GATE: the clash of the titans

by Qun Nguyn1

A cataclysmic event has struck the Earth. An accident caused by the Empire expansionist dream. Reason and compassion , arrogant and ignorant which one will be the winner. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin.

15. Chapter 15 : Deus Vult pt2

Chapter 15 : Deus Vult pt2

Imperial Calendar or Darwinian Calendar is a solar equal-month calendar designed by the First Emperor of the Holy Darwinian Empire : Ricardo von Darwinian, who presented it in 2 I.C. It divides the solar year into 12 months of 63 days each. It is therefore a perennial calendar, with every date fixed to the same weekday every year.

The Darwinian Imperial Calendar year has 12 months with 63 days each, divided into exactly 9 weeks (12 × 9 × 7= 756 ). A Falmart's day is 12 hours long so an Imperial Year is estimated to be 378 Earth-day long, slightly longer than Earth's. The 12 months are:

1st. Em named after Emroy: God of Darkness

2nd. Haa named after Hardy: Goddess of the Underworld

3rd. El named after Elange: God of Knowledge

4th. Du named after Duncan: God of Blacksmithing

5th. Mi named after Miritta: Goddess of Fertility

6th. Wa named after Wareharun: Goddess of Trees and Forests

7th. Fla named after Flare: God of the Sun

8th. Pal named after Palapon: God of Revenge

9th. Zuf named after Zufmuut: God of Light and Order

10th. Del named after Deldort: God of Covenants

11th. Luna named after Lunaryur: God of Music

12th. Ra named after Ral: Goddess of Learning

Lemuria sub-continent is a north-south lying continent that look like a giant East Africa, surrounded by the ocean on the east and west, with a longitudinal length of about 3500 kilometers and a maximum latitudinal length of 8000 km, giving dimensions similar to that of the South America continent on earth. The area of the sub-continent is about 22,400,000 square kilometers (8,600,000 sq mi). Most land conquested by the UEADF is within 2,000 kilometers southern of the Alnus Base.

The Eye of Terror, called the Ocularis Terribus in Falmartian, is a massive dimesional rift nearly 2000 meters across in the ouside and much bigger in the inside, a nexus of psychic energy and physical space-time where the Immaterium co-exists with realspace. It is home to the largest concentration of the forces of Chaos in realspace, including the Dark Legions of Chaos that fled from Falmart after the end of the Arminius Heresy. It is basically a gigantic FOB base for the demons invading force.

---

Tamanskoya Motor Rifle Division, Outskirts of District 4 ( Russian Base)

"Remember Bratishka. Rodina, chest, slava! Let the name of the Chertkovsky Tank Regiment chill the very fires of hell!"

The Americans had exorcized four of the demons, others had exorcized one each. Now it was time for the Rodina to strike its blow against these arrogant beasts who had dared to declare their dominion over the new soon to be dominion of Man. The demon had appeared an hour or so earlier and was walking across the countryside towards the Fourth District.

If the pattern from earlier encounters was holding true, it was making for Russia's Base. Well, it wouldn't get there, not if the Chertkovsky Tank Regiment had its way. Colonel Mikhail Suranov had worked on the presumption that the beast was heading for the base and set up a neat L-shaped ambush. The kill zone was covered by the 152mm guns on his tanks and, just to make sure, he had his special anti-demon Smerch multiple rocket artillery systems dialed in.

Berwaniklasnin had his message to deliver, as a herald that was his infernal duty and he was going to do it. The problem was, word had started to spread that the humans weren't cowering in fear the way they were supposed to, before it had only taken a single appearance to throw them into panic. Now, there was a whisper they were fighting back. Not just fighting back but showing uncanny skill in doing so. That was a troubling concept. Berwaniklasnin felt a sudden itchon his skin, there were ten or more brilliant green dots on his hide, points where his flesh was beginning to swell. One of his arms moved to cover them, as he did so, the dot vanished from his hide but appeared on the back of his hand. A beam of some sort? He never had a chance to work it out because a massive blow struck his chest and sent him staggering backwards.

The first shot had sent the APFSDS bolt screaming into the beast's chest, sending it reeling backwards. An instant later the nine other Type-92 Chamberlain tanks of the first company fired in salvo, their shots striking home as almost a single blow. The Russian tank gunners had been told that the EU had killed one of these beasts with their pathetic little Chariots, the Russian Type-92S could do better than that surely? There was an unspoken message, it had better. And it could. The beast was down, battered off its feet by the sunforged mithril bolts that had smashed into it. Even as the gunners watched, the beats tried to get back to its feet but Second Company were waiting. A brief interval as their laser rangefinders locked in, then another salvo of shots. These ones struck low, sheering the beast's legs from its body. It rolled to the ground, trying to pull itself upright.

What criminality was this? Berwaniklasnin couldn't believe what was taking place. He was a herald, one of those charged with carrying messages to the others. By all the laws and customs, he was granted immunity from attack for how could wars be fought if neither side could talk? Even the cursed Holy Order of this land respected that. But these Terran humans had opened up on him without warning. It was a hideous crime for which the wrath of the higher powers would be terrible. Berwaniklasnin shook his head, he was crippled, his legs gone, his green blood soaking into the earth. Even as he looked around another salvo of shells struck him, ripping his arms from his body. He crashed onto his back, helpless and dying.

Suranov looked up at the beast dying on the ground. It had taken 30 hits from 152mm guns to bring it down and it wasn't dead yet. If these things resistance to damage was as high as that, these beasts were going to be trouble.

"Tovarish Colonel. Please ask your men to help me. I need to sit on the beast's chest." It was one of the politicians from Moscow. It didn't take long to help him up, a Type-92 pulled alongside the beast and the political was unceremoniously hauled up into place. Somebody handed up a camp stool and he carefully selected a spot overlooking the beast's head, one clear of the bubbling craters where the armor piercing shots had torn through the beast.

"Beast. Before you should return to your shithole in Hell, I believe you should know whose prey it is that you are stealing from. I will therefore read you some of Supreme Chancellor Putin's speeches. Listen well and learn of your folly."

"I can almost feel sorry for the beast." An engineer sergeant placing the demolition charges around the great body spoke quietly but his team heard and laughed. The word spread amongst the tank crews and the chuckles spread there as well. The politician appeared not to have heard, his droning monotone carried on unaffected.

A few minutes later, the preparations were ready. Suranov looked up at the politician who was starting the third speech of his program."Tovarish. We are about to blow the beast. Please come down."

"But I must finish the Chancellor's Speech to the Iron Worker's Union."

There was a hideous racking groan from the beast, muted only by its failing strength. Suranov got a clear mental picture of it begging to be put out of its misery, anything other than to have to listen to another speech. The Colonel could see its point."Now, Tovarish, my orders are to destroy this thing then bring samples back for analysis.

The politician reluctantly agreed, and the charges were detonated. Looking around, something puzzled Suranov."Didn't the Americans say these beasts had acid blood? Because this one doesn't."

---

Throne Room, Infernal Palace of Dis, Eye of Terror

"They have done what?" The infernal voice boomed across the hall, making the thick red vapor boil and eddy as the banners of long-forgotten kingdoms twisted and furled in the smog.

"Your Eminence, I cower at your feet.

"I know. Do it some more. Then tell me what you meant."

Abigor cringed on the ground at Abbadon's feet, his tongue flicking over the great hooked claws. "Sire, forgive me"

"No. But continue."

"Sire, those human from other world killed your heralds."

"My gentlemen!" The scream of anger made the very foundations of hell shake. Across the fields of burning rock where the souls of the victims from previous Black Crusade were forever held in torment, the devils looked up from their work and shuddered in fear. "They killed my gentlemen. It is laid down by our immortal will that the heralds shall be forever immune from attack."

"Sire." Abigor whimpered and abased himself still further. If he had been human he would have lost control of his bowels several minutes ago. "We believe that one of the heralds may have lived long enough to say that."

"And what did those insignificant otherworld humans say to that? Do they cry for my forgiveness? Not that they'll get it."

"No Sire. It is reported they replied 'screw you and the horse you rode in on'. We don't quite understand that Sire."

"Then they must learn obedience. Otherworlder or not all mortal beings shall bow down before me. Abigor, you will rectify this. You command 60,000 of the 999,000 legions of mine. You will take them and wipe these upstarts out."

"Sire, may I beg your indulgence for one moment of your time."

"No."

"But Sire, the heralds are exorcized back to the Underrealm and we do not know how or why. The impossible, the impermissible, the unforgivable has been done and we know nothing of this. Sire, we should find out before we invade, then we can inflict yet greater suffering and despair upon them."

"Greater suffering and despair, I like the sound of that. What do you propose?"

"Sire, I suggest that I ask Deumos send the comeliest and most seductive of her Succubi to the Terran bases. Then seduce their generals into telling us what we need to know. Think, Sire, of their grief when they learns their commanders have betrayed all humanity."

---

New Coda City, 200 km from Alnus Hill, Lemuria

The small city of New Coda had become lively, and then it became even livelier.

Who would have thought that just a few months ago, this place was a refugee camp hosting less than thirty people? But now thanks to the influx of new refugees from the south due to the demon invasion, this place hosted more than thirty thousand people.

