In a luxuriously decorated chamber, a fat man in his 60's, draped in high priest's robes was gently sliding his fingers across a ceremonial dagger.

Slightly playing with the bloodied blade, he cast his glance at the nun laying at the bottom of his feet.

''Tsk tsk tsk...If you wanted to avoid such thing, maybe in next life you should not be so curious.''

The nun, breathing weakly, begged for her life in sobs. Faintly, she managed to ask the high priest one last question.

''Father Maximus, why? Why would you do such horrible things? We all believe in the grace of god, but this is just pure...Evil.''

Hearing this, the priest Maximus raised his gaze upon the holy symbol of the church.

''Poor childe... Where light exists, there must be darkness. What I am doing is merely expediting human evolution and you get to have part in it. Be grateful''

Slashing the dagger at the nun's throat, Maximus quickly took a large bowl to preserve the blood in it.

Thinking to himself that the amount should be just right, he exited the chamber and silently muttered.

''One and two, clean it up. Remove all the traces of Nun Margaret from the records.''

Walking away from the chambers into the basement, he could hear the door opening and faint footsteps resounding from 'One' and 'Two'.

With a faint smile that resembled a demon's grin, he was convinced that he would stand at the top of the world someday soon. With One and Two as successful experiments, he could continue forward with his research.

The steps to the basement slightly cracked, and Maximus lit a torch.

In the basement, there were only musty doctrines of the church lined alphabetically in shelves.

Maximus walked to the middle shelf, placed the bowl of blood into the ground and inserted his hand in the middle of the empty space there.

Golden light flowed from his wrinkled hand directly into the empty space, before the shelf started to move. Moving forward with his torch into the narrow corridor hidden behind the shelf, he finally arrived at his destination.

Lighting the braziers hanging from the ceiling with his torch, he dropped it and walked the cold stone floor towards a winged figure chained to the wall.

''Aniel, Aniel. Aniel... How long do you think it takes before you succumb before me?''

Caressing the figure's cheek, a crystalline tear flowed from its eye.

Turning his back against the figure in chains, Maximus walked towards a rack filled with syringes and tools. Placing the bowl filled with blood in a table nearby, he opened a small box filled with murky black substance.

''I have not had the chance to use this yet before today. The Duma guild secured a fine specimen for demon blood, and today I got a good excuse to get some blood from a virgin believer.''

Looking over his shoulder at Aniel, he saw intense struggling and desperation looming in her eyes. Some regrets flowed into his heart, but he quickly steeled his resolve and mixed the demon and virgin blood.

Slowly pouring the demon blood into the bowl, Maximus hummed an old church verse and mixed the blood.

Done with the mixing, he picked up the bowl and an empty syringe.

Maximus walked in front of Aniel and whispered gently. ''This may hurt...A lot, but please do bear with it.''

Aniel gritted her pearly teeth, before spitting at the creepy face smiling at her.

''You will burn in the seven hells for eternity Maximus.''

Seeing the defiance at Aniel's face, he grinned and lovingly caressed her soft wings nailed into the wall.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

''We may never find out. I intend to live...Forever.''

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Dim lamps along the streets of Runa city flickered in the night.

Fully cloaked men and women convened in a dark street in the slums. Looking around themselves, the leading figure displayed a gesture on his hands.

''Start as planned. Leave nothing behind.''

At his words, the figures seemed to blend into shadows and disappear from the dark street filled with garbage. The leading figure smirked and cast his gaze on the building at the end of the street.

''It has been long time coming for you, Church and dear Duma guild.''

Grasping his staff in hand, he began to move as well. Arriving in front of the building, he knocked the door loudly. With familiar motions, he quickly took a packet and slapped it, sticking it in the door.

A gruff voice resounded behind the door asking for a password.

''The password is...''

Speaking up to this point, the figure lowered his hood. Revealing his defined and recognizable face, Rob sprinted away from the door and focused his mana on the packet.

A resounding explosion startled the nearby neighborhood from their slumber, and panicked screams echoed from the nearby shabby huts.

