Pious

"Yeah babe, I'm fine" Pious replied, flexing his wings. "I knew this kind of thing happens to angels down here but I didn't really think it would affect me. These wings usually only exist on a distant spectrum. The shadowed tone and loss of muscle mass would indicate that I've lost my grace. Didn't know I had one."

"Ok those of you who can fly, start flying" said the demon Typhon, leading the path into the landscape. "Expect baddies we are creating quite a disturbance."

"We better get a move on then" Pious told his wife, before leaping into the skies. His energy flight shot him far and wide and the wings allowed him to soar down with ease. "Typhon, I'm quite resilient so if it's alright with you, I'll be the eyes in the skies."

The group chatted among themselves for ages, planning and plotting as they disappeared into the horizon. The journey into the Netherworld had started indeed.

"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen" Pious prayed, signing the cross as he did so.

"Blade Balfear, Suraya Rania Mohammed Khatoon, we gather here today, in this place so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church's minister and this community. Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in birth and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity." The priest paused momentarily.

"If there is anyone here who has any reason why these two shouldn't wed, speak now or forever hold your peace" Pious invites the congregation to objections.

"Alright then” he said, carrying on when he heard nothing. "In the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions. Blade Balfear and Suraya Khatoon, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?"

"I have" said Suraya.

"I have" said Blade.

"Will you love and honour each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?"

"I will" said Suraya.

"I will" said Blade.

"Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up in the light of Good?"

"We will" said Suraya.

"We will" said Blade.

"Do you, Blade Balfear, take Suraya Khatoon, as your lawful wife, to love and to honour, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of your life?"

"I do" said Blade.

"Do you, Suraya Khatoon, take Blade Balfear, as your lawful husband, to love and to honour, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of your life?"

"I do" said Suraya.

"You have declared your consent before the church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. What God has joined, no one must divide. Amen"

"Will the parents please stand and give their blessing?" asked the Imam.

Silvas rose and proceeded to give his blessings. The couple were then lead over to the signing table. "Will the two witnesses come to join the couple in signing the wedding certificates?" the Imam asked and the witnessess stepped forward.

The couples were then lead back to the stand before the pulpit. "Rings, please?" asked Pious. Morilanthi the chosen Best Man handed them over to the priest who promptly prays over them. "A circle is the symbol of wholeness, perfection, and unity. Like circles, these rings have no beginning and no end. They are tokens of the growing relationship that Blade and Suraya have come here to celebrate and confirm. Lord, bless and consecrate Blade Balfear and Suraya Khatoon in their love for each other. May these rings be a symbol of true faith in each other, and always remind them of their love, that they are one in heart and mind. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen" With that, the Priest offers the rings to the bride and groom respectively.

"Blade, Suraya, you may exchange rings and commence any custom vows. I understand the Silvatian customs of the Gifting is yet to come? After it, well, I guess it wouldn't be inappropriate to kiss the bride" he finished, with a warming smile.

"Hmm, nah I'm not feeling it" said the Priest, standing unphased and looking on as the monster launched at him with imposible speed. The moment she got close to him, he used her inhuman momentum against her and sidesteps to reveal an invisible pocket of air he had bent into a wormhole linked to Pocket D.

Grayson had done his job. Plan B had tipped off MAGI of the invasion in Dark Astoria and they in turn had dispatched the school of sixty training agents known as the Nighthunters Army. They were comprised of ten experienced mercenaries who parachuted in, ten armed streetfighters who rode in on Harleys, ten trained ninjas who ported in on smoke, ten intelligent zombies who travelled beneath the earth, ten tamed demons who rose from hellfire and ten weaponised robots who jetted in on rocket fuel. The advancing Longbow too lead of the FBSA's Nighthunter Army and flanked their march with a wall of Freedom Corps Cataphract heavies stretching as far back as the town centre. The army took formation and circled the warzone in a mile-wide multi-layered circumference and began to close in, exterminating the Circle of Thorns demons and burning down the possessed.

Pious looked around and was silently relieved to see the authorities finally providing adequate back-up. He looked to Leeches with confidence. "It's a moving speech and perhaps you're right" he replied. "But you're in America now. And this country's laws put me in the right and you in the wrong. Right now, at this moment in time, that makes me the hero and you the villain. As you can see Law Enforcement is here. If you don't want to be arrested, I'll gladly vanquish you."

