Fate’s Mandate

  The priest at the church was busy cleaning and preparing for the next day, Sunday, the Lord's Day, when an important mass would be held in the small church, a mass in honor of the soldiers from Yokota Base who died in combat during the tragic Battle of Okinawa. The place was already decorated with photos, memorabilia, and the dog tags of those who died in the call of duty; their surviving comrades had spent their free time decorating the place. The only thing missing was the finishing touches with some floral arrangements that Alejandro del Toro was preparing by hand. But while he was busy with this task, he was interrupted by the of call to duty too.

  The door to the sanctuary was opened by a woman; her dress was a beautiful and elaborate Gothic Lolita nun's outfit, but the girl was not a woman consecrated to the Lord, at least not in the traditional sense of the Church. Her outfit was actually the equivalent of all the equipment and protection a soldier wears in battle, and the huge, heavy, hardbound book in her hand was her weapon - a powerful grimoire that she had spent years perfecting. When Alejandro saw the small markings on the girl's outfit, he realized that she was a demon hunter, just like him.

  The fake nun stood next to the priest and handed him one of the two letters she carried in her book, then introduced herself.

  "Father Alejandro del Toro, by order of Pope Franco, you have been relieved of your duties as priest of this chapel with immediate effect."

  "Your presence is urgently required back in Europe; your expertise and knowledge are vital to the upcoming crusade in Transylvania."

  "'Dies adversum advenit, homines fortium in periculo est,'" the girl said as she handed him the letter sealed with papal wax.

  "Et hominum virtus duritia respondebit," the priest replied without hesitation as he took the letter to open and read it.

  The first part of the letter was exactly what the man had expected and read hundreds of times: a lot of ominous, solemn, grand words just to say that he was needed as a demon hunter somewhere else. But the name Transylvania kept ringing in his head, and just as he had imagined, it happened. The mighty vampire known as Dracula had risen once more, and as always, the Church was calling upon the best warriors available to fight evil once more.

  The father, on the other hand, was excited; he had spent his entire life preparing for this moment. He knew that such a day would come; he had sworn it to himself, as it was his only reason for living. Just like all the other demon hunters, he never thought about becoming one when he thought about his future job. Like everyone else, it was destiny that called him to fight against darkness and shadows. He had lost his parents on October 31st, victims of a cursed ritual in honor of an underworld lord of a sect believed to be lost. Back then, as a young boy, he spent nearly five months wandering the countryside searching for his parents' killers. With cold efficiency, he eliminated one by one the members of the sect, which he initially thought was just a gang of organized criminals. But when he saw the leader summon a horrible monster of flesh, bone and fire with a strange jewel, it was the first time he had ever faced a demon. It was then that he had to learn to be a hunter on his own if he wanted to survive. When the Inquisitor carried on his investigation and reached the house of the satanic sorcerer, he found only a boy dead of fear, with a sword and a rosary, along with several bodies of his enemies and four decapitated Malachis. With no family or reason to live, he was taken into the Church as one of the young promises to fight evil, one of the rare natural warriors of light, someone with great potential to grow.

  The rest of the story is the same as that of most other hunters who did not come from dedicated families; he found in his work the reason to continue living, how his actions ensured that others would not live as he had. But this is not that kind of story, and the story must go on.

  The part of the letter that made Alejandro doubt came halfway through, revealing that he was not the only one called to battle in the area. The death of Belmont's lead hunter had caused the Church to overcompensate to avoid a possible defeat. Sakura Izumi had also been called to fight because of this necessity; luckily, it wouldn't be hard to convince her with a few promises of glory. But the other girl was something else entirely. The white demon, on the other hand, was a mysterious yet dangerous creature; that was already known. What was feared were her true motives, and that was what really worried the veteran hunters. Why live a normal life? Why just let the days go by? Why pretend to be normal? And now, despite being called to this faraway place of Christianity like Japan to uncover her true plan and end the latent threat she posed, he was the one who had to try to recruit her to fight on European soil. The letter contained clear instructions on what to tell her and how to personally deliver the other papal letter sealed to the only other person who knew of her true power, Madam Adelis.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  When the father finished reading, he turned to the girl before him, who, seemingly anticipating his doubt, began to introduce herself more clearly.

