In France...

That night was not yet the one he would manage to get to sleep. Mathias, agitated by a consuming nervousness and his mind completely obsessed with what he had discovered, was still hidden in the attic of his house, going all over the place, searching the slightest file. All these investigations into sects, serial killers and ancestral myths, these photos of various symbols and all from different countries and times, it was all starting to drive him crazy. He wanted to understand what it meant and why his parents had been killed for it.

_ "Pffff ... All these hours of research for nothing!" Mathias cracked, at the end of his rope.

Grabbing the first crate within reach, he threw it down with all his might to get over his nerves. The crate hit one of the attic walls, breaching the planks and raising a cloud of dust. And when the smoke was cleared, Mathias then noticed something that was behind the planks. Taking his cell phone to light up, coughing a little from the dust floating in the air, he took a look and discovered ... A secret room! In the attic of his house?

The hidden room that had been walled up, surely on purpose, was very small, barely room for an adult man. Inside, another stack of files had been carefully concealed. Why this extra hiding place for them? Carried away by his curiosity and especially his desire to finally want to know more about all this bullshit, Mathias took out the new files and opened them. His brow furrowed and his eyes widened as he flipped through the pages one by one.

More information gathered by his parents, about the serial killer named Ruiz, his criminal career during his life, but above all, the occult activities in which he had been able to take part. Apparently, he had recently joined the ranks of a very mysterious occult sect, one of the only known points of which was his symbol, a sort of sprawling black spiral in the middle of a triangle. These members called themselves the Children of the Trinity. According to the notes of Mathias' parents, this occult organization had been very active for the last few years, and in particular since ... The arrival of the monsters in the human world.

More and more confused, Mathias gathered all these files in the light of the lamp, reading them meticulously so as not to miss any detail. Among the images and photos he found other symbols, one in particular, again this sprawling spiral in this triangle, all found and photographed in different places on the planet and dating from times far removed from each other, the oldest ones appearing to date from the Neolithic era, and having all been discovered in places known to have been the sites of mass killings and mass suicides throughout history.

In the files, Mathias found a note, written in the hand of his father, which he read:

We are sure now. This psychopath, Ruiz, is in cahoots with this organization, the Children of the Trinity. They are absolutely everywhere. No one suspects their existence, and yet they are there, they can be anyone. Their origin is unknown, but they are apparently linked, directly or indirectly, to all of the most gruesome and bloodthirsty events in our history. According to the ancient symbols that we have studied, they seem to venerate kinds of entities, which do not represent god, the devil or any deity of any pagan pantheon ... These entities seem much older than that, and this worries us a lot ... They call them the Trinity Great Ancients Ones, and apparently, would act with the aim of seeing them return to our world.

But unfortunately, I believe my wife and I were spotted by the organization. It's only a matter of time before they come and silence us. My wife and I have decided to keep Mathias away from all this for now, so as not to endanger him. My son, if you find this, know that now your life will be in great danger, but it is absolutely necessary to stop the Children of the Trinity in their madness, or else nothing will be left of this world. The monsters that have arrived in our world could help you as they saved our world from the demons. Somehow, you must be able to contact them. Good luck, son, and may you one day forgive us for keeping all of this from you.

Mathias was speechless at what he had just read. His gaze lost, his heart pounding, he dropped the note. Anger grows in him. He didn't really believe in this apocalyptic cult thing, but now he knew those responsible for his parents' deaths well, and he was determined to make them pay.

***********

Despite the certain discomfort in this large, ruined building in this industrial estate, Hella had managed to fall asleep, her arms in hand and her back leaning against a hard, cold wall. However, his sleep was agitated by some sort of scrambled nightmare. Series of painful memories gradually resurfaced in her mind ... She saw flashes of places, human people, whom she had the impression of having already known before ... She after saw herself chained in this damp and dark little hut, in the middle of this landfill ... Then she saw Ruiz in front of her again, sadistic, crazy, having fun torturing her to submit her, but also for her simple pleasure, his hysterical laughter echoing in her ears, as well as his words ... You are mine, Hella ... You owe me obedience ... I created you, so I can also destroy you!

A hand came over to pat Hella's shoulder, pulling her sharply from her restless sleep. Panting in the moment, she raised her weapons, ready to use them, but realized that it was just Mana who had just woken her up.