"Thank you" said Pious. "We all do our individual best for the safety of our society. I'm sure to your family, you also are brave and skillful heroes. It's been nice talking to you. If you'll please pardon my leave, the Imam and I should get ready for the wedding. Service will start downstairs in just a while, 8PM to be exact. The whole ceremony shouldn't take longer than an hour." With that said, he escorted the Imman downstairs through the basement lounge, past the sacred vault into the safehouse. The grand hallway down there had been decorated just as Suraya wanted, with a stage and podium for the priests.

"You threaten to destroy the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Paragon City. I embrace my job and take arms to defend it... and you wonder which one of us God is with?" Pious gave a condescending look designed to lower the enemy's confidence. "I guess it must be true Leeches, you really are crazy."

The full might of Pious Hunter began to march forward onto the Countess Leeches and her impervium armoured soldiers. His heavily equipped war gear bounced up and down, the metals clanging against each other as the wearer advanced. His facial expression remained fixed but his fiery eyes betrayed the anger bubbling beneath. "Leeches!" he called, summoning the monster at the doors to come and fight. "This is MY church! Want to tear it down? I dare you to try!"

Reaching for his high-calibre assault rifle, Pious offloaded an unholy round of live ammunition on full-auto onto the train of armoured soldiers. Each bullet ricocheted off was seemed to be a well-powered forcefield. Out of ammo, Pious ditched the rifle and unclipped his rock-salt shotgun. Now at a closer range, Pious fired off a payload of buckshots. The magic penetrated the forcefield but seemed to do little damage. With a heavy thud, the shotgun hit the grass. Still advancing, Pious unsheathed his two katanas and descended upon the flank, unleashing a mighty fury of a thousand swipes. The metal on metal sparked fire like a blowtorch welding iron but the impervium armour held. Thinking quickly and acting fast, the priest discarded the blades and heaved, raising his right arm over his shoulder. With great strength, he tugged at the heavy metal and pulled out the soul-eating Sword of Leviticus. One slash looked as though it had decapitated the first soldier but the blade had in fact phased through and burnt the man's corrupted essence, rendering him unconscious. "You see that Leeches?" Pious taunted, thankful for a victory at last."Your earthly weapons are no match to the Will of God!" With that, he swung away at the remaining soldiers, slicing souls by the legs, stabbing some through the abdomen and completely cleaving the others from their toes up through the skull. At the finish of his sudden assault he held his position to emphasise a victorious poise. "What else you got Leeches? Otherwise, take this time to run."

Pious immediately sent out a message to all those wearing their Nighthunters psychic amulet; Morilanthi, Altair, Sabrina, Grayson, Rack Up, Pistol, Blade Balfear and others not currently present at Moth Cathedral. In total they were a team of eight. "Listen up hunters" he began. "I've tried the fastest way I know to end this war but Bathory has declined our diplomacy. It appears her motives have changed and is no longer interested in just populating the country. Hunters are obviously a constant threat to her and her people and I think she quite simply wants us eliminated. It's too bad because it leaves us with no other discernable alternative than to fight back. From this day forth the Court of the Blood Countess will be our primary responsibility, for I fear the ongoing demon war will now only end in blood. Whatever scheme they hatch, we will be there to foil them. Whatever plot they mould, we will find them and stop them. Whatever evil they summon onto mankind, we the Nighthunters, shall stand in their way. Today the eight of us shall fight with all of our strength and support each other's weaknesses. And with the kind of friends that have come here to help us, there is no doubt that victory shall be ours. Grayson, call MAGI. Revert to Plan B!"

"Roger that sir" came his reply before disappearing deeper into the church.

With a twirl of his leather cloak, the Priest was gone. A gust of wind had carried him forth and brought him to the ground outside the bell tower. He looked up at the wall of fire cordoning off the stone building and began to focus all of his power. In a blur of fantastic speed, he flew in circles around the tower, depleting the oxygen feeding the fire as he did so. Within seconds, the fire had died, making way for Sabrina and the Bravo Squad to penetrate. Quickly, they rushed up the stairs to engage the archvillains Lilith, Wolfe and Bathory, and their demonic minions. Meanwhile, Altair Stevens and her mech faced off with the giant monster.

With his hand still outstretched, Pious nods to acknowledge the unmastered vampire who was so kindly keeping the wolves at bay, though most likely for less virtuous motives. "Why thank you sir, kind of you to notice" he replied, before turning his efforts back to diplomacy. Thrusting forward his open handshake, he emphasises his offer of truce and presses the enemy vampire for a response. "Like I said Bathory, it's your call."

