Souls Online: Mythic Ascension-Chapter 271: Demon of Faith

The church felt wrong.

Not in the way rot or ruin felt wrong. This was deeper. Quieter. Like something ancient and watching had turned its attention toward them, hoping to see them break.

The group entered without speaking.

Their eyes scanned the cathedral’s shattered pews and cracked altar. The stained glass windows had long since collapsed, their colored shards embedded like wounds across the stone floor. Sunlight filtered weakly through the open ceiling, illuminating the warped figure standing beneath the ruined altar arch.

It was tall and thin. Robed in vestments that once might have been holy. But its body was a tapestry of mouths. No eyes, no ears, no nose. Just lips, teeth, tongues. Some gnashed softly. Others whispered prayers.

It did not turn to face them. But its mouths began to speak.

"You have walked far. Bled much. And still your hearts are heavy."

The voices were layered. Male and female, old and young, rising and falling like a chorus.

"I feel your doubt. Your fear. Your weariness. Lay them down. The gods will not answer you. They never did. They never will."

No one spoke.

Rachel’s hand hovered near her staff. Greg rolled his neck like he was waiting for the signal to swing.

Still, the Demon continued.

"They watch and do nothing. You beg and bleed and suffer, and still they are silent. But I am not. I see you. I offer you peace. Release. Freedom from waiting."

The mouths smiled.

"I will not ask for worship. Only surrender."

A long silence stretched.

Then the whispers began to fracture. Some of the mouths hesitated, stammered, repeated phrases.

Rachel leaned in toward Leo slightly and whispered, "Is it... broken?"

"No," he murmured. "It’s failing."

The Demon seemed to sense it too.

The mouths stopped mid-sentence.

It tilted its head.

"You do not waver."

Another voice overlapped the first.

"You do not doubt."

A third voice whispered, almost confused.

"You do not hear me... at all." freeweɓnovel-cøm

Adam took a step forward. The spider-limbs on his back flexed gently, clicking against the stone.

"What’s the matter?" he said. "No cracks to slide into?"

Crystal narrowed her eyes. "Is it supposed to tempt us?"

Greg scowled. "Then it’s in for a very short fight."

The Demon’s mouths began to twist into frowns. Some tried again.

"You were abandoned. Forsaken. Left behind."

Its words echoed through the hall, but they slid off the group like water over glass.

The air grew heavy, and for a moment it seemed as though the Demon itself was struggling to breathe.

Leo blinked, his gaze sweeping the group. A quiet realization touched the edge of his thoughts, like something brushing past his soul. He didn’t say it aloud, but it lingered:

Something is shielding us.

They all felt it. That strange calm. That quiet resistance. Not their own willpower, but something greater pressing back against the Demon’s voice. Not visible. Not loud. But present.

The Demon reeled slightly.

"This is... not possible."

One of its mouths coughed blood.

Another wept.

And then its many jaws roared.

"You will listen."

Its priestly robes flared. The stone underfoot cracked. And the thing behind the altar rose to its full height, no longer a preacher.

But a predator.

"RAHHHH!"

Greg roared as he charged the monster, growing bigger with each step he took. Metal began to cover his right arm as he threw a straight punch at the monster, his fist becoming the size of a small boulder. Strangely, the monster did not dodge as it felt an irresistible pull dragging it to meet the fist head on.

[Magnetic Fist]

A screech escaped the demon’s mouth as the punch connected with a sickening crack.

[-412]

The monster flew back and crashed into the altar but quickly returned to it’s feet, each of its mouths opening and letting out a horrifying scream.

"Heathens! I shall gut you and offer your skin to your heretic gods!"

Penny took a sharp step back, her eyes wide as the Demon of Faith let out another layered scream, its many mouths shrieking in jumbled unison.

"This is, without a doubt," she said, voice dry, "the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. And that includes Adam’s bone limbs, and my reflection after two all nighters and a dozen coffees."

Crystal didn’t even look over as she raised her hands, ice beginning to form around her into sharpened projectiles. "What about that Demon in the vestibule? The one made of nothing but eyes?"

Penny scoffed. "Yeah, well, I was blind for that one, remember? So technically, I didn’t see squat."

She made a slicing gesture toward the screaming mass. "This thing, though? Front row seats to hell’s dental convention. I want it gone."

Rachel snorted as Greg charged the monster again. "You should be blind more often. You’re a lot funnier when you’re traumatized."

Penny just rolled her eyes. "Laugh it up, monkey girl. Go kill the nightmare choir."

Rachel laughed boisterously "Aye Aye our Little Flower girl~!" before she blinked , appearing directly behind the demon. Her staff grew a blade of dark shadowy energy which she used to slash at the monster’s back.

[-213]

Rachel frowned however when she noticed one of the many mouths bite her Shadow blade and part of it actually disappeared.

’That can’t be good!’

[-95]

Just as she was about to share what she just saw, a pained yell rang out. Greg’s body was pushed backwards, hands in front of his chest as he blocked the blow from the Demon. He had tried to evade it but for some reason, he found himself getting pulled in to meet the fist.

’Shit!’

"Don’t use skills to attack it directly! This guy can copy them!" Rachel shouted as Luna stopped charging in with her axe to dodge as the priest suddenly swung a sword at her that was formed from a dark shadowy energy.

Luna skidded across the floor, barely ducking under the sweeping arc of the shadow blade. Sparks flew as the magical weapon scraped the stone behind her. She clicked her tongue and twisted her grip on her axe.

"Copying us now? That’s bullshit!."

A series of gunshots rang out as two bullets struck the monster’s shoulders. Lily and Leo both had their guns raised against the Demon of Faith.

"Yeah, Tell me something new that isn’t that!"

Leo growled. This fight was going to be annoying as hell.