True Light

Kanashii hodo hikari dashida
[The light came forth when things were bleak]

Shiroiyami kirisaku tsubasa ni nare
[To pierce the absolute darkness and become the wings]
(True Light, D. N. Angel)

The light of the sun fell happily on the earth and illuminated it with a friendly light. In the distance something flashed briefly, but immediately disappeared again. She shook her head. Maybe it was just an imagination.
She looked up at the sky again, bathed her face in the warm light and smiled as she did so. What a lie it was! She looked at the floor, at the writhing figure at her feet. The boy was barely fourteen summers old. He was bleeding heavily from the wound that ran across his chest. It must have been terrible for him to see his parents murdered. She wondered if she should alert him that they were being eviscerated or that her subordinates were having fun with his little sister.She decided against it.
Was this boy supposed to make her feel sorry for her? No, he simply bored her. So she decided to make his way to hell - or what was left of it - easier for him. She put her foot on his head and slowly shifted her weight. Then she jerked him up and pushed. The resulting noise delighted her deeply and she looked again smiling at the sun. How nice it was after the war! The innocent suffered a lot and it was easy to plunder them. Especially now that the angels had fallen and the light of heaven was gone.
Now the creatures of the night could wander in the sun without being harmed. The vampires, to which she belonged, especially enjoyed the freedom she had gained. And she was twice as lucky. Before her master, who unfortunately died in the war, had made her into a being of darkness, she had been a pure-born person and enjoyed the sun during the day.After she became a vampire, that was the only thing she missed. Most of the other vampires had never been human and couldn't feel. They only felt pain, thirst and excitement, which, however, could not be satisfied by any living being. Otherwise they felt nothing, not the moon when it shone on their pale skin, not the water that surrounded them while bathing or the wine that they drank from time to time.
But she, who had been human before, could remember it. And that put her in a good mood. Perhaps that was why she had given the boys a quick death. She folded her hands in a mocking gesture and thanked the Lord, her Lord, for the world in which she now lived, or rather existed.
It would be a new world to live under their rule. No longer a utopia, but rather the world that all creatures of the night hated and yet so much wanted.

They looked down through the rocks.The vampires had gathered around the house and were carrying the few valuables outside. There were eight men and one vampire. She had just killed a boy. When he saw what some of her male subordinates were doing to the only survivor, he had to look away. His partner, however, continued to look down with an iron gaze. Then she turned around too. The revolver she always carried had become a white halberd. The handle looked like ivory and the blade like glass. It was transparent and sparkled in the sun like a star. He wondered if they had been seen coming, then dismissed the thought. It wouldn't make any difference anyway.
"Are you ready?"
Her soft voice sounded like a bell in the air. They were on a crusade to restore faith in God to survivors of the war. To do this, they had to kill the heretics and the demons who had fled to earth and purify their souls.Heaven and hell, as well as the earth, were destroyed and they were all in an intermediate world. Humans hadn't noticed, and neither had most of the lower demons. Therefore, their souls had to be cleansed and sealed so that they could lay the foundation for a new world. Or so she had explained it to him. He still hadn't understood it, but he didn't care. He had promised her to accompany her, to support her and to protect her with his life. Protecting her, that was his new purpose in life. Finally she opened his eyes and brought them back onto the path of virtue. Whatever happened, he would stand by her and not leave her side. To the bitter end.
But it wasn't that far yet. First it was necessary to remove the rags and clean the "earth".
He looked her in the eye and nodded. Then he looked at the two weapons that were in his lap. They were made of "consecrated substance", God's blood, and, like a woman's weapon, could change their shape.That was quite useful considering how many different kinds of demons they'd faced. They had already freed two villages from the clutches of evil, cared for the survivors and preached the word of God to them. The people had listened to their words in amazement and delighted at the sight of the two angels. Especially the sight of the woman, with her white hair and wings and rosy cheeks, had cast a spell over the people. He, on the other hand, the exact opposite, with black hair and wings, had met with rejection. She had assured him that he didn't need to be ashamed of his black wings or hide them, but he did it anyway. Most of the time he stayed in the background and helped clear up the dead. Otherwise he always stayed behind his "mistress", as he now called her and hid his face and hair under his white hood. She didn't like to see that and didn't particularly like the term "mistress" either, but she tacitly accepted it.He could tell what she was thinking just by her eyes. And even they didn't always seem to reveal everything.
Then he finally broke his thoughts and got up. She had waited patiently and looked at him once more intently. Then they started moving and slowly ran towards the vampires.

