A guardian angel

The peace that came with the night over the town of Znena was broken by the sounds of metal plates clashing against one another, accompanied by something crashing into the concrete street, which was soon drowned out by car alarms. Dust has risen into the air, obscuring the view. Only two silhouettes swinging, clashing, and jumping around each other were present at the scene. The bigger one jumped away, landing on one of the cars as its roof nearly gave up under its mass. The figure itself was nearly the size of the car. Its gray body stood out against the red car paint. It had massive feet and hands, each finger ending with claws resembling a knife and linked with webbing, one of them even dripping blood. On its back and sides were razor-sharp fins of intimidating size, separated by needle-like, long spikes. It turned its head with dead, fish-like eyes at the cloud of dust as if to see if the smaller figure was coming. As it saw movement, the beast continued running.

The smaller figure had given into the chase once again. A light-looking armor came from the dust. Its dark blue plates created a beautiful contrast to the golden ones, which glistered like a sun in the light of the street lamps. A thin pole shaped like a cross rested in its right hand, which was leaking blood from right above the elbow. The spearhead on top had a fully bloomed rose from which a lengthy blade arose, and smaller vines entangled the rest of the pole.

The spear shone a blinding light as, on its tip, a fire burned, creating the shape of an arrow head. The figure stopped, held the weapon with both hands, and carefully aimed at the monster. The fire arrow shot out like a bullet, but the beast barely dodged it by dropping low to the ground.

"A feisty one, are you?" Its voice came out rough and drowned out, as if it were speaking from under the water. "How about you let me go in peace?" As for the answer, the armored figure shot out another arrow, this time made of electricity. It hit the monster in the left leg, leaving a nasty electrical burn.

"And let you kill more people? Do you think I'm dumb?" The voice of the armored figure came out more feminine and soft than the beast thought it would sound.

"Come on now; I had to protect my home. Besides, it's not my fault that they looked so tasty." A long snake-like tongue came from its mouth as it caressed its right cheek all the way up to the eye. The armored warrior shuddered at the thought before casting yet another arrow. The monster dodged it this time.

"They were nothing more than food to you?" The smaller figure replied, switching the arrow to one made purely of light.

"They should be thankful that a demon thought so much of them." The demon said, dodging the light arrow and trying his best to run away even with the wounded leg. It ran along the empty street. There was no way that this dumb angel would be able to catch up to him again. While land wasn't its territory, a demon was a demon in the end. There were no difficulties that they wouldn't get through.

It was just like the demon thought. While the angel gave her best, she quickly became smaller and smaller until she vanished from his sight. Now only to get to the nearest lake, and he will be free like a bird. A sound of something big coming his way startled him and made him slow down. A truck, a white truck with what seemed to be a great steel barricade, blocked his way.

"Oi, get out of the way, asshole! It's a matter of life and death." The person inside seemed deaf to him. Dammit, he had to think fast. He was a great runner and an even better swimmer, but jumping wasn't for him. And there was no way that he could jump over that. Perhaps taking a hostage? This angel wouldn't be able to touch him then. As he heard metal plates, the demon came closer to the truck and banged on its door.

"Come out, you asshole; I am taking you for a hostage!" The window rolled down, but before the demon could get inside, he felt something pierce his arm. He jumped away, trying to keep the wound from bleeding. "Silver? Are you out of your mind? You could have killed me!"

"Oh, don't you worry about that." The panicked expression of the demon only grew bigger as it turned around and saw the armored angel.

"Hey, hey, listen. What if I say that I'm sorry for my actions? You guys are all about forgiveness, aren't you?" In response to that, the angel fired off another light arrow. It struck the ground right next to the demon, startling him.

"If that's so..." The demon once again got low to the ground, facing the angel. The spikes on his back turned to where she was and, with incredible speed, flew at her. She managed to barely dodge all of them as the last one struck her left forearm. The angel yelped in pain, sharply sucked in the air, and quickly closed in on the distance as the demon was forced to back away from the truck by another silver bullet. The blade of the spear shone in a light yellow light as it elongated, and the angel, with all her might, slashed the demon, leaving a leaking wound in his side.

