Chapter 2: 2- Skyline combat

It neared midnight.

The moon rested atop the sky, a faint layer of clouds covering its form halfway through.

Even so, the streets were not devoid of people. Business men and women stalked their way through, hoping to catch a train to the station nearest to their houses.

The lights of buildings were shining, telling of employees that stayed overtime to work in some thing or another.

Yet, none of them dared to approach the two looking at a particularly tall building.

A man wearing red priestly robes and a woman with angel wings; on their hands, deadly weapons.

“Are you sure this is it?” His tone left no room for uncertainty nor leisure.

“Yes, at the very top. At the very least, there’s something in there.” She answered in kind, her face scrunched in concentration, no room for mistakes was left.

He nodded.

“Let’s go in, then.”

“Let’s.”

With solemn steps that displayed no hurry, the two of them crossed the threshold that separated the inside and outside, entering through the sliding doors to the elegantly decorated lobby.

It easily had hundreds of square meters in area, every inch covered in marble.

Benches were sprawled here and there, accompanied by exotic potted plants. It was all topped off by the fountain at the center of it.

The image of elegance and riches, a most certainly powerful company within the commercial district.

How unfortunate… for them.

The few employees still lounging about for whatever reason looked up from the screens in their hands, looking at the two walking towards the secretary’s balcony with surprise and fear.

Not a single one directed the word towards them, not a single one dared to maintain direct line of sight for more than a few seconds, not a single one of them could properly acknowledge their existence.

They were exorcists of the church. And for as much as they saved people, not a single drop of recognition came towards them.

It was a common saying. ‘Follow and adore the church, for therein lies salvation; but fear its exorcists, and the death that surrounds them.’

The church was a safe haven, the light that would save them from darkness. The exorcists were the hunt dogs that brought that salvation.

When it comes to that distinction, the church didn’t care if the people could only feel fear towards them.

The sound of their steps ceased, their shadows being cast over the secretary.

The woman’s corner laid in the far opposite to the entrance, extending through almost the entire wall. Normally, it would be packed full of other secretaries working their jobs, but at this point of the night, only her remained.

Her baggy eyes, her tired complexion. It mattered not, neither to her nor to the exorcists.

“H-how can I help you two?” Momentarily pushing through her own fear, she stammered.

But in the end, as the priest-looking man says, fear is never unfounded.

The fake-angel smiled. “Hey,” Her voice was loud, it was done on purpose, so all that rested there could hear it. “would you kindly evacuate the building?”

The secretary’s face went pale, the people behind them began murmuring, raising themselves from the exit and trying to leave as quietly as possible, some even ran.

“Y-y-yes, I-I, I’ll do s-so.” Her voice was almost devoid of air, her body almost hyperventilating.

With her shaking hands, she went to grasp for the phone, to warn everyone to run.  The exorcists had arrived.

“Thanks.” With a smile never dropping from her face, she turned away from the secretary. “We’ll be taking those elevators right there, okay? Thank you.”

Without waiting for a single reply, the two of them turned and walked towards one of the elevators stationed at the far side of the desk.

“W-wait, you…” The secretary extended her hand and tried to call out, but her voice died midway through.

“Stop talking and start evacuating the building.” With a voice that let no space for arguments, the white-haired man silenced any action that she might have taken.

Without any consideration for further conversation, he and his companion entered through the first open door.

As the elevator closed and the numbers of the desired floor were punched in, they began their ascent.

There was no fear of disobedience or repercussion. No one disobeyed the church’s dogs.

An ill-fitting calm elevator music rang out.

“Are you prepared?” The numbers on the display raised one by one; his hand rested on his sword’s pommel.

“If anything such as being prepared exists...” She took a deep breath, slightly tensioning her wings.

Seconds ticked away and the numbers rose. For that brief instant in the box of metal, their chests swirled with anticipation.

The elevator came to a halt, a ding resonating through the small space and the doors opened with a mechanical sound.

The hall ahead was completely dark, the only light coming from the elevator’s insides, as if the power in that specific floor had been cut.

