“Rousselot City fascinated me upon the first time I laid my eyes on it. Truly, it was a bastion fort of magnificent proportions. Quite frankly, in Terra, the age of early gunpowder warfare had always been a subject of my fascination. This city boasted defenses so formidable that it apparently was never taken by a direct assault even when one of its curtain walls was destroyed by a mine during the tail end of the centuries-old conflict between the Republic and the Holy Empire.”
- Excerpts from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.
+++
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Rousselot City
JUN 22, 1538 Continental Era (CE)
“Well…I don’t know…” Hans said. They were on top of one of the bastions of the city walls, apparently overseeing the northern approaches of the city. Both he and Adelyn were holding their binoculars. Behind them, Captain Strobel himself was also looking at the distance with his spyglass. Hans lowered his binoculars. “I mean, you’re right, this city has an impressive defense, but do you really think your artillery from up here would hit a demonic entity rushing through that?”
“Well…” he shook his head. “At the very least, we expect it to struggle at breaching the walls. This fortress held on its own for two years, Lieutenant. Two years of starvation, constant shelling, and endless trench warfare.”
Hans returned to his binoculars, looking at the flattened approaches to the city, many of which opened up by roads from the distance. According to Captain Strobel, the city garrison torched the trees around the city a month ago, in fear of that entity reaching the city. It was standard practice, he supposed. The city was technically in a partial mobilization for a siege.
They were partially stockpiling powder, food, and supplies, and they were repairing the defenses. Hell, the reconstruction of the destroyed curtain wall on the eastern approach of the city was ongoing, even if the city’s treasuries were already strained. But at the same time…he thought this was partially unsound.
“It’s as if you’re all preparing for an army to besiege you.”
“Well, all the same, Lieutenant,” Captain Strobel retorted. “Standard procedures. We’d still be fighting it with gunpowder and iron. The walls will act as a barrier it cannot scale. The ditches will be flooded with water to prevent it from entering. The artillery cannonade will kill it.”
“That’s…not…really how it would go down,” Hans said, looking down at the workers bringing in craters that definitely contained cannon balls in one of the detached ravelins. “Look, that thing isn’t going to surround this city, rain down cannon balls on its walls, starve it out, or assault it slowly with trenches and mining tunnels over months. That thing is alone. Powerful. Hard to kill. Nimble. Quite frankly, if it managed to enter…all these defenses might be the death knell if the city folks can’t escape.”
Captain Strobel sighed. “Regardless, this is the only way to inspire calm to the people. The news of the disease and that entity has been a massive terror. The people need walls, Lieutenant, between the horrors outside and them. More importantly, this only means we get to stockpile more weapons and supplies. Rousselot is not meant to be attacked, we are the ones who will sortie out and attack. This city is merely our well-stocked headquarters.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Hans said. He turned to Adelyn. “Captain, what do you think?”
“I don’t know,” she lowered her binoculars. “It’s both overkill and possibly useless.”
Hans turned to Captain Strobel. “Exactly my point.”
“Fine, we’ll take your words to the garrison commander. Still, our job anyway isn’t to defend this city. It’s to hunt that thing. And by the grace of the God of Courage, we shall vanquish that damned thing.”
+++
“I’ve been reading more about the situation,” Adelyn said to Hans once they were back at the church. The preparations of the 4th were still ongoing, with their cavalry detachments still scouring the countryside for the beast. Quite frankly, Hans was feeling quite shifty about their position in the city. The deal effectively locked them here, and they would only sortie once Captain Strobel and Father Olbrich ordered the attack.
Luckily, for the time being, they were free to gather intel with the money they acquired from the deal. Adelyn was tasked with learning whatever she could about the demonic threat, something which she could easily do in the church libraries. Hans on the other hand scoured merchants and bookstores for the history of this land, the geography, and the political situation.
He dropped the books he had acquired on the table. While it was a struggle to find books penned in continental, which was the closest to Lotharingian outside of a few alien words, he managed. Most books he found however were either in “Vanus” or “Virtus”. While they both used the same script, it was the equivalent of him trying to read a book in either Flandrian or Sicilian, and that was simply impossible.
Shame, they seemed to be the high-quality ones, but it made sense. The Vanus and Virtus races were the elites of this land. They must be the ones well educated, and they must be keeping the knowledge of the intelligentsia only for themselves.
Adelyn did the same. She dropped one of the books on the table, this one named, “An Emergency Treatise on the Subject of ‘Demons’”, penned apparently by an Exousian military engineer named “Daniel Specke” just a year ago.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“According to this book, the things really did only appear five years ago. He described them as an ‘unholy abomination of both monster and man’, and ‘quite possibly summoned with dark magics, the intervention of the Archdemons of Hell, or created by the Vanus’.”
“That’s interesting…Archdemons?”
Adelyn shook her head. “No idea, but apparently, there are nine gods and goddesses, facing nine archdemons.”
“Must be superstitions,” Hans said. “I believe these things are biological mutations. Maybe disease-based? Maybe even connected to the ‘system’ or magic. Well, we don’t even know what magic does to a person. What if it turns them into that?”
“That’s why I’m worried,” Adelyn said. “Daniel Specke made a few hypotheses about the origin of these things. One of the worrying hypotheses he made is that these beings are a ‘product of the misery of the mind’, as he puts it, which drives an individual into insanity—and corruption by the Archdemons. We could pin that with magic or the ‘system’, but that’s a substitute. Again…it’s worrying.”
