A History Through Blood

From his podium, prominently positioned from with-in the church hall, Father George made his evening sermon. The ungrateful urchins that comprised his congregation, as usual, were not paying attention to the Good Lord's word which flowed from his own valiant tongue. Even the few attentive rats among his flock did so more out of their own selfish desires for recognition, rather than any sense of devotion or religious enlightenment. As the bible teaches, they must separate the wheat from the chaff and those of insincere faith will find themselves discarded on the floor with the sinful masses under God's merciful judgement.

Usually, the blatant disregard for the importance of the Good Lord's message, which was especially important given the current heretical rituals being openly practised in the nearby woods, was usually due to general apathy towards the mission. Now the congregation's collective focus was on the useless woman who could not even handle the simple task to gather supplies from a nearby town. She probably got held up seeing some man in the village and as was the nature of women, got distracted by her earthly desires. When she returns to the abbey, there will be consequences for her incompetence and impudence.

As his sermon reached its apex, the chapel doors were violently forced open as to reveal several men covered in thick black cloaks. “Who dares interrupt the lord's message?!” Father George demanded, leaving from his position behind the podium to best confront the audacious dissidents entering in the middle of the sacred prayers. “Explain yourselves!” the older clergyman ordered with a finger aggressively pointing towards the group. The only response the cleric received to his challenge was a knife quickly shoved into his wrinkled heart.

-

Julianna heard the cries of terror from amidst the shadowy woodland as the three ran towards the church. Her newfound body had enabled her to move much faster than her old one, allowing her to reach the building at a far quicker pace than she could a mere hour ago. She found herself being able to keep up with the experienced fighter, William, at full sprint, which was something she had not been capable of previously. As they ran towards the abbey the voice of her new mistress spoke through her mind, providing small pieces of information regarding the nature and attributes of dark entities. The brief lecture, while vastly deviating from her former church's teachings, was presented in a manner which mostly supplemented her existing knowledge. Her master had already seemingly started planning a more in-depth lecture at a later time from her blasphemous, or more accurately unbiased, perspective.

The two main doors of the church were guarded by two cloaked figures wield twisted weapons summoned from some strange plane of existence, standing watch outside whilst their co-conspirators made living offerings inside. The former nun could feel Victoria, who seemed to be per-occupied by something at the wagon, was still observing the trio through their eyes as to provide whatever tactical advice she could. The small girl, Rose, placed a hand on William's cloak as to hold him back. “Victoria says to wait here for a second, I am going to distract the pair so you two can sneak up on the lookouts. A few seconds should not matter much, as opposed to your safety.” The night hunter, seeing it as a chance to catch his breath for a moment, agreed with his mind still worrying about any slight delay costing a life.

-

As of yet the demon worshipper's plans had gone smoothly, their efforts offering the local wild-life and spreading a dampening dark magical haze had so far been successful. As if their master had given them a sign, some brawny nun had stumbled upon their path and served as a bountiful preliminary sacrifice at the cost of minor bruising. All they had to do now was watch the entrance of the pitiful church while the rest of the light god's servants were offered, before pressing onto their main objective with newfound strength. The church was already teaming with lesser demons and the pair could already feel more powerful just being in their general presence.

The cry of a small child broke the night's relative silence, “Julie! Mary! George! Help me!” accompanied by the sight of a crying child running towards the chapel. Obviously, it was from a child that was missing from evening mass, an easy mistake to make in the scheme of things. The two cultists shrugged as it was a minor inconvenience and, ultimately, another offering to their demonic masters. The leaner of the two managed to catch the girl in his arms, somewhat caught off guard as to how weak the impact was, as if she weighed almost nothing. The small hint of satisfaction was short lived as his colleague collapsed, silently impaled by a sword. His own death followed quickly, as the child jammed a knife into his chest, before a pair of bear-like arms choked the last remaining air from his lungs.

