Time flew by quickly and it was soon dusk. The rhythmic snoring that I had been hearing over the past few hours, came to a stop. I opened my eyes, and saw the Captain standing in the doorway while yawning. Alex, Jerome, and Leya all noticed as well.
"Okay, everyone. Time for our mission! All of you, load up!"
We followed the Captain out and then into the truck. Jerome got in the driver's seat, the Captain in the passenger, and Alex, Leya, and I got into the back. The engine roared to life, and off we went. It took 10 solid minutes for us to leave the compound. Eventually we reached a gate that opened right into a forest. When the truck drove through the gate, I didn't panic this time. Once again, we drove straight into the trees and came out the other side into a completely barren area.
I looked all around me and saw no life in any direction. The ground was completely flat around us and in the distance, I could see a few tall mountains under the moonlight. I looked behind us and saw that there was nothing where we came out from. I decided to ask the Captain a question.
"Captain, where are we heading?"
"We're heading to the mountain range in front of us. We have a small outpost set up at the base of one of the mountains. Once we're at the outpost, we'll proceed on foot."
The rest of the ride remained silent as we approached the mountain. Soon enough, we passed through another invisible wall and there was a small cabin in front of us. We exited the vehicle, and went inside of the cabin. I was immediately taken aback when I saw the inside of the cabin. Compared to the outside, it was 10 times as large on the inside. Not only that, lining the walls were suits of armour and different types of weapons. In the center of the room was a round table that contained an electronic map of what I assumed to be the surroundings.
"I should have asked this before, but how are we keeping these areas hidden?"
Leya looked over at Alex and chuckled before answering.
"Life is pretty simple below ground. There is no need for any kind of super advanced technologies, but does not mean we have none. A lot of technology was lost after we took to the underground but one that survived was the force field. These fields can be made to any size that we want, but unfortunately, they have no defensive capabilities."
I sighed in amazement at the idea of a forcefield. I also realized, just how sheltered we were in our little underground bubble. The thought that we were not much different from well taken care of cattle even crossed my mind. Before I could delve into those thoughts further though, I saw something coming through the air in my direction.
I raised my hands up and caught what appeared to be a skin tight suit. The Captain motioned to me to put in on and pointed to a door that I didn't notice before. I changed into the suit and noticed that it was much larger than my body size. I was just beginning to wonder if I should ask for another, when it suddenly started to shrink to fit my body perfectly. Looking at myself in this skin tight black suit, I couldn't help but think that I looked really freaking awesome in it. I soon came out of the room and the others, one by one, went and changed as well.
After we were all changed, we gathered around the table in the center of the room. The Captain pointed to the map and started speaking.
"This is where we are currently. We received a report from a scouting unit this morning, that a level two demon was spotted in the area. The General decided that we would be tasked with capturing this demon. Fortunately, they don't require it to be alive, so we can proceed with deadly force."
By this point, the Captain had a solemn look on his face. I looked around and noticed that the others shared similar looks.
"Alex, Alicard, I want to remind you just how dangerous this task is going to be. There's really not much that can prepare you to face a demon. They are dangerous and vicious creatures who will do everything in their power to corrupt you or kill you if they can't. This is no longer training. One misstep could be the end of all of our lives. In order to work together better, we will each describe our abilities. I awakened an analytic ability. Physically I'm not very strong, but mentally, I have a great advantage. I am able to process information at a much greater speed than normal and think three times as fast as a normal human at the moment. My ability is currently at level three."
I didn't see how an ability like that was very useful for a squad Captain to have. With the difficulties of surviving in this world, someone with that type of ability seemed best suited to be on the back lines. After the Captain finished speaking, Leya took point.
"My ability is a bit more complicated. I awakened to an extraordinary fitness. Although my body is technically not very strong, I can use the strength of my body much better than normal people. As for Jerome... he's mute, so I'll tell you about his ability. I'll preface this by saying that not much is known about spiritual awakening. Jerome lost the ability to talk due to an accident during his awakening, but he gained a powerful ability to control sound. Spiritual abilities manifest in very unique ways, unlike elemental ones. These abilities often don't manifest immediately and we have no way of telling what they are until we do. Jerome finally awakened his ability in a life or death situation three years ago."
As I processed all of this information, I began to wonder about my own spiritual ability. After all, I had a triple awakening. Alex went next and shared his elemental awakening to the fire element. Finally it was my turn to share the information of my awakening.
