Chapter Text
Author Note: Hi everyone. I am back with a brand new story in the Ressa/David universe. A few things about this story. There will be no sex. Ha surprise! I am really trying to get away from that. This will be a somewhat clean story so if you came for porn, expect to be disappointed. It takes place in the Ressa/David universe, so expect similar names. Also, heavy HEAVY Christian themes. Which means, feminist trigger warning. This will be an isekai (kind of), action-horror-romance. Another villain protagonist, as well, eventually. My chapters will probably be pretty short. I would like to make chapters 1000 words only to make it easier for me to get started with writing each chapter. I don’t know how often I will update, don’t expect too much. I have just been thinking about this for a while and I’m glad to finally start. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
Content Warning:
Heavy Converservative Christian Themes (Feminist Trigger Warning)
Graphic depiction of Violence
Implied sexual activity (but no more than what is described in the Bible)
Sexist Themes (Seriously, don’t read if you have a problem with a Christian story. Just to save yourself some blood pressure)
Chapter 1
[Regional Event Unlocked]
[Region: Philippines]
[Modifiers: Severe reduction in experience, gold and attribute gain]
[System Notification: Good Luck]
“Jesus keep me near the cross…”
She gasped for breath and breathed deeply. She kept her eyes closed and listened to the gentle harmony that filled the car. Before she opened her eyes, a tear trailed down her cheek.
When she finally opened her eyes, she was greeted by the happy faces of her family.
To her side, she saw the beautiful face of her little sister. The little girl wore the same conservative dress as the other women in the car. The girl’s hair was twisted into two long ponytails. She noted how neat and clean her sister was. An angel.
In front of her, her brothers sat. They provided a good harmony to the melody. Behind her, the rest of her siblings, all happily singing along together as a family.
Finally she laid her eyes on the two people in the front seats. She couldn’t control her emotions when she took in the face of her mother and father. It was overwhelming.
“..til my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river~”
“Ressa are you ok?”
Ressa’s focus was drawn to the man driving the car. He looked at her in concern through the rearview mirror. Her mother turned around to inspect her daughter. Ressa wiped her tears with her wrists while maintaining a gentle smile.
“Yes, I’m ok. I just…really like that song.”
Her mother grew a matching smile.
“I like that song too. How about you pick the next one?” The woman suggested.
Ressa nodded and looked upon her family in reverence.
“I’d like that. How about…I’ll have a new life.”
Her mother raised a brow.
“Oh that’s a hard one. Who wants to start?”
“Me!”
Ressa looked at the little girl sitting next to her. The girl raised her hand energetically and immediately started to sing the first verse.
“Oh the resurrection morning, when all the dead in Christ shall rise~” the little girl sang by herself.
“I’ll have a new body, Praise the lord I’ll have a new life~” The rest of the family joined in.
Ressa managed to sing along as well, despite how much her voice shook.
Ressa lost track of how many songs they sang. Time seemed a distant concept. She is obsessed over the beautiful faces and voices of her family. Then she saw it. Ressa froze.
It was a cow on the side of the road. A very normal thing to see in the Filipino countryside. No one brought attention to it. Their car passed it without anyone saying a word, but Ressa understood the significance.
“Dad.”
“Yes, Sweetheart?”
“Can you tell me what time it is?”
The man looked down at his watch briefly while keeping a hand on the wheel.
“Just a few minutes until the hour.”
“Can you…can you be more specific?”
The man raised a brow and looked at Ressa again through the rear view mirror. He grew one of his patented playful smirks.
“You got somewhere to be?”
Ressa paused when seeing his smile. How long had it been since she had seen it? She couldn’t remember.
“Ressa?”
“Oh…no I just…it would be nice to know.”
The man chuckled and nodded.
“Ok Sweety, it’s 11:57.”
“3 minutes,” she thought.
Ressa looked around at the faces of her family obsessively. She did her best to sear the peaceful moment in his mind. She reached over to her little sister and tentatively grabbed the girl’s hand.
