The House Is Haunted

"No one else wants you".

Azure considered this. Then he realized that he really had no choice about joining the squad he was offered. He carefully regarded the face of the man who lifted him.

He had black hair, although Azure could notice a few white strands. He had a thin face with a long vertical scar on the left side of his cheek.

"Sure, I'll join your squad". Azure said.

"Great!" The man let Azure down and called out. "Alex!"

A thin, small statured youth that looked to be in his early twenties came out from the audience. He had purple hair and donned a black battle robe. On his central chest area, there was a cross emblem and he wore the same kind of shoulder armor that he noticed on all the angels. His own was black, of course.

Azure was depressed as soon as he heard the name of the being called. Why did his namesake have to be the errand boy?

"Take him to the headquarters and have him settled in immediately".

"Lucifer, the tournament isn't over". The pope said lightly giving Lucifer a look of displeasure.

"Oh, when the tournament is over take him to the headquarters and have him settled in immediately".

Azure scoffed. He knew the real reason why the pope was annoyed. The fact that Lucifer dared to offer him a spot in his squad right after his 'falling out' with the pope showed disregard for the pope.

The plot was to make Azure 'learn his lesson' about disrespecting the pope. Too bad, the pope didn't realize everyone he was dealing with weren't particularly sane.

A few more matches happened then the tournament ended. All the winning participants were called onto the fighting stage where they were chosen by the squad generals to join their respective squads.

The angel squad consisted of three squads, the Micheal squad, the Gabriel squad and the Lucifer squad.

To Azure's chagrin, Sticks was chosen by the Gabriel squad.

At the end of it all, Lucifer once again repeated the words that he told Azure initially. And while the rest of the new squad members were escorted by the small frys in the squad, Azure had the privilege of getting his own personal escort.

"Follow me". Alex said to Azure.

While they were walking, Azure took the liberty to ask Alex a few questions about the angel squad.

The average person that joined the angel squad was called a member. A member could have his rank upgraded by going in dangerous missions, completing quests etcetera.

A person's rank could be commemorated with one to ten stars depending on how close they were to the next rank.

The ranks were in order of member, worker, messenger, minister, deacon, prophet, pastor, senior pastor, squad general then the pope.

Azure was shocked. "So you mean someone can become the pope based on contributions alone?"

"Nah, no one ever lasts that long". Alex chuckled. "And there can only be one pope".

"So what rank are you?"

"I'm a pastor". Alex said.

Azure smiled. "I don't know why I'm having trouble believing that".

"Try me". Alex smirked.

Azure made no further comments. He knew better than to underestimate someone based on their size.

"So what's with Lucifer and the pope?" Azure asked suddenly. He still couldn't think of a reason why Lucifer would dare to openly go against the pope.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Why did he pick me even though I 'insulted' the pope?". Azure asked. "It was basically a public slap on the face of the pope".

"You're smarter than you look". Alex nodded slightly. "Something did happen between them, but it's not my place to tell you". Alex looked ahead. "We're here".

In front of them was a huge mud house. It's architecture made it seem like it was one of those big, expensive houses from the movies. It's had an odd shape though, it was almost as if the rooms kept shifting constantly.

"Why is…" Azure was about to comment about the irregularity of the house. Alex seemed to have expected the question that was about to come out of his mouth.

"It's like that because the house is haunted". Alex smiled.

Azure raised an eyebrow. He felt slightly offended. How dare Alex take him as a child that would be scared by an ordinary ghost story.

"I'm serious". Alex laughed when he saw Azure's expression. "The house keeps changing shape because there's a spirit inside of it. It's more like a protective spirit that the pope conjured".

"The pope can conjure spirits?" Azure was mildly surprised. According to his memories, there was nothing about being able to conjure spirits.

"I've said too much". Alex said then turned around and left.

Azure entered into the building and was taken straight to the dungeon. He was startled at first then he realized that the house kept changing shape, thereby the position of the rooms.

He walked around for a while and basically got a tour of the entire house before finding where he was supposed to stay. To his dismay, he was going to share his room with three other complete strangers.

He put down his stuff, which is to say his sword and collapsed on one of the beds. Today had been way too stressful.