“Those who abandon their duty to fight shall be denied access to help or food.”

- IYC poster in Lotagne

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Unknown

“Hey…”

It was dark. Hans looked at the person staring down at him. Her voice. Her face. It was…hard to vividly describe. Her hair cascaded down as she touched his cheek, and a cruel, white smile grew on her face, in contrast to its shadowy silhouette.

“You have a big job coming,” she said, almost soothingly sick. “Take her out for me, will you?”

Cruel giggles emanated from her.

“I know you can do it…”

Then, she dived in close to her ears, her feathery-light voice sending the worst fear that he had felt into his nerves.

“Eventually…you’ll die a lot for me, won’t you? Just like how you do it for her?”

For some reason, Hans felt himself angered by the audacious demands of the strange shadow woman—his hand reaching out to grab her neck and crush it.

But nothing.

“You’re such a mean boy…”

Near Lotagne

AUG 30, 1538 CE

Hans’s eyes shot wide open.

He looked at his gloved hand, stretched out to grab something that didn’t exist in the air. Why? He asked. What the hell happened? For a second, he just continued, his hand curling into a fist before he retracted it downward. He allowed his back to rest on his seat for a good while, as he tried to make sense of what happened.

Must just be another weird dream.

Hans yawned a bit, as suddenly, the beep of his alarm rang. He looked at the display screens—it was 06:00 hours already. The sun was wide above them, above their two mechs which were parked on a road just a few kilometers outside of Lotagne. Hans immediately pressed his comms, and he was greeted by Adelyn’s sleepy voice.

“Hey, morning, Lieutenant,” Adelyn said. “Just woke up to my alarm too. Are you good over there?”

“As good as ever, Captain,” Hans said, smiling a bit to himself. “Alright, I think we should continue now—”

Suddenly, his words were cut short, as flags and banners appeared on the road. Horses advanced forward—artillery behind them. And of course, the most iconic of them all—lines upon lines of rugged musketeers, followed by the armored cavalry of the Imperial Cuirassiers. Hans found his smile grow at the sight in front of them.

“Well…well…would you look at that, isn’t that quite the pretty sight?”

“It’s them!”

“Damn it, it is,” Hans said, looking at four men on horseback leading the lines of soldiers. Captain Strobel, Captain Weibel, Lieutenant Preisnel, and a strange-looking older Virtus man, his halo glowing just above his feathered hat. Behind them, a priestly-looking man also caught up on them, his horse charging at a good gallop—it was Father Olbrich himself. “Looks like the 4th got us beat on the punch then.”

“We searched far and wide last night,” Adelyn said. “How?”

“I guess our worst-case scenario didn’t materialize. They must have just taken their time to get here,” Hans said, laughing. “Thank Goddess for that. My gut tells me we’ll need everything for this damned thing.”

+++

The old Virtus man, who they found out was named “Duke Lorenzo Morosini of Lignon” curiously stroked his beard as he looked at Adelyn, who…because of his gaze, had decided that Hans was her best defense by hiding just slightly behind him.

“I sense a great magical potential from you, young lass,” the Virtus nobleman said. “Does the foreign lady stay true to the faith? Have your lands learned of the good words of the gods?”

“Y-yes?” Adelyn squeaked. “I pray and pray and pray. It makes my heart feel all the better.”

“Good, keep praying, because you and your man here are about to be in a fight of a lifetime,” the man said, before sitting on a chair set up by one of his attendants. A table was quickly set up in front of him, as a few more officers—alongside Captain Strobel, the two IYC mercenaries, and Father Olbrich, assembled around their ad-hoc war council. “Ah, now that wouldn’t do. Get the map in here.”

Another one of his attendants rushed quickly, placing the map in front of him, as the Duke smiled. He then raised his hand.

“Now, I want all of you to listen clearly with this one,” he looked around, especially at Hans’ and Adelyn’s direction. “It will be a glorious day, but many will die. That simply is our expectation. But one thing’s clear, we shall smite the devil’s cretin from these holy lands, in the name of our great Empress—”

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He suddenly coughed and wheezed, grabbing his handkerchief to cough on it, interrupting his tirade. The old man shook his head and coughed another one, before looking at his audience with dead serious eyes.

“It shall be glorious! Yes. We have artillery now. We have the cavalry. We have…YOU,” he pointed at Adelyn and Hans. “And your contraptions, which I have heard many things about from these fine gentlemen of Rousselot.”

Captain Weibel and Captain Strobel seemed to both smile forcefully at the words of the Duke.

“Now, we have at our disposal…eight regiments. Eight fine regiments of the Holy Imperium. All arrayed to kill one demon. Yes, one demon—the Calamity of Desire. That thing. Woman. Whatever this vile wretched creature is…we have received word, yes, word, that two more cities up north had fallen, and that Fort Elmo has also succumbed…thankfully, just after most evacuated it days prior…but indeed, it is close to the crown jewel of Ygeia—Rignon.”

He coughed again, as he stood, pulling out a knife, and stabbed the city of Rignon on the map.

“This, gentlemen, and ladies, is the target,” the Duke said. “We shall stand guard on that city, and kill it once and for all once it arrives. That is the plan.”

