what we can to make sure that this threat is taken care of, before this…devil slaughters the entire city."

"But, what if his intentions aren't to kill the entire city? We don't know-"

"Of course we don't know! We know nothing about this thing! We have no leads! That's why we must kill him!" Credo sucked in some more air, and continued calmly, "You…are all still young. I can't risk your lives when five of you have already been killed within mere minutes by this devil. I will go to Fortuna Castle, and I will hunt him down."

Kyrie immediately stood up from one of the benches and grabbed Credo from behind. "You can't!" She wailed, "You can't do that! I won't let you!"

"Kyrie get off me! It has to be done!"

"No, Credo!" Gloria snapped, "You're not doing this, not alone!"

"Yeah, yeah, Chief. I mean…with…His Holiness dead and all…doesn't that make you the new Vicar of Sparda?"

Once again a wave of silence filled the Opera House. Credo was in shock. A secret smile formed on Kyrie's lips. Victory was hers.

Gloria seized this moment, and patted Credo on the shoulder. "Yes, Your Holiness, that means we'll have to keep you nice and safe, won't we?"

"N-no, I have to track him down before he can cause anymore damage."

"Credo, he's heading to Fortuna Castle, there is no damage he can cause that isn't there already. While he's there, we should take the time to go to Headquarters and plan this whole thing out, before he comes for us. Besides, you shouldn't go to Fortuna Castle anyways, not with all those missing cases."

"She's right." A knight said, "No one's come back from Fortuna Castle."

Credo shook his head, "There were several who came back!"

Kyrie intervened, "Only two ever came back! And they were all babbling about a ghost! Credo…please, not only is the castle dangerous in itself, but now that…thing is wandering around in there. You can't go…"

Credo looked all around the Opera House, eyes stared at him, begging him. It was then that Credo felt the weight. He was now the Vicar of Sparda, Fortuna's leader. Now the Festival of the Blade was his job to maintain, now young people seeking advice would come running to him. Now he was the one in need of countless bodyguards, now he was going to be the one young knights would sacrifice their lives for.

Sweat dripped off his forehead, Credo began to feel faint. He looked down at his sister, then at the mighty statue of Sparda himself. His fingers trembled as he swallowed nervously. Kyrie gripped his hand and stood next to him, she had a small frown on her lips, but an expression to show that she was with him.

This kind of thing was unavoidable anyways, Credo was always a great leader, it made sense that he'd become the next Vicar, he just didn't expect that it would happen so fast. No one really did.

As the siblings were having an almost telepathic conversation, the ground began to rumble. I clenched my fist and jumped outside, where I saw them all: the entire town of Fortuna was running for their lives from demons. Scarecrows.

SCARECROW

A burlap sack filled with straw and demonic bugs known as Trypoxylus.

The bugs move as one, attacking with a blade attached to their arm, sometimes their leg.

They're a puny, lesser demon. But when you're just a defenseless human, they can kill you.

Dragged out of their homes by fear, the civilians ran. Once again, children were sobbing, people were screaming, the slow ones tripped and became either trampled, or sliced by the demon's blades. It was a horrific sight. Children and adults alike were being slaughtered. I counted two children, four women, and six men dead before Credo and his subordinates made their way out of the Opera House.

Immediately Kyrie gasped and pressed her face against Credo's shoulder. Credo drew his sword and nodded at his knights, who charged the demons. The knights did a better job fighting off the scarecrows than the others did fighting the assassin. As they fought, they pushed the civilians towards safety. The best bet being Headquarters.

Credo pushed Kyrie towards the gate to leave with the others, The gate that would lead to Headquarters. Kyrie complied, but something caught her eye.

WHAT SHE SAW

A child hovering over the bodies of his dead parents.

A scarecrow coming towards him, laughing.

I acknowledged that Kyrie protected her brother out of love, but this was something different. Kyrie was putting herself in unnecessary danger, this was like her throwing herself in front of Credo hoping that she'd stop the bullet. This was sacrifice.

As she ran, she held the child in her arms just as the demons jumped for their attack, there was no possible way to avoid being hit, I screamed her name as loud as I could. No use. No point. I trembled as I lifted my hands up to shield my sight.

"GLORIA!"

Credo's voice echoed in my head, I let my eyes see, and there was Gloria, her curved blade in her hand, and wiggling, falling burlap sacks at her feet. Kyrie was behind her, cowering with the child. I became at ease again.

"Get out of here, Kyrie!" Gloria demanded. Kyrie nodded, and carried the boy away. She put him on the ground and pushed him towards Headquarters, another woman came and took the boy's hand and together the two of them ran away.

Kyrie sighed, and looked over by the water fountain, another child was behind there. Kyrie's heart got the better of her, and she ran towards the child, this time it was a young girl, hiding. Kyrie stood her up and assured her that everything would be alright and pushed her toward the gate.

The girl was gone, Kyrie took one last look around. That was then she heard the explosion. She turned around, the gate was collapsed, rubble completely blocked the way. As she looked in terrified awe, even I was curious as to what happened, and looked around.

Credo and Gloria were both gone. No one else but Kyrie was around.

"Kyrie?"

Credo's voice, from the other side of the rubble. Kyrie put her hands to her lips, gasping. She ran to the rubble.

"Credo?"

"Kyrie? Kyrie! What are you…?"

"What happened?" Kyrie whimpered.

"No, no, NO!" Credo yelled, "You idiots! We left…we…KYRIE'S ON THE OTHER SIDE! Didn't anyone check for her? Gloria!"

Gloria's voice: "I thought she took off with that kid!"

"Me too."

"Kyrie!" Credo spoke, "What were you doing?"

"Credo! I'm so…I…" Kyrie took in deep breaths, then sobbed. I looked up at the rubble. It was far too high for Kyrie to climb without seriously injuring herself. I kneeled down and tried to pat her back.

"Kyrie! Hang on! I'm coming!"

"Are you crazy? If you try to climb it, it'll all collapse! It'll kill you!"

"Then what are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait?"

I turned around and saw them coming, another flock of scarecrows. Kyrie was still on her knees, whimpering. I tried to catch her attention as they came closer and closer, they were aware that Kyrie was there. Not her though, she was oblivious to the danger.

They kept coming and coming. I screamed at her, "get up" "move" "look out", nothing I said got to her. They came, Blades lifted and ready. That was when she turned. Angrily I swung my arm at them.

Kyrie was covered in straw and lifeless burlap sacks. I looked at my arm, my right arm, my claw. It finally made sense. It didn't have to stop in the Opera House, I could still protect her. And now, I had to protect her.