4. Den Of Thieves

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ARK Bearer Of Curse

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ARK The Bane Of Spectres

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***

I thought I was going to get killed!

Nevermind the ninth degree burn from the Infernal Flames of that despicable demon. The euphoria from surviving the night and killing those monsters made me numb from pain. Finally, Sister Ann's torture nights came to an end.

I didn't mind that my hand wasn't recovering. It's not like I actually knew how my wounds recovered before. From death, even.

"Damn, it! I was too late!" An adult man dressed in black clicked his tongue. He just arrived a few minutes after the battle concluded.

As he walked closer for the moonlight to shine on him, I realize he was dressed as a priest.

"Help", I almost said but something warned me. "If those fiends thought and got scared of you as the devil, what do you think this Godly man would do?"

This man didn't seem like he was after the monsters. He simply threw them glances and nodded his head. So if he wasn't here for the demons, he was here for me.

I tried my best to hold my breath. Not moving was fairly easy as my body was too beaten to move anyway.

"But would pretending to be dead really work?" I asked myself, hoping for the best as I closed my eyes shut.

A couple of moments later, I felt the man walk past me. I could even swear he walked through me.

"These are fresh kills. The negative energy was not even purified", I heard the man spoke. Seriously, what's up with everybody doing soliloquy?

"Ostendo!" He chanted. I didn't know what that meant, but in an instant, the place was enveloped in what I could only describe as his aura.

This aura slowly crawled the place, as if it was searching for something. It left no stones unturned. But somehow, I seemed to remain invisible from the man.

"Intruders", I heard him utter. Thinking he finally realized I wasn't dead, it almost startled me again. But he walked past through me once more. I was puzzled and relieved.

Then I felt the presence of four other persons. I said persons because I saw their faces. They were humans, but they didn't feel like one.

My body was beginning to adapt to the concept of aura, or as the demon called it, spirit energy. That was unfortunate, because it made me feel through these "intruders". They didn't feel like any of those monsters earlier.

I tried to move very slightly just to get a better view of their spirit. It was.. dark. Not the demonic darkness of Infernals. But dark as in the void.

"What have you done, Father?" One of the intruders mockingly asked.

"A sacrifice gone wrong, obviously", added the other while the two remained silent. All four of them looked they were here for the same reason as the priest: To kill. Who? I had a bad feeling it would be me.

"Two budding Spectres and two Nightmares", the priest said, nodding his head. He looked pleased with this development. Maybe he was upset he didn't find what he was searching so he would satisfy his frustration by fighting these "creatures".

"And what can a mere human like you, do?" Asked the first intruder that the priest called Spectre. Not a second later, the Spectre was headed to the priests direction. It was already holding a sword, dark as his spirit.

The Spectre moved swiftly. Even if the priest dodged the first slash, it was quick to follow through with a series of slashes. What's astonishing was how the priest avoided each one of its strikes!

But the two silent intruders joined the battle. Their appearances darkened. A black smoke like ink flowed from their head to toe. Their movements were not that fast compared to the Spectre, but they wielded weapons just as deadly.

One of them held a spear. Stabbing the priest with every opening, it gave the Spectre the chance to advance. The priest was fully on the defensive. But running was not an option.

The other shadow creature had a bow and arrow. It was shooting nonstop and while it didn't hit the priest, it prevented him from creating distance.

"I know why you're here, Father!" The Spectre said as it tried to cut the priest who was barely managing to dodge all three attackers.

"Really? You must be a smart man", the priest replied as he blocked the spear from the shadow creature. The Spectre thought he had an opening but the priest grabbed the spear from the creature, pulled it, and use it to block the Spectre's sword.

The spear was broken, obviously the Spectre was stronger, but that was part of the priest's tactic. Soon as the spear was broken, the priest spun to dodge the next slash of the Spectre, and as he turned, he used the broken spear's tip to stab the attacker.

