"Talk"

'Thought'

Spotlight turns on, revealing Kyrie Beradon'na standing at the center of the stage, her expression was slightly hollow and sad, clearly from what happened last night, but she refused to let that keep her down, she takes a moment to catch her breath and clear her mind, and when the music start, she moved forward and begins to fulfill the reason she was on the stage in the first place

Kyrie: "Listen to my voice calling you, calling you out of darkness…"

As Kyrie sings the song, called 'Out Of Darkness', a deep thought Blake Belladonna and a calm unconcerned Agnus could be seen standing at the sides of Sanctus, who just sat down on his throne and enjoys listening to the lovely opera music, as for Credos Beradon'na, he just stood at the sidelines of the stage, being with his fellow Holy Knights brothers, and just like his younger sister, he was also still in a sour mood, which only worsen when he noticed the grandson of Sparda wasn't here, though despite the entire Beradon'na Family was at a state of tension and uncertain feelings, luckily everyone one else in the church seemed to have not noticed the internal and private struggle that they were having, just sitting and enjoying the performance, not a single person bringing up the whole situation… Well, all except the Grand Priest

"I have lived long and experienced enough to know when someone is troubled."

Sanctus, without facing away from the singing Heavenly Cantatrice, he spoke up, and was obviously speaking to Belladonna, who could only sigh in response

"Observant as always, Sanctus."

Blake wasn't upset that His Holiness noticed something was up, they had known each other for a long time after all, it was surprising to her for him to point it, though that didn't change the fact that she wasn't happy that he caught on to her problems she was having

"Family matters no doubt, I noticed how your entire family was acting when arriving here."

Bureiku couldn't help but feel like a children's book from how easily Sanctus was able to read her and her children.

"A… A simple disagreement with one another, which did get a little out of hand quickly, but it is nothing to be concerned about, we just need a moment to cool down and we should be able to talk it out with one another."

Despite the large amount of trust Blake had for the older man, she wasn't going to tell him everything that was wrong, nor force or allow him to get involved in matters that technically don't concern him, to which he did nod in understanding.

"Forgive me for being intrusive, guess my old age just made me curious about the younger people's private lives."

Sanctus was willing to drop the subject, not forcing the Priestess of Darkness to indulge his curiosity, which was something she did appreciate, though since he brought up said private subject, she couldn't help but suddenly think about something that she couldn't keep quiet about

"... I'm thinking about quitting and moving away from Fortuna."

When Blake said this, the sound of glass slightly cracking caught her attention, quickly she looks and noticed the Holy Priest calmly drinking his cup of tea

"That is certainly an interesting idea that you brought up, nearly made me drop my tea from the suddenness of that."

Sanctus then sighs and put down his tea cup, this time facing away from the performance and looking into the amber eyes of Beradon'na

"But something tells me that this is no simple passing thought, isn't it?"

Belladonna only responded to that question by glancing away slightly, which was enough of an answer for Sanctus

"I see… My only request is to not leave just yet, it might be selfish to ask if that since I have no control of your life."

Sanctus looked back at the singing daughter of Bureiku, who was also closed to her climax, not only that, but Nero appears to have arrived in time as well, or at least made it before it ended, which actually made the mother of that child smile lightly to see

"But I have some, 'Projects', that I wish for you to be a part of… Do you think you could leave after helping me complete my life's work, please?"

The small begging from Sanctus hit the cat faunus straight in the gut with a ton of guilt, feeling like she was in a position that she couldn't say no at all

"... I don't mind, you helped me a lot when I was at my lowest, so it would be my pleasure to help you in any way that I can, as my way to repay for the large amount of kindness you have given me and my family."

But in the end, it wasn't like Blake wanted to say no to His Holiness, not only because she felt indebted to his amazing generosity and support, but because she wasn't any rush to leave a home she had created and made memories in, of course the desire for a peaceful life away from here was still strong in her heart, but she wouldn't mind taking any excuses to stay in Fortuna a little bit longer

"Thank you."

Sanctus bows his head in thankfulness before slowly getting up on his feet and walked forward to the podium, since the Heavenly Cantatrice has just finished her performance

"2000 years ago, the Dark Knight Sparda-"

As Sanctus took this chance to speak to the crowd of believers, the Priestess of Darkness couldn't help but sigh and lay her head back against the wall, closing her eyes and tries to clear her mind from all the problems she was facing at the moment, wanting temporary peace and relaxation

"You have my sympathy, Beradon'na."

