Webcomic / Covenant

"I believe in demons for I have seen them. I believe in angels for I know them. And though I cannot believe in God, I can believe in my purpose."

—Ezra

Ezra is a young and talented exorcist with a problem: He doesn't believe in God. And though it doesn't stop him from doing his job, it keeps him from unleashing his true potential.

And things certainly aren't getting easier: With demonic forces stronger than ever before invading the Church of Providence' precinct, cryptic warnings of a war to come from Ezra's patron Gabriel and his sudden assignment to protect a seemingly normal human named Sunny, will Ezra find his conviction before it's too late?

Covenant was created by explodikid. The comic is available for free on Webtoon.

---

Covenant provides examples of:

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: It's implied that the human form Gabriel has whenever he visits Ezra in his dreams isn't his actual form.
• A Shared Suffering: Episode 26 has Sunny and Ezra bond a little over their past trauma of losing their families to demons.
• Action Girl: Any female exorcist is this by default, as their job consists of battling and expelling demons.
• Anti-Interference Lock Up: Father Jude traps Sunny and Ezra behind a barrier to keep them from charging the Demon Lord despite their injuries.
• Archangel Gabriel: Gabriel is Ezra's patron and the first angel he ever met. Sadly, Ezra was only able to wield his blessings once in the past and since then his conviction has become so lacking he can no longer activate it.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Ezra doesn't believe in God, despite battling demons and being the ward of an archangel.
• Armorpiercing Question: When Esther implies that the humans Ezra wants to protect are not worth saving due to not being devout followers of God, Ezra asks her if that means he's not worth saving too, since he doesn't believe in God.
• As the Good Book Says...: The series starts off with Ezra quoting from Ephesians 6:10 while he prepares to fight against a demon.
• Authority Equals Asskicking:
  • Father Aaron is the priest in charge of the Church of Providence and it's implied he's a strong enough fighter to defeat an entire squad of Great Church-exorcists.
  • Averted with Bishop Price, who may talk a big game but is actually just a cowardly bigot hiding behind his churches' forces when it looks like things are about to get violent.
• Banishing Ritual: While demons can be killed through regular means (i.e. shooting them, stabbing them, etc.) it is unwise to do so when they're already contracted with a human, see Shared Life-Meter. The proper way to exorcise a demon is to knock them out or tie them up, then perform the sacred rites. This will return their bodies to Gehenna and automatically sever the contract with their victim or victims.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Characters can get the ever-loving shit beaten out of them in this comic, but it will never have any lasting effect on their looks. Even Sunny who gets thrown around like a ragdoll and choked to the point of almost fainting in one episode gets nothing more than a scratch on his face and some very easily concealable bruises afterwards.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Ezra may be a lovable goofball, but if you're a demon and you're hurting innocents be very afraid.
• Big Good: Father Aaron is the head of the Church of Providence and a very powerful exorcist.
• Big "NO!": Ezra screams in despair when Esther kills a contracted demon and his victim dies in his arms as a result.
• Big "WHY?!": Sunny starts to go into Heroic BSoD after he recognizes the mark on the forehead of the demon sent to his apartment to kidnap him.]]
  Sunny: That mark...[...] Why does it follow me wherever I go? Why won't it leave me alone? [...] (gets Black Eyes of Crazy) Why? Why won't you all- Just- Leave me alone!
• Bland-Name Product: Ezra and Samson frequent a fast-food restaurant called "Westburger". It's logo is literally just the Mcdonalds-logo turned upside-down.
• Body Horror: Demons tend to warp the bodies of those they feed off of. It's not a pretty sight.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: No matter how much Sunny tries to avoid demons and anything weird or supernatural in general, the forces of hell really want to get their claws on him, to the point they send agents to his university and to his apartment.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The demons who go after Sunny have orders to bring him back alive to their master. Though as the first one in episode 12 lampshades, that doesn't necessarily mean they can't seriously injure him if he resists.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: The Church of Providence have covenants with the forces of heaven. Archangel Gabriel often appears in Ezra's dreams to inform him of the tasks heaven has for him and to provide him with frustratingly vague prophecies about the future.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Sunny is seen in the background several times, with episode 3 ending on an ominous shot that makes it look like he has horns. Ezra is later on tasked to protect him, although he isn't told from what. Episode 12 and 13 reveal that demons are after Sunny and that he has supernatural powers he probably doesn't know about.
