SAINTS X WARLOCKS

My name is Max Vogel. I'm nineteen. I'm a biomedical engineering student. I'm broke. I'm awkward. I'm just trying to survive my first semester without completely ruining my life. I failed on day one. It started with a train ride. Stuttgart to Freiburg. The Black Forest swallowing the horizon. A dagger in an antique shop window that cost thirty euros. I thought it was a replica. A cool prop. A conversation starter. I was wrong. It started with a girl. Big doe eyes. Soulful gaze. The kind of girl who looked like she'd stepped out of an anime. She smiled at me like I mattered. I froze. I ran. I totally made a fool of myself. She was a saintess. Chosen by Heaven. Carrying the light of God in her soul. And I was carrying the hunger of the void in my backpack. THE NIGHT THE WORLD BROKE A knock at the door. A red robe. A blade. My roommate wasn't my roommate. He was a cultist. He was hunting her. He was going to deliver her to Hell. I tried to stop him. I charged. I got stabbed. I crashed into the cupboards. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I could only bleed. Move, brat. You're nothing. I lost so easily... I couldn't protect anyone... I'm useless... Guess this is what happens when you're too weak... IN THE DARKNESS, AN EYE OPENED. Green. Massive. Ancient. The size of a planet. Older than the stars. Older than creation itself. "You want strength? Will? Power? Then take it." "If you have no strength, take it from those who do. If you have no will, take it from those who do. If you want love, destroy anyone who gets in your way." "What do you say, brat?" I want strength. Power. I want to save her no matter what. THE EYE LAUGHED. "You are hungry, brat. You will do just fine." The dagger erupted. A serpent rose from the blade—massive, coiling, scales blacker than the water that preceded creation. Its eyes were twin suns of green fire. Its voice was the sound of tectonic plates shifting. "I am Leviathan. I am what remains of the primordial sea. I am the chaos that God subdued. I have chosen a host." "BEAR WITNESS TO THE BIRTH OF THE ANTITHESIS." Twin handcannons formed in my hands, aquamarine and void black. Etched with serpentine motifs. Humming with power I didn't understand. "RESURRECTIO REGIS INVIDIAE!" "Rise, Max Vogel. My Warlock of Envy." Now I'm caught in a war I never knew existed. A death cult wants me dead. The Catholic Church wants me to repent. And the girl I saved well turns out to be the Saintess of Charity. She's light. I'm darkness. She's Heaven's chosen. I'm supposed to be Hell's weapon. And I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her. Author's Note: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual demons, angels, primordial serpents, or overly complicated German university bureaucracies is purely coincidental. Also, if a dagger ever calls to you in an antique shop, don't buy it. Seriously. Just walk away.