Blood and grime clung to her skin, as well as those of her peers. But Ella could not bring herself to do anything about it, despite being the only one not hampered by physical fatigue.
“Do you think he will actually come?” she muttered.
“Who?” Bohdan asked. “The archdevil?”
“Yeah.”
“Your brother and those knights said so. So I’d be stupid to believe otherwise since he hasn’t been wrong so far.”
She sighed, wishing for once that Jalen was mistaken. Because even though she could dive back into the chaos of battle and still be effective, her mind could not handle the sight and smells any longer. She had seen enough dead bodies to fill arenas in the space of a night. Who could withstand more?
Someone knocked on their door. “It’s Ivarsson. Open up.”
She unlocked the door and pulled it open.
Besides Ivarsson’s disheveled hair and soot-covered face, one could not tell the woman had been at war. However, Ella now knew that Ivarsson and TechNora had been busy dealing with the thousands of spawn that descended on the protest outside The Genesis Empowerment Center.
“I hope you are well rested,” Ivarsson said. “Because we need you. Follow me.”
“What about me?” Bohdan inquired, getting up.
To that, Ivarsson shook her head. “Just Ella. The rest of you need to recoup your strength. You’d be liabilities. Or worse, killed.”
Ella and Bohdan locked eyes.
Clearly not at his strongest, he still gave her a soft smile. “Just be careful.”
She nodded before closing the door behind her. Then she followed Ivarsson through the long, quiet hallways of the west wing of the hotel, which housed exhausted superheroes. After Ivarsson pressed the button to summon the elevator, she asked. “What do you need my help for?”
Ivarsson stepped into the elevator once the double doors slid open, then turned back to regard her, the agent’s eyes harsh and unyielding. “Belial has come.”
She opened her mouth to speak, gave up when no words came out and rushed into the elevator.
Outside the hotel, the military had set a secure perimeter. Ivarsson led Ella past vigilant soldiers in full combat gear toward her car packed on the street. Seconds later, they were on their way.
The roads were littered with debris from destroyed buildings and smeared with pools of blood and other liquids. Fortunately, the police had started removing the corpses from the streets and burning them. The sheer amount of corpses coupled with so little manpower meant that if the city was to avoid further infernal corruption, they could make no distinction between dead humans and spawn. All remains had to be burned.
The constant whirring of helicopter blades passed overhead as Ivarsson expertly maneuvered around the obstacles before them. Due to the commendable efforts of the fire departments from nearby cities, the uncontrolled fires were barely contained now that most of the spawn had been eliminated.
“How many demons did Belial come with?” she asked. “3 days ago Dynamo told me that Jalen said it would be an army.”
“Then your brother’s prediction came to pass.” Ivarsson turned onto a road leading to a bridge that connected to Midtown. “Words can’t describe it. Soon you’ll see for yourself.”
As the car crept up the bridge, she spotted something in the distance. Above, in the darkness of the night sky, five patches of red fire danced, illuminating a dense gray network of clouds eerily similar to those that brought storms and heavy rains.
Wait! Those aren’t clouds.
“Are those demons?”
“Yes,” Ivarsson said, pulling to the left after crossing the bridge, the dense cluster of demons now moving to Ella’s window. “Only that is just the flying portion of Belial’s army. The majority are on the ground.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. What are we even supposed to do?”
“That is what we are trying to find out. Hold on.”
Ivarsson pulled into the parking lot of a police department, past two towering robots that bore a striking resemblance to TechNora’s dummies from the superhero test, with their round visage. However, these robots, spotting many barreled orifices, were clearly designed for war.
Afterward, they rushed into the department building, where military personnel and HAVEN agents had replaced the police officers. In a long corridor that seemed to span the entire length of the building, Ivarsson moved paces, then entered a room on the right.
Slightly loud voices greeted Ella when she entered the dark conference room with a large oval table in the middle lined with chairs. Rows of seats also sat against the walls, filled with people speaking into phones and telecommunications equipment. She recognized Mason and TechNora seated at the table along with another middle-aged man with short, salt and pepper hair and dressed in a camouflage military uniform. A woman in black knight’s armor and a vibrant red cloak sat beside TechNora and opposite both men, her expression bored and restless. The woman’s helmet rested on the table.
“General,” Mason said. “Our intel tells us that the demons aren’t here for us, but for the tsuchigumo. I’d like to establish contact with them before we make any rash decisions.”
“Negotiate with demons? Do you see the state of this fucking city, or am I the only one with eyes here?” The general, his voice rough and booming, turned to the armored woman. “What do you think of this nonsense?”
The woman shrugged. “I do not think Belial mustered a million demons only to eradicate the tsuchigumo. As much as I detest Mason’s idea, I think it’s the best course of action. My knights need to rest as well as myself. If you plan to battle against a million demons, with Belial and his top lieutenants included, be my guest. But I will not see my knights expended on a suicidal endeavor.”
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“Have you all lost your damn minds?” The general exclaimed. “Five million people have lost their livelihoods to these fiends!”
“It was a different faction at play,” Mason corrected.
“I don’t give a flying fuck whether it was a demon’s great grandfather’s brother’s left nut! We are looking at a death toll of 300,000.” The general slammed his hand on the table, dislodging piles of papers. “And a potential loss of millions more should these fucks be allowed to set up base in a goddamn American city!”
“Alright, General Brooks,” Mason said, his tone also rising. “What do you suggest we do, huh? Summon all the damn superheroes in the country and have them take their best shot at a fucking archdevil and his army of a million demons?”
“This ain’t no World War One with their trench warfare and thousands of soldiers sent to the meat grinder, Director. This sure as hell ain’t the American Revolutionary War with their musket lines and bayonet charges. We are the United States of America in the fucking 21st century! I’ll drown these fucks in so much explosives they’d loathe the day they ever set foot on our soil.”