• The Chooser of the One: The angels choose who their wards will be. If they deem someone worthy, they will give them their manna to form a covenant.
• The Chosen One: Ezra's patron is the one and only Archangel Gabriel himself. Unfortunately Ezra can't actually use his blessing right now.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ezra tends to beat himself up over every single innocent he can't save. Samson outright tells him he has an unhealthy hero complex in episode 10.
• Church Militant: Both the Great Church and the Church of Providence train men and women to battle against demons.
• Claimed by the Supernatural:
  • Demons feed off their victims via a "contract", a round mark etched into the victim's neck.
  • Exorcists tattoo the mark of the angel whose blessing they wield onto their bodies with manna.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The strength of an exorcist's power and whether or not they can use it, depends on their conviction. It's implied that that conviction doesn't necessarily have to be in God. Any sort of conviction will do if it's strong enough.
• Cliffhanger: Many episodes end on one, especially during fights.
• Closed Door Rapport: Ezra and Sunny end up having a nice little heart-to-heart through Sunny's bedroom door in episode 26.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Ezra threatens the Armless Demon with it, to get him to talk about his lord's plan. However, the one who actually ends up putting said threat into motion is Sunny, after the demon makes a snide remark about the deaths of his family.
• Cool Sword:
  • Father Aaron's black broadsword.
  • Adina's rapier.
• Create Your Own Hero: Ezra had a less-than-pleasant run-in with demons in his childhood and was saved by Gabriel himself. If the demons had left him alone, it's entirely possible he never would have become an exorcist.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Sunny is painfully hung up on meat-hooks in Belial's lair.
• The Cutie:
  • When off the clock, Ezra is an adorable fun-loving guy. Judging from his use of Puppy-Dog Eyes on Samson in episode 15, he's also pretty aware of how cute he can be.
  • Isaac is a chipper, small exorcist and frequent user of The Glomp.
  • Esther seems to be this at first, with her being the Token Good Teammate to the Great Church. But episode 13 subverts this something fierce. She's not nearly as nice as she acts.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Ezra is implied to have been Forced to Watch as his family was killed by demons. It made him resolve to prevent suffering wherever he could.
  • Sunny's mother and big sister were killed by a group of demons. Those same demons tracked Sunny down and killed his foster families over and over again, leading to Sunny isolating himself.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The members of the Church of Providence perform sinister-looking rituals to get their covenants and can come across as pretty intimidating, but they're firmly on the side of good and fight to protect innocent people from demons.
• Deal with the Devil: Demons extract manna from humans through carving their sigil into their victim's skin. It's also possible for demons to contract each other.
• Death Is Dramatic: The contracted human in episode 9 gets the life drained out of her in a very dramatic fashion after Esther kills the demon she's bound to, while Ezra is cradling her body and shouting a Big "NO!".
• Defence Mechanism Superpower: Sunny's powers seem to activate automatically whenever he's in great emotional distress. He doesn't seem to realize it when they do, with his body basically running on autopilot once he's using them.
• Distressed Dude:
  • Sunny seems to be this at first, what with Ezra being tasked to protect him and a demon showing up to kidnap him in episode 12. He subverts it pretty quickly, first by driving the demon back with a holy blade and revealing he's had to deal with and has presumably defeated demons before, then by showing that he might be part demon himself and chasing his would-be kidnapper away for good.
  • He later on plays this straight when Belial finally manages to kidnap him and puts him through a gruesome ritual in order to bind him to his father.
• Draconic Humanoid: Demons in their true forms often have spikes, scales or tails that give them a semi-draconic appearance.
