Isolation (from Horror in All but Appearance)

“It’s time to wake up!”

Is it already time to wake up? Oh, it is. I quickly get dressed and head downstairs.

“Good morning,” I say to my parents and grandparents.

“Shut up and hurry up. Eat your breakfast and get out of here,” grandpop says.

Okay, okay. I quickly eat then try to give everyone a kiss only for my grandma to put her hand up.

“There’s no time to waste. Get out, get out!” she says.

“Alright. Love you all!” I say only to have grunts as responses.

I’m not that late. What’s with everyone today? Maybe they just really want me to not be late, so I rush to school and get there with time to spare. School is as forgettable as always. What isn’t forgettable is the cold looks that people give me as I pass them in the hallways. It feels like they shoot me with an invisible laser from their eyes that chills me. Thinking that my friends will give me some rest from this crazy day, I go to them at lunchtime only for them to give me the same cold look. It’s been hard trying to be near and talk to them all day, but I didn’t think they were intentionally trying to stay away from me until they get up from the table as soon as I sit down. Is there something wrong with me? Do I smell? Do I look funny? Did I say something to get people aggravated at me?

Hopefully, this will change later today since there’s a special event at the marketplace. Lots of stores have sales and there are a lot of street performances to take advantage of the gathering crowds. My friends, family, and I usually go for fun, however, no one in my family wants to go. When I call and text my friends, they don’t pick up or respond so I go by myself. The mood at the marketplace is soothing especially after what I’ve been through today. To add to the oddities of today, the mood of everyone changes when I’m in their area. They stare at me funny and seem to murmur something harsh. They seem to go back to being happy only when I’m a fair distance away from them. Am I cursed or something?

Surprisingly enough, I find my friends at the marketplace with some new person who looks like me. As I get closer, this person sounds almost exactly like me.

“Hey!” I call to them with a smile.

They look at me and smile back. At least they don’t give me the same dirty look like last time.

“Who is that?” one says to another.

“We don’t know you.”

“Leave us alone, loser.”

Huh? They walk past me while talking to each other.

“What kind of idiot calls out to people like that?”

“Did you see how trashy that outfit was?”

“And that’s not to mention how ugly that face was.”

“Haha!”

What were they talking about? Why were they so mean? They look back at me as they continue to laugh. People knock me over into a dirty puddle on the street.

“Stop standing around, you idiot,” they say as they keep walking before looking at me, “Haha! That’s what you get.”

My friends come back, and I think they’re going to defend me. Instead, they laugh at me like everyone else. I can’t stay here anymore. Everyone around me stops to look at laugh at me in my sorry state as I leave the marketplace and head back home. This has to be a dream. No, a nightmare. This can’t be real!

Going back home, I find the door locked. I try to unlock it, but my keys don’t work for whatever reason. Looking through the window, I can see that my parents are watching TV with my grandparents so they should hear me trying to open the door.

“Hello! I’m home!” I say as I knock on the door. Nothing. “Please, open the door! I…I got dirty and I need-”

“Get out of here!” I can hear from inside the house, “We don’t know you!”

What?

“I’m-”

“We know who you are, and we don’t care! Leave and never come back!”

They really mean it. Leaving the house, I walk the streets only to be laughed at and mocked by everyone I pass so I find a dark alley to rest in. Where do I go when everyone hates me? What am I going to do? I feel so alone. Someone…please, help me…

Intoxication (from Horror in All but Appearance)

It’s another holiday party with family, friends, and friends of family and other friends coming over. The house is thankfully big enough to fit everyone and everyone is friendly enough to talk with one another except for you. There’s no one who you dislike or uncomfortable with, and yet, you struggle to converse with anyone until they walk away and talk with someone else. You know that this isn’t because they don’t like you. It’s just that someone else grabbed their attention and thought you were done talking to them.

While sitting at a table with your family, a new person enters the party. He doesn’t grab your attention until you see him sit at your table. There’s something about him that makes takes your attention away from everything else even the people talking to you. The sound around you becomes muffled as this new boy becomes the center of your focus. He doesn’t particularly look impressive nor does he seem all that special, but you are still enraptured by him.

