+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

La Veridad City

November 13, 1538 CE

The woman named Valeria seemed weak on her bed even after being healed extensively using the IYC’s high-grade “green powder”. It was, truthfully, a bit wonderful and horrifying for Hans to watch how the young woman’s perforations and open wounds, alongside broken bones and everything else, were magically stitched together as it was applied to her.

A day after that, and now, they were outside of the resting room she used. Inside, the Viceroy seemed to be still talking with her friend. Hans remembered how utterly horrified she was yesterday, but now, when she exited the door, there was only a resigned look on her face.

“How is she?” Adelyn immediately went close to her. “Did she recover? Did it fully work?”

“It did,” the Viceroy smiled a bit at Adelyn before her face turned bitter again as he turned to Hans. “We have to move out. Soon. He’s…coming for us, I think. The Calamity of Injustice and another demon. I can’t let them take out Fort Sagrada down south or gods forbid—this city itself.”

“I already talked to Captain Strobel. He’s getting the rest of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit on defensive positions around the city,” Hans reassured. “We also gave each company commander a beacon gem.”

He turned to Adelyn. She pulled out a red-colored gem from her pocket.

“This should glow if any of them sends a distress call,” Adelyn explained. “Bought the entire stock for two hundred Imperial Marks. But I think it’s worth it.”

“Yeah. That just means we shouldn’t have any unexpected surprises,” Hans added. “We can plan and prepare smoothly if we’re going for an interception mission.”

“...Alright,” the Viceroy nodded. “I’ll also try to organize some of my forces. However…they are of poor quality, I’m afraid. That’s why, I will be going to fight myself. I have to.”

Suddenly, Valeria rushed out of her bed and out of the door as well. The three turned to the younger Virtus woman. Her hair was short, and black. And her eyes were blue. She seemed to have an overly determined glint in her eyes. Which was strange considering her condition yesterday.

What the hell is she thinking?

“Valeria?! What are you doing?” the Viceroy shouted. “Go back to your bed and rest. You need to recover.”

Adelyn and Hans backed off a bit, not interested in butting in between the two.

“Rest? Emilia, are you hearing yourself?” Valeria shouted. Her tears soon appeared as her voice became enraged. “Not until I kill that bastard! That…that mad demon monster calamity whatever he is! He killed Marco and Enrico. He even blew off Marco’s face—in front of my two eyes! I will not rest until I kill him. Give me back my blades, I can still fight!”

“Valeria! Even if the green powder reversed your injuries, you’ve still lost a lot of blood and you’re weakened,” the Viceroy sternly warned. “I am just as angry as you are that we lost them, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be sloppy.”

“Emilia—”

“Stop it. Go rest. Now.”

The younger woman teared up even more, and with anger, she slammed her door when she entered her room. On the other hand, the Viceroy only looked down and sighed.

“...She’s not thinking right,” the Viceroy muttered. She turned to Adelyn and Hans. “So don’t get any ideas yet of us letting her into this mission. She needs rest.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t drag this guy here either if I ever found him…mangled that way due to a fight,” Adelyn muttered.

“Not gonna lie, I feel kinda touched,” Hans replied. “I’d be the same.”

The Viceroy smiled a bit as she watched the two.

“That’s good. You both understand me,” she turned back to the closed door. “I know she does too. She just needs some time and space to grieve. Marco is her…brother, by the way.”

“Her brother?” Hans asked.

“Yeah…I imagine she’s still extremely guilty of losing those two. D-damn it…they’re also my close friends from the Imperial Mage Corps,” she shook her head, almost as if attempting to control her tears. “No, damn it. Let’s just go. We need to start planning our next moves.”

+++

“Well, first thing’s first—what is he?” Hans asked. They were gathered inside the Viceroy’s office. Adelyn, Hans, Captain Weibel, and Captain Strobel respectively. “Because if we’re going to start planning about something, then we better know what we are dealing with.”

Stolen story; please report.

The Viceroy breathed in deeply.

“Okay. First, is the Calamity of Injustice,” she looked briefly at Adelyn, before shaking her head. “He’s…strong. Way too strong. He probably commands most of the lower demon forms in Nomos. He appears to be an old man. Yes, and he looks like a court judge of sorts.”

“...Okay?” Adelyn raised her eyebrows. “Like…what?”

“He wears clothing not too far from those worn by government bureaucrats. But that’s just at the surface. He seems to have this powerful musket pistol on him. And his shots…”

Her eyes slowly bulged out in terror as she explained things. Everyone felt her trauma and discomfort as she slowly started to stutter.

“Hey,” Captain Strobel politely called out. “Hey. Are you alright? You spaced out there.”

“Huh?” the Viceroy snapped out of it, and she started hyperventilating a bit. Then she tried laughing. “Ah, nothing, nothing. As I was s-saying, yes…he has this…gun. And…it’s strong. It’s…way too strong. Not even…not even my barrier spells can withstand it for too long. It’s…”

She gulped.

“A bit scary.”

