ROOAARR!!

 

A humanoid figure dashed through the thick forest, knocking down trees in its path. Black blood flowed freely from its many wounds as it struggled to escape. Behind it chased twelve people wearing either robes or armor.

 

“Theresa! Stop his movements before he exits the forest! Once he’s out, he’ll take flight and leave us behind!” One of the men in the front called out.

 

“I know, Bonny! I know! But, my powers can’t reach that far! I need to get a little closer!” A brown-haired beauty scowled as she hurried her two slender legs over a few tree roots.

 

The middle-aged man with the bushy beard grunted. “For the last time, it’s Boniface! Don’t call me Bonny! It sounds like a lady’s name.”

 

“But Bonny sounds so much cuter!” Theresa grinned and winked at Boniface.

 

“Alright, alright! You two stop flirting with each other and focus on the task at hand!” Another man exclaimed in between pants.

 

“Aw, Vincent, don’t be jealous. You’ll get your chance with your beloved Gwenivere.” Theresa reached out to pat the short man on the head.

 

Vincent jerked his head back as he dodged the female’s hand. “Columbanus, can you do something?”

 

“About Theresa’s teasing? No, I cannot.” A skinny old man displayed a toothy grin.

 

“Not that!” Vincent snapped back before calming himself down. “Senior, can you do something to slow down the demon?”

 

“I can try.” Columbanus scratched his rough beard and thought for a while.

 

Then, the elderly man placed his middle finger and his thumb into his mouth. With a deep breath, he blew through the gap between his fingers, emitting a chirping noise. The sound started out high, but it gradually lowered and lowered until no sound came out.

 

The other people peered towards the direction of the demon to see what the whistling had done. Suddenly, buzzing noises could be heard from every direction. Swarms upon swarms of bees and wasps appeared as if out of nowhere. The insects converged towards the demon, distracting him and slowing him down.

 

With a powerful roar, the demon stunned many of the annoying pests. All this took a couple of seconds. But, because of those seconds, the twelve men and women cut down the distance between them by nearly half. The demon turned back with resentment in his eyes. Seeing the approaching enemies, he opened his mouth and released a beam of blackened fire.

 

“Hellfire!” Vincent gasped as he recognized the flames of hell. “Benedict, block it!”

 

“On it!” A burly man wearing plated armor jumped in the path of the hellfire and raised his shield up.

 

The flames of hell were superior flames that could burn almost anything in the world. Only those of the divine could block such intensities. Saint Benedict was known to have incredible defense. So much so that he was dubbed ‘The Invulnerable’ by both his allies and his enemies.

 

Coupled with the divine protection he received from Archangel Sariel, Benedict could block almost any attack. The hellfire bombarded Benedict’s shield, its intense heat washed over the saint. Luckily, his metal armor was heat resistant as well or he would have been cooked like a baked potato wrapped in metal foil.

 

Saint Benedict shook off the fiery blast, standing firm against the raging demon. “Pio, come heal me.”

 

“Right away!” A lanky shy young man with not a single strand of facial hair shuffled towards the armored man.

 

Saint Pio activated his divine blessing while praying to God and to Archangel Raphael. He placed both hands on the Saint Benedict’s back and released a surge of healing light. The greenish light washed over the armored man, relieving him of fatigue and pain.

 

“That’s enough Pio. Save your strength for the battle!” Benedict reluctantly replied as he glanced over towards the demon. “Theresa! He’s getting away!”

 

While the other saints tried to dodge or block off the heat of the hellfire, the demon took this chance to rush through the forest. With a roar of anticipated freedom, the demon burst open his wings from his back, ignoring the stinging pain that came with it, and took off into the skies.

 

“On it!” Theresa leapt past Benedict and Pio with her dainty left hand stretched towards the demon.

 

A surge of spiritual power emitted from the thirty-year old beauty as she telekinetically grabbed onto the demon, dragging him back down to the ground. Saint Christopher and Saint Boniface charged towards the enemy while Saintess Margaret provided cover from the rear.

 

Saint Christopher howled excitedly as fragrant blood dyed the atmosphere. His countenance changed completely as he turned into a half-wolf, half-man. The wolfman plunged his sharp claws into the demon and slashed away chunks of flesh.

 

Meanwhile, Saint Boniface bulked up in muscle mass and swung his two-handed war hammer down on the wounded demon’s shoulder. Bones cracked as the demon howled in pain, his entire shoulder deformed and tore, barely holding on to the arm that it was connected to.

 

The demon shook ferociously as he smacked Boniface and Christopher back. Meanwhile, Margaret pulled out a large quiver of javelins and hurled them one at a time at the downed demon. The javelins were only ordinary metal javelins. However, in the hands of the Dragon Slayer, they were deadly missiles.

 

Each javelin pierced through the atmosphere like a rocket and smashed into what’s left of the demon’s defenses. Some shattered at the tips while others punctured the demon, making him look similar to a sea urchin.

 

The demon fought back hard, managing to fend off against both Christopher and Boniface. However, when Margaret and Benedict joined the fray, the demon knew that his defeat was imminent. A tinge of regret flashed through his eyes as he sighed in defeat. If only he had a Saint body for a vessel instead of this fragile mortal body. Then, he won’t ever be caught in this mess.

 

The demon’s mind whirred as he sized up his current situation. If he was going to go down, he should drag one saint down with him. But who? His eyes wandered about until he saw a relatively easy target.

 

There was a young girl, in her mid-teens, standing in the far back away from the fight. The demon assumed that since the young girl was doing nothing to contribute to his defeat, it would mean that she was one of the weakest of the group. In other words, she was a liability…an easy kill.

