Chapter
3 – Father-in-Law and Son-in-Law Bonding Experience
Of all the people to come across…
“If it isn’t the interracial-”
Nope. Don’t have time to entertain
punks that like anymore. Triton and I walk a different way while keeping an eye
out for trouble.
“Friends of yours?” Triton asks.
“Not at all,” I respond before we
see the enemy watching us from the rooftops.
They’re all already in their
hollowed forms and seem to be holding something.
“You had your chance, nephew,” one
of them says before showing a statue of the Blessed Virgin in his hand and
crushing it.
More of them crush similar statues, which allows a seemingly endless horde of demons to come out of thin
air to fight us.
“This is a little overkill, don’t
you think?” I say aloud.
“You can never be sure with an
exorcist who can use an Ombra’s magical abilities.”
“It isn’t magic.”
“Sure it isn’t. This is your last
chance to join our side, nephew. My brother, your father, would like it. He
told me from the depths of Hell himself.”
“Then that’s all the more reason
not to join you.”
“Really? He told me that you two
were close. Why would you choose this crusty old royal over your own real
family?”
“He is my real family. I’ll admit
that even you and everyone here except for the demons are family as well, but you
force me to fight you because you chose to be slaves to sin and hollow angels.”
“My nephew and niece share your stubbornness
and is more of a weakness than a strength.”
“Give them back to us!”
“How about we bring you to them
instead? We’ll bring you to them without your limbs.”
The demons leap at us and my Ombra
ability activates allowing me to unleash a barrage of fire to banish most of
the demons. A few of them survive the barrage, however, lightning from the sky strikes
them.
“That wasn’t me,” I say to Triton.
Looking behind us, we see Magnus
approaching us. He then disappears and a few of the hollows disappear in the
blink of an eye. One of the hollows then tries to bring in more demon reinforcements
by breaking a statue of Mary. Magnus stops them by taking the statue and throwing
them into another hollow to take out both.
“Magnus!” I say.
Magnus appears in front of us then
says, “This place is more dangerous than you think. Both your father’s side and
mother’s side of your family are here.”
“Did you bring any backup?”
“I am the backup,” someone I expected
to hear says from behind us as several demons and hollows fly from behind us.
We turn around to see Marina. I knew
my wife wouldn’t sit this one out!
“I told you to stay behind, princess.
Alessio, your father, and I can handle this,” Magnus says.
“You weren’t watching your back, so
it looks like you needed my help. Besides, my children’s lives and souls are at
stake. This is a family matter. Should you really be here?”
“He’s a brother to me, so I say
that he should be here.”
“Obviously. I was just saying.”
“Anyways, are you ready to do this
together? Let’s not keep them waiting,” I say.
Magnus’ moves in a blink of an eye into
the battle to fight off the many demons by himself. On the other hand, Marina
and her dad charge in to fight the hollows with their swords. I stick back and
use my Ombra blessing that allows me to create multiple versions of myself to
help everyone at once. Together, we bring down my family as a family.
With only one left, I spare him and
ask, “Where are my kids?!”
He then surprises me by impaling his
own throat on my blade and mocks me by saying, “You’re too late. They’re ours
now.”
Bastard. There’s no one else I can
ask now since the rest are ash like this one.
“What do we do now?”
“I know where your kids are,” Magnus
says.
“You do?” I ask.
“I didn’t come here to blindly look
for them. The Ombra are the exorcist’s best after all.”
“It’s also why I came here. Now,
come on!” Marina says as she leads the way.
We rush to a nearby inconspicuous house
that’s slightly larger than the others, bust our way in, and go into the
basement. There we find another set of stairs that leads us to a larger
basement with hollows, demons, and my kids who look like they’re about to be
sacrificed in a Satanic circle-! Not again. Not like before…Why, God? Memories of seeing
my dad and sister come back to me as it whispers despair into my ears. It’s
just like before. I couldn’t do anything to save them. I can’t seem to do
anything to save my family.
“You bastards! How could you do
that?!” Marina says as she charges at the hollows.
Magnus backs her up and the two
fight the demons and hollows who sacrificed my kids for their own power. Triton
is about to join the fight until he turns around and notices me on my knees. He
swings his sword at a demon near me and tries to get me to my feet. What’s he
saying? My ears are too preoccupied with the whispers to hear him properly.
Turning around, I see the demon that killed my mother, father, and sister. The
same one that’s been bothering my entire life that also wears my face.
“He’s mine. He’s always been mine,”
it says.
“Away with you demon!” Triton says
as he fights it.
“You’ve been mine as well. I’m
jealous that my cousin who deals with royals gets to have more time tempting
you than I.”
“Get up, Alessio!”
What’s the point? I’m a failure of
a son, brother, and now a father. I haven’t gotten stronger or changed at all.
