Exorcism of the Hollow: Weeding Out the Family: Chapter 1 – Unwanted Family Visit

Chapter 1 – Unwanted Family Visit

“I’ve got you now, Alessio!” the old man says as he comes at me while swinging his sword.

I’ve fought him multiple times already and against his daughter so his moves are very predictable to me and soon, my sword hits his neck and bounces off as if hitting metal.

“I got you again, old man,” I say to him before picking him up from the floor.

“Can you stop hitting me with your sword? Putting it near my neck is enough to end the duel, and stop calling me, old man. You are to call me by my name, Triton.”

“Sure thing, old man. Why are you so worried about me hitting you with my sword anyway? Our weapons don’t hurt anyone unless God wants them to. Is there some sin that you’re hiding that would make that happen?”

“I’d ask you the same thing because of your tainted family lineage and the fate of their souls.”

“Hey, you’re part of that family now, father-in-law.”

“You may as well call me old man since hearing you call me father-in-law sounds more insulting.”

“So, do you want to lose to me again or are you still warming up?”

“I’ll beat you this time!”

“That’s what you said last time.”

“Shut up!”

We fight for a bit before we hear “Hey!”

“Marina!” I say.

“How was the meeting?” her dad asks.

“Slow as usual.”

“It shouldn’t be. We culled the leadership and beat them down to the point where they should know better than keep business as usual. Maybe we should teach them a lesson. For their own good, of course.”

“No, Alessio. This is just the nature of things,” Marina explains, “We’ve already gotten higher wages and better working conditions for the peasants, an improved relationship between the royals and peasants, the secret division of exorcists being transparent about their goals with the Church and themselves, allowing peasants and royals the opportunity to live somewhere else besides here in the exorcist’s homeland, and more.”

“Is that all?”

“Do you know how difficult it was to convince the royals to let people out of here without forcing them to become exorcists? It takes a ton of resources to covertly get them out from under the Vatican to a place in Italy where they can make a reasonable living.”

“I get it, but it’s just that it feels like nothing is changing over the three years that we’ve been here and I want more to change for the sake of our kids.”

“I know. It’s how I feel too, but we’ve done more in three years than they’ve done in ten so don’t worry, our children will grow up in a better place than we have. I’ll make sure of that.”

“What about us? I did get us here after all.”

“You were just my daughter’s battering ram to get in here and beat down the leadership. It’s best that you don’t do anything else,” the old man suggests as he turns to beat a training dummy.

“Both of you are supposed to be working on your relationship here while being people to look up to both to our family and the other exorcists. What are you two doing out here anyway?”

“Training and working on our relationship like you said,” I say.

“Training for what? I didn’t hear of any assignments that you were going on.”

“I’m just trying to make sure that my skills don’t get rusty. I haven’t even been able to use my Ombra blessings since God hasn’t allowed me to use them. Speaking of Ombra, what’s Magnus doing?”

“He’s been busy as the leader of Ombra and making sure that our home down here is free of demons and trying to gather more Ombra so that they can understand and use their blessings properly. In addition, he’s also been working together with the other exorcists on whatever assignments they’re doing. I’m not sure if he’ll ever have time to be with us again other than possibly Christmas and Easter since he’s so busy.”

“I did only see him a handful of times over the past three years. I’m sure he’ll want to see our kids again. He still has to teach me how to be a Weapon of God-type Ombra like he is.”

“I’ve never heard of someone who was an exorcist and Weapon of God at the same time. Being an Ombra and exorcist is rare enough already, aren’t you satisfied with that?”

“He should be and he should also humble his craving for power,” the old man chimes in.

“I’ll be using it for God’s purposes only. It’s not like I can even use my Ombra blessing without His say so after all.”

“You still have much to learn about being an exorcist, boy.”

“As if I have any left to learn from you, old man.”

“Let’s see if I can’t teach you anything in our next fight,” the old man says while approaching me.

“Come on then. I’m ready.”

Our swords cross again, but Marina separates us with her two greatswords that she takes out of her head and chest.

“Stop needlessly fighting, both of you. Father, my husband is your son-in-law and you’re supposed to teach him how to be humble and control his temper. Alessio, my father is your father-in-law and you are to respect him and only correct him when he is truly wrong. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I say to her before holding my hand out as she fakes out a hit.