Mason slunk into his chair and massaged his temples.
“I strongly advise against that,” TechNora said. “At least, until we garner their motives.”
“And I’ve taken your opinions, however dumb they are, into consideration. As the Commander-in-chief of this operation, appointed by the president, my decision is final.” The general motioned for an army officer to bring him a communication unit.
It was then that Ivarsson stepped forward. “Director, I have brought Ella Nkanga.”
“Ah, yes.” Mason sat up in his chair and drew the general’s attention before pointing at Ella. So, as the general collected the radio from the officer, he beckoned her over.
“Now, tell me superhero,” General Brooks said, “What was your experience fighting the demons? They told me you were fairly effective.”
“What do you mean, sir?” she said. “I don’t understand your question.”
“Really? I was fairly certain my question was straightforward. How were the demons? I’m not referring to the spawn. Were they quick, smart, tough, et cetera?”
“I only fought two. Once alone and for the second time with a team. They are significantly faster and tougher than regular humans. But equal to superhumans with base-enhanced physicality. Comparing them to myself, I’d say they are very weak.”
The armored woman looked pissed. “What will you gather from this superhuman that I haven’t already relayed to you? She clearly met baseline demons. They get significantly stronger.”
The general didn’t bother looking up at her as he fiddled with his radio. “I needed a second account removed from the people who fucked up this city. Is that so hard to understand?”
The temperature plummeted as the frost aura emitted by the armored woman chilled the air, her eyes fixated on the general with intense hostility.
Unbothered, the general raised the radio to his mouth. “Admiral O’Connor, this is General Brooks. Do you copy?”
A modified voice replied. “Copy, General. Go ahead.”
“What’s your current position and readiness status?”
“General, we’re currently positioned in the Pacific, just off the coast near Hermosville. The strike group is fully operational and standing by for orders.”
“Understood. I need a coordinated missile strike on the demons’ location. Priority targets are their densely packed airborne forces and their commander, Belial, if you have visual confirmation.”
“Roger that, General. Are there any friendly forces in the vicinity?”
“Affirmative, but they are aware of the incoming strike and are pulling back to a safe distance. Make sure your timing is precise, Admiral. We can’t afford any more fuck ups. The world is watching.”
“Understood, General. We’ll ensure precision. Initiating strike protocol now. First wave of Tomahawk cruise missiles launching in T-minus five minutes. Second wave will be shortly after.”
“Copy that.”
“You’ve fucked us all,” Mason remarked.
“I have only done what needed to be done,” the general said.
An army officer connected a wire to the sole television hanging on the wall ahead. After some quick technical work, the television turned on, displaying a live video that looked down on the massive swarm of flying demons.
“Drone feed, sir,” the officer confirmed.
Ella, her eyes planted on the live feed, returned to Ivarsson, who had assumed a seat on the back wall. Minutes of tense watching passed as she tried to comprehend why the demons clustered up together around those balls of red light, making their elimination that much easier. Even though she lacked military training, the obvious move would have been to spread out far and wide to minimize the effectiveness of the approaching missiles. Perhaps Belial lacked knowledge about modern weapons.
Her attention was acutely focused on the television when a blinding light flashed, followed by a few more bright eruptions. Then balls of raging fire consumed the flying demons whole. A wave of celebration rippled in the room from the watching officers.
The general turned back to Mason with a triumphant smirk. “That’s how we ought to handle things in this country. Not relying on spandex-wearing fools with little training to save the day. After the second wave, our ground forces will move in and make short work of the remaining demons.”
“Yeah?” Mason had on an equally smirking grin. “Why don’t you confirm the extent of damage before gloating like a buffoon?”
General Brooks swiveled his chair to look at the television. The celebratory atmosphere in the room quickly died down. The fire from the missile detonations subsided, giving way to plumes of smoke that, when dissipated, revealed the swarm of demons, unharmed.
“What?” The general jumped to his feet. “How?”
“Belial is an archdevil that had a rising influence in this city as far back as when the first demons appeared,” Mason said, ruffling his hair. “To think that he would not have countermeasures in place for our weapons is pure fucking hubris. Now you’ve just given him the biggest fucking spectacle of a war declaration. Welcome to the club, General Brooks. The club where we get our arses fucked with no lube.”
To drive the point home, the second barrage of missiles arrived from the ocean. Minutes later, not a single hair seemed to be harmed on the flying demons.
Shell-shocked and visibly terrified, the general looked to Mason for help. “Okay, so what do we do now?”
However, the director of the Homeland Intelligence Division of HAVEN erupted, swiping every piece of paper and stationary equipment on the table in his vicinity. “If you’d just listened to us, none of this would’ve happened! But no! The president kissed my arse and I’ve got the biggest dick in the room, so I don’t need to listen to the woman with thousands of years of experience battling demons. Fuck off!”
The general plumped down on his chair and wiped his sweaty forehead with a hankie. Then he looked to the armored woman for help.
“Your only course now is to conscript millions of your mortals for warfare,” the woman said in a measured tone. “Evacuate the entirety of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Establish a defensive perimeter along the borders of these states and offer prayers to whatever God you serve, hoping the demons will be content with the territory you’ve ceded. As I mentioned earlier, I have never encountered an archdevil, but based on the accounts from demons we’ve interrogated, they are akin to mythical beings wielding unimaginable power. The demons may have exaggerated, but in their strength-driven culture, I doubt they strayed far from the truth. Belial alone would overwhelm the forces you’ve stationed here.”
Witness to that bleak revelation, Ella’s heart sank. And judging from the redness of the general’s face, he was experiencing a similar mood. Who could have foretold that this level of disaster would befall them?