Chapter Fifty-Four - This Operation Was a Mistake!

The team led by Alexis Durand took a completely different direction from the other two, they were responsible for re-establishing contact with the outside support, and for that they needed to find the missing exit.

Walking through the building's hall should only take about fifteen minutes, but Durand and his team had been walking for hours and finding no apparent exit, and now they couldn't even find the stairs.

"Damn, what kind of secondary dimension is this? Those damn cultists have never been able to create one of this size before!" Durand spoke.

"Holy Maiden! Maybe if you ask your father for help, he can help us!" One of the church clergy spoke.

"For the love of the b*tch who f*cked me up, I already told you not to call me that! I'm not your fucking holy maiden! And my father is an *sshole! Even if I called him I doubt that b*stard would come!" Durand yelled. "And that's why I didn't want to work with you at church, every time I meet you it comes down to this!"

"Forgive us holy maiden... we only want the best for you! The Church will always have open arms for you!" Another priest responded, looking wounded.

Alexis Durand rolled her eyes and ignored the comment. "How about you guys be helpful and do something!"

The clerics fell silent, they gathered in a group and began to pray in Latin.

"Oh, how I missed the prayers!" A voice came from out of nowhere, everyone in Durand's group moving into attack position, raising their weapons and moving in a circle.

"Show yourself!" Durand yelled.

"Well, well, if it isn't Holy Maiden Alexis Durand! The archangel's daughter with a witch! Is the Burreal counting on your father coming to save your skin? Unfortunately for you, not even an archangel can cross through those dimensions!" the room began to grow darker, a lump began to rise from the ground some distance in front of they, taking the form of a man dressed in a red clerical robe.

"You! Apostate! How dare you wear priestly robes while using sorcery!" Sister Sandra screamed, she had been with Alexis in silence until that moment, but seeing an old companion filled her with anger.

"Do you know this clown?" Durand asked.

"His name is Matthias Durkwick! He was one of the church's bishops, but we found out he was getting involved in evil witchcraft! He's an Apostate!"

"Apostate? I never denied our faith in our God! My desires and goals have never changed, all I want is to bring the fear of God to this world! People don't come to light because the darkness is too comfortable! The cultists will make the darkness dangerous again! People will either have to turn to the light or die in the dark!" Matthias laughed. "I'm sorry my brothers and sisters, but I must put an end to you here! All for the greater good!"

Matthias clapped his hands and the floor of the room began to squirm, little creatures about three feet tall started to appear from the ground just like him, they were Imps, inferior demons with little intelligence but with great cruelty, they were armed with little metal rods and three-pronged forks spears.

"Devils? Have you come down so low at that point?" Sister Sandra commented, she looked more disappointed than angry at this point. "Do you really think these low class demons are enough to stop us?"

Matthias opened a smile, the number of imps began to increase at an alarming rate, soon the number of demons was too great for the group to count. "Could you just surrender? I really don't want to have the blood of my brothers and sisters on my hands..."

Alexis looked around at the alarming number of demons. Her expression over the helmet turned ugly.

Sister Sandra and her clerics pulled heavy weapons off her back, flails and other medieval weapons, fighting demons was the specialty of the church, and they wouldn't fall with out a good fight, she turned to Alexis and commented, "You know what you have to do!"

Alexis cursed, she hated to do this, she dropped the gun and took off her helmet, revealing her beautiful androgynous face, she closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath, when she opened her eyes they lit up like they were made of pure light , her short hair began to grow back at an impressive speed, while glowing as if made of fire and pure light, she began to float in the air lightly and wings of golden light formed on her back, along with a half golden halo that floated. over her head.

"Ah, how beautiful is the true form of a Nephilim! Almost as beautiful as a complete angel! Maybe I'll capture it to use you in my experiments…" Matthias joked, he made a gesture with his hands and the imps attacked.

The Burreal soldiers formed a circle and began shooting, their guns taking down the demons with ease, but for every one who fell, two took their place.

The church members shouted Bible verses and their weapons glowed with golden light, the light gathered in a great circle, the demons crossing it instantly combusted. The circle provided extra protection against the legion of demons, and the soldiers fired without stopping, taking down more of the demons.

Alexis looked like a completely different person, she came out of the protection, flying among the imps, each one of them burned when bathed in the light of her wings, she summoned a sword of light and launched herself towards Matthias, aiming for his neck, the man smiled and didn't even try to turn away, his head was separated completely from his body with ease, being thrown at a distance in the middle of the flood of demons.

"This won't work..." Matthias's voice came out of nowhere, his body fell apart like liquid, and appeared again at a distance in the room, he had a wide, paternal smile on his face.

Alexis didn't answer, her face seemed absent of any emotion, she turned yo him and the blade of light turned into several golden arrows, which flew towards Matthias, the man sighed as the second body burst to pieces with each attack, one more time reforming in other place in the roon. "So, you lose your senses in this form... What a disappointment... I expected more from the daughter of an archangel..."