• Dramatic Irony: Ezra tells Sunny that he is tasked with protecting him, but doesn't mention that he's an exorcist who fights demons, out of fear Sunny wouldn't believe him. Only for episode 12 to reveals that, yes, he most likely would have, as Sunny is in fact fighting demons himself on a regular basis. Sunny almost gets kidnapped by a demon while alone in his apartment and only a very convenient Heroic BSoD saves him from being abducted.
• Empowered Badass Normal: All of Providence' exorcists are essentially this, as they're normal humans who got their powers from the angels, as opposed to being born with them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As prickly as the Great Church is, they genuinely despise demons and do want to keep people safe from them.
• Evil All Along: Esther is revealed to be a gigantic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who only pretended to be nice to get Providence' trust.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ester and Adina both can't seem to understand why it's more important to Providence to save people than to kill demons.
• Evil Gloating: Demons are pretty fond of their evil monologues.
• Eye Color Change: Demons who pose as humans lose their red eyes.
• Eye Scream: Sunny scares away the demon invading his apartment for good when he stabs him in the eye through his hand with a holy blade.
• Fallen Angel: Demons in this world are angels that have fallen from grace and no longer receive manna from God. As a result, they need to feed off of humans to get more and keep themselves alive.
• Family of Choice: As Ezra's parents were killed, Samson and her team are the closest thing to a family he has.
• Fan Disservice: A lot of demons have very uncanny facial features or straight-up lack them, others evoke Eyes Do Not Belong There and all of this is often put in glorious display, due to them always being naked in their true forms.
• Fanservice: The exorcists partially disrobe to draw their weapons, see Stripperific below. Partially also applies to the demons, since some of them can be good-looking if you're able to see past their more outlandish features.
• Fantastic Racism: Demons have no respect or sympathy for humans and view them as nothing more than cattle.
• Faux Affably Evil: Some demons might put on a facade of civility, but it rarely lasts more than a few minutes.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Ezra has to de-code Gabriel's mysterious prophecies by himself. It annoys him to no end.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There are several hints in the comic that Sunny might be more than a normal human. Episode 3 ends on a panel with Sunny standing in front of a Westburger sign, in a way that makes it look like he has horns. Episode 4 has him walking past Ezra and Samson just as they start to discuss Gabriel's prophecy about "The Fallen Who Never Fell". It's easy to miss, but when meeting Ezra for the first time in episode 10, the panel just before Ezra notices him has a dark aura assembling in the corner he sits in. It comes to a head in episodes 12 and 13. It's revealed that the demons are actively going after Sunny and episode 13 confirms he has supernatural powers, most likely of demonic nature.
  • Esther talking Samson into letting Adina and her tag along on her team's patrol through thinly veiled Blackmail and her lack of hesitance to kill a demon who had already formed a contract, despite knowing what would happen to his human victim, are subtle hints that she isn't actually the Token Good Teammate she makes herself out to be.
• From Bad to Worse: After a bad demon attack on a night club that almost ends with Samson's team being killed, Ezra's powers start going on the frizz, due to his faith beginning to dwindle. The Great Church chooses that exact moment to start their attack on the Church of Providence. However, their triumph is short-lived. Only a few seconds after Providence is invaded, the city gets overrun by dozens of demons who are all looking for Sunny. Oh, and the Demon Lord gears up for battle too.
• Game Face: If a demon shifts from their human into their true form, they mean business.
• Geometric Magic: Sigils play a huge role in magic and power usage. Exorcists get the sigil of the angel whose covenant they receive drawn onto their body with manna. The sigil sometimes appears when they use their holy powers. Demons, who are fallen angels, have sigils as well, but when they put them on humans it's not for any benevolent reasons. A demon's contract allows the contractor to drain manna from the contractee, until they're sucked dry. The sigils of demons also act as their Achilles' Heel. One well-placed blow to the sigil can kill a demon instantly, but if they made a contract beforehand, their victim will die with them. It's also possible for demons to put their sigil on and thus contract other demons. Though this seems to be less for feeding and more to ensure obedience.
• Glamour Failure: Demons have unnervingly empty eyes when disguised as humans.
