“Colonel, we marched here to find triumph against this great demon. I do not particularly like this mission. But reason has appealed to me. Me and my men slayed these monsters with them. It made me realize that if I turned back and fled for my self-interest when we are the only ones who have proven ourselves capable of this great task, that it would be a grave crime.”

- Excerpt from Captain Ebert Strobel’s letters.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Near Rignon

We’re so close damn it!

Another slash came from the Calamity of Desire. And Hans, with a desperate pull on his left control stick—dodged it.

Gunfire once again peppered the demon as Hans retreated a few more dozen meters. But just like every time Hans tried to shake her off, she proved to be a fast woman. The sheer speed and inhuman endurance she was capable of had now winded Hans. Each dodge, each strike, all of it pushed him to the most extreme conditions.

The sheer Gs that he was taking each time he tried a maneuver to get out of her way made his vision blurry. And he was nearing the point of needing to puke. But he kept on in the rat race. Dodging, firing back, dodging, retreating. It was a brutal routine that Hans never imagined as something he would ever do.

After all, his mech, an eighteen-tonner vehicle designed to counter tanks—wasn’t a flexible humanoid demon.

“I see then,” the Calamity of Desire’s eyes glowed a scathing red as she stared at Hans’ Wanderfalke. “You’re a tenacious young man, you know?”

He squeezed on his heavy machine guns as he continued retreating, but it suddenly stopped. Nothing but clicks came out. Damn it! They’re jammed. Or overheated! He immediately initiated the barrel replacement systems.

“Heh, well,” he pressed the button for his speakers, breathing heavily as she charged forward again. “That’s what a man just trying to live has to do, Desire!”

She jumped high and aimed her axe in his direction. Hans calculated her trajectory in milliseconds, before slamming his feet hard on the reverse pedals. His hands pulled hard on his control sticks, as he slipped out of her way—the axe of hers slicing off a small part of his forward right leg.

A sudden flash of pink slammed through the two. As Hans turned his turret quickly to her, he found her going off-balance as the arrow pierced through her body. Like a ragdoll, she was spun in the air, the back of her head dropping hard on the dirt. Hans wasted no time pulling back further, firing his main gun at her.

This time, he fired a sabot. Carefully prepared so that he’d be able to do the maximum opening damage against her, the high-velocity anti-tank round tore through her shoulders. She was further thrown dozens of meters away from him before the depleted uranium dart lost its energy.

She stood up, her flesh reforming in a sickly manner as she went for her axe.

Now, she’ll call them in.

And Hans’ prediction was correct. In the distance, the four gigantic flesh creatures finally appeared. Hans stopped his retreat. He watched how she smirked, almost like a lone lunatic on the green fields. She grabbed her axe as she continued laughing.

“All of you…” her voice spoke softly, but it was again heard through the fields. “I have never seen a gathering of mundane forces face me, a Calamity, with this level of gusto. Normally, you’d have all been wiped out and converted into my lovely dolls…”

“You’re a damned lunatic, Mrs. Ambre,” Hans said. He had already bought enough time. Looking to his side, the horse artillery was finally fully set up by Captain Strobel’s men. It was time to begin phase two. “Men of the Imperium, get on range! It’s time to eliminate them and her. For Ygeia!”

“So you know my name…” the woman laughed. “It makes sense, I can smell my daughter and…” she looked briefly at Alizée. “The other ungrateful brat. I offered them everything they could have wanted, yet they turned the dagger against me. This cursed land will do the same to you, don’t you know that? You’re just a tool of the company’s desires.”

As Hans had ordered beforehand, the artillery from the hills opened up. The speeding giant monsters were immediately struck by the magically enhanced cannonballs. It slowed them down enough. Behind him, Adelyn also rejoined the fight, her Wanderadler’s turret tracking the woman.

But the demon had already begun moving. Her body healed way too fast.

“Captain, you know the plan already! Keep her away from Alizée!”

“I’ll do my best!”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The two opened fire at the same time. Both of their MPAT rounds flew too far from the demon’s body, failing to detonate. Gunfire from the two traced her again, as she went to strike Adelyn. But Hans wasn’t allowing that. Knowing that Adelyn was more of a standard pilot, he knew that she wouldn’t have any skills at maneuvering her mech well.

Besides, the Wanderadler physically would be unable to do it. It was too heavy.

I’m their goddess-damned meat shield. And damn it I will serve that role well!

Hans ran for his tried and true tactic when he noticed the demon was preparing to throw her axe at Adelyn. Cutting it straight in front of the demon, Hans blocked Adelyn from firing her guns at the Calamity of Desire, and vice versa. It distracted the demon enough when she refocused on Hans.

She’s gonna throw it. Hans knew. And so he pulled his mech’s hull down. But then, a scattered volley of musket fire rained at the demon. Hans watched as dozens of heavy musket balls pummeled her body, many bouncing off harmlessly. But it gained her attention.