His eyes meet yours and he begins to talk to you, but you can’t hear anything that he says to you nor can you respond. You can only stare in wonder and awe. When he smiles at you, you feel a flutter in your heart. Is this the beginning of a lifelong bond? Friendship? True love at first sight? Whatever the case is, you can’t control yourself even when you get up to follow him as he goes to get food and something to drink.

Your legs move on their own to get closer to him and your arms push past everyone in your way. In his presence, you notice that he doesn’t have a particularly good cologne on, so what is it that makes you want to be near him? Is he some kind of pagan witch who’s put a spell on you? Is this demonic magic at work? Could it be something holy? Is your guardian angel trying to tell you that this is a person you should take note of? Regardless, his presence feels like being outside on a fall day that fills you both with warm and a relaxing chill.

Noticing that you’re near him, he smiles and begins talking to you. You still can’t hear what he’s saying, but your eardrums feel pleased just hearing the vibrations of his voice. It’s a soothing sound that makes you want to listen to him talk forever. He then curiously tilts his head noticing how strange it is why you aren’t saying anything. He nods and asks something while gesturing towards the front door. You smile and nod without your control or knowing what he said.

The boy goes to the table you were sitting at while you follow him and says something to the people at the table while gesturing to the front door again. They seem confused or worried, but then he says something, and they nod in agreement to him. You then follow him outside and walk the streets. He keeps talking to you with a muffled voice and the only thing you do is smile, nod, and walk with him all without controlling yourself. You keep walking with him into the dark of the night not knowing where you are going.

Time seems to pass so slowly with him. How long have you been walking with him? The only light around you now is the moonlight since you’ve walked so far from the neighborhood. Are you going to take a walk through the park forest at this time of night? The park isn’t that far from other houses, but why is he bringing you out here? Who knows? The only thing you know is that you’re totally captivated and trapped by him.

Check out the latest book in the Fides Aeternam series!

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As humanity continues to explore the stars, the Ecclesia Aeternam sends out groups to the unknown regions of space to discover God's creations, evangelize, and tie up loose ends. Whether they discover horrors or are the horror, the Church does all in the name of God in the hopes of serving Him and having His Will done on all worlds as it is in Heaven.

Unholy Terrors From Beyond: Chapter 5 – Hunting Devils

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.

Just a Hug (from Horror in All but Appearance)

“I’ve found you,” she says as she enters the closet.

You’ve been trying to hide from her only for her to find you through the process of elimination. Despite your best efforts to through her off your trail, she still managed to find you. Holding out your hand, you try to tell her to leave you alone, but the words are stuck in your throat as she gets closer and closer while you go deeper into the closet as if cornering yourself will make you feel safer.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. I just want a hug,” she says with a smile and continuing to corner you.

You fall to the ground and go as far back into the corner as possible while still struggling to speak and holding out your hand. Her menacing eyes give you chills, and yet, you still look at her because you have the feeling that she could do something to you if you look away. She crawls on the floor to you then holds the hand that you’ve been holding out and puts it to the side with her other hand caressing your face. With a satisfied smile, she looks at you like a hunter satisfied with the prey they caught before she lays down on you then wraps her arms around you. She feels warm, but you feel colder now that she has you and you can’t escape no matter how hard you try. It’s as if she’s sapping the strength to break her grasp while allowing you enough to make a feeble attempt at escaping.

“See? Isn’t this nice? We can stay like this forever if you want,” she says with an icy cold voice.

It feels like this could be the truth. No one is coming to save you. You are trapped in her embrace, but is it really so bad? It is just a hug after all.

Unholy Terrors From Beyond: Chapter 4 – Law Enforcement Brutality

 

Chapter 4 – Law Enforcement Brutality

Everyone is guilty of sin, but those who refuse to submit themselves for justice are the worst of all. Criminals, traitors to the Ecclesia, escaped prisoners, and enemies of the Church who have yet to be sentenced for their sins are just a few examples of these people. As an Excubitor, it’s my duty to bring these sinners back alive in whatever condition. I can bring them in without a scratch or with them hanging on by a thread of life. It doesn’t matter since they refuse to do penance, therefore, I will make them feel the pain of their crimes so that they understand what they did and that their souls may be saved.