The spear then glowed in an ominous red light. It covered it entirely, and the angel once again made a sweeping strike. As the blade cut the demon in half, the energy stored in the weapon was released. The red glow was gone, but the powerful shock wave that came from the spear crushed the corpse and cracked a good chunk of the street, barely missing the wall of the building.

The remains of the corpse set themselves aflame in a dirty gray flame. From the flame, an orb of the same color appeared and flew up into the air, vanishing among the clouds. The angel took out the needle-like spike and was covered by a bright shine. Once the shine was gone, where the armored warrior stood was now a ginger-haired teenage girl dressed in a light green shirt paired with white pants. Her face was covered by a few light scars. A bunch of minor ones on both sides, and one that went diagonally from her forehead to her right ear, just miraculously going under the eye.

The truck's door opened, and a man in his middle thirties waved at the girl to come inside. She quickly came in and fastened her seat belt, her hand still on the wound, trying not to cover the seat in blood. The girl took a quick glance at the man who wore a white suit, which always reminded her of a pastor's, and nodded that he could go now.

"Sorry Alice, but I don't have a medical kit with me. You think you will manage, or should I call Beatrice?"

"No, it'll be fine. I was through worse." Her sentence was broken in half with a yawn, and Alice rubbed her left eye.

"Another tough night?" The man asked as the engine sprung to life.

"Kind of off, having three in a row can be tiring. The same I could ask you, David."

"I'm pretty used to it. But I think that they rely on you too much."

"It's fine, really. After all, Beatrice would have a hard time if she had to do everything herself."

"But she is an angel, and you are a teenage girl. If you don't get enough sleep, you won't grow." Alice pouted at that. She was still growing. And besides, she was 5'3. It was good enough.

"And I'm half one. I can handle a few demons, if that's what you are worrying about."

"Handling demons is one thing, but I simply don't want you to get overworked. Hell, Beatrice probably thinks the same." David said as the truck finally got on the highway, stepping harder on the gas pedal.

"Yeah, she does." Alice took a deep sigh. "I know you all are worried about me, but seriously, don't worry. I know my limits, and I promise to not bite off more than I can chew." She added while looking out of the window at the sea that was on the right side of the highway. On beautiful cloudless nights like those, the moonlight reflected from the surface as if it were covered by a hundred dazzling little gems. Alice smiled slightly. For keeping Znena from destruction and people away from the danger, a bunch of scars and a few sleepless nights were worth it.

The truck turned left on the interchange, going further away from the main parts of the town. After a short while, they were already on the outskirts, where, at the horizon, a large building complex arose, with its center stylized like a Gothic cathedral, visible even from quite a distance.

One of many of the Holy See Demon Extermination Force's bases stood proudly on the outskirts of the town. Always closed to the public, parading as a mere monastery to outsiders in which none could enter, always keeping silent about anything, and somehow always being able to run normally without anyone messing and sniffing around. Once David passed through the gate with "private property" on it, he drove for another few minutes before stopping right next to the actual gate.

"Just me and the girl." David said after rolling down his window and showing his ID, while Alice simply waved from the passenger seat. After that, they stopped at the parking lot and went their own ways.

Alice entered through the main entrance, which might as well have belonged to some kind of palace. The tall dark oak doors with carved golden crucifixes led to the main hall paved with black and white tiles, one massive chandelier that illuminated the whole hall, a pair of doors to reception that were nearly as decorated as the front ones, and old wooden stairs that led to the upper room, where most of the important rooms were.

The half-angel quickly made her way upstairs and to the doors with "Analysis & Research Department" written on a silver plaque. The room inside was dark, only illuminated by all of the bright monitors and screens on the wall. Each of them showcased something else. Some showed camera footage, others had various statistics on display, and some even had a few opened files filled with various information about demons. They were all operated by people in the same white uniforms as David, though one did stand out. A tall woman in an elegant white dress and blond, loose hair that came down all the way to her hips. Standing next to the woman was a person who was as tall as Alice, wearing what looked to be pontifical vestments in white and gold colors that shone in the light of the screens.

"I'm back." Alice said. The blond-haired woman turned around, her golden eyes stopping at her wounds. In an instant, she was at her side before anyone else in the room could even respond back to the ginger-haired girl.

"Alice, how many times have I told you to call me when you are hurt?" Her voice was soft and full of motherly warmth.

