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"Talking", 'Thinking', Flashback/Dream,Writing/"TV"/"Radio", "Voice changer"/"Demonic voice", Titles, *SOUND EFFECT*
Chapter 3: A New Mission Part I: The Last Fort of St. Michael
*TRIGGER WARNING! DEPICTIONS/MENTIONS OF TORTURE/ASSAULT BELOW!*
2013
In the streets of Pentagram city in one of the more impoverished areas was a soul that was slumped down in an alley covered in grime and dirt. It is a demon that resembles that of an angel except he looks anything but. His feathers are completely disheveled and some are missing. A beard is very much visible on his face and long black hair is both greasy and filthy. Wearing a filthy grey hoodie, black winter beanie hat with holes for his horns and pale blue jeans, the former priest is at his absolute lowest. After arriving a little over 2 months ago he has been living by far the worst life he has ever been in. He is no stranger to tough living, especially since he was a child but that was nothing compared to this life. Majority of his food came from dumpsters out of diners and restaurants just so he can get whatever leftovers were thrown out. Water for both drinking and bathing came from either the rain or public fountains.
"Heh, So this is the true Saint's life huh?" he jokes to himself. Through seminary and before he had learned stories of poverty from multiple saints who lived on the streets and got closer to God from it like Saint Francis of Assisi for example. Insead of that, all he can feel right now is fear, humiliation, bitterness, and pain. And all he can think right now is how all of those 'blessings of those who are in poverty' sayings he's learned over the years are pure bullshit.
He looks out at all the demons of all shapes and sizes walking around not paying attention to him or his troubles. He's both unfazed and furious at all of them walking by smiling, staring at their phones, and even stumbling around drunk and or high shouting for all of Pride to hear. He even hears the grunts and moans of some couple way down the alley having sex. None of them caring about anything in the world except for their own desires.
In the past two months he has learned the hard way that nobody down here is good or innocent.
Even himself.
Just as God intended in His design.
He gets up from his spot and moves through the crowded streets. Rain starts falling across the neon lit streets now prompting everybody to either pull up their hoods or break out umbrellas and move quicker to reach their destinations. The fallen catholic could easily fly but honestly at this point he just doesn't care anymore.
While moving through the crowds and bumping through sinners and hellborn he began to feel harder to breathe and slipped out of the crowd to the outside of a dive bar. Heat starts spreading in his chest feeling the urge to go down there. A tickleness on his tongue craving for some beer.
But before he can go down there he hears some scraping and flesh sounding smacks and grunts.
'Ugh, does anyone here have a sense of decency? Or better yet, hold off until you guys reach a bed?' He thinks to himself.
But that changes when he hears someone begging in the darkness of that alley.
"Please stop!"
*Smack*
"Hey where's he goin'?!" A deep voice mockingly yells out.
"Grab his legs, get him up against the wall." A lighter but menacing voice chimes in.
The hobo sinner creeps up to the alley and looks in and sees what's happening. Bloody and shaking being pinned against the wall by a large hand is a red and black fox demon about half his height and two large demons. One of them is an intimidating figure that looks similar to Frankenstein's monster with the dead skin and the stitches across his head wearing a leather jacket and a chain necklace. Next to him is a slim wolf demon in a suit that could be confused for a hellhound.
"Look at me." The dapper canine says to him while kneeling down to his level.
"You actually thought that you would get away with stealing from me?"
"I-I did no such thing." The fox replies.
"Yes you did, don't lie. You stole from us and were emailing info to our biggest competitor."
The fox looks absolutely terrified knowing that everything is now out in the air.
The canine smiles, "So, what do you prefer? Continuing death by acid, or getting torn apart by my dogs and having the doctor putting you back together each time? If not then I'll have Tiny here beat you until you have an answer."
He gets closer to his beaten face and holds it in his claws. "But no matter what you choose, you will eventually beg for a holy bullet to end it all. And you'll never have it."