A wooden hammer striking a bell rang out noon, accompanied by the sound of disciples being scolded by their master.

The creaking of heavily laden traders' horsecarts coming to and fro, escorted by mercenaries whose equipment clanked as they moved, promising they would return… all these were now daily fare.

Nobody knew where it started, but travelling peddlers began setting up roadside stalls. They displayed tribal crafts, valuable gems, jewelry, potions and stones together, while the maids shouted to the uniformed UEADF personnel "Hey, want to take a look?"

When the sun set, the tavern came alive, a beacon of light in the darkness.

There were about twenty tables in the cafe, filled with stocky Dwarves, Harpies, Catgirls working in the PX, the maids working as waitresses and the UEADF troopers rubbing shoulders with them, holding mugs of frothy beer in one hand and heartily toasting each other.

There was a muscular old man with white hair inside the kitchen, who took orders with gusto.

Naturally, each table was getting noisier and noisier.

On several tables, there were people who looked like Iranian and Turkish soldiers. They removed their guns and sat on the chairs. One of the men sighed, and put his gun on the table.

"Oi, how was the deployment ?"

"Not bad. I got a job as a guard for the refugees going from the southern cities to the safe zone in the north ," said a man with a scar on his face as he leaned in to tell his counterpart, a man with a huge beard and holding a mug of beer, about the results of his deployment.

In order to wet his throat, one needed to order "Oi, one ale!" Shortly after that, the bunny-eared big sister of the tavern replied, "We don't have ale, do you want a sky beer?"

"What's a sky beer?"

"It tastes great. You can only get it here. They are made from a type of small algae living in the cloud of the planet. Just try it. In the worst case, just take it as though someone tricked you into drinking it."

Since that much had been said, all he could do was order a mug. After a mouthful of cold, frothy beer, he spoke again.

"This is good!"

"There's eight convoys running between here and the green zone , you can join me if you want."

"Well, if we end up together again, I'll be in your care," one of the men said as they shook hands. Then, he looked around and lowered his voice.

"What happened with those warrior priests from the Zeroth Division ?"

"It took me a long time to get used to their presence , don't talk about it. I have seen them fighting once, they fight like some sort of anime characters shit , they scared the shit out of me."

"And, The top brass are seriously giving them modern weapons ? This is crazy , man…"

"Wining the war against the Demons is the most important thing."

"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever..."

Halfway through their conversation, a loud voice boomed, "What's this, big men like you whispering to each other! All right, you've waited long enough!"

The bunny-eared woman who carried herself like a big sister laid big plates of meat and vegetables before them and said, "All right, eat up!" The big-bearded man, filled with crude desire, reached out to squeeze the appealing buttocks before him and received a roundhouse kick that sent him flying out of the tavern.

After watching the man being bodily kicked out of the tavern, his comrade beside him laughed out loud. The bunny big sister clenched her fists.

Then, she shouted, "My ass isn't that cheap!"

Just then, a voice said, "Yo, Delilah. How much to touch?" The speaker of this vile sexual harassment was General Yōji Itami , accompanied by the black Goth priestess Rory Mercury, Lt. Colonel Mari Kurokawa and Major General Nguyen Duc Duy.

Delilah, who was originally puffed up with anger, flushed red. "B-Boss Itami, you're so mean~" before covering her face with both hands and darting into the kitchen. The white-haired head cook shouted, "Boss, the VIP tables inside is ready for you!" That was fortunate.

"Alright, this is good."

It was called a tavern, but it seemed more like a roofed and walled canteen. Or rather, this should have been a canteen from the beginning, but because of the huge increase in customers, they had to start seating them outside.

Now, the so-called VIP tables were the places used by the original residents, the diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the warrior priests of the Zeroth Division and the UEADF officers. They were basically a place for fine dining.

As a Four-Star General, Itami was allowed to use these VIP seats, but he personally preferred the noisier, livelier seats outside.

XXXXXX

"Then, you were saying…?"

After Itami took a seat, Kurokawa sat down opposite him, while Rory sat beside Itami and Nguyen took a place beside Kurokawa. They were here to discuss something concerning a members of their unit.

As usual, Rory ordered a round of fresh draft beer for everyone and insisted that everyone tried the local foods. The planet's extremely diverse biosphere and the longevity of the local resident mean that the local were very creative in their food and beverage, they had all the time in the world to try after all. In place of Delilah, who was hiding inside the shop and wouldn't come out, a Foxgirl called Dora came to take their order.

After the beer came, Kurokawa took a swift mouthful before speaking in low tones.

"It's about Tuka. How long are you going to leave her like that?"

The Elf in question, Tuka, was approaching from behind Kurokawa. She approached slowly, as though observing the inside of the tavern. She looked like she was looking for someone.

"Tuka! What are you doing?" Rory called out.

"Mm, mm. Just, something."

"Are you looking for someone?"

"Hmmm?"

"Like say, a man?"

Tuka waved her hands and said, "No, no," and left after smiling bitterly.

As Kurokawa watched her leave, she said, "That's what I mean. She comes looking for someone who isn't there around this time every day."

Once again, she looked at Itami, wondering what he would do.

Beside her, Major General Nguyen Duc Duy watched the Grand Master who looked like a black Goth girl downing a bottle of beer, and he could not help but sigh. Nguyen was a man of staunch morals, and the sight of someone who looked like a young girl heartily downing alcohol just felt wrong to him. However, when he tried to ask her about it, Rory called him a "brat" instead. After all, she was over 3000 years old, and even if he was 30 himself, he was probably nothing more than a toddler in her eyes. Even so, he felt somewhat insulted by it, but when he realised she must have felt insulted by his words as well, it gave birth to a complicated feeling in his heart.

"But, is there a need to force her to face reality?" Rory seemed to be saying that while drunk, and obviously Kurokawa the counsellor would agree.

"Of course there is."

"Isn't she desperately trying to imagine her father is still alive because she can't face that reality?"

"She's running away from reality."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"What's not wrong with that? People can face tomorrow because they can see reality and accept it. By denying reality, you cloud up the present, and tomorrow will never come. No, you can cloud it up, but your tomorrow will be that much crueler. Tuka's father is dead. He… probably died in that village that got burned down. If she can't accept that fact, she'll lose herself in her fantasies and spend her days in the prison of the now."

Rory rounded her shoulders and sighed as if she was exhausted. The mug in her hand was empty. Behind her, a child who was struggling with what she had just heard said, "That's not all there is to life."

Rory was thinking about the same thing Kurokawa was pondering. No, it would be more accurate to say she had always been thinking about it. However, it was merely "the truth".

The truth could not save anyone.

Kurokawa was now walking her own path. After that, she would not notice if anyone said anything. She would have to wait until she realized it by herself. Along with the painful memories… These are my personal experiences, but how should I explain them to her? What a pain...

Itami spoke.

"Then, Kurokawa. Let's say we corner Tuka and tell her 'Your father is dead', and we make her accept reality. How about that?"

"How about that? After the period of sadness called 'mourning' has passed, she'll be able to accept her father's death. Her lifespan will be far longer than ours. It might even be eternal, for all we know. An eternity spent in delusion about a dead person is just too sad."

"That… well, that may be true."

Rory meshed her fingers behind her head and looked to the stars in the sky. 3061 years. It was long… or short, a little voice in her head said. In those 3000 years, she had met and become close to people. Naturally, she bid them farewell. She had overcome these things by herself. So she could boldly say that trying to change someone else's thinking was sheer arrogance. At the same time, because they were mortals, they would not be able to realise that they were being arrogant. If they had not found the answer yet, they would probably never find it.

"Kurokawa, let's go with what you said. Tuka can't bear the pain, right? So now, while she's lost in the gap between reality and fantasy, if we suddenly force her to accept reality, can you confidently say she won't lose herself even deeper in the past to turn her eyes away from the truth?"

These words shocked Rory. She had not expected Itami to say something like that at all.

The truth was like a shot of strong medicine. Anyone could keep quiet, and because it was so effective, they could be trusted. That was why people might be driven to their ends. Rory thought, I can't imagine a man who was so detached from reality would know about these things, and then she grinned. She has always been interested in Itami, and now her interest deepened.

"That, that is…"

"Are you absolutely sure it will be fine? How much do you know about Tuka, anyway? Do we, no, do you have the power to help her? None of us are psychologists or social workers. We can't constantly keep coddling her. If we force her to accept reality today, what happens if we're ordered to withdraw tomorrow?"

"...That is to say, we should leave her like this?"

"Ahhh, I'll say something you won't like to hear. If you don't have the resolve to take responsibility for her until the very end, then don't do anything unnecessary," Itami said coldly to Kurokawa.

11th Army would be setting out for a mission tomorrow. They were to destroy a vanguard of the demon. Saying she had to prepare, Kurokawa left in a huff, an expression of anger on her face. Nguyen left shortly after, saying he had to escort her back to the barracks.

The only two left were Itami and Rory. They faced each other and drank.

"Well, go on and drink then, you big idiot."

Rory offered her mug to him so he could have more. Itami grinned, and clinked mugs with her.

"Did you really have to say it that way? It felt pretty cruel. I don't think Kurokawa can hate you any more than she does now."