"Come on, Beatrice, it's nothing serious." She said, despite the fact that the half-angel winced as she felt a wave of heat around her wounds. After a while, they vanished, leaving two more scars in her "collection". Beatrice once again apologized for that, but Alice once again said that she didn't mind it. She couldn't even mind them. It wasn't Beatrice's fault, but hers. After all, Beatrice was a combat angel, and only because of her did she take up the basic healing spell. She would be horrible if she was mad at her.

"Miss Alice, I assume that the Utopiec was taken care of." The bishop turned around, and his wooden rod with a cross on it faced the half-angel.

"Of course, though, just like we thought he had no connections to Tetra." Alice sighed.

"So it would seem that we have returned to square one." The bishop said, massaging his temple. "Though, Miss Alice, I believe that I ordered interrogation and interrogation only."

“Of course, Bishop Ezekiel I'm sorry for disregarding an order, but when I saw it attack yet more people, I had to step in.” Ezekiel only shook his head at that.

“Don't be sorry for that; just promise not to let emotions get in the way next time." The bishop had already lost count of how many times he had to remind her of that. She was a good girl, always trying to protect everyone. He couldn't blame her for that. But she was also naive. She had to understand that orders come before personal feelings. That's how they can keep Znena safe.

Alice simply nodded and, together with Ezekiel and Beatrice, went closer to the screens. Her job did not end with simply fighting demons; she was also supposed to help them with analyzing the data that their radars got, filling in documents about demons, and other "desk work," as she called it. Right now, they were looking at the graph showing spikes in the increase of demonic aura in the nearby forest. While spikes like this weren't anything special, there was something off about this one. The spikes weren't of a single aura but of multiples. One was especially peculiar, as even at the lowest point, it was equal to at least the midway point of the rest. Another thing was that the aura itself was nowhere in their database, which ruled out Tetra. They could only hope that whatever demon had left it, had no interest in joining the four fiends.

An hour has passed, and the night went on rather uneventfully. That was until one of the radars caught a spike in the aura. Then came another ten, twenty, and thirty! No one could believe what the screens were showing. Nearly fifty demons appeared in the forest, all of them rather powerful if judged by their aura. But one thing was truly shocking. The same demon with the highest spikes seemed to be fighting the rest. Or so it seemed to be; otherwise, there was no explanation as to why suddenly five signals vanished, followed by another ten shortly after.

"Mobilize all available units!" Ezekiel's voice boomed through the room. No one had to be told this twice as the alarm sprung to life, calling all of the units to action. Many armored vehicles were on their way to the forest. Beatrice unfolded her beautiful white wings, took Alice, and took off into the air. In just a few minutes, most of the squad was on the scene. Seven heavily armored vehicles were joined by even more lightly armored ones. All of them right before the largest truck in their arsenal, the mobile operational base.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Currently confirmed are thirty-six entities. All of them are classified as having a mid- to high-level of risk. The highest one is said to be captured and, if proving to be a danger to Znena, eliminated." Said a man wearing a white riot police uniform. The rest of the people with him were preparing their rifles by using special cartridges filled with silver bullets. Not really useful on such demons, but it will have to be enough. After they were ready, they moved on into the forest, vanishing behind the thick tree trunks.

"You heard them, Alice. If you get into trouble, call me." Beatrice summoned her own weapon. A white and golden great bow decorated with various blue jewels. Its blue strings glowed in the night. She put on her communicator and wished the younger girl good luck. Alice nodded, summoned her armor, and went in the opposite direction of the angel.

The half-angel wandered in the forest for a while. She could feel that she was getting closer. The smell of the auras became stronger; the sulfuric stench mixed with blood. The sound of steel clanging against metal and cutting through flesh that echoed through the forest only assured her that the demons were nearby. Running as fast as she could, Alice soon found herself on a grassland in the middle of the trees. A good ten or so demons were encircling another one. The one that was covered from head to toe in blood—hers and her enemies. But even despite that, Alice could swear that she was the most beautiful demon that she had ever seen. Her long, pure white dress stood out in the darkness of the night and the dark bodies of the other demons. Her skin was pure and delicate, as if it were porcelain. The long, straight, dark hair moved with the same grace as herself when the demon dodged strikes from the rest, and the icy blue eyes, which Alice thought to be the prettiest eyes that there could be, shone with blue.

