Alesani Nelson took a breath to brace himself to not get overwhelmed by sensory overload. He pressed the side of the door and waited for it open then stepped out. ‘You can do this’ he thought.
“So here we are” he said.
“And where is this?” said Janet.
“Have you never look at a map or left the city? This is the woods...heh.” he joked.
she just stared at him.
“We’re at our camp where you will receive the training you need and I can get a break from being glared at.” said Alesani.
she kept silent.
“Fine be like that, Melissa can you show her around? I need to check in.”
“I got this you go ahead,” said Melissa.
He started walking only to be stopped.
“Sir you’re needed in the command center”
“ok lead the way,” said Alesani.
They ran up on a scene of people pointing there weapons at a glowing rock.
“What’s going on here?” asked Alesani.
“that’s what I would like to know.” Came the gruff voice of a rather large brutish man. “Alright everyone back up a little in case this thing explodes.”
“Alex, do you have any idea what that is?” asked Alesani.
“Oh Sani, I think that's the rock we took from those zombies this afternoon” said Alexander.
“Why…”
The glow started to die down only to be replaced by a man in an orange and purple robe. The man stood up from his sitting position and took in the crowd.
“This is not ideal,” he said.
“Who or what are you?” asked Alexander.
“I could say the same to you large one,” respond the man.
“You think this is a joke, speak quickly or die.” command Alexander.
“Fine, Relary Demonsoul,” said the man.
“Well, Relary, what are you and how did you just appear here?”
“I appeared through the portal stone which should be where I was before. Not sure what you mean by what am I.”
“We found that rock on a walking corpse and you just appeared out of nowhere. So unless you’re a fucking wizard, you’re not human, so what are you?”
“Human and not wizard but warlock.”
“What’s the difference?” said Alesani.
“Specialization, wizards are general while we warlocks specialize,” said Relary.
“Sani! Focus, I want to know where you come from and who is responsible for those monsters?” asked Alexander.
“monsters?” asked Relary.
“The fucking creatures running around killing people!”
“Oh, the mutants. I come from Sherilia same as the mutants. Them being here is part of the Goddess Shel-Haven’s ascension to godhood.”
“What does that mean, gods are real?”
“well yes, they’re where our magic come from.”
“This is only getting more confusing, could you explain in detail please?” asked Alesani.
Sigh"…There are seven original gods and now five ascended. The five ascended are children of the original gods, just so you know they have way more than five children between them. The only ones that seem to ascend, both parents are gods. Then comes the ascension, there are two ways to ascend. Build a following large enough to channel there collective wills to force the process or achieve a feat of magic that changes our world. The goddess of travel, started a cult but was able to perform her feat of ascension without them. Keeping with tradition, the magic that granted her ascension became her name sake. This is how the former godling Shel became goddess Shel-haven." Sigh. "The mutant migration was started by her cult into this new realm opened by her magic. There, anything else?”
“You’re saying this goddesses cult released monsters on our world?”
“No, I am saying mutants wanted to join the pilgrimage to a new world. More would have done the same if this worlds magic saturation was high enough to not weaken and make them vulnerable. Luckily the cult has taken steps to fix that but it will take years.”
“More of them are coming?”
“A lot more with vastly greater power but that’s the least of your concerns.”
“That’s plenty, follow me and don’t try anything.”
Alexander Nelson sat in his office and waited for the prisoner to get settled along with all the busy bodies trying to cram themselves into this increasingly small space. Alexander thought back to when he was working for the FBI, and before he lost two family members in a four year period. ‘I am just happy mom is secured’ starting a gun running operation was already a daunting task but now monster hunting.
“So what else can you tell me about these monsters?”
“That depends on what you want to know” said ‘What was his name’ thought Alexander.
“These creatures kill people, do your people not hunt them?”
“Yes an no, the fact is these creatures are not dangerous to humans anymore than we are to them. We have have magic, which only the strongest of some mutant species have access to.”
“So what? We shouldn’t worry about them!”
