Demons have always resided among Man. Demons ruled the Earth from the darkest crevasses of the world, though; these Demons had no order, and knew only chaos. Until one day, a great and powerful Demon named Ragnarok opened his eyes and saw the destruction and disorder around him. He then began to rule all Demons and bring about order, gaining their influence. By doing so he separated his power into four different elements: Fire, Water, Lightning, and Wind. In order to do this, Ragnarok gave his power to four humans so that there would be peace between Man and Demon. These men were taught to use the elements by Ragnarok's teachings and they became the Guardians of Fire, Water, Lightning, and Wind. When their training was complete, these humans became the new Demon Gods. They would control the four different dimensions of the Demon Realm, also known as Eden by Men's terms. Religion was created amongst Man to worship the Demon Gods. Though, Ragnarok's brother, the Demon God of Darkness named Bahamut wanted to control all elements. With the influence of the Demons, Bahamut declared war between Man and Demon. This fight lasted throughout generations until one final battle between the Demon Gods, Ragnarok, and Bahamut, Ragnarok sacrificed himself to banish Bahamut and in his last words he asked his disciples to seek out Guardians of their own, for one day their power will grow weak. Ragnarok's sacrifice to banish Bahamut temporarily ended the war, though before he was sucked into the void, he swore that one day he would return and envelope the world in darkness. Over time, the Demon Gods realized that their power was growing weak. So they searched the Earth for humans worthy to become Guardians who would one day become Gods and completely destroy Bahamut and end his reign of evil. After a year of searching, they found children with the characteristics of becoming great leaders and heroes and bestowed upon those children the Demonic powers of the elements. Generations have past along with generations of Gods and Guardians, watching over the seal keeping Bahamut at rest. The year is now 3163. Man has grown powerful in the industrial era and technology has come to thrive.
In an attempt to eradicate a Demon infestation, a city was abandoned after a large outbreak of Demons could not be contained by the Demon hunting organization called Demon Control. An evacuation was ordered for all remaining survivors. Since then, my colleagues and I have been hunting down the source of the mass of Demons that have been spawning everywhere. We have only one lead. We have been searching and believe to have found a data pad containing information about them… inside that very city that was abandoned.
Chapter 1: ExtractionIt's raining, no, pouring. I and four other soldiers begin to move into the abandoned Demon Control headquarters that was lost in the outbreak. Assault Rifles at the ready, we move in. It's dark with the exception of the light given from the lightning seeping in through the shattered windows and cracked walls.
"Scarlet, can you give us some light?" A Pixie with scarlet colored hair and a lovely red dress fluttered out of my raincoat pocket. She had beautiful red eyes that would sparkle in the light. She gave off a brilliant red light that made the red, ember-like markings on the right side of my face glisten. The light brightened up the whole room. It was a circular lobby with six columns spread evenly in a circle. There was a desk that was flipped over. Papers and files were scattered around the floor. There was a set of double-doors that were half open with a flickering electric sign above the opening that read Library.
I led the team across the room to the double-doors. I signaled one of the soldiers to kick them open. Once they were open, Scarlet glided into the room so that we could see.
We moved into the room and froze. In the dead center of the room was a Crawler; a Demon with six eyes and a mouth that opened a full foot. Even though they have two arms and legs, they crawl on all fours.
The Crawler was chewing what was left off of a skull when it saw us. It then dropped the skull and opened its mouth and let out a loud screech. My men readied their rifles and one took a shot. The bullet entered the mouth mid-screech and exited out the back of the Crawler's throat. I drew my two pistols when we heard an even louder screech as if there were a lot of other Crawlers… and there were.
All of a sudden, Crawlers started flowing out of giant holes in the walls like water, black, hairy, water.
"Open fire!" I called out. All of my men began firing at the swarms of Crawlers that were now flooding the huge room.
I began firing my pistols, each shot leaving a hole the size of a baseball.
I put two fingers on my earpiece and yelled, "We need back-up". In about two minutes, I heard helicopters outside. Then the doors we came in from blew open and out of the smoke ran Matthew, my team's number two, along with fifteen other soldiers. The troopers opened fire on a group of Crawlers and Matthew drew his katana. He then began swinging away at Crawlers as they leaped at him, cutting them to pieces.
We were taking out Crawlers by the dozen but they just kept coming and we were running out of ammo. "Clear a path, we need to find the package and get out of here!" I yelled. Matthew agreed and he signaled to his men to fire in one direction towards a doorway with a sign above it that read 'To Library'. Once inside we barricaded the door so the Crawlers couldn't get in, but it wasn't going to hold for very long.
"Spread out! Search for the data-pad!" Everybody then went to different sections of the room including the upper levels of the Library, searching.