The girl looked at her older sister curiously, but she was happy to share the embrace. The girl smiled, revealing the familiar gap in her front teeth.
Ressa closed her eyes and bowed her head.
“Thank you.”
“Any more song requests?”
“The last one,” Ressa thought.
“Actually…I was thinking that maybe we could just…sit for a while,” Ressa said.
Ressa’s mother looked back curiously.
“Are you sure you’re ok, Sweety?”
Ressa nodded and clenched the hand of her little sister tighter.
“I’m blessed.”
Her mother nodded.
“We all are.”
The woman faced forward to look out the window at the beautiful countryside. They drove down the side of a mountain, along a dirt road. The highway was a few miles away. From their elevated location, they had a beautiful view.
Trees spanned for miles in both directions. They could see the expansive, hilly mountain range. Several villages were visible from their vantage point. The morning sun beautifully illuminated the scenery.
“Can we roll down all the windows?” Ressa asked.
“I don’t see why not,” her father said.
Everyone reached for the handle near their doors and began to turn the contraption to lower their windows. Her little sister was especially excited to be greeted by the wind which sent her pigtails flying. She giggled and looked up at Ressa with innocent eyes.
Ressa looked behind her to see her younger, teenage brother sitting in the backseat.
“Tim, can you open the trunk window as well?”
Tim looked surprised.
“Really? I don’t know…”
“It’s ok, Tim. You don’t plan on jumping out, right?”
Ressa’s father spoke in a lighthearted manner.
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
The teen turned around and reached for the hatch to open the window. The breeze through the car was especially powerful. Ressa reached up to secure her head covering atop her head.
“Oh my goodness!” Ressa’s mom shouted in alarm.
Everyone watched as the woman's head covering flew off of her head and flew out the open trunk window. The woman’s extremely long hair was revealed. Her strands were ankle length and billowed through the car. Ressa’s little sister giggled madly.
“Oh, Momma isn’t wearing her headcovering. She’s in trouble now.”
Her father chuckled.
“That’s ok. Maybe we should close the trunk window.”
“No!” Ressa blurted out.
All eyes fell on her. Her mother was already reaching into her purse for a backup headcovering when she heard her daughter’s alarmed voice. Ressa bowed her head meekly from all the attention.
“I mean…the air feels really nice,” she said.
Her father watched her inquisitively.
“Maybe a few minutes more,” he said.
“Opo,” she said. (Opo is a respectful Filipino term of acknowledgement or affirmation)
Ressa glanced back at Tim. He was also looking at her in mild concern. She gave him a reassuring smile. He returned it.
“I want to sing another song!”
The tiny voice of Ressa’s baby sister announced.
“Well, how does that sound, Ressa?”
Ressa hunched her shoulders meekly. She didn’t want to be the reason her family couldn’t sing.
“That sounds nice.”
“I actually have a song request.”
Everyone looked back at Tim expectantly.
“The lord is coming, are you ready?”
Tim began to sing. Everyone followed along, except for Ressa.
“It’s always the same song,” she thought.
As the song went on, Ressa’s eyes shifted outside. She looked up to the blue sky with a powerful sense of dread. Was she ready?
As the sky turned red, she realized just how unready she was. She immediately closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and bowed her head.
“Wow, an eclipse,” her father said.
“Daddy, why is the sky turning red.”
“It’s an eclipse, Sweetheart.”
“What’s an eclipse?”
“Well…it’s when the moon goes in front of the-”
Boom!
“Oh my god!”
“Ah!”
The car was filled with screams as a large noise rattled the vehicle. The front window shattered, sending glass everywhere. Ressa’s mother and father shielded their faces from the razor sharp shards.
Joseph slammed his foot on the gas, forcing the car to skid wildly down the dirt road. The engine had died.
The car stopped right before going over the edge of the mountain. Everyone could see the long fall below from the front window. Just a few more feet and the car would have been sent into a freefall.
“Is everyone ok?”
“Ugh…my head.”
“We’re ok. Everyone’s ok.”