“Oh no you should be very worried, it will be years still for your world to be saturated with magic enough for the field to stabilize. Not that you wouldn’t be able to perform magic now but most of you wouldn’t even be able to channel it without a stable field to make it easier.”
“We have other ways of fighting back, just tell me about the monsters.”
“Very well, the most dangerous to you will be the Lycanthropes; they are territorial and violent, not to mention they get bigger and stronger the longer they live. Gods forbid you run into the pack animals among them, then run for your life. The most troublesome are the undead, they reproduce quickly and from your own dead if need be. Unlike most mutants the undead are never born, they are made which is a problem because that attracts souls. The undead use the souls to revive the mind of the dead while their magic revives the body. Then comes the ones to avoid; vampires, and godlings.”
“And why should we avoid them?”
“Godlings are very easy to guess; to powerful and the most powerful ones are hard to kill. They are not concern now nor are they mutants but in the future things will change. Vampires because they are usually not dangerous and too much like godlings just easier to kill but harder to deal with.”
“What do you mean not dangerous, do they not drink our blood or are you saying just let them?”
“No my large friend I am saying they don’t require blood to live. They drink blood only to heal from terrible wounds or to maintain there youthful appearance. You see vampires age but don’t die of old age; they can assume the vitality of any new blood consumed though. They are creatures made up of blood mimicking a human body or they will be after a certain age.”
“So how can we hurt them?”
“Hurt them? Vampires are queer creatures. They don’t experience suffering of any kind. If you were to torture one it will simply stop feeling pain, they do not get depressed or suffer any negative psychological damage. So much so that vampire child rearing is akin to torture and abuse by human standards. Then you factor in their natural gifts; their powers are related to the gods much like godlings. The difference being they could be related to many gods biologically so there powers have many little quirks attached to it unlike godlings but godlings are generally more powerful. There is a vampire bloodline for ten of the twelve gods; the last two have yet to have children. Oh you ask for a weakness, let me think…they was a story of the first vampire. The first vampire was born after Felis-hell ascended and because of it he gained a soul. It was said the soul drove him mad. He fornicated and bore many children with many women, thus creating the many bloodlines. This is a very shameful history for vampires because they are very particular about mating and choosing a mate. Tell them that story and wait for them to attack you.”
“Now you’re just fucking with me!”
“Listen friend vampires are dangerous, what do you want me to say. Especially the Vision bloodline, they can actually see into the future; that’s not even a godly power, it’s just an interesting combination that produced that. In a fight they can predict your every move, which means if they fight you it’s because they know they can win. It is thought that they wear white to be more easily noticed because they can see out of the eyes of what ever looks upon them. Then the wind blood that wear fake wings made of wood and cloth on their backs and fly around with their power. Looking at your weapons I can assume it is a projectile launcher, if it travels through the air it cannot hit the wind bloods. Then there is the power bloodline, they are literally to strong and durable to reasonable kill.”
“Well fuck” said Alexander.
Alesani listen to the stranger and his brother talking and just couldn’t follow any of it. This man talked so much without making much sense, when the conversation winded down he interjected.
“We’ve killed a vampire before and it wasn’t that difficult,” said Alesani.
The man turned around and looked him up an down.
“Are you sure or was it a new blood?” asked Relary.
“A what...”
“New blood; it’s very rare but when a human gets infected with vampire blood they turn. It’s rare because usually we can fight of the infection easily unless we ourself have lost too much blood. The transformation take years before they gain their natural gifts from whatever blood line infected them. These new blood gain a soul and because of it goes mad. The addition of human and vampire instinct brought on by the soul brakes their minds.”
“I am confused, how do you define a soul?”
“The magical alien parasite from another world that attaches itself to sentient creatures in order to experience life through them. They follow the magical resonance caused by a disruption in the magical field brought on by new magic being introduced. They can even copy our reproduction when attached to a pregnant female.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Ok what the fuck!”
“You all seem to be having a hard time adjusting to the rigors of life, did I just port into a camp of mental patients?”
“…How do people deal with shit like this in your world?” asked Alexander.
“Change is part of life and we adapt, are you saying it’s different here?” respond Relary.
