"Be careful with that stupid box, or else I'll turn you into an E-rank!" Doctor Erl said with a stern shout. His finger pointed towards a young man wearing an orange anti exposure suit.
The man's face was calm, but his hands trembled. He brought the box into the carriage.
"This should do it." the man exclaimed as he put the black box onto a triangle symbol with an eye inside of it. Soon, the carriage started moving.
"Clear out of the place." Doctor Erl ordered the rest of personnel and took a sip of a weird red drink within the flask.
"No time for break?" a playful voice echoed in Doctor Erl's head.
Doctor Erl frowned as he recognized the voice. This meant only one thing: more work for him to finish later.
"James, don't tell me there's another one of those things."
"Oh, no. Today, you can take the rest off." James replied telepathically.
Doctor Erl sighed in relief. He looked around and watched many low rank personnel dressed in leather clothing using magic spells to burn down a seemingly normal looking house.
"Then what do you want, James." Erl asked.
Erl watched with sorrow in his eyes, as he noticed the house included survivors. Which meant that the personnel would execute them to avoid spreading the news of the experiment.
One of the leather wearing soldiers dragged a young woman down before pulling out the gun.
"No! Please!"
"Sorry." A man said with a blank stair and shot her in the back of her head. The blood splashed all over his clothes.
The scene disgusted Erl, but he knew it was necessary for the world's safety. He stared at the dead woman lying on the floor until a voice startled him awake.
"Erl? Erl!" James called.
"What." Erl said with a whimper.
"Tomorrow a bunch of new E-ranks will arrive here! You're appointed to train them." James' voice was serious as he explained the situation. "Bunch of lowlifes, don't worry about that."
"I understood." Erl replied.
E-ranks are expendable personnel. They are humans who are reduced to either a test subject or whenever a threat shows up meat shields by an organization Erl worked for.
Erl continued watching as the house burned, and one man came up to him.
"We're finished. We secured the place." a man told him.
"Good job." Erl said and took one last glance at the dead girl and walked toward his carriage.
Inside the carriage, he found his right-hand man, Darvin, who wrote something in a notepad.
"Hey." Erl said as he climbed into the carriage and sat down beside Darvin.
"Is it done?" Darvin asked without taking his eyes off the notebook. "Any survivors?"
"Sadly." Erl sighed.
Darvin's mood became gloomy, as he knew they executed the survivors. However, he continued writing.
"Is this a report about the magic relic?" Erl asked while trying to take a peek into Darvin's notes.
"No. James assigned me to write the names of the E-ranks we are getting tomorrow." Darvin replied and pointed at one name. "Eric Jayson. This one was brutal."
"Eh?" Erl looked at Darvin with curiosity.
"During his sister's wedding celebration, Eric killed everyone who attended it. Mutilated everyone there." Darvin paused before adding. "Including his own wife."
"Disgusting. Was he an adventurer?" Erl asked.
"That's the weird part. No. He is a regular human." Darvin scratched at the back of his head. "We found a magical weapon in there. A sword which enhances the strength of a wielder."
"Cursed object?" Erl raised his brows in disbelief. He could not understand how the organization missed a cursed object like this.
"No. Regular strength enhancer." Darvin sighed. "Which means he knew exactly what he was doing."
Erl bit his lower lip. He remembered how he had to execute his own family during a zombie virus created by an anomaly that came from a magical rift. He still remembered the pain he felt as he had to kill his own daughter and could not believe someone would do this on their own accord.
"Let's feed the guy to a dragon tomorrow." Erl frowned as watched Darvin stop writing and closing his eyes for a nap.
They reached an enormous wall in about an hour, and the carriage stopped moving.
"We're here." Erl pushed Darvin's shoulder, waking him up.
"Finally, I need to finish up my report." Darvin yawned.
The two left the carriage, and when they came closer to the wall, Erl pulled out a medallion with a triangle symbol engraved on it.
*Crack* *Crack*
Suddenly, the wall started making cracking noises and slowly splitting apart, creating a pathway inside.
"Let's go." Erl said.
The moment he took a step inside the wall, the scenery changed. Now they were within an enormous building, with metallic walls and triangle symbols all around it. The people within were wearing either soldiers' leather armors or scientists wearing lab coats.
The two of them walked as they heard sirens. They knew exactly what this meant, and became really annoyed.
