The wave of red pulsed like a siren. It screamed, shook, pierced Adam's senses, the combined total of its individual seeds almost as strong as a Witch's. Revulsion curled in his intestines and he froze for a moment—enough for a wraith to lurch up close, but not enough for its claws to sink into his belly. [Physio-Endure] cut the damage down. He shoved it back with his mystic. A shot to the head finished the job.

He touched the wound. A light graze. Not nearly enough to stop him. The rest of the wraiths were limping around, the fire, explosions and mystic light having damaged them in their wake. Lucy and Saria gunned them down before he could, then trampled the dry grass in their haste to reach him.

Lucy was first. She took his front, while Saria rounded around the back. No hostiles. There was no sign of relief, only the slight slackening of a tightened mouth. "Chosen! Are you alright?"

"Mild damage, but I'm fine. They're all dead?"

"Affirmative." Lucy said. "Saria and I double checked. This area is clear from bandits and any corruption."

Burn marks and blood splatters coated her white uniform like a twisted art project. A yellow-white aura surrounded her form, and the sparkles in his irises glinted with the intensity of diamonds under the sun. Behind her, fires smouldered, billowing clouds of smoke that mixed with wraith gunk into a noxious, eggs-gone-bad rotten atmosphere.

Lucy wasn't fazed. Neither was he. The idea unsettled him less than he originally believed. Adrenaline, or he'd simply hardened his heart. It was hard to care about these victims when they spent their entire adult lives murdering and pillaging in return.

"Miriam, what's going on?"

"The situation has escalated. The bandits injected themselves with something and their bodies are now developing at an accelerated rate. Greater musculature, lower sanity and comprehension… look!"

A video feed popped up. It originated from an Astraean camera Adam had placed atop a watchtower before the battle. The more he looked, the more his heart sank. The townsfolk had performed a decent job at fending off the Gasheads, even with their limited weaponry. A few well-placed shots caused wraiths to spawn across the bandit ranks, wreaking friendly fire on their turf. Fresh burn marks and stained pointed to homemade Molotov cocktails and other chemical bombs. Glenn's Rest had incurred casualties, according to Miriam's earlier reports, but to hold a stalemate while outnumbered was no inconsequential feat.

Now, it was all small comfort. The feed displayed chaos. A crimson aura seeped through the dry air, as bandits injected with red stormed towards the walls, battering down on them with their firearms and engorged, veiny muscles. Unhinged jaws screamed animalistic howls from beyond bloodshot eyes. The memory of a metallic hand flashed phantom pain across Adam's neck. He batted himself in the cheek to cancel it out.

A loud screech rose above the roaring crowd. A sound like a horse's neigh distorted through several layers of static and squished meat. The creature charged through the crowd, battering some of the bandits aside, and Adam heard screams reverberate from the wall. He couldn't blame them. The creature was more than ugly. It was an amalgamation of human flesh, organs, and bones, stapled together to form a crude imitation of a horse or a donkey. Adam's stomach lurched as it swung a tail constructed from intestines, multiple squirming eyes across his head, neck and lower body seeking left and right. He'd seen blood and guts before. Dead animals, meat lockers, his first kill. This monster belonged in neither of those. It was an abomination who couldn't, shouldn't exist, and here it was rampaging beneath those blood-red skies.

"They… they injected themselves…" Saria said. Her teeth were clenched so tight Adam thought they might break. "Even if they were bad, even if they sinned, they took the…the and injected themselves—!"

She let out a scream and hurled fire in the direction she ran from. The field blazed in an inferno, causing Adam to reel back towards the trees. Lucy grabbed Saria's arm, whispered something, and the red-haired War Maiden waved the flames away.

"Had to be sure. Had to make sure that heretic wouldn't wake up again!" Saria said. Her eyes glazed over, with neither terror nor lack of focus. "Heretics. The heretics are here, Chosen! We have to eradicate them all!"

"They planned this. This entire invasion. That's what the demon boxes were for." Adam said. The urge to retch grew larger than ever. He was no saint. God knew how many blood he spilled, how many lives had ruined, in his rampage across Steeldale's streets. But never in his deepest moments would he have dreamed of atrocities like this. Some of the bandits had not injected themselves with the red. They turned tail and ran, only for the horse creature to trample over them. Death arrived, with broken bones and crushed organs. The horse-creature then opened its stretchy mouth and fired chunks of goo. One of the shots hit part of the village's outer wall, bending it in with the force alone. Another smashed against the watchtower. A crunch, the crackle of wood fragmenting and the camera feed turned black.

"Feed's gone. Doesn't matter—recover the camera later. You all need to get back up the walls, fast, or this village will fall! Forget human-elimination tactics, we're fighting abominations now!"

Saria grabbed Adam by the waist, hauled him up, and dashed forward. The world rushed by in a rush of wind. When it cleared, he was back behind the village walls, Lucy by his side. He dropped to the ground.