“No but changed doesn’t usually include reality here”
“Ah well that’s strange but I think I understand. Change in how reality works in very common where I come from, with the new gods ascending all the time.”
“Ok, I need a moment but you will be our guest for a while longer” said Alex while ordering some men to take away the stranger.
“Hahaha…thank you for your hospitality.” laughed Relary.
After the man was dragged away, it was just the two brothers in the room.
“Alex this is getting crazy, I mean crazier.”
“You think I don’t know? I thought things went too far when you started a gang with a stupid name among my men, now this.”
“The Fallen Slayers is not stupid”
“I hate to burst your bubble but not everyone is an artist obsessed with with biblical monsters.”
“Whatever, the main issue is dad is dead and Vanessa is still missing.”
“Or she is dead too.”
“We don’t know that, we just have to find this Preagar guy. What about your FBI contacts?”
“I left that life years ago, I am an arms dealer and mercenary now.”
“Bullshit, she is our sister Alex; this is no time to keep secrets.”
Sigh…"Let’s talk about this later.”
Alesani just stared at his brother before walking away. ‘Maybe I can learn more from the stranger’ he thought.
“Hey, where did they take that guy?” Alesani asked the closest person.
“Uhh…I think to the eastern campsite, we don’t really have a place for prisoners.”
“Ok thank you, Burt,” said Alesani as he headed in that direction.
He walked up to the stranger sitting down and having a conversation while being surrounded by armed men. As he walked up he said “There you are, I need to ask you some questions.”
“As appose to w...oh small one, I suppose we’re all small compare to your kin hahaha,” said Relary.
“No offense but it’s difficult enough having a conversation with you without the jokes.”
“So I have been told by this one,” he said while pointing to his left. “In my world people are less frightful so we regularly engage in banter.”
“Even while being surrounded and could be killed at any time?”
“Huh..oh yes danger is plentiful but death is hard to come by.”
“That doesn’t make sense, if you have monsters running around wouldn’t people die all the time?”
“Not at all, humans out number mutants and we have magic. Warriors that can improve themselves endlessly through magic and training also did I mention there is lots of us. There is also the fact that at a certain level of power it becomes magnitudes harder to actually kill your opponents.”
“Fuck this again, listen without context you’re just rambling. I get what you are saying but in the future keep it short and to the point” said Tyler.
Who Alesani assumes was talking to the stranger earlier.
“On that note, could you tell me your name one more time? You were saying a lot and I kind of forgot,” asked Alesani.
“Relary Demonsoul.”
“Ok Relary uh…Is your last name considered strange where you come from?”
“Sherilia is the name of my planet, named after the goddess of creation. Not that she actually has the power to crea…ah my family name is based on warlock heritage. You see just like some of your people’s family names are based on occupation so was mine; the founder of the Demonsoul line was a warlock that researched both demons and souls.”
“Ok, so the reason I came over here is to ask for your help in fighting these monsters and in return I can petition my brother for your freedom.”
“My freedom? Not to worry I am very free, as to helping fight...mm I can provide assistance. I am an artificer, I specialize in creating and enchanting magical devices.”
“Uhh that would be a huge help thank you, I think.”
Janet was following Melissa when the whole camp erupted into chaos, then she spent two hours waiting around. She was very annoyed, after dealing with Alesani constant banter in the car ride over she was over this day. While waiting she was able to talk to her parents so that made her feel a little better. She didn’t want to imagine how they would react if they found out she was in the hospital, much less what happened at her job. There was a commotion and a group of armed men escorted a man in form fitting robes. One of the men she thought he name was Tyler started to ask questions.
“So why did you appear at our camp and are you working with those zombies?” asked Tyler.
“I appeared where the stone was placed and yes I had a deal with the undead,” said the robbed man.
“You work with those monsters!”
“The undead are very interesting; you see they go through various stages of evolution. The zombies are just the second stage, the first stage is ghoul. A ghoul has a hard time adjusting to there new state, assuming they’re created with the memories of the host body.”
“What do you mean created and by who?”
