Chapter 5 – Hunting Devils
Our monastery was founded in the unknown regions by St. Nightroad. He paid for the construction of a featureless man with a crown of thorns who is just barely holding up a cross. This is meant to represent the average person carrying their cross throughout life while the statue itself is a landmark to show how far the Church has ventured into the unknown regions since St. Nightroad was the first to get this far into the regions. Vandals have tried to destroy the statue only to fail as they could only damage the man but not the cross. We have left the man damaged as it has inadvertently added to the message of struggling of carrying a cross. This is one of the many supernatural things that has added to St. Nightroad’s legend along with the saint who constructed the statue.
I come to the statue often to pray for the intercession of both saints especially before going off on another mission. God has given me the role of being an exorcist in the group of exorcists called the Blight of Demons. Despite living in a universe dominated by Catholics, there are many who still do rituals to get ahead in the universe. My particular division is tasked with getting rid of demonic cults and cleansing areas affected by demonic rituals. Though there are hypocritical Catholics who participate in the demonic in the known universe that threaten the purity of the Ecclesia, I’ll have to trust that the issue is being resolved by a brother division of exorcists who are investigating, cleansing, and sometimes executing the hypocrites within our Holy Empire. These brothers are always in my prayers for their protection and the sinners they chase after are also in my prayers for their conversion.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your prayers, Roberto, but we must be heading out,” Hiraga says.
“Thank you for reminding me. I was reflecting and lost in thought for a bit,” I say as I put my mask on and head towards the monastery.
“Anything particular on your mind?”
“Nothing besides our upcoming assignment.”
“It’s a town infested by multiple demons who possess people to kidnap others to be possessed. Can you believe it?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“What happens if it’s true? Let’s make this a bet.”
“Let’s not.”
“How about I give you forty percent of my paycheck?”
“You’re just going to have me buy dinner and fuel for the ship like last time.”
“But you’ll still have some left over to spend on whatever you want. Don’t you like collecting and painting figures from that dark sci-fi series we both play and read?”
“I don’t even really buy that much in the series. I only own a few armies and a few series of books that are set in its universe. Besides, you know the vanity in having many possessions that I’ll lose when I die anyway.”
“What about we used it when we go on vacation? Don’t you like betting money on poker?”
“That’s because I play with you. I’m not betting on anything.”
“You’re no fun.”
Hiraga and I head out for our assignment on a planet further out in the unknown regions. Once we land near the town, we find that it appears normal. Besides acting as a ward against demons, our masks give us readings of people’s health. There are a lot of cases of demonic possession that end up being false because a person has a medical or psychological condition. Here’s hoping that this is the same.
We talk to the local Catholic priest in the town who directs us to the people who need to be exorcised. The exorcisms go normally with some fighting with demons, but our prayers are heard, and God cleanses the victims of their demons. I didn’t expect to finish this quickly, and yet, it seems like we’re finished. When the local priest pays us for our service, I sit in the ship and ponder over this feeling I have. Is this God telling me that there are more demons on this planet? Looking at Hiraga, I can see that he’s thinking of something too. Even when he was joking about his bet after we left town, I can tell something was off in his voice.
When I look at him, I ask, “Are you thinking that something is off too?”
“Yeah. Even though God has power over the demons, I didn’t expect the exorcisms to be that easy. I’ve had experiences fighting demons that we’re twice as difficult as this and I’m not talking about the demons that tempt me to keep betting money.”
“We should go and sneak around the town to see if they’re truly safe now.”
“I’m with you.”
As we approach the town, I begin to hear the whispers of temptation in my mind, so I say a quick prayer and holding my spiritual ground. From where we are, the town looks abandoned with very few people walking around. I spot some darting among the shadows and staying away from the people who are walking around. My mask’s scans tell me that they’re scared. Now I’m really curious as to what is going on. The only person that we can trust to talk to is the priest, so we go to him while avoiding detection.
Even though we are entering a church, the air feels heavy and a sense of discomfort strikes me. The priest that we talked to before is standing at the alter looking up at Jesus on the cross. Hiraga and I look at each other before approaching him. There’s something wrong about this.
