One of the bird demons dropped Yang off at the top of the silo, leaving her at the top to look out at the mass of assembled demons below.
A quick estimate put the turnout at roughly two or three thousand demons, ranging from hulking bulls and elephants to shifty-looking rats and bats. The old standardized equipment the demons used to have had degraded, with many demons wearing patchwork armour and keeping makeshift weaponry slung over their backs. It was a rough group of people to form into an army, but Yang could make it work.
Yang stepped up to the ledge of the silo, in full view of the congregation. She cleared her throat and remembered the notes she had prepared the night before. “Good morning, everyone. It’s great to see so many of you here with us today. The Birds did a great job bringing all of you here. Now, I’m sure a lot of you are wondering: ‘Who’s this random cat lady, and who does she think she is, bringing all of us here?’ Well, to start, my name is Yang. I was a basic foot soldier in the Greek invasion force under Commander Erlani, just like all of you. And I want to bring that force back.
Times have been tough for all of us, these last few weeks. We’re scattered and disunited, we have nowhere to go, and the Greeks have been burning us alive just to keep us away from them. I’ve brought you all here so that we can do something about that.
We’ve been sent running from what we swore to conquer in the name of Lord Thel. Well, we failed, and we failed miserably. So I figured, why do we have to do this in the name of Thel? It was him and the people he put in charge of the whole operation that doomed the invasion, not all of you; not the boots-on-the-ground grunts. Thel put all of the captains and commanders in charge because they could fight well, not because they could lead us to victory. But if we stop playing by his rules and let us be led by someone who really can lead us to the victory we deserve, I believe that we can finally bring the Greeks down once and for all, even at a tenth of what we were before everything went wrong.
The Greeks are a bunch of lazy idiots who only beat us because they were created by a dead civilization who a bunch of humans happen to remember. But us? We’re demons! Created for war, trained warriors and honest, loyal fighters! If we put our minds to the task and out-think our opponents, we can beat a group like the Greeks any day of the week!
So what do you say? Are you going to stay behind and slowly die to the elements? Or are you going to come with me, leave Thel behind and prove that we aren’t an army of cannon fodder to be ordered to their deaths? Who’s with me?!”
The crowd below her erupted into roaring applause, raising their arms and bellowing into the air. Immediately, Yang held up her arms and shushed them, pointing in the direction of the Greeks. Remembering the possibility of the Flare, the demons decided to simply pump their arms in silence.
Yang took a moment to really take in the reaction. She honestly hadn’t been expecting this many of them to support her, but it looked like only a few dozen demons were leaving the crowd.
It took almost a minute for the noise to die down. Once everyone was quiet enough for her to be clearly heard, Yang continued. “Now this is the kind of thing that can go places. Start making yourselves at home, this is where we plan our attack. We will come out of this on top, I promise all of you that.”
As the demons on the ground began to disperse, one of the bird demons flew back up and set Yang down on the floor, where Long and Xiao greeted her. Once the bird demon left, Yang fell to her knees, breathing heavily.
Long got down with her, concerned. “What’s wrong, are you okay?”
“Wow…” Yang shook slightly, arms planted in the snow to keep herself steady. “I did it! We’re actually giving it another shot! We’re doing it!”
Xiao smiled, leaning against the silo wall. “Yup. And you’re in charge of it all, it looks like.”
“I… I am! I’m the commander now!” Yang slowly got to her feet, brushing herself off and clearing her throat. “Right. Xiao, you’re in charge of setting up the infrastructure we need to keep this army afloat. I want temporary barracks, designated activity spaces, everything a military base needs. Once that’s done, you’re in charge of organizing and leading our scouting party against the Greeks. Long, I want you in charge of training everyone. I want every single demon under our command in peak condition for fighting the Greeks. Understood? And make sure they don’t get too rowdy, I don’t want us getting Flared. Both of you, work quick. The longer we stay out in the open like this, the higher the chances are of the Greeks noticing us and Flaring us to kingdom come.”
“Yes, Commander Yang.” Long and Xiao responded in unison, saluted and ran off to perform their assigned duties. Yang calmed her heart and steadied herself against the silo as she watched her partners leave. She’d really done it. She was in charge now, and she was making it count. She began walking back towards the farmhouse, her new strategic planning base-slash-home. On the way, she squealed internally at every salute from her passing subordinates.