"My heart's not so big that I can be that gentle to everyone. It can't be helped."

"Hmph~ you don't have a lot of people in your heart, then."

As she said this, Rory thought: liar.

Itami was faking his cruelty. If Kurokawa were allowed to do as she pleased, something terrible would have happened, and she would have concluded, "What a shame we couldn't do it right."

"It's hard enough trying to care for one or two people."

"Well, then decide on one, or think only of one."

"What?"

"The girls will like you that way."

"If I'm not nice, they won't like me, right?"

"That's wrong. To a girl, a man who's nice to everyone… hm, I suppose that works as an example, to a man, it would be like a woman who opens her legs to anyone."

"Hah?"

"People want companions so they can swiftly satisfy their need for love and affection. A woman wants a man who only shows his love to her."

"Hm~ Is that so…? Rory, you're pretty nice yourself, even though you worship Emroy, the god of death and judgement. I mean, you're one of his Apostles, and you're called 'The Reaper'."

"Ara~? That's a misconception. To rule death is also to rule life. The goal of all life is death, and the way one dies is also the way one lives. Therefore, one who welcomes death cannot help but respect life. The death that follows a person's life is the result of every day that he lived."

"Is that so…"

"It is," Rory smiled, and finished the beer in her mug.

"One more!"

"Oi oi, let's stop here for tonight, if you get drunk I'll leave you here…"

"Aw, come on, be nice to me~"

"If you're going to be like that, let's get you onto the bed first."

"Meanie~"

Rory kicked Itami in the calf.

"Aiee, that hurt…"

As Itami rubbed his calf, Rory laughed like the ringing of a bell. Then, a gravelly woman's voice cut in.

"Hi Sir, mind if a girl sits with you? Don't want to be on my own this late at night."

Itami glanced up. The woman waiting politely by his table had a mane of jet-black hair that fell in curls half way down her back. Great, luminous black eyes and a mouth that promised everything imaginable without saying a word.

"I'm Sheba, please I won't bother you, your such a big, strong man. I'm sure I'll be safe with you."

.Just hearing the woman speak filled her heart with anger.

She had been so happy spending time with Itami.

The mood was good, and so was the beer. She planned to continue teasing Itami, and then fake passing out in drunkenness and then hopefully he would carry her to the bed… no, he was practically about to do it...

...and then, Itami cradled Rory like a fragile doll as he brought her to the bed.

He laid her body gently on the bed, and then placed a soft pillow under her head.

Because he was worried about knots in her long black hair, he combed it gently with his fingers, and in order not to get her priestess' outfit wrinkled, he carefully tidied up her skirt and prepared to remove her boots.

He caressed her gently as he held her heel with his left hand and supported her knee with his right, carefully bending her legs into a slight curve. Naturally, this would flip up her skirt, and the base of her legs, where they joined her hip, would become visible.

However, Itami did not notice. Or perhaps he had, but kept quiet.

Grasping the end of a bootlace in his left hand, he undid the knot with all the ceremony of unwrapping a present.

After loosening the bootlace, a small gap between her calf and the inside of the boot appeared, and Itami worked his fingers into it to pry it off.

"...ah~n…"

The feeling was close to a foot massage, and the moan she made was very suggestive.

And so, now that there was enough space between Rory's skin and her boot, Itami grabbed the heel of the boot and said, "I'm taking it off, is that alright?"

Rory's face was red, and her eyes were closed. Then, she nodded gently, almost imperceptibly.

However, that was enough for Itami. No, in truth, even if she had not responded, Itami would not have gone on waiting. Having filled himself with determination, Itami would not look back. With a bit more force than necessary, he pulled off the boot on her left leg. And just like that, her legs, once hidden by the jet-black boots, were now exposed in all their glory, covered in white lace-edged socks.

"Owie… please… don't be so rough with me…" Rory pleaded in a soft voice. But the cruel Itami ignored Rory's voice, and went to work on her right boot.

After finishing up, Itami prepared to leave the room after neatly arranging her boots by the bed.

However, her hand grabbed Itami's sleeve and would not let go.

"What a hopeless fellow you are…"

As he thought of how to deal with Rory, Itami gently pried Rory's fingers off and left. Or rather, he tried to leave. While he was trying, Rory reached out both her hands to grab Itami before dragging him onto the bed and mounting him.

After that, they would do all sorts of mufufu things until dawn… or at least, they should have.

But now, that… all that… All that was ruined now.

Rory clenched her trembling hand into a fist and looked at the owner of the voice. Rory gazed at the woman with her Mystic Eyes and then she realized.

This whore was a Demon. Rory busted out laughting.

"Those demons really did it, they dare to ruin Rory Mercury's date, Unforgiveable."

If this demon wanted death this much, she should give it to her. Then, with her hand less than a foot from Sheba's stomach, she created a finger gun and said.

''Holy Enhancement : Water Bullet."

The long roaring burst drowned out her scream and the blasts of high speed water hurled her backwards across the floor, rolling her over as she started to fall apart.

Itami faces were expressions of utter horror at the scene, horror that was replaced by revulsion as the figure sprawled on the ground began to change, its flesh going black, horns growing from its head, a tail sprouting from under the absurdly-short skirt. The demon was dead, its bright yellow blood spreading across the sidewalk.

"It was a demon."

The whispers from the crowd grew as they recovered from the shock of the violent confrontation.

One man, obviously the worse for drink, staggered up and smacked Itami on the back.

"Lucky you, Sir. You don't want your gun in that bitch mouth with that kind of teeth. Here, have a drink."

Itami grabbed the bottle in its brown paper bag and took a swig.

"Stay away from the body please, we don't know what we're dealing with here." Itami said, then he turned to Rory. "Well done Rory, but, how did you know?"

Rory grinned, the smug, cunning grin that won her many wars.

"I used to married Hardy, the Goddess of the Underworld for 300 years. Believe me, after going through that, I have no trouble recognizing a whore from hell."

---

Headquarters, 11th Army , Western Lemuria.

It had been a week, a whole week and nothing was happening. Rory was a patient demi-goddess. However, this was too much even for her. She had come to test her strength, not sit around and listen to Itami or his subordinates while they speak. Rory was getting tired of it. She had come to the battle to test her strength, not converse. Itami was also pushing her, pushing her too far. Unless she got some action to release all the energy within, she would soon be on the edge.

Shee was not going to wait for something like to occur while she just stood. She did not care for what the Korean were thinking or if Itami 's forces were not ready for an all out war. She could cripple any army on her own without help from anyone.

Sighing, Rory walked toward Itami 's tent. She realized that she had been sighing a lot lately. Boredom could drive anyone do anything. She hated having to report to him of what she was going to do. It was like she was taking orders from him, and Rory hated taking orders from someone.

Rory did not bother to announce her presence before getting inside the tent. She knew he would be inside sitting on his chair. During day, he was always sitting there unless he was doing something that could not be done inside his tent.

Itami smiled brightly upon seeing Rory. He was not alone in the office. He had Lelei, Yao and 4 other generals under his command. They were probably discussing battle strategies.

''Bored already, Rory?'' Itami stated with a teasing smile.

Rory just shrugged and simply ignored the other occupants in the room. ''I'm going to force the demons out,'' Rory announced.

Itami raised a brow, ''What?''

''I'm going to force the demons to come out. I have grown tired of waiting.'' Rory replied turning away from Itami.

''You are speaking as if he can actually force the demons to fight us. We have tried that many times, when we were still at our full strength. No offence, Your Holiness, but even your presence in the battlefield could not force the demons to come out.'' Major General Lee Eun-Sung stated with a snicker at Rory.

''I agree with Lee. We cannot afford to go in an all out war with the demons now. We still need some time to get more supply of ammunition and to formulate our battle strategy.'' Seong said.

Itami frowned. She did not tell them that Rory stated that he could summon a Divine Dragon. She did not want to get their hopes up.

''Don't get involved if you are not strong enough. I did not even requests that you come to fight when those demons do show up. I was merely letting you know what I was going to do.'' Rory replied without even looking back to the man.

''Who do you think you are here? You are not the boss, Itami-sama is and nothings happens unless he says so!'' Major General Nguyen Duc Chung said his voice raised as he glared at Rory's back.

Rory continued on walking away without responding. It was not worth it to respond to Chung.

''Chung calm down,'' Itami said. ''Rory can I speak with you for a moment?'' He said his voice now being serious.

Rory stopped walking inviting her to come and say what she wishes. Itami walked up to Rory and looked at her with a rather serious look. ''I appreciate that you are trying to ''help'', but you can't come here and undermine my authority. I don't want you doing anything that will put my men at risk.'' he said.

''Oh?'' She said. ''They won't be at risk unless they get in my way. What I am doing works for you better. I can cripple the Demon's forces your men can come up and finish things.'' Rory stated and began to walk away.

Itami caught her by her hand. Rory turned around and looked at the man with a raised brow. Itami stared at Rory's eyes as if he was trying to decipher something. Slowly he let go of Rory's hand and sighed. Rory was going to do what she wanted, there was not stopping her. He deduced that much by just looking at his eyes.

