“I destroyed four Murat mechs today. It makes you wonder why these fools would want to be here.”

- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.

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+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Near Rignon

“Come out, Purity!” the woman shouted, her eyes bloodshot. “It’s time. You’ve come, you stupid brat! Come out now. If you’ve denied me, then I have only one choice to deal with you, my dear little girl!”

“Shut your trap, you bastard!” Hans replied with his speakers. He needed a few more moments to get their team into the proper positions. Especially to tackle the incoming giants. “You’d do well to surrender now, Calamity of Desire! You’ve committed grave crimes against the Imperium!”

“Alizée has now fully manifested her ‘ideal’,” Adelyn reported. “She’s very distressed by that lady’s appearance.”

Hans noted that.

Distress.

Then, Adelyn’s hatch popped open and out came Alizée. She now wielded that magical crossbow that she could summon. Immediately, the demon turned in her direction. Hans watched as a predatory smirk appeared on her face.

“There the naive child is!” the woman mocked. “You’re not going to last very long anymore, Purity.”

Meanwhile, Adelyn began taking a higher position in the hills. Hans continued inching closer to the Calamity of Desire. His main gun and machine guns tracked her. He noted how she was preparing her axe.

He didn’t wait any further. The loaded APFSDS round in his main gun careened in the woman’s direction. The demon, barely noticing the flash, found herself skewered. The depleted uranium penetrator sliced her shoulder wide open. Then, she collapsed to the ground.

So she can be stunned by sabot round. Hans thought. Damn it, that was just a lucky shot. She’s too small of a target to reliably hit with APFSDS.

His autoloader slammed an MPAT round straight into his main gun’s chamber.

Let’s see if this causes any noticeable change.

“All units, let’s not wait for her to recover! Engage!”

Gunfire, spells, and an arrow glowing pink slammed into her. But she dodged and weaved through their firepower. Even Alizée’s shot missed. Only Hans and Adelyn’s MPATs managed to pin her momentarily to the ground. The shrapnel and airburst strength seemed to badly sap her in her current form.

“Damned interruptions!” the woman shouted as she dashed through the field, bleeding all over. “This is a fight between me and that child! What do all of you even desire from this fight?! Do I have gold on top of my head, you fools?!”

The giants finally appeared on the horizon. Dashing straight into her position, she hid behind them. Momentarily, the battle stopped, as she began recuperating. Hans himself didn’t order his shocked group to continue firing. He could sense his group’s mood as they stared at the demon. Her speed. The way she recovered. And the disgusting, gigantic sights ahead of them.

All of it demoralized them greatly.

“Goddess…” Adelyn muttered, her voice almost cracking. “What the hell are those?”

“Your targets,” Hans reminded. He pressed on his speakers. “Laura, ready your spells. We’re taking down that land dragon-looking thing. And that spider monster.”

He turned his turret on his side as the young priestess walked beside his mech. She prepared her staff. Then, Laura gripped it hard. That’s her mother. Hans remembered. She must be beyond shocked at this point. He breathed in deeply.

“We’ll get your mother to rest from her bastardized form,” Hans said, and Laura merely looked down.

He then turned his attention to Alizée.

“Alizée. Do your best to hit the Calamity of Desire. I’ll do my best to keep them off. Adelyn…you deal with those two giants on the right flank. Charles will be there to support you.”

“I understand. She finished transforming herself.”

Hans looked back at the insane woman on top of one of the giants.

“She looks like a true monster,” Hans said. “...I’m going.”

His silent declaration came, and his mech charged onwards. There was only a brief silence until she realized what he was doing. She jumped off the giant creature and slammed her axe to the ground. Hans, naturally, dodged it. Just in time for him to pepper her with his heavy machine guns.

“Just keep supporting me, Laura!” Hans shouted using his speakers. “I’ll deal with these crazies!”

White beams of light began pinging the woman hard. She blocked it with her axe. But Laura was unrelenting. Beam after beam came out of a white magic circle that she created. Almost every three seconds. Hans carefully exploited it. Whenever she was struck, it allowed him to pull back a bit, and shoot at her.

“Tsk! Damned soldiers!” She looked at Laura. “Girl! You’re not going to be helping your chances here. Do you not recognize who I am anymore?!”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“You don’t even call me by my name!” Laura cried out. “You’re not you! You’re not her. You’re…you’re…a monster!”

“I am still your mother! I have merely realized the truths of this world!”

Hans found himself in a sticky situation. The spider giant had charged at him. Hans dodged it, but suddenly, the Calamity of Desire zoomed through his left. Hans immediately engaged his propulsion to a full. The demon missed his left legs by only a few inches.

Close call. But I'm good at distracting her.

On the other hand, Adelyn and Charles were dealing with the two other giants methodically. Shot after shot from Adelyn burned them. Meanwhile, Charles’ arrows worked to methodically chip the giants away. Each shot caused smaller fires than what Adelyn produced.

But still.

The fires incinerated the swarmlings. Hans smiled further. His plan was slightly working. He turned his turret to his rear. Then, his main gun tracked the spider giant’s head. A shot came from him. Immediately, his MPAT rounds slashed a good amount of swarm dolls from the creature’s body.

Then, three white beams pulsed through the monster. It didn’t do much except create big holes. But Hans saw that Laura adjusted quickly. Canceling her current spells, she chanted a new one, creating a red magic circle. The red beams came from it, incinerating the spider giant she had targeted.

“I sculpted these for myself!” the demon shouted, angered. “How dare you little bastards take them away from me?!”

