In a sleeping city in the dead of night,

A young boy ran through the abyssal darkness of a corridor.

"What's wrong ? Don't you recognise me?", said a voice through the darkness followed by a the sound of a thousand feet crawling across the marble floor of the dark corridor.

The boy knocked on every door of each room but all were locked.

He ran and ran until he reached the ground floor of the building.

There the creature skittered across the ceiling of the roof where it lay waiting for the boy.

And just when the boy was about to push the revolving door. It pounced on him.

Saliva dripping from it mouth. It relishes his scent. With its sharpened fingers, it brings him up to its mouth.

There, its face split in half. Its tongue slithered out like a serpent and tasted the boy.

The body of the abomination, in all its repulsive form, wriggled with joy as the taste of human flesh stimulated its mind with excitement.

It's face then formed back to its normal state.

"Grendel, my dearest Grendel, Oh how you have grown.", it spoke, the voice was both male and female, not from its mouth but through its mind.

He felt paralyzed at the sight of the creature. Terror over took his mind, fear constricted his breath.

He closed his eyes and accepted his fate but luck played its part.

It stopped halfway from consuming the boy.

Placing him inside the house keeping store room of the building and blocking it with the reception desk of the Hote, it proceeded to prepare a ritual for summoning it's master.

The human child was needed as a sacrifice.

Outside the building, a man in a military combat outfit stepped out of a van followed by six others. Their uniforms were dark grey with urban camos, a patch with the symbol of their organisation, a Weighing Scale and a Sword placed horizontally below the scale, was placed on their right sleeve.

Below the patch, their organisation name,"Aspída Foundation".

And below it, their motto,"We,the ones who stand guard in the shadows."

Intelligence reports from Haifa had stated the disappearance of individuals in various apartment buildings over the last few weeks so they were deployed to dispatch the threat.

"Archangel reporting. We are on site.", said the man.

"Sermon has begun.", the voice on the radio replied.

Signalling his team, they began deploying around the building.

They each brought along a tool which launched grappling hooks and used it to gain entrance into the building.

Starting from the top floor, they proceeded with caution.

Then, they reached the floor where the boy encountered the monster.

Raising their weapons, they shone their flash lights down the dark corridor.

The occupants of the rooms were silent. Too silent.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Something's wrong. Green, thermal scan.", ordered the leader.

Green, the Technician of their team, takes out a device, cylindrical in shape, from her bag and plants it onto the floor.

Connecting it to her tablet, it sends information about their environment.

"1 survivor. Rest are dead",she informs their leader," Target located. Ground Floor."

Moving down the stairs, they saw pools of blood flowing out from underneath the doors of the rooms as they passed through each floor.

They heard the crunching of bones and unholy chanting as they got closer to their target.

"For the darkness

Given unto thee

The forsaken who see

The true sins

That we may be

Of one and act as one

Unity"

"Aneklatos located.", the leader notified to his team and to their HQ.

Their commander who was a Major receives the message.

"Proceed with the plan."

The soldiers comply and approach their target. Switching off their flash lights they use their night vision.

The creature, its arms extended in prayer, remained motionless. An oppressive atmosphere filled the area.

Then, they heard a cry. A child's voice coming from the room near the entrance. It had been blocked by a desk.

The creature had the body of a millipede and a human with a disfigured body and a straight deep line running down its face.

"Warlock, Stairs. Hammer, Elevator. Jackal, Green and Fox, with me. Luger, cover Warlock.", ordered Hound as they approached their target.

"FRESH MEAT!", exclaimed the abomination in ecstasy.

It danced and pranced about here and there.

It's eyes staring straight into the souls of the men in grey.

Then, it dashed at them, targeting Hammer, who dodged it just in time as it rammed into the elevator.

The metal door of the elevator was dented and the walls cracked.

They opened fire on it but watched their bullets bounced off of its flesh.

"Team! Switch to K Rounds", ordered Hound as he switched magazines.

"Going Holy.", his team said as they complied.

Kólasi Rounds or K Rounds were special bullets made by mixing silver with lead and blessed by a priest.

Kind of ironic as kólasi meant Hell in Greek and priests work for Heaven.

Now, the bullets cut through Aneklatos' body or rather they burned through it. Breaking through the incantations it had placed upon its flesh.

Screaming in agony, Aneklatos collapsed.

"Any last words ?", Hound asked as he put the barrel of his gun on its head.

"Hel---", it spoke out weakly but Hound didn't have time for that and cut its time on earth short with a bullet to the head and all together as it died the oppressive atmosphere was gone.

"HQ. Target eliminated. One survivor. Returning to base.", Hound informed to his superiors as he went up to the child whom his teammates had freed.

Hound then looked at child. He removes his mask and examines the child. He found no grievous injuries except for a very traumatized mind.

"Hey, kid", he said as soft as his voice could go,"I need you to be brave, okay ?"

The kid nodded and looks at the soldier's face. Both of them had been through a lot that night.

"So, how's he holding up ?", asked Fox, as she and the others on their way back to base.

"Fairly well. He's a tough lad.", he said as he put a blanket over the child who had fallen asleep on his lap.

"He reminds me of my brother", she said as she looked at them both then looked away and chuckled.

"You might make for a good father.", she with a gleeful smile

"No thanks.", he responded back with the same reaction.

After their light hearted exchange of words, he continued

"Tonight was a good hunt."

Death had come that night. It's reign cut short by a sermon of fire.

This was not the first and it would surely not be the last of such encounters.

Somewhere in the outskirts of Damascus,

A guard screamed in pain as a blade pierced through his chest.

The aftermath of a skirmish was laid out in front of the cloaked humanoid figure as it sheathed its sword

The patrol was wiped out in mere seconds.

Now, it picked up an unlucky survivor by his head.

"Pathetic", it remarked as it sliced the man's head from his mortal body and continued to walk towards the direction of Damascus, or more precisely one of the base of operations for the Aspída Foundation.