_ "M ... Mana, what are you ...?" she began to want to speak, but was interrupted by the pastor who put his hand over her mouth and motioned for her to be silent. Hella looked at him, confused.

_ "Look ..." Mana whispered, who with her other hand pointed outside the building and removed her mouth from Hella's hand.

She looked by the broken window, puzzled, but immediately understood why he had acted like this.

Outside, a mist had formed and snaked through the night, but it was something else that worried the scarbie. Several dark and fast shapes moved stealthily, slipping behind trees or old wrecks of abandoned cars, and came closer and closer to the building, gradually starting to surround it.

_"What is that?" Hella whispered in turn.

_ "I think we'll find out soon. Get ready." Mana replied, taking his black ecclesiastical daggers in his hands and starting to go to a dark corner of the room to be able to take these intruders by surprise.

Hella followed suit, checking her loaded rifle, knife in other hand, and hid in the dim light, against a wall, in complete silence. The two monsters remained hidden, awaiting the arrival of these strange figures. Strangely enough, the air had grown colder and a very strange and heavy atmosphere was felt. Hella and Mana, knowing either one was hiding, glanced at each other, agreeing to the ambush they were going to set.

Long seconds passed, but something unforeseen happened. Mana and Hella, who were expecting the intruders to come up and arrive by the stairs, saw the first figure to arrive from the broken window, entering the building crawling on the ceiling like a huge spider.

The thing had a human size and appearance, being almost 2 meters tall, a slender cadaverous body, grayish sticky skin, unusually long and lean arms and legs, and clawed hands and feet. But most confusing was his head, unusually large compared to the body, oval and bald, devoid of eyes, ears and nose. The creature crawled a few feet up the ceiling, stopping in the middle of the darkened room, partially lit by moonlight. His head made a full rotation, hinting at the backbone of the neck cracking but not breaking. A huge round mouth revealed itself in the middle of this faceless head, filled with fine, conical teeth. The thing was making loud, repeated clicks from its mouth, like a giant insect.

Hella and Mana, still hidden in the dark, made no gesture or noise, continuing to observe in bewilderment at this thing that didn't seem to have sensed them yet. They had never seen such a creature. What was it? A demon? A monster? Or something else?

The thing then let a filthy tongue several meters long out of its mouth. At the tip of the tongue was an eye that scanned all around. Hella thought she understood when she watched better. This creature was blind and used this unique eye to see its surroundings. But Hella felt her heart jump when she saw the eye, which was scanning in her direction, freeze right on her. The creature then began to fidget and emit louder and louder sounds, almost like an organic alarm. Fuck, Hella thought. Was this eye able to see in the dark?

Guessing that she had been spotted, Hella decided to act and leaped out of her compromised hiding place, firing her sawn-off shotgun for the first time. The detonation echoed throughout the building and the creature was hit head-on in the ribs by the shot and fell heavily on the ground.

_ "The Creeper found them! They are there!" suddenly warns a hostile human voice.

Hella instantly saw a group of ten humans appearing up the stairs, all dressed in black cloths and with masked faces, and armed with blades. Mana went on the offensive, surging in turn and stabbing the first man in the chest, killing him instantly. With great dexterity, the pastor blocked the blades of two other enemies. One of the masked men managed to pass and wanted to attack Hella, but she made a nimble movement to the side and neutralized him with a violent kick that broke his neck in half and hit him against the wall.

_ "Hella, watch out!" Mana yelled while avoiding and parrying the blows of the blades.

The thing these humans had called a Creeper had stood up on all fours with furious growls. The shot had torn off a large chunk of flesh, but Hella noted with concern that the wound was already starting to heal.

_ "This thing can regenerate itself!" Hella said as she hastened to reload her shotgun with two cartridges.

The Creeper gave a deafening shrill roar through its mouth and began to move at very high speed, leaping on the walls and ceiling, disappearing into the shadows only to reappear, and preventing Hella from being able to target him properly.

Hella suddenly felt the creature's shadow cover her and in a reflex, jumped up and rolled to the side, just before the Creeper came to land heavily where she was, having tried to crush her. The already badly damaged floor of the second floor cracked and shook, threatening to collapse at any moment.

Hella prepared to shoot again, but the Creeper sent his tongue wrapped around the scarbie's throat, grabbing and lifting her off the ground to first hit her against one of the columns and then throw her violently through the wall.

