Southern Region of the Deadlands: 938, April 7th, Monday, 2:00 PM.
Inside a fairly large military tent, surrounded by nothing but the dust and rocks of the Deadlands, a lonely girl sat on the floor while protecting herself from the environment. She kept her legs crossed and her back slightly curved, looking at the ground with an empty stare. The fancy white dress she wore was torn all over, with soil spots tarnishing its luxurious silk. Half of the girl’s face, her skin once smooth and spotless, was now covered in a black scaled armor that resembled the demons of the hellish zone—expanding into her chest and fragile arms.
After her horrible experience of transforming into a specter, and the return of her eldest sister Eutychia—now known as queen of the kingdom, Euthemia chose to escape from Heildin in fear of being punished for her actions against not only its residents, but the people she caused much suffering to in the neighboring country to the south—Pelkesk. In her ventures within the Deadlands, after months of utter solitude, she was eventually found by a pair of women exploring the zone—one armed with a large mech suit, and the other with an exoskeleton that enhanced her physical abilities, both of them offering a place where the princess could rest.
“…”
“So, uh…” one of the women tried to get her attention. Her light brown hair was long, which she kept tied up in a high ponytail. She wore a white and gold military uniform, with Cerberus’ emblem displayed on both shoulders. “Are you hungry?” she asked the girl.
“Aria,” the second woman called, striding her way inside the tent with little steps. Her height was extremely short, and she kept her straight black hair at shoulder length—wearing the exact same clothes as her companion. “Has she said something yet?”
“Xun, you are back already?” Aria turned her head towards the tent’s entrance, bringing her attention back to the princess right after. “Well… she kinda just… sits there.”
“…”
“Hm…” with lower brows and a colder expression than her friend, Xun approached the princess to meet her at eye by crouching slightly in front of her. “We know who you are,” she told her.
“…”
“Speak.”
“…Will you send me back then?” Euthemia finally spoke, her usual bratty tone now soft and detached from any emotion. “So that my sister can punish me for what I did…”
“Is there some bounty on yous?” Asked Aria, only to receive a scolding stare from Xun. “Sorry…”
“We are looking for a man,” the short woman explained to the princess. “I don’t know how much help you’d be to us, but at this point we’ll take what we can. I believe you can get something out if this yourself... he is a specter too.”
Xun’s claims caused Euthemia to lift her head, her expression recovering just a small glimmer of emotion. “What?”
“He is the leader of our unit!” Aria claimed with enthusiasm. “We call him ‘the major,’ and he is able to control his powers. We thought he might be able to help you... you know, with yours.”
“…!” The princess let out an audible gasp at the young woman’s words, almost jumping off the ground to address her claims. “Help? He can help me!?” she lunged at Aria, grabbing her by the arms.
“Whoa!”
“Please! Please take me to him!”
“We don’t know where he is,” Xun reminded the princess. “But if you help us find him, then we might be able to do something about your state. Still, we can’t make any promises.”
“I’ll do it! Please, I… I just…” the girl could barely speak, and tears began to pour down her face, as Euthemia sobbed uncontrollably with reignited hope. “I don’t want to be like this… I… I just want to go home…”
“Right… we will depart in an hour.” Xun told her. “Once my mech suit has cooled off, we will begin moving towards the center. With a specter in our group… we might just locate the major this time…”
Gladean Empire, Capital City of Ksatria’s Outskirts: 938, April 7th, Monday, 2:30 PM.
Beyond the walls of the Empire’s capital, a single military unit of three officers, accompanied by the talented heir of one of the empire’s most renown families, rode into battle against the expected invasion of supernatural demons that had threatened humanity’s existence for many generations. Known for their many accomplishments, Bloodhound—Cerberus’ ace unit, was called to deal with the sudden emergence of a large belfry on eastern soil.
The emperor himself—Elias Alexander, requested their aid in order to deal with the threat that terrified his people. Many imperial guards were dispatched to keep a close eye on the demons, as well as containing any hordes that may emerge from within the black and crimson tower miles in the distance. The belfry was massive in size, raising high beyond the clouds to announce its arrival to all that could see it.
It was a short ride before Bloodhound arrived at a reinforced checkpoint created by the empire’s soldiers, where the group was quickly briefed on the current situation. The sudden appearance of the massive tower began with a faint crimson light that shot up into the sky, growing large over time like a strong and sturdy tree within the depths of a forest. Expeditions were sent to study the anomaly, yet no information gathered aided their best scientists with finding a solution to rid of the threat for good. Eventually, the crimson light became the black armored tower that rose into the sky—increasing everyone’s worries within the capital and nearby cities.