''Lelei, Yao come with me!'' Itami called. Yao and Lelei came to him and they followed Rory.

They travelled for about an hour at a fair pace. In the place they were they could see Demon's base, the main tower.

Rory suddenly stopped, ''You may want to stop there.'' She said before walking further away from the group.

After she had made a good distance with the group, Rory went through a set of spell chants. She slammed her hands on the ground and a seal appeared on it. ''Come to me Enryū !''

Itami and his two companion just stared with wide eyes. The felt that Rory released huge amounts of mana to summon whatever that she was summing.

A large puff of smoke appeared and they felt the demonic presence, the foul mana the suffocated everyone beneath it. When the smoke cleared, Enryū, a giant dragon with a height of 100 meters, length of 300 meters and a wing span of 320 meters, stood in all its menacing glory in front of them with its two-tails waving slowly behind it.

Enryū was a giant bipedal dragon with three heads on long serpentine necks, two tails, and two large bat-like wings at his sides, which stands upright on his two hind legs. His body was covered in overlapping orange scales, which according to Rory actually contain trace amounts of magma. Enryū possessed an internal volcanic combustion system; causing him to radiate heat, the temperature of which could reach up to 1200°C.

Fear and awe crept within them as they stared at the beast that was said to be able to make tsunamis with a single swipe of its tail. Seeing the monster in front of them, they took a few steps back in fear of the beast.

Lelei had a single though in her mind, 'She can really summon it.' Rory had said she could, a part of her wanted to believe it, a part of her refused to believe unless she saw it. Now that she was seeing it, she believed. If anything he was to say he could do after this, she would believe her without a single cent of doubt in her mind.

''Rory, why have you brought me here?'' Enryū asked in its deep menacing voice that would send shivers down to anyone's spine. Its blood-red silted eyes stared at Rory waiting for a respond.

''I want you to do something for me.'' Rory replied his tone upped so Enryū could hear her as she was standing beside its paws. She had her hands crossed on her chest eyes not even looking at Enryū when she responded.

''Tell me so I can do it quickly, and go back to taking my nap,'' Enryū responded.

Yao and Lelei almost face faulted at Enryū's response. The almighty Dragon would only be concerned about taking a nap. It was supposed to be a beast of mass destruction, not a beast of taking naps. Yao quickly erased a thought in her head of Enryū sleeping with bubbles coming out of its 3 nose.

''Even given your freedom all you do is sleep,'' Rory stated shaking her head. ''I called you here because I want you to fire a Fireball of Destruction at the tallest building you can see from here.'' She said.

''Fine,'' The Dragon replied with a shrug and then brought its tails over its 3 heads in concentration. Mana began to form above it before mixing forming a large ball of mass energy. Enryū directed the energy ball towards its target. The attack travelled a rather fast speed for something its size. The attack left its mark on the earth as it peeled off chunks of earth. After travelling a considerable distance in finally hit the tower and blew it up.

''You can go,'' Rory said turning away from the explosion. Enryū disappeared in a puff of smoke without saying any further word.

Rory raised a brow seeing the shocked expressions on Itami, Yao, and Lelei had both shocked and fear in their face. Rory walked towards them calmly. Upon reaching them he spoke, ''Give it a few days and Demon's forces will be charging at your camps.'' Rory said walking past them.

Itami was first to get over her shock. He followed Rory, Lelei and Yao followed him from behind keeping their distance so to give him some space to speak with Rory. Without doubt, there were things that needed to be discussed.

From this day onward, Itami would never look at Rory the same as he had been.

''So you weren't kidding when you said you were given a Divine Dragon by Hardy as a wedding gift,'' Itami said having caught up to Rory.

Rory looked at him at the corner of her eye, ''What gave you the idea that I was kidding?''

---

Three days later

Rory had been waiting patiently for the demon to charge at the 11th Army camps. She had gone back to wearing her armour as she waited. She had no doubt in mind that those demon scum would run about to attack Itami and his men.

At the UEADF camps, things had been rather busy as they formulated their battle strategies. Rory never got involved with it. There was no need for a strategy if she was going to face an army of weak demon who could not make her sweat. She just needed them to be test dummies for her spell's.

''They are on their way?''

Rory looked to see a Lahmu, one of Giselle's favorite pets.

''When did you get here?''

''A day ago''

Rory nodded. She did need to know why he did not inform her that he had arrived at the base. She had no problems with it, as long as he was there when she was needed. Lahmu was someone she could count on. There was no need for her to question.

It was probably spying on the demons.

''Shall we?'' Rory said getting up from her position. She picked up her Halberd and strapped it on her back. Lahmu sank to the ground without saying anything.

Without warning or telling anyone, Rory began to move towards the direction in which the demons were matching. She was feeling a bit excited by the prospect of having to finally get a field where she could go wild, a field to perform a few tests and enjoy a good fight. It was definitely going to be good to fight against multiple opponents while she was just one demi-goddess.

It did not take long for Itami and his men to follow behind her. Itami rushed up to get to her leaving his men behind.

''You look rather happy,'' he commented upon seeing the look on her face.

''That is because I am happy,'' Rory replied.

''So are you going to summon your pet the Holy Dragon Enryū?! If you are tell me, I don't want to have my men caught up in its path.''

''No, but you can tell your men to stay back until the demons shows up.'' Rory stated.

''You are going to fight more than 100,000 demon alone without the Divine Dragon?''

''Yes,'' Rory replied as if it was not a big deal. She increased her pace leaving Itami behind her.

Itami frowned seeing her leave like that. He was worried about her. He did not know how powerful she was, but fighting against more than 100,000 demon on her own was being reckless.

He sighed and looked back at his men who had caught up to him. ''Let's go, but we will keep out distance. We will only observe. You will engage the enemy when I tell you to!'' Itami stated his orders.

His men did not question him. He was the leader and thus, knew what was best.

They began to move on towards their enemy. After a few minutes, they hid themselves a distance away from demon's army who were now standing still with one man standing in front of them.

''Is she thinking of fighting them alone?'' Major General Nguyen Duc Duy asked.

''She is crazy!'' Major General Eun-Sung Lee yelled out.

Major General Seong Ji-Eun who was near the front lines saw Rory and widened her eyes. She was about to run towards her, but was stopped by Itami.

''Don't!''

''You can't just let her go there alone!'' Seong said her voice raised showing just how much she disagreed with the situation.

Even though Itami wanted to send his men and engage demon's army as he was worried about Rory, he found himself saying a few simple words, ''Just watch.''

The demon's army stood still watching Rory. The once in the front lines could sense the Itami's army was already in position. They stood still watching Rory wondering what she might do. Surely she did not wish to engage an army by herself. If she did something it would be suicide, anyone who had things working properly in their heads could conclude that.

''What is this? Did the mortals army send you to try to stop us?'' A huge 6-hand demon said looking insulted by the fact that only a single ''little girl'' was standing in front of them.

''Let's just kill her and move on!'' Another said earning a resounding approval from the others.

Rory could not help but smile at the demon before her. ''Well then shall we?'' Rory as she charged at the army.

They stood still trying to think if she was serious about engaging them in a fight. She was just one little girl for Devil's sake

Rory did not care for what they were thinking. She simply charged at the army of hell. She jumped up and fell inside the sea of demons. It did not take a second long for one to charge at her with a sword raised. Rory ducked under the swipe and kicked the demon at his chest.

Faster than any could see she sped through a set of hand gestures to cast a spell .''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style: Majestic Flame Destroyer!'' a wave of unbelievably hot flames was expelled from her mouth. The spell spread out wide. The Chaos demon who were not expecting the spell to spread out wide and to be used were unfortunate. Because Rory was standing in the middle of them, they could not use their own spell's to attack.

The majestic flames burned more than 5000 demons alive that where close to Rory when she expelled the spell. Some were fortunate enough not to get caught in the spell. Rory had used the spell simply to create a space between her and the army. It would give her more breathing space to do what she wanted.

Rory charged at the disorientated demon. A demon was caught within her range by a kick to the temple that sent her flying towards the others. Rory began to deliver hits from demon to demon. No one was able to land a hit of her as she made her charge. she was only engaging them in martial arts battle as she wanted to see how her Mystic Eye of Premonition and martial arts faired against an overwhelming number of demons.

When she was satisfied with the results, she jumped away from demon's army. Four Doppelgängers appeared beside her. The Doppelgängers had their own assignment to do. Therefore, they disappeared from view off to begin their assignments.

Rory went through hand gestures to cast another spell before slamming her hands on the ground. ''Holy Enhancement Wareharun Release: Piercing Spikes!''

A large number of spikes shot out from the ground and flew towards the enemy. The wooden spikes were sharp and a single hit could pierce though flesh and leave a nasty wound. The spikes could also kill should they hit a vital point of the body. The spikes fell like rain at demon's army. Rory smiled slightly as she watched them dance around to the song his spikes were singing. The attack and her previous had managed to scatter the demon army, forcing them in groups creating distances around them.

A few where pierced by the spikes, some killed as the spikes hit vital points on the body, some were left bleeding heavily. Others were able to use earth spell 's as protective shields.

