Chapter fifty-two - They knew of our coming

Let's take a step back in time to the day Locke saved the church members from being slaugthered by a bunch of rabid monsters and then helped the Lizardkins recover their families.

The Agent Alexis Durand was smoking a cigarette under the night sky, her team had rushed to aid the Church group, which had suffered a surprise and were completely surrounded.

They expected to find only a few survivors and a chaotic situation, they knew the scale of the attack was huge and that they weren't close enough to get there in time to save everyone, in fact it would be no surprise if the entire church group had been eliminated when they arrived, but contrary to all predictions, more than half of the church members were safe and the situation had calmed down with no alive enemies in sight.

She quickly understood why when the church's field leader called her aside. Sister Sandra recounted the events of that night without hiding any details, especially about they mysterious savior.

As soon as she heard the report, Durand cursed under her breath, this was the worst possible development, now the church was aware of they main target in this town and they also showed a great interest in him, the chance of them leaving after dealing with the cultists was zero.

The target was a prize too big to pass up, a cryptid with an intelligence equal to or even greater than a human, gifted with exceptional magical abilities, high-level physical skills and capable of even destroying souls, all of this made him the perfect weapon and a very desirable prize, but what most interested the Burreal was the fact that with each appearance of the target he seemed to grow more powerful than before.

Durand regretted not trying to reason with him in a friendly way when she had a chance, her actions were the Burreal's standard procedure when they encountered a new creature, they almost never adopted a friendly approach, as many creatures were underhanded and will kill them as soon as they had the chance.

Ultimately both the Burial and the church had to focus on the most important thing at the moment, the cultists were a bunch of dangerous idiots, and the intelligence they gained showed that a grand plan was unfolding over the shadows of the city, and the redoubled's attacks showed that the cultists were not going to give up this city so easily.

Alexis Durand sighed, she analyzed on the tablet all the information about the next target, a large company in the center of the city, whose owner was proved to be one of the heads of the Heralds of the new world, capturing one of the leaders could be the boost that the Burial needed to put an end to this problem once and for all.

A joint operation was then decided, their unity and the church unity would storm the building overnight, in a full frontal assault, knocking out anyone who got in their way.

To complete the mission, the BPD sent two more units of human soldiers, Alexis Durant had three units in total under her control, she divided the lead into three teams, She was responsible for one, Garrard for another and Tamar for the third, sixty soldiers highly trained and armed with the best technology humanity could provide should fo the trick.

The Church also invested heavily in this mission, new priests arrived to replace the fallen, they also brought powerful holy relics that allowed them to use more Thaumaturgy powers. The clerics were divided among Burreal's squadrons, serving in a supporting role in each group, providing healing's, blessings and other miracles.

The night of the attack arrived, the three squads were ready to attack, they enlisted the help of the police to redirect the common public away from the area and waited for the last human worker to leave the building while they checked their equipment.

"Fifteen minutes to twenty-three hours! All squads in position!" Alexis Durand spoke, her voice was broadcast to everyone through they helmets, even the church members were wearing the Burreal's signature high-performance gear.

"It's time! GO! GO! GO!"

The three teams activated the suit camouflage and ran towards the building, the plan was simple, take down the human security on the ground floor through the use of non-lethal weapons, proceed with the terrain analysis and go up taking down everyone on the way, but just like that, as the three groups entered the building, things got out of hand.

When they walked through the doors everyone felt a strange sensation of dizziness and momentary confusion, many of the soldiers and clerics even fell to the ground with the effect, when they returned to normal they realized the reason.

The interior of the building looked…wrong, the doors they had passed through were gone and all they could see was a hall way too big for the size of the building on the outside.

"Damn it! A secondary dimension! They knew we were coming!" Tamar commented through the suits communication system.

That was the biggest danger with the Cultists, they had somehow mastered the process of creating secondary pocket dimensions and they were in the habit of using them to create and nurture their abominations, only God knew the terrors there were in that place.

Even against their will the three squadrons had to slit, artificial secondary dimensions tended to have non-Euclidean geometry, doors that should lead to rooms could lead to a completely diferent place, climbing a ladder could take you to a lower floor than before, and the place you just passed could mysteriously disappear as soon as you turned around.

The first squad, led by Garrard climbed the stairs, they find themselves in a huge dark roon of offices corridor with no apparent end, even with the night vision of the helmets the soldiers could not see much further and the entrance they had just passed through was gone, the soldiers knew that was not a good sign. Unlike his entire squad, Garrard was unarmed, in addition to the combat armor he had a bag hanging from his waist, he took out a small bottle full of green powder and began to sing words in Haitian, he threw the bottle to the ground breaking it, the green powder spread and began to spin in rhythm with his voice.

The church clerics in his group showed clear disapproval of what Garrard was doing, but they fell silent and took out their own relics, praying in Latin.

