Exorcism of the Hollow: Culling the Church: Chapter 3 – Voices of Conflict

Chapter 3 – Voices of Conflict

The city has become chaotic ever since we left, however, they are no longer being chaotic over us. Instead, they are fighting amongst themselves about their day-to-day problems while mixing in ideas about what to do about us. They don’t even pay attention to us while we make our way through the crowd. The center of the crowd’s attention is two groups of peasants and royals arguing back and forth with their supporters arguing for them on the sidelines.

“The peasants that make your clothes, your weapons, and the upkeep of your expensive houses deserve more than just a few exorcists to defend us. The demons are running rampant through the city and the only one that seemed to do anything was that Ombra who blew them up and disappeared,” one of them says.

“If hard work is your bargaining chip, then our hard work should be our winning hand. Do you think it is a simple thing to manage the most extensive branch of the Church that protects the world from demons and frees souls from Purgatory? Do you think it’s simple to rule? To be the examples that you’re supposed to look up to and work hard for?” another says.

“The last has been made first so we should be put first above you! You always wear masks even if you aren’t an exorcist and that mask is one that you wear when you pretend to be caring and have the Church’s best interest at heart while you only care about yourselves and what you think to be what’s right.”

“You’ve made yourself first by putting yourselves above us! You’ve hardly felt the influence of demons in years while we and those among you who were brave enough to become exorcists risk our lives every day to keep you safe!”

“You call this safety? Your walls easily fell to an exorcist whose family linage is mostly in Hell!”

Why did they have to bring that up?

“It wouldn’t have happened if you peasants kept your own in line or did you forget that his whore of a mother was one of your kind?”

“Okay, that’s enough,” I say while making my way through the crowd.

“What are you doing, Alessio?” Marina says.

“Probably what he usually does,” Magnus answers.

You got that right. I get to the center of the crowd and slash at the two punks arguing and the crowd starts to run away in fear. The bodies of the people turn hollow before disappearing into thin air.

“How did you know those two were demons?” Marina asks.

“I didn’t. I just wanted to knock some sense into them,” I admit.

The crowd comes around once they realized they were manipulated by demons.

“Hey! Those are the outsiders!” one person says as they start talking amongst themselves.

“They protected us from the demons!”

“But they also brought them here!”

“Who cares? They put the royals in their place.”

“They also showed how ineffective how the weapons of the peasants are!”

Again, the crowds start arguing with each other, and again, I try solving the problem with my favorite solution, violence. The demons are behind this again, however, I see their true form more clearly now. One has protruding spikes for a head, jagged spike elbows, and a cross in their hollow chest while the other is feminine, has a jagged cross with spikes for head along with spikes on its arms, and a hollowed-out face and stomach.

Both say, “We’ll never disappear because of the traitors among you.”

They then go into the crowd that starts fighting again as they claim the other side are the traitors that the demons spoke of.

“Spread out and find them!” I say to Marina and Magnus.

We go throughout the crowd getting rid of the demons by targeting the people who are arguing and most of the time, we are correct. Otherwise, we just knock down people in the rowdy crowd and get them angry. These demons don’t care if they get caught. If they manage to start trouble, then they’ve served their purpose. Other exorcists and civilians begin to fight each other in an attempt to banish the demons while others use it as an excuse to attack the opposing side. This is useless. They’re just playing into the demons’ hands. We have to solve this problem in a different way. I then manage to meet up with Marina and Magnus outside of the crowd.

“What do you think we should do? My number one solution is a dud and we can’t trust the people in the crowd to solve it themselves,” I admit.

“Perhaps, if we can’t solve this problem in the peasant part of the city, then we should start with the royals. This entire place seems to be eating itself alive more than usual,” Magnus suggests.

“You think that the royals will listen to us even though we broke down their gate scared everyone behind it?”

“It’s our only option as far as I know. We’ll have to come across your family, Marina.”

“I know,” she says in a voice that sounds like she begrudgingly accepts it, “I just hope it’s not soon.”

“Hey,” I say as I hold her close, “I’m here for you.”

I put aside my mask and kiss the top of her head while she hugs me tightly.

“Alright, you two. Ready to go yet?” Magnus says.

“No, I don’t really want to,” Marina says before looking at me, “But I guess we have to.”

“I have your back too, Marina. Trust us. Even if your family rejects you, we’re here and we care about you.”

“Thank you, Magnus.”