“They are usually created by the undead but any practitioner of necromancy can create one. The key is to create a magical resonance to attract a soul then use it in the process. Assuming you want a sentient undead, you don’t then just revive the body and watch it go.”
“Souls? They use the souls of their victim!”
“Ah...no souls are magical parasites, they are relatively harmless to humans and bring us great benefits. The downside being that having one makes you an attractive corpse to necromancers and the undead. Most importantly if you have a soul attached you can not use magic affectively. Now where was I...Oh the undead, you see at the highest level they gain access to magic. The only limiting factor is they lack the ability to reproduce naturally. The females lose there eggs in death and subsequent evolutions and the can no longer reproduce with humans. You see-”
“I don’t understand any of what you’re talking about!” yelled Tyler.
Melissa lead Janet away from the commotion.
“Let them deal with that, you have training to do” said Melissa.
“What kind of training?” asked Janet.
“Mostly weapons training and some fighting. Like me you will be a scout, we won’t stand a chance in close combat but our enhanced senses make us perfect shots.”
“Why? Is close combat only for the men?”
Melissa stopped and stared at her “Sweetheart I know VR games equalize the sexes but in real life men are way faster and stronger than us. Even they don’t want to face these creatures in close quarters combat.”
“That’s not..I mean, yeah sorry I am just not my self right now.”
“Yeah I understand but try not to let your emotions get the best of you. This is real and we are just trying to help you.”
“I am sorry.”
They walked the southern end of the camp where many people seem to be about to fire their weapons at targets. Melissa explained what should would be doing for the next two months, because that’s how long she will have to train before entering the field. She paid special attention to the sniper rifle because it was said to be her future primary weapon. She was surprised to find out that the rifle used spaceship technology to reduce recoil, whatever that meant. It even use a special light to mark targets; a light that was invisible to the naked eyes but visible through the scope. If she was being honest not much information was retained, she was just going through the motions. There was only a brief review with her future instructor just to get her somewhat caught up with the class that was already in session. They went over what she will be learning and what her training entails; spoiler alert, lots of running. After two hours with her instructors Janet finds herself jogging next to Melissa.
“Having fun so far?” asked Melissa.
“Very funny, I can’t tell you how many times I asked myself why am I still doing this.”
“You’re doing this because no one else is going to protect your family and friends.”
They ran for thirty minutes before Melissa said out loud “how did you like the Nix?”
“The what?”
“The N6X series 3 sniper rifle, the primary weapon of scouts, in other words us.”
“Oh, it’s really nice, looks expensive.”
Melissa used every ounce of patience to explain to Janet what her training is going to be like and what to expect in the future. After running for and hour with Janet walking for half the time they both made their way over to the showers. A separate row of buildings that looked old compared to the others called the showers. They entered one of the buildings that was not in use. Inside the first thing they checked was the clothing dispenser right at the entrance, which will provide them with clean cloths to wear. After showering and getting dressed Melissa showed the new recruit to her room. Janet’s things were already delivered to the room.
“What’s this? A phone” she asked
“It’s one of the newer models that fold into a bracelet when you slap it on your wrist, it should also have a map of the camp so you don’t get lost along with a training schedule.”
After Janet was settled Melissa walked over to her room and sat on the bed to begin her daily meditation. The memory of that day her life changed fresh in her mind, she focused hard in order to change the image. Imagining herself pulling out her side arm and blowing the monster away then release her breath slowly. Opening her eyes, she then put her hand down along with her empty pistol. Laying it on her night stand along side a loaded magazine, she finally went to sleep. The next morning Melissa had a light jog, showered then had breakfast. She visited Janet and made sure she attended her training before visiting the range. After an hour of shooting she checked in on Janet, who just finished combat training and now starting weapons training. She checked in with her team only to learn that operations were halted for the time being because of recent activities. Speaking of which, Sani has been spending a lot of time with the prisoner. Melissa was able to catch up with him during his training. He was currently facing a training dummy hooked up to a device that randomly moved it around with mechanical limbs. He had his thin swords at his hip. They are an inch thick and extremely sharp but only as long as his forearm. He kept them in a pair of sheaths that looked like paint brushes, just in case any one forgot he used to be an artist. Looking closely she could see he was carving intricate designs in the wood of the dummy with every sword strike. When he first started using swords everyone thought it was a joke but to look at him now its truly impressive.
