Exorcism of the Hollow: Culling the Church: Chapter 2 – Demons in the Church Walls

Chapter 2 – Demons in the Church Walls

To my surprise, we aren’t able to find a place to rest in the city. Instead, Magnus, Marina, and I have to find a place out in the forest since mostly everyone is afraid of us. The storm that I created is still raging here and Magnus and Marina are not happy, to say the least despite our victory.

As we rest on the floor of a decrepit building at an abandoned farm, I say, “So, what’s our next move?” They both look at me funny. “What?”

“I still can’t believe the power you were blessed with. What are you going to do next? Pull weapons out of your head and hand instead of just your chest?” Magnus says.

“That can happen?”

“If your virtue is strong in all three areas of mind, heart, and sense, and not just one, you can, though it’s exceptionally rare. Rarer than exorcists being given the blessings of an Ombra.”

“And I thought that I was a little special.”

“Exorcists have been given the blessings of an Ombra though these people have become important figures in the exorcist’s invisible history,” Marina says.

“I guess I will be important then.”

“The exorcists, Ombra, and demons will have their eyes set on you and you will be in more danger than you’ve ever been in before. I’m afraid and it doesn’t help that I’m soaked while the flames on you guys keep you dry.”

“Come over here then,” I say with open arms.

“No, I’ll get burned!”

“You won’t get burned. Trust me.”

Marina slowly enters my arms and sits on my lap. She isn’t burned by my flames and is dried and warmed up instead.

That is until Magnus says, “Um. Can you two cuddle somewhere more privately?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Marina says while trying to get up.

I hold her in my arms then say, “Are you jealous, Magnus?”

“No.”

“It’s not a sin for bros to cuddle together.”

“I’m not your bro and even if I were, I wouldn’t be cuddling with you and her at the same time.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Alessio! Please take this situation more seriously,” Marina says.

“Don’t worry. I believe that we’re doing the right thing. We’ll get through this. Let’s rest for now and come up with a plan by tomorrow morning.”

“Okay. Are you sure you’re comfortable sleeping like this?”

“With you? Of course I am.”

“Pfft,” Magnus says before closing his eyes.

He’s jealous that he doesn’t have his own girlfriend to cuddle with. I can tell. After resting for a bit, I wake up with a bit of a backache because of how I’m resting, but it’s worth it. Magnus and Marina wake up after me and we start to plan our next move.

To begin with, I say that, “We should start with the situation of the royalty and peasants. One lives in luxury while the other begrudgingly accepts their role in life. Plus, we have to deal with Marina’s family and her being disowned by them.”

“I’d rather not deal with them,” Marina says.

“Why’s that? Don’t you want to talk to them and convince them they’re wrong? Don’t you want…don’t you want to…marry me?”

“I do. I really do and you were probably right that I didn’t need my parent’s approval to do so. I just don’t want to see them now after they disowned me and want me dead for loving you.”

“So does that mean…”

“We’ll get married after this is done. What are our other options?”

“I could contact my Ombra connections within the city. They want reforms within the exorcists as well and could be a powerful ally,” Magnus says.

“I see. Could they help us with the traditionalist versus modernist situation? That’s another mess we have to deal with,” I ask.

“Tch, if we could make any meaningful difference in that, then we could also deal with the political situation in the world and solve the mess of factions within the Church as a whole. I wouldn’t bother with it until the end since it’s such a mess.”

“I’m going to assume that the situation is the same with the infiltration of demonic influence.”

“That mainly has to do with individual people, so yes. This is all a mess, so I think the best course of action for us is to ask the Ombra for help,” Marina suggests.

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” I say before stretching out since I’m still a bit sore even after already stretching, “You know where we should start, Magnus?”

“Yes, the closest Ombra I know are actually out outside the city. You seem to be feeling the negative effects of last night. What’s it like being a princess’s makeshift bed?”

“He should be honored to be my bed. I am royalty after all,” Marina jokes.

“This again, sure. It’s worth it as long as she doesn’t drool in her sleep.”

“I do not drool in my sleep!”

“And it’s even worse if she snores!” Marina tries punching me in the gut, but I catch it. “Ha! That’s not going to work on me anymore-”

Okay, I should’ve expected that follow up slap in the face.

“If you two clowns are done your comedy routine, we should-”

The sounds of screaming catch our eyes and we move fast to the source. We’re surprised to find demons chasing civilians. Jumping into action, we protect the civilians and banish the demons before anyone is hurt.

I ask Marina, “Are there ever demons here?”

“No, there shouldn’t be or at least demons that won’t attack us,” Marina answers.

“It’s those people that came here. The authorities are saying that they stirred up the demons because the council of exorcists was defeated by them,” one of the citizens says.

“I heard that we can’t even escape. People from the city say that the stairs put people in a trance that makes them walk back down. All this on top of the storm down here is proof that God is punishing us,” another says.