She then smiles at me and I smile back.

“You better. Play nice you two.”

We watch Marina leave before we go back to fighting.

“You better watch out, old man. Your daughter gave me permission to ‘correct’ you when you step out of line.”

“You won’t be doing that often. You’re the one who has to worry.”

“I didn’t forget that you disowned her and what that did to her.”

“I did my penance and was humbled. You need to do the same.”

“For what?”

The old man manages to put his sword to my neck.

“For being reckless and prideful. I know the demon that tempts you. Marina told me all about it in an attempt to make me sympathetic to you.” He hits me with his sword in the back of the neck. “If you really want to be worthy of being called my daughter’s husband, then you have to be the man she deserves. Your exorcist mask still tells of the same sin you’ve been struggling with ever since we first met.”

“Your mask looks the same and Marina tells me that it hasn’t changed at all. Don’t you worry, old man. I’m working on being as perfect as I can be for her.”

We continue to fight until we feel something shake the ground.

“Oh, no,” the old man says before running out of the dueling arena.

“What was that?” I ask while following him.

“The same thing happened when you invaded here so that must mean more unwanted trouble must’ve made their way into-”

Demons with hollowed chests and faces appear in front of us with blades and sharp claws.

“It looks like Magnus isn’t doing a good job about keeping this place demon-free.”

“Shut up and banish them!”

The old man and I banish the demons together. I’m pretty sure that this is the only time that we actually worked together besides working together to not get on Marina’s nerves when she says so. Seeing as how the other exorcists and peasants in the city have a handle on this situation, I decide that we should go to the school where my kids are, and the old man agrees to go. We’re surprised to find the highest concentration of demons in this area since this isn’t an important place in comparison to the other factories and royal center that isn’t too far away. Nevertheless, we fight through the demons to find the school in ruins. I then see what looks to be two demons leap out of the building while another three leap and land on the ground right in front of us. On closer inspection, these demons have human faces with eyes similar to mine for some reason. One is snake-like with many claws and a hollow chest, another has various tendrils on her body, and the third seems lizard-like with half their face looking like one along with what looks to be a sharp tail.

“It’s good that you came to us. It saves us the trouble of coming after you,” one of them says.

“Get out of my way!” I say while charging at them only to get beaten back. “Why didn’t you help?!” I say to the old man.

“Nothing teaches you to manage your temper than a humbling defeat,” he answers back with a smile.

“That’s true, but you didn’t help because you wanted to see me get beaten up.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“We heard that you married into royalty, Alessio. Are you still trying to fix the broken ways of the exorcist and the Church?” one of them says.

“Who are you people and why do you care about me?”

“It’s natural for family to care about one another even though we were adopted into your family.”

“You’re what?”

“We’re family, Alessio. The mother’s side of your family saved us from the oppressive traditions and rules of the exorcists and the Church,” another says.

“It goes beyond power and the freedom to do what we believe to be right,” yet another says, “We’re no longer involved in the political mess of the exorcists and the scandals of the Church. For example, I was a peasant exorcist sent on a deniable ops mission. The mission was neither approved by the Church nor the head exorcists and was a vanity mission that nearly cost me my life. I was left for dead, but your mother’s sister saved me and freed my soul from the chains of being a slave to an uncaring God.”

“My aunt? I never knew her. I didn’t even know she existed.”

“If you want to know more, then you should join us. I’ll tell you everything I know including the dirty secrets that they don’t even keep in the most secret of records down here.”

“What’s your goal? Why attack this place and specifically here?”

“We’re going to destroy the exorcists and we’re starting by freeing our own from this damned city such as the ones that have been our spies and adopted brothers and sister. We’re also prioritizing blood relatives like you and your children. Your wife and the royal side of your family are secondary.”

“Why go after my kids? They’re just three years old!”

“They’re family and need to be taught from a young age what’s truly right and wrong, otherwise, they’ll group up to be ignorant. I’m sure you’ll agree. Besides, you don’t need to worry about them. They’re already in our safe care.”

“You took them already?!”

“Yes, you just missed them when you arrived here. Don’t worry. We won’t hurt them even if they refuse our help.”

“You…”

“Don’t be mad at us. You know the corruption that permeates every part of the Church all too well. It’s why your mother left and why your father and sister were left to die.”

