“Who’d have known that demons existed? In fact, why was I even classified as one? Being transported into a different dimension, or world, or whatever this place is, sure, that’s something surprising, especially after, well, dying. But to become anything but human? I struggle to imagine what changed about me. I think, in a way, I am terrified. Especially since my race changed. That’s some top black magic if you think about it.”
- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.
+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Unknown
Hans was staring at the display feeds with shock.
In front of him, was the town that he expected to be his first stop. There was no town. It was…it was something else. Overgrown reddish biomass filled the town, and it seemed to be devoid of all life. Immediately, Hans covered Alizée’s eyes, as he scanned it further, before turning it off.
“Sir Hans? Why are you covering my eyes?”
“It’s alright, kiddo. Stay calm. I'll check on them. Stay here, please.” Hans said to her as he turned off the display feeds. Giving her instructions as best as he could to not touch anything, Hans took his N3 CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) Gas Mask. It was good that a mech pilot’s suit protected its user from CBRN elements, and so was his mech.
This place will be the safest for her.
Still, he won’t drive his thing close to that place. Not with her inside of it. He pulled another chocolate bar for her, gave it, and gave her a pat on the head. The young girl looked up at him, confused, but Hans just smiled to calm her down.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back. You’re safe here.”
He donned his gas mask and raised his suit’s hood to fully protect himself. Popping his mech’s hatch, Hans emerged and climbed off his mech’s chassis after closing the hatch. Now was another recon mission, and all he had with him was himself and his trusty SMG. The town was at least eight hundred meters away, and so, it took a while for Hans to cautiously walk forward, as he flicked his gun’s safety off.
What the hell happened here? Hans didn’t know, but he had to know. This was the only route he could take, and it was blocked. He didn’t want to drive back and take a different path only to bleed his fuel. Even if he had at least eight hundred kilometers of travel range since his fuel tanks were full when he woke up, Hans didn’t want to risk it. Especially when he didn’t know if we would have a fuel source soon.
At some point, I’d probably have to abandon the Peacemaker.
Unless he found some way to circumvent that problem. There was still the problem of munitions and spare parts for repair and maintenance though.
Ah, shut the hell up, brain! Not the time for pointless ruminations!
The trees seemed dead, and so was the area near the town. Blackened grass and that strange reddish biomass filled the area, and Hans feared that continuing on would be a danger to his continued existence. Regardless, he steeled his nerves and braved onwards.
“Hello?” He shouted. While he was a man who would prioritize his safety, he was still a soldier. And soldiers always checked for civilians to protect. “Is anyone there? Anyone?”
He continued trudging forward, his gun already raised to meet anything that might attack him. His gas mask showed an alert on his HUD. And it worried Hans greatly.
ALERT: UNKNOWN CONTAMINANTS DETECTED!
Contaminants? I guess that seems clear. He’d need to disinfect everything before coming in close with Alizée. Luckily, he had a portable CBRN cleaner pack with his mech. Pretty much standard practice in Confederate forces ever since the Empire launched tactical nukes, chemical weapons, and even biological weaponry six months ago on the frontlines.
This is probably biological in nature.
He looked down to view one of the fleshy biomass below him. It seemed almost plant-like too, in a way. That was certainly strange. He took a dead twig he found beside a dead tree and poked it, but it only glowed for a bit. Disgusting. He shook his head. What the hell could have created these things?
His eyes snapped to the side. Movement. With his raised SMG, Hans came face to face with something. It was…
He almost stumbled backward upon seeing it. A cruel smile laced its face, and it was almost bleeding. Most of all, it was floating. The thing…it looked down at him, its silvery hair flowing to reveal purplish glowing eyes that were staring down at him. It…it was demonic.
“I see…” it said, and Hans wondered what it was. A male or female? Its body was too disfigured for him to know. “A corrupted kin…”
He raised his gun at it, he shouldn’t assume things. What if it was a victim?