The unknown regions are a great place for people to hide even on the planets the Ecclesia has some foothold on. Politicians and leaders who should be ashamed to call themselves Catholic let these people hide on these planets because they were paid a very “generous” sum of money. These people will face justice soon enough. For now, I’m after five Catholic “leaders” who are connected to riots against the Church. I’ve tracked them down to a forest world in the unknown regions. I have my ideas about where they are, but I’m not going to waste my time guessing because there are other criminals I need to find.

I go to an Ecclesia command center and enter through the emergency exit that I use as a short cut to get to the office of a certain someone that I need to ask a few questions. To be polite, I knock on their door.

“Who is it?” the woman inside asks.

“You know who it is,” I answer, “The card reader informed you that an Excubitor had entered the building.”

“Oh, my mistake!”

The woman opens the door and appears to be shocked to see me. Most people are shocked by my appearance that’s meant to scare people to repent. Those who really know who I am and what I can do are the most scared.

“What do I owe the honor for being visited by someone of your high status?” she asks.

“You know exactly why I’m here. Tell me where the fugitives are, and I may grant you a lesser sentence.”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to specify what you’re talking about.”

I cut off her arm with one of my blades before cauterizing the wound with a fast healing gel so that it feels like nothing happened at all. She stands in shock at what happened and falls to the ground in fear.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“I-I-I.”

“You have three more limbs that I can cut off if you need more motivation.”

“They’re not too far from here so they could run to me if any trouble came! I can show you where they are on a map! Just don’t do anything else to me, please!”

Cutting off limbs then healing them is a great way to get sinners like these to talk. Once they know their life is at stake, they cowardly spill what they know to save their life.

“Thank you. You will be provided with a robotic arm to replace your old one so that you can do the labor for your penance. Stay here and if you move too far, I’ll do something worse than cut off your limbs.”

I exit the building and head off to the location that the woman shows me on the map. At the location, I find a luxurious cabin with many trees around it one of which I use to perch myself on. Using my heat vision, I see through the walls of the cabin to see all five of my targets. To get a better idea of what’s going on in the cabin, I launch my miniature drones into the cabin so that I can hear and see what they’re doing. They seem to not know that I’m here so it’s good that the woman didn’t call while I was coming here. They’re having a good time without a care in the world as they drink and indulge in the spoils of their corruption. It’s about time that ended.

My miniature drone detonates itself inside the fuse box to destroy it. This scares them as they huddle together for safety.

Using a microphone on my drones, I say, “You thought you could escape from your crimes, but the Church always finds those who defy her. You have five seconds to surrender yourself for judgment and your sentence will be lessened. Refuse and it will be worse. The decision is yours.”

They’re starting to panic now and argue amongst themselves rather than try to surrender. Five seconds pass and I take aim at with one of them my arm guns. Along with my heat vision, I’m able to blow through the walls of the cabin. I hear them really starting to panic now as they take cover while I reposition myself to a different tree to get a better angle. Switching to stun, I use my arm cannon to shoot through the open window and hit one of them. The shot hits them and puts them in a state of shock and pain that won’t kill them.

“Surrender or suffer the fate as your accomplice,” I say through my drones.

One of them tries to run for the basement. What a fool. A drone of mine jumps on their face and blows itself up to set the person’s face on fire while another administers medication to quickly subside the pain while knocking that person out. Two down.

“You’ve seen what I can do. Surrender. Now,” I say.

Two of them go for the guns they have hidden in the kitchen. These people don’t have a clue what they’re doing. My drones overload the laser guns so that they blow off the arms of both people. I go in the cabin and shoot healing gels at the arms of the two, so they don’t die. There’s only one more. This last man falls to the ground and backs himself up as I approach him.

“Will you be as foolish as your accomplices?” I ask the man.

