The Sanguine Saints were one of the churches open secrets. Rarely openly spoken about, but everyone who was anyone knew about them. Until recently I had never heard of them, but Griselda told me everything I need to know.

The Sanguine Saints are a mysterious order of werewolves who are known to work for the church. It is said that they were founded centuries ago during a time when werewolves were hunted and persecuted, and their purpose was to protect their kind from harm while also serving the church.

The Sanguine saints are not your typical werewolves. Blessed by angel's light, they are not bound by the full moon and can shift at will. Unlike feral werewolves, their transformation is said to be more controlled and less feral than other werewolves. They are also unique in that they do not need to hunt humans for food, but instead feed on animals and blood substitutes. Yet there were dark whispers that the church fed them irredeemable criminals.

The Sanguine Saints are deeply loyal to the church and said to be involved in many of its secret operations. They use their abilities to track down supernatural threats, such as demons, witches and other creatures that threaten the balance between the mundane and supernatural worlds.

The origins of the Sanguine Saints were a mystery, yet their order could be tracked for centuries. Some even said they were formed during the Great War, but no one could say exactly when. Essentially a suicide squad, the Sanguine Saints were sent on mission deemed too dangerous or important for normal people.

Despite their loyalty to the church, the Sanguine Saints are a secretive and reclusive order. They keep to themselves and only interact with the outside world when it is necessary for their missions. It is said they live in an isolated monastery, hidden away from prying eyes. The Sanguine Saints are feared and respected by those who know of their existence. They are a reminder that even in a world of darkness, there are those wiling to fight to keep the light shining.

My task was to meet up with someone from the order and hunt down Valper Galilei. The Sanguine Saints will claim him, inducting him into their ranks. I wasn't told what Valper's crime was, but that the representative I would be meeting would tell me what I needed to know. Yet I knew that it had to be something bad if such a secretive and fabled order were sent to deal with it.

I would be going to the small town of Vernazza, meet with my handler, and together we will investigate what happened and apprehend Valper. A train ticket was purchased for me, and I would be leaving today. It sucked that I didn't have time to truly catch up with Griselda and Xenovia, but duty calls.

Vernazza was a small, quaint town. Situated in northwest Italy's rugged Ligurian coast, Vernazza was a beautiful sight. It smelled clean; the surrounding ocean not polluted. The streets were lined with candy colored houses gelatarias to do your own tasting tour, which I was eager to do myself when this mission was over. The town sloped down to a small sandy beach and a harbor. At the foot of the harbor stood Doria castle, an ancient, gleaming monolith to human ingenuity that stood the test of time. The locals assured me that an iconic seafood restaurant called Belforte inside of the castle was the best in Italy, and I wanted to see for myself. The only thing that stopped me from going now was my mission.

And whatever had been following me after I got off the train.

Whatever it was, it was big. I could see it at times out of the corner of my eye, a giant shape that was just out of view. Whatever it was, it was either incompetent, or it wanted me to know it was there. Considering that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a good look at it, I was sure it was the latter. I was on alert though, ready for an ambush. That was probably the only reason I was able to react when it sprung its trap.

As I walked by an alley, an animalistic growl was my only warning before something grabbed me and pulled me into the alley.

I was slammed against the wall, and felt hot breath wash over me.

"You need to work on your situational awareness little man," a deep voice said. I opened my eyes and saw a large shape loom over me. "But your reaction time is good, for a human. If I had been normal this little spear of yours would have skewered me." He leaned back to remove the ice spear I created and lanced him with, and I got a good look at him.

Big, was the first thought that crosses my mind. He had to be close to six and a half feet, and almost half that wide. Arms that looked like tree trunks and a barrel chest, this man was easily the biggest I had ever seen. Long black locks of hair fell across his face and reached shoulders that looked like small boulders. The ice spear that pieced his shoulder looked minuscule in comparison.

"And who are you," I asked.

"You haven't figured it out yet? I was told you were a smart one, and old Griselda isn't one for embellishing. Names Charles kid, I'm your handler. Now get up, we have a mission to finish."