"A smart dead man", the priest said, mocking the Spectre in return.

"You stupid servant of God!!" It enraged the Spectre. A surge of immense spirit had swollen from him. I was shaking in fear. Terrified that they would notice me. To where the courage I had to fight the monsters earlier go, I didn't know.

The Spectre showed its true form. It still had the appearance of a human, but its demeanor changed. It also held a proper sword. A real sword, not like the one made from darkness.

"A human swordsman host, I see", the priest said. The two shadow creatures continued to subdue him, but he effortlessly avoided all the arrows and when he had the chance, he slightly adjusted to dodge the spear and kick the creature to its leg.

The shadow creature would have shrieked in pain had it known how to. As it struggled to get up, the priest had already prepared its funeral.

I saw a yellow spark from the priest's palm. It looked like lightning. How he managed to hold that, my guess would be magic. I had seen enough miracles and occultism that night, magic was the sanest thing I could think of.

The shadow creature disintegrated the moment the lightning made contact. No trace of it could be found. While the other shadow continued to rain arrows, the priest molded the lightning to the shape of an arrow.

Before any of the shadow's arrows hit the ground, the priest threw his lightning arrow, disintegrating the creature on the spot.

I didn't know what came to me. I almost wanted to cheer for him. Realizing that he came here to kill me too, I kept playing dead.

"As for you with a swordsman host", the priest spoke. Only then did I remember the Spectre which transformed to a swordsman. Looking around as subtle as I could, the Spectre was nowhere to be seen.

Until its image appeared right behind the priest. I wanted to shout at him so he could dodged the looming death. The sword was about to to touch his back, but I didn't understand what happened next.

The next frame I remembered seeing, the priest was facing the Spectre, and it was his sword that stabbed the creature, all the way through its back. I noticed that several meters straight in his path were burnt ground, as if something really fast ran it through.

"I couldn't save you but I could at least give your code an honorable death", I heard him say, pronouncing the last rites of the creature before it slowly disintegrated. It was beautiful. I almost saw nothing, but I knew that the way he fought was beautiful. I wondered if I could ever be strong like that.

The sound of clanking chains echoed as the priest turned to face the last of the intruders. Only then did I notice his unusual weapon. His bright white sword that shone in the moonlight was connected to a chain that was wrapped on his arm.

"As for you, how would you like to die?" He said, slowly approaching the intruder who I thought was shaking in fear.

***

I was lucky to get out of there alive. That priest was both amazing and scary. Honestly, he was scarier than the monsters I've seen.

Yet after that encounter, I was enlightened to the truth of the world. Monsters and evil were real in a literal sense, and you could fight them and survive like I did.

When I made sure the scary priest was completely gone, I moved to leave that place.

I would relish the memory I had with mother though it was short lived. As psychotic as it sounded, I might actually miss Sister Ann. After all, she was the one who exposed me to such truth. If not for her demonic form, I would have taken people's brutality towards the weak as a norm, and forever accept the pain they inflicted.

It was the first time I ran in years. Of course, the running earlier in battle didn't count. What I meant was running like a child, not giving a single care to where I would go.

But where would I go?

Any place would be better. Or so I thought.

I ran day and night. I only stopped when I needed to rest. And it was seldom that I needed to rest. From being weak, my body miraculously suddenly had a lot of energy.

If I didn't know any better, I would think it's a miracle, but I knew it was the spirit energy I had inside. Learning to control it slowly everyday, it made my journey easier, albeit not better.

Until I crossed the strip and I was back to Palestine. Ah, mother's home town. God, I missed this place. The smell of smoke from explosions, the coughing gun powder, and illness carrying stench of the corpse.

I was back in the warzone! The same reason mother and I fled this place.

But ironically, it made me feel comfortable. I was welcome.

The first thing I needed to do was increase my survivability and joining a gang would do that. Thus, I continued my journey to find the notorious town criminals to seek refuge. I entered the Den of Thieves.