.
After about 5 minutes, both of them sat down and stared at the flashing sky. On Jack’s previously ghastly face, a smile was visible, while it seemed as if a large weight just got lifted from his back.
“You’re awfully happy after seeing someone who just left you on your own."
Seeing Jack’s smile Darius couldn’t help feeling remorseful, commenting with a self-mocking smile. But Jack simply laughed out as he waved his hand.
“What are you even talking about? I’m no kid. Of course, you’re free to choose your own path. And now look at you! You succeeded and became a commander! You have no idea how proud I am of you and how glad I am that you’re not dead.”
“Why would I be dead?”
“Well…”
Jack’s face became complicated as he tried to think of how to say it, his smile dying down as he sighed tiredly.
“Shortly after you left, words spread throughout the camp, and some others decided to follow your actions. However, the moment they gave out their resignation, they were kicked out butt-naked in the streets. Because everything got confiscated, including the identification cards, they couldn’t prove that the money they kept in the military base's depository was theirs, thus being unable to withdraw it. Now naked and with no money, some were sold as slaves in the Sin City; some joined groups of bandits; while others were found dead at the edge of the city, their bodies left to rot and be eaten by wild animals. After we heard the news from our superiors, I asked about you, and all of them laughed at my face, saying that you either died or became a slave or a bandit on a run… At that moment, your promise of meeting outside the camps was the only thing still making me hold strong as the sole survivor of Squad 7, but... In the end, I fell and-…“
“Joined the cult.”
“!”
Jack’s eyes shone with surprise after hearing this, but he couldn’t negate it and smiled self-mockingly while glancing at Darius.
“Yeah, I joined this mad organization... But it seems I’m not the only one who went mad.”
Saying this, Darius understood that he meant to say that Darius was even worse than him, actually becoming a [General] rank, unlike himself, who was a simple [Soldier].
“Wait, I can explain that.”
He sighed tiredly and signaled Jack to stop for a moment, massaging the bridge of his nose to calm his nerves.
“Before anything. Jack, I need to ask you a serious question. Depending on your answer,-…”
Darius got up while talking and took out his knife. Jack was confused at first, but after feeling bloodlust, he instinctively jumped back and also took a combat-ready position with his knife out, his face filled with shock and confusion.
“-I might have to kill you.”
“W-what question? Why would you kill me? Are we not brothers?!”
Jack asked shaken and Darius shook his head, talking slowly.
“And because we’re brothers, I need to know... Jack, there will come a time when the cult will rise against the Coalition. At that time, we will fight against humanity, but most importantly, we will have to kill our brothers who haven’t converted to the cult.”
“W-what?!”
“I’m asking you now. When the time comes, will you have the resolve to kill your own brothers for the cult’s beliefs?”
“…”
The question left Jack speechless, but he soon became at ease and put down his knife while opening his arms as if to say that he had nothing to hide. He also stated, with a firm face and no regrets,
“I would never kill my brothers. If the cult wants our brothers dead, then count me out, Darius. I’m not going to kill any brother of ours, not in this life.”
Saying this, Jack declared openly to his superior his insubordination and rebellion against the cult. It wasn’t a secret that such things could very well be punished with death in the best-case scenario and death by torture in the worst-case scenario, depending on the type of torture and the amount of time the sentenced will have to suffer.
“So you wouldn't... Then what would you do about the brothers who wouldn’t mind saving their own skin to kill other brothers? Would you join them? Would you stop them? Or would you stay on the side and observe?”
“I-…”
At this question, Jack’s unfaltering gaze started shaking. If he were to just stand to the side, then it wouldn’t make any difference from letting his brothers die, but now... which side would he fight for…?
They stood in silence for more than 5 whole minutes, Darius giving Jack all the time he needed but not leaving him until he got his answer, sweat already filling Darius’ forehead as he was afraid of what conclusion he would reach. Afraid that he might have to kill another brother to right his wrongs and for this wretched humanity,
“I…”
After a moment of silence that felt like an eternity, Jack opened his mouth again, gazing with a desperate smile at Darius, shrugging his shoulders while saying,
“From what I understand, the cult wants to bring forth Hell's Gate’s wrath upon the whole world, right? T-then, wouldn’t that mean our brothers would die anyway? T-then… Darius, I guess we would be enemies if you let me live, right? Although I’d really hate for that to happen, brother.”
