“The former lands of the Republic have been hit hard by these demonic infestations. With stretched military resources for security, corrupt Virtus authorities, and the Imperial Crown de-facto abandoning them, it is no surprise that humanity is falling at the seams in the region.”

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

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Ygeian Countryside

AUG 28, 1538 CE

Hans pressed the button to turn on his displays.

Hnrh…I didn’t remember that the sun looked that good.

Hans closed his eyes again for a second, trying to adjust himself on his seat, before opening it back up again. He looked to the side of his display, checking the time itself. 06:22 Hours. He smiled a bit. We had quite a long sleep for once, huh?

Well, to be fair, it was the first time in days that Hans and his team had the chance to sleep at something close to how healthy humans slept.

He stretched a bit, cracked his knuckles, and relaxed back on his seat.

For now, things are fine.

Hans smiled at that thought.

We’ll drive straight to peaceful settlements, then wait for the next goddamned disaster.

Until then though, he hoped to get a good rest and see Ygeia a bit more. After all, he imagined that he would be dying quite a bit because of that thing. And that…he could only chuckle at. Of course… Hans shook his head. If it can destroy literal cities so quickly, if it’s so powerful no one even knows much about it except for its name…

He breathed out.

Of course, I’d be the one who’d deal with it again, and again, and again.

He facepalmed. Before once again laughing at himself. He chose this path after all. He chose duty over running and fleeing like a coward. He chose to protect Alizée and Adelyn. He chose to band up with the IYC to protect Ygeia. He chose…to be a goddamned demon hunter.

The conversation last night with the Virtus Priestess, Laura, hadn’t given the two much of an idea about the Calamity of Desire. The only thing they knew now was that something was turning people into murderous, anomalous, and destructive hell creatures.

That, and the fact that Laura had connections to the Calamity of Desire, which, according to IYC authorities, was the one controlling all lower demons in Ygeia.

Interesting tidbits, but nothing that helps us figure out a way to counter it.

Hans shook his head.

We don’t even know its behavior. What it does to people. How it’d kill us.

Briefly, his hand ran through his belly, remembering how Alizée skewered him. Or to his neck, remembering how he was beheaded. Only one way to find out, I guess. Hans thought. So should I start preparing for the inevitable? He really wasn’t sure yet if it would be a good idea.

To kill himself as a way to win…was something that Hans viewed as an idea of lunacy. But…

He grabbed his mug, ending his mindless mulling. He opened up another one of his rationed coffee pouches. There were so many of them, that Hans wondered why whoever summoned him made sure that his mech was filled to the maximum capacity of its supplies, but he had no complaints.

He poured it into his cup, then poured the heated water from the self-heating bag that he used up. Gently, he started to mix the contents, and the water turned into warm, brown water. He gave it a few whiffs, before sipping its contents.

Next, he cracked open his biscuit rations and ate it with the coffee. By the time he was done, he exited his hatch to finally begin the day. But, when he looked in the direction of his comrades—they were all clearly asleep. Adelyn’s Wanderadler, parked in front of him, was dead as ever, its hatch shut.

He looked at the place where the trio slept—the campfire was dead, and the three were huddled together with their blankets and the shoddy ‘tent’ they made for themselves. All asleep.

Hans sighed.

Oh well. He jumped off his mech. Time to wake them up I guess.

“Hey! Hey! Everyone! Rise and shine!” He shouted as he clapped loudly. “Rise and shine!”

+++

“We should be quite close, according to the map,” Adelyn’s voice said over the comms, as Hans mindlessly drove through the dirt road forward. “Then, a few more kilometers, and we should get to Fort Elmo.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“That’s nice,” Hans said. Their mechs were following the lead of Laura’s group, who were all on horseback. Due to this, they were really only driving at the speed of a horse, so they were taking in their sweet time. “But what about the refugees?”

“Well, the mayor said that they’d scatter out as best as they can while they flee.”

“So they’ve dispersed?”

“Indeed. It was the best thing they could do. At least if they all went to different locations, the chances of their survival would increase. No one really knew which place was a safe one when we had to detach ourselves from them.”

“Any news from the IYC?”

“None. They seem silent. For some reason.”

“That’s concerning.”

“Or they’re just waiting for the right opportunity to give the call to arms. Could be anything really.”

“Uhuh, well, I hope you’re right in that.”

“Come on, if their main bases were gone, they’d have long informed us about it. Besides, such a demon can’t just decapitate the command of a Principality-spanning chartered company. That’d be ridiculous.”

“Be careful of yourself there,” Hans laughed. “You could jinx it, and those executives at the IYC won’t like it.”