  "My name is Lucy Lecarde, fourth daughter of the head of the Lecarde family."

  "Gold Rank Hunter."

  "I have been entrusted with the task of delivering the letters of the call to the wild hunt."

  "As is the tradition for all soldiers of the Lord who do not belong to the church, I will also be the assistant during the battle and the reward for the white demon."

  "Sacrificing a Lecarde?"

  "That only means that they expect you to study and uncover the secrets of the demon, or that they believe she will not survive the battle."

  "I have been chosen by Divine Providence, as tradition demands."

  "I have no opinion about the task entrusted to me or my family."

  "I will fulfill my duty as a maiden and hunter for the soldiers of the sacred mission."

  "Now that the great warrior known as the Cacique has finally been identified, if the crusade against Dracula is ultimately successful, I would gladly become his wife to bear his offspring and thus witness the birth of a new family of hunters under the banner of the great House of Lecarde."

  "The founding mother of the Cacique family, thus fulfilling my debt to seek more strength for the Lecarde clan."

  "Girl, this is not about European aristocracy and centuries-old family alliances."

  "Besides, the white demon is a girl..."

  "Wait, what? A girl?"

  "Impossible! Divine Providence never makes mistakes!"

  "It was created by the angels themselves! It is perfect!"

  "I have seen the white demon before, and it is clearly a girl."

  "So again, only one of two things can happen."

  "Either Divine Providence can make mistakes,"

  "Or perhaps the Lecarde family is hiding something important, even from you, Miss."

  "Even if there are other hidden motives beyond our perception, it does not change what our most important task is right now."

  "The call to the sacred hunt has been made, the conflicts between humans will be put aside until the darkness is defeated."

  "The code of the hunt demands it."

  Alejandro del Toro observed the young girl's level of commitment, focused solely on defeating the immediate enemy she had been assigned to before moving on in her life. Still, he did not know how to respond, for though he was a better hunter than she, he did not have the memories of a family to speak authoritatively on the matter.

  "I have orders to protect the other letter from the Pope until it is delivered to the addressee."

  "But just before I left, Mr. Van Helsing gave me another letter for you, Mr. Alejandro," the girl said, handing over another envelope, this one much more ordinary and discreet in the eyes of the hunters, but still important - perhaps even more so than the one from Pope Franco himself.

  As Alejandro del Toro read the new letter, he clearly remembered his conversation with his rival in Rome and the secret mission he had been given. He felt the weight of his duty to protect humanity grow heavier on his shoulders, but his faith in defeating demons and evil remained unshaken. The hardest part for the priest was to keep a serious and bored face in front of the girl.

  Part of the afternoon of the same day was spent trying to locate Sakura Izumi and mentioning that her sword skills were needed. But with the girl's excitement to relive the days when she was the protagonist of her fairy tale, she did not hesitate to accept the dangerous task. The entire conversation was just a five-minute call on her smartphone.

  At the end of the day, Lucy returned to the hotel to spend the night and prepare to return to the chapel the next day, where she would find the much-discussed White Demon and, so to speak, the battle. Upon arrival, she found a large number of soldiers from the base paying their respects to fallen comrades from the summer. Time had passed, but her absence had not. The false nun was stunned when Alejandro showed her that Lady Adelis had also come to the mass, a way of atoning for those who had died under her orders. She knew it would never be enough, but something had to be done. During the mass, the girl noticed how restless the woman's shadow was; it was a clear sign of demonic corruption. However, she seemed to have no problems or pain despite being on holy ground, nor did she seem to be affected by the protective magic and spells of the place, or the presence of the powerful weapons to fight evil and the two hunters who wielded them. It was strange indeed, but the mission to deliver the letter was far more important than any doubts or dangers that might arise, so the girl simply waited until the end of the mass to do just that.

  Adelis was surprised to receive a letter addressed to her from the Pope himself, for in her own words, she thought she had been forgotten by the passage of time and the position of importance that Franco now held. But as she read the letter, her face turned to boredom, clearly indicating that she had somehow already expected this very event. Then she simply passed the letter to the girl next to her, the White Demon.