Venatores Noctis: Defilement of Falsehood: Chapter 1 – Invasion of Sacred Darkness

Chapter 1 – Invasion of Sacred Darkness

Another day comes around as the night sunsets and the morning sun rises. Everyone smiles as they awaken, say their prayers, go about their morning routine before getting to work, and say good morning to all their neighbors. No one is poor in this town nor in the world and everyone helps everyone no matter how much of an inconvenience the other person may be. There are even citizens in the world that jump around and lift heavy objects with superhuman strength. In addition, the kings, queens, and business owners keep each other in check to the point where the guards and soldiers of each nation question the use of their job.

“Yeah, there may be little to no crime going on, but thank God for that,” a guard says.

“You’re right. Hears to another day without crime, tragedy, and evil. May they soon be entirely forgotten as if they never existed.” another guard says.

“May the vampires and their serfs be forgotten as well.”

“Vamp-oh, those things. They’re nothing more than footnotes in the books of history now.”

“And may they be now and forevermore.”

The guards open a bottle of white wine and share it with their fellow guards and citizens that pass by to celebrate another day of world peace. While they are drinking, a pale woman dressed in black with a scythe runs past them. They nor the citizens of the town pay much attention to her because they are too busy enjoying life and their positive mindset of people and hardly think anything of her as a result. In the distance of the pale woman’s destination, a morning mass is going on that is packed to brim with people who are eager to worship God. A priest and his altar servers walk in with doves flying around them while a choir and the congregation sing songs of praise and dance in the place they are. Meanwhile, the altar servers behind the priest hand out the finest seasoned bread to the congregation.

“May God bless our bountiful harvest,” the priest says at the altar. He holds out his hands where a golden light comes out that touches the bread. “Eat and be filled.”

As the congregation takes a bite, the bread either turns into a soft valuable gold or gives them superhuman strength and agility. Many are overjoyed at this, but their mass is stopped by the pale woman who kicks open the front door and walks towards the altar. This woman’s skin is almost entirely white save for the crescent black marks on her shoulder that connect to a larger symbol that is hidden by her clothing and her right arm which is strangely half black. Her dress is all black, she has a miraculous medal choker, her boots are leather with some metal armor in them for protection, and her shoulder guard on her right arm has a black cross on it. A black veil with dark roses covers her face, however, her black and gold eyes shine through it. Another oddity is the cracks around her eyes that close when she blinks and part of her pitch black hair that is white. She carries a large scythe that has two sharp ends, which is the most concerning thing for everyone in the church.

Composing himself, the priest asks, “Please take a seat among the congregation and put away the weapon. You are with fellow Catholics, your holy family.”

The pale woman does not say a word even though she seems to be holding back something.

“What is it? Is something urgent that is happening that justifies your reason for carrying your weapon?”

Before the priest can say anything else, the pale woman cuts him in half along with the cross behind him. Scared and shocked by this, some of the people run out of the church while those who have superhuman abilities try to fight her, however, they are cut in half, decapitated, impaled, or delimbed by her scythe and its spear-like ends.

She then raises her hand and says, “Wake up you fools!”

A sphere of darkness comes out of the pale woman’s hand, goes through the ceiling, and explodes in the sky. The darkness that explodes from the sphere makes people squint as if it were brighter than the sun and reveals to them things that they were blind to because of the light. Thanks to the darkness, the citizens in the church can now see that the cross that was cut in half had a perverse version of Christ on it that was half woman, half man, and part wolf. It is also revealed that the priest is a vampire wolf and those who ate the bread and the people who have superhuman abilities are revealed to be part wolf in some way such as part of their face, their hand, leg, or another part of their body being like that of a wolf. Confused by this, the people throw their questions at the pale woman in a mess of noise, anger, confusion, and worry that all blends together into incomprehensible noises.

Annoyed, the pale woman says, “Silence unless you want to share the fate of the wolves! Either get out of my way or rebel against the false church and god that has blinded you with false happiness.”

Before the people in the crowd can decide, the pale woman leaves them and is confronted by a group of men and women, some of which are half beast, half human, that are holding blessed weapons in their hands.

“Maryam!” one of them calls out to the woman.

“It’s Maryam Aurora Meridies! We finally caught up to her,” another announces.

“Your majesty, you should have waited for us before you attacked.”

