+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Villers–Dupont
November 5, 1538 CE
Hans opened his eyes.
Oh well…
He breathed in deeply, as he winced a bit. That same phantom pain of having his legs dissolved and his head blown off was still there for a few moments. Until it all disappeared, and Hans exhaled.
I died again, I guess.
His eyes were glazed as he looked at his displays. He was now back again at Villers–Dupont. Well, he chose to scout that thing, and he found himself defeated alone. Hans practically expected it. He generally stood no chance against demons alone.
Well, as is standard, I’ll just try to steer Adelyn and Captain Weibel into the best approach with this one.
Hans placed his hand beneath his chin as he calmed down. It had been a while since he died, and the last time he died was to the Calamity of Desire. At least he managed to eat his bullet first before being dissolved into a puddle. Hans certainly got off lucky.
Ah, whatever. He stretched his hands as he relaxed on his seat. Alright, clear the mind. Deep breaths. You got this. You know where that demon is. What it’s capable of. And why it’s active.
He assumed it must be driven by a senseless need to consume things. Perhaps, it was why it was that gigantic. Hans looked back at it. That demon was easily as tall as a five-story building. Now that he thought about it…
I checked my goddess-damned thermals on the horizon at all times! He frowned. How is it even possible for me to miss it?
It was ridiculous, Hans thought. Then again, perhaps it was similar to the Rat of Pestilence. Demons seemed to sometimes elude his sensors after all. They could either mask themselves from [ACT: EYE OF PARANOIA] or be somewhat less visible to his thermals.
Perhaps that goo insulates the heat coming from inside. Or maybe that damned slime is just cold.
That means he’d have to rely on visuals.
Maybe I’m just as blind as a bat? But that’s ridiculous. I can usually spot tanks easily from…
Something clicked in his mind.
The black goo! That’s right, those puddles! What if it came from those puddles, that’s why I didn’t…oh goddess…”
He facepalmed.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Hans sighed to himself. He missed the Flandrians. They were much more rigid and predictable than this nonsense. Magical nonsense to be specific. Hans popped his hatch open. Then, he left, basking in the afternoon sun for a brief second. The town’s people of Villers–Dupont seemed to look at him with equal parts suspicion and curiosity, as normal.
So Hans just ignored it and continued walking forward.
It makes you wonder how different Nomos is from Ygeia.
He continued onward, looking at the various wagons passing by on the road. They were all en route to the south—where the demon resided. Hans sighed, dismayed about it. I should get Captain Weibel to warn them. Hans soon reached the area where they all dined.
“Oh, Sir Hoffman!” Captain Weibel called out, his tone still a tad bit lively. “Had a good afternoon nap?”
“I had a decent one,” Hans replied, as he looked back at Lieutenant Preisner and Alizée on the table.
“Ooh, so can you fire that gun thirty times in just six seconds?” Alizée innocently asked with her bright, wide eyes. “Sir Hans can do it very well with his guns. Like…I think it’s even faster!”
Lieutenant Preisner facepalmed to the girl’s incessant questioning.
“I don’t have his fancy-pants guns,” the young man said. “You know what, why don’t you just eat that cake faster?”
“Hmph,” the girl pouted as she sliced her cake. “You haven’t answered my question, sir!”
Adelyn couldn’t stop giggling on the side.
“I think I bought her too much sugar this time around,” Adelyn said.
Hans just nodded in agreement.
“Seems like a common blunder that you keep doing,” Hans said.
“Funny coming from the same man who keeps giving her chocolates,” Adelyn shot back.
“Well, look at her smile. Worth it.”
“I guess you’re right…”
“Anyway,” Captain Weibel interrupted. “Back to the discussion that we were having before you got here. You see, we got a little bit of a complication this time around.”
Hans already anticipated it. But he played along.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Alright, what is it?”
“There’s a reported demon down south,” Captain Weibel said. Then, he smiled cheekily as he pulled out a bottle. “Actually before that—”
“Yeah, no,” Hans waved it off. “Just tell me what’s happening.”
“Well, you’re no fun, Sir Hoffman,” Captain Weibel said. “You know, it’s best to fight half intoxicated.”
“Stop corrupting him with your ideas Jonas,” Adelyn warned from the side. Captain Weibel just chuckled nervously as he retreated.
“Okay, okay,” he closed the bottle again. “Alright, fine. Look, we gotta deal with a slime demon. A black slime demon. It’s releasing this black-colored liquid too. Apparently, it assimilates people and stuff. Dangerous…it seems.”
“Yeah, that sounds concerning,” Hans said, then he looked straight at Captain Weibel. “Down south you mean?”
“Mhm, down south!” Captain Weibel said, nodding. “Well, that just means we’d have to deal with it. This road is too important to be disrupted.”
“Get to the town mayor then,” Hans said. “Warn everyone traveling down south. Tell them a demon’s down there, and that it’s off limits.”
“Hey, hey, we can’t have that,” Captain Weibel said. “I mean, it is down south, yes, but not exactly on the road itself. These are merchants moving toward Nomos. Very important shipments, you know?”
“Yeah, well, are we going to prioritize money and economics over lives?” Hans asked.
“Of course not. I’m just saying, the mayor probably won’t even listen to me.”
“Yeah, that’s a complication. But try it anyway, if he doesn’t budge, I’ll go with you,” Hans sighed. “Alright, moving on, here’s the plan—”
“You have a plan already?” Adelyn asked.
“Of course I do,” Hans said, as he confidently smiled. “I always have a plan.”
“Well, I appreciate that then,” Adelyn said. “So what’s your big plan?”