“Ma’am? Sir? Are you alright?”
But instead, its hostile movements intensified, which almost prompted Hans to pull the trigger.
“Stand back!” He shouted at it. “Fuckin…oh, goddess. This is bad.”
He began retreating, trying to figure out a way to deal with it. That was possibly a hostile thing, and he didn’t want to play stupid. Scratch that, it was definitely hostile.
“What strange language you speak,” he didn’t understand the entity, but he knew it wanted to murder him. “I wonder what you would bring, my new prey. This town…oh, they were delectable, but a fellow demon…you’d be my appetizer!”
It lunged at him, way too fast.
A hail of his SMG’s bullets greeted it, stopping its long appendages from hitting Hans. Hans retreated, all while firing burst after burst on its body, creating bloody holes that seeped crimson blood from it. It began wailing in pain, but Hans didn’t know if he was truly winning.
It’s a monster. A damned monster! His mind shouted. Of course, in a new world, he’d have to meet a damned monster. Of course. And it seemed like it wanted nothing but to eat him. He would not let that happen. Screw this!
Just before it lunged at him further, Hans rained bullets on its knees. Then, he pulled out his incendiary grenade and tossed it at the creature. It burned, it burned badly. I bet it killed this village and spread its corruption. He now charged forward and began placing more three bullet bursts at it, until his magazine ran out.
Stolen novel; please report.
It continued burning from the incendiary grenade’s fire, as he fished out his Ruger. Aiming it straight at its skull, Hans pulled the trigger three times, until its pained wails ended.
[DEMONIC ENTITY (LVL. 8) LIQUIDATED]
[LEVEL UP! NOW LVL. 2!]
[30% PROGRESS TO LVL. 3]
[40 AP NOW AVAILABLE]
“Goddess-damned thing,” he looked down at it as it burned. “What the hell are you?”
“For a [LVL. 1], you killed something so powerful. You really must be quite strong…” he looked back, and it was the young girl behind him! She was looking down at the corpse with a neutral stare. But that wasn’t what worried Hans. She was completely unprotected from potential CBRN elements! He picked her up, carrying her, and began running as fast as he could.
“Damn it, Alizée! I told you to stay put! I even sealed the hatch! How did you get out!?”
That was when he noticed it. Everything around the village, the reddish contamination, began burning into this ash-like smoke, before disappearing. Even the alerts about the unknown contaminants disappeared.
What the hell? It just…it’s all gone. Did that thing really cause it? A monster, perhaps, that consumes everything around it? It almost sounds like a nasty parasite. Was it also consuming those trees? The land itself? The fauna of this place…world, perhaps, is quite unusual. Screw that, unusual is an understatement!
“Sir Hans?”
He turned back to the girl that he was carrying. Instead of terror, her eyes held nothing but a confused stare at him. Naturally, Hans was still a little bit pissed at the fact that she tinkered her way out of his mech and went completely exposed outside straight into a contaminated environment, but…there was nothing that indicated she was hurt or anything.
“This isn’t good. I’m gonna have to observe you for a while from now on…”
An hour, a day, a week even? How long? How long would radiation damage, or chemical damage…wait, what if it was a biological virus? How long would it manifest in her? Wait, could he even handle her without full CBRN protection from now on? He was no doctor, so he wouldn’t know how to handle her if she was somehow hurt by it.
Then again, I wouldn’t even know what it would be. Radiation sickness, chemical injury, or a bioweapon infection.
He didn’t want to imagine himself just soothing her as he gave her a cyanide pill and a prompt bullet to the head if she started turning deathly sick from whatever that was. Though…if what must be done had to be done…
No, no, hold those thoughts out! His brain came to a screeching halt. What if those contaminants really only came from that entity, and didn’t have any other effect on living beings?
Well, he wouldn’t know that, now would he?