He gets back up and straightens his cuffs. "Tiny? Do your thing."
The foxes' eyes widened. "No, wait!"
*SMACK*
Blood and teeth go flying from that hit and all the former priest can see is the terror in that demons face and the cruel smiles and laughs in the other demons faces.
And then all he sees is HIM.
Bright blue eyes and a wide sharp smile.
His red eyes widen as he clings onto his stomach while clutching the wall. It is not stomach pains of what he's seeing. But instead all he can feel are the knives, the pinchers, the saws, and the hatchets going through and into his body removing piece by piece while completely being awake, screaming, and unable to die.
He looks down at an empty beer bottle and knows what he has to do.
*CRASH*
A bottle slams into the behemoth's head causing him to grunt in pain and move back in recoil while fast footsteps move past and the canine gets tackled into the pavement and starts getting pummeled by heavy hits delivered by the angelic hobo.
Suddenly he feels a large hand grabbing one of his wings very roughly, feeling the bones snap like toothpicks and tosses him off roughly into the wall. Quickly he feels a huge muscular arm pinning his neck into the wall crushing off his main airway making it hard to breathe. He looks around and sees a very angry scarred face with pieces of glass sticking out of his head with blood leaking out of the new gashes.
The angelic demon looks to the side and he sees a flash of a reddish tail disappearing around the corner, realizing that the guy he just saved fled away.
Leaving him.
The pinned angel's eyes go down in disappointment, bitterness, and solemn acceptance once again reminded that everybody looks out for themselves first and foremost in this world.
The Canine demon gets up and spits a glob of blood onto the ground and looks towards him with a casual smile but his eyes.
They look as if rage had a soul.
"So." He starts.
"Clearly you don't know me. Cause if you did then you definitely wouldn't have done that."
The pinned sinner struggles hard trying to break free, but it's no use. Due to his weak body and damaged wings from that throw he can't go anywhere, instead all he can do is watch.
He straightens his suit and wipes his blood off his mouth. "Tiny? Hold him still."
The bigger demon keeps his hold on his prisoner while looking back at his boss who is now reaching down and lifts up his pant leg revealing a bowie knife in a black sheath. He unclasps the snap holder on the handle and pulls out the blade.
It is a shining silver blade almost glowing.
Fear courses through his veins and tries harder to break out grabbing onto the muscular arm unable to leave.
"You are so fucking dead buddy." The canine growls out with glee and steps forward.
'So this is how I truly die, by trying to be a good Christian and this is how it gets me.'
He closes his eyes accepting his fate.
*SCHLLK*
He cringes then opens his eyes seeing the canine demon boss with wide eyes and a blade sticking out of his chest. The blade goes back and he slumps down revealing who's behind him. Both Tiny and his prisoner are shocked by what this person looked like. Black coat, Black military vest, fingerless gloves, a hood, and an LED mask showing two eyes, and a grin with a mustache on top. And in his hands is a short sword and on his back is a longer weapon. "Alright big guy let's dance, you ugly shit." The figure says.
The frankenstein demon lets go of the angel and he quickly pulls out a large knife from his pocket and tries to swipe at his boss's killer. The cloaked figure moves to the side letting the blade pass him and as fast as lightning swings his sword upwards severing his arm at the elbow causing him to scream.
"AHHHH!"
He spins and plunges the sword straight through his chest and brings him down to the ground with a loud thud.
The angel coughs now having air in his lungs looks in both terror and awe.
The figure goes by the wolf demon and bends down grabbing the bowie knife that he dropped after getting skewered.
He flips it around examining it. "Angelic steel. Beautiful craftsmanship, however powerful as angelic metal is, it's rather tricky to reforge it. Only a few handful of people know how to do it and still keep its heavenly power. Hell even while holy bullets can do the job in erasing a demon, getting this much metal to convert from a spear to this is impressive."