Being the tallest floor in the building, it naturally was where the boss’ office was.

The corridor was short lived, a small way paved with a rug that led to a double door made out of the finest oak.

Quickly, they covered the length of the corridor.

He extended out his hand and touched the door—

“...” Cold.

The door was exceedingly cold. Even if it was a chilly night, it shouldn’t have been something even close to this cold.

If there was any doubt left as to what remained on the other side, it was now gone.

They looked at each other one final time, and with a nod, he pushed the door.

It opened with a sickening creak.

The revealed inside carried an alien scenario befitting of a devil.

A white sticky substance that resembled a spider’s web consumed almost the entirety of the boss’ office. A majority of it pooled around the edges, where egg-like objects rested, each of them with a single shining orange point.

In the middle of it all, where once an ornate table rested, was a chitinous white beast.

It was long, almost three meters in length. With arms coming out here and there, and a small, bladed tail coming out of one of its ends. Its belly was quite distinct, bulged over and almost sacking over the ground.

Keeping itself aloft with two more normal main arms and legs, the creature seemed to look down upon something, its long neck inclined down.

Slowly, the distorted existence turned.

Its facial features were yet more monstrous. With sharp teeth coming out of a mismatched circular mouth, a long tongue looping over, and a single eye, a single shining orange point.

For a moment, it eyed the invaders of its domain.

And the instant after, it reared back and unleashed an ear-splitting roar that warned all of its intentions!

The bulky beast lunged forwards, the claws that came from its many arms contracting, its teeth bared, ready for slaughter.

Fast! It had no right having the speed it had with such bulk. Even with his senses the exorcist could barely notice its movements.

Without a single second wasted he drew his sword forward, readying the distorted cross to intercept the devil with a swing of his sword!

But—

The beast was jerked backwards by a stream of white light. Its form flew through the room faster than it had managed by itself, slamming against the wall, and forming cracks through its surface.

His head snapped to the side, where his companion’s scythe laid outstretched.

Their eyes crossed for a second, and all meaning was relayed.

“ROOOOOAGH—!” Raising itself from the ground, the beast stood on all its height, a meaningless attempt to intimidate its prey.

The two exorcists jumped into battle, their weapons drawn high!

The chitinous white beast met them with equal ferocity. A claw on the end of each arm, it swung with wild abandon.

Golden weapons met destructive claws in a shower of sparks.

They were swung with the finest technique, each swing carrying a sublime technique aimed to guide the combatants and poise themselves for a lethal strike against the opponent’s weak points.

But—

“Tch!”

No matter how much they swung, the beast’s ferocity was unmatched. Three swings batted away the claws that uncannily creeped towards his neck, and another was quickly delivered, aimed at the armor’s opening, but the beast twisted away and delivered its own counter that had threatened to tear his neck asunder.

His sword twisted, slashed, and thrusted, but not a single blow managed to cut past the many appendages that moved in an alien manner.

The fake-angel too slashed at the opponent, twisting away with every blow, a maniacal style of fighting that was more akin to a macabre dance. Her scythe’s blade shone gold, every slash almost severing the claws.

Twisting its body each time more, the beast avoided every blow, and every moment it passed the more contorted it became.

Still, that hardly interrupted its movement.

It incessantly moved through the room, with agility and mobility unfit for something of its size and armor.

A blow that was meant to take its head missed, a blow that was meant to cut its arms off was deflected.

They did their best to follow and slash at the beast through all corners of the room, but their blows had yet to prove effective.

For them, who dealt with scores of demons, such difficulty in slaying an enemy was unusual. Normally, a single blow would be all that was needed, but this beast managed to deal with two of them at the same time.

Their attacks came like two individual fronts, there was no cohesive unit made by two.

It was a wild series of attacks, and although being struck at the same time by such blows would normally be enough to end anything, for this beast, a proper and coordinated strategy would be required to overwhelm it.

Through the slashing movement, their eyes met for a second. A nod and a swift movement of his hands was all that was needed to convey his thoughts, and within that single second, a simple plan was formed.

