"Raise your weapons!" Captain Val bellowed. A soldier was laying in the mud in a metal position, his shoulders shook crying. I couldn't bear looking at the greenhorn. Captain Val stomped the cowering soldier in the helmet. Forcing him get up and retreat behind his squadron.
"Climb maggots!" He yelled. He did not want this, nobody here did. But orders were orders, the top brass wanted us to push the offensive, to replace the previous wave of cannon fodder was our order.
"I better not catch a single one you in this trench in the next five seconds."
"Climb! Climb!" He spat. Thankfully, it was at squad 556 and not my 534. The captain thundered over to them and flipped off another poor soul into the mud. Beside me, John flinched at the sight.
I exchanged gazes with my three squad mates and nodded, they unanimously returned the gesture.
"Roger!"
"Yes.."
"You'll catch ournfaces after this boss!" Carmin hollered while jumping over.
The other three else chimed in while jumping the trench's dirt wall. I followed after them, shouldering my anti-materiel rifle.
We jogged swerving between ramshackle and destroyed buildings deeper and deeper into the city interior. The excursion lasted 30mins, judging by the speed of our travel. We should be well into the demon territory by now.
"Found cover." John stood by the foot of an underground garage. We followed him inside, across the abandoned parking space.
At the edge, we holed up in a hideout that peeked into the main road. Captain's intel wasn't wrong. There really was an old military position here.
"We'll stay here for now. Ben, report."
"Squad Leader Siris, I'm seeing no alien blips on the radar, ten meter radius." Ben affirmed, he was staring into the screen of his tablet. John squatted beside him, the two were deep in discussion.
I sat on a concrete brick, broken from the outer wall, a large crater connected us to road. Crawling that gap, we'll be able to escape anytime. Meanwhile, Carmin leaned against a corner, playing with his sabre.
I watched the three doing three usual tasks: Ben was on recon, John was plotting and Carmin was meditating. It was the same scene preluding battle I've seen tens of times before. Yet, today, of all days. Something felt amiss, I couldn't place why? It was definitely not the mission, not my squad mates - they were in their best condition today.
I reflected on the feeling, but found no leads. I must be imagining things. Such thoughts swirled in my mind until Carmin interrupted, with a brusque tone.
"What's wrong leader. We ain't even start fighting yet." Carmin's eyes had tensed, his hand firmly gripped the handle of his sabre, as if ready to jump into action at any moment.
"What's bothering you boss?" He pressed.
"It's nothing major. Just a bad feeling." I shrugged it off, relaxing my shoulders.
Carmin seemed to have calmed a bit by that, but his wariness had not completely dissipated.
"If you say so boss, I'll keep my guard up." Carmin sheathed his sabre, then set to wiping barrel of his M-16 with a pocket cloth. I sighed. He had scarily incredible intuition, reading people, reading situations, reading the battlefield. No, h didn't think, he sensed things. For him to be concerned, I must be out of it today.
"Squad leader-"Ben called out,"We've detected an alien on the radar. Somewhere coming to garage door 2A. It's position is fizzled."
Fizzled radar readings For a single demon to disrupt the radar, it could be a three horned demon one. It stretched our squads capabilities a bit, but we should be able to handle it.
"Understood, Carmin you stay here with John. Ben - bring your rifle. Everyone use the intercom from here on out." I raised myself and equipped my power rifle. Fizzled positions, that meant the demonic energy they released was so much that it disrupted the radar, or it was intentional. Either way, they must be strong.
John was a pacifist, and he couldn't shoot his rifle for the life of him, usually I would leave Ben to guard him and bring our best fighter Carmin into combat but that feeling kept bugging me so I told Carmin to stay. That way, both detachments had equal combat potential.
"Okay boss." Carmin raised and eyebrow but nodded in understanding. "I'll gun down every alien that comes near here." He said, smiling.
"Go ahead." I left the hideout.
For some reason today, the word 'alien' just hits differently.
Alien meant things that were foreign or unfamiliar. When you hear that word, you usually think of an alien: martians, those big headed seedy-eyed green people with no noses, advanced extra-terrestrial species capable of space travel, scientific in nature.
We referred to our invaders as aliens, they came from the black of outer space. They travelled in spaceships, they greeted Earth by destroying Australia, settled on the continent, and now they were terraforming the earth to fit their image. They are aliens, in the derogatory sense.