He looks at it for a moment more until he looks down at him. White LED smile growing more as he gets closer. "I'll take good care of it, I promise. I hope you find comfort in the void." He grabs his head up and plunges the knife into his neck, making the "unharmed" witness cringe while grabbing his own neck.
He moves on to the big guy and does the same thing with him, now both wounds creating steam as their souls extinguish forever.
The demonic angel trembled in what he just saw. Another soul moved so quickly and killed 2 souls with almost the same level of brutality and skill as Heavens Exterminators do.
"Hey."
He looks up at the soul whose mask is now just two eyes and a mustache showing a neutral expression. "You're alright? You took a bit of a beating back there."
"I've had worse."
"Well you took that throw like a champ, so I can see that. Also nice tackle by the way."
Wait.
"You just stood there and saw that?" He can't believe that some Exterminator cosplayer with skills to back up the apparel just stood there and watched him take a beating. What kind of soul does that?
Oh wait, this is hell.
"Hey I wanted to see what would happen and I'd intervene when I needed to."
He grabs the sheath off the wolf demon's leg and puts the knife in it and puts it in his vest pocket.
"Come with me, you look like you need something to eat. I know a nice burger joint not far from here. Very quiet and secluded."
"What. Why?"
He replies. "Cause I want to. Plus you seem like a decent guy compared to everyone else in this shithole of a city. Make conversations a little bit fresher." He adds. "Plus I've been watching you for the past few blocks now."
He gestures at the bodies. "Seeing what happened recently I now know that I really need to talk to you about something."
At first he wants to refuse and just either run or tell him to fuck off, but before that can happen he feels a sharp pain of emptiness in his stomach, not eating anything decent since last night. Fresh food can be nice, especially meat. Non-human of course.
"I-I don't know. How can I trust you?"
There was a pause before the figure reached up and took off his mask showing his face.
"I'm Silas." He grins.
With hesitation, the fallen catholic reveals his.
"Philippe."
Present day
Up in the blood red sky above one of the pride rings flat and dry wastelands was a demonic looking vulture with red eyes and sharp teeth looking around for prey. It locks its gaze on a piece of roadkill lying out on the heated concrete and swoops down towards it and starts picking at the remains of the possum corpse. While indulging in its meal it didn't react in time to the vehicle speeding down the road splattering the bird across the grill. It is a gray armored car similar to that of a military humvee now screeching to a halt.
"Ah crap."
Doors open and black combat boots hit the ground moving around the car to the front. "Oh man, hey Mark you gotta check this shit out! Biggest one yet!"
Silas grabs the neck of the dead vulture and yanks it out of the vehicle's grill and is now showing it to his injured comrade. Silas is a unique demon who is about a head taller than Mark and very muscular with a shaved head, bright green eyes, and a toothy grin with sharp canines like most demons down in hell have. But what makes him unique from most sinners is that his skin is a mixture of flesh and thin tree bark resembling that of a tree person or a wooden sculpture. The only hair that he has is a goatee beard looking similar to moss.
Sitting in the reclined passenger seat with bloody bandages covering his hands and head is the priest looking in a way that can be seen as either disgust or annoyance. 'Years later and he still acts like an idiot. I don't care if he outranks me or even personally trained me. Still doesn't take that quality away.'
"Why would I want to look at that?"
Silas shrugs not so innocently. "I don't know, maybe 'cause it's always fun to see you cringe? You've been an exorcist for what, over a year now and you still squirm at gore? You gotta admit that is pretty funny!" He throws the vulture at the side of the road and he climbs back into the driver seat and starts up the engine again. "Also, that was the biggest bird I ever hit so hey, new record!"