“What-what do you want? Here! Take all of my money!” the man says as he throws the money in his pockets at my face before reaching under a nearby couch for a shotgun that he shoots at me.

I fall to the ground from the impact and he continues to unload the shells of the gun on me until it’s empty.

“Not so tough face to face, huh?” he says before walking away.

“If you knew what I was, then you would’ve used something stronger,” I say as I lunge at him to cut off his legs.

Normal shells and laser fire can damage my armor, but not pierce through it. God bless modern technology. I then seal up the man’s wounds before knocking him out. With all of my targets pacified, I call my ship to me so I can load them on it and bring them to their prison. At the prison, they are put into the bodies of robots that force them to work out their penance by pushing and pulling their limbs and bodies to do what the command center wants. If they willingly do their penance, the pain is lessened along with the sentence of their penance as the robot’s systems can pick up their manual input. Most of the time it does, anyway.

The warden of the prison comes to congratulate me and says that, “Another job well done, Sandman. Your payment has been transferred to your account, your weapons, armor, ship, and supply of drones have been resupplied and tuned up for your next hunt.”

“Thank you, warden. Can you bring me one of my arm cannons?”

“Here it is. I’m sure that you will see no problem with it.”

“Can you have the man who fixed it up to fire it at me?”

“Excuse me?”

“Have that man who fixed it up fire it at me. I want to test it out. Don’t worry. My armor will hold and if it’s damaged, I’ll pay for it.”

“O…okay.”

The man who repaired it timidly approaches me with the arm cannon on his arm. He tries to fire it only for the weapon to blow off his arm. Medics quickly come to bring the man to the hospital in the prison.

“Did you know it would blow up?” the warden asks.

“Yes, I did. You have traitors inside your ranks who want Excubitors like me dead. I suggest finding them or someone might think you’re a traitor like them and make you work like the prisoners below. I’ll be praying for your success.”

“Y-yes, Sandman. Thank you. I’ll get right on it.”

“Your service is appreciated and noted, warden. Oh, and I need another arm gauntlet.”

“O-of course. Right away!”

Once I get everything I need, I head off for my next hunt. The universe is full of heathens, heretics, and traitors that need to face God’s justice. My work has only just begun.

New remade cover!

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True royalty requires special training

Princess Blair and her butler Baxter are on their way to their training until they get into an accident. They survive the crash and go on to find that the place where they're supposed to train is a town full of people with half happy and sad faces and weird abilities.

What will they learn in this place where the royals go to learn?

Realistic Hell (from Horror in All but Appearance)

Like most young men his age, Ricco went out into the world with one goal in mind and that was to work and provide for himself and his family. He was skilled in mathematics and an outgoing man who would participate in extracurricular activities, do internships, and make friends with those in business so that he had his foot in the door to secure a well-paying job. By the time he graduated from college, his job was ready to accept him and he was going to be married to a woman he met in school. He managed to achieve what most strived for.

For the rest of his life, Ricco would work, go on vacations, and do other menial things. To those around him, he was a virtuous and simple man who took care of those he cared for and ignored those he didn’t like. He worked and earned in cycles in the hope that he would earn something of immense value or something that was worth it or something like that. Truth be told, Ricco didn’t know what he was working for, why he kept working, and why he kept caring for the things he did. Though he believed in God and some sense of static morality, he put no effort into figuring out what he believed and if there was any truth behind it just like the rest of the people he knew as he is somewhat content with working, earning, and vacationing.

Whenever Ricco saw his family and friends happy, he felt that slippery goal that he longed for. That goal also popped up when he did a job well done, when he saw the beauty of nature, when his children were born, and when he relaxed and admired the fruit of his works. Even though Ricco was left unsatisfied, he kept telling himself that this is how the way life is and kept on living until the day he didn’t. On the day he died, he died peacefully of natural causes with his family around him. Though a priest was brought for his final confession, he thought he had lived an honest life with little mistakes not worth confessing and told the priest only those things.