“I’m not your majesty, and I didn’t want another blasphemous mass to go on, especially when they use the congregation as test subjects for their experiments,” Maryam says.

“I don’t understand how they eat the flesh of baptized infants without realizing it. It’s sickening.”

“They’re under the influence of the Eternal Sun so they’re blinded to what they’re really seeing. Still, I can’t completely see the purpose behind this. I’ll find an answer soon.”

“What will you have us do?”

“Secure the rest of town, stop the other blasphemous masses, and recruit whoever you can then go back to the underground base for further orders from our superiors.”

“You don’t want any help?”

“No, because this is my duty and you’ll just get killed if you do.”

“We’re bestials like you and just as skilled. We can help,” one half human, half beast says.

“If you really think I’m above you in rank, then follow my orders. God will punish me if I’m wrong or push you to move.”

Maryam heads off on her own as the darkness in the sky continues to spread throughout it. Seeing this causes the vampire wolves within the town to mobilize their guards and themselves. As she faces down her enemies, her guardian angel appears. The angel has three heads, one has a human skull with an eye and nose that all connect, another has the face of an insect, and the last has the face that could be said to be that of a demon. It has six arms, two of which are connected to the demon-like face and the insect one. In addition, its dark cloak has hands on the outside that it uses to take its enemies in who don’t return.

The sight of Maryam and her angel slaughtering the wolves and the citizens of the town either turning away from or turning against the wolves forces them to retreat, which Maryam hardly allows as she goes after them. She cuts up whoever she can, injures a few then begins to question them.

“What are your plans?” Maryam says with her scythe to the throat of a wolf.

“They’re holy and nothing more than God’s will-” the wolf hardly manages to say before they are beheaded.

Moving on to the next person who is only part wolf, Maryam grabs them by the leg as they crawl away and crush their leg as if it were paper.

They scream out before saying, “Get away from me, monster!”

“I’m not the one whose leg crumbles at the slightest squeeze from a blessed arm,” Maryam says.

“How is that black arm of yours blessed?”

“It’s blessed by God’s darkness, the one that shows you the harsh reality of the world and enforces its justice upon sinners such as yourself.”

“But-but I’m blessed and I’m no sinner!”

“Have you looked at yourself recently? You’ve been turned into part vampire wolf. You might not be damned because you seem ignorant, but the slightest cut from a blessed weapon with having you bleeding without end.”

“I didn’t know this would happen to me! I thought that what my superiors were doing was justified. They said the vampire wolves were God’s true servants because of this Eternal Sun that they cast over the world that made everyone in it happy and love each other. Now…I don’t know what to think.”

“You can tell me what they’re planning by making everyone part vampire wolf.”

“It’s part of some plan to bring about the second coming of Christ, but I don’t know if we even worship the same God.”

“Tell me more.”

“They think that if more people eat the bread and gain abilities, the more likely Christ is to return. There’s an event happening in London in a few days where many will be given more than their fair share of the bread. People from all over the world will be there. If people gain superhuman abilities and partially transform into wolves with just one piece of bread at daily masses, I can’t imagine what will happen when they gorge themselves on it for the entire day.”

“They’ll be more than beasts if they do that. I’ll stop them.”

“What about me?”

“A vampire is already dead and the state of their soul cannot change no matter what they do.”

“Then what can I do? How will I know the state of my soul and whether or not I will go to Heaven or Hell?”

“I can help you will with that.”

“Really? How?”

Maryam stabs the half wolf with the dagger end of her scythe. “You’ll know now.”

She then turns to the other injured half wolves who are unable to escape because of their injuries.

One of them says, “Wait! We’ll talk too!”

“I don’t need to know anything else.”

After killing the survivors, she heads in the direction of London but is stopped by soldiers of the Church who are dressed in scrapped together armor.

“Maryam Aurora Meridies, you are ordered to come back home,” a commanding officer who is dressed in a much nicer set of scrap armor says.

Seeing that she is surrounded by weapons pointed at her, she complies with the officer’s orders and begrudgingly goes back to the underground home with the soldiers while silently praying that she has enough time to stop what will happen in a few days as the Eternal Sun begins to shine again through the darkness that Maryam previously used to block it.

“May God’s darkness eventually snuff out this accursed day,” Maryam silently prays under her breath.