Mature Content Warning: Not much here.

Author's Notes: I ain't sayin nothin, bout nothin. :)

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Chapter 23.3: Dark Revelations

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The long-enduring silence of the quiet country cemetery was ended abruptly as first one, and then several naked men faded into sight amid the centuries old headstones. The first to appear was a man in his mid-thirties. He had black hair, brown eyes, and masculine Latin features.

Rodrigo Garret, a leader of hard and dangerous men, turned to his recently revived assault team. “Everyone’s here?”

The other six men looked at each other then back to their team leader. A blond man with a well-aged scar that ran diagonally down his face spoke up, “Seems so.”

Rodrigo looked his men over then nodded. “Right. We need to go get our back-up gear and head to the church. Father Atkins will want an update.”

The men nodded in unison. Before anyone else could speak, Rodrigo snapped to attention then called out, “Paladins form ranks!”

Each of the absurdly naked men quickly moved into position then stood at attention. Rodrigo called out, “Before we return, a gesture of penitence must be made for blasphemy during the mission. Assume position!”

“Yes, Brother Rodrigo!” called the men in unison.

As one, the seven naked men knelt down onto the grass then bowed their heads. None of them spoke aloud. What they shared with god and what god might share with them, was the concern of no other man. Only the paladin would know if they had made an attempt to seek forgiveness for their deeds during their holy mission to cleanse evil from the world.

A short distance away a thoroughly angry and confused baby dragon hid and watched the entire scene in its absurdity. The world really was changing in strange and unusual ways. Scott continued to watch for quite some time as the men quietly prayed to receive forgiveness for their transgressions from a god who had sold them all off to the highest bidder.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Brother Rodrigo spoke softly but with authority. “For the lives that we take for the sake of the innocent people in this world, for the cruelty of the justice that we must bring to the wicked in thy name, forgive us each our transgressions so that we may continue thy good works. Amen.”

“Amen.” spoke the other men reverently, and with seeming sincerity.

The scaly ridge above Scott’s left eye began to twitch spastically. What the hell were a bunch of wanna-be paladins doing blowing up his house and killing his friends in the middle of the night?

The angry, confused, and now curious, dragon slipped forward among the headstones as he followed the men a short distance. He recognized the cemetery as an old and largely forgotten rural skull orchard just outside of town, and roughly three miles from his recently invaded home.

The paladins opened the door to a run-down shed on the outer area of the cemetery then walked inside. A few minutes later they walked out wearing simple clothes, jeans and clean white t-shirts.

Scott realized that there must have been a phone or some other device in the building as not long after an unmarked white van rolled up. He could not let these murderous religious zealots idiots get away with what they did, so he ran as quickly as he could while hiding his presence. Just before the van took off he forced himself to shift into his shadow form.

Smoke puffed out of the tail-pipe of the old van, and a creature of darkness and shadow flowed into it. Scott had decided that he would hitch a ride.

During the ride Scott slipped a small bit of his shadowy essence up into the back of the van experimentally in order to see if there was a way to get any further information. Unfortunately, all he discovered was that the men in the back had their heads bowed. Several of them continually murmured prayers seeking forgiveness for their transgressions. One of the men even began to shed tears.

“Are you alright, brother?” asked Rodrigo.

“Yes... I...It’s just that...” said the brown haired man. He seemed to be the youngest of the group.

“It was your first kill?” asked Rodrigo.

The man shook his head. “No, I had to do that a few times in Afghanistan, but...”

Rodrigo nodded. “It’s always a hard thing. It has to be. If it ever becomes easy, then we are worse than the things that we have been trained to hunt.”

The blond man spoke up then. “To think those things actually exist.”

“The scriptures spoke of demons and devil, fallen angels, and other things... but to meet one...” said a man with the pale skin and flaming red hair that many would see as obvious signs of Irish descent.

Another man, with green eyes and a tear drop tattoo under his right eye said, “It actually spoke to me.”

“It did? What did it say?” asked Rodrigo.

“It just kept screaming why? Why? It... It sounded angry, confused, ... kind of sad.”

“It was a trick, brother...” said the blond man. Though, he sounded a little shaken by the revelation. “...It must have been...”

“You don’t sound convinced.” said Rodrigo.

The blond man waved him off a little. “It’s nothing... just a trick.”

“Yeah... must have been. Though...” The man with the tear drop tattoo started to say something but then stopped.

“Though?” asked Rodrigo.

It was the blond man that spoke up. “You thinking ‘bout those two child molesters?”

Teardrop nodded. “The only reason we even knew that thing existed was because it had found those two guys desecrating a grave yard... its sister’s grave at that... and then attacked them.”

“There are a lot of strange things in the world today brother. Whether that thing was truly evil or not, I don’t know, but if Father Atkins looked into the soul of those men and saw something wicked had come for them, I’ll trust his judgment...” said Rodrigo.

“Yeah...But...” said Teardrop.

“But?” asked Rodrigo.

Teardrop shook his head. “What kind of wicked demon terrorizes two child molesters then lets them go with the promise that they’ll confess their crimes?”

Rodrigo was not sure what to say about that. It was counter to what he had always been taught about demons and the wicked.

“Think it’ll come back... it was pretty tough.” said the possibly Irish man.

“If it does, we’ll be ready.” said Rodrigo. They had to be ready. Something like that, it could do a lot of damage.

“Nothing worked on that thing... Guns, knives, grenades and gas did squat...” said Teardrop.

“Well, that’s how demons are I guess. Mortal man is powerless before them without god and Christ to deliver us.” Rodrigo raised up his hand and concentrated. A brief moment later a small sphere of pristinely white radiant light began to pulsate.

“I wish I could do that when I’m awake.” said Teardrop.

Rodrigo shuddered softly and let the light die away. He could only maintain his Sphere of Radiant Faith for a short time, and had barely managed to unleash his divinely granted holy power when that thing had engulfed them.

The essence of darkness slipped back down into the smoky mechanical entrails of the van. He wanted no part of that so-called holy power at the moment. His goal was to see where this strange band of brothers was going. If he was blasted out of existence it would be a pain in the ass.