TRANSHUMANIST IN HELL
Chapter 9 – Night of Blood 1
Warning for graphic violence
Noise.
So much noise.
It is the only thing that occupy Maria's ears and mind at this moment.
Noise from assault rifles, from grenades exploding, from the last painful grunts of life of the ones shoot by these unknown enemies.
And here is Maria, a little shell-shocked and crawling between the long tables upon which before all Hell was let loose were filled with food and drinks, and now all fallen to ones side or the other forming a somewhat miraculous make-shift barricade.
After crawling through all the blood and shattered glass, she finally sit down and rest her back on one of the overthrown table. Her elegant white dress now filled with blood, cuts and dirt.
A grenade explode 10 meters behind her on her right. The sound of it making her cover her ears by reflex. She is visibly trembling for all this situation. In the middle of the cacophony of sound sometimes she is capable of noticing the voice of Selina, Helly and all the other girls. All of them collaborating with Asmodeus's Succubus, the one that have survived the initial ambush that is, in trying to fight back against however is attacking them. But the situation is beyond desperate, they are outnumbered at least 12:1 and pinned down, and their job is made more difficult by the fact of trying to protect the few civilians that have survived.
'How?' is the question that with unwanted violence hammers itself inside Maria's brain.
"How we have arrived to this situation?".
To understand why Asmodeus's Villa has become the live reinterpretation of the Battle of Mogadishu, we have to lock at 10 minutes ago.
It is already five minutes since Antioch and his forces have landed in Miami and obviously they have started their unrelentless slaughter of civilian. Men, Women, Children, Young and Old. None is safe from their bloodlust.
Obviously they don't care about not causing too much damage to the city, they don't plan to conquer it after all, and so where they can't simply use assault rifles and machine guns, they use grenades, bazookas, small cannons, rockets and C4 to destroy and kill as much and as many as possible.
All this destruction creates massive pillars of fire and smoke. The pillars were so high that one guy, which was in the process of "bonding" with a very cute succubus behind a tree, sees them and after a quick look and understanding the gravity of the situation starts to run. He run towards the stage where the band of Succubus are singing for the whole party, by also making sure to have as much people on his way to look at the burning city. When he finally arrives at the stage he is finally capable of making everyone sees at the terrifying spectacle.
Immediately the vast majority of the Humans in the party take their phones and starts to call for their families to understand what it is happening, while some were from outside the city, the vast majority are from Miami itself. In that moment they find out that every communication in and out of the city is dead.
Panic quickly starts to build up in the crowd, with lots of them that want to go back to city to both understand what is going on and find if their families are good. Obviously the situation is to grave and the high ranking Succubus try their best to calm the situation, even using charm on some of them to not find themselves with a full on panicked crowd.
Meanwhile Lucifer, Asmodeus and John are on their way to the stage to organize the situation and decide how to deal with what is happening. Asmodeus by directing her Succubus, John by communicating with his squad and trying to contact the outside world (he use quantum communication, which don't need radio towers, but have the drawbacks that he can't contact devices that use radio frequencies to send messages). While Lucifer helps Asmodeus in directing her forces and collaborating to create a plan on how to use their forces to save the city.
They are in the left wing of the villa, which means that if you arrive at the party from the city you would find that wing on your right. And upon that wing a dozens or so of rockets hit home. They come from the forest that encircle the villa.
The whole crowd looks at the left wing in terror asking frankly what is happening, especially considering that they don't have a way for fast communication. Not that this is going to be a preoccupation for long.
Because, from that same forest comes an howl of machine guns that ambush the still shocked crowd. Now, as the succubus are non-human creature, one would think that common human weaponry would be ineffective against them, and surely the few succubus that were in that part of the crowd thought the same.
They were proven incredibly wrong incredibly fast, as a 50 cal. Projectile slam directly on an unlucky succubus face first, her face exploding in a show of blood and brain matters. More than 100 between Humans and succubus are killed in the first wave because they are almost shoulder to shoulder with very little move. More than double that number is wounded with some kind of severity.
If before the situation was tense, now it is completely out of control. All the humans in crowd do what every crowd does, they starts to move in masse walking on each other and blasting through everything blocking their path. Not that this saves them from the bullets. Because from the opposite side of the first wave, another one fires, dealing more than double of both killed and wounded.
The still hundreds of people that have survived scatters and try to find whatever cover they can, not that it is very successful in the vast majority of cases, with the count of killed and wounded going up by the seconds.
The unknown enemies from the wood finally decides to make themselves known, soldiers both male and female clad in full body suits and armoured and armed to the teeth charge at the scattered crowd with assault rifles round flying all over in a pincher move.
