(High Priest's POV)
The day started just like any other day.
I stood in front of the altar, praying. I felt strange.
I opened my eyes to take a look at the statue in front of me. The candles flickered viciously, as if the wind was trying its best to put them out.
Then I heard it — a scream.
A child's scream.
My body acted before I even began thinking.
I bolted out the door, clutching my staff. Immediately, I covered my nose.
I was greeted with a foul smell of sulfur and rotten flesh. It felt like a morgue that just left corpses unattended.
I looked around for a while, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise — and then I saw it.
It hung over a tree in front of the dense forest right beside the chapel. Its head was rotting, with hints of green and brown covering its whole skin. It looked like it had been forcefully stitched up using whatever unholy methods its makers could think of.
It grinned at me.
A wide grin, like it was happy to see me — like we were long-lost companions finally reuniting. Its teeth were crooked, almost a grey colour, and were decaying. Flies hovered around its face, but they were too scared to perch on it.
And then it blinked.
It slithered out of the tree to reveal its grotesque body — if one could even call it that.
The rest of its body looked pale and grey, covered in blood. It moved like it was made up of different body parts. Human limbs stuck out from its torso, lifeless and blood-soaked.
It came closer, and I noticed it had trinkets in its teeth — the trinkets of priests. I hoped I was wrong, but my eyes could not be deceiving me.
It came closer, grinning wider with each movement it took. It slithered towards me — I could hear the crunching of bones and the squishing of flesh as it kept making its movements.
Then it stopped.
Just a few feet away from me, like it was ready for something.
"Am I welcome, Father?" it said to me in a chilling voice, snapping me out of my daze.
I took a step back.
"You are not welcome in the house of the Lord."
It snickered.
"Maybe this would change your mind."
I watched in horror as its face twisted and contorted. It was still rotting. It was still horrid — but now it looked human. A little too human.
"Brother Elias."
I stood in shock as I looked at the creature take on the face of one of the church's priests.
"Now Father, would you be so kind as to let me in?"
I was right but I wanted to be wrong. It had killed all the other priests that had left the chapel to go to the town square.
It killed everyone.
It took the face of Brother Elias.
It was wicked.
This thing was wicked.
"God please have mercy," I muttered as I trembled before the creature, ready to lay my life down to protect the children in the chapel.
"Why the cold gesture, Father? Can you not accept me?"
This thing kept taunting me. It wasn't just some demon that I always exorcised. It wasn't some lower being. This thing knew what it was here for, and it wouldn't stop until it got it.
"Leave. You shall not obtain what you seek," I said while maintaining my stance between the creature and the chapel.
"Oh but I shall," it said while bellowing with laughter.
Its laughter was horrid. It didn't sound anything like laughter. I could hear different voices as it kept laughing — voices of children, priests, civilians... Brother Elias...
They were all mixed in with its own voice.
It stopped laughing and looked at me once again.
"Are you going to obstruct my path, Father?"
I stood firm, clutching my staff tightly.
"Yes. You are not welcome in the house of the Lord."
It grinned again.
"Very well. Priests are the most delicious."
I prepared myself, saying my prayers as it was about to lunge at me.
"Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen."
I steeled my resolve. I was scared. I was trembling. But I had to fight.
I had faith.
I was ready to lay down my life to protect the children — to stop this evil being.
I conjured a barrier, light shining from my hands as I awaited the oncoming attack, hoping I could at least buy some time if I couldn't defeat it.