Ricco’s soul left his body and was judged by God to be guilty of many sins especially the sins of sloth and greed since he refused to give proper worship to God, made work and obtaining worldly riches a priority over Him, and because he left God out of his life despite God’s many attempts to take His rightful place such as when Ricco saw his family happy, in the beauty of nature, when his children were born, and many more. With this, Ricco was sent to Hell. In Hell, Ricco was given what he wanted. He worked, earned, bought, and vacationed in cycles though he didn’t feel any satisfaction while doing so. That goal that he was searching for was gone since that goal was God as all souls long for their creator. At first, Ricco didn’t mind Hell, but as time passed by, he began to hate it and the cycle tortured him as every second burned his soul with ever-increasing intensity.

Later in time, Ricco wondered what would happen to his family and this burned his soul as well. It wasn’t until that he heard the screams of his friends, wife, children, and his grandchildren below him that he learned of their fate. They had followed in his footsteps as he wanted. Ricco had all that he wanted in the end. God gives everyone what they want in the end whether that be to be apart from Him or a part of Him. Give all thanks and praise to God!

Unholy Terrors From Beyond: Chapter 3 – Vindicated Extremists

 

Chapter 3 – Vindicated Extremists

The universe is a sinful place that must be purified by flame so that nothing will defy the Holy Will of God. We are His flames. We are His Cleansers that burn away every trace of sin outside of the Church, within the Church, and within ourselves. The known universe may be at peace, for now, but evil lurks in the unknown regions of space. New intel suggests that an empire is forming to destroy the Church that is made of her past enemies. Even though this rumor has been going on for a while, it was thought that this unified empire of false faiths would never come together because it is rumored and somewhat confirmed that they fight amongst themselves from time to time. Now it seems like they’ve actually put aside their differences especially since we’ve pushed all other empires out of the known universe.

Hearing about a tank-like cathedral fortress sparked the interests of all of us who haven’t been burning many things since the last pope’s Infinitus Anathema decree, so we’ve been itching to get back to cleansing. This news is a call from God back to action as upon hearing it, we gather our forces, weapons, and say goodbye to our loved ones before heading out to investigate possible planets in the unknown regions that this new empire could be hiding on. This first planet that we’re investigating is a strange one since it appeared and was going to crash into another planet only for that other planet to disappear. The unknown regions are a strange place so it’s possible that our readings were affected by it since it sometimes reads duplicates of the same planet. Still, the original and new are different in appearance and general reading that was made of them.

We think that pagans may be hiding on this planet that may be connected to the empire. If not, then we will be attempting to convert them or burn them for their rejection. As we land on the planet near a settlement, we send out scouting squads and drones to inspect the strange planet while others go to convert its inhabitants. While that is happening, I feel the ground since it looks strangely brownish-pink. It kind of feels like…

“What are you doing, Mark?” my friend, Amandi, asks.

“Hm? Nothing. I’m curious about this place is all. Have the conversion squads convinced the pagans to consider converting yet?”

“No, not yet. These people are convinced that this planet is a god for whatever reason. They said it provides for their daily needs as long as they give it a proper sacrifice.”

“Human sacrifice?”

“It seems like it. There is no vegetation or animals on this planet that they could be feeding on so we’re probably dealing with cannibals or people fine with eating dirt or whatever grows on these strange trees.”

The trees around us have these weird red fruits that are growing on them that pulsate as if they were hearts. When our researchers picked from these trees, the trees themselves shuttered and made strange noises as if it was in pain.

“What’s with these unknown regions and cannibal cults? It’s like those horror movies where cannibals live in the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s because a majority of the vegetation and animals in the unknown regions are deadly for people to eat no matter how you cook it.”

“I’ve read that article before. I wonder if God even wants us to be so far outside the known universe because of how dangerous it is out here.”

“My guess is that He probably doesn’t. How many people live in the known universe already? Hundreds of trillions?”

“It’s a number that’s too large for me to count or care about.”

We then hear over the comms that the natives are going to be showing us the power of their god. Going to see their display with prayers and rosaries already being said to nullify the possible “god’s” power, two squads that include Amandi and I join the conversion squad in seeing this display. We watch as a pregnant woman throws herself into a pit and look at each other in concern. Some even ready their weapons to burn these people before a gush of red fruit comes out from the pit that the pagans feed on. Unimpressed and offended by their display the conversion squads try to convince these people of their immoral practices while we investigate the hole the woman threw herself into.