Ressa finally raised her head and looked at the disheveled state of her family. Her sister was crying. She looked back to see a trail of blood streaming down Tim’s head. Her other siblings seemed alright, but the sight of her mother caused a pang in her chest.
“I can’t see.”
Everyone looked towards Ressa’s mother in the front seat. Her face was covered in glass.
“It’s ok. Just…don’t move.”
“Mommy?”
“It’s ok, Sweety.”
“Rwark!”
Everyone covered their ears as ear-piercing screeches filled the air.
“What is that?”
“Dear Lord in Heaven.”
Everyone’s attention was brought to the horrible sight in front of them. The broken glass of the front window gave a clear sight to the giant mushroom cloud in the distance. From the cloud, a sea of creatures filled the red sky.
“Are…are those bats?”
“Daddy, I’m scared.”
“It’s going to be ok, Sweety. We’ll be ok.”
“Joseph, I…I can’t see. What’s happening?”
Ressa wrapped her arms around herself and looked on helplessly at the scene. Everyone was in a clear panic. She knew that the worst was yet to come.
“Ah!”
Joseph was in the middle of pulling out his phone when an arm sailed through the passenger window. It grabbed his wife and pulled at her.
“Jen!”
“Joseph!”
“Mom!”
Joseph sprung forward to grab her dress but his grip was far too weak. The woman was pulled from her seat, and dragged through the window. Then he saw it.
A human-sized bat creature sailed into the air with his wife in its arms. It was a horrific sight. Joseph froze at the sight.
“Mom!”
Joseph snapped out of his daze and immediately threw open his driver-side door. He ran out with the intention of doing something, anything to save his wife, but she was already fading into the distance of the red sky, dragged away by the thing.
“Jen!”
“Dad, look out!”
The car was filled with screams as the mab was thrown against the car. Something big crashed into him. The kids in the car got a perfect viewpoint of the way that the man’s arm was sent flying. Blood sprayed from the man’s stump. He looked at it in a stunned fashion.
Time seemed to slow. He looked at his kids with a blank gaze. Ressa saw how the man’s face stilled. He reached from the window to wipe at Ressa’s tears.
The next moment, he was dragged away into the sky. Ressa cradled her cheek, where he touched.
Crash!
“What’s happening? What are those?”
“Daddy!”
Ressa watched as her little sister reached out for her father’s fading silhouette. The girl barely even noticed the monsters swarming the car. The car shook and rattled violently as grotesque clawed hands punched through the metal and reached for the children inside.
“Ah! Let me go!”
Ressa looked behind her to see one of the claws clutching at Tim’s shoulder. She finally got up and grabbed Tim’s hand.
“Tim! Hold on.”
“I can’t,” he protested.
Blood poured from the wound on his shoulder. The thing’s claws dug deep in his flesh. He grabbed at its wrist and held onto his sister’s hand.
“We need you.”
Ressa spoke with tears pouring down her face. Tim gritted his teeth and turned around to send a kick into the monster’s face. It was just enough to free his body from its grasp.
“Rawrk!”
The thing shook its head and screamed in a rage. It then charged the car and slammed into it, forcing the vehicle to lurch forward. That was enough force to send the vehicle over the edge of the mountain.
“Everyone hold on!”
“Ah!”
Crash!
…
Ressa awoke with a splitting headache. She let out a breath of pain as her eyes fluttered open. She shuddered when taking in her surroundings.
She was upside down. Her body was held in place by the seat belt around her waist. She raised shaky hands to the strap and undid the buckle.
“Ah!”
She whimpered pathetically as she fell onto the inside roof of the car. She forced herself up with all her strength. The first thing she saw made her freeze.
The beautiful face of her little sister, frozen in fear, lifeless. The little girl didn’t survive the crash.
Ressa crawled forward and cradled the girl’s body in her arms. She gave the girl a fleeting kiss on the forehead. She lost track of how much time she lay there, cradling her sister’s lifeless body.
“Rawrk!”