• Glowing Eyes:
  • Angels have permanently glowing eyes.
  • The exorcists eyes glow whenever they use their covenants. The effect is especially noticeable with seers.
• Good Hurts Evil: All exorcists fight with sacred weaponry, the only thing that can actually hurt a demon.
• Good Is Not Nice: The Great Church is stiflingly conservative, but they're on humanity's side. Allegedly.
• Good Versus Good: Technically speaking, the Great Church and the Church of Providence are on the same side. But the former's overly controlling manner and bias towards the latter leads to a lot of distrust and animosity between the members. Not to mention the Great Church's threat of wiping the Church of Providence out should they even suspect they have allied with demons.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Starting from episode 7, it's implied the demons are starting to unite under a more powerful entity. It's confirmed in episode 16, when the demon attacking the campus is revealed to have been contracted by another demon and reveals that his master is a she.
• Guardian Angel: Exorcists in the Church of Providence all have blessings bestowed upon them by an angel that give them their powers.
• Hate Sink:
  • The demons are a bunch of greedy monsters who prey on innocent humans to drain them of their manna. They also act fairly smug while doing so and don't show a lick of remorse for their actions.
  • The Great Church in it's entirety is about as detestable as it gets. It's members care more about killing demons than protecting people and it's heavily implied that non-believers are not worth saving in their eyes.
• Healing Factor: As long as it's not their sigil, demons can heal from any wound. The healing process can be sped up by consuming manna.
• Heaven: The home of the angels and God. While never directly stated, it's heavily implied that the place Ezra meets Gabriel in in his dreams might be a section of heaven.
• Hell: "Gehenna", to be exact. It's the place all demons come from and where they'll be sent back to if exorcised properly.
• Heroes With Bad Publicity: The Great Church isn't too fond of the Church of Providence due to them using rituals and magic powers, which the bishop considers "pagan". Downplayed, as it's made clear that the Great Church is immensely uptight and prejudiced, so their judgement on what is and isn't moral and good should be taken with a grain of salt.
• Heroic Willpower: In episode 9, Ezra manages to drag himself back up, despite just having been hit with extremely powerful demon magic, through sheer determination alone when he believes the rest of his team is in danger.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Inverted with Ezra and Samson. They're best friends who have been spending most of their lives together. But they're both gay, so there's zero chance of something happening there.
• Hiding Behind Religion: Adina and Esther justify their extreme methods by stating that they ultimately protect humanity from demons by killing them. As is their church's mission.
• Horror Hunger: Demons are forever hungering for manna, which is basically life force. When they get it through a contract, they often won't stop feeding until their victim is sucked dry and dies.
• Hot as Hell: Some of the demons are pretty easy on the eye, both in their human and their true form.
• Humans Are Insects: Demons generally see humans as disposable snacks and tend to get angry when humans like the exorcists actively challenge that view through fighting back.
• Hungry Menace: Demons can only feed by draining humans of their manna, so they're forever hunting them down.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: When a demon swats Ezra across the room in episode 16, Samson gets mad and yells at it that only she gets to do that to Ezra.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Sunny just wants to live his life in peace and actively tries to stay away from anything that seems weird. Unfortunately, hell has decided that isn't an option.
• Immortal Breaker: Sacred weapons in general, as they're the only weapons that can hurt and kill demons, who are otherwise invincible.
• It's All My Fault: Ezra is devastated when he fails to prevent Esther from killing a contracted demon. Not helped by Adina essentially shifting blame to him when he and the rest of his team call out Esther for what she's done.
• Irony: Ezra is a priest and exorcist who doesn't actually believe in God. Despite frequently dealing with angels, who are His messengers, and expelling demons almost every day.
• The Legions of Hell: Demons exist in this world and they never get tired of terrorizing and attacking humans for their manna.
• Jerkass: Honestly, everyone in the Great Church is some variety of pompous douchebag. Yes, even Esther.
• Jesus Taboo: Angels, demons and God are mentioned and shown frequently, but Jesus is never even name-dropped. Not even when Gabriel alludes to the end-times in episode 3.
