“The recorded attacks of these ‘Demonic’ creatures have been increasing for the past five years. Economic devastation, attacks on significant settlements and population centers, and loss of farmland, industries, and trade routes, all constitute a crisis that the Imperium must recognize and act upon. The actions alone of individual field armies, mercenary companies, local lords, and the Principalities will not be enough. This treatise shall thus analyze in depth the threat that the continent is facing in the hopes that our venerable Empress would finally present herself to the people with a plan to counter these unholy threats.”

- Excerpt from “An Emergency Treatise on the Subject of ‘Demons’” by Daniel Specke.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

En Route to Belancon

This was a damned massive problem, Hans knew.

“Damn it! This guy’s turning!” The shout from one of the musketeers distracted the four from observing one of the tied undead soldiers, and they made their way to the other tied soldier…or at least, a former soldier. The musketeers that were on watch backed ever so slightly, their muskets aimed at the creatures as Father Olbrich arrived, obviously ready to open fire should he escape.

“Gentlemen, where was this man bit?”

“He was bitten on the legs, Father,” one of the musketeers answered. “It’s only been five minutes at most.”

“Damn it…it’s a fast-acting disease,” Hans mumbled, as the former soldier tried to lunge at them. They had formed a semi-circle about ten meters away from it, surrounding it. The soldier was salivating like a rabid dog, eyes completely devoid of his pupils, and of course, he had those blackened veins…

Seeing them upfront, Hans certainly felt that sheer terror. He didn’t want to turn into whatever the hell that was.

“That it is,” Father Olbrich said, his voice heavy. “And that’s our secondary worries about all of this. What if this thing escapes this county? No…what if it already did? What if it even reaches Rousselot?”

“It’s disgusting…” Adelyn said, her body hair definitely raised as she almost flinched each time the creature twitched. “Goddamnit and I thought those bioweapons the Flandrians were sending was brutal.”

“I thought being nerve-gassed was brutal,” Hans said, as he continued observing it. “So this is the crap we’re dealing with. And there’s supposed to be more than a dozen demonic entities running around already. And more are coming. Damn it…this could be a full-scale epidemic…”

“This certainly doesn’t bode well,” Captain Strobel said. “Fifty years ago, a great plague swept through the continent so bad that the Republic and the Holy Empire almost stopped fighting at the sheer damage it inflicted on us.”

“Is this even still contained in this county?” Hans asked.

“The 4th is trying,” Captain Strobel said. “Our mounted units have already blocked all access routes, and are killing these things whenever they are sighted outside of the overrun towns and villages. It’s quite a bit of luck that this county is massive for its population, and there are only a few routes out of it, except for the sea…”

“What’s Rousselot City doing to prevent these things from getting in?” Hans asked.

“The Garrison of Rousselot City has already swelled to at least ten thousand militiamen,” Captain Strobel answered. “Half of them are armed with muskets. We also have a number of mages already keeping order alongside the priestesses and priests of the St. Heka church monitoring and dealing with the population.”

“Quite…the organized response, huh?”

Father Strobel nodded. “The Countess is meticulous. The Company and the Principality can abandon us in our time of need, but we’re all going to do what must be done to save this county.”

“...Do we have anything to counter it? Magic, or anything? Maybe we can cure these things?” Hans asked.

“No,” Father Olbrich answered quickly. “No.”

“Is anyone trying to find a cure for it?”

“No. There is no cure,” Father Olbrich said. “I already tried it. It failed. Again and again. There is no point. All we can do is shoot them.”

“...You tried?”

Father Olbrich’s gaze darkened as he looked at Hans. “I am a priest. Of course, I tried. It’s my job. I even dissected these things just a night before I met you two. There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing I can do. I’m not Grannus Courbet. I’m not him.”

“Grannus?”

Father Olbrich held his tongue. “Nothing. Gentlemen, shoot these things. Free them from their misery.”

With that, Father Olbrich turned around and left, leaving Adelyn, Hans, and Captain Strobel. Captain Strobel sighed, turned to his men, and gave the order. “Lads, you heard him. Kill everyone who turned. Open fire.”

Both Adelyn and Hans didn’t have time to cover their ears when the musketry went off all around them for the last time in this battle.

+++

“What the hell was his problem with that Grannus guy?” Asked Hans as Captain Strobel returned to his horse. Captain Strobel turned around, almost hesitating to answer before he gave up.