Only a few days after, small and frail gaunt specters emerged from the massive gate at the bottom of the growing belfry. Despite their inexperience and hesitance to fight them off on even ground, the emperor’s royal guards dispatched the weak groups of specters without casualties. However, as their tower grew in height and power, so did the demons themselves, becoming a larger threat that forced Elia’s units to retreat further into highly defensively outposts. Though thanks to the emperor’s quick response, Cerberus’ most trusted unit was already on its way to aid them with the problem.
Bloodhound rode valiantly against the belfry once briefed on the situation. Tori and Scott drove the bus that the blue lobsters used to bring them to the capital, while Claire took Eric alongside with her on her spectral bike—riding side by side by the other pair’s transport.
“Brings back memories,” the young noble said, sitting behind the lieutenant.
“It was only two years ago, and you weren’t this happy about it back then.”
“I recall you being the one who didn’t like the idea,” Eric retorted. “You were very possessive of the gear back in the day.”
“Let’s split from here, Scott!” the lieutenant announced to the team’s sniper, to which he responded by pushing the bridge of his glasses, and lighting up their lenses with a bright light.
“You didn’t have to ignore me…” Eric told her with a raised brow.
Arriving at their destination, Bloodhound was immediately received by a small group of gaunt humanoid creatures. Clad with their black exoskeletal armor, and fueled by the belfry with a crimson glowing light crawling through their bodies. The group bravely confronted the horde with a frontal assault, which the imperial officers began to record from the distance—following the direct orders of the emperor himself.
Scott drove the bus right through the middle of the swarm of specters, taking down a few before slamming the breaks—pressing the horn on the steering wheel to get the attention of as many demons as possible. “Tori!” he called out to the young medic, who was seated right behind him.
“Yes!” she replied instantly, unholstering her highly modified taser before running towards the back of the vehicle. Tori remained calm despite the horrific growls and screeches from the beasts that surrounded the transport, unlocking the emergency exit, and discharging one of her electrified darts with an accurate shot.
The projectile connected successfully with the eye of a specter, bursting into sparking waves that crawled through its body, and into every other demon nearby—expanding a chain of electricity that staggered a portion of the horde that attacked them from behind. However, as their approach covered every direction, the creatures continued their relentless charge against the pair hiding themselves inside the bus.
“Scott?” Tori called out while locking the emergency door of the vehicle.
“I’m on the roof!” the man replied from outside, taking down lines of demons with continuous and well-placed shots of his rifle—each bullet piercing through the chest multiple creatures. “Woo! This is just like the shooting range at headquarters! Just… with actual threats to my life... I better focus.”
As the pair held back the large group of demons on their own—a horrific sight that resembled a scene from a horror zombie movie, Claire and Eric successfully infiltrated the enormous belfry through the main gate. Most of their ride transpired without much resistance, yet as they approached the core of the tower, powerful demons began to emerge from within its dark walls to put a stop to their advance.
“Awesome…” Eric said with little enthusiasm.
“Heh, is this your first time inside a belfry?” Claire asked, curious about the noble’s reaction.
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“You seem unconcerned about the humanoid reptile currently charging at us with bladed arms.”
“Experience,” the lieutenant told him with a confident smirk.
Pulling the throttle at maximum power, Claire’s spectral bike roared furiously to intimidate its opponent, charging forward with the power of their own god fueling its tank. The motorcycle tackled the specter with a frontal strike, catapulting the beast away into a nearby wall. Stunned by its attack, Eric jumped off the bike to roll on the floor and land on one knee, unsheathing the sword hanging from his hips to confront the humanoid reptile.
The higher concentration of carbon on the blade helped it maintain a sharp edge with ease, which the eager noble wasted no time in testing for himself. He valiantly charged the stunned specter, and with a swift slash of his weapon, split the demon in half by the waist—watching it vanish into embers right after.
“Watch out, Eric!”
A warning from the lieutenant reached the noble’s ears, prompting him to blindly leap away into a safer position. Though unaware of the new threat, Eric’s fast reaction saved him from the sudden attack of a second specter that attacked him from behind—its body half merged with the floor as it swung its claws with aggressive growls. The demon pulled itself out of the ground with a strong push, and faced the blonde man in an honorable battle between man and specter. Its body was nearly twice the size of the noble, with the blade emerging from its right hand glowing fiercely with a crimson light.
Eric moved his eyes towards a distracted Claire in search for assistance, but the girl had been surrounded by a group of demons that blocked her bike’s path. “Alright… just the two of us then.” He whispered, locking eyes with the black armored demon of humanoid shape.
Nearby, the lieutenant chose to believe int the young heir’s own strength, as she focused completely on the specters that had emerge to confront her. Unlike the smaller beasts outside, the ones they faced within the belfry stood larger in size, with muscular structures that could put the strongest weight lifters to shame.
