A Battle Most Holy

...

Kali takes a half step forwards towards the group of Witch Hunters and casually sweeps her hair aside, "A-are you sure you want to do this...? You could always change your mind, I've needed a big strong, pious man for a while now..." she smiles, causing two priests to falter, their expressions softening.

"Y-yes... I-I think I'll do just that, Madam-"

"BACK!" A cross is thrust at Kali, "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU, DEMON!"

Much to my surprise, Kali rears back as her disguise instantly sheds away from her with the accompanying sound of tinkling glass. The priests are horrified at the sight of her horns, wings, and goat legs, a couple stumbling backwards as if they'd been struck.

She scowls at them, fang displayed as she flicks her hand out and summons her flaming whip, which sputters fire as she cracks in the air. "You've annoyed me, now suffer!"

A priest jumps out to intercept the whip with his blade, but it cuts clean through the steel weapon and splits the man in two, causing the smell of burnt flesh to fill the room.

"BROTHER FADRE! YOU FIEND!"

"BROTHERS! WE MUST FACE THE EVIL!"

"IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OUR GOD AND LORD-" three priests all begin chanting simultaneously, causing Kali to shriek in pain as she's pushed backwards by an invisible force.

"YES BROTHERS! IT'S WORKING!"

Unfortunately for them, they'd forgotten about me... While they'd been distracted by Kali, I'd been conjuring a spell of my own. "FALL!" I shout, drawing their eyes back to me as the roof above cracks.

*CRAASH!*

A massive block of stone falls atop them, crushing half of their number into a bloody pulp, leaving only those that were on the outskirts of the group or fast enough to avoid it alive. Still, one man kept chanting prayers at Kali... "CRUCIO!" I roar, turning the priest into a screaming wretch.

Kali now unrestrained leaps out into the group of priests and begins decimating them, her whip twirling and tearing them limb from limb.

"DAMN YOU! ARCHANGEL MICHAEL PROTECT ME!" the claymore-wielding priest shouts and changes straight for me, prompting me to cut my wrist and throw up a blood barrier, causing his blade to release sparks as it hits it. A flick of my wrist later shoots a blood snake from the shield which bites into the crucio'd priest and rapidly drains him of his blood.

*Clank!Clank!Clank!*

"WHAT IS THIS SORCERY, CREATURE!? FACE ME YOU COWARDLY WORM!"

"You're the coward, come here and fight me already!" I joke and give a hard tug on the stone block I'd pulled from the ceiling earlier, sending it careening directly at me... The priest can't even react as it crushes him in between itself and the blood barrier, creating a right gory mess.

With him down, I step past the shield and manipulate the shield of blood, turning it into hundreds of sharp spikes that hover behind me. "Kali!" I call out and she moves as I unleash the arsenal down the tunnel. The priests try to raise defences, but their faith-based magic or whatever it was turned out to be completely ineffective against regular magic, which utterly obliterated the priests caught in it and left barely three alive.

I release the blood snake as I've already regained the blood from the earlier spell and slowly walk towards the survivors, Kali taking her place at my side. "So, what do to with you..." I wonder aloud, causing the priests to grimace, their hateful expressions remaining despite the situation.

"W-we'll never submit, creature! Not to you or that demoness!"

I shrug, "Speak for yourself, your buddies here don't look so confident," I gesture at the priests behind him, one missing his legs and on the verge of dying of blood loss, and the other struggling to keep his entrails inside his body. "I might be merciful if you do as I say."

"B-Brothers! Y-you can't be tempted! The Devils word is a Devil's lie! We are God's instruments, God's creation on earth against these-AHCK!" the man chokes as he tries to continue rant, grabbing the large squirting wound on his neck as I walk past and kneeled in front of the last two men.

"You'd think God would step in at this point, wouldn't you?" I hold my fingers up and start counting down, "First we break into the most sacred place on earth without difficulty, then we steal the most valuable scrolls and artifacts kept here, then we allow some 'prisoner' to escape..." I pause holding two fingers, "Then we butcher his most faithful..." I bring another down, "And now I'm to torture you both to death and allow my friend here to devour your souls..."

I grin, raising the chin of the man nearest to me, "God's behind on his debts, you will never reach salvation, and all your service has been for nought. At this point, I'd pick another occupation."

The priest in my grasp starts silently sobbing while the other begins uttering frantic prayers. That's annoying, their minds would probably break before they ever thought of submitting... Indoctrination at its finest.

I release the man's face and stand, "To show that God doesn't have a monopoly, I'll let you die swiftly... But only if you answer some questions first... Who escaped?"

"I-It was a c-cultist... A-an old demon worshipper!... H-He sought to bring forth the Anti-Christ! S-someone must stop him! STOP HIM OR HE WILL BRING FROTH HELL ON EARTH!"

...

"That's it...?" I ask with a sigh, "I thought some big ass demon was being held here, now you're telling me it's just 'some guy'?" I shake my head and swing my hand, decapitating the man with a quick severing spell, "What a waste of time... Kali, you can have the last one, but be quick, we need to leave on foot... I'll call Nieve to help transport the Grail back." I say while looting the corpses of holy artifacts and weapons.

"Yes Master..." she turns her focus on the priest, "I'm going to pay you back for those irritating words earlier."