"Rack Up, engage that thing and you'll be flattened!" Sabrina warned telepathically. "We are at the church entrance, we'll be coming out in a minute. Grayson?"

"It sounds like Carmine" Grayson reported, "One of the Court's mad scientists, she's a weapons inventor with affiliations in Arachnos. Okay new plan! Sabrina, you go check on Pious. Morilanthi! Look sharp, you got a winged bogie coming in fast at ten o'clock. I'll join Gabriel and our vampire friend in fighting off this demon invasion. Altair... we have got to hold down the church, so, I figure yours is about the same size as that mecha, think you can take it down?"

"Lord help me Grayson, I don't know..." Altair admitted. "I mean what is this? I woke up this morning looking forward to an ice-cream sundae with cherries on top, but I got a laser-shooting giant robot trying to kill us all instead? I didn't exactly ask for this Demon War and I didn't declare Open Season. I didn't even-"

"Altair?" Sabrina interjected, "Shut the f**k up and blow that bi*ch to smithereens or you will get dead!"

"Right. Right, got it" she stammered, taking control of her weapon. "Powering up and preparing to engage."

With an ear-splitting thud, Altair brought the 580,000 lb hunk of metal down onto its bipedal legs and raised it to its full height of 80 feet. She armed the laser blasters and let rip a giant tri-beam of electrically-charged, super-hot energy-rays aimed at the incoming mammoth.

Shh. Teh americans can see us now remember? We got forum-merged!

Right, passing a message from Kade:

Ransim says since Kade didn't mention how to do this, it is simple:

1. Go to your user page, then click on the User Contributions link on the left menu.
2. Change the namespace in the drop down to Image and it'll list any actions you completed under the image namespace.

To mark a image for deletion then go to the image, edit it and add [[Category: Deletion Request]].

"Yes, yes, for goodness sake, yes!" Sabrina yelled, telepathically via the psycho-communicative amulet. "You're in all our heads man!"

"Rack Up this is Grayson, we're reading you loud and clear" Mike responded, reprimanding Sabrina for her outburst with a telling look. "What's your status?"

As Morilanthi escaped the sniper shot, a nonchalant vampire in a flowing red longcoat joined the party. He turned their attention to the unfolding scene up in the bell tower before setting off after the shooter. Just then, the earth-moving roar of fighter jet engine could be heard rumbling in the distance.

"It's here! He's done it. Oh my goodness Daniel sent me the battle tank" screamed Altair, suited from head to toe in a glossy-white mechanical piloting gear; the huge tech gloves clearly a battery source. "Okay coming through, coming through, out of my way please" she called out, speeding through the church and out into the grounds. With impressive agility she leapt onto a corner wall and launched herself into a climb. Once onto the high roof, the technopath hacked into the approaching armoured war vehicle and steered it closer to the building. As it zoomed past she ran after it, sprinting the full length of the cathedral roof before diving off and landing onto the giant machine.

"You got it?" asked Michael, communicating telepathically over the amulet.

"Yeah" she replied. "Yeah I got it, I'm in. Just gonna circle round and... Holy mother of... guys, we got a problem. We got a real problem."

"What is it?" asked Sabrina.

"I got a birds-eye view of the field up here and err... those demons? They're spawning as far back as the town centre!" Altair reported. "What did we estimate before, two, three hundred? Well, I'm counting dozens of hundreds here. As in, over a thousand bogies. Looks like they're not all dead scientists either, demons are spawning all over the place and they're possessing zombies from the cemetery. You know something? I'm starting to think this is bigger than Bathory's bounty. This... this is a planned attack on Moth Cathedral! Make way, I'm armed and coming in for a hot landing."

Meanwhile, up at the Bell Tower

As if she was walking on air Elizabeth herself appeared, followed by two undead warriors in full armour and her Lich advisor Vladimir. She stayed up, floating out of reach while she watched the demons and werewolves secure the bell tower. A smile was showing on her lips seeing the mayhem around them. Then her red eyes noticed Pistol... "My dear Alicia... I heard you had something for me!?"

"Hey homegirl, wassup?" Alicia greeted, suddenly pulling a gun on the vampire witch. With unparalleled speed she moved across the tower and doused the ring of fire with holy water, freeing the priest and allowing him to suit up. "Like I said, it's time we ended this!"