“Rignon’s fine. It’s unlikely that the Calamity of Desire had it. If they had, we’d have known it already.”

“Why do we even have no idea about what happened to the 4th?” Hans complained. “Or to the Duke? Or to the rest of the suppression force? I’m gonna be honest, they all suck at organizing. Whoever’s on top of this somehow topped the incompetence that our brass is capable of.”

He finally heard Adelyn giggle a bit.

“Gee…you have such hatred for everyone on top of you, huh?”

“Course I have. I think it’s correct. They all suck. We were losing the war, so of course it’s their fault. We’re losing in Lotharingia because they suck. We’re losing here because the guys running Ygeia, they suck ass.”

“Fair point, I suppose.”

“That, and realistically…” Hans shook his head. “I don’t think their big plan is going to work. Lots of people are about to die as meat shields with this whole operation. They're literally only going to be there to be the first ones to die.”

“Well, I know that. It’s what I’ve been uncomfortable about, after Rousselot, and…that, and all those past battles. Sure we didn’t die, but…they seem really dangerous. Enough to threaten us. We had enough close calls.”

Hans’ eyes fell down on his control sticks for a second as he listened to Adelyn’s words before they raised back up to look at the road. We didn’t die, huh? He sighed. Close calls, huh? Then again, could he blame her? Hans imagined that in her perspective…

Everything went well, and we always won. No failures.

Outside of what happened to those soldiers. Or to those civilians.

Well, she doesn’t have to know anyway. I’ll deal with it.

“Yeah, if those things can even disable my mech…that just means one thing. The Calamity of Desire must be strong enough to wipe out entire armies. That’s why this is worrying. Those men that are coming with us. The 4th. The mages. The Duke’s Army. What roles will they really serve except to become a distraction for us?”

“Well, in that case, we better kill it quickly then,” Adelyn said, her conviction bleeding through Hans’ headset. “That way, there won’t be many of them killed. Say, would you be up for some combat recce?”

“You mean, we’ll directly hunt for it ourselves and kill it?”

“I guess? It sounds risky, but…”

“I understand,” Hans said. “We’ll see if we can do that.”

+++

“Goddess…this is…”

Hans looked to his side. Laura had collapsed on her knees, as she started praying, almost deliriously. Their mechs and horses were parked behind them, and the five of them were looking at the worst carnage they had ever laid their eyes on.

Ahead of them, was a city…or at least, what was once a city.

And, underneath the cliff they were on, was another road beside a farming field, the cool brown wheat fields stained red blood with thousands of corpses. Soldiers. Musketeers. Pikemen. With tattered banners of great houses and merchant companies, flying in an endless sea of death and destruction weakly. It was…a disaster.

Is this the Suppression Force?

“Well…that changes the calculus a lot then…” Adelyn said, her eyes still wide in shock. “Is that city…”

“No further reasons to check that city,” Hans shook his head, disinterested. “That thing certainly murdered everyone in there.”

Beside them, Charles merely crouched, the archer frowning as he stared at the destroyed settlement.

“That’s the city of Le Gran,” Charles said, his voice empty. “Twenty-thousand souls lived there. From the looks of it, they’re all gone now.”

“Fort Elmo should be nearby,” Adelyn said. “We just need to keep following this road, and we should reach it. If that’s the staging ground, then…”

“I don’t think Fort Elmo is the staging ground anymore,” Hans said. “Quite frankly, we might need to do this in a different manner. We’re the most mobile unit, right?”

“Yeah?”

“I say we start acting like how the cavalry must act,” Hans said. “You, Captain. Can you lead armies?”

“No, I believe not.”

“Well you have to start doing it from now on,” Hans said, shaking his head. “Assuming this is an unfortunate regiment that messed up and had an unplanned uncoordinated confrontation with the Calamity, the IYC must be braindead. That, or they genuinely cannot control multiple armies trying to hunt one entity with what they have.”

“You’re saying we should now take charge and organize this entire thing?”

Hans pulled out his binoculars and looked in the distance. Again…the flat fields were filled with the dead. Many men died mercilessly to a creature that was beyond their means to fight. Cut down like nothing but ants. He even saw multiple horse artillery pieces—now left abandoned on the fields.

“Well, if they can’t do this damned thing well on their own,” Hans lowered his binoculars. “Then we have no other choice. Let’s find the 4th. Find the Duke. Find anyone heading to the big fight. And then…”

He took a deep breath.

“...We’ll figure out how to kill that damned beast, once and for all.”

[ARC IV END: CONDEMNED INSIDE]