''Chaos Release: Water Dragon!'' A demon lord yelled expelling a large water dragon towards Rory looking to catch her off guard. Rory knew that water dragons could be controlled remotely. Therefore, trying to avoid it would be pointless.

She went through her own hand gestures to cast a counter spell. ''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style: Fire Dragon!'' she yelled as she released a fire dragon equally to the water dragon. The spell's met in between and tried to push each other for dominance. A smoke of steam was conceived because of the two elements pushing each other for dominance. In the end, there was no winner.

''Chaos Release : Water Bullet!'' a water bullet sped towards Rory in great speed. Rory was on alert she leaped into the air. Gravity did its duty in pulling her down.

As she landed down a large explosion occurred in the air. She looked up and saw a cloud of flames spreading across the battlefield covering a distance of around 300m. Rory smiled, her Doppelgängers had completed their jobs. Each Doppelgänger had disguised itself, and all four surrounded the army before firing the Holy Enhancement Majestic Fire Destruction, each into the air. After that, they would have to stand still in concentration to contain the flames together. The spell's colliding had caused the explosion.

Demon's army stood still with wide eyes as they stared at the cloud of flames. There was no mistake it was flames they could feel the intense heat of the flames. If the flames were to just drop on them, they would be killed. Many of the demons begun to run around trying to get away from the range of the flames.

''What the hell is that?'' a man from Itami's army yelled staring at the large cloud of flames hovering in the air. They were all shocked; they had never seen anything like it before.

''She is preparing for a massive combine spell,'' Lelei deduced staring at the flames. One thing was certain it had to take a lot of mana to make put those flames in the air. It also had to take almost perfect mana control to keep those flames in the air, as expected from the Demi-Goddess of War. Lelei was impressed.

''Whatever it is, it is not something I would like to go against. Imagine if those flames just dropped. How do you defend yourself against something like that falling off the sky?'' Major General Eun-Sung Lee stated repressing a shudder as he thought what would happen if the flames were to drop on top of them.

Itami simply stared wondering what Rory wanted to do. He could as well say that she was also not kidding when she said she wanted to test a few things. He was also glad that she was doing well. Regardless, it was just a matter of time before the army overwhelmed her. When that does happen, I will be ready to rescue you, be safe Rory. Itami thought to himself.

Rory quickly went through 35 hand gestures to cast a new spell as she took control of the flames. ''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style: Crying Heavens,'' she muttered.

A scene that many would never forget occurred. It began to rain. Raindrops fell from the sky as the flame cloud wept. The rain was not a normal rain instead of water it was raining blue fire. It started slowly before all hell broke loose as the flames began to rain heavily on the Demon's army. The flame drops heat was intense, pain and death awaited for those unlucky to be caught in the rain.

Those who knew earth spell's did them to hide under. The earth would protect them from the rain if it did not melt from the intense heat of the flames. Because the flames were raining heavily some who had buried themselves underground remained there. A few tried using water spell's shooting them to the sky. That only served as temporary protection because as soon as their spell 's died down, the rain fell on them. Others who were overwhelmed with fear just danced around as the flames fell on them. Others did the smart thing and ran away from the rain as it was not raining across the entire battlefield.

It rained for ten minutes without stopping.

When it finally stopped raining, demon's were scattered around the battlefield. Some lying down on the ground burned, dead. Some had their bodies breathing out steam as their bodies had suffered major burns.

A large number of Demon's army who were not within the range of the flames stood at the scene before them with wide eyes. This was not something that one expected to see. If they had been told that they were signing up for this, they probably would have never signed up for the invasion.

The horrors where not over yet as a thick fire cloud loomed over the sky above them. Many began to take a few steps back in fear of the rain falling again.

XXXXXXX

''Even though they are demons, I cannot wish for anyone to die like that.'' A young woman stated looking at the battlefield. Her words earned silent nods from her comrades.

''I'm just happy that she is not our enemy,'' another stated earning nods from his comrades.

Yao just watched with shock written all over her face. She had never thought that Rory would be able to cause so much death, a sense of dread within her enemies.

Itami just stared at Rory. His eyes were not focused on a Demon's army, no he had his eyes at Rory Mercury, the horny loli demi-goddess of destruction. He could now see why she did not even bother to summon the Enryū. Demon's army was now well below 50,000 and Rory had been doing all the destruction by herself.

XXXXXX

Rory smiled seeing the success of her spell. The spell was performed perfectly and the damage it caused was perfect. The training had been worth it.

''Now for some fireworks,'' Rory said to herself as she clasped her hands together.

She moved the flame cloud above a large group of demons. Upon realization of what was above them, they began to scream running around in an attempt to escape the shadow of the flames. Rory wasted no time, flame cloud began to descend down on the enemy.

The four Doppelgänger s jumped into midair and surrounded the flames. They all stretched out their hands, upon doing that, the cloud began to take a shape of a round swirling ball of flames. One of the Doppelgängers began to cast a spell.

The swirling ball of flames was now going to hit the ground in the battleground. The Doppelgänger which had been making a hand sign, fired a torrent of extremely powerful lighting towards the ball of flames. The ball became unstable with the two elements as they were not balanced to remain intact with each other. The Doppelgängers puffed away from existence when the unstable ball was just touching distance away from the ground.

''Holy Lightning Flame Explosion,'' Rory muttered as the flames sparkling with electricity hit the ground and exploded.

Boom!

The explosion was big it shook the entire battlefield. The explosion lifted large amounts of rocks and dust. It also created a large shockwave that rocked the entire battlefield. The shockwave was so powerful that if blew away every demon that was within the range of 3 km. The enemies that were caught in explosion screamed as lightning and fire tore through their bodies.

As soon as the debris cleared, all eyes widened. There was a large crater in the middle of the battlefield.

''It went better than I had expected since I had yet to try it out,'' Rory said to herself.

XXXXXXX

After getting over her shock, Itami looked at Lelei, ''What happened?''

''When you saw the Doppelgängers surrounding the fireball, they were not just changing its shape; they were adding more mana to it and compressing it.'' Lelei said emotionlessly.

''It was just a compressed ball of energy, and when it hit the ground, all the compressed energy with the lightning it all went...'' The large crater explained how it all went.

''But to be able to do something like that you need to have high level mana control and a high level of concentration.'' Lelei added.

'I bet she was able to focus on her spell by the thought that no one in the battlefield would be able to touch her, Her Holiness Rory Mercury is truly incredible.' Yao thought to herself.

XXXXXXX

If some demon in the demon's army thought Rory was done, they thought wrong. Rory began to charge towards a group of demon. They took notice of her and steeled themselves to get into fighting positions.

''Chaos Release: Water Gun!'' a demon lord yelled releasing a stream of jet water that sped towards Rory.

Rory seeing the attack held a single hand sign and gathered mana within her lungs. ''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style : Great Fireball,'' she muttered as a large fireball was expelled from her mouth towards the enemy. The two spell's met in between and began to push each other for dominance.

''Chaos Release: Water Gun!'' another demon lord yelled as he added to the strength of his comrades spell. The combined water gun pushed Rory's spell back forcing her to release her spell and leap away to avoid being hit by the two spell's.

As soon as she landed a few feet away, Rory was assaulted a by fireball. It was a lot weaker and smaller than her. Rory was surprised to see Chaos demon using Fire techniques given their reliance to use water spells. She jumped away from the fireball avoiding it.

She landed a few feet away to the ground and looked around the battlefield. Now that the demons were scattered across the battlefield, they could attack her easily with their spell 's without fear of catching their own men with their own spell's. Rory had not complaints over it; it made things a bit interesting for her to say the least.

Rory began to run towards another group of demons, she sped towards them with incredible speed. Without even a warning, she appeared in front of a demon in air and descended down towards the demon. She landed a two-foot kick on the demon's chest. Rory used the demon's body as ground to jump into another demon. The demon seemed to have been waiting for her as he swung his sword towards Rory's face.

Rory grabbed another demon close to her and used it as shield to defend herself against the sword swipe. she threw the beast she had used as a shield away and lunged at the demon who almost cut her. She landed a kick on the demon's horn sending him flying.

Forty demons surrounded her, all looking to attack her. They threw their explosive javelins towards her. Rory quickly deflected them back to the enemy and jumped away from them to avoid getting caught within what was to happen.

Boom!

Those explosive javelins exploded blowing all the forty demons away. Rory landed a distance away. She looked at her right to see a wave of arrows flying towards her.

Looking at them carefully with her Mystic Eyes, she could see that they had explosive magic. she casted a spell, ''Divine Wind: Wind Palm.''

Rory's wind spell deflected all the arrows that were thrown at her sending them away from her. Rory was not given more time to think about anything else, ''Chaos Release: Earth Spikes!'' the ground underneath Rory began to shake as the earth formed sharp spikes and sprout out from the ground.

Rory disappeared from her position in a burst of speed.

The moment she landed another spell came flying towards her, ''Chaos Release: Wind Dragon!'' this time Rory could not dodge as the spell hit her dead on.

It did not do any damage to her though. All it did was send her flying to which Rory flipped several times in midair and landed on the ground in a crouched position. She got up slowly and dusted herself. Her armour had several scratches because of the sharp blades caused by the wind dragon.