"Jesus Christ, a warning next time!"

"Don't complain, Adam! Klavdia, Alcott! Pick a side and destroy the lot of them! Ignore collateral damage protocols!"

"Excuse me? We can, but the Chosen will be alone!" Lucy cried.

"Don't worry about Adam, he can handle by himself. He'll escort the villagers to safety. Kill enough of the monsters fast and you'll be fine. Now go!"

As if to punctuate her statement, the ground rumbled. A metallic shriek burst through, and they felt the presences of the monsters approaching closer. Lucy ripped a syringe and plasma tablet apiece from her belt and shoved them into Adam's hands. She then imbibed herself with another set.

"Chosen." She said, gripping his shoulders. "Promise me that you will not take any unnecessary risks. If it means saving yourself, you must do it. Do you understand?"

He nodded. "You got it, Lucy."

She smiled at him, then let him go. "Great. May Her Prudence guide your way, and may Her Compassion keep you safe!"

"You've got this, Chosen. We're gonna stink real bad when we come back, so save a bucket of water for us!" Saria gave him a cheeky wink and a slap on the back. Then the two girls were gone, dashing across the rooftops in blurs of gold and red. He caught Lucy vaulting over the wall, a flashing of light bursting up in a pillar of as she landed, and a geyser of blood spilling through the empty air.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

They'd be fine. He knew—nay, trusted them to achieve victory. It was nice, he realised, to have trustworthy allies at his back. There was no time to ponder over this, as he heard another metallic screech. Part of the wall had gone down, and a couple of corrupted bandits crawled through the rubble.

"Come and get some!" It was Cole. The kid had left his watchtower and backed away into Adam's line of sight, his scrawny body peeking through the gap between a store and the blacksmith's. Adam snarled and ran forward. He closed the distance with a dash, arriving right in time as Cole fell flat on his bottom. His rifle scattered across the cobblestones. Adam drew his tomahawk and swung it straight into the corrupted bandit's swinging arm. [Physio-Force] carved a groove, spilling thick blood. The bandit screamed and pulled out a knife from his belt. He didn't get the chance to use it; Saria's synchronization of [War Maiden's Bond] activated, punching him in the front with a wave of heat. Adam pointed his rifle at the back of the bandit's head and fired.

Blood and grey matter rained down upon the small lane. Cole yelped. He shivered as Adam approached, only for Adam to haul him up by the shoulders and lean him against the wall.

"Oi, kid! You good?"

"Y-yeah. Thanks, outsider." Cole said, coughing.

"It's Adam. You came down from the walls?"

"They breached the walls. Jessie fell down, they injected that f-f-fudging red stuff and now they…" Cole let out a strangled sob. Adam understood him. This kind of shocked frustration came from victory being snatched away at the last moment. The townsfolk must have killed more bandits than he expected. Cole rammed his arm above his face, hiding the tears. He seemed a couple years younger in that moment.

"It'll be okay, kid. My girls are there. They're gonna stomp the bandits into paste." Adam said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Those two?" Cole said, confused. "How?"

"Star-tech." Adam said. Cole stared back. He rolled his eyes. "Fine, it's a long story. But they'll do it. Fuck, you better start worrying about the cleanup. It's gonna take ages. Now, are you gonna help out with the rest of his shitsow, or sit here and cry?"

The taunt, mild as it was, pulled some color back into Cole's freckled cheeks. He pulled himself off the wall and grabbed his rifle from off the ground. "What are you gonna do?"

"Kill the Gasheads, duh." Adam said. He hoisted his rifle in show. "Got this baby, plus a few other tricks."

"I'll help." Cole said.

"With that bolt-action? No chance. Those bastards are tougher than they look. They need a hard laser blast.. Look, you should go and round the rest of your guys up. Barricade yourself inside in case anything happens. The girls and I will take care of things out here!"

Cole hesitated, as if he couldn't decide whether to thank or ignore Adam. He gave a surly nod. "Good luck, outsider."

"For the second time, it's Adam." Adam said. The kid had already scarpered off. Adam breathed in and out and extended his senses with [Physio-Sixth Sense]. It was hard to miss the carnage the two War Maidens caused, even with his undeveloped synapses. Enemies had slipped amidst the chaos, crawling across the village roads like cockroaches atop a bread roll. They weren't focusing in one direction, as far as he could tell.

"Miriam, how many enemies are inside?"

"At least four, and they're targeting the villagers. Hurry and eliminate them, Adam!"

Miriam's map popped in his view and Adam gnashed his teeth. The enemies were all too scattered. By the time he reached one, the other three would have killed a villager. He regretted not spending enough time in the village. Miriam helped, but the roads were too foreign for him to navigate with haste. If only this was Steeldale, he could've climbed through the network of pipes, fences and rooftops to get the jump on them.