“Simple. Since it’s a slime monster…”
+++
“So you’re saying that the demon slime thing might be coming out of those puddles?”
“It’s one of the possibilities,” Hans answered.
The two were now circling the area affected by the demon. They were kilometers away from any of the black goo. But still, Hans was being cautious. He had kept his thermals at full alert, looking around the horizon to scan for the massive target.
No returns, however. Which just further supported his hypothesis. It must be in those puddles. Perhaps it was waiting them out. Perhaps it was resting during daylight, and it was only active during nighttime. After all, it would have made some sense to Hans. It would be harder to see in the dark.
It’s possibly also the time when it moves and attacks settlements.
Hans pulled his mech to a stop on the road, just beside a bunch of trees. Behind him, Adelyn did the same, pulling into a quick break as well. They had already left their wagon trailers at the town—guarded by Captain Weibel’s men. Thus, they were now more free with their movement.
When Hans exited his mech and looked through his binoculars, he could see in the far distance as Captain Weibel and a bunch of robed mages rode through the flat fields. They seemed to be surveying the puddles. They stopped near it, with Captain Weibel staying a little bit away from the goo.
One of the mages aimed his staff at the puddle, raising a small sphere. Then, another mage fired a pulse of water at the floating liquid. He continued firing it on the object until it was almost diluted. Then, the mage who kept it afloat tossed it to a tied chicken they had carried.
There was no effect.
Captain Weibel placed his hat back on his head in satisfaction and recalled the mages. They remounted their horses and drove the hell out of the area as quickly as they could. Hans lowered his binoculars and looked to his side.
“We still have a problem,” Hans said. “I don’t think we have a lot of mages specialized in water magic in Captain Weibel’s team. I mean, it’s just—”
“That’s not even the actual problem,” Adelyn cut him off, as she frowned. “Look at how large that…pool is. That’s almost like a small lake that’s melting or converting everything underneath it into the same goo. Even if you have a hundred mages, I don’t think you can just summon an entire lake to fully dilute it and neutralize its effects.”
“Yeah…I suppose,” Hans placed his hand on his chin. “Hey, say, if I get hit again, do you have any special rounds you can use to…err, neutralize that black goo?”
“I do have one,” Adelyn said. “The other counterpart of ADI MPAT…is ADW MPAT. That’s the two basic special rounds that I have. Not that I think it’s a smart idea. I haven’t tested it yet. And besides, it explodes, dumbass.”
“I mean, sure, it will detonate,” Hans admitted. “But my mech is somewhat rated to withstand external detonations. Well, as long as it’s not one-hundred-fifty-five millimeter high-explosive. I mean, yeah, if you use that on me, I’d be crushed like nothing. But maybe your rounds wouldn’t do that, especially the water-based one.”
“You do know that even ADI MPAT has a heightened energy of detonation, even if it incinerates things? And did you forget that the caliber of my main gun is a hundred twenty millimeters?"
“I suppose you’re right,” Hans thought. Then he remembered one of the failed timelines in his fight against the Calamity of Desire. It was one of his most brutal deaths. And it happened just after Adelyn fired her ADI MPAT round close to him. He was so gobsmacked by the detonation that both he and the Calamity of Desire couldn’t even move properly. “Actually, good, scratch that idea.”
“I swear…I don’t want to hurt you with my guns,” Adelyn said. “It’s just never an option, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I was just looking for ideas,” Hans said. “Hmm…though maybe you should do it anyway. Prepare ADW MPAT. Maybe three to four? How much AP do you have on you?”
“I have nine hundred,” Adelyn said. “It’s…well, fully regenerated since the last time I had to use it up. Actually, do you need excess fuel and machine gun rounds again?”
“Nah, nah, I’m good,” Hans said. “My supplies are clear at the moment.”
“Alright…I think I can produce four,” Adelyn said, as she seemed to be checking her system screens beside Hans. Of course, Hans could see none of it, but judging by how concentrated she seemed, it was a simple conclusion. “Ah, well…it costs a hundred sixty AP each. That’s…actually a lot. Even with the reduction due to having the autofabricator upgrade existing on my mech.”
“What’s your AP cap again?”
“Nine hundred?” Adelyn grinned. “Mostly from ascending to Tier II. And of course, the rest came from the attribute I picked. It’s quite nice. Three hundred additional AP cap is nice.”
“I half-expected you to take the bodily enhancement attributes,” Hans joked. “You seemed so jealous about Alizée being able to take powerful hits from a demon.”
“Eh, it’s more important to have more AP capacity for me until I somehow get my own ‘ideal’,” Adelyn groaned. “Not that it’s even worth it. It just feels like aiming for it is torture anyway.”
“...Hey,” Hans asked. “Do you think I’ll manifest an ideal?”
“Probably not. Maybe you’ll manifest ‘cynicism’. That fits your style more.”
“Go fabricate that damned ADW MPAT asshole,” Hans said, as he climbed back to his mech. “Anyway, be very careful. And just aim it at the eyes of the slime. I think that’d work. Maybe. I’ll try to keep its attention off from you anyway.”
“You seem to like doing that all the time,” Adelyn said, as she crossed her arms. “Say, what if you screw up and just…die?”
Hans shook his head.
“I just won’t die,” Hans cracked a cheeky smirk. “Again, don’t worry. It’s fine.”
Adelyn just sighed, as she returned to his mech.
Meanwhile, when he dropped back to his seat, he took his diary and looked at the sunflower he pressed on the end. His exhale was heavy.
After all, I’ll always make sure that the timeline you live in is fine.