“The angels are one of the best counters to demonic threats. They appeared three years ago, mostly Virtus, said to have gone through enlightenment through the gods and goddesses, which granted them powerful skills and magic. However, while these individuals are said to have managed to kill as many as eight demons of all kinds, which have not been counted and should not be counted as kills of mankind, as it is simply not acceptable for us to rely on a scant few individuals claiming to represent our gods, the status of these ‘angels’ are as of yet unknown after an expedition against the calamities.”
- Excerpt from “An Emergency Treatise on the Subject of ‘Demons’” by Daniel Specke.
+++
+++ Alizée Amboise +++
Rousselot City
That voice again.
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Alizée couldn’t properly focus on the book she was reading, nor could she focus on the notebook where she practiced her continental. That voice had been bugging her for days already, always asking her painful questions again and again. But she couldn’t tell anyone about it.
She didn’t want to bother them anymore.
“Why? Didn’t you believe they would protect you? Didn’t you believe that they would not leave you alone? Didn’t that man promise you that he would make sure that everything would be—”
Please! Shut up! Shut up! Lady Adelyn and Sir Hans have their own missions. It’s disrespectful to demand too much from them. They’re not even my parents!
“Then what? Would you accept that you really are nothing but an orphan, and soon to be abandoned?”
Alizée looked at her book in crushing despair. Why? Why did that voice nag her endlessly about these things? Was her mind this cruel? She prayed and prayed to the Goddess of Purity just as her mama had always taught her. Why wasn’t that working? Shouldn’t those prayers ward off these evil voices? She was even in a church!
Who the hell was speaking to her? Was it those demons that Hans Adelyn and all the adults were fighting against? Or was it something else? She just wanted peace and silence. She didn’t need any of these. So why was someone speaking and speaking and speaking in her mind?
For what?
To mock her?
I’m not going to be abandoned by them so easily. She tried to respond defiantly. I…they’re no bad people. They’re good. And even if they did, they’ll make sure I’m left in good hands. Sir Hans would never…
“Yet that man cannot answer your questions. Does it not remind you of your papa? He never told you why he did what he did didn’t he? He never even told you why all those bad men came to your estate. No answers.”
Alizée almost spilled the ink that she had on her table. The voice…wasn’t it so right? Every time she asked any adult about what was happening, all they would do was blind her. Leave her blind with no assurances that anything would be fine. Just…just leaving her alone, isolated from a world that she needed to know in order to survive.
Why?
Why would they do such a thing to her?
To protect her?
Yet why did it not work out? She wouldn’t be in this situation if she had been more free wouldn't she? No answers from them…yet she also couldn’t leave her cage of "protection" just to protect herself. Even here, she was tucked away, unable to leave this church without the watchful gaze of the priests and nuns. She would only be able to do that if Hans and Adelyn wanted to let her have some fresh air outside.
Otherwise, she was kept here so they could “protect her” from all those people outside who “disliked her”. Why was she even so disliked? What did she do to all those kids, to those adults, to these people that they looked at her with hostility?
And why were the only two people who regarded her with innocence so tight-lipped and unsure whether or not they should keep her or leave her in this hell?
“What do you really believe in, Alizée?”
No…no, shut up! You’re wrong. You’re wrong. People can be kind. They’ve always been kind. I’m sure they wouldn’t be so cruel to just leave me here.
“Is there really purity in this world, Alizée?”
Yes. Mother showed that to me many times. There is good. I just…the Goddess will be with me. She’ll protect me. Good people will protect me. It’ll all be fine in the end. It has to be.
“Yet all the people around you only desire. Desire for money. Desire for status. Desire for self-image. Desire for power. In such a world, what place would you be in? What are you but a burden? Your interests collide with their desires. So why not take what you desire the most yourself? Your own safety. Your own survival.”
No…no, I’m not…
“You can, Alizée. All you need to do is accept what you want. What do you want? Is it really that pure and innocent life you say you yearn for, or is it the assurance that you will be safe at all costs? Would that really come from other people? Or would it come from you when you take action yourself? What do you believe in? That they’re all just lying? Or that you can trust them?”
Tears slowly streaked in her cheeks. No…she would not accept whatever that voice wanted. It was…it was nothing but tempting her to do evil. How would she be safe if she acted in her own self-interest by eliminating all those who disliked her? No…she could still trust people. Surely she could.
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“Can you really?”
She wiped her tears and closed her book. The voice subsided, but its questions remained. And she couldn’t answer it herself. Instead, she ran to her bed, and prayed again and again to the Goddess of Purity, trying to desperately find answers.
+++
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Rousselot City
AUG 6, 1538
Hans woke up very early today. It was only 06:00 hours, but he knew he needed to continue moving. Luckily, when he looked outside, it seemed that the city was fine. Indeed, they managed to delay or dissuade the creature from attacking at least. That was a good development.
But a short-term one.
August 8, was the first time it attacked.
Then, in my last death, it attacked on August 5, presumably because we poked it.
Now, we poked it hard by bringing a lot of troops to the slums, forcing it into hiding.
And thus, he survived on the sixth day of August. Good, but not completely good. He didn’t know yet if it would attack today. Or tomorrow. Or on the eighth day. He really didn’t know what its motives were. Well, except for destroying the city. In which case, he wondered how long their deployments would deter it.