The path forward was clear.

The fake-angel flew above the beast, bating away all its attacks as she flew higher, approaching the ceiling every time more.

The cross-wielding man advanced with reckless abandon, the coming claws forcing his sword to slash over a dozen times within a second. Every movement connected to another, every slash drove away a pierce that was meant to kill him.

Standing above the beast, her head close to the ceiling, the scythe-wielding exorcist looked down on the beast.

Her scythe shone gold, and she dove like a beast hunting its prey.

Realizing the coming attack, the beast momentarily disengaged from the red wearing man, its claws coming up to meet her tackle, ready to tear into her body and turn her into minced meat!

The shower of sparks came earlier, the red-wearing man’s sword flying to beat all the appendages away.

It was only for a short while, but that small moment bating away the beast’s concentrated wrath was all he needed to know how to parry open a path for her.

With her path clear, she drew her scythe high and with a wave of light, slashed down through the devil’s armor!

“RAAAAARGH—!”

The beast writhed in pain, blood gushing out of its open wound.

Its claws twisted around it like a hurricane, creating a twister of death that would cut all within into strips.

With deceptively accurate precision, its sharp tail came up to pierce the fake-angel—!

“..!” Her face contorting in pain, she only barely managed to raise her scythe in time to block and could feel the full impact reverberating through her body.

With fury born out of its new wound, the beast focused on the hateful woman in front of it, ready to completely dedicate itself to killing her.

That single moment of unshared focus cost it dearly.

Within a heartbeat, the cross-shaped sword stuck at its body, ramming yet another cut in its innards.

“RRAAAGH!”

The claws sought to attack at both sides, trying to impale both the annoyances that had come to slay it.

But—

Thick red crystals pooled around its joints, connected the armor to the arms, restraining its movement and mobility.

With its range cut, the beast could no longer reach as many angles, nor reach the same speed.

Both the exorcists attacked, a scythe that shone gold and a sword that resembled a twisted cross.

The beast twisted its whole body in a desperate attempt to survive, its armor twisted to face the attackers, its claws poised to strike whatever came close to them.

However, it was meaningless.

Deadly precision and inhuman focus. The attacks were delivered to its body and pierced right through its defenses.

The light burned away its body, causing it untold agony. But the sword was more, the sword forced its insides to change, a cruel power that forced all the blood it came into contact to crystalize, becoming a dozen piercing weapons that impaled it from inside.

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“RAAAA—!”

Its body began flopping uselessly on the ground, a worthless attempt to repel any further attacks.

What came next was a slash from the fake-angel’s scythe. Bathed in light, this one contained more power than all that came before.

The wave of light burned and carried it away, the impact leading it through the room at breakneck speeds.

The end of the room approached, and at full speed, it crashed right into it—!

It exploded with the impact, forcing the beast outwards, free falling through the outside.

Its tentacles and tail burst into motion, grasping strongly onto the side of the building.

Its instincts were going into overdrive.

The strong winds blew across its bleeding and crystalized body.

The weight of gravity threatened to bring it downwards.

The exorcists threatened to hunt it to its death.

And, a moment after it burst through the office wall, the exorcists came following.

Their weapons being swung with deadly precision, they sought to end the enemy that plagued humanity.

It burst into movement, running through the side of the building.

Its tail and lower body swung wildly. The only part that still had true movement, it tried again and again to defend against the enemy attacks.

Running, its lower body kept jumping away, only held in place by a few claws that pierced the side of the building.

Its movements were desperate, death became more of a certainty with each second. 

Fear coursed through its veins, the will to live forced it to move.

The man moved around like a blur, his sword coming down again and again, it left cuts here and there, and whenever its claws could still move, they were batted away.

The fake-angel flew around, from a distance she swung her scythe and saws made out of light came to harvest its death.

Its vitality draining more and more, the terrain that should’ve been its greatest advantage was becoming its downfall.

Jumping above, its limbs wildly sought to bring it atop the building. It could fight, in that spot, it could fight.