I knew them as demons, only because I knew the truth of them. It took some time to come to terms with 'this truth'. All the while I was skeptical or good reason, the similarities were there, jarringly obvious but I ignored them. For the simple reason that it was too stupid for such a thing to be true. I mean, how can the demons from a fantasy video game I played years ago one day attack earth out of the blue. The joke was so terrible I figured it must be a bad dream.
-Demons.
I was eight when the demons first came. News of their destructive arrival sent the world into a frenzy. Militaries everywhere mobilised. Nuclear warheads were launched at their spacecraft to no avail. Eventually, My father who had been a military researcher at the time and even my mother two years after him later had to step into the fight. The situation had grown that bad.
The first time I saw a demon was when captain had brought in the corpse of one, maroon skin with vanatablack stripes that ran up their figure touching the horns that crowned their cranium. The more horns a demon had, the more powerful they were. The features of their faces, nose, mouth, eyes consisted of glowing slits.
We had to be in a room with the corpse for an hour, and as recruits we did that thrice a week. The goal was for us to habilitate ourselves with its presence. I remember hating every moment of it but thanked the captain in the end.
Demons used dark energy, similar to mana, it was the primary energy permeating all living things of their dimension, The Rift. Regardless of energy type, all magical beings exuded aura, that is the pressure of their power and intent made reality, and a sliver of it was enough to disable ordinary beings.
The captain forced us in that room to get used to the demon's dooming aura, to prevent fuck ups in the battlefield.
Within the first five years of invasion, Terran humans awakened psychics, a uniquely human occurrence. Though those abilities became lost over generations as the Terran atmosphere became more dense with mana, humanity and other lifeforms began adapting mana cores. A change for the better, Terran civilisation had been been reborn.
Betting on the possibility for something similar to happen to us. I fought and lived at the edge of the battlefield, fighting the battles I can fight and running from mission to mission. I hoped that after all this exposure, I could awaken. Its been nine years into the war and nobody's awakened. Presently, four fifths of the earth was in the demons' claws. In four or so years, we'd be wiped out.
Father's liked to quote 'stay strong'. I like to think that's why he gave me the ring. Adorned by a little red gem, it exemplified life and hardiness. In the face of inevitable annihilation, the reminder kept me running.
I lined the iron sights of my power rifle, stable and true. It used specially made .50 caliber rounds. The hunk of metal contained the firepower necessary against powerful demons. The plan was simple, when the demon shows up. I'll shoot it, if its still lively even after the first round, Ben will sneak in a grenade.
My eyes prowled the light of the garage pass, waiting. I didn't dare make a noise, due to their magical nature, a demon's senses were multiple times better than a regular human's. Ben took position in the shadow between a pair of dusty cars, he occasionally stole a glance at his forearm radar.
"Leader" Ben's voice came through my earpiece. "-John and Carmin's lines are static."
"What? John, Carmin." I pressed my microphone. After a minute, nobody returned, there was only static. Imagining the west case scenario made cold sweat break out on my back.
"Ben. Follow, we're heading back."
"Roger." Ben returned.
He slowly stood from his hiding spot.
I heard a faint whooshing sound, my eyes widened as I turned my head to the noise. A four horned red face phased from the dark behind Ben, it was smiling.
"There you are."
"BEN!"
"Kuhak- Aaaaaaa." A massive spike protruded out of Ben's abdomen.
He flailed his gun, desperately spraying bullets into the ceiling and surroundings until the gun started clicking, his mag was empty. After that Ben went limp, the previous struggle gone, a thin red line formed across his Adam's apple, before his head tipped over to the ground.
I ran out of the darkness and into the low light near the entrance, slowly backing away. Just now, I think that was shadow magic. If so then staying in the dark was a deathtrap.
"I was surprised. To think there was another, I barely sensed the other three."
A four horned demon materialised at the edge of the garage's shadow in front of me. He wasn't a pureblood demon, the bastard was human, used to be human. Unlike the obscure faces of pure demonkind, he still had the vestiges of his previous human appearance. The traitor looked down at me, the crooked slit a mouth curved into a crescent moon.
I eyed him. Four horns and extreme shadow affinity. The blood in my veins ran dry. He was at the level of a third circle mage. Not very powerful but near the upper limit of what soldiers like me could handle alone.