“Hello? Excuse us for coming back without notice, but can we ask you a couple questions?” I say when we get closer.
“It’s no trouble. In fact, it’s a good thing you came back,” the priest responds in a voice that doesn’t sound like his own.
People suddenly jump through the stained glass windows and into the church while others come in through the doors.
“What’s going on?” Hiraga asks as he pulls out his revolvers on stun mode.
I pull out my revolver as well and have it on stun will holding my book of exorcism prayers in my other hand. All these people look completely possessed and ready to kill.
“You only have two choices. Submit to the god of pleasure or suffer a slow and painful death.”
Hiraga shoots the priest and a few others around him with quick shots from his revolver.
“How’s that for an answer?”
“Wait, Hiraga. Do your scans see that?”
“It has to be a mistake. Our stun rounds should put them down at least for a day.”
The possessed victims get up as if nothing happened and smile at us.
“That answer seals your fate,” the priest says before leaping at us with the other possessed victims.
We both shoot at them with our stun rounds only for them to be temporarily knocked back. My exorcism prayers are slowing them down but not by much.
“It doesn’t look like we can be careful about this,” Hiraga says.
“It sadly looks that way.”
“Switching to lethal mode.”
“God help them and have mercy on us.”
I close and put aside my exorcism book as I take out my secondary revolver and transform it into a knife while my primary revolver is switched to lethal mode. With precise headshots, Hiraga takes out the possessed around him while I cut the ones that get close and shoot the possessed in the chest. This strange situation turns stranger as anything, but a lethal shot only slows the possessed. They continue to move fast even with a leg or arm blown off. This is nothing like we’ve faced before. We still manage to get through it without many scratches on our armor. It’s a shame that the church is a mess with blood and flesh everywhere. The possessed priest still seems to be alive, so we go to him with our revolvers pointed at him.
He holds his hand up and says, “Okay, okay! I confess! It was my fault this happened. These people weren’t coming to church and the converts refused to convert.”
“I can see why with you here,” I say.
“I was being truthful and honest with my attempts at conversion, at least at first. Please, just let me go!”
“Convert from your ways and let go of this demonic power.”
“…you can’t make me!” he says as he runs off only for us to gun him down. Even with dozens of bullets in him, he crawls towards the back of the alter. “Save me, lord…”
With his last dying breath, the priest reaches out to a wall and tears away a painting to reveal a creature bound by chains to a wall behind it. The creature has hundreds of eyes on its head and tendrils for arms and legs. It sounds like it’s breathing even though I don’t see a mouth on it. Around it are satanic symbols and markings.
“Roberto. What should we do about this thing?”
“I don’t know, Hiraga.”
As we cautiously approach it, it lets out a moaning sound that resurrects the people around it. Seeing what it’s doing, we shoot it in its head. This makes the deceased stay dead and it feels like it clears the air around us. Investigating this further, we go into the back of the church to find a diary owned by the priest. He wrote about trying demonic magic to bring people to church. Few came, but not enough for him. He then found this creature while exploring the unexplored parts of this world. It’s noted that the creature somehow psychically controlled the creatures around it to protect it. The rest of the pages are the experiments he put the creature through, and it ends on how he successfully managed to make the creature enhance his demonic magic. It’s fascinating that a creature like this even exists, but its abilities are something else that we should be wary of especially if there are more of them out there.
We exit the church to find some people outside of it. Before we can ready our guns for another fight, they cheer for us and tell us how thankful they are for freeing them from the priest’s rule. They offer to throw a celebration party for us and Hiraga accepts it.
“Are you really going to relax at a party now after all this?” I ask.
“Of course I am. We deserve it.”
“I guess you’re right. I am starving after all.”
“Do you want to bet who can eat and drink the most?”
“No.”
“You’re no fun.”
I contact the Ecclesia to send research squads down here and tell them what we’ve learned as Hiraga eats and drinks to his heart’s content. While looking up at the black sun in the sky, I cross myself and thank God for everything He’s done for me before joining the party.
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