The man tried to slash at it, using this as an opportune time to slay the beast, but its sword was bated away by a claw.

The fake-angel sought to kill it from a distance, trying to unleash a blade of light that would decapitate it, but propelling itself with its claw one last time, it met the summit, before the light reached it.

Wild speeds made its body skid over as it finally reached the roof of the building. The grinding halt finally allowed it to prepare itself against the coming enemies.

It could not run, the exorcists would not relent, so it would do what it was wont to. It would fight, it would tear, just like it should, its primary purpose in this world.

However, coming to the roof was its greatest mistake.

The fake-angel soared above, her wings shining a bright and powerful light.

Its single orange eye could only observe as the light became more and more powerful, and instantly, a ring of light surged around the roof!

Twenty spears formed from it, symmetrically filling all its contour.

With blinding speed that surpassed even its, rays of light extended from the point of each spear, piercing straight through it.

“RAAAAAAAAGH—!”

Each of them burned it from the inside, threatening to make it vanish, to make it combust into flames.

Holding on tightly to the beast, the ring soared high into the sky.

It ascended into even more turbulent winds, close to where the fake-angel watched above.

The light became stronger and stronger, burning more and more.

When it thought it could not become a worse pain, the ring began to spin.

The blades of light cut through its entire body, spinning in place and leaving a mark.

Faster and faster, the ring spun, leaving only smoke in its wake.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

It screamed in agony, and it was music to the exorcists’ ears.

She brought her scythe up, and as it shone brighter and brighter with light that illuminated the dark sky, she brought it down with a cutting motion, unleashing a sharp wave of gold that tore it straight off from the ring and sent it flying.

As it approached the roof and prepared for impact, another form slammed into its body. Driving it off-course from the roof and forcing it to freefall by the side of the building.

Something the size of a human body was what pierced it from the side.

It could be surmised this was the man, but there was more than just a sword piercing it.

A swing, two, three, four, five, again and again the swings came, it was as if every movement of the man’s body delivered a cut that sapped it of its strength.

This was more than mastery of the sword, it was as if there were countless blades being used by the swordsman at the same time.

It began to move, a hurricane of death surrounding it like a red blur.

It passed through it many times, a great many cuts being delivered all throughout its body.

It was without relent, and true agony permeated the monster’s body.

It was then, that the crystals came, from the blood that poured through its body, more and more crystals surged, encasing and impaling it.

Internal bleeding, torn organs, destroyed armor.

Closer and closer to death its body came as it fell through the rough winds.

Suddenly, its form was dragged inside. It slammed against the wall and shattered it once more, flying right through the building.

It rammed through an empty office floor, destroying desks and equipment, all items helping in pelting damage to its body.

The many impacts absorbing the speed, Its body finally came to a grounding halt.

“Rrrrgh…”

It groaned lowly, its sagged down form preparing to raise itself from the ground.

But the opposing figure was faster; bursting into the room and grabbing onto the curling form with all its might, it raised it, and threw it upwards—!

The body of the deadly beast slammed straight through all the floors above, breaking ceiling after ceiling, until it finally broke through the final barrier and re-ascended to the roof.

A great crater left in its wake, it lay broken and bloodied in the ground.

Its body shook with the attempt of movement, trying more and more to do something.

But more than anything else, the received attacks seemed to have drained it completely of any strength and vitality it had, leaving it on the ground, weak.

The opposing figure of the man landed on the roof, and it was finally able to see its form.

The blood that had come out of it hadn’t solely been used to restrain it, it seems.

His body was covered in red crystals of blood. Its feet had become sharpened talons, curved blades extended from his elbows, a crystalized and rough tail extended from his back. Patches of crystal covered his body all throughout and a side of his face was covered in it, monstrous red teeth above his, a red mask that promised pain.

A monster in human form.

In a last-ditch attempt born out of desperation, the beast tried to throw itself backwards, away from the exorcists that tried to slay it.

But its path was stopped, a red crystal made of blood stopping its passage. It was big, almost as big as it.