“Damned humans!” She shouted as she aimed her axe at them. A red glowing runic circle appeared in front of her. Hans knew what it was. It was her spell attacks that turned people into doll-like things. “Take this—”

A sudden beam of white light struck her axe. Her spell preparations were disrupted, enough for the musketeers to bail out from her aim. The Calamity of Desire turned to the perpetrator—her daughter.

“Not today, mother!” Laura shouted as she aimed her staff at the demon. “You’re not turning anyone into your sick playthings!”

Pulse after pulse came from her wand. The Calamity of Desire naturally dodged it as best as she could, but it was hitting her, and hitting her hard. Angered, she aimed her axe at Laura and fired off three red beams.

But Hans’ Wanderfalke absorbed the shots when he drove in front of Laura. The spells, designed to hit flesh and disintegrate it into sick little dolls, failed to have any effect on the cold metal. Hans opened up his speakers.

“Pull back, Laura! Get the rest of the battlemages instead! Captain Weibel!”

“I am on it!” Someone shouted from behind. Captain Weibel fired his pistol straight at the Calamity of Desire, his shot piercing through her shoulder. But he immediately pulled his horse to the side and fell back—revealing a bunch of battlemages in robes aiming their staffs at the demon. “Open fire, for the Imperium!”

A dozen different colored magic circles appeared. Then, a volley of beams struck the Calamity of Desire. Some burned her, some pierced her with water, while others seemed to be shards of ice that froze her a bit. She was staggered.

“Focus fire now! Now’s our chance!” Hans ordered. Loading another APFSDS straight into his chamber, he watched as Adelyn fired her shot. It glowed red—and it started a blue inferno. In seconds, the demon had run from the fires of Adelyn’s anti-demon munition. That was when Hans had his chance for a second shot.

The sabot round flew straight to her, but she managed to raise her hand, and a glowing shield appeared in front of her. The shot immediately pinged and bounced off the hexagonal shield. It shattered upon impact, proving to Hans that her magical barrier was weaker than his rounds.

But she was unharmed.

“Damn you,” she said. Her injuries were too severe, and she was bleeding at all points in her body. Her dress had now been tattered. Almost burned by the endless attacks against her. She continued running, trying her best to avoid the endless barrage of firepower being directed at her.

Mages, musketeers, everyone was opening fire on her. She even had to dodge Alizée’s attacks as if her life depended on it. Hans could see the verifiable fear she held from Alizée’s arrows. It was almost as if she’d take a depleted uranium penetrator over being struck by an Angel’s wrath.

Hans chased the retreating woman, his machine guns going ham. Beside him, the gigantic flesh monsters began to attack him. The first was the spider-looking one, its legs trying to slice him. Then, came the bulky, golem-like giant. It bashed its gigantic fists on the ground, which Hans barely dodged.

The face of the giant however was struck by Adelyn’s round. A massive fire erupted, burning much of it before three cannonballs pummeled it. Hans resumed his pursuit against the Calamity of Desire as she transformed and regained her strength.

“Damn it, get off my back you nuthead!” She shouted at him. “Your weapons have no respect for the natural way of fighting!”

“I can say the same about you!” Hans replied, as his mech stopped, and fired an MPAT round into her direction. It detonated again. He looked at his remaining munitions. I’m running low. He chose to load another APFSDS. He was hoping for a good chance to get her down. Six MPATs and eight APFSDS. Not even eight hundred rounds left on both of my coaxials.

The Calamity of Desire suddenly turned around and charged at him. Hans immediately realized his blunder. He had overextended himself in the hopes of chasing her off. On his right flank was the spider giant charging at him. And in front of him was the woman, dashing at him at lightspeed with a murderous glint in her eyes.

Hans reacted as any sane man would. He pressed his feet on the pedals for a hard break, then took a sudden pull to the left. His mech drifted into a full one-eighty, as one of the sharp legs of the gigantic spider monster sliced through the ground. He aimed his main gun at the demon approaching him, and he ran full throttle away.

Before she could strike him, however—two white pulses pummeled into the woman’s face. Laura had run close into the fight to cover him. Behind her, even Alizée was trailing by. The girl dropped to her knees, and let loose another arrow at the Calamity of Desire.

But the demon blocked it with a swift slice of her axe.

“You two! You dare to defy me, your, your mother—”

“Mother? No! You need to rest now. You’re not doing yourselves any favors,” Laura warned, as she prepared another set of magical strikes. “And I’d be helping the Angel of Purity herself put you down if you don’t cease this!”

“Who the hell told the two of you to get close?!” Hans shouted using his speakers. Panicked, he pulled himself into another turn. “Run, damn it!”

Behind him, Adelyn’s mech sped past him. Hans on the other hand focused on intercepting the Calamity of Desire before she could strike her daughter and granddaughter in one fell swoop.

“Save them, Hans! I’ll take care of those giants!”

“I’m on it, Adelyn!”

The two dashed onwards. They wouldn’t let those two, especially Alizée, die to a lunatic.