The small tornado of green dust began to condense, taking the form of a humanoid figure, a mass of green light with no visible feature, which lit up the place and cast a ghostly green light over everything.

Garrard spoke a few words in a commanding tone, the mass of green light began to split, separating into a heap of smaller spheres that flew aimlessly across the sea of ​​office stalls, fading into the distance like fireflies, everyone watched in anticipation as the lights receded farther and farther away, becoming nothing more than small green stars in the darkness of that floor.

Then one of the lights went out.

The others soon began to go out like the first one, not all, just the lights that had gone in a certain direction, something was coming right at them while destroying all the green lights in the way.

Bomani Garrard took a string of beads from his bag and wrapped it around his right hand, the beads lit up in a strange cold blue color and he took up guard. "Get ready…" He said, the guards raised their weapons and the clerics took out their rosaries, which emitted a warm golden light that contrasted with the surroundings.

The soldiers had started firing before the thing even showed, the muzzles of the guns lit the room, and the bullets flew off into the unknown, but whatever was coming their way didn't seem to be affected at all.

When he felt the thing was close enough Garrard punched the air powerfully, the string of beads on his arm exploded in cold blue flames, each bead was flung forward covered in that strange energy, forming a flying projectile of blue light. it moved with extreme speed, hitting the creature head-on.

As soon as the projectile hit the creature, it was enveloped in those cold blue flames, revealing its hideous form. The creature was humanoid in appearance but had extremely long arms and legs, its skin was a mass of twisted leather and its mouth was huge and full of sharp teeth, resembling an anglerfish, the creature was not alone, many like it. were coming after.

"It's a low-level apparition!" one of the soldiers shouted. "Switch to anti-spectral ammo!"

The soldiers changed gun magazines and started shooting, the bullets left a trail of light in the air as they left the guns, and the shots finally started to take effect on the monsters, but there were too many of them.

The soldiers rushed forward and got into position, five soldiers knelt while another five remained standing, all pointing their guns forward, they emptied their magazines into a barrage of fire, filling the room with light trails as the guns stayed. empty they rose, making room for the ten waiting soldiers who mimicked the formation.

Although the shots showed some effect, the number of creatures didn't seem to decrease, just to increase.

"We won't last long! How much before you guys finish?" One of the soldiers questioned.

The clerics continued to pray in Latin as the soldiers fought, condensing more and more golden light into their rosaries. "We need more time!" A nun spoke. "You! Vodum Priest! can't you buy us sume time?"

Garrard didn't answer, he wanted to leave it for later, but it seems he had no choice, he took a bottle of drips from his bag and turned it on the floor, singing in Haitian, he took out two pairs of bones and crushed them, the liquid on the ground ascended and a human skull appeared in the air, the skull held an ax made of bones and ran towards the monsters, knocking them down one by one.

Garrard dropped to his knees, his breathing heavy and his hands trembling, he watched his trump card cut the apparitions like a hot knife through butter, the monsters had no chance against the Vodum he had summoned, an ancient spirit bound to his family, however ,even though the apparitions could not defeat his trump card, their number was still very large and some of them were breaking the siege and are comming at them.

The soldiers kept the fire steady, hitting the creatures that passed through the warrior skull, gaining ground amidst the office stalls, but the creatures that were dispersed by the bullets were remade after a certain time, and there was a limit to how many the spirit could take down with your ax at once.

"We are ready! Gather up your pagan creature, Vodum Priest!" The clerics shouted.

With the cry of the priests Garrard forced himself to his feet, he yelled something in Haitian and the skeleton turned towards him, running towards him and diving into his chest, the skeleton entered Garrard's chest as if he were intangible, disappearing into the huge man, Garrard doubled over as if the process were painful, but remained standing.

The church clergymen recited Psalm 119:105 in Latin for a last time, when they say the last word a golden sphere of light formed between them and rose into the air, positioning itself above them, the sphere began to shine as if it were the sun itself, with such intensity that made all the soldiers cover their faces, even with their helmets.

The creatures began to burn under the effect of the light, roaring and screaming as they were purified by the holy light, soon the monsters in the room disappeared.

"Are you okay?" One of the clerics approached Garrard and offered his hand. Garrard accepted the outstretched hand that helped him to his feet.

The soldiers then began to move through the offices, one of the light spheres that hadn't been destroyed had found the entrance to the next floor.

Garrard led the way, being followed by the others, staying away in places like this could mean the difference between life and death after all.

"I thought you didn't like people of other faiths…" A soldier commented to the church member who helped Garrard to his feet.

"Well, in the past some church members had a really bad habit of treating all the members of other religions in... a not kind way... but the new Pope has changed our view, we are trying very hard to change that! Nobody wants another tragedy like what happened to the witches... You know, I may not approve of the way he does what he does, but I respect him..."

"Good to know we can count on you! Maybe the church isn't as bad as I thought..."