Mark wanted to retaliate by saying he can handle gore, but also conveniently leave out that he just doesn't like to linger at it, but due to the pain he was feeling all he can let out is a small, "Hooray…"
It has been at least an hour since they left Pentagram City and other than that small stop the ride has been in complete silence except for the rock music playing in the car. Listening to demon cover bands to songs, especially to rock songs that Mark likes, is honestly one of the worst parts of hell in his most humble opinion. He has been a lover of music ever since he was a little kid but any music from the living world is no longer available to sinners except for the high ranking demons like the royal family, the Goetia, or the V's (due to Vox's powers). Also any original music just lacks a certain passion and spirit that music back on earth did. Ironically in the very back of his mind the most passionate music he has ever seen or listened to since coming down here was Charlie's song on the news.
He reaches over and turns off the radio which a frustrated Silas turns to him. "I was listening to that, ya know?"
Mark tries to sit up as straight as he can and attempts to level him with his own frustrated look. "We need to talk."
The tree demon looks to the road in annoyance. "About what?"
"You know what! About the grandmaster wanting me for one, and especially how you followed me and screwed up my kill!" It hurts a bit to yell due to his head but honestly he just doesn't care.
"Tsk. You should honestly be thanking me. If it wasn't for me taking that potshot at that vase, you not only would've been killed by everyone in that hotel, but the entire order would've been destroyed in the long run."
Mark yells. "I would have been killed?!" He gestures to himself. "Look at me! I almost died tonight because of you!"
Silas turns to him and his look is something that Mark has been somewhat accustomed to but still feared. "It was because of me that Lucifer didn't tortured you for information, and killed you!"
He looks back at the road and continues to rant. "If you killed her then there would be a good chance her little squeeze would wake up also causing a commotion and the princesses bodyguards and everyone else including the radio demon would have shown up and would probably kill you! And even if you survive and run off, chances will be that Lucifer will know full well "who" did it and will hunt you and every one of our spies and other exorcists down and track us back to our home! Now thanks to you every Templar spy, and exorcist in the rings will have to be called back for protection in case Lucifer searches for the one who tried to kill his kid!
He takes several breaths before he looks back to the priest who looks angered but feels some guilt from being so stupid. "Look I'm sorry that you got hurt but I had no choice. I would have stopped you earlier but I arrived right when you entered that hotel so I had to take a risk."
"You could've kept shooting and take out the target. Or you know, the goat demons." Mark calmed down somewhat but still interjected mockingly.
He replies. "That wasn't my mission, my mission was to save you from doing something stupid. And I didn't want to give away my position and get targeted too."
Mark sighs knowing he can't win this debate and asks, "How did you find me?"
"I went to your hideout to check in on you since you didn't report in after the extermination and after I saw the princess on your target board and other info on your computer I realized what you were doing. So I booked it to the hotel and by the time I finally got there you had already broken in so I had to do something."
'Dammit I forgot to check in.' Mark berates himselff further for being so stupid and not tell them he was fine. If he did that then he would've gotten away cleanly after killing Princess Charlotte. Or better yet tell them what he was planning and something better could've been planned.
He chuckles, "Plus I had some faith you would be alright. After all, you were taught by the best." Mark rolls his eyes and looks at him with a mocking look. "You shouldn't hype up your own teaching abilities like that. Pride is a sin, you know?"
"Oh come on, you know I'm great! By the way you are lucky it was me, if you were trained by somebody like Arthur you would've been a blood stain in the princesses carpet."
"Ha!" Mark laughs but he can't help but wonder and ask the one thing on his mind he was scared to know the answer to. "What is the Grandmaster gonna do to me?"
"I don't know, I didn't speak with him directly but I can tell he is not happy. I contacted Commander Karus on my way to the hotel about the situation and he told me to stop you. Before I got to you on the roof I told him what happened and he said and by quote: 'Get him back to base now. The Grandmaster requests his presence as soon as possible, he and I would like to have a little word with him.'"
