Author's Note: I would like to make a specail shoutout to these users:
The Son of Sparda 343
Brooklyn Maxwell
horsechick
Warlord Lawlz
Demon Naruto 117
I just want to say thank you to you guys for favoriting my story or adding me to your alert list. Although I would have preferred a review instead, this is just as good. So, as a reward, I'm posting Chapter 2 early. I originally intended to post this in about a week, but because of these fine gentlemen (or ladies), it's here now.
To the rest of you folks out there reading this story, if you decide to give my story some attention, then I'll post the next chapter faster. If not, well, then I'll go at my leisure.
So, with that being said, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy. And once again, thank you.
The killing fields. That was how she would describe this battlefield. And between her and the writhing, screaming mass of conflict that she looked down on from her hill a hundred feet away, was a veritable no man's land - rife with literally hundreds of bodies and drenched in demonic blood.
A deafening roar filled her ears as one of the large demons toppled to the ground, multiple bullet holes in its head. Her cohort was flipping end over end, blasting away at the demons.
"WHAAAAHOOOO!"
She looked up from her rifle's scope and smiled. Typical of him to be enjoying himself. He was such a combat freak that she was beginning to wonder if he was even sane. But then again, sanity did not really quite matter in this day and age. After all, survival was more important than trying to keep one's sanity in check. The two were so busy trying to survive that they didn't have time to worry about one's mental state.
Another roar filled her ears, this time it came from a much smaller demon. Another foolish demon had noticed the lapse in weapons fire and was running towards her position with several others. Phantom Guards - simple soldier demons. No matter. She could easily handle them, even if they were nearly upon her. She looked through the scope again and aimed straight between the eyes of one of them.
CRACK!
The report of the rifle echoed across the plains once more. One shot, one kill, and one less demon to worry about.
Quickly, she aimed at another one and fired again.
CRACK! CRACK!
Two shots squeezed off that screamed straight towards the demon - one in the chest, the other in the left shin. The chest exploded in a gory shower of blood and bone while the leg below the shin was simply blown clean off. The demon toppled, but it survived and kept on coming, albeit much more slowly this time. It crawled at her slowly but determinedly, all the while leaving behind a trail of blood in its wake.
She switched targets quickly to deal with the last one. She maneuvered the cross-hairs straight for the demon's head, fired -
CRACK!
- and missed! The demon, anticipating such a shot, ducked under the bullet. In her scope, she could see the bullet hit something else off in the distance instead. The bullet cleaved clean through the skull of another demon - this one right behind her cohort, about to attack - killing it instantly.
Time seemed to slow as she saw her friend briefly turn his head around. And he smiled and gave her a playful wink.
He knew! He knew the demon was there behind him, ready to strike. One way or another, he would have dealt with it. But she killed the demon first - on pure chance. And then time sped back up and her own demon was hastily charging again.
It brought its axe over its head, planning to cleave her in two. The soldier demon brought the axe down -
- but it only caught air. She sidestepped to the left.
And in a split second, she whipped out another gun - a large caliber pistol - and fired point blank into the creature's shoulder.
The demon dropped the weapon and grabbed its shoulder, howling in pain. She holstered her sidearm and stepped closer, bringing the butt of her rifle around, and smacking the demon in the face. But before the hell-spawn could recoil in pain, she jabbed the thing in the face, bashing its face in with the buttstock. And she did it again, and again, and again, before whipping the stock around and smacking the demon one last time.
Its only reaction was to dumbly stumble backwards, clutching its face now.
She brought the stock back to her right shoulder and sighted through the scope. In a few seconds, the demon recovered from the beating and looked up -
- only to look down the barrel of the gun.
"See ya, shitbag."
CRACK!
The demon fell, a bullet hole cutting clean through the skull.
The wounded demon was almost upon her now, wheezing with the physical pain of its injuries. She calmly pulled out her sidearm and leveled it at the pitiful creature, execution style. It stopped crawling and looked up, starring up into the barrel of a gun and cold, merciless eyes.
It let out wheezing laughter, as if the mere sight of a gun was the funniest thing in the world.
"You..." It started to violently cough up blood.
After a few seconds of racking coughs, it continued.
"You think...the two of you...have won?" It laughed again.
She just continued that same cold stare, the dying monstrosity's words clearly not having any affect on her.
"Look around you...there are...hundreds of us here...and countless others...on this world alone."
"I am fully aware of that, demon," she said, unblinkingly.
It laughed again - a vile, pitiful sound.
"Then...you should know...the Kingdom of Hell has...laid claim...to your world. And yet...you continue fighting...when...all hope is lost."
It coughed again, spewing blood on the ground that it lay on.
"This battle...of yours..." Another cough. "...is forfeit. We have...already...won...the war. Your feeble...attempts at victory...is all just a...futile...effort."
The accursed thing was pausing even more now. No doubt, it was close to death now.
Victory? Is that what this demon actually believed what they were fighting for? Victory in a war that was fought long ago? That, long ago, they suffered total defeat in - no, total annihilation? What a deluded fool. She decided to entertain the demon's rhetoric, if only for a short while until it died.
She lowered her pistol and slowly kneeled down, the demon's eyes locked to hers all the while. She put her face real close to its own, totally unafraid if the demon had any ability left to attack her.
"In the last few moments of your worthless life, let me ask you this," her voice came out low and calm. "Demon: what do you think we are fighting for?"
The demon, surprised and confused at her course of action and even more so by her questioning, did not know how to respond. Surely, they were fighting to win back their world, right? Or was there some other reason?
