"Tristan! Tristan! Can you hear me? Wake up, god damn it!" Lieutenant Derek's voice sounded muffled as Tristan struggled to open his eyes. Pain coursed through his body, and his ears were ringing loudly. His vision was blurred, and everything around him started to go dark.

Panic rising in his chest, Tristan croaked out, "L-Lieutenant, am I going to die?"

*****

An hour earlier, at The Anti-Gang Task Force HQ in New York One Police Plaza.

"Everyone, gear up and be ready to move in 10!! We will join the SWAT Team en route and move in together to capture our target!" Lieutenant Derek, the commanding officer of The Anti-Gang Task Force, stood before his office room, shouting to everyone in the room. Then he called out, "Tristan, come here," waving his hand to instruct Detective Tristan Quinn to report.

A handsome man with a boyish face and combat-weary blue eyes approached Lieutenant Derek. "Yes, Lieutenant!" he said when he was a few feet away.

"We're going to ambush and arrest the number one man in the Devil's Hand Gang, all based on your CI*. You see where I'm going here?" said Lieutenant Derek calmly, straightening his pilot's jacket.

Tristan replied, "Yes, Lieutenant. I was a ranger before I became a cop. I will lead the way."

Thirty minutes later, the task force and SWAT team surrounded the Devil's Hand compound area. At the same time, Tristan led a 2-man forward squad to enter the building. With one bang, the task force broke in, and gunfire thundered, preoccupying the drizzling night.

In less than five minutes, every gang member in the compound was detained except for the most important catch of the operation, the gang's leader, Dyavol Vedmid. Tristan and Lieutenant Derek searched the rest of the place to find the leader. At the same time, everyone else secured the captured gang members in front of the compound.

Tristan and Lieutenant Derek reached the last place in the compound, a small shack at the very back. Upon entering it, they saw a vast cabinet that didn't look suspicious inside or out.

But Tristan knew better. He noticed the inside and outside dimensions of the cabinet didn't match, and he heard something unusual when he knocked on the inside wall. A hollow space lay behind the cabinet. With one punch, Tristan broke it and went inside, with Lieutenant Derek following him. A ladder led down under the shack, taking nearly a minute for Tristan to descend.

At the bottom, there was a door that Tristan opened without waiting for Lieutenant Derek. In the torches-lit stone walled room, he saw a large man, Dyavol, bowing before a giant chained statue. Suddenly, Dyavol stood up, jumped on the statue, and hugged it with one hand while slitting his throat with the other.

Within seconds, the door shut before Lieutenant Derek could enter. The torches flamed bigger flames, and the statue slowly moved its hand. As the room brightened from the shining torches, Tristan could see the statue's face — that of a goat with red eyes and two horns.

Tristan couldn't believe what he was seeing. 'Did we ambush the wrong place?' he talked inwardly in disbelief. 'This is a movie set with monsters like Hellboy in the cast, right!?'

Before he could even ask, the statue suddenly stood up and took one step toward him. Tristan couldn't believe his eyes. He was frozen in fear as the statue grabbed the lifeless body of Dyavol and threw it toward him.

"What the hell is that?" Tristan shouted to no one in particular. "Fuck...Fuck!!" He quickly jumped to avoid the body, his honed reflexes coming in handy.

As he landed, he turned his attention back to the statue, now standing just a few feet away from him. His heart was pounding with fear and confusion as he tried to figure out what was happening.

The statue steps forward again, approaching Tristan. Its big hand raced to grab Tristan's leg. But he was faster. He scrolled down backward. Once facing the statue, he immediately shoots the moving statue. Five quick shots hit the same spot on the statue's forehead and caused one of its horns to break.

The demon-like statue staggered and moved back, facing intense Tristan bullseye shots.

"Die, you motherfucker!" Tristan shot four more times in the same spot. Now on its chest, where he thought a heart or something like it might be inside it.

The statue fell and sat down against the room's stone wall. Then everything fell silent except for Lieutenant Derek banging at the door, trying to break in, "Tristan! Tristan! What the hell is going on there?" He screamed while knocking at the door again and again.

Tristan omits Lieutenant Derek's noise and focuses on the strange enemy before him. The demon-like figure looks very tall but still humanoid tall, which is probably slightly more than 7 feet tall.

Tristan quickly reloaded and took a few careful steps forward. Suddenly, one of the demon-like goat statue's hands grabbed the broken horn and threw it at Tristan. And it hit Tristan's stomach.

"AAAHHH," as the horn punctured his stomach, causing him to fall back and stop by the closed door. His gut is now bleeding. The pain was creeping from his stomach. But Tristan still held his gun firmly, fully loaded, and aimed at the statue's forehead.

With great determination, he shouts, "Fuck you, ugly shit! Eat this!" and sends a barrage of bullets at the target. The shots were so perfect they broke another horn to pieces. He kept shooting until his magazine was empty. Then, the hand that held his gun released the gun and collapsed on his side as his consciousness slowly fade.

As the last horn broke from its head and was torn to pieces by Tristan's shots, the demon started to be enveloped by flames until only ashes were left in its place where it had leaned against the wall.

Tristan heard Lieutenant Derek's voice screaming as he pushed the door. Lieutenant Derek managed to open it and immediately held Tristan's hand while calling his name over and over again.

"Tristan! Tristan! Can you hear me? Wake up, god damn it!" Lieutenant Derek's voice sounded muffled as Tristan struggled to open his eyes. Pain coursed through his body, and his ears were ringing loudly. His vision was blurred, and everything around him started to go dark.

Panic rising in his chest, Tristan croaked out, "L-Lieutenant, am I going to die?" he softly asked before everything went black.

.

.

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.

.

.

.

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Tristan heard a soft and faint voice, "B-Brother… Brother Tristan. Wake up, please. Can you hear my voice? Brother, this is Leylla. If you can hear my voice, please hold my hand!"

Tristan slowly opened his eyes, but as he did, he was shocked by what he saw. Before him was a pretty little girl with long golden hair, whom he did not recognize. She looked to be about twelve years old.

The girl smiled at Tristan and squeezed his hand tightly.

"You finally woke up, brother! Father, Mother, and everyone else almost gave up on you. They thought you would perish when Drakkarus stabbed you in the stomach, and you fell into a coma," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Tristan was confused hearing her explanation.

"W-Where am I? W-Who are you?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

___

An: CI = Confidential Informant