After all, it could defeat the garrison if it wanted to. He even wagered that if he used their Wanderpanzers in the city to counter it, the combination of those powerful water-based projectiles and the constricting urban environment would greatly hamper their ability to effectively combat it.
It might even have its magical defenses, just like the last one. After all, he saw the Countess block those attacks with fire magic. And he had read that defensive magic was something big in this world, which meant that these creatures could, in essence, drain them of rounds before dying.
That gave him a massive headache.
Damn it. In Terra, all it took was one or two or three shots to kill a tank or mech. Nothing more. All you needed to do was spot the enemy, mark it, and place the kill shot. Why the hell does magic have to place more layers of defense on my enemies now? This is bullcrap…
He really wished they had his entire unit here at least. While these things were strong, he imagined that a determined Lotharingian LMB (Light Mech Brigade) formation would absolutely curbstomp this entire demonic threat alone. Well, assuming they had a supply line to keep one hundred twenty-eight Wanderfalkes and the dozen command Wanderadlers alongside the two thousand mechanized infantry riding in their IFVs and the support elements (medical, maintenance, attached artillery batteries, etc) on the fight. Which was the problem Hans and Adelyn faced.
They had no supply lines.
They had no proper intel from high up that would at least give them an idea of what the enemy was, how strong they were, or where they were. They also had none of the proper support elements of a modern combined arms force.
No infantry. No air support. No artillery to call in case of overwhelming opposition. Hell, Hans now missed the foot soldiers who would relay him his targets when he had a good and safe concealed position. Quite frankly, he wasn’t an ace by his own efforts alone. He was an ace because forward observers, allied tanks and mechs, drones, and other elements would always keep him informed about how a battle was going.
But of course, all of this belly-aching didn’t matter. He had to keep going in on this fight. And that was why he needed to make sure that they could find a way to kill that thing at last. Level twenty-five, again, he needed level twenty-five. Their main goal was to fix this damned munitions supply shortage. So that if demons had gimmicks to drain their rounds, well, they could replenish it and throw more rounds in.
Demons, especially ones that had been very active, seemed to be progress pinatas. Kill that thing, and they’d be closer to the goal.
That, and they’d actually survive.
+++
They were now ready for the second round of their expedition to the slums.
06:30 hours. Hans sighed. Captain Weibel sure takes his sweet time to get himself ready.
“Alright, so what’s our plan this time around?” Captain Weibel asked. “Last night kinda sucked.”
Adelyn unfurled a map of the city on the table as she spoke.
“First of all, yesterday, we only managed to cover a third of the slums. That’s not great. I talked earlier with Captain Strobel, and his squads covered only at least a third as well. None of us delved to the center of the slums, but…it’s not that advisable anyway.”
Hans sighed. “Yeah, Captain Strobel warned me about the criminals over there. But, I don’t really think that’s enough of a reason not to comb down there. Hell, that might be where that creature is hiding in.”
“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” Captain Weibel placed another musket ball into one of his pistols. “It’s the area without eyes from the city’s garrison. If this creature is as smart as you claim, then it’d go there. But that’s assuming it isn’t on the move. I believe that if it is indeed inside, then it’s already preparing its attack.”
“That’s…” Hans then pointed at the center of the city itself. “Then in that case, if it would attack, then it must be searching for the head of this city.”
“The Countess’ estate,” Adelyn muttered. “Then…that expands our search area. And we can’t just go house to house here. Not especially in the wealthy areas. That’d get us into trouble.”
“I wonder why it didn’t attack yesterday then,” Lieutenant Preisnel suddenly said. “While me and Sir Weibel remained on high alert, the city itself didn’t. This city was literally asleep hours ago. I don’t know, this feels wrong. If Lieutenant Hoffman’s assertions that it is inside the city yet it isn’t attacking at the most immediate time where we are at most vulnerable…then it’s either you’re wrong, and the demon isn’t here, or that demon must be doing something more sinister.”
“Well, I wish we can find and ask, ‘Why are you delaying the fight?’, but we all know that ain’t possible,” Captain Weibel laughed. “Thus, this entire goose chase. Lieutenant Hoffman, I just want to tell you, that while I’m taking this entire chase seriously, we are diverting resources and time to a possible ghost that doesn’t exist.”
“...You’re all free to disbelieve me all you want, but I assure you all, I saw what I saw. And if we don’t act now, forty-thousand people are dead meat.”
“Not really,” Lieutenant Preisner countered. “While there would surely be heavy casualties, most will probably escape. From the reports about the ‘Tentacled Eel’, while it is powerful, it isn’t so fast and its destructive rampages take time. The city is too dense for it to be destroyed in the span of a day with determined resistance. More than half of the people here can evacuate in dire times.”
“Still, I refuse not to take action,” Hans said. “People are going to die if we do not act now. So…whatever, please, let’s just start our search. We’ll try to swing by the slums for an hour or two, maybe just in the entrance and exit points, then we comb the central district.”
Adelyn looked at Hans with a degree of skepticism, but she simply nodded.
“I would have preferred it if we checked the routes to the important targets, like the barracks, the Countess’ estate, or the St. Heka church instead, but alright. Sounds like a plan. Maybe, we can still catch it in the slums before it’s too late.”
“Thanks.”
The four soon moved out.