This is difficult…
“Alizée, please, don’t do that again,” Hans said to her. “Please, it really is just dangerous. This is why we need to understand each other. Somehow. But it’s just…damn it, what can we even do to get to that point?”
He felt compelled to do something. Then—a split second later, Hans felt a darkened mist touch him. He wanted to run as far away as he could, but he couldn’t. His body…it wanted its warmth. He could not escape. He could not breathe. Its hands almost hugged him, and Hans could swear he heard a feminine whisper.
“Use…your status…it will aid you, Hans Hoffman…”
He collapsed to his knees while carrying her, still hyperventilating as he let Alizée leave his hand. He looked up at her with dilated pupils, as he tried to smile, even when she wouldn’t be able to look through his gas mask.
“I’m okay, I…just a little hiccup, is all…”
“Sir Hans?” The young girl asked. “You don’t seem to look okay. Is that mask perhaps blocking your breathing? I…I can remove it from you if need be!”
“It’s okay,” his gloved hand touched her shoulder, and gave her a pat. “I’m alright. We’re alright…”
His hyperventilations continued, but it was already stopping. With a wince, he stood up and looked around him. There didn’t seem to be anything that could have caused that. And so Hans wondered…what the hell happened to him? It was…as if something embraced him from behind and filled him with the worst terror he could imagine.
He literally collapsed from it. But there was nothing. Nothing at all…
Don’t tell me all those ghost stories are real. He laughed a bit inside, but it came off as more of a nervous one than a funny one. Should I start praying to the Goddess?
Until he remembered that it reminded him to do something.
As if instinctually, his mind acted on its own to do just that.
Status check.
+++
Current Status: Healthy (Mild Hunger)
Name: Hans Hoffman
Age: 25
Race: Vanus
Type: Demon, [REDACTED]
General Tier: I
LVL: 2
Class: Mech Pilot (Vanguard)
Passive Skills: [REDACTED]
Active Skills: N/A
Available Arcane Points: 40 PTS
+++
That was strange. It seemed…almost a scroll-like computer display in his eyes. He had seen its “notifications” appear many times, but he always thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him. But this time, this seemed clearly as no trick. So…he was a demon now? And what the hell even was a Vanus race? What even were those “redacted” things? That was strange. Was he supposed to look like whatever the hell he had just killed soon?
That’d mean he needed to run away from Alizée as fast as possible then! Wait, no…he should check her. For some reason, when he turned to her, he had another seemingly instinctual response. A response he should probably not have…but that thing seemed to have implanted it in his mind.
Target Status Check.
+++
Current Status: Healthy (No Special Health Effects)
Name: Alizée Amboise
Age: 10
Race: Vanus
Type: Uncorrupted
General Tier: I
LVL: 5
Class: ???
Passive Skills: ???
Active Skills: ???
Available Arcane Points: ???
+++
I see then…so she’s perfectly alright. Judging by her lack of special health effects. I suppose that contamination must be something…perhaps magical? My helmet’s sensors probably mistook it for something radioactive. That’s a viable hypothesis. Not that I’d want to test it…
But still…so she was alright. Then the environment must be alright. On that note, it was he who wasn’t alright, judging by the “mild hunger” effect on his status screen. To be fair, that’s intentional on my part. Rationing would always result in some level of hunger. So long as he wasn’t starving, Hans surmised he should be fine.
He removed his gas mask. There did not seem to be any more need for it. He wondered…if he was a demon, then where would his horn be? He tried touching his forehead, but he found nothing, unlike this little girl. He supposed that made sense.
So…I guess, the other world hypothesis has been fully confirmed then? He had no more way of denying it left. He truly was in another world, filled with new challenges, new monsters, and new enemies.
And even my own self was changed. No longer was he a simple human then. A demon…that was who he was. Then this changes everything. His strategies, his actions, his protocols…all of it would have to serve the new things he would see in this world.
Whatever they might be…
His new encounters from here on out…
He’d need to prepare for it.