"The air support is here already? Great!" James said as he looked at the fighter jets that flew past the buildings above him. "Everyone! Get back and let the demons taste the power of those beasts," James continued as he looked at the Awakeners that fought the imps and the ghouls that came out of the portals.
James helped the troubled Awakeners with the spear in his hands. He looked a bit disappointed by how weak his members were and that they were struggling to deal with imps and ghouls. He wished that his members were like what Victor had because at that moment the Oath Guild was the strongest compared to the others. The Oath Guild had three times more members compared to the others.
It was as he expected, it took him eight hours to stop the breakout and a few casualties. He then went back to Goldmane's headquarters with his members to report that he had stopped the breakout.
"Are you serious? The Oath Guild only took four hours to clear the breakout?" James asked after his trusted friend told him on the phone. "Well, Iowa is small so that's not really surprising, but still, that's amazing," James continued.
"The Silver Cross Guild and the Conquerors Guild are still fighting the demons if that makes you feel better," A man with a cut down his left eye said. He was Enzo Manuel, the vice leader of the Goldmane Guild.
"No. People's lives are depending on them, so let's hope that they clear it soon," James shook his head as he entered the building. "Anyway, I'll leave the rest to you and make sure that not a single demon is alive on your side," James said.
"You know me. Also, Victor should be there by now," Enzo said.
"Okay, good luck out there and be safe," James said and hung up the phone.
Before James could enter the elevator, he heard cars come and he looked at them with his eyebrows raised, "Wow, speaking of the devil. They're here already."
James went outside to greet Victor and the strongest members of the Oath Guild that he brought with him. He saw at least fifty Awakeners that Victor brought with him, and they all looked quite intimidating that enough to make the Goldmane's members avoid them.
"You just finished?" Victor asked and he sounded like he was mocking James.
"Yeah, but we did it better than last time," James answered and ignored the mockery. "Anyway, come in and get some rest since I know you guys are tired," James continued.
"Not really, but we will accept the offer," Victor answered.
James raised his eyebrows and led them inside the building.
It took two hours for the other guilds to clear the breakout after the Goldmane Guild. They all immediately went to Nebraska to gather with the others, and they were faster than they expected.
"The cars are ready, we can go now," James said as he looked at his phone.
They all left headquarters and entered the cars. There were a total of forty SUV cars that fit eight people at most, and they went to Nebraska which would take at least six hours.
It was nighttime when they reached the border between Nebraska and Colorado through the highway. They arrived two hours earlier than scheduled, and it was still noon so they could start hunting the demons that roamed in there. But to their surprise, they didn't encounter a single demon.
"Did you find anything?" Travis asked James who had just come back from the highest hill.
"There are no demons around here. Even the drones didn't catch anything," James answered with a confused look on his face.
"That's not possible. How can a deserted state have no demons around? We are so sure that there isn't a single person living here anymore because it was the first one who got attacked by demons and it has been confirmed that there was no survivor here," Travis said and he looked surprised by the fact there wasn't a single demon.
"If you want to waste your breath, go out there on your own and see it with your own two eyes. We use the information that we got, and not some speculation," Victor said as he rubbed his hair and made it messy.
Travis glanced at Victor and his gaze was enough to tell he was so pissed at Victor.
"Now now. Let's just go to Denver and check if the demons are in the city. We should keep moving and not waste our time debating or arguing for something trivial," Morris said with a gentle smile. "Now that we talk about it, our sponsors didn't request us to come here for killing demons. They wanted us to come here for something else, but what is it?" Morris pointed out.
Everyone immediately looked at Morris and started to think about it as well.
"I guess we will find out soon, so let's keep moving," James said and looked at them.
They all nodded and got back inside the car to continue their journey to Denver. It took them two hours to finally reach the city, and it was dead quiet.
"You know what's more eerie than a swarm of demons?" Travis asked. "This is more eerie than that," Travis continued as he looked at the city.
"Should we split up and check the city?" Victor asked after he drew his swords on his back.
"Don't be crazy. Do you remember those gargoyles that made this counter almost extinct? This city has been abandoned for a year, and do you really think you can handle hundreds of them?" James asked as he looked at how prepared Victor was to explore the city on his own. "Let's just stick together. I know you want to raise your level and become strong, but not like this," James knew what Victor intended to do.
"Fine..." Victor sighed and put the swords back on his back.
They all checked every corner, alleyway, and building that they passed by, but not a single demon could be seen. They gave up on looking for demons because they couldn't even sense them ever since they entered the city.
"Do you think someone or something killed the demons? And we are here to see or kill it?" Travis asked as he walked next to Morris.
"I tried to communicate with my sponsor, do you want to know what he said?" Morris asked as he looked at the notification in front of him. "He said, there's someone that will turn our world upside down," Morris continued.
Travis and the others stopped walking and immediately looked at Morris with their eyes wide open.
"What do you mean by that?" Victor asked with his eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm not sur-" Before Morris could finish his sentence, he saw something that made him fix his glasses and looked up high in the sky. "Look, there's a giant smoke over there!" Morris said as he pointed at the sky.
They all looked at the smoke and realized that might be a sign of life. They all hurriedly ran toward the smoke which was on the other side of the city, and it was quite far away from they were.
On their way, they started to see gargoyles and other winged demons that they had never seen before. They were in disbelief when they saw dozens of them lay on the ground dead with wounds, cuts, and even lost some of their body parts. They didn't have the time to check and observe the bodies because they might find the ones who did that to the demons.
"Now we know what happened to all the demons..." James said under his breath as he looked at the headless gargoyle next to him.
"Whoever did this, they're out of our leagues. Just look at how many of those giant demons," Morris said and looked at the demons that stuck and hung on top of the buildings.
Victor walked ahead of the others since they were fascinated and terrified at the same time by the scenery. He then suddenly stopped walking and the others stopped looking around because of it.
"Over there," Victor said and pointed at something in front of him.
They all stood next to Victor and saw twelve people standing in front of a giant pile of demons that were being burned to ashes.
"Looks like we found our objective," Morris said as he walked to the front and stared at Mykel who stood in the middle, smoking his cigarette with a bottle of vodka in his left hand.