The Serpent of Akasha [Plot introduction]

Since the dawn of time, God had given Adam the right to live in the Holy Land of Eden, the Garden of Beginnings. All living things, including man were all children of the Earth, children of God. Adam was assigned to become one of the guardians of the Holy Eden itself, within this land, paradise for all living things in the darkest of storms.  One day God had decided that Adam’s efforts were to be rewarded not through materialistic means but through the experience which will give meaning to the life of man that had served God. So He took Adam and through sheer light, he split him in two entities, Adam the man and Eve the woman. He granted them eternal life and peace within the garden so as long as they not eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, the foundation that carries all knowledge of the world.

Adam and Eve never aged, not once there was a moment of grief but endless joy till one day the serpent came to them, one of the members of the family that lived in Eden, approached Eve out on a whim, its eyes riddled Eve with ever so curiosity and temptation influencing the motherly guardian of the Holy Garden and involving the fatherly guardian, Adam. Hence the moment Adam and Eve took a bite from the forbidden truth, their immortality was lost and gained by the serpent, deprived if not so but stolen the right to live and dwell in the heavenly gardens.

On that day God had banished his guardians from the Holy Land, hence founding the human race, On that day, God had cursed the serpent depriving the freedom to walk but crawl and slither with its body for an eternity. Since that day, the snake is thought to be the symbol and downfall of the human race, though there are some cults that had worshipped the serpent they were considered heretic by the church. Here ends the story for today in the Bible of Genesis, now then any questions young pupils?



“A question dear father” Echoed a voice throughout the entire class of young church agents and exorcists, a voice that belongs to a young 20 year old man named Stein. Father Rikei  extended his hand motioning the student to stand up.

“And what is your inquiry, youg one?” He asked as the entire class eyes and anticipates for his question.

“Could the Serpent of Akasha be the same one from the time our ancestors was in Eden?” He asked, causing half the class to give out a soft laugh. Instead of chuckling, Father Rikei smiled at the young one and gave him his answer.

“The Serpent of Akasha is a different case; rather they are not entirely the serpent but pursued the path of the serpent itself, burdened with a kind of imperfect immortality. They aren't truly the serpent and if they are, the angels of God would have already descended before us to start their hunt for it but such never did happen and if it did, not caught by the human eyes.” By the end of Father Rikei’s answer, rings the church bell, signifying the end of their bible study.

“That is all for today dear children, now stand up and pray thanks as the Lord granted me to give you knowledge of our world if not a reminder.”

Prayers of gratitude were made and as soon as Father Rikei exits the class of the 5th bead of the third mystery, the students that were studying to become devoted followers of God gained a momentary freedom to be themselves, some would litter around the classroom, standing by the window while others rest their heads on their arms sleeping and thinking of today’s lesson, others had discussed about the previous lecture, however other social topics were involved in the conversation.


Young Stein is a student of the 5th bead, the third mystery. He has fair and passable ratings of every test given to him by the doctrines of the church, aiming to become part of the secret organizations of the church. Stein unlike some of his fellow brothers and sisters who share the same class as he, has a very special gift, powers of mental capability, a psychic ability that would allow him to levitate objects and read the minds of the people around him if he willed it. Because of this, majority of his age group consider him as one of the heretics that wished to partake in God’s work to repent.

What to for repent? Existence? Indifference? Blasphemy and  cursed with Dark and Evil Powers?

It was indeed common to hear this discriminatory remark amongst the members of the church but such remarks wouldn't matter as they were compensated with pure and honest work in the name of the Lord the Almighty Father himself, however when it comes to social relationships among kin, it proved to be a bit difficult. Church agents possessing unique abilities are indeed a rarity but more or less looked down upon.

Stein’s powers were kept in check every day in order to make sure that he didn't use them for the wrong reasons by the priests and the church inquisitors who volunteered to teach the young church agents.  Course because of this issue, Stein would sometimes get discriminated from time to time not directly but in a more expressive way of discrimination such as implications on a test by claiming they have studied hard that cheating wouldn't happen or perhaps claiming that they aren't manipulative people.

Of course there was one who he can consider as a friend.

“Hey Stein!” Her name was Ciel, she waved her hands up to get Stein’s attention. Ciel is a young church agent who befriended Stein upon their first meeting. She’s from a different class, namely the 7th bead of the fifth mystery.