 

The demon slowly shifted the flow of the battle while edging closer and closer to the young saintess. As soon as the girl was within range, the demon pounced. He lunged towards the young girl with a perverted smirk. The young girl looked up in surprise as her arms raised up and she shifted into a defensive stance.

 

Meanwhile, Saint Joseph flew after the demon in hopes of distracting him away from the girl. However, he was too late. Mouth open and teeth bared, the demon chomped down on the young girl, savoring her rich virgin blood.

 

But for some reason, the supposed rich virgin blood tasted bitter. Could this young girl not be an actual virgin? Not to mention, why did his chin hurt so much? His vision was also kind of blurry. Did he bite down too fast and too hard? What was going on?

 

WHACK!

 

The young girl swung her tiny fist up, landing squarely on the demon’s chin. A tremendous power followed her uppercut, powering through the demon’s defenses and landing a solid blow to his jaw. In an instant, the demon’s jaw was shattered while he was flung back. The punch was so fast and so perfect that the demon didn’t even have time to register what had happened. It was truly astonishing.

 

By the time the demon realized that the blood he had gulped down greedily was his own, he had already been flung back a couple of meters. The demon tried to flap his wings and stabilize himself, but the missing of a limb caused him to teeter off-balance.

 

The demon spiraled out of control and crashed into Saint Joseph. The duo plunged into the earth below, creating a sizeable crater. Worried for Joseph’s safety, Theresa tossed the demon out of the way and carried her stepbrother’s crumbling body up.

 

Teary-eyed, Theresa glanced towards Pio. “C-Can you heal him?”

 

Looking at the dying man, Pio shook his head. “The wounds are too heavy. I’m afraid I don’t have the power to do so. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry.”

 

“No, d-don’t be.” Theresa shook her head as she gently caressed Joseph’s lifeless face. “Goodbye, Joseph.”

 

“Alright, enough of the emotions and move out of the way.” Vincent chirped as he nudged Theresa to the side.

 

“You! A-Are you going to use that?” Theresa wasn’t angry from Vincent’s seemingly rude remark. “But you’ll shave off another year. Are you that willing?”

 

“Yes. I do what I must. Besides, young Joseph is a dear old friend. I will do my utmost to help him out.” The elderly man nodded, ignoring the tears of gratitude that flowed freely down Theresa reddened cheeks.

 

“Thank you.” Theresa murmured. “Thank you!”

 

Vincent reached into his pockets and pulled out a pendant. On it, marked the sigil of Archangel Raphael. Vincent kissed the pendant and murmured a short prayer to the Lord Almighty as well as the blessed Raphael. Then, he waved the pendant over Joseph’s body a couple of times. With each wave, the corpse twitched.

 

After the final wave, a surge of spiritual energy transferred from Vincent to Joseph. With a gasp of fresh air, the resurrected man lurched up. Joseph’s eyes widened when he recalled the moment before his death. He glanced over at Vincent who seemed to have aged a year or two.

 

“Vincent, t-to sacrifice your life for m-me…I am eternally grateful!” Joseph kowtowed before the elderly man.

 

“Now, now. It’s just one year. I still have plenty of years left. Don’t worry about me.” Vincent smiled as he helped support Joseph to his feet. “Enough of that. Let’s focus on the matter at hand.”

 

“Ah right! The demon….” Joseph turned towards his murderer and cracked a few knuckles. “Time for payback!”

 

Joseph leapt towards the subdued demon and whaled on him like crazy. It took both Benedict and Boniface to pull the man off of the bloodied demon. As soon as Joseph calmed his bloodlust, the twelve saints and saintesses encircled the demon and started praying.

 

“Blessed Lord! I, Saint Vincent, call upon Samael to lend us divine power to bind this demon!” Vincent gave his prayers.

 

“Don’t do this! Let me go! Let me go or I’ll kill you all! I swear upon Satan’s might I’ll do it!” The demon struggled to escape the encirclement but was knocked back by Christina.

 

“Blessed Lord! I, Saint Benedict, call upon Sariel to lend us divine power to bind this demon!” Benedict gave his prayers.

 

“Fuck you! Fuck you all!” The demon struggled but to no avail.

 

*

*

*

 

“Blessed Lord! I, Saintess Christina, call upon Raguel to lend us divine power to bind this demon!” Christina gave her prayers.

 

“I…CURSE…YOU…ALL!!! I curse you all! I will come back! I swear it! And when I do, you will all die!” The demon cursed as he felt his body stiffen gradually.

 

After all twelve gave their prayers to their God and their respective angels, a powerful sealing sigil appeared above the demon, pressing down on his struggling body. With an unrelenting smash, the seal buried the demon deep into the ground.

 

“And that’s that.” Saint Columbanus smiled as he patted his hands.

 

“Yep, let’s go home and have a nice rest.” Margaret smiled as she rubbed her sore shoulders. “I’m in a mood for a nice, warm bath.”

 

“Count me in!” Theresa chirped as she hooked her arm with Margaret.

 

***

 

As time sped by, the land started to change. The trees were chopped down and the ground was cleared. Soon, pavement appeared and houses popped up everywhere. In a span of a couple hundred years, what used to be a forest had completely changed into a small neighborhood, housing a population of exactly one hundred.

 

Throughout the years, the accomplishments of the saints were long forgotten. But their past was not lost as it came back to haunt the small neighborhood, bringing terror to the region once more.

 

And so, the story begins….