The 100 or so Succubus that have survived the onslaught try to retaliate, aided by John and Lucifer's squad, while Maria, ordered by Selina, finds cover from enemy fire.
Now, while the succubus are unarmed, they are still Demonic creatures and even without weapons they are still fearsome opponents. And with the help of John's Hybrid squad they start to kill the enemy soldiers by the dozens. But it seems that the enemies has an endlessly supply of soldiers, and worst of all they are catching up very quickly. They start to separate the succubus and overwhelm them with sheer overwhelming firepower, even killing some medium- high ranking one at that. The worst news for the succubus is that somehow this enemies are completely immune to their charm ability, something that no common human protection should be capable of doing. To make matters worse, all the soldiers are capable of showing some degree of super-human abilities, like superior strength, speed and reflexes.
Very quickly even them are obliged to find cover using all the devastation and obstacles created by the destruction caused by the unknown enemy.
It is in this situation that Maria find herself in. covering behind a fallen table trembling like a leaf.
'Why?' she asks.
"Why I am so useless?". A question she thought to have resolved during her talk with John but that has come to stab her in the back in the worst possible way.
'All of them are there fighting for their life and for me. And me? I am hiding like a coward behind a desk'.
Maria is on the verge of crying, but a sudden explosion from behind the table destroys the table itself and throws Maria towards one of the makeshift Greek columns that has been cut to one-third of its length by the explosion of the soldiers. What of the column has remained is barely enough to cover Maria's head.
Not that she cares much at this moment. Her ears are killing her with an unbearable whistle, while she can feel trails of blood flowing from her head. She takes her right hand on her face to wipe out the dirt, sweat and blood. Seeing her blood on her hand cause into her the realization that the possibility to die here is very much real.
This sensation is reinforce when she finds an enemy soldiers walking towards her, surpassing the now destroyed table, with his rifle pointed at her ready to kill her. At that point her mind goes into overdrive and time seems to slow down.
By instincts she puts her bloody right hand between her and her, soon to be, killer. In the few seconds between her and the inevitability she thinks about her friend, and all the wacky shenanigans they have done. Sure having you heart taking out of your body it is not the best experience in the world, but from that day one she has grown closer to Lucifer and Leviathan, understanding and bonding with them thanks in no small part to Lucifer being the angel Maria's Mother told her that is protecting her. Then there is her old childhood friend John and all the girls that are around him.
'heh, funny. Now that I think about it I never told him that I felt bad that our friendships ended like that without even having the chance of a last goodbye'.
She would never tell to anyone, but she was very happy that John consider he still his friend even after more than a decade of separation. And what also she is not going to tell even more is that she always blush a little when she thinks that John would even go against an angel, well ex-angel, but that are irrelevant details, for her sake.
Indeed, John has always been supportive to her, even if she is not capable of contributing in anyway to the team. But then she remembers what John has told her on the plane. That exactly because she is a common human girl, the mere fact of being here shows how brave she is.
Not that she thinks of herself much of a brave girl right now, with a soldiers on his way to kill her and her trembling against a broken marble column.
'is this how you want to end it?'
'!' Maria ears a voice, and unmistakable male voice.
'John?'.
'I asked you a question, is this how you want your life to end?'
'N-no! of course not!'
'Then stand up and fight back Maria! You are the only one that can save yourself right now'.
'B-but How?! I am a but a weak human girl, I don't have anyway to fight back. As always, I am useless, impotent when someone I cares is in danger'.
'And, so what?'
'?!'
'Do you think Mother Nature, Fate or God for what matters care about if we want to live or not. The answer is simple. No!'.
'B-but…'.
'Look at him Maria'. The "fake" John points at the incoming soldier. 'He is a soldier that was sent to kill you and everyone you love and care. For the people who ordered him to do so, you are nothing more than a small grain of sand on the cog of their plan. You death simply a worthless name put together in the dump with hundreds if not thousands that like you had the bad luck to meet them. Is this how you want you life to end, like a nameless dead body in the wanton slaughter made by fucking maniacs?!'
'N-No! I don't want! I have so many things to do. So many places to go. So many friends I wanted to make. I don't want, and I don't accept that my life has to end here because someone in some godforsaken palace has decided so!'.
After Maria's declaration John's voice become to overlap with a more female one, it is deep, ancient and for some reason fills Maria with calm and serenity.
'Than take this power Maria. May it be the shield of your loved ones and the sword to smite you enemies. Take this power of control and oppression and transform it in a force of liberation and freedom. Let the CHAOS of your emotions reign free. Let you power SURGE and with that destroy whoever stands in your way!'
