“All demons, to date, have all appeared to present a different body structure, abilities, capabilities, and threats to mankind’s forces. While the use of steel and gunpowder against these creatures have proven as the best weapons for most demons encountered, the so-called ‘Calamities’, demons theorized to be responsible for expanding their numbers—none have been killed by conventional weaponry.”
- Excerpt from “An Emergency Treatise on the Subject of ‘Demons’” by Daniel Specke.
+++
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Rousselot City
Right in front Hans…
It was a pure nightmare.
The streets were almost half-frozen. There was rubble everywhere. And he could swear the blood of hundreds of bodies were laden on the streets. The Countess’ estate, the center of Rousselot City itself—was now half destroyed.
Down on the wider streets leading to it, there were just not even a hundred musketeers left. All of them, standing on the hasty barricades and defensive structures they erected with carriages, barrels, or even the rubble from the destroyed buildings all around them—even two artillery pieces—their guns and pikes, all of it, were aimed at a singular person standing in front of the entrance of the Countess’ estate.
Silver hair, two black horns, a red eye that glowed, and most terrifying to Hans, six sharpened appendages from her back.
Had…she…?
Misery of the mind.
Misery of the mind, Hans remembered.
Misery of the mind. The girl. Alizée, the singular girl that this city merely tolerated, but never accepted. The girl without anything left, and fearing abandonment. Was this where it all led into?
Hans…did he perhaps fail her?
All because he focused more on the defense of the city than protecting her? Then reassuring her that everything would be alright?
She was a child.
Her mind was weak.
And to put her into this type of torment. When Hans was one of the few that she could trust in her time of crisis…
He was gone—working instead on organizing fortifications that turned out useless.
This is my damned fault.
Again!
“I knew it!” Right on the front-most section of the battlefield, in front of the cowering musketeers who couldn’t even fire their guns, were five persons facing her directly, all of them cautiously retreating as they kept their weapons trained on her.
Captain Strobel was backing ever so slightly, hatred clear on his face, his two wheellock pistols aimed squarely at Alizée’s demonic form.
Captain Wittenstein, just behind, was clutching a bloody hole in her torso, her bloodied hand holding her pistol, as one of the IYC mercenaries, Lieutenant Preisner tried to keep her standing as he tried to pull her back into cover, to no avail as Adelyn denied it.
Then Captain Weibel, his saber, which had a light blue glint from it, most likely magical in nature, was aimed squarely at the girl as five slowly backed down.
And finally, Father Olbrich, now holding a staff of sorts, aimed it directly at Alizée.
“I damned knew it!” Captain Strobel shouted. “That girl. I knew she was gonna turn into one of them!”
“Would you please shut up!” Adelyn countered. “That monster clearly used that crystal on her! That monster corrupted her! It’s not her fault!”
“Well…shite, I’ve never been face-to-face with a human-like demon before,” Captain Weibel tried to muster up a cocky smile. “I must say, she certainly has the spooks in her looks.”
“Damn it all! Am I supposed to fire lethal magic on a child?!” Father Olbrich said. “This is disgusting!”
“Is this my fate?!” Alizée shouted as despair oozed from her eyes. “To be abandoned?! By you all?! What? What did I do to deserve all of this?!”
“She’s talking crazy,” Captain Stobel said. “That thing’s talking crazy! Men of the 4th! Fuckin…why are none of you all opening fire?! Open fire damn it! Anyone who retreats will have their blood on my saber!”
“Cease fucking fire all you muppets!” Hans advanced forward, and the five turned to him. SMG raised, he passed through the lines of soldiers that kept watch, many of whom began deserting their positions as he moved forward. Even the crew of the cannon promptly ran away as Hans passed by them. “I’ll put a goddamned bullet on anyone who harms her!”
“Can’t you see?!” Captain Strobel shouted. “That damned girl you dragged here turned into one of them. She’s gone, Lieutenant Hoffman! You can’t bring her back. Damned Vanus, it’s them. It’s really them turning into demons!”
Hans didn’t give the clearly panicking officer any heed, as he advanced straight to Adelyn. She eyed him with the most apologetic look in her eye.
“What the hell happened?”
“I’m sorry…” Adelyn said. “I…I couldn’t just tell her that we’ll take her in. You said it yourself. She’d be in danger. Then…then that monster. It attacked the estate, took her hostage, and then…”
“Then what?”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“Some sort of black crystal,” Adelyn started turning hysterical. “Then…then she started attacking everything, while the Countess chased the other demon. I can’t…”
“Sir,” the man holding her, Lieutenant Preisner, spoke up. “She’s badly injured. The girl attacked her with some sort of ice magic when she tried talking to her.”
“I’m fine, I’m sure it didn’t hit anything critical—”
“No you’re not,” Hans nodded. “Drag her out of here now, and get some of those priests or whatever to heal her. Off you go, Captain.”
“I still need to talk—”
Her voice became more and more silent as the IYC mercenary dragged her off to the backlines. Hans sighed and stood as confidently as he could. Alizée seemed to be emitting some sort of cold wind around her, and Hans could feel the temperatures drop rapidly to sub-zero as he advanced. It was cold.
Oh so cold.
But he lowered his SMG, as she stared at him. Raising his hands, he attempted to talk to her.
“Alizée,” Hans said. “Please calm down. I know it’s all awful right now. I know there have been a lot of mistakes that have happened around you. I really am sorry for all of it. I am. I’m sure Adelyn is too.”
“Stand back,” she replied, but Hans didn’t understand it. “Stand back if you don’t intend to die!”
