They all lined up in attention as they noticed the High Priest Isabel walked in along with two other escorts on both her sides. She smiled at them as the other two silently gave each of them an envelope sealed with the insignia of the High Church.
"Your assignment area and time for report are already in your envelope. Please follow the instructions written accordingly and perform well in your jobs. Right now, you all carry the name of the High Church, as well as the responsibility to guard all of humanity. We are all expecting high results from you all."
"Yes ma'am!"
"Hey, how come I didn't have one?" Elan asked as everyone slowly walked out the room.
"Whaaa you don't have one?" Kyrie asked in surprise as she darted to her side. "Maybe they missed you or something?"
"Is that even a thing?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow. Elan was about to say something when someone cleared their throat behind them, making all three of them look.
Isabel stood with a loose fist covering her mouth and the other arm on her back. She gave them a pleasing smile as she addressed them. "Hello, is there something wrong?"
They were all speechless for a bit before Arthur pulled himself together first to answer. "Pardon us, High Priest. We were just talking about Elan and why she didn't receive any assignment yet."
"Oh she does, actually," Peter butted in, now wearing a proper uniform. "We are just about to give it to her now."
"Now?" Elan was confused.
Isabel rolled her eyes to her companion. "Peter, please," she admonished before looking back at Elan. "We've seen you practice out in the field earlier. You have a great sense of accuracy and marksmanship. Were you trained by someone before?"
Elan blinked for a bit. "Oh! Um, I used to practice shooting for fun back when I was younger for fun. Bishop Caesar guided me through it."
"Bishop Caesar? You've knew of him?"
The girl nodded. "I'm his ward. I've been under his watch since I was three and my family was wiped out by a demon's attack."
Isabel nodded, "I see, no wonder you have a great form. Bishop Caesar was an amazing warrior and sniper back when he's still on the frontline, and he's also an amazing teacher for me and Peter."
Elan gasped in surprise. So Caesar had once taught the High Priest! She would so hound him with this later!
"Ha! Then I guess we made a good choice!" Peter laughed harder when he noticed the unamused look on Isabel's face. The other three looked at each other in confusion.
"Miss Elan," Isabel addressed the girl, "The reason that you haven't been given an assignment along with the others is because we wanted to assign you with a special one. With us."
"Special one? Wait, with you?!"
"Meaning, we want you to join our special team for an undercover mission," Peter tried to elaborate. "The Pope have given us a mission to be done as soon as possible and instructed us to create a team fit for it. Your marksmanship skills will be really helpful for this so we wanted to send you an invitation."
Elan was quite sure her mouth was hanging down the ground now, and she could see the same with her friends. "A special mission... with you Master Peter and High Priest Isabel?" she asked in a low and awed voice.
"It's a dangerous one, Elan," Isabel warned her. "The report had said that a high-ranking demon had been skulking around one of the outer side of the city and countless reports of missing people were filed in just three months. The people in the higher ups believed it to be one from the First Hierarchy."
The three all sucked in a breath. The demon princes in the First Hierarchy were all powerful demons that had killed countless of their fellow priests and even bishops.
As the division of the hierarchy of the heavenly angels, the fallen demons were also categorized by three main hierarchy. The leader of the heavenly coup, Lucifer, was at the head of these divisions.
They rarely show themselves out in the mortal world, but whenever they do it was always followed by carnage and destruction.
"We'll only have a handful of picked soldiers for this mission, and we would like you to join us as our sniper."
Both Kyrie and Arthur looked at Elan for her answer. True, their friend's sniping skills were the top of their class, but they were still newly-ordinated priests that have no real experience in the field. With an enemy this dangerous there's no high safety guarantee for any of them.
Elan knew of this and understand its implications, but after a couple of thoughts, she took a step forward with a resolute expression on her face. She bowed with her right hand on her left chest, a gesture that meant offering one's heart, "I would be honored to accept this mission, High Priest. I would do my best to live up to your expectations."