At that words Maria starts to feel an unknown sensation going all over her body, one should be frightened or worried about such a thing. Instead Maria is calm almost happy, no ecstatic about it. She doesn't go against it, she embrace it and made it go faster, stronger and sharper. And then the voice spokes again.
'Go my girl. Maria. May your name be known far and wide. May Heavens tremble in front of your power and may everyone remember you as the FIRST of the FALLEN!'
And with that said time starts to flow to a normal speed, and when the soldiers is almost to press the trigger Maria shouts.
'STOP!'.
And in but a mere instant from Maria's right hand a flash of light is shoot towards the soldiers. Everything from the navel up is annihilated instantly.
Maria takes deep breaths almost risking to fall unconscious for the effort, then she look at her hand. The blood, sweat and dirt from before being completely wiped out, only the shadow feelings of that strange sensation remain in her hand. She then sees a dark feather falling on her right.
She turns her head and finds two massive ANGEL WINGS!. As tall as her and as sark as the night itself. "Beautiful" is the first thing that Maria is capable to tell in her awe state of mind.
But her thought are interrupted by more soldiers running towards her, weapons ready and willing to kill her. Maria's is still confused as to what is going on and so when the soldiers are almost there to shoot they are all impaled by massive spikes of ice through their chests.
"Truly, you are a pain to look at and worst to babysit".
Maria looks back at the voice of the woman who saved her.
"Leviathan!".
Leviathan seeing the horrible states of Maria and the clear gratitude in her voice, takes the fact that Maria has somehow angel wings and let herself be drown in her feeling of superiority.
"Eheh. So you are finally understanding who is the only one worthy of being at the side of Onee-sama…".
But Maria doesn't listen to any of this, instead she rans towards Leviathan and hugs her with all her strength.
"Hey…Hey?!" Leviathan is a little flabbergasted by Maria's show of affection, but the girl in question simply repeats "Thank you. Thank you" like a broken record while also crying like her life depends on it. After some moments of letting her do it Leviathan breaks contact, because they are still in an active war zone and can't allow themselves to let their guard down. Besides, from their physical contact she has the slight suspicion that Maria's breasts have increased and are now bigger then hers. Something on which Leviathan doesn't want to think at the moment. Beside her tits Maria is now also a little taller, almost as tall as Lucifer now.
Leviathan shocks her head. 'Now it is not the time to think about this'.
"Now that you are finally not so useless anymore, it is time that you also starts to work your lazy ass".
Maria is not discouraged by Leviathan words, instead she beams with passion and happiness to finally being recognized as useful for something. Leviathan could swear she is seeing starts in Maria's eyes. "Yes!".
"*chuckles* Of course she is not useless. She is my loyal follower after all".
Both Leviathan and Maria look behind them recognizing the voice that has recently spoken.
"Lucifer-san!/Onee-sama!" Both of them immediately throws themselves at Lucifer that has just landed behind them. Both of them crying with joy for knowing that she is safe.
"Hush, hush. Come on, We were simply taken by if a mere rocket barrage can hurt me".
Both Maria and Leviathan finally calm down and let go of Lucifer, but still Maria notices a lot of bruises and cuts all over her body indicating that the rockets were not a small matter.
"What has happened here?". Maria is taken out of her thought by the low and heavy tone of Asmodeus, and by all the Gods in the sky she is absolutely ROYALLY PISSED OFF. Maria would not be surprised if Asmodeus would let herself be taken by her blood lust and start to butcher everyone on sight.
But John is not fazed in the least by Asmodeus's pression and with focus he reaches for one the soldiers Leviathan as killed before, meanwhile Helly, Selina, Scylla and Karen reunite with them. The four of them filled with cuts and bruises all over their bodies and Helly has also some nasty hole from taking the enemies projectile dead on.
John then takes one of the enemies assault rifle, which resemble an American M4, and taking out the magazine to look at its ammunition, while he starts to walk back at Asmodeus, who is currently looking at the mind-bobbling amount of dead bodies lying around, while she sad and angered from losing so much human followers, as she is the reason they were here in the first place, she feels even more anger for the loss of almost all her succubus that she had with her, almost 300 of them lying dead all around Asmodeus, some of them even high-ranking ones.
John goes on Asmodeus left shoulder and with one of the enemy projectile in hand he says.
"Explosive silver bullets" he gives a small sniff to the projectile "bathed in holy water, and it is almost sure that the explosive liquid inside of the projectile itself also contain Holy properties".
Then Lucifer goes on the left of John and takes the bullet from its hand and also starts to smell it.
"This is not common holy water. This is holy water baptized directly by an Angel, and an high ranking one at that. Maybe a member of the Seven Heavenly Virtues".