His voice trembled, but as if not having any other choice, he grabbed his knife with trembling hands and prepared for combat against Darius. Not only was Jack aware that he could never win against Darius, who fought against a high-tier Black Spider and won, but now that his emotions were shaken, he was confident in saying that even a normal soldier could kick his ass, his mind a complete mess.
“Do we really have to do this, Darius…?”
He shook his head while desperation was visible on his face, with the tip of the knife trembling in his hands.
At this sight, Darius sighed at ease and shook his head, placing the knife back on his belt.
“No. We don’t have to do this. You answered well, Jack.”
“Thank Goodness…!”
Jack collapsed and breathed out while sweating bullets. Darius also wiping the sweat from his forehead, nervousness leaving his body.
He went to Jack and pulled him up after offering him a hand. Jack’s tired eyes were looking at him as if asking, Are we done now? Can we go back?
“I’m sorry for putting you under so much pressure, Jack. I just needed to know on whose side you are on… Because there are too many who wouldn’t mind killing a brother for their own survival.”
“Who… who would do that?”
Jack asked while trying to stand tall, but Darius shook his head, not wishing to say anything anymore to Jack, who was barely standing at this point.
“Let’s go back; you need sleep. We will talk further once we reach the military base from within the Dead City. The cult was able to reconstruct it but had no troops to place there until now. We will be the first force there, so we better take full control over it before anymore troops are sent our way, be they from the cult or from the coalition.”
“I can’t believe I reached a point where I don’t want to get reinforcements.”
“Tell me about it…”
Darius placed his mask back on since about all of the elites knew his face, Jack understanding his point and not asking about it, following suit and playing his role as subordinate. As they reached back to the camp, Jack made sure to think of a scenario as to why Darius pulled him to the side and why he knew his name, having to grind his already tired brain. After a bit, he suddenly remembered:
“Oh right! Damn! Darius, just how did you defeat the mage just now in a frontal confrontation? No way you were a superhuman in disguise all this time, right? I mean, I’d see that happening with your ridiculous reflexes.”
Jack remembered the confrontation between Darius and the mage, and Darius chuckled and showed him his gloves.
"There's no way I’m a superhuman. It’s all because of these toys. But as I said, we’ll talk more once we reach the base.”
“Y-you can imitate a mage’s combat powers with a pair of gloves? What?”
“You’ll understand after I explain it to you better. For now, just focus on surviving… We might meet some serious trouble on our way to the base.”
“…Right. There’s that too.”
.
The next day, Darius instructed each armored car of the elites to accommodate two mages. More than obviously, the elites were disturbed by this command, but they had no other choice but to do so. However, since the interior was full, they placed them on top of the cars, having them defend from outside. Since they were more physically able, they didn’t really find it all that unpleasant, although they became more and more aware of the elites’ hate against them, turning rather hostile themselves.
“Go. We must reach the military base positioned in the northern part of the city today. And if anyone starts anything, be sure I won’t care who started it when I’ll give out punishments. You’ve been warned.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Darius commanded through the radio station, and every car started moving at about the same time, going inside the city. Aria, who was sitting on Darius’ bike right behind him, asked, unsure,
“Why do we need to reach the military base and not the nearest location within the city? Wouldn’t the base be completely destroyed anyway?”
“No. General Arson informed me that they sent more scouting drones and saw that the military base's still running and hasn’t suffered any damages.”
“H-how is that possible?”
“The drones detected some type of ultrasound that seemed to scare away the monsters. The main reason we’re going there is to verify the source of the ultra-sounds and find the reason monsters are afraid of these sounds. Maybe we could find some type of answer against these monsters.”
“I-is there really such a thing?!”
Aria asked in high hope, unconsciously holding Darius tighter and pressing herself on him.
Of course it is; the cultists created it a long time ago after all…
Although what he said was partially a lie, he saw this opportunity as a chance to give humanity the possibility to finally implement the AM Sonar and use it to win back the territories within the cities.
“Ah… Sorry for that.”
Finally becoming aware of how she leaned on Darius’ back, Aria felt ashamed and distanced a bit, remembering that as a former elite, Darius also had some lingering resentment against mages, trying her best to just hold onto the bike, although that still made it riskier to fall.
Hearing this and feeling her get off his back, Darius understood her thoughts and said calmly,
“Better take the safest position. The road's too bumpy to worry about useless things, Captain Aria. And falling while inside the city could spell death in multiple scenarios.”
“Yes sir.”