• Jumped at the Call: Ezra, not that he had much of a choice.
• Kryptonite Factor: Sacrimetal weapons and sacred weapons summoned from an exorcist's Power Tattoo can hurt demons pretty badly.
• The Lancer: Samson is this to Ezra, routinely pulling him down to earth.
• Lesser of Two Evils: The Great Church are arrogant militants who think civilian casualties are necessary sacrifices, but they have nothing on the demons who continually prey on and kill humans to satiate their hunger for manna and actively work towards humanity's destruction. Still, it's made clear that the Great Church is dangerously fanatic in their beliefs and just as much of a threat to Providence as the demons.
• Life Drinker: All demons. They have lost their ability to create manna on their own, so they take it from humans, not caring if they end up dead in the process.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: The powers the exorcists wield are represented by constructs of pure, golden light, while the demons' magic is Red and Black and Evil All Over.
• Light Is Not Good: Demons have white skin with black patches as default. And so far, all of them have been characterized as evil, selfish predators.
• Made of Iron: Demons can tank a lot of hits, especially the stronger ones. They have a Healing Factor to boot, so lasting damage isn't really a problem for them.
• Male Gaze / Female Gaze: The comic isn't shy about showing off how fit and attractive the characters are. Both the men and the women get a lot of panels focused on their muscles, abs and pegs. And that's not to mention the Stripperific outfits and the demons always being naked in their true forms.
• Macguffin Super Person: A demon lord has great interest in Sunny because he is "The Fallen Who Never Fell", which is heavily implied to mean that he is half demon and half human. And it's not just her. Even lesser demons feel naturally drawn to him and even those not working under the lord at least know of him.
• Mana: Manna is the substance all human souls are made of. Angels are entirely made of manna, while demons, angels who have fallen out of God's favor, are eternally starving for it and need to feast on humans to get it.
• Meaningful Name: Almost every exorcist has a biblical name.
• Mood Whiplash: The first episode starts with Ezra fighting a possessed woman while reciting the rites to exorcise the demon within her. It's all very serious and dark - until Ezra forgets the final passages and has to call to Samson for help. Then he goes from Badass Preacher to lovable Buttmonkey.
• Monstrous Humanoid: In their true forms, demons have a humanoid shape, but it's often upset by eyes being were they shouldn't be, limbs that end in long blades and scales and horns on different parts of their bodies. No to mention their red eyes and their bleach-white skin with black armored patches.
• Moral Myopia: The Great Church threatens the Church of Providence because they believe them to be heretics who work with demons and endanger humanity. This despite the Church of Providence having a very strict "Shoot to Wound"-policy when civillians are involved and going out of their way to protect humanity, while the Great Church is more than okay with a few civilian casualties as long as the demons end up dead in the end.
• Neck Lift: The demon assaulting Sunny in his apartment lifts him up by the neck after disarming him and chokes him until he almost passes out.
• Nephilim: Both Sunny and Lily are the children of a mortal woman and a divine being.
• Never My Fault: Esther is immediately lambasted for striking to kill a contracted demon, after she was told several times not to and knew exactly what would happen to his contracted human victim if she killed him. She tries to defend herself by pointing out the demon was attacking her. When Samson insists that Esther still could have simply knocked him out or wounded him enough to leave him unable to walk, Adina starts to weigh in and claims that the whole disaster is actually Ezra's fault for not subduing the demon thoroughly enough.
• Noodle Incident: Sunny tells Ezra he's on his fourth transfer, but doesn't elaborate on it.
• Number of the Beast / 6 Is 9: Sunny's apartment is on the sixth floor of his building and has the number 696.
• Odd Couple: Samson and Ezra. Samson is aggressive, in-your-face and brash, Ezra is nice, goofy and peace-loving. Though funnily enough, these traits can get shuffled around a fair bit in certain situations.
• Oh, Crap!: If the gang is fighting particularly powerful demons, expect to see this reaction a lot.