Agnus decided to speak up and somewhat try to share his pity with her, which only made her chuckle slightly

"Heh, no need to feel bad for me, I've made my choices, so these consequences are to be expected, I'm just complaining that's all."

Blake couldn't help but shake her head, though before she could continue to either continue to speak with her friend, or just take a moment of pure silence, her cat ears suddenly twitches slightly, which made her slightly open her eyes to see what she was hearing, and what she saw was what looked like a Masked Imp and a Demonic Hellhound crashing through the glass ceiling, and landing before His Holiness, everyone in the entire church could only watch everything with wide eyes, clearly no one was expecting what was happening now, and what would soon happened next, the Masked Being then pulled out a large chainsaw gatling gun hybrid, which had a named carved into the weapon, 'Lollipop', it quickly rev up the weapon with a loud engine roar, before shoving the spinning blade chain deep into the chest of Sanctus, making blood spray everywhere, the old man could only yell in agony and cough up blood on the Masked Child, who didn't respond to this and even pushed the chainsaw deeper in him

"YOUR HOLINESS!!!"

Credo, and his Holy Knights, wasted no time pulling out their weapons and charging forward towards the Masked Imp, to which she noticed and pulls her 'Lollipop' out the Pope, who stumbled and fell backwards, being caught and gently held by both Agnus and Bureiku, then the Masked Imp used the gatling gun part of her weapon and started to shoot the entire squad of knights, all of them were instantly shot down and killed, except for the elder son of Beradon'na, who was forced to summon a shield made of aura to block all the non normal bullets, all this sudden chaos was enough to snap everyone from their shocked state and started react accordingly to such insanity, the entire civilian crowd wasted no time screaming and running towards the exit, Kyrie tried to help said civilians go to the exit, either by sending them to the right direction or helping those that fallen during the panic, Nero also helped his older sister by doing the same thing, though he couldn't help but momentarily stop and look towards the direction of his mother and the alchemist, who was now carrying the body of the 'Dead?' Priest

"W-W-We must go to my lab, it's our only chance to revive his Holiness!"

Agnus, while not completely calm, was still trying to keep a cool head about all this and try to fix this minor problem of his dead Holy Pope

"You can revive him?!"

Blake sudden shock about this new information was enough of a distraction for the Hellhound to jump and land in front of them, stopping the two in their tracks as the Demonic Dog roars at them, the eldest Beradon'na son saw that his mother was in trouble and tried to help, but was only met with even more bullets from the Masked Imp, the Desolate One then opened his mouth and revealed a very unnatural and nasty looking tongue

'Oh my fucking God, how many problems do I have to deal with today?...'

Blake was clearly not having a great day as the Hellhound suddenly shot his long nasty tongue at them, though just as Belladonna was about to defend her friend and His Holiness, the Grandson of Sparda managed to get in between them and catch the tongue with his demonic arm, which was a smart move since the tongue of the Demonic Dog was covered in acid and would've burned him if he used his normal hand

"Sorry, but she hates dogs."

Nero then tightened his grip before spinning and swinging the Desolate One away from his mother and towards the Masked Imp, who saw this and quickly jumped away to avoid the swing, this in turn stopped her shooting and gave the Holy General a moment to recover, though once he catches his breath, he quickly ready his 'Stygian Durandal' and was about to charge forward, but was quickly stopped by his younger brother

"Focus on protecting everyone, I'll handle her."

When Nero said this to his older brother, he couldn't help but made him feel momentarily conflicted, but after remembering how his mother almost gotten hurt, he knew that this was a much more better plan to do

"I will return to help, stay safe Nero."

The younger brother nods before jumping forward and towards the Masked Imp, who landed on the statue of the Savior and started to shoot again, though he blocked those bullets by pulling out his Blue Rose and shooting at them, Credo wasted no time rushing toward his mother and her college

"Follow me, I'll take you all to safety."

They nodded and started to follow Credo, who tried to lead them out of the church, though as they were leaving, Blake couldn't help but look back at Nero, and more specifically at the Masked Imp, narrowing her eyes and couldn't help but feel something strange about her.

'Why do I feel like I know her?..."

I was gonna include the fight scene, but I felt like it deserves its own Chapter, not only that but an idea popped up in my mind and I need time to think about it, cause it will change the story if I do it in a specific way.

(BTW if you want to see the artworks of the Masked Imp, check out my DeviantArt, name is GOODLOSER, or just look up Bianca Eva Xiao Long)