Mark starts looking paler than his usual skin tone. Karus the commander of the Exorcists, and Marks CO is an absolute sadist in both combat and in training. And he is one of the most blunt and painfully honest souls one would ever meet in the Templars as well as one of the scariest. He has heard rumors of disobedient exorcists and other soldiers getting either killed by him and then killing them again after they get regenerated or have them punished in the most humiliating of ways. So there is a very good chance that both him and the Grandmaster are going to chew him up and spit him out into a bonfire. The head of their order while not as deranged as Karus is still someone to be feared as well as provoking him is never a good idea.
Silas notices this and tells him, "Look you're not gonna get executed, you are too valuable of a soldier to get executed on the spot like this."
"It's not that I'm worried about."
"Okay well besides that" He continues. "You're gonna get treated as soon as we arrive and by tomorrow you will speak to them so hopefully during that time their anger will simmer down a tad."
The priest knows his mentor is trying to help him feel better but it barely helped at all. Any sane soul in the order should know by now that the grandmaster of Hell's Templar order like God himself is someone that should never be provoked unless they will be utterly destroyed both physically and spiritually.
After two hours from leaving Pentagram City the two Exorcists finally reach their destination. A cluster of Mountains resembling that of the Rockies back on earth. The humvee gets up to the feet of the mountains and after driving through sands and dirt reaches a stop about 20 feet from the entrance of a mineshaft. The entry way is held up by old rotting wood and bones of animals and lesser demons litter the entryway and inside the tunnel making it look very clear to enter at one's own peril.
The mountains in this area housed many materials and metals used for making many metallic and rare goods for the ring of pride. After many centuries the metals became depleted and several cave-ins made the mines in the mountains unusable resulting in it being abandoned searching for materials elsewhere in the ring.
Silas reaches a walkie talking on the dashboard, presses a few switches, and starts talking into it. "This is Exorcist 122 requesting entry." All of a sudden, two turrets pop out from the entrance on the ceiling aiming at the vehicle. If Mark can remember right there were holy rounds in those guns ready to take out intruders if they cracked their radio frequency. Not only that but out of the corner of his eye he sees two black armor clad figures about twenty or so feet above the entrance out of a small cave one holding a rifle and the other holding a scanning device and a radio.
The radio comes to life. "Stand by 122 for scanning." A few seconds pass before the radio channel opens up again. "Remind us of the oath that you took." Without hesitation Silas answers on the radio. "To be without fear against our enemies in battle. To be upright and true, so that God may love us. And to speak and live our truth even if it means our death. All In Christ's name, never ours." Even after hearing and saying that oath so many times over the years it still gives Mark good feelings in his soul.
"You can proceed. Welcome home brother." The turrets deactivate and fold back into the mineshaft now hidden from view. Silas carefully drives into the mineshaft and about a hundred or so meters inside at a dead end the ground gives way into a ramp going down into a tunnel. About 12 minutes of driving in darkness, light comes back.
Mark looks out and sees it. Nestled and hidden in the mountains is a castle, a fortress carved from the rock of the mountain itself. It would be impossible for somebody to trek into this location without the secret entrances and tunnels scattered around the mountain range. And if anyone flew over they wouldn't be able to see it due to concealment barriers to keep outsiders from seeing it. And if anybody got past those barriers then they would be shot out of the sky immediately by the Templar soldiers and guards on the walls.
After leaving the tunnel the vehicle rides on a flat surface before it starts going uphill toward the castle wall. The wall and hill both are very useful for defense against any invading threats and will be perfect for shooting fish in a barrel. The metal gate slides open and two large doors swing inwards allowing them to enter.
The vehicle drives through the large courtyard and goes to the right side of the area where the main storage area for vehicles is. They get out and walk/limp out to the main courtyard. It consists of several demons both sinner and Hellborn littered around doing various things. It sits in front of the main entrance to the Templar fortress that is carved into the mountain itself. Its architecture looks similar to that of a cathedral.
The official name of this place is called Hell's Cathedral of St. Michael, but is also called The Last Fort. This secluded place is where the Knights Templar have taken up residency for the past four-hundred years after nearly being driven to destruction by Lucifer and his allies armies. Only a handful remained and they ran off and took up residency in the brand new castle/church that was built in secret during the final years of the war.