“Oh hey Ciel, I heard that you are eligible to join and become part of the Shura’s den!” Stein said as he and Ciel both approached each other, walking towards the canteen. “Well yeah, I guess that means I get to do the Lord’s dirty work and become part of the necessary evil. Not that it’s a bad thing but it’s really an honor, I must have been blessed by Mother Mary herself!”

Stein exhaled as both he and Ciel were to wait in line. “Gosh, I wish I was in Shura with you though, unfortunately I don’t think that I’ve earned the favor of the assigned inquisitors.” Ciel pats his back in comfort.

“Now, now Stein, don’t let that get to you and besides if you prove it on your next assigned mission, you might just be able to qualify and if not then the Lord may have some other plans for you.”

Whenever Stein would feel down, his friend Ciel would always bring him back up again, her words always filled Stein with hope. He’s used to this kind of treatment and it’s this treatment he needs every day. Now as for the organization Stein wanted to get in, the Shura’s Den is one of the secret factions of the church, its members were given authority to execute whoever the church deems as  heretics, sometimes the church would send them to hunt creatures like the undead, demons and mages who they deem to be heretical in nature such as those who consort themselves to the powers of demons. Each and every member of the Shura’s den is a professional killer not one of them is unskilled in their own art, members who failed to meet expectations are automatically expelled from the organization and are reassigned to becoming exorcists or part of the chivalric orders. Their line of work is discrete and carries out executions out of public eye.  

In order to become part of the Shura’s Den, you must past the selection’s test whereas its usually held during official missions.  

A priestess in training whose close at age with ciel came by and greeted them both, her name is Lapis. “Ciel our class has been given a mission, we are to be briefed about it after the break.” Lapis gazed over at Stein. Lapis’s expression changed from a calm expression to an expression of disgust.

“Stein, though as there’s no problem in talking to Ciel, may I remind you that I have not grown to like you, regardless I’d appreciate it at the very least that you don’t turn Ciel into a heretic.” What Lapis is trying to say is that Stein shouldn't manipulate Ciel because Lapis is aware of his psychic abilities. Like most people Lapis isn't so trusting of Stein, having doubts and suspicions that Stein might have used his abilities to cheat on his written tests.

“I’ll say this as many time as necessary Lapis, I’m neither sinner nor do I abuse my powers to get what I want but if you don’t want me talking to Ciel, you could have been more direct with your words” Stein said as he walked away. Ciel pouted and put both of her hands on her waists and turned to Lapis. “Lapis that was rude of you to do so, Ive come to him of my own accord not because I’m being manipulated!” Ciel scolded Lapis for her rude behavior.

“I apologize Ciel but you never know, that boy could have succeeded into convincing you or some people of the church but I’ll be honest with you, nothing good can come out of him and the moment the church decides that he’d be nothing more than an heretic, he’ll be sealed and imprisoned or better yet executed for the good of all” Lapis said as she walked away.

“You better not be late for our class meeting Ciel.”

Stein cringed his hands, a face scorned as he walked away, hearing the entire conversation they had. He was always treated differently to the point that the very presence of him here would make him a heretic among his batch and the others more holy and righteous than him. The church never did discriminate Stein for his abilities however they have their doubts, the capability of mental strength, to read and synchronize minds is something the church considers a form of healing under the darkest of circumstances. When put to good use, it may reveal the dirtiest secrets the heretics would keep from the church, the worse would be that it be used to go against the church as well.

Ciel watched as both Stein and Lapis gone their separate ways.
“Oh dear, I pray that the Lord isn’t too harsh on his trials with Stein.”

---

The Church Organization, apart from the fact that they are considered “God’s messengers” or perhaps those who spread the faith and Word of the Lord, the church has its own kind of branches

The Chilvaric Order isn’t exactly a faction rather it’s the main military body for each branch of the church. There are different classes of church agents, namely the Exorcists, the Inquisitors, the Knights and the Paladins (Whereas the class of Executor is only reserved for the Shura’s Den).


The Shura’s Den is one of the darkest agencies of the church and was founded by Sir Claus von Schatz, who is also the inventor of the "Black Key" a church agent's basic weapon. Its founder was considered the Death God, appointed by the church the task of demon killing and the complete destruction of other heretical beings. Claus founded the Shura’s Den in order to train a strong group of assassins capable of such feat and if one doesn't meet the standards, one cannot join the Shura’s Den. The doctrine follows the idea that God is the one absolute, that which is supreme and that which is all, and that as The Holy Spirit, He is the creator of a perfect world.