Wait, rooftops?

He glanced up. The nearest one was only a short climb away. An idea prickled in his head.

"Miriam, apologise to Lucy for me, 'cause she's gonna go postal."

"Adam, what are you—"

He took a running start and leaped up. Enhanced, augmented strength pulled him up in seconds. A quick check revealed a lack of snipers from the enemy side. He crossed more rooftops until he found the tallest building—the inn. From here, he saw the holes in the walls, the flashes of mystics roaring across the battlefield, and the bandits rampaging through the town, chasing villagers and breaking into buildings for loot.

Reckless. Imbecilic. He imagined a dozen words spewing out of Lucy's mouth. He suppose he deserved it again, and smirked. He took a deep breath, and pulled his handgun out of his belt, aiming it at the sky. He flicked to burst mode, at the lowest damaging setting.

The world called him a thug, a dropout, a whore's son, and many others.

But it could never call him a half-ass.

The shot beamed upwards and bloomed like a firework. The villagers stared, as well as the chasing bandits.

Adam drew his rifle, activated [Perception Acceleration] and shot the nearest bandit in the head. He tipped his head back and roared.

"Hey, Gasheads! The man who's gonna fuck you all in the ass is right here, and he's the richest person in this damn town!" He beat his fist against his chest and hoisted his rifle with another. "See this star-tech? It's a red killer, and it's gonna send your lazy, cheating asses on a one-way trip to hell! Now come and get me, you bastards!"

Simple minds detected riches and ran towards the inn. Somewhere, Miriam was yelling at him. Adam tore a brick off the roof with [Psychokinesis] and hurled it straight at the nearest bandit.

----------------------------------------

Lucy did not like these types of encounters.

Heavy close-quarters combat was Saria's forte. No doubt, Saria was burning trails through her foes by the minute. [Pyrokinesis] earned its reputation via sheer, unrelenting destruction. Oil, tinder, Scourge goo and even corpses—it all helped to set off chain reaction after chain reaction that left the enemy in heaps of ashes across a scarred battleground. Add in Saria's superior STRENGTH and prowess in ADO martial arts, along with a natural immunity to heat, and Lucy had a friend who felt right at home uppercutting monsters in the jaw.

As for her, [Photokinesis] was less suitable. It was more midrange. Lucy would've preferred to stand atop the walls, barraging the enemies down with [Photon-Blast]s and [Photon-Pin]s. But the walls had fallen, and the Chosen needed to be protected, so Lucy leaped into the fray, unleashing her plasma as if she were spinning around with an open bucket in her hands.

Light and rifle shots down the bandits. Masses of [Photon-Pin]s and [Photon-Slash]es slaughtered the resulting wraiths. The great beast was different. Neither cunning nor damaging to perception, it could not compare to a Scourge-kin. Lucy still assaulted it without mercy. Photon-Seal locked its revolting feet, at which point Lucy switched from her hand movement to shooting both mystic and laser blasts at its mouths and eyes. They burst like grapes, and the creature howled. It charged towards her, head bowed. Lucy summoned a pillar of light, rammed it straight at the beast's head, then vanished with [Physio-Dash]. She cringed as the following glob-spray caught the side of her uniform. Acidic. A few drops burned black in her golden-blonde hair. She drew her blade, dashed under the swinging tail of intestines with her lower body bowed down, and cut the disgusting appendage in half.

The creature screamed once more. The air cracked, from which red portals emerged. Wraiths crawled out of it. Lucy growled.

"Damnation…"

Burnout after burnout. A fine way to hammer in permanent damage. She leapt backward, spraying automatic fire. It wasn't her choice to make, no matter what the readings on her harness said. The mission came first. She gathered plasma, preparing to unleash one of her advanced techniques, when she felt a tremor through her synapses.

At first, she thought she reached its limit. She recognised the signature, and emotion swelled through her, almost bringing tears to her eyes. She could not decide, but the Chosen could, and he'd done so at the best possible time. Strength found its way back into her trembling arms and legs. She took the Chosen's plasma and unleashed a mighty shockwave and knocked her foes down.

Clusters of yellow light surrounded Lucy, swirling in hexagonal shaped arcs around her upper body. She levitated off the ground, wind rippling the sides of her uniform, boots as light as feathers. She drew her sword and let the plasma take it, reshape it and imbue it with a mystic sacred and wondrous.

A wing, only one, extended from her back. It was feathered, white as a dove's, and as wide as the Astraean national flag. The technique was incomplete. It was insufficient by a Veteran War Maiden's standard, who would have forbidden Lucy to use it until mastery was achieved.

But here and now, it let her destroy the Chosen's enemies, and that was all Lucy Klavdia needed.

"Come, ye heretics! The star of Her Providence shines upon you! May your sin-laded shells be banished from this world, and may your souls find peace beneath Her Wings!"