I nod to Magnus who nods back. We head to the hole I created in the gates to the center of the city to find people who are trying to repair it. In preparation for a fight, we draw our weapons, but the workers don’t want to fight us despite giving them so much work to do. Instead, they put their tools down and let us pass. Even the exorcists that are guarding them don’t do anything and some of them shout encouraging words at us.

“It’s about time we get some respect,” I say.

“They’re following us,” Marina says.

“Good. We need all the help we can get,” Magnus says.

Turning around, I raise my sword, then say, “Follow me if you wish to not only change the exorcists and the Church but the whole world! If we change ourselves and those closest to us, we can free the world from evil and no army of Hell can stop us. What are you waiting for? A better future starts with us!”

The crowd cheers for us but are then suddenly silenced by a hail of arrows that rain down around us. Chains then wrap around us as several decorated exorcists come out of the crowd and scare most of them away. Now I know how Christ felt at His crucifixion.

“Father…” Marina says while looking at the royal exorcists’ leaders.

“I’m not your father, criminal. Take them away to the execution area to be an example for everyone else,” he says, which seems to break Marina’s heart.

The anger I feel rattles my chains until I’m able to control them all. These chains extend then fly through the air like a tornado that tosses the royals around in the air while not hitting Magnus and Marina. After having my fun, I use the chains to retrain everyone around us then bring Marina’s dad to me. I then beat him with my sword even though it doesn’t really cut or hurt him.

“Alessio, stop it!” Marina says.

“He needs to pay for what he’s done to you! No father should disown their child!” I say.

“I have no child like her! Besides, you’re not doing anything to me. God will not allow you to kill me with that sword-”

I kick the bastard in the face before grabbing him by his collar.

“I got plenty more than my sword.”

“You’ll never win, you peasant trash.”

My peasant trash head headbutts him and breaks his nose.

“Punks like you need peasant trash like me to put you back in your place.”

“Alessio! He’s still my father!”

“He doesn’t seem to think so. Why should I be merciful to him when I need to teach him respect?”

“Because you’ll be just like him if you do. Royals like him took the law into his own hands and went beyond what their authority allowed so they could do what they thought was right.”

“And you’re doing the same thing,” her father says before I put my sword to his throat.

“No, we aren’t. You’ve seen what we can do and this is only because God allows it. Sometimes the servants need to remind their masters who allow them to have any authority over them. Alessio, I know what should be done. Please, let me face him in a fair duel for the right over my house. If I win, then I’ll be in control over a powerful house and prove that God is on our side. If I lose, then I’ll face my punishment.”

“Marina, you don’t have to-”

The chains I had on everyone disappear in a near instant flash of light.

“It appears that God accepts your terms and so will I. Now I see that it was a mistake not to erase my own mistake,” her father says as he gets up and pushes me aside, “I’ll prepare for our duel, which will be today. It’ll be in the dueling area because I’d rather have your blood spilled there where the other fools who have challenged the royal houses have failed and your body will be buried among them.”

The punk walks away with the rest of the royals.

“I can’t stand him,” I say before Marina hugs me. She shivers and I can hear her hold back her tears. “Marina…”

“I’m scared, Alessio,” she admits while I try to comfort her by holding her as tightly as I can.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

When we get to the dueling area, Magnus and I are separated from Marina who has to prepare herself for the fight alone with royal exorcists preventing us from being with her. I was going to start a fight with them, but both Magnus and Marina stop me as it would cause an unneeded mess.

“I’ll show them a needed mess if they give me a reason,” I say to Magnus while sitting in the dueling area’s stands, “We’re here because of the mess they started anyway.”

“Don’t become reckless. This is something that your princess needs to do.”

“I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this. It feels set up.”

“If it is, then we can jump in, but if that does happen, don’t go to any extremes. It won’t help improve the royalty’s opinion of us.”

“Who cares what they think about us? All they need to know is that they need to change.”

“We need to as well. I still see that prideful imbecile I first met in you that thinks he’s better than everyone.”

“…I’d punch you in the face if I didn’t see what you were talking about upon self-reflection.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I still need to change.”

“But at least we’re better people now than we were before.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

“If there’s anything these people are guilty of, it’s putting me in a near occasion of sin for how much they make me mad. I need to focus on something different to get my mind off it.” Looking around, I see different weapons on the weapon rack and royal exorcists with crossbows. “Why are they fighting with weapons that they make here? Why can’t they just use the weapons they pull out of themselves?”