“It is impossible for Him to allow the existence of demons to defile the world He created by violating His own children. Even with that ideal, it is a fact that they do exist, corrupting man and defiling the world, playing out miserable tragedies and comedies beyond the reasoning of man. That which ought not to be taints the world of God, and so, they reasoned that even these demons, the corruptors of man, are a vital part of the world the Lord constructed and one of His precious creations.” They simply follow that if it is the work of the holy to strengthen the goodness of man, then what strengthens the evil of man is the demonic.

---

The Temple of the Nazarene, a place where the archbishops and the head of each church would come to attend the meeting, discussing about matters of importance, these maybe events organized by the church, progress of new and old church agents alike, assigned hunts by the church or even the sudden activities of relics.

Today’s topic wasn't like any of those matters.

“I’m sure you’re all aware why we are here today.” Father Rikei said as he stands at the center of the room.

“Today is the day we've all waited, feared and prayed for. I’ll get straight to the point with this as it involves the Serpent of Akasha, the reincarnating demon.” The Courtroom falls into silence.

Indeed, the serpent has shed its skin and is now ready to manifest itself into another body of a person that’s already been born, according to the Far Seer, the transformation can happen in anytime of this year, therefore I’m here to suggest a protocol which requires every head of every church to come in attendance. I would propose seeking out and searching for individuals blessed with powers and talents and put them under watchful eyes until we are certain they may or may not be the incarnation of the Serpent.  If the said incarnation were to be too powerful, the Executors from the Shura’s Den will have to be dispatched not to kill but to capture.

“Capture? Preposterous, heretical beings like that Serpent should have its head cut off over and over again as many times as necessary so we can remind that serpent who  we are and the duty assigned to us by our Lord” Says one of the church heads.

Rikei chuckled. “Lady Eleisia?” From one of the seats stood Lady Eleisia, one of high authorities of the church, she descends down to the center of the courtroom and speaks for Father Rikei.

“Cut the head of the snake? That’s easier said than done for what all we've been doing so far is help shed its skin. So instead of killing it over and over, we are to permanently seal it instead. If we do kill the Serpent then we will have more trouble encountering it in the future, which of course is no problem for us. We must think about why it needed this imperfect immortality, we must also think about preventing innocent lives from being affected by this curse.”

“Why should we trust this idea from a woman whose husband has consorted with that heretical serpent?” asked one of the attendants of the court. Lady Eleisia remained silent and thus Father Rikei stepped forward to speak for her.

“This order comes from the Archbishop, young vicar. Before you judge Eleisia, you must understand the reason for giving out these statements.” The Vicar was silenced and Eleisia continued.

“Demons like the Serpent are supposed to be exorcised, slain  and eradicated from God’s kingdom but how can we do so if we don’t have the knowledge for it, if I’m not mistaken we are not created and blessed to act so recklessly without thinking. IF we do capture the Serpent and seal him, we can prevent any loss of innocent lives, killing him over and over will only produce the same results; he manifests, transforms and then proceeds with his mass killings.”

“Now if anyone has any questions, speak.” Said Rikei as hands were raised.

“I speak for the Chilvaric Orders of Mattheian, if I am not mistaken the Magic Council had already caught drift of the church’s activities, supposedly they knew the existence of the Serpent and had captured it before we did, what do you propose we do?”

“If that comes to case we are to send a representative of the church at once, preferably one of the Bishops or the Executors, if they are to try and take the Serpent for themselves, we’ll reason out with them but if they persist, then the Magic Council is an enemy of the Church for housing a heretic.”

“I speak for the Chilvaric Orders of Magdalena, I bring about a question of concern, you haven’t mentioned the specific place, specific date or specific person the Serpent will choose the manifest so I can safely assume that the Far Seer can’t pinpoint the whereabouts of the Serpent, of course what was stated is the old protocol is but a little change in the rule, instead of killing we are to capture and seal the Serpent instead, how do you propose we seal him exactly?”

“We’ll have to recite the 19 verses of Eternal rest, from Psalms 1:6 all the way to Revelation 21:8, this by far is one of the few strongest of seals we have against demons, including Legion. If we fail to seal him then we shall revert back to our traditional ways until we find an alternative.”