Flustered by being found out, she held onto him once again, and thinking for a bit, she asked in a way so as not to offend him.
“With all respect, sir. You still didn’t answer me clearly if you’re an elite.”
“I’m not. But I was... Are you asking because I’m not showing hostility like the others?”
“With all respect, yes.”
Darius smirked at her directness and answered back in a matter-of-fact voice.
“Let me first tell you this... An elite hates a mage to the point where if they had a weapon at hand, they would find every chance possible to take them out without even having a reason for doing so. However, we are in the middle of a mission, Captain Aria. Petty things like personal grudges and preferences disappear the moment you take up arms. Every elite knows that. That’s why right now there are no conflicts between the two camps, although they seem to want to just devour each other.”
“Is it… the same for you, Commander Daniel?”
Now being asked this, Darius first thought of Lily, who was a mage, together with the heroes who were the greatest type of superhumans, Spirit Wielders, a tired expression being visible on his face.
“After working so much with superhumans, I don’t really think like that anymore. They didn’t have the chance to get used to other superhumans, so just give ‘em time.”
“Understood.”
Hearing that he had no clear resentments for superhumans, Aria smiled more at ease and became more focused, with the group now entering the Dead City.
.
After about 1 hour of entering the city, the group of armored vehicles has been met with large amounts of golems, flying stingrays named Gammaz, Nightmares that had the appearances of skeletal creatures that had their whole bodies covered in black smoke, even Dark Fairies proficient in hallucinations, and so on, other creatures, each one being bigger, smaller, uglier, or more mysterious than the other. But what all of them had in common, was that they only observed, staring from a distance while visible irritation and annoyance emanated from their bodies in the form of screeches, cries, hissing, roaring, and even violent body movements while retreating, as if something was keeping them from approaching the group. However, before the mages could actually start wondering why the monsters were keeping their distance, the elites would already start shooting and killing or fending the monsters away.
“T-this… Just what is going on? Is it just me? Or these monsters simply can’t approach us for some reason?”
A mage asked confused from atop a vehicle but was immediately mocked by the elites inside, their guns already heating up from shooting.
“Who would be mad enough to approach 25 metal blocks of hard iron rolling down the street while shooting barely visible pointy metallic things at speed faster than sound? Even monsters ain't that stupid to do that, especially those of lower tier.”
“Exactly. Now, why don't you just concentrate on keeping those monsters away from us and stop thinking so much? You’re distracting us.”
“Hey! I’m just saying that the monsters behave weirdly! Why are you suddenly so aggressive?”
“You all keep quiet and fire! Or do you want Commander Daniel to feed you to Gammaz? If you want to waste your breath, then wait till we reach the base!”
The leader of the group inside the armored vehicle interfered as he threw another grenade, glancing sharply at the two mages that stopped for a moment, understanding that they were starting to get perceived as burdens.
“Tsk, you damn soldiers! Want to compete? Here, compete with this!”
Feeling his pride hurt, the mage summoned his mana, and with a wave of his hand, a large windblade appeared that struck multiple monsters at once, pushing them back or cutting in half the ones of the lowest-tier.
Seeing the mages start attacking as well, the elites smirked at one another and continued their attack, resolving the suspicion of the mages altogether.
Darius, who was in front of the squadron on his bike, cleared the way with a wave of his hand, using the miasma glove to push away the miasma in front and make the monsters unable to use any abilities as long as they were in front of them. Some of the higher-tier monsters would try to shoot out plasma beams, but their abilities would quickly be interrupted by Darius, only to be shot down by Aria, who was sitting behind him, energy arrows exploding the moment they reached the target.
“Your skills are amazing, Commander Daniel. I’ve never seen someone able to nullify other monsters’ abilities.”
“And your precision is praiseworthy. Let’s keep going like this until we reach our destination.”
Aria was more than just surprised at how each monster that seemed to spell trouble for them suddenly became unable to use their abilities with a snap of Darius’ fingers, turning into sitting ducks for her to shut down. It was the first time seeing such an overpowering ability, and the thought that maybe such a skill could be used on superhumans as well made her feel a light shudder down her spine.
-BOOM!-
“ROAAGH!”
A thunderous noise resounded from the front, and at Darius’ command, all vehicles slowed down for a moment.
“W-what is that…?!”
“It’s… huge.”
“Are we going to fight that…?”