Looking into it and scanning it reveals a cavern of crystals that look like teeth with bodies put together in morbid positions on the walls, floors, and ceilings as they appear to be used as the source of the red fruit as flesh and blood is taken from them by the area around them. What kind of planet is this?

“Don’t enter the holes and caves!” we hear over the comms.

“It’s alive! The planet!” another one says before being cut off.

Reports of the planet coming to life, attacking, and taking people are coming in as what sounds like to be the screams of the damned come from the hole and all around us. The trees come to life along with tendrils and the mouth beneath us extends out like a hand that sways around looking for someone to crush and eat. With our flames, we fight against the abominations that come out of the ground. Amandi uses the flames from his hands powered by the gas and sparks from his suit to burn everything that he touches and everything that touches him while I use my flamethrower that also launches grenade-like flames that burst on impact.

“Attention all cleansers! This planet is truly alive! We cannot hope to face it on the ground so we must retreat to space. Make haste and retreat back to your ships!” the commander says over the comms.

As we retreat to our ships, more tendrils and mouths come out from the surface and we suffer some losses. I have to switch my flamethrower out for my flame sword to cut through the tendrils around me since there are so many. We make it back to our ship and quickly take off. Unfortunately, a few ships are caught by the mouths and tendrils of the planet and sucked into it. Back on our ship, people are praying, talking, and causing a ruckus as we decide on what we should be doing.

“Attention! Attention! ATTENTION!” the commander screams before we finally get quiet, “Thank you. Now tell me, what is wrong with you?! We are God’s Cleansers that fight against false gods and traitors. This is our purpose. This is the reason we exist, and yet, we are cowering and panicked about this false god given form. Hold your heads up and look forward for our enemy is in front of us! We will not be running from this so-called god. We will be doing what we do best. It will be burned to ashes this day and this instant!”

My comrades around me cheer as their spirits are reinvigorated.

“All ships prepare to fire your weapons at full power. Hell itself will shake at our righteous fury! Begin to fire at the start of our prayer.”

We all bow and kneel in prayer as everyone else prepares our weapons. The commander starts the prayer, and the weapons begin to fire.

 

“The time of our holy work has come, my brothers and sisters!”

 

“Praise be to God!”

 

“We shall cleanse the universe of the stain of sin!”

 

“We shall burn it all to ash!”

 

“We shall burn the heretic, the heathen, and the traitors alike!”

 

“For their reward is eternal damnation.”

 

“Hope to God that they see the error of their ways.”

 

“Let our flames cleanse them of their sins.”

 

“Beyond the flames of Purgatory lies Heaven.”

 

“Purify us of our sins and make us worthy of your love, Oh Lord.”

 

“The Lord cleansed the Earth with water and will cleanse it with Holy Fire.”

 

“Let us be your instruments of justice.”

 

“We are sinners yet not slaves. We are clean yet not yet saved. We are unworthy yet made acceptable by the Blood of the Lamb.”

 

“Have mercy on us, Oh Lord.”

 

“Have mercy on us and our enemies, Oh Lord, as we battle and give our lives to you. Our work is put before us and we burn it all to ash!”

 

“Amen!”

 

“Amen.”

We watch as the planet burns and is destroyed by our weapons. In one last effort to kill us, it opens its giant mouth that’s almost as big as the entire planet. Within its mouth is a glowing red core that shines like the sun along with more tendrils that reach out to us while some tendrils try to protect its core.

“It’s presenting itself for the final blow! Blow its heart to pieces!” the commander says as our guns focus on the core.

The tendrils only slow its death as we tear them apart and destroy the core. With its destruction, it writhes in pain before lifelessly floating in space. We all cheer and praise God because of our victory. Even though we didn’t find what we were looking for, we destroyed what we were supposed to. Thank you, God, for bringing our attention to something more urgent. We will go back on the hunt for this elusive empire, but first, we must recover because of all the losses we have suffered. The fires of our ambition and spirit burn brighter today than they ever have and will continue to burn for all eternity while our enemies turn to ash in the presence of it.