“What if it incarnates into a mage?” Asked another.

“Then they can be dealt with accordingly, hopefully it doesn't come to that but if it does, then I’ll take the luxury of performing the task myself” replied Father Rikei.

“I speak not only for the Church of Viena but for all of us church agents here, Father Rikei, Lady Eleisia what if the Serpent manages to manifests as one of us?”  Once again silence ruled the Courtroom only for it to be broken by Eleisia’s answer.

“Which is why it is important for every church to come, we’re issuing an order to all Church Agents that possess rare talents be drawn to the main church immediately and will stay in the Abbey of the Main church until further notice, they will then be replaced by Church Inquisitors and Church Executors. We all know pretty well the Serpent favors to incarnate himself into those who possess special talents. If by chance we are wrong about this and it incarnated into a regular, then it would be easy to do our job.”

“Are there no objections to Lady Eleisia’s proposal?” Father Rikei asked. All he received is the acknowledgement of all the church heads, not a single hand was raised so far.  

“Then let us proceed with our mission reports.”

Walking down the hallway were two friends for almost 20 years, one dressed in his Executor’s attire, father Rikei Mckinley the 9th head of the Shura’s Den, walking besides him was Eleisia Falk, one of the High priestess of the church organization. They both go way back, during the time they served as mere church exorcists and inquisitors, Rikei succeeded to becoming part of the Shura’s Den at the age of 10 while Eleisia became a high priestess at the same age that succeeded performing the baptismal rite, a powerful exorcism spell. They were a team along with Faust Falk, Eleisia’s husband and Lady Hydrangea, Rikei’s wife.

They were called the Cardinal, the Gates of the Four. Faust and Rikei were on par with each other, while Rikei possesses a high quality of skill, Faust possesses a unique ability that allows him to regenerate and imbued his strikes with holy flames. Eleisia was a powerful priestess who can master a lot of powerful exorcism spells while Lady Hydrangea’s work consists of granting miracles to those that are beyond salvation, may it be healing or complete separation of the human soul from demon control.

“I heard your daughter met expectations to become one of the Shura, I had looked at her records and I’m just simply amazed. She might even surpass her father given her pace.” Said Rikei.

“I never did expect her to be so well versed in combat but I guess it’s because she looks up to you as a Father figure. Shame that she doesn't have any interest in becoming a powerful exorcist but as her mother I’ll respect her wishes.”

“Aren't you worried Milady?”

“You don’t need to be formal Rikei, you can address me by my name only.” She remarked as she would listen what Rikei has to say.

“Your daughter, she might become a potential host, to the Serpent. If we are indeed right about this, he’d choose the most talented.” Rikei stated, perhaps words Eleisia expected to hear from him.


“I pray to the Holy Trinity that she doesn't but if it was all set in stone then I will just have to accept it as my duty to discipline her and the Serpent.” Rikei chuckled upon hearing those words.

“Rikei, I’d like to apologize on behalf of my husband about Hydrangea….”
“It was her time Eleisia, she was frail from the very beginning, and she expected this would happen, I was prepared for the worse outcome.”

“Your daughter misses you Rikei, perhaps you’d like to see her.”
“That reminds me, it’s almost her birthday, perhaps I should but of course not empty handed.”
“Your presence is all that she needs Rikei,  it’s cruel to leave her at my hands for too long, she must meet her father.”

“I understand, then I shall make plans .” Rikei and Eleisia go their separate ways, while Eleisia heads towards the chambers of the Archbishop, Rikei would return to the Shura’s Den in order to brief its members of their new objective.

“Till then.”

---

Both Eleisia and Rikei lost their loved ones during the pursuit of the Serpent. Faust Falk, Eleisia’s husband, seeks out the artifact that is said to completely nullify the reincarnation process of the Serpent of Akasha, thus robbing it of its own immortality. However the price was steep, his life. Faust made it his noble mission to accomplish this despite the consequences; Eleisia was against the idea not because that her husband’s life may be cut short but doubts the power of the artifact itself.

It wasn't a holy item but an artifact coveted by the demon world to completely rob one of immortality. It was said to have been a case similar to the Longinus, the weapon that pierced God, however a deathly curse awaits the user.  Faust defeated the Serpent Akasha with the relic, as the curse would imply about his life, it actually meant his humanity and turned rabid and feral as weeks go by. Now he resembles a mix blood of a half human and demon and was deemed by the church as a heretic.