The High Priest gave her a smile as she handed her a scroll of paper. "Then we would see you later tonight. Here's the information for the mission, as well as the time and place where we'll meet. We apologize for this being too sudden. We wouldn't want to force you into anything, and we will understand if you wish to decline."
"No, it's no problem for me! I want to be in this mission, and it'll be a great experience for me."
As they watched the two seniors, Kyrie playfully elbowed Elan, "Oh my, I can't believe you'll be in a mission with High Priest Isabel and Master Peter! They were like the strongest ordinated priests in all history of the church! You're so lucky!" Elan looked as excited as her friend, quickly reading the paper.
"Are you sure about this, Elan?" Arthur asked in a serious voice, brows furrowed. "This demon might really be a member of the First Hierarchy. For a newly-ordinated priest, this is like signing for a suicidal mission."
"What's there to be worried about?" Kyrie tried to argue. "Ever since the church was built and the priesthood movement was established, there had been no one with such high kill rate as that our current High Priest Isabel, second by her classmate and renowned mid-ranger shooter Peter. They were, like, the miracle duo of our generation!"
"That's not enough reason to jump onboard despite the obvious danger! You still need to consider many other aspects and situations to secure a high chance of success!"
"Alright, alright enough, you two," Elan stood in the middle of her arguing friends. "Arthur, I appreciate your concern and what you're saying is true, but we're not deacons anymore. We've already had our Rite of Ordination, and had taken the oath to guide people to God's will, as well as protect them from evil. I still will accept this mission whether it'll be an easy one or difficult. Plus, I'll be careful. Snipers are not usually on the frontline of a battle, I'm more of a support so I won't be in that much danger."
Arthur looked like he wasn't that convinced but he didn't give anymore objections. The three of them left and bid goodbye to Elan to let her prepare for her mission.
Well, Elan didn't really need to prepare that much. She had a couple of hours of target practice and started to walk around town before the rendezvous at 9.
The city of Crumm was most known of its nighttime. As soon as the sun has set, lights bloomed all around the street, the tall buildings glowing with an almost ethereal look that can capture a breath of a passer-by. Stalls that usually opens at this time bustled with such lively activities, and with the festival of their patron saint, there was an obvious festive air in every part of the street.
Elan had wrapped her gun and slung it on her back as she walk in a leisure pace, eyeing the stores of food, jewelries, and other kinds of wares with slight curiosity and a bright look. She always enjoyed walking around the city at night; the wares usually sold were of different quality than the ones sold at daytime. Of course, more than half of these were illegal and many of the buyers were often tricked into buying them. Such problems were all outside of her job as it was for the city police force, but she also made it sure to prevent any shady or shady transactions along her way.
"I-I'm sorry, but I n-need to be going."
Elan stopped when she heard the stuttering voice of a young girl, sounding frightened, followed by a couple or three leering voices of guys down a narrow alley road. She walked towards the voices and saw four men cornering the scared-looking girl, cutting her path and surrounding her.
"Aw, don't ditch us soon, sweetheart! The night's still starting, after all!"
"Hey hey, how about you come with us? I know a really good place to drink and hang out. It'll be our treat."
"I-I really shouldn't--"
"So cute. We won't do anything to you, promise. Just a few hours of accompanying us will be really good."
Elan's anger rose as she saw the girl cower even further to herself and listening to every word of the guys. Before she could even took a step to push them all away, a sudden blur moved past her and kicked the closest man flying to the wall.
"The fuck?! What's you're problem, man?!"
Instead of being answered, the person started to punch and kicked the other three down. The first guy had already recovered and was trying to land a punch, but the person merely moved a couple of steps to the side, grabbed the swinging arm and twisted it on his back. The man yowled in pain.
"Unless you want to have your arm pulled from its socket I suggest you and your buddies should scram." At that, the person pushed the guy hard towards its companions and watched them ran away.
Elan stood still for a minute before she came back to awareness and ran to the victim. "Are you alright, miss?"