Alexis still didn't respond, the arrows she had released exploded across the room killing some of the demons, and she continued to shoot without sparing her powers.

"The Holy Maidem lost control! She won't last long before she reverts to her human form!" One of the clerics shouted. "We need to call a real angel! Sister Sandra, only you can do this kind of miracle!"

"I can't do this here! I need a long time to open the path to heaven! And Matthias is correct, this secondary dimension has a very strong seal! I will need four times more time to call an angel here! We need to fight with what we have! Summoning so many demons must have come at a great price! We need to find his true position! If the original body is destroyed all the demons will go back to hell!"

Alexis was still out of control, she attacked endlessly with rays of light, bombarding the fake body of Matthias and the demons around her, but with each attack her wings of light are losing a little shine.

"She is fighting a mere illusion, I doubt he left his body near the fight site! We need to find him before her powers run out!" Sister Sandra ordered. "Got me some time!" She knelt on the floor and clasped her hands in prayer.

The Burreal soldiers continued to fight the demons, slaughtering any imp that got close enough, the littles creatures couldn't escape the bullets, they just ran forward, compelled by their contracts, dying at the soldiers' hands or burned by the circle of sacred light, but with each demon that died the circle diminished slightly, and with the number of imps dying this change was visible, and there didn't seem to be any end to the creatures.

The bullets weren't going to last forever either, even if the good old metal rounds succeeded in taking down these lesser demons down, it was only a matter of time before the soldiers were forced to fight hand-to-hand, and no matter how hard their armor were tough, they knew they would be swallowed amidst the sea of ​​demons.

Alexis continued her turmoil causing bursts of light, but her face was starting to show tiredness and her breathing was getting heavy, and her wings, before so intense and luminous, were starting to turn transparent, she had killed more demons than the soldiers of Burial and the church together, but now she was starting to get weak and tired.

The circle of light that protected the soldiers was getting smaller and smaller, forcing people to squeeze more and more into the center, one of the soldiers was too much on the edge and one of the demons reached his left foot, it pulled the man who lost his balance, slipping out of the sacred ward slightly, thousands of other demonic hands seized him, dragging him from the corcle into the midst of the sea of demons.

He flailed and fought with all his might, shooting and killing the creatures that had seized him, but there was no visible end to the number of imps, and soon his weapon was snatched from his hand, the thousands of black claws are scratching his armor without success, but little by little they found the small gaps in his armor and began to dismantle piece by piece, when the first piece of his flesh became visible the man screamed in fear and pain, the claws sank into his flesh tearing he apart, the imps stuffed the pieces of meat in they mouths, smiling in an evil satisfied way and the man died devoured alive.

His companions screamed in rage at the fate of their brother-in-arms, they fired non-stop towards the demons that devoured him, but for the demon they killed they felt their efforts were just drops in the ocean.

With the circle of defense narrowing the soldiers felt that that would soon be their destiny, they looked at the imps that smiled with their horrible mouths, the infernal vision redoubled their will to live and they threw grenades in the midst of the demons.

With the safe zone getting smaller, some soldiers had the same fate, being dragged by the demons and stripped of their armor, becoming feasts for the terribles creatures, the soldiers however did not fall without a fight, they exploded grenades in their own bodies carrying many demons with themselfes, trying to ease the pressure on his fellows companions, they sacrifices bought time for the others to survive.

Agent Alexis Durand had regained her consciousness, she hated using the powers she had inherited from her father because they were difficult to control and she almost always lost consciousness, one of her eyes still glowed while the other had returned to normal, the half halo of light had also disappeared, she floated with difficulty and had only one wing left.

"I found it" Sister Sandra yelled "Durand, he's up in the ceiling!" She pointed to a direction on the roof.

Alexis didn't miss the chance, she created an arrow with all the power she had left, leaving just a tiny aura of light that protected her body and kept her afloat, the arrow flew in the direction Sister Sandra had aimed, hitting a black sphere with one eye that floats in the darkness of the roof.

The sphere exploded with the attack, Matthias's fake body smiled and shattered into pieces, the demons screamed in unison as they disappeared, with the end of the contract they lost the right to step on the earth and they didn't have enough strength to resist for itself against the seal of the world.

With the end of danger the group regrouped, only five soldiers had fallen in the battle, Durand was tired and moving with difficulty, Sister Sandra approached and analyzed what was left of what she thought was Matthias.

"What the hell is this?" Durand managed to squeeze the question through her tired lips.

"I don't understand... If this was what controlled the demons... he somehow managed to separate a piece of his soul and put inside of this thing..." Sister Sandra looked disgusted. "I had no idea that the cultists had this kind of power..."

"Damn...we always treat the cultists like clowns...but they're much more dangerous than we imagined...we underestimate them too much!" Durand commented, a soldier was supporting her. "This operation was a mistake! We should have come with a lot more support and preparation!"

"We can't give up now! More than ever, we need to find a way to get in touch with the outside and ask for backup!"