The demon clad in white wielded a black katana, which cut with ease through most demons. The one that resembled a minotaur lost his head, and the reptilian one was cut in half. Though one that was like a great condor flew behind the girl and was ready to dig its claw deep into her. An electric arrow pierced its wing, which let the demon bring the bird down. She turned around as the remaining demons backed away, and her blue eyes for a split second looked deep into Alice's before she chased down a leopard-like demon, destroying his whole body with a powerful burst of energy that came from her blade. The remaining demons backed away even further, clearly wanting to live another day. The blue-eyed one tried to chase after them but felt her legs give up on her, and as she was about to hit the cold ground, she felt someone catch her.

Looking up, the demon saw someone in gold and blue armor. She had to get away, and the angels finally noticed her presence. The armored figure noticed that, muttered a quick sorry, and her armor vanished in a blinding light, revealing a look that the black-haired demon was not prepared for. All too familiar with her ginger hair and those warm green eyes. She gripped harder on the arms that caught her in order to get a better look at this person.

"Alicia...?" She muttered quietly as the young woman helped her stand up, even letting her have a shoulder. Her blood stained the angel's shirt, which she seemed to not mind, and she even took more of her weight upon herself. The angel also seemed to not hear her mutter the name. Maybe it was for the better.

"I know it might be too sudden for you, but you have to go with me. We will help you, and I promise to explain everything along the way." While the demon did not know what ‘we’ she was talking about, she had no strength to ask or even resist. After all, why would she? Alicia was right next to her; she could rest happily now. They walked in silence for a while. It wasn't until halfway to the rest of the crew that the demon's eye widened, and she dropped her weapon, startling Alice.

"Hey, everything is alright. Hold on for a little longer; I promise soon you will be all better!" Seeing the panic appear on her face, Alice couldn't help but slightly panic herself. After all, what could a strong demon like her fear?

"Run!" The blue-eyed demon screamed, her voice full of fear. Alice felt her blood run cold. From what was she supposed to run? Then it hit her, nearly literally. It paralyzed her whole being; she couldn't think straight. The only thing on her mind was to run, but she couldn't move. No matter how much she wanted, her body just didn't listen to her. All of that was because of the aura, which dwarfed everything.

At the entrance to the forest, where the mobile operational base was still stationed, panic also arose. The infantry units stood paralyzed near their vehicles, their rifles pointed at the forest with very shaky hands. The retreat order was delayed until Alice would return with the captured demon, but now they doubted that it would go so easily. None of them wanted to leave the half-angel behind, as Beatrice would fill them with arrows if they even thought to do so, but they knew that there wasn't much they could do to help her. Whatever appeared in the forest was way beyond their understanding. Inside the base, the main researcher was shutting everything down, trying to keep it from further damage, as the outside radar started to smoke.

"What is this?" Asked one of the soldiers.

"I don't know, but it fried our radar!" Beatrice overheard that through the communicator and felt herself go even paler. If the aura was strong enough to destroy the equipment by itself, then what was the demon capable of? Before the system was shut down completely, she heard that the center of the aura seemed to be closing in on where the first spike was. Her eyes widened as she felt Alice's aura still in the forest and spread out her wings while giving orders to not wait for her and evacuate if the demon should approach them, not caring about the soldiers telling her that it was too dangerous to go alone. Alice was still there; that's all that mattered to her right now.

Alice held the black-haired demon like a bride and ran with all her might. She didn't know what was coming for her, and she didn't want to. The demon held tight to her, adrenaline finally letting go of her body as she whimpered weakly from the still-leaking wounds. The half-angel cursed herself for not learning any healing magic, but she had not stopped and instead picked up the pace. Her muscles burned, mostly from the aura but also from the tiredness that was seeping into her. She had no time to rest, not now.

The aura grew in intensity so much that Alice felt as if she was going to faint. Her body stopped involuntarily, much to the fear of the demon. With the body still refusing to move, Alice could only look behind her.