One of them pushed forward against her with a thrusting punch, which she deflected by transforming her pistols into hardened gauntlets. The demon’s arm was flung backwards on impact, giving her an opening to exploit in her favor. However, with a pair of specters approaching her from both sides, Claire was forced to jump away from their combined attacks to avoid being caught between them.
“Hm…” she observed the three specters in front of her, as they split their forces into a flanking assault. Many options at her disposal, but limited in power as there was no Deadlands to fuel her gear, Claire chose to call upon an old ally to assist her. “Heretic!” she shouted.
At her command, emerging on the battlefield with an explosive entrance, a massive horned demon of crimson armor pressed forward against the lieutenant’s foes without mercy. Its first victim saw its head crushed instantly by the enormous hand of the beast, while the second was tackled away with a powerful attack of its shoulder. Only one remaining for Claire to deal with, she transformed her gauntlets back into a pair of pistols, and showered the specter with a crimson barrage of piercing bullets.
The creature’s painful cries echoed within the belfry’s walls, as its body convulsed aggressively with every projectile that shattered its armor. Aiming to guarantee a safer kill, the lieutenant summoned her spectral bike to swipe the legs of her opponent, and force its back against the black floor of the tower—its body decorated with smoking craters created by her bullets. With the beast now on the ground, she pressed the triggers on her pistols to create a pair of crimson energy blades form their barrels, and charged her staggered foe with a confident sprint.
“Game over!” she roared while jumping on top of the demon, plunging both swords on its chest before splitting its torso in half. “Hup!” she concluded her attack with a third slash that sliced the monster’s head in two—ending its life in just a second.
Two foes in the bag, the lieutenant quickly turned towards the specter that she herself baptized as ‘Heretic,’ only to watch it punch a hole straight through the chest of its opponent—ridding of the creature for good. All adversary’s taken care of, the horned demon turned its head to meet Claire’s gaze—nodding at her just like any of her comrades would, a gesture that drew a smile on the lieutenant’s face.
“Thanks,” she nodded back.
Not long after their success, Eric joined them both to announce his victory against the arm bladed specter—prompting him and Claire to continue their path towards the belfry’s core. They met many foes along the way, while Scott and Tori secured the outside with every tool at their disposal. The beasts were fierce as always, yet their resistance lacked the strength and power that Bloodhound became accustomed to during the span of a single year. They made quick work of every adversary that crossed them, and before long, the gigantic tower that terrified the residents of the empire was nothing but a pile of dust flying in the air.
Claire and Eric reached the core of the belfry, and with a powerful shot of her spectral gear, as the noble fought off the opposition with the aid of a horned demon and a little girl named Lucy, the heart that fueled the tower with demonic energy was evaporated in a blink—bringing down every specter on the region with it.
The pair escaped the crumbling tower to meet Tori and Scott right outside, both waiting for the pair with smiles filled with pride and relief. Fireworks flew high towards the clouds in the distance, a celebratory announcement from the royal guards that witnessed their prowess in awe—now relieved to be rid of the belfry and its specters.
“Well… just another day’s work.” Scott said while pushing the bridge of his glasses—lighting up their lenses with a bright white light.
“Are you absolutely sure that it doesn’t hurt your eyes?” Claire asked him with furrowed brows.
Eric offered a quick chuckle while keeping his arms folded, smirking with a condescending gaze at the happy Scott. “I say let him… best case scenario, he burns his retinas and stops doing it.”
“Why are you talking like you are part of the team?” retorted Scott.
“Because I am.”
“Nuh uh!”
“Want me to show you!”
“You don’t even get paid!”
“Guys, guys!” Tori jumped in on their fight, struggling to separate the pair from each other as they quarreled over meaningless subjects.
Smiling warmly at her group, Claire silently watched their conflict unfold from the sidelines with no intention of breaking them up. Only a couple of years ago, she would’ve reprimanded them for their lack of discipline, break of the code, or simply for being too noisy around her. However, at that moment in time, all she felt was the need to stop and enjoy the gentle breeze of the wind under the vast blue sky. An old text message suddenly crossed her mind, when the man she knew back then as ‘the boss’ expressed his desire for her to enjoy her very first operation in the empire.
“Lionheart!” a pitchy voice called her name, making Claire lower her gaze to face it.
“Hey, Lucy.” She said with a smile, crouching to pick up the girl into her arms. “What do you think of the empire?”
“Pretty.”
“Fufu, it is.” Claire replied while raising her gaze towards the sky. “It… is a little different to what I’m used to…”
Having stared at the crimson sky of the Deadlands ever since joining Cerberus’ academy, the pretty and gentle blue that met her eyes seemed somewhat alien to the girl’s mind. The lieutenant’s smile slowly vanished the longer she stared into the clouds, filled with many thoughts about the uncertain future that awaited them all.