• Older Than They Look: Gabriel looks like he's in his mid-twenties, despite being an ancient servant of God who's probably been alive and kicking since the dawn of time.
• Our Angels Are Different: The statues of angels in the Church of Providence depict them as ominous human-like figures with wide cloaks covering their faces. Gabriel as he appears in Ezra's dreams has black skin, golden eyes, a golden sigil on his chest and no wings.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons are Fallen Angels who can no longer generate the manna they need to live and therefore chase humans to drain it from them. In their true forms they have stark white skin with a few black spots.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Sunny's rather pleasant-looking dream of attending a mass with his mother and older sister devolves into a horrifying, fiery hell-scape in which his family is suddenly transformed into burnt-out husks of themselves. They accusingly ask him why he killed them, then they start demanding he join them and reach out to him.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The Great Church has no issue with killing demons, even if they're still contracted with humans, as they consider any human who would associate with demons not worthy of being saved.
• Pitiful Worms: Demons have a penchant for referring to humans (especially those meddling exorcists) as "pests" or "insects".
• Power Tattoo: The exorcists in the Church of Providence get their powers by tattoos drawn with manna.
• Power of Trust: Samson and Ezra are such a great team because they have nigh unlimited trust in each other. Demonstrated in episode 5, in which Ezra trusts Samson enough to let himself get dragged towards a demon. Giving her an opening to shoot the demon in it's weak, white flesh, which incapacitates it in an instant. They later re-use this strategy against a demon in episode 16 and it's just as effective.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Sunny regularly has nightmares about his dead family and (it's implied) the thing that killed them.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Demons prefer to hunt in areas that have few or no exorcists. The more clever ones attack their victims at night and use a human disguise, so as to not draw attention to themselves.
• Prophet Eyes: As mentioned in Supernatural Gold Eyes below. Seers all have golden pupils with black sclerae.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Ezra uses the big, sparkly eyes tactic both intentionally and unintentionally.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Downplayed in episode 10. The leader of the demon group is defeated when Esther kills him, but the woman he contracted dies with him and with Samson's dismissal of Esther and Adina, the Great Church has been given plenty of ammunition to build a case against the Church of Providence.
• Quit Your Whining: Samson riffs on Ezra for his brooding in episode 10, stating that he needs to get over his hero complex.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Father Aaron always takes the time to listen to his exorcists' opinions and takes them into account when making decisions. He agrees with Samson that Esther and Adina were unfit to work with Providence and approves of her dismissal, though he also tells her that this will most likely give Bishop Price the excuse he needs to talk his superiors in the Great Church into attacking Providence.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Sunny gives one to the demon who attacks him in his apartment in episode 12, sneering at and making fun of it for believing he was just a normal kid who would be easy to kidnap.
  • Samson calls the demon who broke into her and Ezra's university while looking for Sunny out for being so painfully obvious, despite knowing he was in exorcist territory.
• Red Baron: Sunny is known among the demons as "The Fallen Who Never Fell". This is an early hint toward his heritage.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Samson is impulsive, has a propensity for violence and gets angry easily, while Ezra is a lot calmer, easy-going and tries to avoid conflict.
• Religious Horror: The main antagonists in the story are demons and the heroes fight in the name of God.
• Remember the New Guy?: Goliath, Ruth and Isaac appear in episode 5 and are introduced as old friends and teammates of Ezra and Samson. They're never once mentioned in previous episodes.
• Running Gag: Ezra having to rely on Samson a little too much.
• Sacrificial Lamb:
  • The contracted human in episodes 9 and 10 dies in a pretty gruesome manner to demonstrate to the reader what happens when a demon is killed instead of exorcised while their contract is active.
  • In episode 16, two innocent bystanders are killed off by a demon, so he can use their manna to heal his wounds.
• Saving the World: Essentially what exorcists do by keeping the demons in check. Gabriel also alludes to this having to happen on a bigger scale in episode 3.
• Seen It All: Sunny reacts to a demon revealing itself by grabbing a weapon and attacking immediately.
• Seers: Exorcists whose patron is the angel Azrael can see and locate manna, even through walls and from a distance.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: The angels give their patrons, the exorcists, their magic abilities through blessings.