-

What waited for the trio when they opened the church doors was far worse than anything Julianna had imagined. Standing on the various pews and benches were dozens of impish looking demons, their cruel and vindictive appearance far surpassing the imaginative depictions from centuries of religious artistry. Their small reddish form seemed to rock back and forth on their goat-like hooves, with the curved horns filed to a singular point. Each demon wielded some sort of pole arm, tipped with a numerous array of rusted metal prongs, designed to inflict as much suffering on their intended victims.

Cornered in at the back of the church was the remaining congregation, huddled together under the greedy watch of one of the cultists. The other was already using the blood of the fallen pastor to paint crude images onto the church floor. The entrance of the interlopers only caused a brief halt in their desecration, before a call to arms was made and an all-out melee ensued as the two sides met in chaotic fashion.

Whilst William skilfully cut down the encroaching imps on his way to rescue the offerings, Julianna instead had to rely on her supernaturally enhanced strength. Grabbing a wooden candle stand as a club-like weapon, the former nun charged towards the throng of demon and swung her weapon wildly, as to send the small figures flying towards the church walls. In her desperation to reach the children which she used to care for, she often used the furniture itself as either a method to create distance or as a heavy projectile thrown into a group of the vile creatures. The lead cultist had to resort to forming a magical barrier around the main ritualistic circle as, to avoid haphazardly flung chairs from striking him or the magical objects.

Using the cover of the chaos, Rose managed to slip through to the scared parishioners hiding in the corner, using a few flasks of holy water to create distractions. A quickly thrown powder bag into the face of the remaining cultist guarding the children was enough to spur the captive sacrifices into action. Julianna cried out as the children ran past them “Follow that girl! I will catch up!” throwing a battered bible at a demon who had gotten to close, knocking it down before throwing yet another piece of furniture at the summoned foes. She watched William hesitate to remain in the brawl, before entrusting the rear to Julianna.

Now surrounded, the familiar stood panting while holding onto a mistreated spear which she had taken from a fallen demon. “Wait a moment...” the more senior cultist commanded, halting the violent melee. “I recognize that face, did we not sacrifice you to our master? Yes... I believe we did. And yet here you stand, alive and free of our markings. What a peculiar occurrence.” His perplexing excitement clearly evident in his voice. “No matter, you will be offered to our master in due time. Ignore the woman, go after the children.” Despite her defiant attempts to stall the horde of monstrous demons, they surged past the worn-down nun.

Before she could try to clear a path to chase after them, the battered corpse of one of the imps was thrown back into the church's halls and breaking an ornate glass window in the process, violently bouncing off the cultist's barrier with a loud THUMP. “What!?!” exclaimed the summoner, chanting some dark spell in preparation for the yet unknown threat. Vines suddenly crept through any available opening, ensnaring anything which moved, demon or human. A deep voice bellowed from beyond the door, “You have defiled something which... you most definitely should not have defiled... the woods know not of mercy....” Julianna felt a voice in her head pull her back from her state of desperation and fear. “Let the natural spirits deal with the demons, you can rest now.” Her master's voice reverberated and soothed her, falling into the thick vines and returning to her Victoria's soul in exhaustion.

-

William ran from the church sword in hand, sprinting down the road as to catch up with the escaping sacrifices. As he ran several wild animals began to run alongside him, some going as so far as to break away from their escort to strike or gore a determined demon that had gotten close. The vampire had seemingly been busy while they ran to the church, to the extent that the deer lord was now intervening in their favor.

As he ran, the battle only got wilder as the arcane lights and feral roars echoed for miles around, with the cacophony only seeming to grow the further they fled. Victoria was right to stay clear of the impending supernatural melee. Now free of his desperation and anger, the situation was something which even multiple teams of experienced night-hunters would struggle to create any meaningful impact on. While he did not approve of her gaining yet another familiar, her indirect intervention likely saved far more lives than any of the other options. It was a shame that they would likely soon part, as he had come to realize that there was still much that he could learn from the young vampress beyond the basic knowledge of the occult.