Many memories come back to Mark as he sees a small batch of trainees in the courtyard being pushed to their physical limits by one of the higher rank soldiers doing pushups.
2013
"YOU FUCKING CALL THOSE KICKS?! I'VE SEEN STRIPPERS PERFORM BETTER THAN THAT ON STAGE!" A large grey hellhound in dark leather armor with a red templar cross on his back is currently having all new recruits doing butterfly kicks while getting doused with water by imps and other sinners under the hot red sky. Mark and several other demons are wearing black cotton shirts and trashy exercise shorts that say 'recruit' on them and are all feeling like they are dying all over again.
Later the recruits do several other exercises such as jumping jacks, crunches, and push ups while getting screamed at while following a 5k run outside the castle walls through the many passages through the mountains and abandoned mines in near darkness. Afterwards back in the courtyard Mark and everyone else looks and feels like they are all going to either vomit again or pass out, maybe both.
The hellhound paces around the new recruits. "EVERYONE OF YOU HAS NOW TASTED A DAY OF TEMPLAR PHYSICAL TRAINING!" he continues. "THIS CONDITIONING COMBINED WITH BASIC COMBAT SKILLS WILL MAKE YOU ALL TRUE KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLAR ORDER NO MATTER WHICH DESIGNATION YOU EITHER CHOOSE TO BE IN OR ARE TASKED WITH! "YOU ALL KNEW GOING IN THAT THIS WON'T BE EASY, SO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY BITCHING AND WHINING FROM ANY OF YOU OR ELSE I WILL MAKE YOU ALL WISH THAT YOUR MOMS SWALLOWED YOU! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
"YES SIR!" everyone yells.
"GOOD!" His voice then gets quieter, which means that if somebody forgets this then they will truly die again. "You must know right now that whether in here or out there, you must take two things into consideration. "Fight for God foremost, and always take care of your comrades' wellbeing. You betray either of those ideals then you are just as bad as the ones that we are fighting against. You are not even worthy to call yourself a Knight of the Templar Order."
"Mark?" "Mark."
"Mark!"
The priest snaps back into reality and looks to the side at his mentor and he jests, "Hate to break up your daydream but we need to get to the infirmary."
Mark nods and follows beside him, but while walking to the main doors of the castle he can't help but remember his time here. After many years of brutal training from both the Initiation trials and Exorcist preparation he still can't help but feel like it wasn't enough. He was trained to be the tip of the spear for the Templar order, the elite that fights powerful demons and brings down overlord and royal control back to the Templars and the sinners of this realm.
But after all of that and all of his accomplishments afterward, he still failed. He failed the exorcists, he failed the order. He failed to kill the devil's heir and now there is a likely chance that she will tell her father and will realize that the Christian militant order is still around after over four hundred years of silence and every one of his brothers and sisters will be sought after and killed.
He broke the second rule that his drill instructor taught him.
'What have I done?' He thought.
Authors note
I really wanted to continue but this seems like an appropriate place to stop considering that the next chapter is gonna be very dialogue heavy and that is somewhat of a challenge for me. Also after waiting so long you guys definitely deserve it. So we finally see Mark's secret life from his church-goers. This chapter took me a while due to a lot of thinking of how the castle is gonna look, the structure of the Templar order, as well as character designs and future story beats I've been thinking about. Also school really affected this as well. Hopefully the next one won't be as long.
By the way just to get this out of the way, as it is shown in the flashback Mark isn't his real name. Every Templar can choose a new name if they want to after completing their basic training and taking the Templar oath. I thought that'd be really cool and interesting. Also I'm a bit late on this but thoughts and prayers to those in Ukraine having to deal with so much death and destruction. And also prayers to those who died in the despicable and evil shootings in both New York and in Texas.
Best wishes,
Azrael-50