“Because they may be a weapon disadvantage if one can use a spear while another only has a dagger. In the arena, both combatants use the same blessed weapon.”

“Who makes these weapons? The peasants that aren’t exorcists?”

“Yes.”

“What about the crossbows?”

“Those too since no exorcist has been able to manifest one out of themselves to my knowledge.”

“Why not make modern guns? Why just make bows and crossbows?”

“As far as I know, it’s because those weapons invoke times when the Church was at her strongest in terms of worldly power and make the powers of Hell fearful as a result, or it could just because they’re simpler to make. Besides, with the power that comes from the Ombra blessings, you don’t need guns, crossbows, or any kind of physical weaponry. Squads of elite royal exorcists, the Council of Seven, and our leader couldn’t even stand against us with the blessings you wielded, remember?”

“I remember, but it would still be convenient to have especially guns.”

“I wouldn’t say so. I’ve seen blessed guns used against demons before and it takes a little more than half a pistol clip to put them down.”

“What about shotguns?”

“Five shots from a pump action, more than half a clip or drum from a full auto, and six shells a double barrel. Don’t even get me started with machine guns. You may as well exorcise the demons by taking pictures of them with a camera at that point. The Ombra showed me the ineffectiveness of long ranged weaponry to teach me why our blessings are better than mere blessed weapons.”

“Aw, and I thought shotguns would be more effective especially double barrel shotguns.”

“Real life isn’t like a video game, Alessio. You want to exorcise demons as fast as you can because the cowards will flee once they’re on the edge of being banished and become harder to find and more powerful in the next encounter as a result. That’s why you want an exorcist’s weapon or the power from an Ombra’s blessing since they will instantly banish the demon assuming God wills it and the wielder uses their blessings properly.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Two royal guards escort Marina and her dad before handing them their swords. The crowd around us is mostly royals. They cry out for Marina’s execution, which makes me want to fight every single one of them. It’s a good thing for them that we’re in a secluded area away from them. A group of our supporters is cheering for us outside of the arena. Apparently, it costs an arm and a leg to get in with very few of our supporters being with us.

“This duel will decide who will hold total power over House Lux. Whatever the outcome, let God’s will be done,” the announcer says before the duel begins.

Marina’s dad goes in hard with his attacks while also blocking her counterattacks. His style is very much like Marina’s when we first started training. It seems like she is seeing if her dad has the same way of fighting since she’s the one who’s is now on the offensive. She begins to counter almost every attack he makes and strikes back accordingly. This gets to the point where her dad becomes visibly frustrated and waits for her to attack only for her to just walk in circles as she does the same.

“Attack, you lazy girl! This is a duel, not a staring contest!” Marina’s dad says.

“I know how you fight and how to counter it. I’ve learned how to think outside of the box,” Marina answers back.

“How dare you mock our family’s fighting style?! This way of fighting has protected us for generations!”

“You forget who gives our way of fighting that power.”

What Marina says sends him over the edge. He becomes too reckless and this leads to her tripping him at every turn and her blade to his throat. That’s my girl. The royals in the crowd screech out in defeat. On the contrary, my supporters and I cry out in victory.

“It’s over, father. I’m genuinely sorry that I had to embarrass you,” Marina says.

“And I’m not sorry for this,” he answers back before kicking her away. The royal exorcists enter the arena with their weapons drawn. “You know how I operate and that I would do anything to see the right thing be done.”

The royals and peasants begin to fight and in the chaos of it all, I can’t seem to get to Marina. All I can do is call out to her and try my best to fight my way to her. Neither Magnus’ nor I’s Ombra blessings are activating at the moment and Marina looks like she needs all the help she can get as she fights against the royals with her greatsword. Please, God, help her. She doesn’t deserve to die like this. Tearing my way through the crowd, I can only get so far before the gates around the arena activate and prevent me from getting to her.

“Marina!” I call out again.

She looks at me before smiling. She then says, “I love you, Alessio.”

“You choose to disrespect our divine traditions till your dying breath. You’ll see that I was right when God sends you to Hell,” Marina’s dad says as he and his royals have her cornered.

“You always seem to think that our traditions are divine because of its history and how you’ve thought it through and reasoned every argument for it and rebuked every criticism of it,” Marina says while still trying to defend herself, “I have too, but I never thought to think of it in a better way until I met Alessio. I never thought to think with my heart.”