He walked away, and once I started to follow I was able to get a good look at him. A simple shirt and pants, if he wasn't so large he would look just like anyone else. No visible weapons, and I couldn't detect an ounce of magic from him, so he either had superb control over it or carried none. From what I knew of werewolves, he probably didn't need any. Even in human form a werewolf was stronger than the average human. As big as Charles was, his strength had to be in a league of its own.

As I followed Charles I tried engaging him in conversation, yet he must have been the silent type because most of his answers were single worded. After a while I gave up and started to appreciate the scenery. The town had a quaint, rustic feel, and it calmed me down. I made sure to keep an eye on our surroundings of course, which is why I caught when we crossed a barrier,

"We're here kid," Charles grunted. Here, being a small, nondescript warehouse. The sort of place no one would have noticed being purchased and then disappearing. At least, that's what it would have looked like to the normal humans. I drew my splitting maul from my personal dimension and kept an eye out. I gathered touki and activated my mind's eye.

"There are twenty-four people in there," I told Charles. There must be a basement; about half of them are below ground."

"Hmm. Let's go in. This is who were looking for," he said as he pulled a picture out of his pocket and we walked towards the building. The man looked like any other priest, a balding old man. "Were you told why we're here?" I shook my head. "Typical. The church loves its secrets. Valper and his ilk were experimenting on children. Attempting to draw out the holy element that allows one to wield Holy swords. Something must have gone wrong; all of the children were slaughtered. Our mission is to determine who was complicit in the culling, then claim Valper along any others. I will be bringing him back with me, the others will go back to their respective churches."

My retort was cut off as we reached the door, where Charles kicked it in off its hinges.

"Blasphemers;" he roared, "the Sanguine Saints have come for you!"

There was a brief lull of silence as the people inside the room processed that statement, before the screaming started.

"Death is here!"

"They've come to kill us!"

"Repent, repent for your sins!"

There were about eight men in the room, and they all started to run around like headless chickens. One ran through a door into the basement, four tried to stay as far away from us as possible, and two ran directly at us. Charles punched the closest one, who was sent flying into the wall. I followed his example and bonked the second one on the head with my maul. I encased the two of them in ice.

"Take care of the others," Charles said. "I'm going downstairs."

As he left, I walked around and secured the other priests. I used rope from my personal dimension for them, since none seemed hostile. None put up a resistance, seeming to have accepted their situation.

The Hum of a light sword was the only waring I got. I turned around to see the sword swinging at me. I tried to block it, but the supernatural weapon tore through the middle of my maul. I jumped back holding the ruined ends of my weapon to see who attacked. One of the priests I first secured had tried to attack me from behind. As he took his robes off, I recognized the familiar outfit of an exorcist. He threw his robes at me, and I conjured an ice spear to divert it.

By then he was on me. He swung at me, and while I was faster than him, he had the advantage of reach. With my weapon destroyed my options to attack were limited, so I had to fight smart. I concentrated on dodging his attacks, all the while I gathered mana in the hand I hid behind my back. On one swing the exorcist over-reached, and I saw my chance. I swung the hand that gathered mana, and once I confirmed the exorcist followed my hand, I let the mana explode. It wasn't meant to damage, just create a blinding light. I closed my eyes, but touki allowed me to see his life energy even with them closed. As the exorcist screamed and flailed wildly, I threw the head of my maul at his chest. He fell with a crunch. I could see he was still alive, just injured. I tied him up and left him with the others. I grabbed his light sword and then headed downstairs.

It didn't take me long to catch up to Charles; I just had to follow the trail of unconscious priests. I didn't bother tying them up, I just froze their feet to the floor. When I caught up to Charles he was in an empty room, looking around.

"Took you long enough kid," he huffed. "Couldn't handle some old men?"

"One of them was an exorcist. Took me a moment to knock him out."

"Hmm." He paced around for a moment, seemingly looking for something. "I'm missing something here. They gathered in this room, but there's nothing else here. Keep an eye out for a hidden room."

We looked around, but other than tracks through layers of dust there was nothing in here. I activated my minds eye and looked around. Directly below us I could see two life forms. I was about to tell Charles when he began to growl. Not like a human would, but a dog. Or a wolf. I looked over and his attention was above us. I looked up and saw a rapidly approaching aura. Before I could say anything, it burst through the ceiling and landed between us.

