“I feel like he’s turning paler and paler by the day. I don’t understand it, really, but it’s clear that something’s happening to Hans. I wanna ask questions, but he seems way too closed off. My efforts are still a work in progress.”

- Excerpt from Captain Adelyn von Wittenstein’s Journal Entries.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Near Rignon

“Search through the moving refugees?” Laura asked. “I suppose that makes sense. But how will we know that it’s her?”

“She’s your mother, right?” Hans asked as he walked straight to his mech. “Wouldn’t you know what she looks like?”

“The Calamity of Desire changed her appearance a long time ago. I wouldn’t know directly. Unless she’s attacking people. I can’t.”

“Hmm…” Hans climbed his mech. “Look, I already took a skill for it. That, and my mech has a demon detection upgrade.”

“‘Upgrade’?”

“It’s something unique to our class,” Hans said. “Anyhow, that’s the goal. Again, you three will provide us with magical support. Try to follow us closely, and we’ll be checking refugees moving through the roads on foot. Once my skill detects her, we’ll separate her from the civilians.”

“Then kill her.”

Hans just nodded.

Discomfort laced Laura’s face. She held her right arm softly as she looked down.

“You know, this is why you’ve gone this far, you said it yourself,” Hans said.

“I know. I’ll make her find peace. One way or the other.”

Laura pulled her staff closer to herself. Determination flooded back into her face.

“Good then,” Hans said. “Then we’ll stop this damned crisis once and for all.”

“Right.”

Hans went down through his hatch and then contacted Adelyn.

“How’s the preps?”

“I’ve exhausted my AP for the ADI MPATs,” Adelyn said. “Including the ones I enchanted earlier, I have six ADI MPATs for use. I won’t have any more than that.”

“That’s good enough,” Hans said, taking a deep breath. “With Laura and her team, we’ll try to reduce her as much as possible. Set it on airburst, I’m doing the same. We’ll chip away her armor, or whatever. Regenerative abilities. Whatever it is. Then we’ll kill her.”

“I wonder, how do you know all of this is necessary?” Adelyn asked. “What if I needed the AP for an emergency repair?”

“I think if you need an emergency repair right in the middle of battle, we’d be too screwed already,” Hans said, as he booted up his mech’s subsystems. His engine shot back to life, and so did the HUD in front of him. “Better have all of the firepower we can muster. Remember, keep firing everything. Machine guns. Your main gun. And…and try to hit her too.”

“You think she’ll be fast?”

Hans looked back at the last fight. Unlike the demons at Rousselot, the Calamity of Desire didn’t fight as some massive monster. Instead, she seemed to prefer a fully humanoid form. A humanoid creature that exhibited above-average physical strength. That, and speed. Resistance.

I sprayed hundreds of MG24 rounds at her. Hans remembered. It wasn’t like all of his bullets missed. No, at least half struck her. But the heavy machine gun rounds seemed not to do much damage to her except for the superficial. When his MPAT managed to nail her, the Calamity of Desire was already filled with bullet holes. That means she can soak up damage well…like all demons we’ve met so far.

He hated it. The sheer ability of these creatures to just…resist. It was beyond all forms of logic. He doubted that a Tier IV supercharged Virtus or Vanus mage would have skills, attributes, and whatnot capable of doing that. It was ludicrous.

He knew that, after watching Countess Fresnel fight, she must have something similar to what he had seen with the Calamity of Desire. That somehow, she could take hits and resist the ‘Tentacled Eel’, but he doubted Countess Fresnel could take something like that. She even collapsed mid-battle.

No, even the most powerful Virtus or Vanus was beyond weak in comparison. The only thing they had going with them was probably tactical superiority. Or numbers. But that…

The way that demon acted, she clearly has a brain. She’s sapient. Intelligent. Cunning. The only downside perhaps is that she’s corrupted so deeply that she struggles with a severe form of psychosis.

Playful, bloodthirsty, and with powerful magic. A woman wielding an oversized axe that could cut through his mech—and take a razor backed up by eighteen tons of weight on her torso. This battle was badly stacked against Hans.

He just chuckled as he replied to Adelyn.

“Fast? I have a gut feeling she’d be worse than that.”

“Hmm…you sound quite mightily convinced about it.”

“Well, better be prepared for the worst, as they say.”

+++

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Adelyn’s Wanderadler got stuck in the mud.

For many minutes, Hans and Adelyn worked their asses off under the rain to get her mech unstuck. It seemed that the soil was softer than normal, and with the rain, the mud was even worse, with their mechs sinking way too easily on the terrain. Hans gave Adelyn his warning. Then he drove his mech forward, the engines of his Wanderfalke screeching in protest.

But Hans pushed it onward, the cable attached to both of their mechs rattling. Their mechs then worked their legs into overdrive. At last, after eight seconds, Adelyn’s heavier mech began climbing up from the hole it sunk into. Until finally, she was out of it.

“Good, good!” Hans said. “You got out.”

“Gee…thanks, Lieutenant,” Adelyn said. “That could have been disastrous without you.”

“Well, it’s fortunate we at least have each other, huh?”

Hans chuckled.

“Yeah, I doubt anything in this world can pull a thirty-ton MBM off from this thing.”

Hans soon popped his hatch open to run back to Adelyn’s mech, detaching the cable they used to pull her out of the mud. The rain slapped hard into Hans’ back, and he almost winced in annoyance.

Is this a damned typhoon or something?