The poor girl's crying after being harassed, but she managed to reply a squeak of 'I'm fine' before Elan send her out to the main street. She then turned to the other person.
She was surprised that it was actually a girl, the height made her thought it was a guy the first time. Her flowing raven locks were cut just below the shoulders, and she looked almost too pale even in the poor lighting. When the girl noticed her looking, one of her brows rose, and Elan was even more surprised when she noticed that the girl had electric blue eyes.
"Thanks for doing that. I was about to kick them myself earlier when you came in."
The girl blinked for a moment and shrugged. "Eh, I hate jerks like those. Some people still can't understand the meaning of no, so I often just answer with a punch. It seemed to be much effective answer."
Elan snorted. "One of my friends will disagree, but I think you style of answering is clever." The other girl smiled wider at that. Then the giant clock at the center of town rang its bell as 9 in the evening arrived.
"Aahh! I'm late!" Elan shouted as she started running. Before she left the alley, she turned around and waved to the other. "Hey, see you around soon!"
She managed to arrived at the rendezvous area only a couple of minutes late. Isabel and Peter greeted her with a smile and an enthusiastic 'hey!' along with an arm slung to her shoulder respectively. She also noticed three other people standing close to them, one of them looking irritated at her.
"That's two minutes late on your first assignment. Do you even take your job seriously?"
"Oh cheer up, Madz, she's only a few minutes late. Don't be too stuck up on that!" Peter called to the woman wearing a dark red cloak. The scowl on the woman's face deepened.
"Call me in that name again and I will blow your body with holes."
"Welcome to the team, Elan," Isabel said to her as she walked towards the girl. "Along with me and Peter, this three people will also be part of this mission."
She pointed to a short man wearing a black long sleeves and cargo pants. His chest, waist, and legs had straps hooked with holsters by the side, four of them holding handguns. Elan could also see a handle of a knife on the guy's combat boots. "That is Brendon, he will be stationed a few meters from your station. You two will be covering us if things get too difficult."
"He's also a firearm expert and fanatic, hence the get-up, so don't be too worried about him," Peter added with a laugh. Brendon only gave him a flat look.
A girl even shorter than Brendon jumped right in front of Elan with a wide grin and bouncing golden hair tied in a high pigtails, making her yelp in surprise. Said girl only giggled as she took another step closer.
"I'm curious as to who Isabel had added to the team, especially since she said you've just been ordinated!" commented the girl cheerfully. "Hey hey, what's your name? Mine's Clover!"
"Um, Elan." Clover then took her hand and gave it an energetic shake.
"Nice to meet you! You might be really talented for Isabel to include you tonight! I'm so looking forward in seeing you in action!"
The last of the three scoffed. "Talent or not, one slip with your focus and you'll lose your life. Don't try to even think of yourself so high."
Elan gulped in nervousness as Peter only laughed in response. "That grumpy over there is Madeline. Don't mind her, she's always been prickly." Madeline only glared at him.
"All right. Now that were all here, let's go down to our positions. Madeline, you'll come with me, while Clover and Peter goes to the other two sides. Elan, you and Brendon will give us updates on the perimeter." After a chorus of 'yes, ma'am!' they all moved out in different directions.
Elan's position gave her a good vantage point from the building where the rest of the team will enter undercover. It seemed like a normal business building by its outside appearance, but it was actually one of the largest gambling den in the city. Owned by a powerful influencial, the police force couldn't really lift a finger against it, making it a place where the wealthiest in the city meet and play.
The first hour of the mission passed without problem. Elan had watched on her scope and secure the perimeter, but aside from that she barely did anything. As she picked her gun for another angle, a slight scuffle caught her attention and she quickly took a look.
A person was briskly walking close to the walls, approaching the gambling building. They dropped down when a couple of guard passed through, pulling the hood of their coat down to hide their face. When the guards were far enough, the person seemingly heaved a relieved sigh and adjusted their hood, showing a familiar face and electric blue eyes.
Just then, a loud explosion rang throughout the city and the gambling building bursted into towering flames.