"I actually had a triple awakening. My element is the element of darkness. My strength and my defense have both moderately increased, and I don't yet know what my spiritual ability is..."
At the end, I sort of trailed off because I noticed that I was receiving weird looks from the rest of the squad, besides Alex. The first to respond was Leya.
"You had a triple awakening?! Do you realize just how rare that is?! Only three people who have awakened have accomplished this!"
"That's very surprising, but we don't have the time to dwell on this at the moment, people. We have a mission to accomplish now."
The Captain went to the wall and removed a bow and some arrows, while Leyla chose a thin sword that was around three feet long. Alex chose nothing, and as for myself… I chose nothing as well.
I didn't have any training with any kind of weapon so I figured I was better off with the Claws of Darkness technique. When we left the cabin, I tried to see if I could get the technique to work. Surprisingly, as soon as I visualized the energy moving from the sea of energy in my heart and through to my nails, they started to grow long and sharp immediately. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing just how effective they would be against a demon.
Occasionally, if the moon hit just right, five silhouettes could be seen traveling at an even pace through the night.
None of us said anything as we traveled for fear of alerting anything dangerous nearby. When we finally left the cover of the mountains, I could just barely see the ruins of a city off in the distance. As we got closer, what was once earth, was now cracked concrete. Signs of a long and forgotten society could be seen everywhere. Once we got a bit closer, I realized we were on an old highway that led in and out of the city. Crumbled buildings and old vehicles dotted the sides of the highway.
When we reached the first, mostly intact building, the Captain motioned for us to enter with him. We each spread out and quickly sweeped the building and then met back in the center.
"Four blocks North of here is an old bank. The scout spotted the demon leaving from there. He waited for a bit and saw that it came back to the same building, so it must have set up a nest inside. Leya will go from here, alone, so check and see if the demon is still there. If it is… she'll report back and we'll all make our way there and proceed to kill and capture it. If not, she will wait for one out to see if it return."
"I'm on it, Captain."
Leya left under the cover of night in the direction of the bank. After 20 minutes had past, she returned and let us know that the demon was still in the building. The Captain led us back out into the night and in 10 minutes, I could see the old bank. Leya spoke quietly once we arrived.
"The demon is nesting not far from the entrance. It appears to be in the old vault."
Silence returned to the squad and we all entered the bank. That's when I saw the first living demon I had ever seen in my life. The demon had a human shape. It sat cross legged on the ground with its eyes closed, almost as if it were meditating. Since this was a level two demon, it had the strength of four, normal, adult men. With my level two defense and level two strength, I was only half as strong as this creature.
Once we had a clear line of sight to the creature, the Captain motioned for us to stop. He silently pulled the bow from off of his back and notched an arrow.
The arrow was completely silent as it moved through the air. Both the arrow and the bow were made of some special kind of light weight material, but the arrow tips were super sharp. The arrow was aimed for the demon's head but right before it hit, the demon opened its eyes and immediately stood up. Because of that, the arrow missed its initial target and only hit the abdomen of the demon. It was a fatal wound nonetheless, but since the demon didn't perish immediately it left us open for a counterattack.
The demon charged towards us with a speed greater than what I was capable of and reached us in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, the demon slowed down quite a bit and I looked towards Jerome and noticed that he was staring straight at the demon and had his hands covering his ears.
Now that the demon was slowed down and looked like it was in even more pain, Leya was able to intercept it right before it fully closed the distance. She drew her sword quickly and slashed down on top of the demon. The sword only managed to cut around three inches deep.
Even though the demon suffered two wounds already that would have taken down any human, they were resilient creatures. Because this demon was level two and had a slight intelligence, it realized that Jerome was the one causing its abilities to be affected. With the sword still stuck inside its head, the demon broke free of Leya's hold on the sword and charged towards Jerome instead. Since Jerome was right behind me, I was left dead in its tracks.
I felt adrenaline pumping through my body like never before. As the demon charged at me, time seemed to slow down around me. My heart beating in my chest sounded like drums of war, and my mind was clearer than it had ever been before. When the demon reached three feet away from me, I instinctively channeled a large amount of energy from my heart and to my finger tips. My nails quickly elongated into sharp claws and I thrust my hand forward into the creatures throat.
My claws went straight through the creatures throat and out to the other side, but the momentum of the creature kept it moving. I felt the full weight of the creature slam into me with the speed of its full sprint. Both the creature and I tumbled backwards as I slammed into a nearby wall. After the final impact… everything went black.