“We’ll get through this. Don’t you worry,” I say.

“Will we? This is the first time I’ve heard of this happening.”

“Is it?” I ask Marina.

“As far as I know it is. No one has really tried to assault the home of the exorcists other than its own civilians from within during a few civil wars.”

“Whatever the case is. We’ll get you to safety.”

I look at Magnus and he nods before saying, “Follow me.”

Magnus leads us through the forest while we keep an eye out for demons.

“What are Ombras and an exorcist like you doing here?” one of the citizens asks.

“We’re here to help,” Marina says.

“I thought most of the exorcists were protecting the inner city people. I never thought they would send out help out here.”

“We’re here on our own initiative.”

“You’d risk excommunication to be out here?”

“The higher-ups won’t notice since there’s so much chaos in the city.”

“Makes sense. Thank you for being here. You’re not like the other exorcists who ignore us and think we’re fine on our own.”

“You don’t have any exorcists to help you out here?” I ask.

“No, and hardly any of us join them. We make their food, give them their water, and they leave us alone. It’s been like this since this place was created as part of the original contract between God and the first exorcist. I guess the generational demons that made the first exorcist look down on the poor from his position of royalty has passed on to his successors.”

Explosions catch our attention and we move to find several Ombra using their elemental magic to fight off demons. As soon as they see us, they throw their magical attacks our way before disappearing.

“Why did they attack us?” one of the civilians asks.

“Maybe they don’t want us getting in their way? The Ombra can be a prideful bunch,” I suggest.

They obviously know who we are.

Magnus looks at me then says, “Yes, we can be, but we can also be reasonable if given a good reason.”

“I won’t argue with that. Let’s try talking to them.”

We follow the Ombra to what looks to be an unearthed secret base. Going into it, we find blood and slash marks all across the floors, ceiling, and walls along with parts of it that were burned, smashed in, and affected by various other Ombra elemental powers.

“I think you should stay outside while we investigate this place,” I say to the civilians who agree since they are visibly terrified.

It looks like a big battle took place here, but there are no bodies anywhere and no one seems to be around. There’s no sign of anyone until we hear the sound of someone screaming and fighting. Rushing to it, we find one of the Ombra that we saw before. Magnus runs to aid them only for them to be taken into the darkness by white hands with holes in its arms.

“Careful!” I say as I pull Magnus back.

Something is crawling in the darkness. I can’t see it and God hasn’t allowed Magnus’ nor I’s Ombra blessing to produce fire. It looks like we’ll have to do this on our own. That is until we go further into the base to find another Ombra. They look like the other one that we saw before, but why weren’t they with their friend? Their face is also obscured by the darkness.

“Thanks be to God you’re alright! What’s going on here?” Magnus says as he approaches the Ombra.

“Wait!” I say while pulling Magnus back.

The Ombra lungs forward as they almost catch Magnus with their claws and reveal their hollowed out face and their true identity as a demon before being lifted up into the darkness. We then cover each other’s backs and watch the darkness for any movement. Neither Magnus’ nor I’s Ombra blessings have activated yet still, which makes this more difficult. Maybe this demon can affect it. That would explain why the last two died.

“The rest of the Ombra have died here. Your kind has been abandoned by God,” the demon whispers from the darkness.

“That’s not true! The Ombra are more powerful and blessed than the exorcists!”

“I’ll be honest with you. You’ve seen how I used the body of that Ombra. Once I kill them, I eat them and am able to transform my body to look like theirs. Take a look at this man and see if you recognize him.”

The demon slowly reveals itself out of the darkness. It wears the body of a man with many medals, crosses, and holy objects on his body just like the leader of the exorcists.

Magnus gasps in response before quickly composing himself then saying, “You wretched creature! Get it!”

I do as Magnus says as quickly strike the demon, but don’t seem to cut it deep enough to slice its body in two.

“You didn’t strike hard enough!” Magnus says.

“I could’ve sworn I did! Who was that?” I say.

“My mentor and…and…”

“The leader of the Ombra,” the demon says, “I’ve killed every single one in their own home. After what you three did, their faith in themselves was shaken since there were some among the exorcists that you fought, and instead of humbling themselves, some lost faith while others doubled down on their pride. The prideful were easier to overcome than the cowards since there is no place for God in a prideful soul.”

That’s not entirely true.

“You’re a liar! The Ombra are humble!”

“And yet, they can never stop putting themselves above others just like you do. It’s what kept them from collaborating with the exorcists and what put them in their current state. If they were like you and had a few exorcists to protect them or even a few blessed weapons made for them for when they were powerless, then they wouldn’t have been so easily killed, but no, their prideful idea that God would give them what they wanted when they wanted it made them make stupid mistakes.”

“You’ll pay for what you’ve said and done!”

“Are you going to stop me? Even now, you are powerless and not blessed at all. As a kind gesture, I will show you the extent of my power that God has allowed me.”

