BEEP!!! BEEP!!! BEEP!!! Lucy forced her eye open as she reached for the alarm. “I’m still not dead I guess” She thought as she began putting on her armor. She had been assigned patrol duty, again. It was the only job she was capable of as her magic was enchanting magic and not the good kind that could make someone a fortune. She was only capable of enhancing her own physique to about two times the normal strength of a normal knight. When comparing that to someone who could engulf an entire field on fire with the snap of their fingers she was barely qualified to be considered a mage; it also didn’t help that she only had one functional eye. She had been born with an alignment that could be described as a demonic curse by the doctors that inspected her. She had to always have it covered by holy bandages or risk the curse spreading to the rest of her body and eventually cause her death. She had lived with it all her life was barely a thought, more concerningly her stomach growled with anticipation so on her way she grabbed a piece of stale bread and set out for the day. 

It was still dark in her district as it was besides the holy barrier. The barrier was meant to protect the final stronghold of humanity from the threats of beyond. Twenty years prior the doors to hell had broken open in Las Vegas. Humanity wasn’t prepared from threats that didn’t have physical forms. The entirety of the Americas were completely wiped out within 3 months. When all seemed lost the vatican made an announcement that proved to be hopeful. They had found individuals that seemed to be blessed and could harness energies that could affect the demons, thus the Mage was born. The church became increasingly wealthy as the world began asking for their assistance, but even then they did not have the numbers needed to protect everyone so they created the barrier using all the mages power at their disposal and inside is where the rest of humanity now lives.

“You’re late” The Captain barked at Lucy. 

“I’m sorry Sir. Won’t happen again” She responded

He grunted in acceptance of this answer and sent her to her post. This was her life, wake up and go to her station where she stood guard for twelve hours a day, trained for six hours and slept for six. Occasionally she’d have to use what earnings she got and shop for food, but most of it was used just to pay for the holy bandages that kept her alive. She had no family as she was an orphan and no would adopt her when they realized her magic power was essentially worthless and would only disgrace their name to have a cursed child. She thought it was funny that even at the end of the world people would still care more about their pride than a child. Those with greater magic ruled, those without it were considered a burden. Lucy had come to terms with this all and had been lucky to have some friends to rely on from her days at the orphanage, so now she was getting by even if just barely.

She sometimes wondered why they were even standing guard as the demons rarely even came close to the barrier and those that did couldn’t even scratch it. As the fourth hour of the rolled on by she found herself dozing off to sleep.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“The end. It begins.” a voice whispered. It was so faint she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not. She looked around and realized all she could see was darkness, but that was impossible; it was the middle of the day. She suddenly felt the sensation of drowning in what felt like temperatures colder than ice. She attempted to scream, but nothing came out. 

“Hush or they’ll hear you”

SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!! 

Lucy’s eye shot open only then did she realize she was sprawled out on the floor. She had fallen asleep. 

SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!!

“DANGER STATUS LEVEL TWO, IMP SWARM INCOMING, ALL UNITS TO THEIR STATIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL”

SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!! SCREECH!!!!!

Lucy looked around her and couldn’t see anything in her immediate vicinity. She looked through the desert ahead of her to see something vaguely moving on the horizon. The something was moving extremely quickly in her direction. She didn’t understand as the announcement was for an imp swarm and they generally only came in numbers at about a few hundred, but they were slow and clumsy. This wasn’t an imp. It kept coming closer till she could make out what looked vaguely like a bull on its hind feet. It was holding an enormous axe as if it didn’t way more than a pencil and had a long whipped tail straight behind it. As it was nearly fifty meters from Lucy it stopped. She pulled out her enchanted sword and readied herself for the encounter……, but it never came the demon just continued to stare at her not moving an inch.

“What are you” she called out, but received only a cold stare in return. She began to assume it wasn’t the intelligent type of demon and could not speak their tongue. As she stood readied wondering what to do she noticed the horizon had gotten darker behind the demon. It was as though a sea of black had begun to engulf the entirety of the horizon on every side of the station. 

CLAP 

“AAAAAHHHH” she screamed. Her Captain just stood there laughing. She then began to realize while she was so fixated on this creature she had gotten reinforcements to assist her from the oncoming swarm.

“Sir, have you ever seen a-a-a-anything like this before?” She asked, quiveringly

“Can’t say I have caterpillar, but it just means today’s pay day” He said with a grin

“What? Why?” She asked

“Where else do you think all those magic crystals came from? They may not be worth much, but each imp crystal is worth about ten percent of your pay”, he said and then gestured to the horizon, “ so how much do you think all that is worth” 

Lucy’s eye began to widen as she went from looking at her captain to the now in vision army of imps. 

“JUST STAY ALIVE AND YOU’LL GET A CRYSTAL FOR EVERY IMP YOU KILL, BUT REMEMBER MONEY IS USELESS IF YOU’RE DEAD” The captain shouted to the platoon. “IF WE GET OUT OF THIS ALIVE, ALL YOU CAN EAT TONIGHT FOR ALL”

Lucy started scanning the horizon again and realized that the demon she had seen before was gone. She wasn’t sure when it disappeared, but it was no longer there in the coming wave. She didn’t have time to worry about it any longer. She summoned her magic and enchanted herself and began to charge at the incoming wave.

Demon Classification: [Imp]

Features: [Bright Yellow Eyes, 1M Tall, Wield pitchfork or sword. 0.5M Tail that they can use as a whip]

Magiks: [Minor flare - Throws small fireball that may cause burns. Low level resistance enchantment can prevent all effects]

Attack Power: [Low range and attack power, but only attack in swarms]

Defense: [Non-Existent any enchanted sword can cut through their defenses]