"Haaaa!!" She breathed out loudly. The woman who looked as though she was reaching the subscription age limit of a woman in her late 20s replied "Thank god you made it out safely too";

A tidal wave of screams and cries for help sounded from behind us.

"Pah!!" I sent my small soft hands, reeling into my mother's cheeks, reminding her of her bleeding and injured son.

"We have to go now" And it worked. Without even giving the woman time to argue, my mother held her wrist tightly and matched forward with a surprising burst of speed while she dragged the woman behind us along.

And so without further ado, we made haste through the wide gates of the estate and made out way into the gothic victorian road that would have me trancing in and out, in fascination and shock if I wasn't holding my life together like a falling bridge.

"Simeon!! Simeon!!!"

Huih|!! I am just going to take asleep. The event of the day has already left my little body weakened, without any energy to carry out any of its functions properly.

"SIMEON!! SI - - - -

Don't worry about me mother, just get to safety first. A little nap is what I currently ne...

......................

Thirteen years later.

March 19th, 1998.

That was the day of the crusade. Surprisingly, after being reincarnated, I never thought that I would ever say that.

Anyway, that was also the day, I, my mother, and Gilda--the woman who we met along the way during our race to safety had escaped the Adolph household before the chaos had ensured, and soon after, burned it down to the ground.

March 21th 1998.

The beings that came out of the doorway or interdimensional portal kept on coming without respite. Sure, some of them looked human with a special distinguishing feature. While the others just took on a humanoid form with an overall inhumane appearance.,

However, one thing that made the invaders, or guests from another world special was that their every being was filled with enough power to punch through solid rocks and bulldozed their way through a metallic shield, shredding it apart in their wake.

With their rampage threatening the lives of countless individuals, the government, and various military and security agencies began to pick up arms and advised the common people to do the same by defending themselves with whatever weapons they could find.

They told us that our lives were in our hands. Regardless, the only weapons that were powerful enough to send a message to the invaders were unsurprisingly guns and the various industrialized manufactured weapons of mass destruction.

Needless to say, the military and security forces had come prepared with every firearm and ammunition, nuclear and bio-graded weapons that they could uncover to terminate and suppress the invaders or fairy tale homicidal creatures that have infiltrated our world.

It was war!!

Swords and machetes, bows and arrows, guns, shotguns, machine guns, bio-bombs, everything or anything capable of reaping out the enemy's life were used.

You either pull the trigger or watch as you are being pinned down before they stab their swords through your guts, killing you as an animal slaughtered just for the sake of it. And then move to their next victim after you romanticised with death.

It was a terrifying, insidious war, a no-holds-barred with frightening reverberation.

It was bloody.  The amount of blood spilled during those few days was enough to overfull a pool and keep a vampire satiated for centuries to come.

And just when we thought that we had a likelihood of driving these invaders back into their world and taking the war they brought upon us to them. Just when we thought that we were locked in a stalemate while we counted every ammo like the last days of our lives…..

Individuals. No, beings!!

No, that isn't right either. Monsters!!!

Yes, monsters. Creatures who could withstand everything we launched at them and shrug off our bullets as though they were nothing but bothersome flies emerged.

They were Priests. At least, that is what they called themselves.

With their appearance, they turned the tide of the war to their side.

With their powers, they flung common sense out of the window and made logic as appealing as a nun in a whorehouse.

They sang and give praises to unknown gods that we did not know about, while they indoctrinated people, giving them new beliefs, hopes, and desires all during a bloody war.

As time passed by, they marched forward with their armies behind them singing hymns and tales of their countless untold victorious. And It soon became clear to us that this wasn't just an invasion.

No, it wasn't, because this was something much more simplistic and rudimentary that had also been done back on earth before I arrived here.

A Crusade.

As simple as the word sounded, only those who had met the fierce religious zealots who wanted more than to purge any evil in their wake, could under how horrifying those words meant.

And surprisingly, histories and biographies of crusaders also existed in this world so it wasn't hard for those sitting at the top of the pyramid, who wielded the chains of power to understand what this word meant.

In short, they were god's people sent into another world to triumph and transform its inhabitants into the ways of their church. They were god's chosen, while we were the sinners and unrepentant beings who were being judged for our inequities.

We were individuals without a god, and so the major prerequisite for them to stop the war was for us to accept their gods.

Those who repented and decided to follow a church would be saved and shielded from the war. While those who refused would be purged away from the surface of the earth and left to rot with the stench of the evil ways.

Unsurprisingly, after witnessing the powers and wonders these individuals possessed, more and more people laid down their weapons and chose to surrender, chanting words of rhythmic scriptures as they started holy and born again in the ways of their chosen god.

June 10th, 1998.

Every top state -this world's country's counterpart to those on earth, from each region. From the Western states to the Southern states, the Eastern States and Northern states all came together under one banner to combat these new powers.

The war was waged on for months. Combatants died on the battlefield with nothing but their fruitless achievements of accumulated defeats to chaperone them over to the immaterial world.

They were winning, and we were losing. We were brutally losing and had no hopes of ever gaining the upper hand again!!

March 2nd, 1999.

The equilibrium that tipped the scale of victory towards the side of the invaders finally pushed the scale down to our side.

The answer to all our questions and worries, together with the recipe for achieving victory was simple.

Gods.

Yes, gods!!

They had a god backing them, a god who led them through the fabric of reality and space, to campaign in our world in their name, supporting and assuring them victory to triumph against us -their foes.

Humanity, for the first time, after almost a year of defeat, was touched by a god.

Thus, giving birth to the first Priest of humanity. A man called Malaki, now known as -Priest Graham.

He was blessed by the Main goddess of wisdom and warfare -Goddess Bona Diea, the first god to shine her grace on mankind, and thus, lead humanity into the raging cascade of victory.

With the tip of the scale now on our side, we fought back with the ferocity of a wounded lion. And at long last, we were finally winning.

August 1st, 1999.

With the blessing of a god on humanity, the rest of the gods followed. Numerous Priests raised banners from different states, declaring their salvation and renewal in their newfound god.

This date was marked as the birth of the -First generation of Priests.

Priests, men, and women who were directly blessed by the gods to push back the foes that have invaded their world, leading battles in their names and slaying their oppressors who also retaliated back with the scriptures and powers of their gods backing them.

Yes, we finally had divine abilities and authority in our hands.

Yes, we finally had the power to overthrow their armies like sand castles on top of a dry sandy beach.

Yes, we were finally victorious. But...

But..... at what cost?

September 31st, 1999

Two months later, a new generation of priests arouse. They were tagged as the -second generation of the priesthood.

The second-generation Priest was not touched personally by the gods but was blessed and given their divine abilities by a Priest. As such, they were called the -Blessed ones.

August 1st, 2007.

Nine years later, the old war had ended, and a new war had risen. The war between the church of the gods.