"And of course, the breach at the moment we return." Erl frowned. He wanted to write the report and finally go to bed, not to deal with some escaped monster.
"Just our luck." Darvin shrugged his shoulders, slightly annoyed watching the scientists looking for a shelter and the soldiers gathering into the hall.
The wall behind them instantly closed.
"Doctor Erl, Doctor Darvin. Welcome back." The head of soldiers, Jared, rushed to greet them. His expression was serious, but sweat on his forehead revealed the situation was dangerous. "We might…" He wanted to say something, but Erl shook his head, and put a hand on Jared's shoulder.
"Who escaped?" Erl asked in a slightly irritated tone.
"Creature 742… I-Imp." Jared gulped. He knew he had no time to waste, but to contain the escaped monster he needed Erl, who was the only one an Imp would reason with.
Creature 742 - a magical imp who could use powerful magic that could even alter the laws of reality. Obviously, this creature could not be contained by any regular means. In fact, the organization could not contain it at all.
The creature was here on his own free will, however, he often 'escapes' just to cause havoc and annoy the researchers, mainly Erl who befriended him. Only a few personnel knew the reality of Imp's containment, so whenever he left his cage, the panic occurred. Usually, he does not leave any casualties.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Darvin shouted as he stared into the hallway. "You two go without me!" he yelled and walked into his lab alone.
Erl and Jared nodded, as the two watched enraged Darvin walking away. In a moment, the two began walking toward the hallway, where Imp was wreaking havoc with his magic.
"So… What did he do this time?" Erl sighed.
"H-He… He turned half of the personnel into rats." Jared explained with a nervous chuckle. "Out of 700 personnel, 350 became rats…" He paused before asking. "Why does he transform half the people though?"
"Because, if all personnel became an animal. There would be no one to panic." Erl explained. He knew Imp was just playing around.
They reached the hall, and behind him there was an entire labyrinth of doors. After passing a few doors, they entered an empty laboratory.
The two of them stopped and looked around an empty room. It seemed empty, however, Imp's aura was all around it. They knew the creature was there.
"Alright. State your demands!" Erl yelled while looking around the room.
Suddenly, the room shook, and gravity shifted. Everything inside floated. Everything except for Erl..
"Well?" Erl asked again and heard a loud screeching laughter.
Jared was nervous, but he remained calm and grabbed onto the metal chair which was attached to the floor.
"KeKeKe. What's up, Doctor?" A high-pitched voice echoing around the room surrounded Erl.
"Your demands. What are they?" Erl stood firm and asked again.
"S-Sir?" Jared suddenly called, however, his voice became high pitched as well. "I don't…" before he could answer, his body shrunk, and he grew a fur. The next moment, he became a squealing mouse inside a miniature version of leather armor..
"Oh, come on." Erl exclaimed. He stared at Jared, but he showed no feeling of shock or surprise at all. "Seriously, what do you want" "
"Oh, I missed ya buddy!" a loud voice echoed around the room. "You don't call me, you don't text me!" the voice paused. "How else could I get your attention? Kekeke."
Erl sighed and took a chocolate bar out of his magical pocket. He smiled and threw it into the air.
"Catch!" He yelled.
Suddenly, the Imp appeared in the place where Erl threw a chocolate bar. He was about one meter tall, with short silver hair and silver eyes. His clothes resembled a fancy tuxedo.
He grabbed the candy and greedily ate it. But every time he was about to finish the last bite, the chocolate regenerated into it's original form.
"Are you ready to tell your demands now?" Erl asked again.
Imp was eating self-regenerating chocolate, but stopped to look at Erl.
"Demands for what?" Imp looked genuinely confused.
"To return the personnel back to normal." Erl said with a sigh. "And to go back to your containment cell?"
Imp chuckled. "Oh, I just wanted some chocolate. See you tomorrow! kekeke!" He laughed before reforming the gravity and everything he changed back to normal. Before Erl could say anything back to him, Imp disappeared.
"…" Erl was speechless. He really wished he could punch that magical creature in the face. However, it is best not to anger a creature who could turn you into a rat or some other animal.
Instead of releasing his anger on something, Erl went to his lab and wrote a report on today's events. After entering his lab, he sat near his work table but before he could start writing a report; he closed his eyes, and the moment his intense tension faded; he fell asleep.