''They are working together with their attacks now,'' Rory stated as she observed the now gathered demon army. They realized that with them having scattered around the battlefield, it made things easy for her to attack them. It also made it easy for them, but so far, it was working for her better than them.

Rory looked up as she saw about 1000 demons throw spears towards her. There was no dodging them. Rory unstrapped her Holy Halberd for the first time since entering the battlefield. She held it firmly with her right hand before swinging. It released gusts of winds that peeled off chunks of earth as they headed towards the projectiles thrown towards Rory. As soon as the projectiles made contact with the gusts of winds released by Rory's Divine Halberd, they were deflected away from Rory.

Rory placed her Halberd back on her back and began to cast a spell. ''Divine Wind : Wind Tornado,'' she muttered as three wind tornados began to spin around her furiously. Rory clasped her hands together and the three tornados united forming one large roaring tornado. The tornado was picking up debris as it rotated around.

Rory looked at the tornado. Her eyes morphed into Mystic Eye of Direct Death. ''Hardy Flame,'' she muttered setting the tornado ablaze with the black flames of Hardy Eternal Flame. She had set the correct ratio of both elements or else they combination would blow up. The tornado became dark as it now became a fire tornado.

Rory allowed the tornado to rush towards the enemy. The spell was a large scale of her Blazing Tornado. This was made with a large number of enemies in mind. The attack neared the enemy who kept shooting water-based spell 's to try and extinguish the flames.

Unfortunately for them, the black flames were not ordinary flames. Therefore, regardless of their attempts to stop the spell it just passed through their own without much difficulty.

The tornado consumed more than 2500 demons within it chewing them. They let loose of some pained screams as the Blazing Tornado cooked them as they rotated in fast speeds within it. The spell finally died down leaving black fire around the battlefield still alive, burning brightly and slowly on the ground.

Rory went through hand gestures to cast a spell, ''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style : Majestic Flame Destroyer!'' Rory yelled as she released as wave of flames that spread out wide rushing towards Demon's army like a sea wave.

They saw the attack coming and knew how to survive, ''Chaos Release: Water Encampment Wall!'' multiple demon yelled creating a wall of water to block Rory's spell from getting to them. The several water walls formed one large water wall that spread out wide matching Rory's spell 's. The two spell 's came head on and pushed each other. In the end, there was no winner as the contest between the fire element and water element left only a cloud of steam between Rory and the Demon army.

Rory did not wait for the steam to die down. She charged towards the army. She had one demon yell, ''She is coming!''

She figured the beast must have been a sensor type to sense her with the cloud of steam.

Rory went through hand gestures to cast a spell as she jumped in air, ''Holy Enhancement Emroy Style : Majestic Fire Destruction!'' Rory expelled a stream of flames that sped toward the targets. The targets had not expected to see another attack flying toward them. The unlucky demon were unfortunate when the flames hit them before exploding into a sea of flames, thus burning everything within them to dust.

Rory was doing well in crippling Demon's army. The Demon army was taking heavy losses because of Rory's destructive spells. Most of them were hard for them to defend, to some it just seemed impossible to defend against some of the spells.

Two demon generals screamed as they charged towards Rory with their trident's at hand. They surrounded her and lunged themselves at her. One flanked her at her front, while the other charged at her on her back. Rory brought out her halberd to parry a trident that was coming towards her face. The demon general on her back was already onto her. He tried to stab her on her back while she was still parrying the attack from his comrade. With fluid movements, Rory pushed the other demon back causing him to lose his balance.

Rory spun around quickly to block the trident that was about to stab her on the back. Without even looking back, she raised up her foot and delivered a kick to the chest to the other demon who was trying to regain his footing.

She stared the demon general at his eyes before the demon froze with wide eyes. Rory wasted no time in driving her halberd through the demon's chest. She grabbed the beast by his left hand. Rory narrowed her eyes at her right.

More than 1000 different spells of different elements were coming towards her on different directions. Rory looked at the other demon. He had already recovered from her kick and was charging towards her, ''Decoys,'' Rory muttered concluding that the two demon generals were just decoys sent to keep her busy while the others prepared the spells that were being thrown at her.

All the spells neared her before hitting her dead on along with the other demons from the demon army. A large explosion rocked the battlefield again picking up debris. The enemy was starting to celebrate as their spells got a direct hit on their cursed enemy.

She could be counted as such now that they have seen what she is capable of, after seeing the deaths she inflicted on their comrades. And also the fact that she was fighting against them.

Their celebrations were cut shot when the debris cleared around Rory and revealed her to be in perfect health. There was not a single scratch on her, she did not look like she was hit by several spells.

She stood still with her Mystic Eye of Direct Death activated.

''Attack her again!'' another demons yelled. The others tried to cast another spell. They charged several spells at Rory Mercury again.

The spells came at different directions as they sped towards Rory. The way at which the attacks where coming at her, it gave her no place to hide if she wanted to. Rory remained still with the spells speeding towards her. She had her hands folded across her chest.

''We will get her this time! There is no way she can survive an attack of this magnitude!'' Another yelled with confidence. No mortal could survive the kind of attack they fired at Rory. Unfortunate for them Her Holiness Rory Mercury was no mortal.

They hopes of killing her crumbled down within seconds as Rory appeared standing without a scratch on her, glorious as ever. It was just impossible for someone to survive an attack like the one they threw at her. More than shocking as the fact that Rory did not even have a scratch on her like their attacks did not even touch her.

Rory eyed around the battlefield. There was still many demon on their feet. The others were either were dead or just rendered immobile. She went through hand gestures to cast a spell , gathering the needed mana for her spell. ''Wareharun Bless : Deep Forest Emergence!''

The ground began to shake as large roots sprout out from the ground and charged towards her opponents. They could only stare as the spell as the spell headed towards them. One thing was certain, if it reached them, they were going to die horribly.

''We cannot allow the spell to get to us!'' One demon yelled deciding to be brave for everyone so that they could survive.

''W-what do you suggest we do then?''

''We intercept it with our own spells ,'' he replied firmly.

They nodded and released Fire, Lightning, Earth and Wind based techniques towards Rory's spell. The spell collided creating a large explosion. When the explosion died down, there was no spell still active. The spells had cancelled each other.

''Ho?'' Rory smiled. ''They stopped my spell ,'' she said to herself. ''I shall reward them.''

An explosion of lightning and light illuminated the whole battlefield.

A 120-meter tall Asura Titan with 4 hands and a pair of wings behind it back flared up to life shocking her opponents and allies alike. They stared the monstrosity colossal Titan with eyes wide opened.

''W-what the h-hell is t-that?'' the voice of the demon who asked was clearly trembling in fear. He got no response though.

Rory did several hand gestures to cast a spell. Her Asura Titan did the same hand gestures as she did. She was preparing for her next spell that could only be performed by her Titan.

''W-what the hell do you think she is going to do now, General?'' asked Duy.

''I don't know. Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling about this.'' Itami answered.

Rory's Titan opened its mouth and began to charge mana. The mana became the shape of an orange ball. The orange ball came out of its mouth floated in the air. The Titan's eyes flashed red for a moment before the mana ball sped towards the enemy. It suddenly stopped in the middle of them, and they stared at it while taking a few steps away from it.

''Explode,'' Rory muttered.

Boom!

The orange mana ball exploded, the space itself became silenced, the intense light ignited all materials a microsecond before the shockwave came. The explosion created an enormous shockwave that threatened even the Earth's army who were watching not too far away from the battlefield. The explosion itself peeled off large chunks of earth like a small atomic bomb had been dropped on the battlefield. Large mushroom cloud with debris was formed where the explosion had been set off. Rory had her Asura Titan to protect herself from the explosion.

After a few minutes, the debris died down revealing a large crater in the battlefield. The crater was bigger than the one created by the Holy Lightning Flame Explosion.

The technique was created by studying the Holy Dragon. It required gathering large amounts of mana and compressing it to a small ball of plasma. It required high level of concentration to compress the plasma.

Without proper control or a mistake done while compressing, the mana would become unstable and detonate. It would end up nasty for the user upon the unstable mana setting off.

Rory was now inside the crater formed by her technique. she studied his surroundings with his eyes before dispersing her Titan and deactivating her Mystic Eye of Direct Death.

The Demon army and the Earth's army only ask themselves one single question, ''What is she?''

The latest attack had left less than 7000 demon standing and more than 4500 immobile. Those standing did not seem like they wanted to continue fighting. Rory walked over to one demon who was close to her. The beast seeing Rory began to take a few steps away from her. He was trembling with fear. His body was screaming for him to run away.

''S-stay b-back!'' The beast yelled out looking at Rory with an unfocussed vision.

Rory finally got close to the demon and gripped him by his neck before lifting him up into the air, ''You no longer wish to dance with me?'' Rory asked tightening her grip on the demon's neck.

"I can almost feel sorry those chaos demons." Itami said from a safe distance far away. He thought that he should do something but then realized that the best course of action was just lets Rory has her fun. He should buy her some beer after this though.

---

Martial Field of Dysprosium, Eye of Terror.