Soon after, many more formed around it, all of them with a deep and dark red in its insides.

They shone a dark light, and immediately, its blood flow reversed, the strength on its body was sapped, its stomach twisted in itself, the offspring in its belly twisted and began rotting inside.

That was the power the man wielded. The power over the wake of life, its essence, blood. To crystalize it, to control it. To use the very power of life held in it to distort the reality of other lifeforms. The beast of Blood Crystals.

Now that he had accumulated enough blood from that creature, now that it had forced it down, there was nothing it could ever hope to do.

High above, a light began shining.

A glimmering circle of light, completely filled. It shone brighter and brighter every second.

The power that woman wielded. The divine light only she possessed and manipulated. Her wings would shine with light, and she would use that light to purge all. It would only last for as long as she had light in them, but as long as she held it, the divine power would not cease.

It would deliver a beam of light that would burn it in such a manner it would disintegrate.

The end was near, and the beast was hopeless.

It looked above in fear, panic settling in in its dying moments.

It was the mightiest. A devil, the one atop its entire species, who managed to consolidate its existence, to come onto itself. It was the pinnacle that managed to achieve true incarnation, it could destroy everything in its path.

Yet, in front of it lay two monsters that would destroy it.

Desperation overtook it, the crazed desire to live, to propagate.

Raising its body high, it reached with every inch of its power to its true ability, the true meaning of its existence.

It will never be able to see it in effect during life, but it would not allow it to cease in its death.

Its belly shone with orange light.

Bringing her hand down, the fake-angel forced the shining beam of light to come down like a shooting star!

The devil reared its head back and spewed a sea of silk and web, crashing straight into the beam!

It wasn’t even a contest, the light that purged all completely overpowered the desperate effort. But for that creature, that was fine.

Orange light swelled within itself, inflating its body more and more. And as the light came onto it, ready to completely make its essence vanish, its body burst.

A web-like substance exploded from its body.

It lunged to cover the entire roof, its surroundings, and even the further off buildings!

Blood pooled around the man, crystalizing into a barrier that completely surrounded and protected him.

The fake-angel watched from above, safe from whatever happened, as the monster exploded into a substance that covered the entire building and many of the surrounding ones, making even the streets completely covered in it.

It wasn’t only the closest things, even many buildings far away had received a lot of itf. And through almost every inch of it, oval shaped things with orange points rested.

Her beam of light hit nothing but the weakened and wretched remains of a hollowed out lifeform. But that did not bother her.

She let out the pressure in her powers.

“Ahhhh…”

Slowly her body descended from its position perched high atop.

In an almost sacred motion, she laid her feet on the white-covered roof.

The small cocoon to the side melted away into blood, revealing the figure of her partner inside.

“What’s that, it seems you actually helped in doing a number on that thing.” Doing his best to seem dignified while heaving, he said such words with a smile.

“Of course I did.” She smiled back. “I said it, didn’t I? As long as I’m here, everything’s going to be alright!”

“Don’t exaggerate now.”

“Silence, you wouldn’t even be able to begin fighting that thing without me.” She stuck her tongue out.

He sighed, smiling.

In truth, they both acknowledged that victory was impossible without the other one.

To use her attacks like that, she needed time and precision, mass destruction was not acceptable nor energy efficient. For him to use his powers to his best, he needed to pierce the enemy, something significantly harder without her aid.

“Well, I guess it ended up in a bit of a mess.” Looking around her, she couldn’t help but notice the mess the Devil did at the end. “Do you think this might be troublesome?”

He shrugged, the blood crystals slowly melting into blood in his body. “That’s the Holy Assembly’s trouble, not ours. We kill, they deal with the cleanup.”

She sighed. “Of course, you would say that.”

She looked above to the moon, smiling.

“Well, I guess that’s the end of it.”

“Yes, we killed the devil, so everything’s going to be fine for the next while.” Relaxing, he looked to the moon above.

The wind blew strongly against their bodies, with the peaceful chill of the night.

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