The mages looked above the buildings in front, and even the elites started wondering what to do, clenching onto their guns firmly while staring at what resembled a smaller dragon, still as large as half a building, that just crashed into a wrecked building and roared annoyed at the invaders. With an aerodynamic appearance, the dragon had spikes all over its body and especially large wings, each spike glowing with a purple light while emanating sparks of lightning.
“A Barak… dragon-type monster of the lightning element. He looks young, so this bastard must be a boss-tier monster. But with such a high destructive power since birth, we might as well consider any boss-tier Barak on par with a normal field boss-tiers.”
“Sir, are you implying that thing can become even bigger?”
“An adult Barak should average double that, while only the wing of an elder Barak can cover that monster completely…”
Darius sighed, troubled by having to face the most troublesome race of monsters—the dragon-type monsters.
“Commander, what should we do? Any ideas?”
Aria asked unsure, while concentrating her mana, her tension making even Darius feel the hair on his neck raise.
“For now, it’s best we don’t stand here.”
He then grabbed the station and quickly ordered while speeding up himself.
“Everyone, at full speed, to the right and between the buildings. If we’re continuing down on the main road, we’ll be turned into powder.”
[[Roger that.]]
Everyone then floored the acceleration and quickly turned to the right. However, they remained baffled when they saw Darius suddenly continue on forward. Aria was also confused as he was going the wrong way he mentioned.
[S-sir? Didn’t you say to the right?]
“Yes. You did well. I’ll be bait while you guys get away from here. Continue to the destination as planned.”
[...Roger that.]
[W-wait! What about our captain?]
Aria then took the station and quickly reassured her people.
“Don’t worry about me and follow Commander Daniel’s orders! I will come back to you guys in a moment!”
Although she wasn’t sure of the plan, in a second, she decided to just trust Darius and follow his decision. His cool and rational mind made her instinctively trust his decision, even in such desperate moments.
[W-what? But-]
“No buts! It’s an order!”
[… Alright. Understood.]
“ROAAGH!”
After they finished talking through the station, the Barak roared again as it spread out its wings, Darius understanding that it was preparing for an attack.
“Now what?”
Aria asked unsure, and Darius simply answered while quickly making a turn towards a destroyed car, accelerating the bike to top speed.
“For now? Just hold tight."
He pressed a button on his wrist, and a needle from inside his costume stabbed his neck, injecting him with a dose of dopamine.
“Guh!”
-BZZT!-
Static energy seemed to charge up on the monster as it perceived the charging bike as the enemy. The dragon rose in the air with its wings spread wide, and the next moment it rushed downward and flew parallel to the ground. The speed at which it flew topped that of sound in but a second while whirlwinds and lightning covered it’s whole body, flying forward like a bullet shot from a gun.
“C-commander-!”
Aria shouted agitated, after seeing the sudden speed the dragon attained. But she was not even able to understand what happened; she was already mid-air after Darius used a broken car as a ramp, even before the dragon got the chance to charge. Using his own mana-gloves to push the bike even further, Darius was able to literally fly over the flying dragon.
-WOSH!-
The strong shockwave created by the speeding dragon sent Darius even further in the air, while all the buildings around were now either demolished by the shockwave or partially destroyed. The road was now also completely decimated, with a large trail visible along the way as if an asteroid had just crashed and rolled down the street. The amount of destruction a simple boss-tier monster made was astonishing and terrifying, making Aria’s face turn pale while looking bellow as they were still in the air.
“T-that… How are we supposed to fight that?”
She stared pale-faced at the dragon that rose up in the sky once again, looking behind at the bike in anger, as if not satisfied with just the destruction he created a second ago.
“I’ll show you in a moment.”
Darius answered calmly while deciding where to land so as not to destroy the bike too much, pushing the bike towards an elevated piece of concrete that he used as a landing ramp. Thanks to the suspension, the landing was rather smooth after falling from an 8-story height. He turned the bike to hide between some buildings while also grabbing the backpack he still had on the side of the bike.
“Captain Aria, search through my bag and pass me some C4s and a remote. Actually, if you could connect them, that would be even better.”
“I-… I don’t know how to connect them.”
“I will explain.”
Feeling a bit ashamed by her ignorance, Aria still did as told, and after finally finding more bricks of C4 and what looked like a remote, Darius nodded after he confirmed it and explained calmly, while at the same time lightly snapping his fingers to detect the monster's location at all times. Thankfully, it was a youngling, the dragon needing time to recharge before it could make a similar dash again.