"This has to be it!" called one of our men. I went over to him, took it, and then turned it on. Surprisingly it still worked. I checked the ID code on the back and sure enough, we found what we were looking for.
"Alright, we found it! Everyone regroup!" We all grouped up on the lower level to plan our escape
"So, how are we going to get out of here?" asked Matthew.
"Well, that door is the only way in or out." said one of the men.
"What about the staircase in the back? We could climb to the next floor then rappel down to the streets." said another.
"Let's just wait a sec." I said, "Let me call in and find our extraction point." I then put two fingers on my earpiece then said, "Hawk-Eye 429, this is Foxtrot 237. We have the package and are ready for pickup."
A voice then replied over the earpiece, "Roger 237 this is Hawk-Eye 429, there seems to be an abandoned radio tower about half a click north-east of your position. Pick-up is in 15 minutes, I suggest you move out A.S.A.P."
"Confirmed 429, well signal you via green smoke, 237 over and out." I then turned my attention back to Matt and the other soldiers. "Okay, let's get to that staircase."
We moved to the upper level of the Library and found a door with an Emergency Exit sign and opened the door. Once we reached the second floor, Scarlet illuminated the room so we could maneuver around all the chairs and desks that were knocked over. We went over to the window and got out our climbing gear. It was then when we heard the loud bang from the door that had been barricaded to hold off the Crawlers. They had just broken through.
We secured the lines and rappelled down to the streets and then started a full-on sprint due northeast. Within three minutes we saw the radio tower and moved inside and headed for the staircase where we began our slow ascension to the roof with a countless army of Crawlers right behind us. We reached the roof in six minutes. We then lit a green flare to signal the helicopter.
Then, as if on cue, Crawlers began to come from the doorway we had just come out of and up from the walls where they had climbed up the tower. The Hawk-Eye came into view and quickly landed on the roof. All of a sudden there was a loud crash and a ferocious roar. I ran over to where it was heard from and looked over the edge of the roof to see a Red Crawler: a Crawler with skin blood red and twice the size of an average Crawler. It was climbing up the side of the building. I backed away as it got closer and began running toward the chopper. I was then cut-off when the Red Crawler leaped into the air and landed in front of me.
Matthew drew his katana and ran towards the Demon only to be knocked away by its humongous arm. He hit the ground and fell unconscious. A couple of soldiers picked him up and dragged him to the Hawk-Eye and the side doors of the helicopter opened up. The men were greeted by a Demon Control Special Operative, Ashley, who helped them carry Matthew to a bed towards the back of the helicopter. She then looked out to the battlefield and reached to her left and grabbed and assault rifle and began to open fire on the Crawlers. Slowly the other soldiers made their way to the chopper focusing their fire on the Demons that were attempting to overrun the rooftop.
I drew Sin, one of my broadswords, and prepared to defend myself from any attack that the Red Crawler might try to inflict. Scarlet flew out of my pocket, over to the Red Crawler and attempted to hit it in the head. Irritated, the Red Crawler swung its arm out attempting to strike Scarlet but she was too fast and evaded the attack. The Red Crawler missed and instead struck Sin out of my hand and cut my right arm. Noticing that my guard was down I tried to recover by drawing my other broadsword, Punishment, but was interrupted when the Red Crawler lunged its claws out and stabbed my left shoulder.
The pain was excruciating, I couldn't breathe. I finally coughed up some blood and gasped for air with blood drooling from my lips, joining the blood that dripped from my raincoat that flowed from the wound in my shoulder. The pain then got worse when the Red Crawler lifted me off the ground two feet into the air. I heard a scream from behind the Demon that held me in the air. It was a woman's scream.
"MICHAEL!" it called out. I realized it was Ashley and, resisting the pain in my shoulder, I reached for Punishment, drew it, and slashed off the arm that was pierced through my shoulder. I fell to the ground, got to my feet, sheathed Punishment, and ran to pick up Sin. I grabbed the broadsword and turned around to face the Red Crawler, which had already lunged at me, enraged that I had fought back. With just enough time to react, I slashed out with Sin and cut off the Red Crawler's head. The head tumbled to the ground, blood flooding the puddles of water under my feet. The body went limp and fell too, gushing blood from the stump that was its neck.
With that battle won, I then began to limp to the chopper. My vision was going blurry from the blood loss. Ashley sprang from the chopper to help me in. She then signaled the okay to take off and the side doors to the chopper closed and we then ascended into the air. Ashley got me a medic who then treated my injury the best he could for the time being and put my arm in a sling. Ashley went to the front, opened the cockpit door, and conversed about the coordinates of our destination. The medic gave me a sedative to help with the pain and that put me to sleep as Scarlet curled up in my hair. Finally, we were going home. We were going back to Pandemonium.