Unholy Terrors From Beyond: Chapter 2 – Undying Reapers

 

Chapter 2 – Undying Reapers

“It appears that the Lord has abandoned us, Captain Joshua!”

“I should shoot you for that blasphemy, private! God is always with us! Watch as I prove it!”

“Captain Joshua! Back him up, men and women! We can’t let him take all the glory!”

“The Lord is my God. I shall not want! My God is a God of Battles. I will not lose! All of my enemies will fall before me! Bullet to the skull, laser through the heart, fire to their foundation. They will burn for their unrepentant sins while I burn in penance for my sins. May God have mercy on my enemies because I will not! Amen!”

The memory of my last battle that put my body in shambles replays in my dreams every so often. Because of God’s grace and the inspiration that He put in the minds of our scientists, the Church has been able to preserve soldiers like me for further use in this new division of the military meant for veterans who want to keep fighting until the day God wants to take us. Death Walkers are made of veterans from various groups of the military most of which suffered severe injuries such as I. These injuries turn out to be a blessing as we are able to fit in suits of armor that would otherwise be hard to fit in for regular soldiers. Combining the genius put into the armor of the St. Michael the Archangel’s Legion and the Divinus Carnifex, we have become nearly unstoppable tanks for the Lord, and as our name suggests, Death Walkers.

I was born again through Baptism, again after I wrongly brought in an Orthodox prisoner only to find out that he was going to betray me, and yet again through this suit of armor. I’ve seen generations of my family come and go to finally be a part of the army again along with others like me that I’ve been close friends with. Chief Lilian from St. Joan of Arc’s Holy Virgins joined after saving civilians from a building rigged to blow. General Titus from St. Michael the Archangel’s Legion joined after nearly taking an entire legion by himself with the rest of his brothers died around him. Hunter Captain Daniel from St. George’s Hunting Party joined after being stranded in the unknown regions for years and converted the native people through reason and conquest. All these people became part of the Death Walkers program to continue their service to God since we are given a second chance.

Right now, we are chasing the remnants of the empires that escaped the pope’s Infinitus Anathema decree. The punishment for the refusal to submit to God and His Church is death. They’ve already been given countless chances to repent, but they refuse every act of mercy. When mercy is refused, there is only justice to be given.

“Are you okay, Joshua? You aren’t slipping away from us to the Gates of Heaven, are ya?” Titus asks.

“Not yet. Are you done flirting with women more than a hundred years younger than you?” I respond.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a gentleman to women.”

“There is something wrong when you ask her out to dinner only for her to discover that you’re more machine than man. Don’t your great-great-grandchildren keep you under control?” Lilian asks.

“I’m more fit than they’ll ever be and they’re a part of the Divinus Carnifex so they’re busy keeping the peace while I guard Papal Palaces for hours on end. I have to keep myself occupied with more than prayer, you know? What do you think, Daniel?”

“I think you still need to grow up, old man,” Daniel jokes.

Everyone including Titus laugh.

“As the oldest out of all here, I know that we all still have lessons to learn,” our commander says as he enters our side of the ship.

He is Grand Commander Cainan, grandson of Venerable Seth who led a revolution against a corrupt Church centuries ago. He’s been kept alive like the rest of us by his strong spirit, the grace of God, and the advances in medical technology.

“Speaking about lessons, we are going up against some of the toughest enemy soldiers, tanks, and aircraft since we’re going after the elite and royalty who brought along their escort in the hopes of being safe in the harsh unknown regions,” the commander continues.

“So are we executing them with extreme prejudice sir or extra extreme prejudice?” Titus asks.

“You know the answer already.”

“God have mercy on our enemies,” Daniel prays.

“We are God’s weapons of mercy and justice,” I point out.

 “Amen,” everyone else says as we’re about to be deployed.

“Have faith and have no mercy,” Cainan says as we are dropped to the ground like bombs from the ship.