His troops were formed up on the field, awaiting his inspection. 60,000 legions, each with 9,999 demons, a total force of over 600,000,000 demons if Abigor's own command staff were included. By far the largest force that his master Abbadon had ever sent to another world yet it was only a small fraction of the army that Abbadon could deploy if he wished. There were 999,000 legions in Abbadon's army, a total of nearly 10 billion demons under arms, a mighty host that had never in its history been deployed against a single foe, and even that mighty army was just a tiny fraction of the Grand Army of the Chaos Gods, as Abbadon was just one of the 6,666 Champions of Chaos.

There had never been a single foe whose ability had demanded that level of force. Always, those lower down the scale of existence had cowered in fear when the demons had arrived, genuflecting at the appearance of the creatures from a greater dimension. Mostly, the Grand Army of the Chaos Gods had never been needed, the Heralds had been terrifying enough to put their victims into a state of catatonic terror.

Only, not this time. This time the creatures from the lower dimensions had the temerity to fight back, even more than that, they had exorcized the Heralds. That had disturbed Abigor more than he let on. If the Heralds could be exorcized, what did that mean for the demons in his ranks? The Heralds were deliberately created to be awe-inspiring, terrifying by virtue of their size and apparent invulnerability, yet the humans from Earh had fought back and exorcized them. Individually, the demons in the ranks of his legions were much less formidable than the great Heralds. They were formidable enough, that was true, their tough hides were impervious to arrows and the blows of swords yet would that be enough? What did the Terrans have that could kill so effectively?

The infantry in his legions were crashing the butts of their tridents against the ground as Abigor rode past on his beast. 56,000 of his 60,000 legions were his infantry, Abigor's host was one of the less mobile of its kind, he had only 3,000 mounted legions and 1,000 flying legion. The information he had was that the humans lived mostly in cities, that meant the war would be one of sieges, the cities fighting from behind their defensive walls in a series of last stands. That would put a premium on his infantry, his mounted and flying legions would only be of use in isolating each city before the infantry besieged and destroyed it. It had been done before, Abigor knew that mortal myths were full of stories of cities that had been besieged by hordes of monstrous, inhuman foes. Now they would find out where those myths had come from.

The horns sounded, their wailing drowning out the crashing cadence of the trident staffs. The legions did a right-face, towards a black dot that had suddenly appeared against the roiling red smoke of the sky. The dot expanded, opening a gate into the lower dimension that had dared to defy the will of higher beings. This was the critical stage, the energy gradient ran steeply from the lower dimensions to the higher, it was relatively easy for the higher dimension beings to gain access to the lower, much harder for the lower dimensions to ascend. Only opening a portal could ensure easy access between the dimensions. Yet that same energy gradient meant that once a portal between the levels was opened, it would be very hard to close. Size also was a factor and this was the largest portal that had ever been created. Just how hard would it be to close again? Abigor had an uneasy feeling that nobody had thought to ask that question.

The portal reached its full extent and the horns wailed again. Abigor lead his host forward, into the black circle of the portal and from it into the brilliant yellow light and the clear blue skies of Falmart.

---

Headquarters, 1st Armored Joint Task Force

"Have we got the MQ-90 Quox Feed set up?" General Wilkens snapped the order out. The situation was breaking loose at last and he didn't want to fall behind the loop.

"Sir, yes Sir. Direct feed to us, to Alnus Base and to the Eternal City ." The latter part was new, one of the hurried preparations that had been made over the last two weeks. There had been a frantic effort to link up this world's military headquarters so that the fight, if it started, when it started, would be properly coordinated.

1st Armored Joint Task Force also had a direct download from the Holy Order's Heaven Eyes System and other recon capabilities but it was the MQ-90 Quox that were the key asset. Nobody knew where the attack would come, on paper it could be anywhere but Acirfa Kingdom in the southernmost of Lemuria had been a leading bet. The association of old Falmart legends and the fertile triangle of the Odiha-Salta was too powerful to ignore.

High above the plain, the MQ-90 Quox turned lazily, its long wings biting at the thin air. Its stabilized cameras focused on a strange sight in the plain of Western Acirfa , a black oval that had suddenly appeared in the stony wastes, one that spread even though it had no apparent substance. It wasn't even a shadow, it was more of an absence of anything. The cameras zoomed in on the strange spreading stain that still grew beneath it.

"Well, that looks like it." US General Boothe looked at the image with horrified fascination. If the guesses were right he was looking at something humanity had discussed, described and occasionally cursed but never actually seen, the mouth of Hell itself. The black shadow had stopped spreading and seemed to be holding its breath. "Is that thing flat on the ground or perpendicular to it?"

"Can't tell." Wilkens spoke quietly, the tension in the room seeming to dull voices. "I think it's a different dimension entirely, we're not seeing it, we're seeing its shadow. I don't think it has dimensions or proportions as we understand them."

Something stirred in the shadow and a line of figures started to appear. "Zoom in on that." The order came from the commander of the UAV detachment that was operating the MQ-90 Quox. The image enlarged in a series of jerks as the operator clicked up through the zoom scales. The group of figures resolved, one huge figure surrounded by a group of others. Then, another smaller group appeared out of the shadow, followed by lines of others.

"What do you make of that?" Wilkens wanted other opinions, other eyes looking at this.

"First group, the command group. Now. We've got combat troops appearing." The analyst looked quickly at the emerging lines. "They're coming out in a parade formation. If we only had the assets within range."

"The alerts gone off to the fly-boys and the squids. We'll have jets here soon enough. And we've got the friends with their toy on scene."

On the screen the figures had continued to pour out of the portal, forming up into a huge square on the plain. The UAV operator dialed his cameras in again.

"OK, that formation seems to be complete. I make it 99 ranks, each of 99 demons. They're subdivided into 9 groups of 11 ranks with a command section between each. I guess that gives us 9,999 down there."

"Appropriate number. About a division-sized formation then? And that would make the smaller sub-divisions battalions." There were nods around the room, it seemed fair enough, 11 ranks of 99 meant 1089 demons in a battalion. This was translating raw numbers into a structure that could easily be understood – and to the people in this room, what could be understood could be destroyed. Once structure, form and numbers were evaluated and put into context, destruction was a matter of planning. "Each line is a company with 9 eleven-demon platoons?" More nods of agreement.

"If that's it, this is something we can cope with." Boothe spoke as if he was trying to convince himself. He needn't have bothered, the situation was changing even while he spoke.

"More coming out Sirs." On the television screen, a second square was forming beside the first, the stream of black figures emerging from the Hellgate coalescing into a second square to the right of the first. Even as it was completed, a third square started forming to the left of the first. Still the figures poured out, new squares forming until the line had 70 in all.

"Assuming the squares are all identical, there's almost 700,000 of them down there. The demons aren't playing games are they?"

Wilkens shook his head. Even as he did so, the line of seven squares started to move forward and another wave of black figures poured out, forming into squares exactly as their predecessors had done.

The command center was utterly silent as the imagery poured in from the cameras on the MQ-90 Quox. The second line of squares was finished, moved forward and a third row started, then a fourth. By the time the figures ceased to pour out, there were 800 rows in all, 56,000 of the black squares spread out on the Acrifa grassland.

"One row is an Army Group , the whole thing are about 100 Army Fronts." More nods of agreement, faced with the huge numbers assembling on the screens in front of them, naming units seemed trivial yet it was utterly important if the enemy was to be understood. "Span of command is very large. Seems to run in nines."

"Probably personal command, we're going to be looking at a slowly-reacting army here. It's very low-geared. Big but ponderous. Suits us just fine." More nods around the room. The United States Army was built to fight large, ponderous opponents. It was beginning to look like it had finally found one.

"What are those?" More figures were pouring out, larger ones. The UAV operator played with his camera controls, zooming in on the new arrivals. They were demons still but sitting on a beast, one that looked vaguely like a rhinoceros with a great horn on its nose, but with a scorpion's tail arched high over its back and claws like a lobster.

"I'd guess those are the cavalry. We don't know how fast those things can move, mark them down as priority targets."

"More coming." The figures pouring out of the Hellgate were flying, winged creatures, like the harpies show down by the squids a couple of weeks earlier but smaller. They landed and formed the last 1000 square. Seconds then minutes crept by but no more demons joined the awesome parade in front of the Hellgate. The MQ-90 Quox wasn't equipped to pick up sound but nobody watching was in any doubt that the grass plain was alive with the sounds of drumming and the hammering of feet.

---

Hellgate, East of Slava , Acrifa Plain

Unnoticed in the noise and confusion, a big insect-like structure danced in the dust and glare. It was an odd little thing by anybody's standards. Its name was T400 HK, also known as a Model A4 Predator.

The highly successful T400 HK was Ultron's version of a fully automated aerial close support and area suppression gunship. The A4 model provides Ultron with air superiority, close air support / escort of ground forces and installation defense capabilities.

Some UEADF units even referred to the A4 as a "fighter," though it was not a fighter in the Pre-Awareness definition of that term. The A4 was a semi-autonomous combat unit, self controlled by a battery of four redundant tactical microprocessors which share the load independently as well as collaterally.

A high capacity fiber optic relay network that rivals the human nervous system. it has no 'pilot' onboard, the Aerial being the ultimate advancement of a dedicated close air superiority and ground support UPV (Un-Piloted Vehicle).