My Ombra blessing finally activates through the grace of God as bits of the concrete rise from beneath us and form into spears and daggers.

“Don’t you dare bring them up! You should know that the demons are what killed them, who took advantage of the weakness in their souls, and made them go to Hell!”

“They chose Hell through their actions. I pray that you make the same choice.”

My spears and daggers made of concrete fly at my so-called adopted relatives, and for some reason, a group of demons jump in front of them and sacrifice themselves for them. This has to be a trick. Demons wouldn’t allow themselves to be banished without a good reason.

“We may not hurt your children, but we will hurt you if we have to,” one of them says before they leap into action.

Two of them fight the old man while the lizard-like one fights me. The tail makes this fight annoying so I cut it off and am about to cut off the ugly thing’s head, but its face reminds me of my mom’s and I hesitate.

“What’s wrong, Alessio? You didn’t have trouble attempting to murder your spiritual family,” it says.

“What are you talking about?”

“The Church, the exorcists. I heard how many people you struck with your sword hoping that God would let you kill them, especially your father-in-law. You wanted him dead after he disowned your wife.”

How much do these people really know? Well, they don’t know everything about me. I slash one of their arms away then put my blade to their throat.

“I want you dead after what you’ve done! Tell me where my kids are!” I demand.

“I’m not telling you anything because they didn’t tell me.” Their tail then regenerates and we go back to fighting. “You may as well kill me, but we know that you care more about your family more than anything, so what are you going to do?”

“Even if you are part of my family, you’re just adopted.”

“Does that make me less part of your family? You know that it doesn’t. Everyone who was adopted into our family changed our faces so that we would look similar to one another. Look at me. Look into your heart and tell me that we aren’t relate-”

I cut the hollow’s head off to make it shut up.

“We aren’t related.”

Its face still seems to be alive even as its body fades into ash.

It then smiles before saying, “But we are. I’ll tell your mother, sister, and father that you were the one who killed me.”

I then crush its head with my foot and it explodes into ash. It was lying. It had to be. Demons have pretended to be members of my family before to get to me. This has to be another of their attempts because they know it gets to me. Turning my attention to see how the old man is doing since Marina would kill me if he was severely hurt, I find that he took out the other two hollows by himself.

“And you thought I was the one who needed more practice. You didn’t believe what those hollowed people said, did you?” he asks.

“No, of course not,” I say.

I don’t know what happened. When the hollow died, I felt a similar feeling that I felt when I saw my mom die except not as extreme. There’s no such thing as a particular feeling when seeing a family member die, what am I thinking? The old man and I help the rest of the exorcists clean up the few remaining demons. Thankfully, we were able to capture a few of the traitors here and they essentially repeat what the other hollows said. They were here to attack our home as a show of their power, take their own, and members of my family out of here while considering themselves adopted sons and daughters. All the exorcists at the meeting where this information is divulged look at me strangely as if I knew anything about this.

I say that I don’t and say that, “I don’t care if they really are a part of my family that I never knew about. All I care about is getting my kids back from them before anything else happens to them.”

“We still must treat hunting down your family of yours as a priority on our list. Their hollowed curse that allowed them to get in here cannot be ignored,” our boss says.

“What are your orders?” Marina asks.

“You will stay here and speak for your family and help us with our plan to find the rest. Alessio and Sir Triton will go to where the highest concentration of the traitors are said to be and do penance for their family by eliminating them.”

“Your excellency, must I-”

“Speak no further. You must. I allowed you to keep your title of Sir, even after your defeat at the hands of your daughter and after you cowardly tried to snatch her victory away from her, because of our friendship. If you are truly the man I think you are, you must do penance for your family.”

“Y-yes, sir. I won’t let you down.”

The old man looks at me as if he hates me, hates what he has to do, or just blames me for it. It’s probably all the above. I don’t blame him for how I feel, but this is worse for me. Those really were adopted members of my mom’s side of the family, and now, I’ll have to execute more. There’s hardly a chance that those three that we faced are in Heaven now and there’s even less of a chance that the rest are any different. Please, God, have mercy on their souls and help me change their hearts so that they may make a confession pleasing to you so that they may be with you in Heaven. Please, protect my kids, and please also give me the strength to make it through this. You just had to give me my toughest battle yet.