We land in a small city that is still under construction with makeshift houses and shells of ships that they probably used to help construct the city. Sirens ring throughout the city as ships, tanks, and infantry come our way.

“I just want to remind you guys that there are seven of us versus a personal army of them,” Titus says.

“That sounds fair to me,” Lilian says with confidence.

“I wasn’t complaining.”

“Then let’s get this done,” Daniel says as he unleashes a barrage of missiles at the incoming horde with the missile launcher on his back.

“For the Lord!” I say as I charge with my minigun arm revving up.

Our squad melts through our enemies as they uselessly try to fight against us with their heaviest weapons only managing to slow us down without a scratch. We cut down all that stand before us. Even the large buildings that they’ve built up crumble before our might. As the battle goes on, some ships hidden beneath the ground and on the surface rise to escape only to be brought back down by Lilian and Daniel. We spread out to eliminate the cowards that are retreating with Lilian and I taking one direction with the others spreading out in teams of two except for Daniel who stays behind to support all of us from afar with his missiles.

Everything seems to be going well until the ground starts to shake. The main fortress that looks like a cathedral and that most of the small army has retreated into starts to rise from the ground as if it were alive. The fortress rises with two large cannons for arms, tanks treads to move it forward and a skull on the front of it.

“What is that?” Titus asks over the comms.

“Something else to be destroyed. Be careful, but do not falter,” I say.

The fortress launches a barrage of missiles, laser fire, and cannon blasts at us all of which hit us while also peppering the ground around us. We fight back as best as we can though our weapons don’t seem to be causing any significant damage.

“Daniel, focus your fire on the top of the cathedral to stop their rain of missiles. The rest of us should get rid of the cannon arms,” I say.

“Understood,” Daniel says.

The squad does as I say, and the canon arms fall one at a time while the rain of missiles and laser fire slows down. With its humongous treads, it races towards us to try to run us over while continuing its barrage of attacks. Though we are large, our suits allow us to run out of the way. Since the treads are near me, I transform one of my miniguns into a sword with a black laser edge to cut through it to stop it from moving properly. Lilian has the same idea and has transformed one of her weapons into an ax to disable the other treads.

With all the damage done to it, the fortress falls over as we unleash the fury of our weapons on it. Fighting our way inside, we find the rest of the personal army that easily die with their ineffective weapons. We mop them up then give the all-clear to the army that comes down to set up a temporary base so that we can claim this world.

Grand Commander Cainan drops down from his ship and says, “Good job, worthy soldiers of God.”

“It is our honor to serve,” we say.

“Did you have to drop down from the sky and make such a flashy entrance, sir?” Titus asks.

“No, but I have to admit that it’s a fun thing to do with this power armor.”

For the next couple of days, we go through the wreckage to find information on how they made the fortress. Apparently, they thought the Ecclesia is making each Papal Palace into a mech similar to the fortress and tried to beat us to it. I’ve never heard of this though I admit it would be impressive to see. We even learn more about a secret army that’s growing against the Ecclesia in the unknown regions though it doesn’t teach us anything new. What we also didn’t know was that we heavily damaged our armor so we will be out of commission for a short while.

On the way back home to Earth, Daniel says, “Can’t wait to get back home to relax. Maybe shot some targets and go hunting. What about you guys?”

“I’m looking forward to spending some time with my family,” I say.

“Oh, can I come over?” Lilian asks.

“Sure. Bring yours along and we’ll have a nice day together. Do you want to come, Daniel?”

“You can count me in.”

“How about we all go to the beach?” Titus suggests.

“That sounds good for the family, but we can’t enjoy it like we used to,” I say.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. No one wants to see a man mostly made of mechanical parts on the beach,” Daniel says.

“Don’t worry about it. Because I don’t have a lower half, I can just go without a bathing suit and let it all-”

“Have some dignity and grow up for once, Titus!”

We all have a laugh as we rest for now. Once our suits are repaired, we’ll be deployed again in our search for this growing threat against the Church in the unknown regions. Though they may seem strong and mysterious, they run in terror because we are God’s faithful servants. We are what they fear.