Standing on a branch was a tall figure that looked like it was made of fog or smoke. Its body was thin like a wasp, its legs and arms had something akin to long blades on the sides, and the head resembled more like some sort of helmet with glowing yellow eyes, which seemed to drill deep into her very soul. The figure raised its hand, pointing at the half-angel. When Alice noticed a faint glow, at the last second she dodged an upcoming spell. Despite looking like a simple, thin beam of energy, she could tell that she didn't want to get hit by it. Now filled with twice as much adrenaline as before, she took off to the left, slaloming between the trees in hope of losing the smoke demon. Hearing a flap of wings, she looked up, expecting to see it right above them, but instead saw nothing. The half-angel wanted to believe that it had gone away, discouraged by the chase, yet the aura was as strong as ever.

Alice did not stop running, even if the demon wasn't chasing them. She remembered that somewhere in the forest was an old bunker. It was deep into it, and maybe, just maybe, they could get a chance to take a break and call Beatrice. Hoping that she went in the right direction, the half-angel continued the run even if she felt that she would soon have to take a break, no matter if she wanted to or not. As if the world heard her tired gasps for air, the old gray bunker arose in the distance, with a big hole the size of a car to the side.

With her lungs burning and her legs ready to give up, Alice carefully placed the blue-eyed demon down before slumping down against the wall opposite her. The demon said nothing, as the half-angel was rapidly breathing in and out, almost hyperventilating. Alice was glad that there was little to no light, as she was probably red as a beetroot from all of that running. Just who would have thought that carrying a girl in her arms would tire her this much? Though she did notice the somewhat regretful look in her eyes,

"Hey, don't worry. I promised to help you, and I'll keep my promise." She managed to say it in between pants. "In the meantime, why don't you tell me something about yourself?"

"Why?" While taken back by the question, just now Alice thought about how pleasant it was to listen to the demon girl's voice and how soft it was. "Why did you bother to save me? You barely know me, and I am a demon."

"It doesn't really matter to me who you are. You were in trouble, and I had to do something." The half-angel decided to skip over the part where she was supposed to "capture" her, as that was purely a job thing. And that's what she truly thought.

"You sure are a weird one."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Before she could add anything more, the aura once again seemed to grow bigger. Or, rather, closer. Alice ordered the demon to stay quiet as the aura stayed still, somewhere close to them. A minute has passed; two and three more. Nothing seemed to change. As much as she would love to summon her armor, the short outburst of her aura would give away their hiding spot. After what must have been fifteen minutes, the forest was as quiet as ever.

A loud bang came from the roof of the concrete bunker, just as if something heavy had landed on it. The aura suddenly skyrocketed as the bladed hand pierced through the roof, trying to grab the demon. Alice stabbed the hand with the spear, yet it didn't look like it had any effect as the spearhead stopped at the tough skin. The hand turned with the sound of snapping bones and grabbed the half-angel by the spear instead. The younger girl let go of her weapon as it was dragged outside by the hole. The smoke-like demon punched another hole next to the previous one and dropped down, standing between Alice and the black-haired demon.

Half-angel summoned her armor and got ready to fight with the beast, even if she was shaking. She would have a hard time casting spells without her spear, but she had to try it. Before she could do anything, the demon grabbed her by the neck, held her closer to itself with the yellow eyes studying her, and threw her with all of its might at the nearest tree, breaking it in the process. Her back ached a lot, but she had to stand up. Using the broken trunk as a support, she slowly stood up, only to see the gray demon standing outside and grabbing her spear. It threw it right at her, and with a roll to the side, Alice managed to avoid being pierced with it. The black-haired demon also tried to stand up, leaning against the wall with her black katana pointed at the beast.

The demon turned around, now eyeing the demon in a white dress. Yet before it could think about getting to her, a loud boom of thunder echoed through the forest, followed by a few more shortly after. Alice smiled. Finally, Beatrice was coming. The smoke demon looked up at the night sky to see a blue rift opening right above it. The rift expanded and covered the sky above the entire area in which they were. The demon acted quickly and moved out of the danger zone as bright blue spears rained down from the sky. Alice shouted to the demon to stay inside as she herself stayed under a tree. While her armor would protect them from getting pierced by the rain, it would still hurt a lot.

The rain seemed to never end as the earth shook momentarily, disrupting the spell. Alice has fallen to her knees as the pale skin of the blue-eyed demon becomes even paler. If the previous aura dwarfed everything, then this one straight up consumed them; whatever was coming this time made everything else seem pathetic in comparison. Even the smoke demon looked distressed at that. It spread its wings and quickly took off into the air, vanishing in the night alongside the new monstrous aura. A few seconds after it, a faint white glow appeared in the sky and went down to where the half-angel was. Alice barely had time to register who was standing before her and get rid of her armor as a pair of strong arms hugged her.