Rob strolled leisurely towards the 'new' entrance and thought to himself why bother with passwords and such secrecy, when explosives open do the trick.

Readying himself to combat, he invoked a protection shield just as he strolled inside the apartment complex. With his keen hearing, he could sense that at least 5 guards were convening to his location.

With leisure, he just waited for the others to infiltrate the building while he was distracting the main bulk of the enemy forces.

Whistling a catchy tune, he could hear the first guard to arrive and pointed his staff towards the doorway.

''Who are you? On your knees and you get to live!''

Those were the guards first and last words before a green blob of mana engulfed him. Superiority complex hit Rob hard: He really thought that the ordinary armed guards were ants.

Watching his prey helplessly slump on the ground, he felt nothing but disdain.

Picking up noise coming from other parts of the building, he moved forward with confidence. Muffled screams of agony were once in a while heard, before silence fell in the surroundings.

Standing in front of a staircase to the basement, shadows of the other figures were gathering.

''It would seem that we really did get them off guard. Casualties?''

''None so far, but one serious injury. 24 guards and one master have been eliminated.''

With a grin forming in his face, he nodded towards the basement.

''What we are after should be in there. After you are done, torch the place down. I believe we have another company.''

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Nicole sighed out loud.

Why had she become a member of the special forces? When she was younger, her father always told stories of police catching the bad guys and saving the day.

Taking a look at a desk full of paperwork: An endless swamp of work, she felt regrets rolling in. Quietly muttering to herself: ''It was not supposed to be like this...'' She justified her career choice.

Irregular work schedules, long hours, strict discipline and most of all: The paperwork started to eat her determination to become the best police she could.

Trying to keep herself awake, she took a large gulp of coffee and then wistfully stared blankly at the mountains of paper stacks. Finally picking up her pen, she was ready to get as much work done as she could do in the night.

''Byron! Get your combat suit on and ready to go in 5. We have a possible terror attack in the slums!''

Hearing her Captain Murray yelling with great urgency, life filled her already tired spirit once again.

Putting her hands together as a prayer, she muttered: ''Thank you Cap, you are truly my savior.''

Springing up from her seat, she answered in a loud voice full of joy: ''COMIING! DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!''

Hearing the stacks of papers falling down to the floor from her excitement, she gleefully skipped towards the door.

Casting a brief smug glance at the fallen paperwork, she shrugged and thought. Oh well, not my problem any more. Have a fun graveyard shift, office rats.

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In the basement of a certain building, a thick smoke filled the air.

Large sections of the underground laboratory were on fire, and explosions happened periodically as the unknown substances caught fire.

From a corner of the basement, there were many cages where anxious whimpering was heard.

In a small metal cage, a small demon dog was desperately struggling against the reinforced magisteel bars for her life.

Having the intelligence that comes with a noble demon blood flowing through her veins, she understood that this might be it. The end.

With these thoughts popping in her mind, she slammed and bit the cage harder and harder until her already frail body was at the point of giving up.

Smoke was already filling her lungs, and the consciousness she possessed was getting murkier by the minute.

Helplessly falling to her back and waiting for the end to come, she saw a certain vial of liquid still intact above her cage.

With last ditch effort, she jumped to rattle the holding rack, until the vial fell on the cage.

Droplets of the liquid splashed on her, corroding her skin and bones but the large bulk of it hit the mark: The bars were slowly melting.

Seeing that this was her glimmer of hope, she waited for half a minute to gather her strength and for the bars to corrode more.

Quietly observing for the right time, she saw the opportunity she was waiting for and slammed through her cage in a furious charge.

After barely getting out, the dog sensed that she was badly injured. With unyielding determination the dog braved on from the burning building to the fresh air outside.

Having no sense where she was, the demon dog limped in an unknown direction for an unknown amount of time before slumping over on her back.

Before exhaustion took her to happy dreams, the last thing she thought was: How nice it was to see the clear night sky again. Freedom. Freedom was worth any price.