• Shared Life-Meter: If a demon who has already contracted with a human is killed instead of exorcised, the human bonded to them will die as well.
• Ship Tease:
  • A lot of it between Ezra and Sunny. Ezra is obviously attracted to Sunny, frequently blushing and getting tounge-tied in his presence. While Sunny is initially annoyed by Ezra's antics, he gradually starts to warm up to him and even has a rather intimate Closed Door Rapport with him about both of their Dark And Troubled Pasts. When Sunny's demonic powers are accidentally revealed and the exorcists start to view him with suspicion, Sunny is especially upset about Ezra doing the same.
  • Samson and Ruth get along pretty well. When Ruth falls on Samson while protecting her during a fight, Samson blushes and orders her to get off.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • It's implied Gabriel would more than welcome it if Ezra started a romantic relationship with Sunny.
  • After being informed of it, Samson's team starts to refer to Ezra's mission to protect Sunny as his "boyfriend assignment".
• Shirtless Scene: Every fight scene. Providence' combat clothing is naturally Stripperific due to them having to draw their weapons from their skin. And even when they fight in normal clothes, drawing their weapons releases a burst of power that shreds the fabric pretty thoroughly.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Exorcists don't really care much for the demons' Evil Gloating and always shut them down relatively quickly.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: The comic has a lot of pretty funny moments. Which can come off as a bit of a Mood Whiplash when they're fighting blood-thirsty demons in the same scene.
• Slouch of Villainy: Demons usually slump when they're in their true forms.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The first demons Ezra and Samson fight are just regular run-off-the-mill Mooks. They start getting progressively stronger as the story goes on. Slightly downplayed, as even the lower-level demons can proof troublesome at times.
• Soul Eating: Essentially what the demons are doing when they feed on a human's manna.
• Starter Villain: The leader of the demon group Ezra and Samson fight in episode 1. She's obviously a small fry, seeing as they dispose of her and her goons with relative ease. While she does almost get the drop on Ezra, it's more because he messed up his rites than because of her own power.
• Stepford Smiler: Ezra. He jokes around a lot, but he has heavy self-esteem issues because of his not being able to use Gabriel's blessing, even thinking of himself as "broken". This is worsened every time he can't save a human.
• Stripperific: A rare example of this trope applying to female and male characters. The Church of Providence' exorcists wear robes that can be torn off to reveal a fair bit of skin. Justified, as the exorcists draw their weapons from Power Tattoos and clothes that cover them all the time would be impractical.
• Stupid Evil:
  • The demon who attacks a human in his true form, in broad daylight, in the middle of Providence territory and doesn't even keep the poor guy from screaming. Of course he's immediately apprehended by Ezra and Samson who were only a few feet away.
  • The second demon sent to get Sunny, instead of infiltrating and searching the campus in a human form, breaks through a wall into a crowded classroom without even bothering to disguise himself and loudly announces why he's there once he's inside. Samson later calls him out for this sloppy approach, stating that even if her and Ezra hadn't been there already, him stirring up trouble this openly in a known exorcist precinct would have gotten him on Providence' radar anyway.
• Supernatural Elite: The archangels, who are the highest power among the angels safe for God.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes:
  • Exorcists gain golden, glowing eyes when they get their powers. It's permanent.
  • Angels have golden eyes as well.
• Survivor's Guilt:
  • It's implied Ezra feels guilty for not being able to protect his birth family.
  • Sunny has frequent nightmares about his dead mother and big sister accusing him of being the reason they died.
• Teethclenched Teamwork: Samson and Ezra are not the slightest bit happy about having to work with members of the Great Church, due to their open bigotry and arrogance towards the Church of Providence.
• Theme Naming: Every exorcist is named after an important biblical figure.
• Title Drop: Covenants are mentioned frequently.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • The demons who attack humans during the day-time.
  • The two humans in episode 16 who chose to hide under a desk when a giant monster broke into their classroom, instead of running away like everybody else. The demon kills them for their manna as soon as he spots them.