The two stayed silent for several seconds, with her waiting for an answer. In the background - with the booming gunfire, the roaring of the bloodthirsty, and the screaming of the dead and dying - the noisy battle was in stark contrast to this twisted moment of peace.
No answer came.
"Since you don't seem to have an answer to my question," she said. "...let me tell you something. We've already lost the war, long ago. For the two of us, it would be fruitless to engage in any more conflict. Especially since, as you have pointed out, your ranks are near limitless.
"Ever since that goddamn war, we've been fighting not for victory, but for our very survival."
The expression on her face changed from cold neutrality to one of hatred and hostility - a sneer of anger formed on her face.
"And it's all because of you - of you and your vile kind," she spoke calmly, but with plenty of malice imbued in her voice.
"My comrade might fight for our continued existence," she continued. "But what I fight for is something much more personal - revenge. Every hour of my conscious life, I look forward to killing as many of your kind as I can, until either me or all of demon-kind is dead."
And then it realized something. The demon realized what kind of creature she was.
The demon could practically see the venom dripping from her voice - could practically see the aurora surrounding her.
It could practically see the fiery red waves of anger radiate from her form. Perhaps it was hallucinating. Normally seeing such things was something only a very powerful demon could witness. But even so, hallucinating or not, such a sight was an absolute beauty to behold for all of his kind.
It chuckled darkly.
Despite her anger, she tilted her head curiously. "What's so funny?" she asked calmly. She was still angry, but it was a rule with her to never let her emotions get the better of her. "Do I amuse you, demon?"
It coughed up some more blood before replying: "No...I was just noticing...how...beautiful...you look."
She recoiled in confusion and disgust.
"I can see the...waves...of animosity...emanating...from...your body. It is absolutely...ravishing. It is...a shame...that you're of...the -"
Violent coughs seized its body once more.
'How flattering. I've got a demon hitting on me.' She stood back up to her full height.
"Then this beauty is the last thing that you will ever see."
With that, she leveled the pistol back to the demon's head.
BANG!
It slumped over, dead, with a large caliber bullet lodged in its brain.
'Well that was interesting,' she thought as she holstered her pistol.
'Can't say that I was flattered though. A demon, calling me beautiful.' She shuddered at the thought.
Then she just remembered what she was doing before her little conversation.
'Oh shit. I completely forgot about the battle!'
She quickly leveled the stock to her shoulder and looked through the scope. She breathed a major sigh of relief when she saw her partner still fighting. He was still kicking ass and taking names, and just generally decimating the competition. But there were still hundreds of the demons left. This battle was going to take a long time. The were probably going to have to retreat soon - they only had so much ammo.
She was about to continue sniping more demons when a piercing cry rolled across the plains.
Cold sweat perspired on her brow. Her blood ran cold as goose bumps formed on her all over her body. A strong sense of fear overwhelmed her. But she was just as confused as to why she was scared.
'What the hell was that?!'
She swung her rifle in the direction of the noise - several hundred yards away.
In the distance, riding atop a black, flaming horse, was a monster of a man. The man's identity was obscured by a red hood. His armor was an eclectic bunch, with different pieces of armor placed on his body. A massive gauntlet enclosed his left arm. And lastly, strapped to his back was an even larger sword.
Alarm bells started ringing in her head. No way in Hell could this man be human. Everything about him, as well as his horse, screamed inhuman. Certainly, his form seemed to be that of a man, but he seemed more alien than human. A deep sense of foreboding began to well up in her gut, as well as...recognition?
'Where have I seen that man before?'
She kept watching the rider atop his flaming horse, charging with sword now outstretched, as he continued to rocket ever closer. Down below, several demons had noticed this new arrival and looks of bloodlust and extreme hatred adorned their faces. The demons that noticed him separated from the group and moved to attack the large rider instead. But the rider was still a ways away. The combatants would not merge for at least a minute or two.
She went back to sniping more demons in the center group, but she was not completely focused on her prey. The hooded rider dominated her thoughts - the fear that the man induced even when he was hundreds of feet away, which was killing distance for her, was so powerful that it began to affect her performance. More than once, she missed her kill-shots with her quarry.
'Ridiculous! I'm letting one mere warrior scare the crap out of me! It would be better if I just took him out!'
And indeed, after that thought, she swung her rifle in the rider's direction, preparing to squeeze off a shot -
- only to witness the rider cleave a demon cleanly in half. Effortlessly, he circled around his new enemies, slicing them into neat and bloody little bits. The demons were decimated in mere seconds.
And then it hit her like a speeding train - the terrifying realization dawned on her.
'I've never seen that man before in my life. But I've certainly read of him.'
She recalled a passage in a tome that has not been read for a hundred years - a book that has long lost its significance.
The Holy Bible. And in it, there was one particular phrase she remembered with crystal clarity.
"And then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a huge sword."
"Oh shit..." she whispered. Her gun arm went limp, bringing the rifle with it.
"It's fucking War."
War reared his horse back on its two hind legs once more, with his steed letting out a bloodthirsty cry that chilled her to the bone.
War had made his presence known.
The battle below her immediately screeched to a standstill as every demon in the mass turned their heads to see War, once again, charging at full speed. Some demons, instantly, entered a blood-crazed frenzy, going straight for War. Again, he killed them all with minimal effort.
And he was still riding hard towards the mass of demons - and her friend was in the center of it all, still fighting hard.
"Shit! Lazarus, get out of there!"