"What do you want?" I snapped my rifle at him. The demon chuckled, raising the edge of his slit mouth amusedly.
Four-horns waved his hand."Enough." He grasped his fist. In an instant, I felt my muscles tense and entire body seize in place, being forced still in an invisible web that became harder the more I struggled. Shadow hold, I saw dark lines extend from him into my shadow. The traitor turned his flat nose up at me. For a moment he was silent, only staring. It felt like like he was evaluating me.
I tried to scream but my mouth was trapped shut.
"Your companions I assume. Here." A black hole appeared at my feet. Two heads rose from within, then the hole disappeared, leaving them on the ground. Carmin and Ben, two pairs of bloodied eyes stared into mine from behind their goggles.
I glared into the demon's eyes.
"I'm offering a deal. Why don't you become a demon too?" An arm reached out of the darkness, holding a beating black heart.
The demon put on a devilish grin, noticing my confused eyes.
"For a human, you have potential, extremely opaque potential. Under I, the latent power in your soul can be turned around for the better source. Dedicate your soul to the rift, submit it to the God King Of the Rift...."
Blah blah blah-
Honestly, the offer was tempting, By becoming a demon, I would be able to wield magic, at the cost of worshiping the death god that trumps their race and this guy. I could live, not four nor five years if I was lucky but a thousand. I will be able to see the world after it ends, also fist Terra one day, even if as a demon. The possibility was very real.
I let it ramble. I stopped listening ages ago. At some point, his speech had descended into a self-praising monologue. After finishing, he gestured at me with the heart, releasing the hold on my head. I understood to make my choice now. Wearing the most desperate face tinted with greed I could muster and nodded.
"Then eat it." The demon came over, forcing the black heart to my mouth. The rough organ scraped against my lips and the texture repulsed my stomach. I took a bite out the heart, using my tongue to prevent it from going down my gullet. Pretending to swallow it, four horns smiled, leaving the heart between my teeth for me to eat through on my own.
While chewing it, I let a large chunk fall in my throat, just deep enough to induce the feeling of choking on food. I let my mind panic, I started coughing and gagging, signalling to him for help.
Four horns looking upon my plight with concerned eye slits, partly confused. Realising the issue, he released his hold over me completely. I collapsed to the ground, heaving and struggling. For realism I vomited the contents of my stomach, partially digested hard bread bits lay in a pool of sludge, ugh.
"Are you alright?" The demon said. I raised my spare hand weakly and gave him a thumbs up. He nodded while glancing away briefly.
Without saying anything, I tilted my rifle to him. Pulling the trigger, the tremendous muzzle flash lit up the garage. For a moment I caught his look of rage as the bullet collided with his hasty shadow shield, breaking through it and shattering his collarbone. I didn't notice the counter spell he casted.
"Bastard..." I spat, it lacerated my thigh. I backed out into the street while continuously firing the rifle. Suppressive fire to hold him back, even if by a little. In the sunlight of the city I breathed a sigh and replaced the rifle magazine. Four eyes was screaming, his dog screeches escaped the garage as he bore his malicious aura down on me.
Calm down. I gripped my rifle hard, suppressing the throbbing pain at my leg. My senses were on edge, chucking for the slightest of disturbances in the environment.
"Got you!"
Four horns voice came from behind me. I turned in reflex to defend. The blade he struck down with lodged itself into deeply into my forearm, straight through the exoskeleton. While four horns struggled to pull the blade, I drove my rifle barrel into him. Pulling the trigger, I emptied a magazine into him until he became an unrecognisable pulp.
Boom- Boom- Boom-
Looking around I saw, kobolds, hellbats, a Brutus, demon footmen, other traitors, and a handful of pureblood demons themselves. At some point a full legion of demons had formed at both ends off the street waiting. This was the end of the line. Facing the end of your life had never been more stale. I was emotionally done and my mind was numb.
"Sorry Carmen, Ben, John, Alia." For letting you all down. I removed the sword from my arm, it began bleeding profusely. Reaching into what was left of four horns I searched his robes, there was the emblem of the Demon King An'Dan. Besides that, he had nothing.
While the horde began their charge I replaced the empty magazine. My warbox required time to fabricate bullets and I can't resupply in battle. Four magazines nine rounds each and an onyx sword from four horns. I wonder how long I can last.