Something caught her eye. She noticed another glint in the corner of her eye. The vampire turned around and saw two figures moving towards her. They wore snow-white robes that blazed like a beacon in the midday sun. Suddenly one of the two people stopped. The other went on. The white hair shone in the sun and the vampire thought she saw something flashing above her head. Then two shots rang out and the two men who attacked the girl fell to the ground, panting. She turned to them startled and when she turned her gaze to the two figures again, she just saw how they swung the large halberd and ran towards them and their men.But she didn't attack the vampire. She stormed past her and attacked the others. With a single blow she parted the heads of three vampires. The other figure had both hands up and was still firing. Panicked, the vampire fled, but was hit by a bullet and fell in pain to the ground. She looked at her leg and saw that the spot where she was hit was etching and her leg was slowly catching fire. It was clearly not a normal bullet. She knew the pain of silver and sacred iron, but that pain was beyond anything. When she looked up in fear, she saw her men being gutted one by one by the woman with the halberd. She turned her weapon in the air and cut off the last living vampire's arm. The arm landed next to the vampire and stained her eyes with his blood. For a while she saw the world through a red filter, until she wiped the blood away with her sleeve.She opened her eyes again and saw two huge revolver figures. The eyes of the person opposite were as black as his hair and his wings and for a moment she thought that her king had risen from the dead. The next moment there was nothing left of her head and shoulders.
He leaned carefully over her and the child. The white, female angel had put his hand on the girl's forehead and started a soothing melody. When she saw his shadow over her, she fell silent and turned around. There was pity in her eyes and finally she shook her head. He held his breath when he understood the gesture. The girl could no longer be helped. After sunset she would become a nosferatu. He got up and swallowed all the wild curses that were on the tongue. He walked around for a while, then returned and carefully took the girl out of her arms.
She opened her eyes and looked at him with glassy eyes.He tried to smile at her, but didn't really succeed. The girl saw his good intentions and smiled at him in turn. He took his heart and said straightforwardly to her, "You're going to die."
She looked at him blankly for a moment, then her eyes turned sad. Her mind seemed already clouded with the Nosferatu blood. She seemed to understand his words, but she didn't react to them. He gritted his teeth before speaking again.
“I want to give you a chance.” He paused for a moment and looked into her face. She tried to shake off the veil that covered her eyes.
"I'll give you the chance to die as a human being. You are innocent. You are still innocent. I don't want to kill you against your will. If you want, we'll let you go. But then you have to go on living with the certainty that we're you." hunt and one day find and kill. "He took a short breath.
"I don't want to kill you as a vampire." he said, panting."If I kill you as Nosferatu, I will no longer have any feelings for you, at most hate or disgust. Now I still feel sorry for you."
Her gaze had grown serious. He looked at the sky. The sun went down. Had they tried for so long to wipe the bad blood from the girl. Old memories came back to him and took his breath away. He shook her off and then, through clenched teeth, whispered in her ear, "Please! Please don't make me sacrifice an innocent person. Don't make me hate you!"
She started to cough and his white clothes got some blood stains on it. Then everything was quiet. For a long time you couldn't hear anything more than the wind whistling through the rocks. Now and then a bird of the dead crowed and once they heard a bonebiter howl. Then, when the sun had set and you could only see a gentle reflection of its light on the horizon, a single shot rang out and tore the silence apart.
A soft voice rose and floated over the rock.It rose into the sky as if it were accompanying a