The sky was covered in thick clouds, painting the city in a dark and heavy tone. The streetlamps were already casting their yellowish light on the damp sidewalks, but there, in that forgotten spot on the map, even the light seemed hesitant to stay on.
Antares, Kiba and Koneko were at a safe distance from the old church, hidden by the shadows of an abandoned building. From there, they watched intently.
No movement. No figures entering. No sound escaping. It was too quiet for a place marked by the presence of such chaotic creatures.
But the closer they got, the denser the air became. As if something invisible was pressing down on their chests, suffocating them with an uncomfortable sensation.
"Fallen Angels, right?" Antares broke the silence, his red eyes analyzing the construction with lethal precision.
"Yes. I can clearly feel... one or more of them inside." Kiba replied, crossing his arms. His expression was serious.
Antares narrowed his eyes. 'Which of the three worms that attacked me is in there...?'
Kiba knelt down and opened a laminated scroll, unrolling it on the asphalt. "Here. Look at this map."
'A map of the church? Where the hell did he get that?" Antares wondered, arching an eyebrow.
Before he could ask, Kiba anticipated: "It's the basics when visiting enemy territory." He gave a small smile, but there was hidden tension behind it.
Kiba pointed to a highlighted part of the diagram:
"Next to the shrine, there's a dormitory. But it's the shrine that looks the most suspicious to me."
"So we can ignore the dormitory?" Antares asked, still looking at the plan.
"Probably." Kiba nodded. "Groups of 'Lost Exorcists' often make modifications to the shrine. That's where they perform rituals, black magic... things that have been forbidden by Heaven."
"Why right there?"
Kiba took a second to answer, and when he did, his voice was laden with an ancient bitterness.
"Because that's where they used to worship God." He clenched his fist slightly. "By corrupting a sacred place, they take revenge. They loved God, but were rejected. So they perform banished rituals right under the altar... as if they could hurt what they have lost."
Antares listened in silence. Not out of empathy - he didn't feel sorry for those bastards. But now he understood better the kind of sick mind they would face.
"The shrine is just behind the main entrance." Kiba continued, returning to his tactical tone. "We can go straight to it. The problem will be finding the entrance to the basement once we're inside. That's where they're probably waiting. Ready to kill."
'Assassins... prepared...' It was exactly the kind of situation Antares was looking forward to.
He and Kiba exchanged a brief glance. Then they both looked at Koneko, who just nodded, firmly, her golden eyes shining in the moonlight.
Without words, everyone understood what needed to be done.
The clouds opened for a moment, revealing the full, cold moon, which bathed the three of them in its silvery light.
The wind blew through the trees, ruffling their hair and clothes, as if the night itself were whispering a warning.
Antares took a deep breath and clenched his fists. "Time to start decimating these vermin..."
Without further hesitation, the three of them crossed the silent street and pushed open the large wooden doors of the church. A long, low creak echoed through the interior, as if the sanctuary itself was lamenting their presence.
The air inside was thick, almost viscous, with a cloying smell of burning incense and? something else. Something metallic. Ferrous. Like dried blood.
Footsteps echoed in the silence. The sanctuary seemed, at first glance, ordinary - rows of wooden benches lined up perfectly, an altar decorated with sacred symbols and heavy red curtains behind it. Ancient chandeliers on the walls and dim lamps illuminated the interior with a yellowish, unstable light.
But there was something wrong.
Very wrong.
That light didn't warm. There wasn't the slightest touch of divinity in that place. It was a dead glow that seemed to emanate from soulless bodies.
Antares narrowed his eyes. "Hm... there's something that doesn't seem normal to me."
The altar... It was too clean. Too symmetrical. The candles at its base didn't burn with natural flames. They danced with a slightly greenish hue, and the wax dripped in strange patterns, as if drawing symbols as it melted.
Kiba approached the altar in silence, his eyes attentive to every detail. His steps were light, almost soundless, as if he feared awakening something lurking in the shadows.
He looked at the wall in the background, behind the altar.
And then he saw it.
A statue - or what was left of it - hung on a chipped stone cross. It was clearly a representation of Christ... or at least it had been one day. The body remained intact, the arms open in martyrdom, the feet together nailed to the carved marble. But the head... had been completely destroyed. Shards of stone covered the floor like crumbs of blasphemy. Where once there had been a face of compassion, only a hole remained.
A symbolic act. A direct insult.
Antares approached too, staring coldly at the statue. "They broke the head... but left the rest. As if they wanted to erase the symbol of faith, but keep the suffering."
CLAP. CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.
The sound of clapping echoed through the sanctuary like sarcastic thunder, breaking the dense silence with an insolent taunt.
It was an empty, cruel sound - the kind of applause that didn't praise, only mocked.