“Best priest of the St. Heka church. Also a Vanus. Originally the head priest of St. Heka church even. His healing magic can almost reverse all ailments…almost like the green powder of the company. Was a good man, I remember. He’s Father Olbrich’s closest friend. Perhaps why it’s a sore topic to Father Olbrich. He disappeared two months ago after his mother died.”

“...Didn’t this thing appear two months ago?” Hans asked. “What happened to his mother?”

“Look, I don’t know the full story either. All I know is that his mother died of an ailment he couldn’t cure with his magic. Rumor said Father Courbet threw all of his money to acquire H-Grade Green Powder from the Company. For some reason, they didn’t give him any. Then his mother died. Days later, he’s gone.”

“And all this suddenly happened?”

“Painful coincidences my friend,” Captain Strobel mounted his horse. “For all we know, he died from this thing, that’s why he didn’t return. He was a grieving man in his last days. Not exactly the best types to survive these kinds of things. A shame really, he was a brilliant man. Both a medical scholar and a priest. We lost someone too valuable, even if he was a known anti-imperial priest.”

“Wait, if he can reverse diseases with his skill, shouldn’t we prioritize conducting search and rescue for him?” Hans asked. “He might be our best asset if found. And if he's, as you said, basically the equivalent of a medical scholar, wouldn’t he be the best to search for a way to fight these things?”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“We already did. We didn’t find him. That’s why Father Olbrich is inconsolable when his name is uttered,” Captain Strobel frowned. “Now get back to your vehicle. Our mission will continue. If we cannot find a cure to this, then we’ll slay that beast. Stop the spread from the source.”

He turned back to his men, who were still packing the bodies of their fallen comrades into a ditch. “Everyone, quicken your pace, please. We’ll mourn later. Torch them now, and we’ll move forward. No other choice.”

+++

“Lieutenant…” Adelyn spoke through the comms as they drove through the route. They were once again acting as the tip of the spear, as the main force either looted the village or continued forward through the road behind them. Both Hans and Adelyn however now advanced forward more aggressively after their blunder in the last engagement.

They could not afford any further blunders.

“I have a new skill available.”

Hans nodded, as he focused on driving. “I know. Me too.”

“Should we check it now?”

Hans looked left and right through the environment they were passing through. It seemed…desolate. Outside of a few crows that would fly from the fences on the side of the road, it seemed as if this place was truly overrun by those things. That tugging distaste was one back in his mind. He didn’t know enough. He hadn’t even seen that thing yet.

In fact, since the conclusion of the last firefight, the skies had been slowly darkening. He had a bad feeling about that. If it rained…then this entire operation might turn into a disaster. Hopefully, though, this was just a bad fluke, or they still had a few hours to track that thing and kill it before it rained.

Otherwise, it’d be another battle only Hans and Adelyn could fight.

Worse, he didn’t even know how it started this…this literal bioweapon attack. A demonic rat that killed people by spreading this kind of disease…

He was not part of a CBRN unit. He and Adelyn were never trained to deal with these kinds of threats outside of donning their protective suits or staying in their vehicles, which yes, could resist chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear elements/threats outside. But to actually deal with biological contamination?

They were stretching their appointed specialization with this. Hans and Adelyn specialized in killing Flandrian armor. Not this.

“Alright, let’s make a pit stop. But we cannot choose yet. We’ll just check it out.”

The two of them stopped right on the side of the road and then dismounted with their weapons on them.

“Alright, I’ll do it first,” Hans said.

Status Check.

+++

New Skills Unlocked!

[PAS: CYCLE OF TRUTH—Only Available to the Angel of Truth/Fallen Angel of Truth!]

- Allows the user to return back in time to a predetermined set-point by the user's patron Archdemon/Deity whenever the user dies. This is a time-bending skill, and other time-bending users can interfere with this unless the user's time-bending skill tier is higher than their time-bending skill tier.

Picking this increases its Tier to Tier II!

[PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES—Only Available to Fallen Angel of Truth/Calamity of Lies!]

- Whenever a user dies and returns back in time, level progress is reset. However, a progress booster will be in effect until the user returns to his previous life's level. Alongside this, the user's status sheet will be hidden to all entities, except for those who have a higher tiered status check active skill than the tier of this skill.

Effects: +25% Progress Boost until level is restored to the user’s level in his last loop (Tier I). This skill is kept upon death.

Status Sheet Updated!