“...I don’t think you look ‘a bit scared’ over there,” Captain Weibel pointed out, then he gave out a slightly awkward laugh. Adelyn groaned beside him and shoved him on his ribs. “Ouch! Hey!”

“Can you shut for a while? The lady is clearly giving her traumatic experience. Please have some tact.”

“Okay, okay! Apologies. I just, yeah that was insensitive of me I suppose,” the IYC mercenary soon visibly slackened.

“Ah, apologies if I made all of you uncomfortable,” the Viceroy hurriedly said. “It’s just…I had a bad experience fighting him. Even if I’m one of the stronger people in the Imperial Mage Corps, I struggled. Too much. A-and I almost died. Before the Calamity of Injustice, I admit, I thought of myself as someone invincible.”

So she came face-to-face with her mortality. Hans observed. Maybe that’s why she wanted me to test out my gun on her. She’s clearly unsure of her abilities after that confrontation.

Hans sighed. Her situation seemed way too familiar to him.

“Well, I suppose you got a fresh new perspective in life there,” Captain Strobel said, as he took his seat at last. “Hope you know a thing or two about fighting him.”

“He’s tough,” the Viceroy said. “He creates this…red-colored shield barrier around him. And it’s good at deflecting my spells. When I came face-to-face with him, he had annihilated an entire regiment that I sent. I tried to whittle him down for many minutes with my spells. But it just…wasn’t enough.”

“I imagine that took a lot of AP?” Adelyn asked.

“Yes. When I fought him, it was almost a tug-of-war. Except I don’t think I had a chance to outlast him. He seemed…to have an extremely large amount of AP. And each of his shots was a powerful blast that I struggled to defend against.”

“Fighting him then would be akin to fighting a battle of attrition,” Captain Weibel concluded. “We’d need to get all of our battlemages in position. Pummel him with magical and ballistic attacks. Until he runs out of his juice. Then Hans and Adelyn here can do the heavy lifting.”

“I hope that can work,” the Viceroy nodded. “But…I think he also has some tricks on his sleeve that I know nothing about. He seemed way too calm when we fought him. As if he was just employing his basic attacks because we were nothing but insects to him.”

“Hmm…that’s a problem,” Hans placed his hand on his chin. “Yeah, we need to figure out whatever shenanigans and tricks that he has. If we push him to the brink far enough, he’ll absolutely bring out his other abilities.”

Hans turned to Adelyn. She seemed to be thinking deeply about something. He ignored her for now and continued discussing with the rest of the team. Though he closely noted how rare she would speak this time around.

+++

“Hey! Hey!” Hans shouted, rushing straight to where their mechs were parked. It was near the city’s gate entrance, sheltered underneath two makeshift hangars, practically just converted warehouses. “Where the hell are you going?”

She climbed on the Diligence, opening its hatch.

“I need that skill,” Adelyn replied. “I need it. I…I’ll go search for targets to pad up my levels a bit. Then get that skill. At least, if we have to fight that monster, then I better live up to being the ‘Angel of Justice’.”

“Are you trying to manifest your ideal or some bullcrap? Because if that’s a risky endeavor, you probably shouldn’t.”

“I’m not. I just need to take the ‘PAS: Angel of Justice’ skill,” Adelyn explained. “That should…I’m sure it’ll give me some better chances at fighting the Calamity of Injustice. I mean, the last time I saw it, it said that it would allow me to mark people who committed injustices. Kinda like your skill. Or how Alizée seemed to know where the Calamity of Desire was before we killed it.”

“Uhh, you do know that the skills that appear are randomized whenever we get a chance to pick one?”

“Yeah? Well, better I try at least before rushing headfirst to a potentially deadly enemy,” she jumped straight into her crew quarter. Hans sighed, knowing she was right. And he went straight to the Peacemaker as well.

“I’m joining you then!” Hans shouted as he climbed his mech. Her mech already began driving forward, and it stopped. Her speakers spoke up, though the volume was lower than normal.

“What? Do you need it too? I can handle monsters, you know? You should just continue planning with them, and not waste munitions. I’m different. I can regenerate a lot of AP to replace what I lost.”

Hans shook his head and jumped straight inside of his Wanderfalke. He watched as his display screens booted up, and how his computers began checking each subsystem of his mech. Immediately, the radio link between the two was reestablished, and Hans spoke on the comms.

“Nope. I’m joining you,” Hans replied. “I got enough AP to cover my machine gun usage. I heard there were monsters ambushing merchant convoys a few klicks north of the city. We can scour that place and raise our levels. Besides, I might get something useful out of it too. I don’t think I’ll need to use my main gun anyway. Maybe you’ll need it, but my job will be mainly to cover you. That’s it.”

He heard her breathe in deeply.

“Alright…you’re such a worrywart.”

“Eh, you’re my partner,” Hans smiled. “Just as you always have my back, I’ll always have your back. Okay?”

“...Right. Let’s move out then.”

Hans pressed his feet on the gas pedal.

“Roger that, Captain.”