Screeching in the distance snapped Ressa out of her stupor. She forced herself to let go of her sister. She stifled her whimpers as she dragged herself out of the window of the car. She was covered in blood, scraps and bruises. She managed to rise to her feet and fall back against the capsized car. She inspected her body.
“No broken bones this time,” She thought.
Ressa ambled to the back of the car, and reached in to retrieve a backpack. She noticed more of her lifeless siblings. She forced herself to look away. She retrieved the bag and opened it to reveal a number of tools. It was her father’s bag. She immediately found what she was looking for.
A machete. She retrieved the blade and gripped it tight in one hand. She then turned around to inspect the area. She immediately noticed a trail of blood that led away from the car. Ressa closed her eyes and dropped to her knees. She whispered a silent prayer for her family. After that prayer, she rose up and turned towards the bloody trail.
“Until we meet again,” She whispered.
Ressa held her aching arm while she gripped the machete. She ambled forward down the bloody path. She didn’t look back.
The trail of blood led into the expansive forest. Ressa chopped at the branches and trees in her way with the machete. She moved on until she came into a small open clearing. What she saw gave her pause.
Several of the bat creatures were gathered, feasting on a pile of corpses. Thankfully, she didn’t recognize any of the corpses. There were dozens of dead bodies scattered about, and just as many monsters. None seemed to pay any attention to her.
Ressa looked upon the scene with a wary gaze. After silently observing, her eyes caught the sight of a familiar body. Her heart stopped. She’d recognize that colorful, conservative dress anywhere. Now it was stained with blood.
Ressa crept forward through the middle of the pack of monsters. Even as she walked past of them, none of them paid her any mind. They kept biting and clawing into their own meals. The area was filled with the sickening sounds of crunching, snarls, swallowing.
Ressa walked a few feet away and fell to her knees in front of the beast feasting on her mother’s lifeless corpse. Ressa ignored the creature and placed two fingers against her own lips, before resting those fingers against her mother’s forehead.
“Rawrk!”
The creature hovering over her mother finally seemed to come out of its daze. It glared at Ressa with sinister, blackened eyes. It held an arm between its teeth. It clamped its jaw shut, snapping the arm in two.
Ressa calmly rose to her feet and stared the beast in the eye with a wary gaze.
“Accept.”
[You’re unlocked a hidden Class]
[Class: Prophetess]
[Rank: God Rank]
[The faith scaling of your attribute points increase by 50%]
[Each of your ability points increase by 1]
[Strength 11]
[Agility 11]
[Dexterity]
[Endurance 11]
[Perception 11]
[Luck 11]
[Magic 11]
[Faith 11]
[You’ve gained 1 free ability point]
“Faith,” she said.
[Faith 12]
The creature charged and closed the distance at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible. It was a blur, and struck just as fast. Ressa could barely register its movements, but she didn’t need to.
Ressa squated low just as it sent a lightning-fast clawed swipe her way. It took a moment to recover before sending another swipe her way. Before it swang she was already jumping back.It narrowly missed.
“Rawrk!”
The thing charged again and swiped in that same, predictable way. Ressa weaved and dodged skillfully. She kept her arms low, not even bothering to raise her machete.
The creature expanded its wings and took off into the air. It sailed up several feet before diving down towards her. Ressa finally raised her machete.
It was even faster on its descent, like a falcon preparing to attack its prey. Ressa was no more quick than any other person, yet she dodged it seemingly effortlessly with a quick side step at the last moment. She held out her arm and allowed it to collide with her machete. Her hands rattled from the impact. She had to grip the handle with two hands to stop it from being knocked out of her hand, but she succeeded. The creature landed with a crash. It slid in the dirt several feet away.
Ressa turned around to face it and watched it struggle to its feet. Its wing was very visibly torn. It dripped a grotesque amount of blood. Now resigned to the ground, it screeched and charged again. It was notably slower, but still dangerous.
Ressa didn’t stay on the defensive this time. She let it swing its predictable swipe. Instead of moving to dodge the next swipe, she swung at its ankles, curving into its heel. It screeched in pain and swiped down at her. She stood up and stepped away, just enough for the claw to only cut at a few strands of her hair.