In an attempt to separate him from the curse, Hydrangea tried to separate his soul from the curse. Faust attacked Falk and mortally wounded Hydrangea to the point of death. Fortunately Rikei was able to intervene and stop Faust in time, in the end Faust’s life was taken by the hands of his wife, Eleisia.

Because of what Falk had inflicted on Lady Hydrangea, her life span was cut short and her body resistance crumbled, making her prone to illness and disease.  Unfortunately Hydrangea’s daughter inherited the accursed frailty of her mother’s but not in the case that it was just as severe. Hydrangea succumbed to her injury on that day and died peacefully, hence the complete destruction of the Cardinal Gates of the Four.  Of all the priestess in the world, Hydrangea was the only woman capable to separating the soul from a deathly and godly curse, if things were to have proceeded safely, the downfall of the Cardinal should have not happened and Lady Hydrangea would have saved more lives.

Eleisia blamed herself  as she did not kept her husband in check, Rikei blamed himself for that he was not aware of Faust’s curse and the secrecy of the attempt to exorcise the curse without his presence.

Things would have been different for all of them and the glory of Cardinal would have continued on.

And all their efforts were in vain, the Serpent continues its reincarnation.

---

The order was issued and thus all Church Agents with special capabilities were forced to draw back to the Main Church without giving much knowledge as to why. The special church agents were assigned to do menial chores such as cleaning and prep work for the donations. Of course some of those that weren't as talented intermingled with them as by means to keep a close eye on them to ensure that none of them would become the next incarnation of the Serpent.

They were looked down upon despite the meaningful efforts they did and from there, acts of discrimination. It was assumed that this was a test of patience and temptation but Stein didn't have as much tolerance as the others would. He wanted to partake in an active mission so that he can be part of the Shura like his friend Ciel, surprisingly he saw Ciel working with him in the main church, handing out donations.

“Ciel? Why are you here?” He asked.
“Well there aren't any missions for me to take so I just thought I’d help you guys out a little, no?” Ciel said it with vigor as she carries a box of donations and walks off with it, Stein followed behind carrying his own.

“I-I see, well anyways don’t you find it ridiculous that us, the “gifted ones” are to be kept under the main church?”

“Well beats me, mother never tells me anything about it but hopefully there’s a good reason for it to, she maybe cold but I know she has heart.” Ciel said so cheerfully.

“I’m kinda jealous of your relationship with your mother, despite the fact that she treats you unfairly, you seem to see through her intentions.”

“Well call it a daughterly instinct I guess?”

“Yeah… too bad I never get to meet my parents” Stein and Ciel handed down the boxes, towards the nun in charge of donations. They both head out and return to the room where more donations are needed to be transferred; Stein tripped and lost his footing and falls down on his knees. His vision blurs as a voice starts to murmur ideas in his head.  

“H-hey! You ok Stein?” Ciel pulled him back up.
“Y-yeah, I was just not having enough sleep lately that’s all.”

“Wanna rest? I’ll call the—“ Ciel’s sentence was cut short by a pat to the shoulder.
“Ciel, I’m fine its nothing, carrying these donations are more important.” Ciel nodded but can’t shrug off the feeling that something could be wrong with Stein.  In fact he looked a little pale.

“Big sister Eleisia!” A voice cried out, it was Claudia, Eleisia’s little sister as she ran to hugher leg.
“Heeeey!” Ciel pulled up Claudia and twirled around.

“Oh is this your little sister?” Stein asked, it was the first time she’s seen Claudia as he recalled, Ciel doesn’t have a sister.
“Yeah she is, Claudia why don’t you go say hello to brother Stein?” As Ciel introduces her to Stein, Claudia’s nose starts dripping with blood.

“There you are little one, come Claudia.” Dieval, Eleisia’s pupil, called out to her. Dieval was assigned to accompany Claudia to the donations center in order to find Ciel, however when they both arrived, it took only 10 seconds for Claudia to escape from his sight.

“Oh my, Claudia you’re nose-bleeding!” Dieval cried as he draws on his handkerchief. Claudia remains, clinging to Ciel just by her shoulders, it seems that she’s looking away from Stein, her eyes were welling up in tears.  Ciel gave Claudia to Dieval as he tended to the little white haired girl.