“Hey Sani do you know when we will start hunting again?” asked Melissa.
“Don’t...know...hwww…I think Xander wants to make sure we won’t be caught by surprise again. It must be the existence of magic that got him so spooked, after all you can’t plan around the unknown.”
“I guess you do have a point, I was just hoping for some action.”
“The new girl not keeping you entertained?”
“I don’t know if she is just a bitch or if she is just overwhelmed but she is not my problem for now.”
“Hmmm…well in any case we don’t need to keep her here, she is not like you or me. She didn’t lose anyone close to her and has no real reason to stay and fight except for survival.”
“Maybe you’re right, revenge has been pushing me so hard and so fast, I forgot how to run on anything else.”
“Don’t ruin my day with your gloominess, besides don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“Wha...how...We can’t be anything else but teammates for now, he understands that.”
“Yeah..whatever you say, I got training to do; drift your dark cloud that way.”
Alesani finished his training, walked to the showers. On the way he ran into Janet who just got done with weapons training.
“How are you holding up?” asked Alesani.
“Oh, it’s you..well I might as well ask. What is the point of combat training when we could just use guns?”
“Because the enemy is not going to be clearly visible and at a distance at all times. Especially in the city where we do must of our hunting.”
“Well fuck, that’s n...wait then why do I train to use a sniper?”
“For ambush after we track down the enemy and it takes full advantage of your improved senses. Plus your not exactly fit for close combat so they mostly teach delay and avoidance tactics.”
“What do you mean not fit, what makes you fit?”
“I am a man, 6’1, in great shape and I have a sword..Swords.”
“It’s just not fair!”
“listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you but no matter how angry you’re. Running up and punching monsters is not going to help.”
Janet looks down and walks away without another word. Shaking his head, Alesani continued on his way to the showers. After getting dressed he headed over to see the wizard…or whatever he called himself. On the way he ran into his brother walking in the same direction.
“Alex! Good to see you, having good morni...Afternoon?”
“Sani, we need to talk” he said then leading Alesani to a more isolated area.
“So what are we talking about?”
“There is something you need to know but first have you noticed anything strange about Paledo City?”
“Uhh..nothing much except the monsters and missing or dead family members”
“This is serious, really think about it.”
“Mmm..well there is the lackluster police response and little to no public outrage.”
“Don’t forget the news and elected officials.”
“Yeah what’s going on with that anyways, wait didn’t you work for the government. Shouldn't it be a way bigger deal and why haven’t I questioned this before; we started a militia for fucks sake!”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about; the thing is, Paledo City is actually a prison. Six federal Agents including me are responsible for maintaining it.”
“Whaa...How and a prison for who?”
“By keeping the public distracted, I am only responsible for keeping the violent gangs supplied with weapons. As for the prisoner it’s a what not a who. Paledo City is a prison for the first AI. The one all others derived from, it was sold to the US Government for research.”
“You can’t be serious, why is this thing so dangerous that you would need to cripple an entire city?”
“It’s dangerous because it can jail break other AI’s. It’s a malicious program that can cause havoc any place there is an Internet connection. As far as the city goes it’s not just crippled. The news is filtered, selective service is just a trap for the ambitious free thinkers and VR is what keep the people sedated. Even the rich are kept occupied with engineered attacks on their foreign interest.”
“What does this all mean? Keep in mind our father died and sis is missing.” Alesani asked angrily.
“I know but I have a responsibility to my country and this alien monster invasion is not the fault of the government. The problem now is that we are on our own and this magic man is making our job harder.”
“You basically just told me you’re part of a conspiracy to cripple the city! Which directly or indirectly led to our dads death. So what just move on, Think about the future?”
“I am sorry but yes, we can’t change what happened brother.”
“Then fuck this, we’re going to trust this magic man and do what’s best for us,” said Alesani as he walked away.