Emilio…Luca…I’ve failed you, my beautiful children. Magnus teleports in front of
me, but Triton steps in front of him to hit me for him. Meanwhile, the demons
and hollows are combining into a singular hollow in the back that Marina is
trying to banish.
Triton holds me up and says, “Get
up and fight! This isn’t over yet! You still have a family to protect! What
happened to that stubborn son-in-law that I knew that would risk his life for
his family and what he thought was right? Bring him back!”
He’s right. I won’t fall like I did
last time. Not when my family still needs my help.
I push aside Triton then say, “Stop
yelling so much, old man. I get enough of it from your daughter.”
The demon is now completely formed.
One part of it is male, another female, and the bottom part is a child. Each
has horns on its head, but only the male and female parts of it have arms. It seems
to be a singular family.
“Back off, Marina! That demon is
going to be more trouble than the rest,” Magnus says.
She does as he says then asks, “What
is it?”
“It’s one of the six major demons.
It tears apart families, preys on the unbaptized, and commands legions of
generational demons.”
“I see that I need no introduction,”
the demon says in one unified voice, “Bow before me then. I, who has controlled
humanity through their sins, since the beginning of their existence.”
“Not a chance,” I say.
“Is the failure who has sent many
of his family to Hell one to speak against one such as I?”
“I’m not a failure. I still have my
family here with me and together, we’ll put you back into the depths of Hell
where you belong!”
With our combined strength, we
defeat the demon as if it were another typical demon. After, we don’t celebrate
especially since the demon consumed the body of my kids to form itself. The damned thing couldn’t even give us anything to bury, not that there was much to bury
because of how my hollowed family cut them up.
“Whelp. We’re done here,” I dismissively
say while walking up the stairs.
Marina grabs my hand then says, “Alessio…”
“I…I know. I’m…I’m so sorry,
Marina.”
We cry in each other’s arms until
we hear Magnus and Triton begin to cry as well. Together, we all morn my kids
before leaving. As we leave, I look around the house and a particular picture
on a table gets my attention. Most of these pictures are of my family that I never
knew. The picture that got my attention is one of my family when my mom was
still alive. It’s all of us together when things seem so simple to me. Marina,
Magnus, and Triton look at me as if expecting something.
“It’s time to leave the past where
it belongs. My side of the family may be completely lost, but I still have one
that needs me,” I say.
Heading back home, we go to the
mystics to find out the fate of the souls of my kids. We’re pleased to find out
that they’re in Purgatory on their way to Heaven. They only request that we say
a mass for them so they can be in Heaven once the mass concludes. At least I
didn’t completely lose them. The mystics then say that it’s thanks to what
Marina, Triton, my family, and I taught them that they were able to resist the
temptations of the hollows and the demons and they didn’t want us to be sad
that they were gone. Don’t you worry. I’m not sad or I’m trying not to be at
least. I’m proud that you are able to make it to Heaven. That’s the ultimate
goal of our lives after all.
After, Marina assures me that we
can have more kids and I ask her, “Are you being a horny cougar again?”
She hits me then says, “Shut up. I’m
just saying. Anyways, I better get back to work and get an earful from the higher-ups.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to
head home and get started on making more children?”
“It’s a tempting thought, but not
right now. Maybe later tonight,” she says before kissing me and walking away.
“You did good today, I’ll admit,”
Triton says from behind me.
“Wow. Are you complimenting me? This
must be a miracle,” I say while crossing myself.
“Don’t let it get to your head.”
“I won’t. I don’t feel like I
deserve it anyway.”
“But you do. My grandchildren, your
children, are going to be in Heaven soon because of you.”
“And because of their grandfather.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Thank you for your help. I couldn’t
have accomplished what we did without you and I probably would’ve been dead.”
“Okay, stop complimenting me. It’s too
strange coming from you.”
“I mean it though. I’ll try to be a
better man for God and my family. I promise you this, Triton.”
“Stop calling me by my name, son.
You can call me your father.”
I hug him and he hugs me back.
“Okay, dad, do you want to go back
to sparring to ready ourselves for our next future assignment, or is that a bad idea?
I’ve still beaten you more times than you’ve beaten me.”
“That’s going to change. You’ll
have more defeats than victories soon enough.”
“You’re on, old man!”
“Again with calling me that…”
I’ve noticed that every big moment
in my life has more of a beginning of something than an ending. I began to take
the salvation of my soul more seriously, I began to care about the Church, and now
I’ve begun to care more about my family. I’ll treat every exorcist, member of
the Church, and beyond as if they were family. Today, I will let go of my
sinful past and embrace my potentially holy future, and through it all, I’ll
give glory and honor to God and not become hollow like the demons and
unrepented sinners, but like the hallowed angels and saints.
The End