“Is she ok?” Stein asked.
“Well more or less, this is the first time in years that this happened to her though, dunno why her nose chose to bleed now.”  

“I’ll take Claudia to the clinic Ciel.” Dieval bowed as he left Ciel and Stein alone carrying Claudia towards the nearby clinic. Passing by was Lapis, Ciel’s classmate. “You, did you do something to that young girl Stein?” Lapis sounded like she was interrogating a criminal.

“I did nothing of the sort Lapis, you know that.” Stein replied as he turned away from the sight of Lapis and carries another box to the donation center, avoiding any confrontation with Lapis. Ciel exhaled in disappointment as she proceeded with her work, coming after Stein.

---

In the clinic there was a nurse and two twins, a brother and a sister. The name of the Nurse is Lady Odesa, a nun who holds authority over the entire donations center.

In the clinic there was a nurse and two twins, a brother and a sister. The name of the Nurse is Lady Odesa, one of the higher authorities in charge of the donations center, the brother was named Koshirou and the other Shoko, they are twins were born from Midi after losing both their parents from Naraku’s recent activities. The clinic door opens, revealing Dieval and the nosebleeding Claudia.

“Claudia?” Shoko raised her eyebrow.
“Right, I’ll get the icebag.” Koshirou  drops down from his seat and searches the cabinet for an icebag.  
“Hello brother Koshi, hello Shoko.” Claudia replied.

Dieval and Lady Odesa greeted each other as both Koshirou and Shoko tend to Claudia’s nosebleed. Soon the clinic has another visitor, a fellow church agent who came to look for dieval?

“What is it?” Dieval asked.
“There’s trouble a mile outside of town, we’re going to need you Dieval.” Said the church agent, Lady Odesa permitted Dieval to go as she and the twins will take responsibility for Claudia for now.

“Go, you’re needed elsewhere.” She said as Dieval ran off, not turning back.

As Dieval left Claudia murmured with sad eyes "Goodbye... Dieval..."

---

Dieval and the church agent started running out of the village, from the rooftops, fellow inquisitors follow closely behind.  They were ten of them.

“They’ve sent a distress signal, a small trainee squad along with one of our Executors.”
“The nature of the threat?”
“We aren’t exactly sure, the familiar sent to us was only used as a protocol for help.”
“Are you sure the familiar sent wasn’t for training purpo---“

And soon they came across a ruined landscape, bodies of their blood-soaked fellowmen were littered across the battlefield and a woman stands at the center, killing off the Executor by crushing his skull. Dieval and his squad prepared their Black Keys and Conceptual Weapons.

“She’s a demon…” Dieval stated to his fellow Shuran but this wasn’t no ordinary demon, in fact she’s made it to the Church’s Black List, The Disaster Zone, Naraku.

“In the name of the Holy Church, by decree of the Cardinal and the Will of Sir Claus, Demon you shall be exorcised from the world” declared Dieval.

Naraku laughed in giggled as she covered her face with her hand in thrill and utter disgust. “Claus? I see, you’re his students that old fool isn’t here anymore to protect you from me. As you know, your predecessor cannot escape death but how are you so certain you can prevent yours from coming?”

---

Black Keys and Conceptual weapons.

Black Keys are a church agent’s most valuable weapon against heretical and unholy beings, what makes them so special is that it strikes the target’s shadow, impairing their movement and leaving them at the mercy of the church agent. Black keys may come in a form of a blade, an arrow, bullets, bayonets or simply anything that’s used to impale these shadows. However they are not considered holy weapons rather they impale the “Proof of existence under the light”.

Anything that casts a shadow exists on the material plane, anything that blocks out the light exists, hence the concept of black keys.

A Conceptual weapon on the other hand is similar to holder items but they are the holder versions of those whose magic lies under a conceptual level. Most of the Church’s weapons underlie the concepts of saints, exorcism or anything that goes according to the doctrine; they are first blessed by the Archibishop before they can be of use. They deal heavy damage to demons, most demons would mistake conceptual weapons as mere magical toys or primitive weapons but when a conceptual weapon is involved, it puts demons to the point that they are “Mortal” before these weapons no matter how high the class of demon.

---

The village was burning, church agents scatter to evacuate citizens, to rescue whoever God had spared from the fire and some were met with an adversary, one of the most dangerous demons hunted by the church, Naraku. Yes indeed, Naraku has something against the church and that is to burn everything that they stand for and to prove Demons are superior to these mortals and their true masters.