• Tracking Spell: The seers' covenant allows them to track manna.
• True Companions: Samson's team is a well-oiled machine. They've worked together for years and are the best of friends on and off the job.
• True Sight: Seers can automatically tell whether someone is a demon or a human.
• Twisted Ankle: Sunny's ankle ends up crushed in his attempt to get out of a demon's grip. This greatly impairs his movements and keeps him from running away when Ezra interferes and distracts the demon.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Even when demons are in their human form there's still something... off about them. Their eyes are completely empty and they seem to be strangely detached from everything around them.
  • Gabriel's human form is attractive, but there's this distinct supernatural aura about him that keeps him from actually coming off as human.
• Unscrupulous Hero: The hero part would have to be put into very heavy air-quotes, but the Great Church is essentially this. They fight demons to protect God's creation, same as Providence, but unlike the latter they couldn't care less if a few innocent civilians perished in the cross-fire.
• Unwanted Rescue: Sunny isn't too thrilled when Ezra steps in to save him from a spider demon. He tells Ezra to leave several times and refuses to run off himself, in part because his ankle is busted, in part because he doesn't want another person to die because of him.
• Urban Fantasy: The story is set in the modern world and contains fantastical elements like demons, angels and magic.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Gabriel's warning of a war to come is contained within a riddle. Ezra actually doesn't understand it at first, so Gabriel has to spell it out for him.
• Villain in a White Suit: When posing as humans, demons seem to have a preference for fancy, white clothing. Though some of them also wear a bit of black.
• Visionary Villain: The Demon Lord behind the increasingly organized demons seems to have world-changing plans, as opposed to simply wanting to feed like most of her kin.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Samson and Ezra miss no chance to snipe at each other, but they're genuinely good friends and always have the other's back.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Demons can change between a human and a demonic form.
• Watch the Paint Job: During the battle with Andras, several cars get damaged. One of them is Samson's, which has Ezra fearing for his life.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Demons have the sigils on their chest. One well-placed attack on that spot and they're goners.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Adina seems to sincerely believe that just murdering demons, regardless of the consequences, will benefit God's creation as a whole better than fighting carefully to ensure the demons' victims aren't hurt.
• Wham Episode: Episode 12 and 13 both count. Not only is it revealed that Sunny knows about demons and has fought and presumably killed one before, episode 13 heavily implies that he is part demon himself. The end of the episode also reveals that Esther is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who was most likely the driving force behind Bishop Price's sudden crack-down on Providence.
• Wham Line:
  • Episode 13 has Bishop Price drop one, as he reveals who it really was that brought up the idea of Providence being a Corrupt Church.
  Bishop Price: Your hunch was correct Esther. Sharp as always.
  • When Sunny yells at the Armless Demon in episode 29, the latter reacts with amusement and reveals to him that he wasn't the legion's target during the assault on his family nine years prior.
  Armless Demon: That night we weren't looking for you. We were there for the girl.
• Wham Shot:
  • Episode 24 has the reader briefly view the group through Isaac's eyes. When Sunny blows up at Ezra, his manna turns demonic.
  • Episode 34 ends on Ezra's holy weapon shattering, due to his indecisiveness.
  • Right after that in episode 35, Father Aaron cuts the demon Lord's hair off, revealing that she is contracted as well. He also calls her by her name: Belial.
  • The season 1 finale ends with a shot of Sunny's demonic form.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Esther gets lambasted by both Ezra and Samson immediately for killing a contracted demon. Doing so resulted in his victim dying with him.
• Wrongly Accused: Bishop Price blames the Church of Providence as a whole for the increase in demonic activity, since it's happening in their precinct and they use "heretic" rituals. Though it's heavily implied he's just been looking for an excuse to get rid of them and the aforementioned reason just came at a convenient time.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Ezra laments to Gabriel that he's still unable to use his gift and wonders why Gabriel chose him in the first place, Gabriel asserts that he deemed Ezra's conviction strong and worthy when he chose him. Ezra doesn't quite buy it.

---