"Thank God that you are safe, Alice." Beatrice said happily, the tension finally leaving her body. Alice felt whatever remained of the strength she had left her, and she leaned into the hug, letting her body rest against the angel.

"Sorry for getting you worried." Alice replied meekly. But before she could rest, there was one last thing she had to do—the demon! “She is in the bunker. We need to help her!” Beatrice let Alice go, and went into the bunker. There she was. A demon in a white dress was standing against the wall, giving her a rather apprehensive look.

"Hey, everything's fine now. I promise I won't hurt you." Sensing no ill will from the blonde angel, the demon slowly made her way towards her. She did so more willingly, as she saw the ginger-haired one coming closer, giving her a reassuring smile. The older one grabbed them both by hand, spread out her great white wings, and took off into the night sky while ordering the remaining units to return, as the demon was safely secured.

In just a few minutes, they were closing in on the great complex of buildings. The black-haired demon stared at it in awe, thinking how she never noticed it, let alone the amount of angelic aura that spewed out from it, alluring her with the sweet smell of honey slightly tainted by the metallic stench characteristic of demons.

A bunch of medical personnel in white hazard suits were already waiting for them at the entrance to the main building. They quickly retrieved the demon girl and carried her to the medical center as Alice and Beatrice were on their way to the main office, reporting the entire mission. The sound of cars arriving and their engines stopping was the only thing breaking the silence in the nearly empty office room. That was to be expected, as by 2 a.m. most of the personnel had already finished their shifts, leaving only the bishop and his crew on the site.

After what seemed like an hour, the rapport was finished, with Beatrice making most of it while insisting that Alice should take a quick nap at the very least. Though before she could make up her mind about that, the doors opened with Ezekiel stepping inside.

"Miss Beatrice and Alice, I'm glad to see you back safe and sound." Despite saying that, his voice was as stoic as ever. Alice never knew if he meant half the things he said: “The demon girl you have retrieved has already been provided with necessary medical attention and has been moved to the recovery room." While the half-angel was glad that she was now safe and patched up, she really didn't like the sound of ‘retrieved’. It made her sound more like a thing than a person.

"Um, can we go see her?" Alice asked quietly, receiving a curious look from Beatrice.

“But of course. In fact, I wanted you to go there, as there is something I would like you to do."The bishop ordered them to follow him. Traversing a long corridor, they arrived at the all-white part of the complex. It looked like the coldest hospital there was, though luckily for the half-angel, the recovery rooms were in the more pleasant part of the medical center.

They stopped by what looked like a normal hospital room. The black-haired demon was soundly sleeping in the bed, looking as if she was never in danger to begin with. Now that she was cleaned off from the blood, she looked even more beautiful than before, or so Alice thought.

"Miss Alice." Ezekiel said, turning to face the half-angel. "I would like to ask her to interrogate the demon once she wakes up. We need to know if she can be a potential ally in our fight against Tetra."

"Of course, bishop Ezekiel." Alice bowed.

"And, Miss Beatrice, I would like you to take her into your apartment in order to keep an eye on her, if the interrogation would require a bunch of days to be fulfilled."

"Bishop Ezekiel, you can't be serious! What if she turns out to be dangerous?"

"That's why I will be giving her to you, as you will be the only ones who will be able to stop her."

"Come on, Beatrice, have some faith in her." Alice pleaded, giving the older angel her best version of puppy-dog eyes.

"You know how to manipulate me." Beatrice muttered. "Fine, let it be so. But Ezekiel, if even a hair falls from Alice's head because of that, the branch will have to look for a new bishop." Beatrice was the only one who could refer to the bishop by only his name, and for a good reason. Ezekiel knew that she meant her words and promised to take full responsibility himself.

Alice was already sitting on the chair in the room, far from the bed to give the demon girl some space, and eagerly awaited the dawn as she felt her eyes close upon her. Before she drifted into sleep, she turned on the small lamp on the shelf. There was no way she was going to sleep without it after coming close to such strong auras.