Claus defeated Naraku years ago but now that Claus is gone, Naraku took it upon herself to challenge the church once again but only this time she finds difficulty in dealing with the church agents that had possessed Conceptual weapons, as a matter of fact they actually managed to force her to bring about her true powers. It angered Naraku that simpletons were able to wound her and by the looks of it, this was just but a mere division of church agents guarding around town.  

Stein was helping evacuate the townsfolk but couldn't help but watch some of his fellowman die. Ciel was guarding the caravan and was looking for Stein, once that Claudia was in a safe place, she looked around the burning town for Stein and if she recalls about his condition and fatigue, his own life was in danger.

“STEIN!? STEIN!?” She cried out as she entered burnt doors, crashed through walls, entered and exited burnt and burning buildings.

Stein was on the other side of town, alone with his mind riddled with thoughts that were not his, a conscience that was not his and images that he never seen before. Naraku’s presence triggered something in Stein that changed him forever. When Ciel saw Stein he was running towards Naraku.

Naraku then was about to finish off a few more church agents till Stein called her out, stein had bloodshot eyes and the pure intent to kill.

“Oh? Who’s this one then? No matter, I hope you can offer as much fun as these men had though I find their weapons despicable, it seems you’re not even armed, how brave, have you come to offer yourself to me?”

Upon closer look, Naraku recognizes who he is, this wasn't a church agent she was facing.

“Voltaire, I hardly recognized you from your get up, cheating death again I see? How many bodies have you used for your sorry excuse of immortality? I see you’re not yet in full control of yourself but it seems the will of that young man out paces your ability to control him, such a shame… he’s a handsome one too.”

Before Naraku can do anything, she was trapped in a powerful mental illusion receiving malefic visions of Claus, the church agent who had defeated her long ago. A mocking nightmare for Naraku which is easily broken the second she came to her senses.

“H-how dare you remind me of that insignificant insect!” Naraku exclaimed as the battle between a demon and a Psychic began.

Somewhere in the burning village, Father Rikei was accompanied by a group of Shurans.
“Are you certain the Serpent has manifested!?" Father Rikei asked.
“There’s no doubt about it, our priestess sensed his presences half an hour ago.”
“Eleisia was right to draw the special ones back, we only have one opportunity to capture him, I will deal with Naraku, focus on capturing Stein.” With acknowledgement the group scatters around the burning village in hopes to locate their targets.

Of course unlike most of the Shuran, Rikei would be on par with Naraku in terms of engagement, if Rikei and Naraku would have fought in the first place, either side would probably collapse. Fortunately Naraku has significantly weakened as it was reported that she was hit by various conceptual weapons.

The moment Rikei comes into the fight, Naraku would be hard pressed.

Fortunately their targets are fighting each other, the moment both Stein and Naraku gained distance from each other, was the point the Shuran had intercepted as Rikei began his skirmish, pushing Naraku back while the others restrain Stein. At that point Naraku was forced to retreat, as the village burns down, Stein was out of control as Shurans began to suffer horrific malefic illusions that may break and destroy their mental being only for Ciel to stab him in the back to his heart and twisted the blade to make sure it doesn’t heal.

No tears were shed since that day, she knew her friend was long gone before the fight, only a memory of stein remains.

“Stein… I pray that someday the world would repent what it had wronged of you.”  However at that point a child from a wealthy family was born in Ministrel containing a fragment of the Serpent of Akasha and will be the next manifestation.

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11 years later

Since then the Church evaluated Ciel for her action, though it went against their objective, there were claims that Stein was going to die anyways as his mind was on the brink of mental collapse to the point the Serpent wouldn’t manifest properly so even if she didn’t do it, they wouldn’t succeed anyway.



We did however believed that the Serpent had already manifested again, the Church set out on his capture primarily to interrogate Voltaire of his pursuit for immortality as the reason remained anonymous to this point, so far we are unsuccessful in tracking him down and had gone completely silent like he never existed.

But I guess it was better this way…

“Lady Claudia, what happened to Ciel now?”
“She’s been reassigned to hunting vampires instead but if I’m not mistaken, she would have never forgotten Stein, he was a good friend to her a friend that was rejected by majority of the church because of his gift.”
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