Then again, considering how far up they seemed to be in latitude, it must just be a nasty thunderstorm or something. Hans still cursed the sky though. It was certainly tossing enough rainwater at the fields to soften up the terrain. He imagined that he’d be cursing the heavens more after winter though.

He hated it when soil mixed with water. All kinds of bullcrap resulted from that.

He checked the legs of their mechs. It was utterly muddy. Including his mech. Hans despaired at it momentarily. Considering Adelyn’s ladylike tendencies, it was absolutely going to be him mopping all this dirt once all of this was over. Both his mech and hers.

He just sighed, retracting the cable of his winch pulley. He was quite pleasantly surprised at least that his emergency recovery equipment, nominally designed to pull out fellow Wanderfalkes, managed to pull out a Wanderadler. He looked back at Laura’s team, the trio just silently watching them with amused looks on top of their rain-soaked horses.

Hans just gave them a thumbs-up.

“We’re done!” He shouted. “Gonna move out now.”

“Understood,” Laura said, as she pulled her horse back into the road.

Hans himself went back up to his mech, popping his hatch open, and moving straight to his seat. He was quite pissed again, as he knew he’d have to clean up his uniform and mop his now wet leather seat because of this, but he ran out of craps to give. He just silently placed his hands on the control stick, holding himself from letting out a bunch of expletives.

“Alright, I’m back on the controls, Captain,” Hans reported after he wore his helmet back. “You good out there?”

He heard her Wanderfalke drive past beside him, once more free from the shackles of environmental misfortune.

“Yep, no problems on the propulsion as far as I can see,” Adelyn said, quite cheerfully. “I’m good now. I think we should check the town ahead now.”

“Copy, copy,” Hans said, sighing to himself. “We’re really just this unlucky, huh?”

“Try harder, I guess.”

+++

A sudden shot flew through the road.

Both of their mechs stopped to a halt. Laura and her team followed suit, hiding behind them to avoid the hail of bullets flying into them. Hans immediately shouted on his comms, his combat instincts taking control.

“Contact!”

“What the hell—”

Suddenly, Hans’ machine guns opened fire on the treeline ahead of them. His itchy finger squeezed on the trigger, spraying bullets at the contacts that he could clearly see on his thermals. Then, he drove his mech protectively in front of Adelyn’s mech. He noticed a few lights of magic coming straight for them, but surprisingly, his armor held.

“Get out! I’m laying down suppressive fire!”

“Lieutenant, stop! This could be a friendly fire.”

“Impossible! These bastards fired first at us. They’re ambushing–”

Suddenly, the gunfire from the musketeers stopped, and Hans realized what he had done. He had just opened fire on his fellow humans. His hands froze, as his eyes tensed up.

“Lieutenant! You’re not in Terra anymore. Those aren’t Flandrian soldiers!”

“Then what the hell are they?”

“Has it not occurred to you that our mechs look scary and demonic for human soldiers who haven’t seen us yet?”

He gulped. Then, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

On the other hand, Adelyn opened up her microphone, shouting on the battlefield.

“Cease fire!” She shouted out loud. “Cease fire! This is a misunderstanding! If you are Imperial soldiers, we are from the Imperium too! Cease fire!”

No shots were coming from them, except for a white flag, alongside dozens of men in Imperial uniforms throwing down their muskets. Many had raised their hands to the air, clearly surrendering.

Hans and Adelyn immediately jumped out of their mechs. Still, Hans bought his SMG for good measure anyway, knowing that it would be dangerous. He, after all, just massacred this platoon in a stupid blue-on-blue situation. When he looked at Adelyn’s expression as she ran through the rain, it was clear that she was sorely pissed and disappointed.

The soldiers dropped to their knees upon seeing Adelyn. Perhaps it was because of her halo, signifying that she was a Virtus noblewoman. Hans saw the realization on their faces. Fear. They had just opened fire on a noble.

“I apologize!” Shouted an elderly soldier, his beard and mustache already dirtied. “We were ordered to ambush anything that goes through this road. How could we have known that your carriage was of mankind’s forces? Please have mercy on my men.”

Adelyn stopped in front of them. She turned to Hans, who couldn’t believe what he was seeing. In front of them, the old man began begging and kneeling in front of Adelyn, his remaining men themselves looking down with shame on the muddy dirt.

“Stand up,” Adelyn commanded, her voice empty. “It was our fault. We hadn’t known. We thought you were the enemy.”

“Young Lady, we fired our guns first. We apologize sorely. We take responsibility for this. Please, just give us mercy. I beg of you…”

“No, this is my fault, sir,” Hans said, lowering his gun. “I had an itchy finger, and people died. Please, don’t take responsibility for my crimes to your men.”

“Really…we won’t be punished for this?”

“...Not anyone of you. This is on me."

“Hans, what really is happening to you?” Adelyn turned to him, shaking her head. “You were never like this back then.”

He felt his throat turn dry. Adelyn looked at his tense and shaking hand. Hans, noticing her gaze, immediately tried to hide it.

“I keep blundering now,” Hans said. “I don’t know. I don’t…”

Adelyn sighed.

“We’re going to help them for now,” she looked away, looking at the man. “Call Laura here. And help us sort the injured. Get whatever medical supplies we have available. And do it quickly, Lieutenant.”

“But the Calamity—”

“I said do it quickly!”

“Roger that, Captain.”

Hans ran away, back to his mech.