Staring straight into the Hellhound’s eye, the Pastor was on high alert. The Hellhound, likewise, was very cautious of the Pastor. The pressure was very intense for the others in the surrounding. Unable to keep still under the pressure, a warrior took a step back and stepped on a branch. With that, it signaled the start of the fight.

Even with the Hellhound’s enormous size, it was faster than the Demon Fangs. Swiftly, a giant paw came swiping at the Pastor. The Pastor took a deep lunge, lowering his entire body and pulling the sword out of its sheath at the same time. The swipe flew over the Pastor’s head missing by a hair length, meanwhile, the Pastor performed an upward cut towards the belly of the Hellhound. Using the momentum from the swipe, the Hellhound, while midair, curl its body to one side and barely dodged the cut.

Taking a distance, the Hellhound retreated to reorganize itself. The Pastor, not allowing anytime for the Hellhound to take a break, charged towards the Hellhound while he has the advantage.

*Clank* *Tink* *Swoosh* the sounds of battle echoed.

A human fighting a giant hound made an unbelievable scene. The Hellhound dodged left to right, counter block with its extremely hard paws, used its tail to sneak attack, and used its head to bite the human. Its speed was extremely fast but despite that, it still accrued some injuries. Light cuts and gashes can be seen on the Hellhound’s body.

The Pastor wasn’t too well off himself either. His left arm had a claw scratch, his right leg bruised by the Hellhound’s tail, and his hair disheveled. The Pastor took a step back to take a breath. He reorganized his posture and received a liquid bottle from one of the warrior. Gulping down the liquid, the Pastor seems to be recovering at a rapid pace as it can be seen by the naked eyes. The Hellhound was once again at an disadvantage.

“Bring me the Light-Bearing Sword” the Pastor requested.

The Light-Bearing Sword is a holy artifact of the Church to fight against Demons. With its holy affinity, it is the nemesis of the Demons. The sword also have the blessing of Goddess Raella, allowing a user of the artifact to bring about 150% of their potential.

A warrior brought the sword to the Pastor and in turn, took the Pastor’s old sword with him. The Hellhound can sense the unconcealed energy radiating from the sword. It felt its danger senses rapidly sending warning signals to run. But as a leader of the Demon Fangs, it has its own pride to uphold. Not retreating, the Hellhound faced the danger head on.

The Pastor enabled the Goddess’ blessing and he felt stronger than ever. His body was overflowing with power; feeling as if he is now invincible, the Pastor once again engaged in battle.

The Pastor dashed towards the Hellhound, with the sword emitting a light white glow, the Pastor swung the sword downward at the Hellhound. The Hellhound leapt to the side to dodge as fast as it can but it was still within the sword’s crossfire.

*Kaboom* the sound of an explosion roared.

The Hellhound’s tail was cut at the end tip, bleeding profusely. On the other end, the forest behind the Hellhound was obliterated into chunks of debris. A wide cone shape damage can be seen from above with the Pastor being the start point.

“Awooooo!!” the Hellhound wailed in pain.

The Pastor followed up the downward strike with a horizontal cut, causing the forest trees 10m out to all be cut into halves. At this point, the Demon Fangs and the others have already retreated back a monumental amount of distance. Only the Hellhound and the Pastor was left on the battlefield.

The Hellhound was unable to react to the horizontal cut and was sliced open on the left side of its body. Going limp, the Hellhound fell down onto the ground. Panting and whimpering, the Hellhound can be seen to be on its last breath.

The Pastor walked slowly and steadily towards the Hellhound. Lowering his gaze to look at the Hellhound, the Pastor raised the sword for one last strike.

*Kashas* the sword stabbed into the Hellhound and its breathing finally stopped.

Cleaning the blood on the sword, the Pastor turned towards the Demon Fangs. The Demon Fangs were nowhere to be seen. Seeing as the Pastor has won the fight, the others returned to the battlefield. Turning around, the Pastor was about to reconvene with the others when a thumping loudly sounded.

*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*

The Pastor faced the Hellhound once again, but it wasn’t moving nor breathing.

*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*

It was already a cold night, but now it felt even colder. The dead silent night made the thumping more eerie.

*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*

An intangible amount of pressure fell on the Pastor and the others. Everyone fell onto their knees under the heavy pressure pressing on them.

*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*

A dark and evil aura enveloped the Hellhound, covering its whole body in a purple and black mist.

*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*

Slowly, the Pastor and the others watched the supposedly dead Hellhound get back up on its leg. The wounds on the body has already stopped bleeding. Its fur colored in shades of purple with black striped on each end. The tail longer than before with the cut part of the tail recovered. Eyes glowing deep red, the Hellhound stared at the group of humans.

“A-a-a—“

“A Mutated Spectral Dark Hound” the Pastor cut in with a frowned face.

Spectral Dark Hounds are hybrid Demon-Beast borne from infusing dark miasma with the magical core source of a hound-type beast. They are tiers higher than a Hellhound. One Spectral Dark Hound can cause the downfall of a low-leveled kingdom. That’s to show how much firepower one enemy can cause.

“Why did one show up here…” the Pastor was impatiently thinking.

“There shouldn’t be any dark miasma that are recorded here in this forest…” the Pastor mumbled to himself.

The forest surrounding the Spectral Dark Hound started to slowly wither away. The humans started to suffocate under the intense darkness.

Without any more thinking, the Pastor pulled out a necklace with a bright blue crystal enshrined on it. Instantly, the Pastor bit down on the crystal.

*Crack*

The crystal broke like ice and another power flowed out to counteract the dark pressure. The warriors and the mercenaries can finally move again.

“Why do you ha—“

“That’s not sup—“

“You stole the wea—“

Before any of the warriors of the Church can complete their sentence, they were stabbed in the back by the mercenaries. Each and every warrior was killed off.

“To use it at this time…” one mercenary said.

“As long as he keep his promise, we’ll do our job” another mercenary said.

“What’s done is already done” another mercenary chimed in.

A bright light showered the Pastor. In the dead of night, the bright light was very noticeable. While a pillar of light suddenly brighten the night, something walked out of the light. Four angelic white wings on his back. White hair coming down to his back, eyes glowing with a golden radiance, and with skin as pale as white, the person held onto a sword and faced the Spectral Dark Hound.

“This is what true power feels like…” the person said.

The mercenaries were in awe of the power the person is emitting. They can feel the power crawling through their skin.

“En garde!” The person yelled and charged at the Spectral Dark Hound.

***

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, a young man appeared next to a bloodied black dog. The dog was slowly breathing, almost like its life force was going to disappear. The young man gave the black dog a pat on its head and then with a dark frown, swiftly entered the cabin. The little girl that was supposed to be soundly sleeping is nowhere to be seen.

"SANA!!!!" a loud roar shook the Heaven and the Earth trembled.