“What more?”
She began flipping through the pages and pointed at one of the passages. “Here, he also described five demonic entities that have been given a name by active ‘anti-demon’ organizations of the Holy Empire. These demonic creatures, they say, are possibly responsible for raising more of them. The immediate threat to us is that it says here that one is active in Ygeia. It’s called the ‘Calamity of Desire’ after the Archdemon of Desire, and she’s been said to have taken down at least twenty settlements in the north by herself for the last three years.”
“How the hell can the Holy Empire even act stupid and not mobilize against this?” Hans said. “Alright, this continent is massive, yes. Hell, the Principality of Ygeia alone is apparently near the land area of West Flandria, but…at this rate, humanity is going to be destroyed.”
“I talked to Father Olbrich about it,” Adelyn said. “But they don’t understand it either. From what I have gathered, it seems that the authorities of the Principalities are the ones taking action against these things. You should also understand that a lot of this is kept in a tight lid to the general population. This book I have…he only gave it to me because I’m a Virtus.”
“...Gee, you really have some racial privilege now, eh?”
“Shut up and focus.”
“Aye.”
“Continuing on, during the time of the writing of this thing, Daniel Specke mentioned that there has only been a recorded five times takedown of these entities. That’s…not great. He also mentioned that in one of the battles, the ‘Pacification of the Black Vulture’, volunteers of the Imperial Mage Corps and hired mercenaries suffered eight hundred casualties during the battle until magically supported artillery took the thing down. That’s not looking good.”
“Seems like all of these things are taken down by artillery,” Hans said. “Even our kill, we took it down with your magical round.”
“Exactly,” Adelyn collapsed on the chair. “Lieutenant, do you see the problem for yourself? We both have brains, no?”
“Yes, obviously.”
“And I think you can understand that we’re screwed if all of these fall apart while we’re stuck here, with no way back home.”
“...Yeah, I’d definitely much rather prefer that this civilization stands over having those nightmares run around. We’d probably be dead if we get overwhelmed.”
“Exactly,” Adelyn then smiled. “But you see, the thing is, we’re technically speaking right now, the most powerful tool mankind has in this continent against these things. You and I are seasoned veterans of a modern battlefield, riding modern military equipment. Most of all, our vehicles are now magical. And who knows how much ‘upgrades’ or skills we would have if we advanced in this ‘levels’ thing. Think about it…we can tip the balance. I mean, killing that demon raised my level to nine, and yours to seven. What do you think? Come on, Lieutenant, aren’t you with me here?”
Her halo lit up more, as she stared up at Hans with that overenthusiastic grin of hers. Hans almost felt himself blinded by the sheer optimism radiating from this woman. This was dangerous, there was no way he could deny her that! Her effects on him almost washed away the doubts and fear he had, which was not something Hans wanted because he knew that would be stupid!
“Okay! Okay! I get you. You have a point. We’re screwed if we don’t help them anyway. But still…we need to be cautious. I don’t know. These things are an unknown threat. But still…is this really what you’re suggesting? The two of us…saving people?”
“Lieutenant, we’re Lotharingian soldiers. Have you remembered your oath to the Confederacy?”
He didn’t really like reciting it much, mainly because he was a damned penal soldier, but whatever. He liked one line of it. “That I shall serve in humanity’s best interest to the best of my abilities.”
“Exactly,” Adelyn nodded. “Lieutenant, not just as two individuals who know how to pilot a powerful weapon centuries ahead of this continent, we’re Lotharingian soldiers, who swore that we will serve humanity to the best of our abilities. I have the flag of my country on my shoulder, and so do you. If the Holy Empire’s government is so stupid not to fight this, then why not give them an example? Two soldiers from a foreign land riding powerful machines, ending demonic threats wherever they two go. Wouldn’t that make us allies to survive?”
“Your level of fantastical imagination is almost scary,” Hans replied. “Also, we run the risk of facing the damned things in the first place, Captain.”
“You’re right, that’s why I’m asking you. Should we try it out? Or should we turn tail, run from this city, abandon the defense of this world? Is there even a way back home? What if this is our only home? What then, Lieutenant?”
“I see your point…” Hans surrendered. “But still, we have to be very cautious.”
“Of course, we have to,” she declared firmly. “That’s why, don’t do stupid maneuvers, Lieutenant. Always prioritize yourself, and your survival. If we have to retreat from a fight to another day, then we shall. Look, we might be holding the lives of tens of millions on our hands, if we are lost…we’ll be doing them a great disservice.”
“Alright, alright, we’ll try it…” Hans said. “And quite frankly, this might be the only option we have anyway. Better do it in the name of duty and responsibility, as soldiers of Lotharingia…”
“Exactly,” Adelyn extended her hand.
“What?”
“Are you in, Lieutenant Hans Hoffman,” she smiled. “In the mission to save this world with me?”
“You’re being weird.”
Now she looked like she was about to cry.
“Lieutenant…when will you learn not to ruin a girl’s imagined moments?”
“Gah, fine, damn it,” Hans groaned, as he shook her hand. “This is stupid.”
“Exactly. Forward Lotharingia! Sounds stupid, but that’s how we go in the Army.”
“Fine…” He shook his head. “I swear, the Goddess must have cursed me.”