A force goes out from Marina pushing back her dad and the royals as a blue light transforms her appearance. Her mask has a less drowsy face on it as it looks livelier and includes the addition of a spiky black crown on her head. In addition, her exorcist clothes are a deeper blue and appear to be fancier with the addition of a long cape on her back. She then pulls out a second greatsword from her chest. Despite typically using both hands to wield one greatsword, Marina moves around and fights with both greatswords as if they were daggers as she dances around the royals and brings each one of them down to their knees including her dad without even being scratched.

“It's over, father. God has blessed me and shown that my actions are justified,” Marina says.

“…fine. I concede,” her dad responds.

Seeing this, the royals and peasants within this arena stop fighting though I still hear trouble outside of here. Hopefully, they’ll calm down once they get the news. As soon as the gates of the arena open, I run in and give Marina a hug and kiss.

“I knew you’d win,” I say to her.

“Haha, I didn’t,” she says.

“We better go outside to stop the chaos. You better get up and help us.”

“Don’t tell me my job,” Marina’s dad says.

When we get outside of the arena to see that the people are rioting against each other despite the news of the fight being spread among them.

“These peasants are rowdy as always. Now you see what we have to deal with on a daily basis. They aren’t like this just because you are here,” Marina’s dad points out.

“There are two demons among the crowd that are turning them against each other. It doesn’t matter how many times we banish them. They just keep coming back,” I say.

“They’re your typical demon then. What we need to do is rally the people and make them work under a common cause, which we’ve been trying to do for years. There’s no lasting solution to this. It’s just how humanity is.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Marina says, “I’ve already shown you that our family’s fighting style needed fixing and improving. Why can’t we change the way we talk to and understand each other? Perhaps there’s something that we’re missing.”

“…yes, I see. I think you’re right.”

The sky suddenly blackens before a building in the center of the city blows up with something coming out of it and flying our way. What appears in front of us is a demon that floats in front of us. Its arms, body, and horns float independently from each other and they all have mouths on them.

Every part of the demon’s body speaks in unison as it says, “Your leadership is dead. Our forces are entrenched in this city and its citizens. Submit and you may live in peace.”

I raise my sword to the demon, “That’s never going to happen.”

“Vade retro Satana,” Marina says while having both her greatswords out.

“Drink your own poison,” Magnus adds.

“Then die for your God has abandoned you.” Many stony and hollow bodies begin to rain the sky as if carved out from it. “Drown under the many hollows that your kind has produced.”

The peasants who don’t have weapons and cowardly royals take cover while those who do have weapons and the bravery to fight step forward and try to take out as many of the incoming statues. Thankfully, Magnus’ and I’s Ombra blessing activates and we can send out a counter barrage of arrows of light that materialize and meet the statues in the sky. Our barrages clash, but we aren’t able to stop all the statues.

With neither of us able to get the upper hand, I say, “Hey! We need someone to get in there and take care of it!”

“I got it!” Marina says as she heads with several other people.

As I continue to hold off the barrage, I can see the demon split off into five pieces while one hand continues to send statues at us. Marina and the others fight off the other parts of the demon together. This clash continues until more people join in the fight. It’s not long after that until the demon suddenly disappears. The weather clears and the rest of the statues that were in the sky dissipates into dust.

“Did we win?” I ask.

“I think so. I don’t know how since we couldn’t cut through any of the demon’s parts,” Marina says.

A man dressed in a robe that’s decorated with crosses, Miraculous Medals, St. Benedict medals, and brown scapulars steps forward and says, “That was a demon that could only be defeated by our repentance of our disunity. It stepped out of the shadows where it was manipulating us because it felt that its control over us was threatened. These are signs of a bright future, indeed.”

“Who’s the crazy looking guy?” I ask Magnus.

“A mystic who knows more about the demonic than both of us,” Magnus says.

“Oh. I’m glad that he’s here to answer our question.”

“Princess Marina,” the mystic says as he bows, “You will help lead us along with your husband and his good friend into a new age for the exorcists. An age where we will no longer be divided against each other.”

“I-I-I will?” she stutters.

Marina looks to her dad who seems to be just as surprised. Because of what the mystic says along with the other mystics, it is decided that Marina will rule here in the exorcist’s home for a time to help unify the exorcists and mend their broken bonds. She can hardly get me to listen to her, so I don’t know why they think she’s crucial, but if they think it’s God’s will, what can I say? Since I’m officially allowed to be with Marina now, I’m allowed to also live in her house. Not sure if I’ll enjoy that with Marina’s dad being there. Marina made us promise her that we’d behave ourselves and I think we both gave a half-hearted yes. I’m looking forward to our sparring matches and talking down to the rest of her family since she’s told me that they’re like her dad.