Current Status: Healthy (No Special Health Effects)

Name: Hans Hoffman

Age: 25

Race: Vanus

Type: Fallen Angel of Truth/Calamity of Lies

General Tier: I

LVL: 11

Class: Mech Pilot (Vanguard)

Passive Skills: [PAS: CYCLE OF TRUTH I]

Active Skills: N/A

Mech Upgrades: [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA I]

Available Arcane Points: 140 PTS [UNLIMITED CAP]

+++

Hans…

Didn’t know what to say to Adelyn now. He didn’t know what he should even do now. What the hell did it mean by that? Fallen Angel of Truth? Calamity of Lies? Wait…so that was why he kept looping back in time upon death? It was…truth’s ability? This was bad.

Very bad.

Worse of all…his fears were confirmed. He was one of the Calamities. He was…he was truly a goddamned demon. Well…maybe it fits. He was a bloodthirsty ace pilot. He had killed so many people in his service. That was his entire thing. Murder. Endless murders. Innocent lost traveler his arse…he was…he was a walking Calamity that managed to hide in the ranks of normal people…

He turned to Adelyn, trying to keep himself awkwardly composed. Should he…should he tell her anything?

No…of course not. No…this has to be a lie. A joke. He wasn’t one of those things. He would not cause any of these. He would never. He would absolutely never.

“Lieutenant…” Adelyn seemed befuddled. “Um…I have a confession to make…”

“Uh, what exactly did you see?”

“I’m…” She took a deep breath. “I’m the Angel of Justice. It’s…it’s on my status sheet now. When I took a look at my unlocked skills, it was literally that. ‘PAS: Angel of Justice.’ And then my status sheet was updated. I’m…I’m one of them…”

Shit…so she’s now supposed to be my enemy?

He shook his head. “Um…okay, that’s…oh boy, that’s…”

Adelyn almost seemed frustrated. “Lieutenant…what the hell is this? Why would they do this to us? They turned you into a Vanus, a race already hated by everyone, and me, I’m supposed to be an Angel. That’s such a dangerous—-”

“Alright, alright, let’s hold our horses here,” Hans said. “Let’s…erm, we’ll navigate this. First of all, we’ll definitely have to hold off this information until it’s safe…”

“Alright…wait, what about you? What skills did you find available?”

Hans found his tongue twisted. “Erm, yeah…it’s pretty crap actually. Something about hiding my status? Yeah, that’s all really. I mean, it’s useful for counterintelligence, but…yeah, I’m afraid I’ll have to stick with my normal guns for now.”

“Did…did you find out anything? Did anything in your status sheet change?”

Hans scratched the back of his head. “Yeah…nothing, really. I guess I’m just another Vanus compared to you. Like Alizée, I’m just noted as ‘uncorrupted’...whatever the hell that means.”

Adelyn breathed in. “Damn it, so I’m soon going to be the prime target of these things. And it’s going to be my job to kill them. What if…what if they actually start hunting me? I thought I could just hide from the shadows and hunt them when they least expect it. You know what it’s like with demons and angels…they’re mortal enemies. I have a target painted on my back.”

“Alright, look,” Hans tried to calm her down. “We’ll deal with this. If the bastards try to come in and hunt you, then again, we’ll make allies, we’ll put them down together, as we planned. If anything, this could be something good. Tell me, what are your two skills about?”

“Alright…‘PAS: Angel of Justice’ seems to be all about me somehow detecting anything that committed injustice to their fellow beings…whatever the hell that means.”

“Okay, next?”

“The second one, ‘ACT: Wrath of the Law’ is termed as a basic attack spell. I get to…apparently, use special anti-demon fire magic. I can turn my bullets into incendiaries…or I can apparently use it to cast my own magic. All I understood is I get to burn demons with this ability.”

“Okay, that’s cool. It seems that most of your skills are connected to burning demons alive. Fitting for the Angel of Justice…”

“Ugh, I don’t want to hear that title!” She seemed embarrassed by it. “The God or Goddess of Justice must have a special defect in their mind to choose me for that role.”

I think whoever pulled me into this world is the same.

“Alright, we’ll figure this out later. It might be useful against this undead, so if you think you have to, choose the second one. But we’re not sure yet if we’ll need the first one, so…well, try to delay as much as possible.”

Adelyn sighed and nodded. “Alright…I get it.”

“Let’s get moving. I feel like it’s about to rain. We have to find it already.”

Adelyn nodded before she returned to his mech. As for Hans…he already picked his choice of skill. [PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES] it would be. Not only did he need that progress boost whenever he died…

He’d hide this thing for now until he figured out what to do with himself.