The A4 is powered by a high capacity, high efficiency compact nuclear reactor and maneuvers on vectored thrust provided by two large variable output, high pressure turbofans as well as several body mounted swivel thrust dispersal nozzle ports. This setup allows the A4 to function as a full VTOL unit, switching from hover or VTOL mode into full flight at speeds.

Main directional thrust and sustained hovering capacity is provided by two huge reactor driven electric turbofans mounted in wing tip armored cowlings. The body of the A4 was streamlined to the point of being insect-like, gaining a psychological advantage against the Imperial units and generating such descriptive names as "Dragon-Fly", "Wasp", and "Mosquito" but Ultron never referred to the unit by any of these names or designations.

Such romantic nicknames for any of Ultron's units were strictly the realm of its human master and foes. Ultron had no need to name its units nor was it prone to doing so, they were simply weapons and referred to by a complicated system of data including type, model number, series, production run, allocation, serial number, and status.

A hyper-alloy airframe was constructed with honeycombed / blown enduralloy, similar in design to the skeleton of a bird. The airframe was connected to three separate engines. The first engine was an advanced design and provided primary VTOL and stationary/hover maneuvering using a series of twelve vectored, rotating nozzles mounted along the fuselage. The new engine, designated NED-VPR25A , was slimmer, lighter, and easily fit in an airframe that didn't have to worry about the G-force limits of a weak human being.

Electronics could be hardened against acceleration forces that would normally kill a human pilot and the A4 could maneuver with inhuman precision which resulted in such superior performance being recorded for this unit throughout the span of operation and production.

The two main engines are housed on servo powered body stub mounts. These servo mounts can rotate the engines through a full 90 degree forward or aft rotation, allowing superior maneuvering and massive acceleration or deceleration. The engines are protected by a armored cowling with not only keeps debris from entering the compressor assembly, but also protects from small arms fire up to 25mm HE, HEAP, KE and KEAP.

The whole air frame of the A4 is armored in a light layer of hyperalloy, able to withstand small arms fire and to survive large caliber hits up to 40mm including HEAP rounds. A retractable tripod configured claw landing gear assembly is installed as well as a upper docking clamp for gantry docking at advanced bases.

The A4 possesses a sophisticated navigation system, using TERCOM along with satellite GPS and a host of radar, ladar and NOE navionics. Target acquisition relies on visual target identification, and includes a larger, though not more powerful version of the same sensor and communication suite found in the 1200 Series Scout. Advanced optics and range systems allowed the A4s to isolate individual Imperium units on the ground and engage them with surgical precision. Advanced motion video was capable of picking out movement among the ruins and the liquid optics could identify anything that the motion sensors could track.

The main armament of the A4 series aerodyne consisted of a reactor fed, very rapid fire General Dynamics Model 25D3 phased plasma cannon mounted in a remote electric drive ventral mount turret. The M25D3 had a throughput range of 250 kilowatts with a practical rate of fire of 2000 pulses per minute.

Payload, feeding from the reactor waste, was for all tactical purposes, infinite, but required periodic refueling of its magazine cell, limiting the operating time of the unit. The remote electric drive mount rotated on frictionless bearings and was universal, allowing the A4 to engage targets not only to the front, sides, and rear, but also targets almost directly below the unit. Slew rate for the RED-T mount was +/- 180 degrees a second.

Secondary armament was in the form of a configurable, modular internal bay which could hold up to 1 metric ton of equipment, electronics, additional self contained plasma gun pods, or free fall ordinance in the form of chemical, biological, explosive, or even tactical thermonuclear devices on rotary launchers.

Some early production models of the A4 were equipped with modular sling rails on the underside for the addition of scatter pack rocket pods, smart bombs, NBC ordinance, and Air to Air (AAM) or Air to Ground (AGM) advanced precision guided missiles.

The performance of the A4 Aerial was exceptional; with a combined thrust output of 35,000 kilograms and an airframe weight of just 5000 kilograms (unloaded internal bay), the A4 could pull up to 20 Gs of sustained thrust with a top speed in excess of Mach 1.4 in level high altitude flight and a high subsonic NOE speed. Due to its advanced power plant and electric ducted fans, the A4 could also maintain indefinite VTOL and hover / loiter conditions.

The A4 could reach a service ceiling of 54 kilometers in Falmart and had a operational life of 3 months of constant operation, more with routine power conserving protocols enacted, before the mini-reactor required scheduled maintenance and periodic refueling.

The A4 Predator didn't have markings which was hardly surprising, it's operators, far back at 1st Armored Joint Task Force's command center weren't from the U.S. armed forces, they were Central Intelligence Agency. For almost five months , the CIA had been operating a large force of A4 Predators, using them for assassinations of Imperial military leaders and others considered undesirable.

That role had abruptly ended with The Truce. Now, the U.S. Army and CIA had the strange but not unfamiliar experience of working with people who only a few days before had been their blood-enemies.

The change had meant the A4 Predators had a new job, one which was of absolutely vital importance. It was essential to find out if human weapons, human technology could be sent into Eye of Terror and return.

More importantly, were those weapons could effect the demon. If the answer was yes, then humanity had a means of striking back at its potential foe, if not, then they would forever be depended on the Holy Order for magic weapons.

The Predators were the vanguard of this exploration, the information they gained within the next few minutes would mark the start of the investigation. It was, quite literally, reconnaissance by fire. It's orders received, the A4 obediently turned around and headed for the shadowy ellipse that marked the Hellgate.

---

Headquarters, 1st Armored Joint Task Force

Back in the command center, the CIA operative held his breath as the little drone approached the disk and became swallowed in it. Then, the whole section erupted into wild cheers for on the monitor screen, images had emerged. Pictures of a vast plain, bare rock under a swirling red-orange sky, dust clouds sweeping backwards and forwards over the desolate scene. The image brightened and sharpened as the computer-controlled adaptive optics compensated for the wildly unfamiliar light levels and spectra but the images were there.

The operator manipulated his controls, getting the vision head on the electro-optical pod to pivot around. The pictures swirled, grotesque and unfamiliar but still vaguely recognizable. The imagery was coming back, that had enormous consequences.

"Tell Alnus, and everybody else, Phase One is complete. We got the bird in and we're getting data out. There is something the other side of that gate and we can get at it." The agent's voice broke into a chuckle. "No huge letters of fire yet, now we'll try and change all that."

He played with the optical head again, looking for something important. He found it, at least it seemed important. Some sort of review stand at a far part of the field. The Predator was closing in on it, the trouble seemed to be that it was hard to judge ranges in the red-clouded murk. A quick flash with the laser rangefinder built into the Predator told him what he needed to know. The target was fourteen thousand yards away, easily within range of the two, 3 billion USD, Air to Ground (AGM) advanced precision guided missiles, equipped with advanced tachyon field generator, hanging under the Predator's wings. They were some of the most advanced and complex weapons in history, first of their kind and unfortunately impossible to mass produce, at least in the short term. He locked their homing heads onto the stand and fired them both.

Martial Field of Dysprosium, Eye of Terror.

The parade was over, the Army of Abigor had departed into the lower dimension, and the guests who had watched it leave were making their way off the stand. It had been quite an unusual sight, never before had such a force been sent to a lower dimension to enforce the will of those above it. Defiance was unprecedented, such a display had never been required. Now, with the mighty force appearing before them, they would be regretting their failure to submit. The demons who had watched the army leave never saw the two missiles streaking through the red murk towards them, or, if they did, they never realized the significance of what they were seeing.

The blue energy explosions destroyed the stand totally, sending fragments of wood and stone flying through the air, ripping into the hides of all around them. Tachyon blast seared their skin, flaying flesh from bones, shattering limbs, tearing at bodies. What had just a demonic second before been a decorated review stand was now a pile of shattered wreckage, splattered with the green, yellow, black, red and white body fluids of those who had been standing on it. Those outside the blast area looked on appalled at the catastrophe that had suddenly enveloped the senior guests. The more astute of them started running towards the disaster, hoping to gain status and rewards by being the first to aid the stricken. Above the chaos, still unnoticed by those below, the Predator turned around and flew back towards the Hellgate.

Headquarters, 1st Armored Joint Task Force

"Phase Two complete! Two solid hits, no sign of demon rematerialization. Our tachyonic weapons work." The tachyonic field prevente the demons materialization by blocking the pass between the Imaterium and realspace. "Look at that people, boy have we just kicked an anthill over."

The CIA Agent's voice was triumphant, the camera on the A4 Predator was showing a boiling mass of confusion where the target had been. He had no idea of who or what he had just killed, if indeed he had killed them, but there was no doubt of the destruction. The reviewing stand had gone, its position marked by a pyre of smoke and flame. There was just one thing to check and that was coming up soon. The A4 Predator approached the Hellgate and flew through it. It took a second for the optics to readjust but when they did they showed the blue sky and green grass of the Acrifa Plain.

"Phase Three complete. UAV recovered."

"Confirmed, we have a radar paint." The transponder in the A4 Predator marked the position of the drone as it set off on its long flight back to base. It had done its job better that anybody could have hoped and certainly far better than Ultron could have ever contemplated.