_ "HELLA!" Mana gasped, but couldn't help her, still relentlessly attacked by the cultists and having to defend against their relentless onslaught.

Hella fell from a height of two floors, rolling on the snowy ground outside and suffering greatly from the shocks and the fall. Fortunately, his now half-mechanical body had endured it. The Creeper had followed her, leaping and coming like a feline, to arrive right in front of her, determined to kill her. Like a predator on its prey, it pounces on it, blocking her to the ground. Hella reacted and with her butcher's knife struck repeatedly in the belly of the creature which emitted excruciating sounds. Hella then placed the double barrel of her shotgun directly into the Creeper's mouth.

_ "DIE!" the scarbie yelled.

The detonation went off, and the thing's head literally exploded into pieces of flesh and bone that were scattered in a geyser of blood. The Creeper's decapitated body pulled back, twitching and staggering, allowing Hella to get back to her feet and reload her weapon.

Meanwhile, inside the building, Mana had already killed half of the cultists, but knowing his friend being in danger with this unknown creature, wanted to end it as soon as possible. Putting his daggers back in his belt, Mana concentrated, clasping his hands and opening his eyes, glowing an unearthly green glow.

_ "You scums, will undergo the judgment of the pastor of darkness." he growled between his mandibles.

Under the bewildered gaze of the cultists, Mana transformed into a large swarm of black and green flies, which flew to completely cover the remaining men. They howled and fluttered around, feeling the flies biting them by the hundreds, entering through their mouths, nostrils and ears and gradually tearing them apart from the inside.

At the same instant, outside the crumbling building, Hella found that the Creeper was once again regenerating itself, the flesh of its belly and head beginning to reform.

_ "Damn, tell me it's a joke ..." Hella sighed, starting to doubt that she would be able to overcome this abomination. She didn't want to give him time and tried to shoot, but one of the Creeper's hands hit her with a powerful backhand, pushing her back.

It was then, shaking her head to regain her senses that Hella noticed this humanoid and large form appearing out of nowhere from the mist, leaping in the air and coming to cut one of the arms of the Creeper with a kind of huge chopping knife covered with dried blood. The Creeper howled in pain, as the stranger grabbed an old barrel, still filled with gasoline, abandoned near a wrecked car, and threw it at the feet of the regenerating creature.

_ "COME ON! SHOOT IN!" indicated the stranger in his loud and monster voice.

Hella didn't try to argue, desperately wanting to get this thing out of the way, and fired. The gasoline barrel exploded, engulfing the Creeper in a vomit of flame that slowly but surely began to devour him. The sounds he made were vile and deafening as he shifted around. One arm less, head half reformed and body completely charred, the Creeper fled in a series of prodigious leaps and within seconds, disappeared completely in the too thick mist.

_ "Shit, he ran away!" growled Hella, who would have liked to catch up to finish him, but gave up seeing his speed too great.

The fight being over, she put her weapons away, to see Mana arrive in swarm form from the building, having finished eliminating the group of human attackers, and resumed her humanoid form to come towards the scarbie.

_ "Hella, are you all right? Where is this creature? Did you killed it?" he asked.

_ "I'm fine, don't worry." Hella replied, patting him gently on the shoulder. "Unfortunately, he managed to escape despite the shots or even fire. I don't know what it was, but I had seen nothing so tough ... Without this stranger, I don't know what would have happened ... "

With those last words, she did point to the stranger dressed in a tattered cloak and hood, who stood aside and remained silent. Mana eyed him warily, motioning for Hella to be on her guard, and the two of them came to meet him, keeping a safe distance.

_ "First of all, I would like to thank you for helping my friend." Mana told him. "But tell me ... Who are you?"

The stranger tucked his huge chopping knife behind his back, and pulled off his hood to reveal his head.

He had a bald head, black lips, white scaly skin like a reptile and streaked with several red scars, and yellow reptilian eyes. he was stocky, and dressed in a very strange outfit made of leather and pieces of armor, also with an apron covered in dried blood, like a butcher or an executioner. From his belt hung several knives of different sizes, and even one-handed axes. A real arsenal of bladed weapons.

_ "My name is Otus." he said in his hollow, neutral voice, showing no animosity towards Hella and Mana.