“Milord!” One of the officers spoke. “What shall be our battlelines?”

“Battlelines?” Hans asked. “No, we’re not going to deploy in a very linear fashion. I believe that until the final moment, we must disperse our forces well during the engagement. We’ve just fought and killed a demon that had these…beams that can break through great ranks of men. It would be unwise if we’re not spread out.”

The group of officers all turned to him, their eyes casting doubt upon him. Captain Strobel and Captain Weibel both however backed him with their words.

“That man is right,” Captain Strobel said. “The infantry must disperse into companies. The cavalry must remain mobile at all times. And the artillery…it should be kept out of the battle until the demon is sapped, and trapped. That's how we killed the first monster at Rousselot.”

“In cities, it can be chaotic,” Captain Weibel said. “If I were to say anything, I’d prefer we don’t fight inside Rignon. We were barely lucky during the second attack at Rousselot.”

“Hmm…” the Duke looked down at the map, seemingly in deep thought, before he pointed his hands at Adelyn and Hans. “You two, shall move ahead of us, right now, and find the demon. We’ll prepare around the city of Rignon. Then, once we have spotted the demon, we shall deploy in a spread-out manner throughout the countryside. We shall try to encircle it—and trap it.”

This time, Adelyn finally gathered her courage and stood beside Hans, placing her hands on top of the table.

“If I may,” Adelyn said. “I request that you send a messenger to order the complete evacuation of the citizenry of Rignon.”

“The citizens inside of the city have entered it in the hopes of finding safety behind its walls,” the Duke replied. “They have no protection outside of the city. And we cannot have random peasants going about and disrupting our battle once it begins.”

“As I’ve said earlier,” Captain Weibel reiterated. “We have concerns of a potential city battle. It’d be dangerous if that happens.”

“Unlike all the other places destroyed by the Calamity, Rignon is a city defended to the teeth,” the Duke insisted. “It is one of the safest places in the whole Principality. That demon cannot enter it. It would be blown to bits by the wall artillery that Rignon boasts. Not to mention the Grand Magus himself who resides in the city. That, and the priestly battlemages of the Church of Purity….”

“And will any of that mean anything if the Calamity gets inside?” Adelyn challenged. “No. That, and I have heard that most of the mages in the city have already fled. The nobles. The priests. You name it. They clearly felt enough fear not to cross it.”

“But the Grand Magus…”

“Milord, I’m afraid that the lady has a point,” one of the officers said to the Duke. “We received word that the Grand Magus was nowhere to be found yesterday.”

“Preposterous! How can they all leave Ygeia so fast? This is a shame on the name of the Virtus race!”

Hans and Adelyn could only look at each other. They needed to get to Laura soon.

+++

“The city’s fine,” Laura said, as the trio rested their horses near the parked mechs of Hans and Adelyn. “It seems that many have deserted the walls though. We went to the nearby towns too. The leadership of Ygeia seems to be gone. All that’s left running the show is this Virtus noblewoman, named Aurelia Foscarini.”

“Well, if that isn’t what we expected,” Hans said, shaking his head at the news. “Everyone and their mother is running the crap away from this place.”

“Not many of the Virtus settler nobles are left,” Laura shook her head. “All that’s left are the footsoldiers, alongside the human and Vanus administrators ill-equipped to even deal with this.”

“Actually, on that note,” Hans pointed at Laura. “You’re Virtus, right? I wonder why, but you don’t seem like you have that…type of naming that I’ve been seeing with Virtus folks.”

Laura smiled.

“I’m native here. My family was native here. That’s why my name is of the Continental stock. In fact, I am mixed. My mother was a Vanus. My father was a Virtus. Those settler nobles, they only really arrived here after the Republic fell.”

“Oh…” Hans nodded. “So why get a ‘human’ styled name? Isn’t that quite the commoner thing?”

It was something he had noticed after all. It seemed that nobles of the Vanus type had a Flandrian-esque name. Those of the Virtus types seemed to have something Sicilian-like. While commoners had a Lotharingian-like type of name.

“Well, it’s what my father chose,” Laura smiled bitterly. “I guess that’s what they wanted for their halfling daughter. A ‘common’ name. It’s just a name though, so I don’t mind.”

“Pardon me for my curiosity.”

“No worries, you’re a foreigner anyway.”

“Everyone!” Adelyn called out, coming out of her mech with her map at hand. “We’ll set out now for Rignon. At once.”

She unrolled her map on the ground.

“Since the Army will be surrounding the area, our goal then is to pre-emptively find the demon in the towns and settlements around the city, or in the city itself. You three will follow us, as closely as you can, and provide magical support. As for us—our guns will be the ones making the noise upon contact. Once we find it, we’ll open fire as quickly as possible to draw the entire Army to our location—then we’ll kill the demon.”

“Pretty bold plan, huh?” Hans asked.

“Well, it’s not like we have a choice. Rignon may be standing right now, but I have a gut feeling that we’re already too late.”

Hans understood her words. It was certainly an opinion he shared.

For a split second…he could see his blood again in the ground before it turned back into green.

Soon.

Perhaps, this attempt…would be just another dead end.

But perhaps, there's no point to be afraid. If death awaits me…then I'll just cheat it.

He grinned.

Until I win.