Another arrow that glowed pink missed her. Alizée seemed increasingly frustrated. She had been firing her special [CROSSLIGHT] arrows using her crossbow at the Calamity of Desire. Yet all of it was missed. It seemed that the demon woman prioritized dodging Alizée’s attacks.

“You evil woman! Can’t you just stay still and die?!”

“You want me to stay still for your advantage?!” the demon asked, laughing in an outraged manner. “Such a juvenile and delusional desire!”

Hans watched as the Calamity of Desire turned her attention back to Alizée. No, that wouldn’t do, asshole. Before she could charge in the girl’s direction, Hans pulled his Wanderfalke into a hard turn. The land dragon-looking giant nearly bit him, but his sudden turn allowed him to dodge it.

As he ran in the demon’s direction, he first placed a round to the land dragon’s jaws. The MPAT round detonated, disfiguring it. Then, his turret turned quickly to the Calamity of Desire’s direction.

“You’re not getting to that girl, you old hag,” the words from Hans’ speakers caused the monster to turn for a second to her back. A barrage of lead immediately peppered her, before Hans detonated an MPAT round on her back. That caused her to immediately fall to the ground.

But before she could stand, Hans drove the legs of his Wanderfalke into its maximum limits. His mech jumped, and as his signature attack dictated—the sharp razors of his forward legs deployed themselves.

It pierced her through her abdomen.

Hans then drove his mech hard for a few seconds, his razors dragging her through the dirt. Then, he disengaged it and jumped away. Just in time to dodge a swing of her axe. His mech immediately ran for hundreds of meters.

Shakingly, the demon stood up. Her body was bloodied. Her center had a massive, ugly, gaping hole in it. Shrouded merely by some dark mist. Her skin was peppered with messy shrapnel holes. And her red eyes that glowed messily—it was bleeding.

Yet she smiled.

“...S-such a crass man,” her voice, while now softer in tone, still seemed loud enough to carry through the battlefield. “What role do you even play in this fight? You’re not my daughter. Nor are you the Angel of Purity.”

The fighting stopped for almost a second, as the woman trembled. She looked at her left hand, the hand she didn’t use to hold her axe.

“This pain, this abuse…” she trembled further, as her voice turned more and more gleeful. “Oh…Alfonso…he reminds me of you. You who only wanted…no, desired one thing from this woman…”

Alizée’s face darkened.

“Granny…Lady Ambre?”

“...I smell in you my blood, child,” she tilted her head, her eyes crying with blood even more. The smile that graced her face did nothing but further creep Hans off. “Oh…Little Laura…to think you’ve found your sister’s daughter…such a joyous reunion!”

Hans turned his turret to the Virtus Priestess. Immediately, her face darkened further, as she gritted her teeth.

“So that’s why you tried to corrupt her. She has nothing to do with our family anymore! You’ve dragged enough people to your misery, Mother!”

“My misery? I am merely spreading love! Don’t you see these beautiful dolls I have created? It’s for the two of you. Endless dolls. Endless lovely little things for my lovely girls to hug and cuddle…”

“They’re nothing like the dolls you used to stitch back then!”

“Alizée’s family is on another level of messed up,” Adelyn said, her voice outraged. “What even is this?”

“I don’t even understand what her real motives are,” Hans said. “That damned corruption must have twisted every idea in her brain. I wonder what even pushed her into this.”

“Some desire toys! Some desire money! Some desire power! Some desire a woman’s body! But it is merely the truth of the world. To desire and desire, that is what all of humanity loves! Why am I so evil when all I do is to meet those desires?!” She cried out, her voice cracking.

“Yeah, that’s insanity right there,” Hans said. “She’s murdering entire cities to turn them into dolls for daughter and granddaughter because they once wanted it so much? That’s some messed up shit.”

“I can’t believe Father did this to you…” Laura began tearing up. “You would never say those kinds of nonsense back then. None of your words make any sense!”

“The two of you should listen more to me! You ungrateful girls!”

Her declaration caused her to turn even paler. The woman charged in Laura’s direction. Immediately, her daughter steeled herself and struck with her magic. Pulse after pulse slammed into the Calamity of Desire. Meanwhile, Alizée, who had recomposed herself, began firing at her grandmother as well. All to protect her young aunt.

Her arrow struck the Calamity of Desire, but she merely blocked it with her axe. Hans notified Adelyn and Charles to control the giants, who had all charged fully to them. Meanwhile, Hans charged to intercept the crazed woman.

Hans sprayed her with his machine gun. But before he could even use his main gun, she suddenly turned to him.

“You have no more right to interfere with my girls!”

Hans watched as her oversized axe flew in his direction. It spun fast, and in a flash, without him even realizing—his mech’s turret was struck. He immediately pulled his mech to a hard stop. Warnings flashed on his screens. Realizing that his bustle rack was torn open, he immediately pushed his hatch up to escape.

On the rear of his vehicle, the munitions struck began cooking off one by one. All of it created blazing flames that towered on top of his Wanderfalke’s turret. And unlike in a properly armored vehicle, the blowout panels and the bustle rack of his mech wouldn’t stop an ammo detonation. He jumped down his mech—but then a punch splattered him to the side of his vehicle.

Hans looked at the hole in his chest. The woman who Hans found out was named “Lady Ambre” looked down at him. She seemed extremely pleased to kill him: the same annoyance that bugged her from the start.

Hans gave up, and just smiled defiantly at her as he spoke.

“I learned enough about you. It doesn’t matter—”

His voice was cut off by a violent detonation, as all of his munitions exploded at once.