From the back of the sanctuary, out of the shadows cast by one of the huge stone pillars, a figure emerged.
He was dressed in torn priest's robes, stained with dried blood and dirt. A necklace with a distorted crucifix dangled around his neck, and his eyes carried a sparkling madness, as if he was always one step away from insanity.
The smile on his face was too wide to be human.
"Well, well... what a pleasant surprise." his voice carried a theatrical, almost childish tone. "I thought it was just an ordinary little invasion, but it seems we have special guests today."
Antares didn't need more than a second to recognize him.
He exhaled deeply, like someone who sees an unwanted insect reappearing after cleaning.
"Freed Selzen..." he muttered, disgust seeping from every syllable. "You again."
Freed raised his arms like an actor on stage, bathed in unholy green candlelight.
"That's right, my number one fan! You missed me, didn't you? Of course I was. Who wouldn't? I'm irresistible!" His voice was a mixture of debauchery and insanity, charged with an almost childish hysteria.
Antares crossed his arms, a cold smile tearing at his lips.
"Apparently, the little coward hid behind a little girl to cure himself. What a pathetic scene."
The provocation hit Freed like an arrow. His eyes widened and he began to laugh, a loud, uncontrollable laugh that seemed to rip through the air around him.
"Heh... Hehehe... HahahAHAHA! But of course! Before you came along, I'd never seen the same demon twice!" he shouted, as if confessing a major trauma. "You know why? Because I'm amazing! I'm fucking strong! When I saw a demon, I cut it in half! At the first encounter! Always in the same place! Tear, cut, slice, kiss the corpse... and say bye-bye!"
He made an exaggerated gesture with his hand, waving like a mad princess.
"That was my lifestyle! MY ART!" he spat out the words with an almost comical anger. "But THEN... you arrived. Dirty, meddling, disgusting little devils! AND YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! Since then, I've been lost... aimless... without pleasure!"
He began to tremble, not from fear, but from psychotic excitement.
"That's not cool, you know? It's not cool of you! Interfering with my way of life like this! In MY way of killing!"
Freed bit his lips, his eyes burning with fury.
"And that's why... YOU PISS ME OFF! DIE! DIE! I WANT YOU TO EXPLODE! I WANT TO CUT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU INTO BLOODY PIECES!"
The surrounding atmosphere seemed to tremble with his outburst of fury.
But Antares didn't even blink.
He stepped forward, his gaze as sharp as a blade.
"Stop shouting, you clown!" he said in a low, icy voice. "Or do you want me to shut your hysterical mouth with the tip of my boot?"
Freed's smile distorted, his lips curving in a mixture of hatred and elation.
"Yes! Yes! Now it's getting fun!"
In a sudden movement, Freed pulled out a silver pistol and the handle of a sacred sword from inside his overcoat, which materialized with a blade of pure corrupted light.
"DIE, YOU FUCKING DEMON!!!" he shouted like a madman, flying towards Antares, his weapons shaking with excitement along with his body.
But Antares didn't move.
A metallic clang filled the room.
[BOOSTED GEAR.
The red, draconic gauntlet wrapped around Antares' left arm, pulsing with power. Red flames danced around the central gem as if celebrating the impending violence.
And before Freed could even think about completing the attack, Antares reached out and grabbed him by the neck.
With absurd force, he lifted the exorcist off the ground as if he were a rag doll.
Freed tried to react. The pistol fired BLAM! the shot bounced off the armor of the gauntlet, useless. The sword clinked, trembling between fingers that were already beginning to weaken.
"Let's have some fun today, you worm!" growled Antares, bringing his face close to his enemy's, his eyes now completely crimson, like embers burning in the dark.
A hot, almost suffocating breath escaped from his mouth, as if hell itself was breathing through him. Freed squirmed in agony, his eyes wide, his body trembling.
"Hhgh... Grrhhh- Let go... LET GO OF ME!" he tried to stab Antares' arm, but the blade of light just slid through the gauntlet like cutting stone.
"You've said too much, insect. Now... shut up."
With a cruel movement, Antares threw him against the altar. Freed crashed into it with force, breaking part of the sacred wood with a dry sound.
He fell on his stomach, spitting blood and drooling incoherent insults.
Kiba and Koneko stood guard, but only watched. The aura that Antares now exuded was... different. Intoxicating. Lethal. Predatory.
The floor of the shrine trembled slightly under their feet. Not because of Freed's presence, but because of what was now being awakened inside Antares' body.
The Boosted Gear gem glowed once.
[BOOST]
Antares rushed forward like a bolt of crimson lightning, kicking Freed in the stomach and pinning him against one of the temple's columns. The exorcist screamed, but didn't even have time to catch his breath.
"You'll be begging for death before we're done here," said Antares, his eyes glowing as if they were reflecting a burning battlefield.
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