The specters had once again emerged from the ashes, and the end of their threat seemed hazier than ever before. Her father, alongside the heretic unit, failed to show up at headquarters at every turn, increasing the girl’s worries even more. As her thoughts drifted further and further, a silver head once again popped into her head. Claire’s expression quickly saddened, her brows furrowed and her lips curved downwards. Sovereign—the man she came to know simply as ‘Harumi,’ left with many unfulfilled promises that offered everything she ever wanted. The simple life she longed for seemed already out of reach, with the ever-growing threat of the specters, the uncertainty of her father’s whereabouts, and the death of the only man she trusted with her family and future.
“Lionheart…” Lucy’s soft voice snapped Claire out of her own thoughts—looking at the infant girl that held an expression just as heartbroken as her own.
The lieutenant couldn’t help but chuckle once their gazes met, as the girl’s concerned eyes reminded her of her days in the academy. She embraced Lucy tightly in her arms, and gently stroke her head with a warm smile. “Sorry, I was just thinking.” She explained before moving her attention towards Bloodhound.
“I killed dozens of specters out here in the open! Tell him how cool I was, Tori!” Scott yelled at Eric—who replied with a softer, yet stern voice instead.
“I killed stronger opponents, Foley.” He claimed. “I am clearly a better asset to the team. If you refuse to see the truth, then you are nothing but a delusional fool.”
“Guys, please!” Tori jumped in between them, trying to push both men away from each other. “You haven’t seen each other in a year! Can’t you just get along again?”
“Let them be, Tori.” The lieutenant approached their fight with a smile, and while her intentions were to not interfere, her presence alone put an immediate stop to the pair’s bickering. “I think you both did a great job,” she told them with a smile— the sparkle in her eyes prompting the flustered men to avoid their gazes from her.
“Ahem!” Eric cleared his throat. “Naturally… I’m happy to see you have not lost your edge either.”
“Haha, yeah… to think we were nothing but rookies a couple of years ago…” Scott said while scratching the back of his head.
Tori giggled at his comment, being thrown back into the first day they all met at the outer gates of headquarters. “Hehe, we had no experience fighting specters back then, and our first mission didn’t even take us to the Deadlands.”
“Oh yeah…” Scott continued. “That’s when we met the lobsters, right? Then Gaspard… and then Eric.”
The young noble nodded with his eyes closed, keeping his arms folded as he spoke. “I will admit that I wasn’t too eager to have you all invade my home. Still, you did help me protect my people… that is why I decided to accept your request to join Bloodhound.”
“You forced yourself in,” Claire reminded him. “…”
“Lieutenant?” Tori noticed her silence, fixing her eyes on the pensive lieutenant. “Something wrong?”
“…No, it’s nothing.” Claire replied by shaking her head. “Let’s head back already, we’ve been sitting around her for too long.”
“I’m hungry,” Scott rubbed his stomach. “Man… I can’t wait to eat some of Gaspard’s delicious food again.”
“I have missed it myself,” Eric said. “He spends most of the year here at the capital.”
“Then let’s head back!” Tori pumped her fists enthusiastically, as all three of them turned their joyful faces towards Claire—who met their expressions with an affectionate smile, revealing her pearly whites to the group.
“Right…” she nodded. “Let’s see the end of this conflict, alright? All of us.”
“Yes, ma’am!” the group chanted, turning their backs on the ashes of a once powerful belfry to return to the city of Ksatria.
It was a slip of the mind that Bloodhound forgot about their transport, leaving the bus in the open field as they moved towards the capital on foot—too entertained by mindless conversation to even care to remember. They were as tight as a family, and just as problematic, with their every antic drawing chuckles out of Claire’s lips.
Her mind remained in conflict by many unsolved mysteries, and her heart broken with heavy losses. The world seemed barely any different than before, specters endangered the lives of every person on earth despite their best attempts to stop them, and while King himself had been dealt with, the thought of Paradise and the possible threat they posed lingered deep within her mind.
However, with Bloodhound by her side—the group she came to realize was the greatest gift she had ever received, Claire would continue to push forward, and fight for the life she had always dreamed of with an unbreakable will and resolve—a peaceful life free from specters.
“Kill… Lionheart…” a voice echoed in an empty void of nothingness, distorted and filled with growing rage—betrayed and deceived by a fabricated lie of its own doing—Its presence still undetected by Lionheart, resting and healing within the warm embrace of the woman it once held dear. A dormant power that was stolen many generations in the past, and that meant only the beginning of a greater conflict to come, now with nobody to prevent its fated return—its right to reign over the world once again.
THE END