Before I go to Marina’s house to plan our wedding, I go to where my family’s house is along with someone who knew my family. The house is predicably in the peasant area of the city and no one lives in it. It’s fairly rundown with dust being the occupants of the building.

“How come no one has bought it or taken anything out of here yet?” I ask the neighbor.

“Everyone thought this place was cursed since your family is considered traitors to the exorcists and the Church. It was supposed to be purified over the course of seven days, but no one cared to do it.”

“What about the rest of my family? Where are they?”

“They were emboldened by your mother’s rebellion against the exorcists and left here as well and promised to come back when they were strong enough to change the exorcists. God knows where they are now and what they’re doing.”

“I’ll eventually go out to find them, but for now, I have a family here to take care of.”

“The royal exorcists may not be giving you any formal thank you or ceremony for helping us but thank you. A lot of us appreciate you for coming here to give us the slap in the face that we needed.”

“Don’t mention it. I didn’t expect to be thanked at all for doing this. In fact, I did it mostly for the enjoyment of destroying the egos of both the royals and peasants. Besides, why are you thanking me now? We still have a lot of work to do.”

“Oh, that’s right, but still, thank you.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Heh, I hope this doesn’t get to my head.

“Alright, now I have to go. I can’t keep my princess waiting.”

I go to Marina’s home for dinner and see her house for the first time. It’s an impressive place with the front and back of the outside looking like an entire garden with many different kinds of flowers, fruits, and vegetables on display. The inside is just as impressive with many pieces of old Catholic art. It’s all decorated in different shades of blue, which explains to me why her exorcist outfit is blue. All of Marina’s family is at the dinner table with Magnus here to “help keep me under control”. Now, where’s my seat? There are ten seats and all of them are taken except for the one next to her dad. She can’t seriously want me to sit next to-

“Hurry up Alessio! We were just about to say grace before eating! Take a seat next to my dad,” she says.

Her dad looks just as disgusted as I feel to sit next to him. I can’t help but feel awkward even while saying grace and trying not to think about sitting next to him. After saying grace, I try to eat as fast as I can so I can leave the table. My rush to eat is stopped by my realization of eating at a table where everyone has to wear their mask to the side since we can’t take these things off because they’re tied to our souls. Remembering that everything here is in the spiritual realm also makes me think why I need to eat and if this chicken that I’m eating is spiritual chicken. How does this even work? Is part of this place spiritual or just most of it?

Marina’s dad then slightly elbows me then whispers, “My daughter says that we should learn to get together now rather than later and as the head of our house, I have to follow her orders. Don’t make this hard for us and let me give you a hint. Don’t hold hands, kiss, or sleep in the same room anymore until after marriage. It’s considered a sin of lust.”

This guy irritates me so much.

“Is it considered a sin to shower together? Because we did that too.”

“Alessio!” Marina says.

Oops. Didn’t mean to challenge him by admitting to that. Now everyone is awkwardly looking at me except for Magnus who is burying his face in his hands.

“I mean she was the one who started it.”

“Marina!” her dad says, “Is that true?!”

“Father, let me explain. I don’t know what I was thinking when it happened.”

The exorcists of her family take their weapons out of themselves as they stand up.

“I’ve already confessed and done penance for this just in case it’s a sin, but if you want to fight, I’ll gladly humor you,” I say while drawing my sword.

“No!” Marina says in the loudest voice I’ve ever heard her use, “We are all eating dinner as a family and we will learn how to get along as a family! Now, sit, eat, and calm down!”

Everyone sits down and eats to my surprise.

“Good job,” I whisper to Marina only to be met with a backhand.

“We’ll talk later,” she sternly says.

My eyes automatically look at Marina’s dad who seems to be proud of what she did. I guess I’m beginning to see why God chose Marina to help change the exorcists. If this is what change looks like, then I can live with it. Like I said before, I didn’t expect any thanks for doing this. I didn’t even expect the wheels of change to begin so soon. I know that this isn’t over yet and that the exorcists and I still have to do a lot to make meaningful changes, but with the first marriage between a peasant and a royal happening just around the corner, I’d say that we’re truly blessed and the challenges that we went through to get here were worth it. A beautiful future lays ahead of us and I gladly embrace the coming challenges because of the many gifts God has given me and will give me.

 

The End