Her head covering had long been lost. Now her silky, ankle-length black hair flowed as gracefully as she did, in time with her deft movements.
She pointed the edge of her machete towards its face, the blade inches from its eye. Notably, she did not strike, despite being able. She successfully provoked it to strike again in an even more slow and disheveled way. Its claw was even easier to dodge. This time she parried its blow and spun around in order to deliver a powerful blow against its shoulder.
Given the creature’s tough hide, her blow wasn't strong enough to dismember it. That wasn’t her goal. She knew she wasn’t strong enough, but her mission was accomplished. Its arm fell limp as she struck a crucial artery.
The creature recoiled and took a step back. It now hobbled and clenched its own good claw in frustration. It screeched madly at her. Ressa stared at it stoically and released a heavy breath.
“It’s time,” she thought.
The thing charged again, this time she lowered her blade. Ressa caught the glimpse of a familiar figure from the side. She smiled warmly as the creature landed a deep strike into her shoulder.
“Ressa!”
Ressa collapsed backwards and fell to the ground gripping her shoulder. She dropped her machete and winced from the pain. The creature screeched triumphantly and started to close the distance, but it was interrupted.
“Get away from my sister, Monster!”
Tim sprinted forward, past all the other feasting creatures and jumped between it and Ressa. He charged it head on. It matched his charge. Tim leapt forward as it attempted to swipe. Given its injuries, Tim struck faster.
Tim plunged a long shard of glass into its eye and collapsed on top of it. Tim straddled its waste and delivered blow after blow to its face.
“Ah! Ah! Hah!” Tim screamed in rage.
The thing was long dead, but Tim wouldn’t stop.
“T-tim.”
Tim finally stopped his assault to look back at his sister. She was hunched over on the ground, holding her bloody shoulder.
“Ressa!”
Tim dropped his shard of glass and scrambled over to Ressa. He hovered over her and inspected her wound in alarm.
“Are you ok?”
Ressa shook her head.
“It hurts.”
“Goddammit,” Tim whispered in frustration.
“L-language.”
Tim was stunned by Ressa's correction. He was hardly in the state of mind to think about watching his language, but he was glad she was.
“I’m sorry. This is…you’re ok. We’lll be ok.”
Ressa could see the tears streaming down Tim’s face. He was covered in blood, and clearly shaken. She looked upon her little brother with a sympathetic gaze. This was all so much for a 16 year old boy to handle, but she knew he had to.
“Tim.”
“Yes, Ressa.”
Ressa grabbed the machete from the ground and presented it to him.
“Dad’s machete?”
“I need you,” she said.
Tim went wide eyed and took the machete from her shaking hands. He gritted his teeth while looking down at her.
She was his older sister, yet looking down at her bloody, shaking form, he could only see a vulnerable girl that he had to protect.
Tim rose to his feet and turned his back to her. He looked at the pack of monsters that were still feasting. All of them had ignored the way he killed their kind, but some were beginning to stir from their feasting stupor.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” Tim said.
“But…how,” Ressa questioned.
Tim narrowed his eyes.
“God is on our side.”
Tim looked at the translucent screen that appeared in front of him.
[You have been chosen. A hidden path has been unlocked.]
[Epic Quest: Warrior of God]
[Will you accept?]
“Accept,” Tim said.
[Congratulations on accepting the hidden quest]
[You’ve unlocked a hidden class]
[Class: Warrior of God]
[Class Rank: God Rank]
Tim gasped when feeling a surge of power flow through him. His body glowed white. The blood which stained his body was cleansed. His machete changed from its metallic color, to a shining, radiant Gold.
[New quest unlocked]
[Quest Objective: Protect Your Sister]
[Quest Reward: ???]
Tim gripped the machete tight as two creatures bared their fangs at him. Ressa looked up at her brother with a reverant smile.
“I trust you, Tim.”
Tim gripped the machete tight and got into a low, skillful fighting stance that he didn’t know that he knew.
“Oh Lord, guide my blade.”