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-
Mark’s sip of his coffee was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. Horan looked over Mark and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, hey, what’s up?”
Mark looked behind him to see a brown-eyed Primus wearing an oil-stained work coat, holding something behind his back. Mark looked the Primus up and down. “Uh, hi?”
The Primus waved awkwardly. “Hi, uh, my name’s Gratast.”
“Mark.”
“Well, Mark, I noticed your gun next to your bed…. It was a pretty cool gun.”
Mark tensed. “Was?”
Horan scooted slightly away in his chair. “Oh no.”
Gratast chuckled nervously. “Right, yeah. So, I noticed it while I was going to the auditorium and I may have gotten… a little distracted.” He placed down a small black cylinder with a handle on the bottom, like a rolling pin with a missing handle. A bright red button was located on the cylinder near the handle.
Mark looked at the device on the table for a moment, trying to figure out what it was. “…What?”
Gratast cleared his throat. “It’s your gun.”
“I remember my gun looking slightly different.”
“Well…” Gratast rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I made a few upgrades. Couldn’t help myself. Machines and stuff are sorta my thing, and when I see one I haven’t gotten to yet, I get kinda… twitchy.”
Mark picked up what was allegedly his gun and looked it over. “It’s not even recognizable as a firearm.”
“Push the button.” Gratast pointed to the button near the handle.
Hesitantly, Mark complied. In just under a second, the cylinder had elongated and unfolded so that Mark was now holding a perfect replica of his rifle. The extra weight on the end caused the barrel of the gun to tip over and spill Horan’s drink onto his lap.
“Oh, come on, I was all the way over here!”
Mark winced. “I’ll get a towel. But also… What?” He looked the gun he was holding over. Aside from the red button now being located on the bottom of the handle, the gun looked exactly as it did before Gratast modified it, damage and all.
Gratast stood up straight, looking slightly more proud of himself. “The device is capable of rearranging its components into any kind of basic firearm type I could think of. All you need to do to decide what kind of gun it will become is to think of what you want and push the button.”
Mark pressed the button again and the rifle shrank into the size and shape of a pistol. He weighed the gun in his hand. “It’s lighter, where does the extra stuff go?”
Gratast wiggled his fingers. “Primus powers.”
“Yeah, go figure.”
Horan, who had apparently left at some point, came back with a washcloth, dabbing at his lap. “So… mechanical power. That’s cool, I guess.”
Gratast nodded. “Yup. The entire Domain comes to me to fix up random garbage they find. It’s fun. I even got to design and build our tower’s defense systems.”
Mark looked back at Horan. “And where did you get that cloth? I was talking off the top of my head when I said I’d get you a towel.”
Horan put the cloth on the table. “There’s a indoor pool next door. By the way…” He turned to Gratast. “Why is there a pool next to a café?”
Gratast shrugged. “We built this tower a couple thousand years ago. The ambient power from having all these Primoi in one place gives the place a bit of a mind of its own. Rooms are occasionally swapped out with other ones, distances change. It’s weird, but most of us don’t travel very far from our rooms that often, so it can be a little hard to notice if you aren’t paying attention. We usually ask Dad- I mean, Orsinus to tell us where something is if we need it. He just sorta… knows.”
Mark shook his head. “This place is so confusing. But considering that I have this now…” He pressed the button on his gun repeatedly, making it rapidly switch from a pistol to a sniper rifle to a double-barreled shotgun to a submachine gun. “…I’m pretty sure this is the best day of my life.”
Horan feigned surprise. “You have positive emotions?”
“…I think it would be fun to test this thing out, wouldn’t you agree?” Mark turned the safety on and pointed the gun closer to Horan. He was still a long way off from actually aiming at him. Gun safety trumped making a joke.
Horan put his hands up. “Alright, got it.”
Gratast took a step away. “Well, you have fun with that. I overheard that we’re supposed to give you guys stuff to help you out with something, so I guess that’s my gift to you. That works out nicely. Anyway, I left a blast furnace on in my workshop and I should probably turn it off before it burns down the whole tower. Bye!” He ran off down the hallway.
Mark got up as well. “Oh right, we’re supposed to head off to the Down Below. Guess we should meet up with Orsinus then.” He looked outside the café to the hallways on either side. “…Which way was that, again?”
Horan shrugged and got up. “Eh, we’ll figure it out on the way.”