I had only ever met one angel, but there was no mistaking what this man was. But while lady Gabriel was like the warmth of the sun, this man was the complete opposite. Six dark wings seemed to cast the room in darkness, while a single light spear illuminated us in its sickly yellow light. He said no words as he took us in, but with a flick of his wrist he sent his light spear towards me. I conjured a small wall of ice to block it, but it shattered the wall and pierced my shoulder, launching me back until it impaled me against the wall.

The light burned. It seemed to infect me, as if it entered my bloodstream and was burning me through the inside out. Through the haze of agony I had the quick thought to activate touki. It was harder than usual, but after a few seconds I could feel its effects slow the burn. I encased my hands in ice and grabbed a hold of the spear. It took some effort, even with my touki enhanced strength, but I was able to yank it out of my shoulder. I looked over at the other two in the room.

At some point Charles had grabbed the angel and slammed him against the wall. During that time the angel had conjured multiple light spears and pierced the much larger man. Charles had just yanked them out, steam appearing from the wounds as they closed before my very eyes. Changing tactics, the angel conjured a warhammer made from light and engaged Charles in close combat. That was a mistake. Charles allowed the warhammer to strike him and grabbed the angel in a bear hug. The angel screamed as Charles squeezed, before he began to blow. A blinding explosion emanated form the angel, and when I was able to open my eyes I saw that the angel employed the same tactic I used on the exorcist earlier. Judging from Charles' charred skin, there was a considerable amount of heat behind the angel's attack.

The angel turned to me, conjuring another spear, but before either of could do anything we began to hear cracks come from Charles' direction.

As I looked over I could see Charles' body contort as his bones broke and reformed. It seemed as if the werewolf grew out of him, as his flesh began to tear and fall off and I could see the fur underneath. His body elongated and a snout began to emerge from his mouth. The process only took a few seconds, but when it was finished a werewolf stood where Charles lay earlier. It looked at the two of us, and with a growl it slammed into the fallen. He moved much quicker than before, nothing more than a black blur to my eyes. The two of them smashed around the room in their fight, and I tried my hardest to stay out of their way. I was no match for the fallen, and I had no idea if the black blur of claws and teeth was rational enough to remember I was an ally.

As I looked around the room for an escape route Charles slammed the fallen onto the floor, in the same spot he landed earlier. The fallen slammed his warhammer onto Charles' snout, and in the moment of respite flew out of the hole in the ceiling. With a growl Charles jumped through the hole in pursuit, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the two monsters were gone. As I looked around the room I noticed a hole in the floor where Charles slammed the fallen. It led downwards, and when I activated my mind's eye I could still see two life signs below. I looked above, I could still hear Charles and the fallen fighting. Their fight didn't seem like it would end anytime soon, so this would be the perfect opportunity to explore. I strengthened myself with touki and punched the floor. It took a few hits, but eventually the hole became large enough to jump down.

The hole led to a dark tunnel. The light from above illuminated enough of the tunnel that I could see where it ended ahead. I walked into a rotunda, inhabited only be two people. One was a young girl who laid on the floor, unconscious. The other was Valper Galilei.

"So," he said, "those fools at the Vatican finally decided to send someone after me. No matter, I expected as much. All I must do is kill you and I'll be able to complete my experiments."

"You're going nowhere,' I responded. "I'm here to stop you."

"You, stop me?" He laughed. "Little boy, your superiors sent you to your death. If you knew what I had here, you would never have come alone. No matter. If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get."

His mana pulsed, and he brought out a blade from a pocket dimension. It was a beautifully crafted blade, a two-edged rapier with a swirl pattern on the grip. The blade glowed brightly, and I shut my eyes from its intensity. When I opened them again I was back in the forest of my childhood. I looked down and saw that I was a child again.

"My, my little lamb, how lovely it is to see you again" a voice said from behind me. A sharp jolt of fear hit me as I heard that voice again. There was no way she could be here. I slowly turned around and was once again face to face with that beautiful porcelain face.

"This time though, you won't escape me."