“Look, just calm down,” Hans continued trying. “There is always another way, Alizée. We’re going to put down that monster, it won’t touch you again.”
“I said stand back!” She looked like she was crying, as she raised her hand in Hans’ direction. It started glowing a terrifying blue. “You’re going to abandon me. So don’t you dare talk to me like that!”
“Lieutenant Hoffman!” Captain Weibel shouted from behind. “She’s going to freeze everything! We have to retreat now!”
“Go retreat your asses if you want to!” Hans shouted at them.
“She’s unstable,” Father Olbrich said. “That crystal. Whatever it is, it seems to have intensified her emotions greatly. Now she’s…”
“Spit it out, Father.”
“I’ve been studying how demons work since we learned that it was Grannus Courbet who turned into that creature…and…I think they’re purposely corrupting individuals with high potential for magic when they’re in their lowest emotional state into whatever that thing is.”
“Great, so we’re really dealing with people gone crazy and turned into monsters?!”
“I’m afraid that’s the case.”
“Then why is she holding her position instead of going into a full-on blood-lusted rampage?”
“...She’s probably not yet fully corrupted.”
Damn it. Hans looked at her. Then around them. It was clear that she already killed a lot of people, and she probably must have been responsible for some of the destruction around them, and she already harmed Adelyn, but right now, she was seemingly holding off from blasting Hans to smithereens.
Hans absolutely would not strike her down in this condition.
Absolutely not. If anything…he’d rather die and do this all again than live in a world where he killed a child that relied on him. He stepped forward. Maybe he could still pull her out of it. Slap some sense to her.
Make her realize that there was still good in the world.
“Alizée,” Hans said. “I know you don’t understand me…well, maybe you do, very little. But I want to tell you now. It’s fine. It’s alright. There are still solutions in the works. We’re thinking hard about it, and all…”
“Thinking hard about abandoning me in this city?!”
“Just…look,” Hans continued forward, but a sudden spike of ice slammed just above his ear, slamming straight into one of the buildings and freezing its upper structure. Hans stood still…that was powerful. Certainly way too powerful judging by the distant sounds of panic from the troops that still had the balls to remain and confront this new demon.
But…
He smiled at her.
“Alizée…” Hans breathed in.
“What?!”
“There’s still hope, okay?” Hans said. “Come back to us. I said it back there, and I’ll say it again. You’re a good girl. Just in a bad situation and all. Hell, I doubt you’d end up like this without that damned creature scrambling your brains or whatever. You’d just…go back to your room, and probably cry silently to yourself.”
Hans laughed to himself.
“And you probably did that a lot already, I just…never noticed. I’m kinda stupid that way. But this time, I’m sure that if you need to cry, hey, you have someone who can listen, even if I can understand jack about you.”
Hans raised his hand to her, almost as if gesturing for her to take it.
“We won’t abandon you. And as I’ve said when I rescued you that dark night…everything will be alright.”
Alizée stared at Hans’ hand silently, almost debating whether or not she should take it. Slowly…more tears appeared on his cheeks. She couldn’t even hold her hand up, as the glow, both in her eye and her hand slowly dimmed. Hans held his position, just slowly waiting. She was getting back to her senses. Hell, he could notice the traces of corruption, those appendages starting to wither.
Come on, kid.
Just a little bit more.
“Sir Hans…I…” she cried out. “I’m sorry—”
“Open fire on her! It’s our last chance!” A shout emanated from behind. Hans immediately dropped flat on the stone road as the powerful cracks of musketry opened fire all around him after Captain Strobel’s orders. He looked at her, as dozens of musket balls sped up by magic slammed straight into her small body.
Alizée stood, blood oozing from the many holes in her. Then…she laughed hysterically.
“Liars! All you adults always lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! Endless lies!”
Great…thanks, Captain Strobel, for ruining it. Guess I’m dead again then.
The demonic corruption present in her body intensified, as she raised her hand forward. The appendages that were supposed to be withering, zoomed out of her and brutally stabbed six random musketeers in various areas. As her hand glowed an even stronger blue, the rest of the remaining soldiers retreated in a complete, panicked rout.
Even Captain Strobel returned to his horse and dashed the hell out of the area, before being killed brutally by one of the tentacles from the eel that finally arrived on their rear, slaughtering most of the running soldiers.
Captain Weibel, seeing doom, finally lowered his saber and began patting his uniform and fixing his hat in its proper place to ensure that he would die in a well-fashioned manner. The IYC mercenary sighed.
“Guess I won’t see my next pay then. Quite a disappointing development. Ah…at least I’d look well-dressed when frozen. Hmm…is this a good pose?”
All while Father Olbrich gave up, collapsed on his knees, and muttered prayers.
And Hans…simply stood back up, and mustered her the last smile that he could. What a useful bunch of fortifications he worked on…only for all of it to be useless. Still…he could probably count on doing it all again.
Hopefully…in a better manner next time. For her. And for his survival.
“I’ll still fix this all—”
“Freeze.”
In just moments, the temperature around Rousselot City dropped to nearly absolute zero. Everything, the walls, the artillery, the buildings, the still fleeing civilians, the routing soldiers, the Countess who was still trying to beat the Tentacled Eel, the Tentacled Eel itself, even Adelyn who still tried limping back to Alizée and Hans…
And Hans himself, holding his last smile to reassure her…was frozen.
Hans’ eyes watched her one last time in his dying moments, as she lowered her hand, and crumpled to cry by herself in the frozen wasteland she created.
All alone.