We hear the sound of people running to us and see the civilians that we told to stay outside now in front of us with hollowed holes in their bodies.

“We have to be careful guys!” I say before slashing the bodies away.

Somehow, I still didn’t make a deep enough cut. Even as the bodies go into the darkness, I see their heads hardly hang onto the bodies. What’s going on here? Is there more than one demon since there was more than one body? That could be the case, but it doesn’t seem like that.

“Watch out!” Marina says while slashing away two approaching hollowed out Ombras that try sneaking up on us.

“Thanks!” I say before going back to thinking about what to do.

“Give up now and I’ll allow you to help me without being one of my puppets,” the demon says.

So there is one demon, but where is it controlling the bodies from? They keep getting pulled back so it literally must be like a puppeteer controlling a puppet. The bodies must be connected to the demon somehow. Where are you hiding at?

“I won’t give up! I’ll beat you with my fists if I have to! I’ll-”

There it is! It’s on the ceiling directly above us! The center of it is a mouth with tentacles that reach out into the darkness. I cut the demon in half just in time as I look to the side to see that it almost attacked Magnus with one of its Ombra puppets. It could’ve also fallen on us and eaten us whole if I didn’t act fast. The puppets fall apart as the demon fades into nothing and the darkness lifts a bit in here.

“Are you okay, Magnus?” I ask.

“…yeah. I’m fine,” he says while walking away.

Marina and I follow him as he wanders through the base while feeling his hand across the walls before flipping the switches to turn some of the power on that brightens some of the base up. Nothing is left of this place but ruined machines, burned books, and blood and cloth on the floor.

“Magnus…” I say while not knowing what to say next.

“That demon spoke the truth mixed in with the lies. The Ombra were destroyed by their own pride and my own almost got me killed if you didn’t save me,” he admits.

“Don’t get too down on yourself. You still need to carry on their legacy.”

“Right…or at least what’s left of it.”

We leave the base empty handed with no one left to help us and nothing left to show for our efforts. The sound of a stampede then gets our attention as we watch hordes of demons come out from the forest. I look to Magnus who is upset at the fact that his Ombra blessing still isn’t working.

“It’s okay, Magnus. Marina and I can handle this…maybe,” I say.

He seems to be frustrated until he seems to have reached a revelation. Putting his hands together, he looks like he’s going to pray, which isn’t a bad tactic for him since prayers are also good against demons.

“It’s okay. If God wants me to pray, I’ll pray. If God wants me to fight, I’ll fight. Whatever God wills, let it be done unto me. Not because I want it to, but because He wants it to.”

An invisible force from Magnus slightly pushes Marina and I back while pushing the demons back even further. His Ombra outfit changes to something darker with dark blue lines on it as an armor of flames appears on him that’s designed with a fiery blue cross on it. His mask then changes to one with eyes on it. Instead, it has a pointy blue cross. The storm around us intensifies as Magnus raises his hands and quickly puts them down as the lightning strikes the demons around us. Is he controlling the storm now? What kind of Ombra blessing is this?

The winds start picking up and the trees transform themselves into spears and monsters that impale and fight the demons. In addition, the rain seemingly becomes holy and melts whatever demons it touches. Once the legion of demons before us disappears, the storm ends and the sky clears. Magnus then clenches his fists then disappears into thin air. Soon after, explosions happen in the distance and I think I can even see him appear in different places in the sky to make those explosions happen as the ground shakes. Before I’m able to wonder what’s happening, Magnus appears before us still with his fists clenched.

“Magnus?” I say. He unclenches his fists then looks at us. “What was that?”

“An Ombra blessing known as the Weapon of God. It’s when an Ombra completely gives their soul over to God and you can see the results of a soul in tune with God’s will.”

“That was amazing! I’ve never seen a Weapon of God. I thought it was just a metaphorical thing,” Marina says.

“It’s a very real thing as you can see. The demon was right about the Ombra because we failed to be Weapons of God, but it was wrong about me. I will carry on the Ombra legacy and bring honor to our dishonored name.”

“Now that the base and the leaders here are dead, does that make you the Ombra’s leader and in turn my boss since I’m an Ombra as well?” I ask.

“Heh, you could say that.”

“Okay, ‘boss’. Where to now?”

“We should visit Marina’s family or at least see what the peasants want before we hear the royal’s side so we can start fixing that problem.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t say it like that. You make it sound like an insult.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”

“Okay, the novelty of this has already worn off. Stop referring to me as your superior.”

“But it’s only right, sir.”

“Tch.”

“Come on you two. I want to get this over with,” Marina says.

“Yes, sorry about that,” I say.

I never dreamed that I would have a girlfriend who was a princess and exorcist and that I would have to fight for her against her family, but I also never dreamed of the things that have happened over the course of these past couple of days. It wouldn’t surprise me if things got crazier from here.