"And so? What does this change to all of us?" Asmodeus is not clearly thinking rationally right now, the anger from losing so much of both of her demonic and human followers is clearly taking a toll on her mind. Her Devil instincts to kill who dared to do this and protect her remaining followers going on overdrive.
"This change the fact that whoever is doing this is not your common group of fanatics. Instead we have in our hands a heavily funded, armoured, armed and trained group of fanatics that have the knowledge and the tech to build equipment and weapons lethal for non-humans. We can't act rashly or without a plan".
John interjects, showing no concern for the nasty look that Asmodeus is giving her, truly a 180 from the easy-going girl from before; then again before she didn't have to deal with the slaughter of almost all her followers right in her house.
"Not only that, we have also another big problem at hand" this time it is Selina to speak from behind John, Lucifer and Asmodeus. "The four of us have checked their bodies now that they have seemingly fall back. Already during the fight all of them have shown to be capable of super-human feats. We already had an hunch, but after we checked their bodies we confirmed it".
"Hybrids" John says, Selina simply nods at him.
"*tch* then it all make sense. Shidou. *heavy sighs* he has made his moves faster then what I predicted".
"Who is this Shidou you are talking about?" the question coming obviously from Asmodeus, having calmed down because of the new influx of information.
John looks at Lucifer and says "Tell him". Lucifer replying "*grunts* I was going to do so if not for all this mess on our hands".
And with that Lucifer says to Asmodeus everything about the true reason as to why she has fallen from Heaven, their meeting with Shidou and the plan of God to exterminate both Humanity and Hell.
The weight of all this news all at once hit Asmodeus like a cold shower. She then decides to rest on the same pillar from when Maria was "fighting" against the enemy soldier. But for Asmodeus, it is a fixed point in all the absolute mess of emotions that is her mind right now in trying to deal with what is happening.
"So, let me tell if what I have heard is right? God has finally has finally decided after MILLENIA to move his lazy ass and the first thing he decides is to bring the Apocalypse?".
"Correct" says Lucifer.
"Then to not dirt his hands he contact a mad scientist that has built for him an army of genetically modified humans hybridized with animal DNA to create a new race that will worship him".
"Correct" says John.
"And now this army of morons and madmen lead by a delusional buffoon is on the hunt to kill every human and non-human that is on the planet so that they can be the only dominant species on the planet".
"that is the gist of it, yes." John simply states.
"*heavy grunts* all of this doesn't make any sense! *even more grunts* *sigh* but at least having the complete picture has cleared my mind a little".
"*sigh* nevertheless, this is a grave matter we have at hand. When I told about the other Sins about attacks to my followers they dismissed them or didn't care, only Mammon wanted to help me, even if she was constrained by the rules. But now they can't simply ignore it anymore. Besides, it is clear that Belial is not fit to lead us in the war that is coming".
Asmodeus then looks at Lucifer. "Lucifer-san, you must become the Head of the Seven Sins. After this whole mess is over I will gladly help you against them if you need it".
"Hpm. Do not fret, I was already planning to do so regardless of what is happening here" Lucifer says.
"Mammon is already one of us. She will give us a token resistance, but her support to Lucifer is already secured. The problems will arrive after that. I didn't have the chance to interact with a lot of other Sins directly, so I don't know how they will react". John explains to Asmodeus. "Besides, leaving your territory after such a devastating blow is not a great idea. Your Succubus need your leadership now more the ever. And after we have repelled the enemy invasion you need to start to build up for war".
With that finally stated and agreed upon Asmodeus recall all the surviving succubus and orders them to go in the armoury in the Villa's basement to equip themselves and take her armour with them. Meanwhile John uses her communication devices to order the rapid deployment of his and the girl's battle armour, as this is going to be a long and heavy fight and they can't win it by going against the enemy unarmed. While the wait for their back up John and Maria have a little window of time to talk between each other.
Meanwhile Yuuya, which had dig underground to escape the enemies has resurfaced and its waiting with Selina, Helly, Karin and Scilla
"You have become taller". Says John with a smile.
"*giggles* Thanks. I-I was really scared. Scared that I would not see you, Lucifer and all the others. That I would again being simply a weight to all of you. *small crying* I am glad that I have now the power to help all of you". Maria says with tears in her eyes.
Receiving a comforting hand on her left shoulder by John. "I have always believed in you Maria. Besides, It seems that the angel blood in your body as kicked in because of intense emotions".
"?! Wait are you meaning?!"
"Yes. After Lucifer has fallen from the sky, she has given to you her angel blood. That said, I didn't expect your wings to be black".
Maria looks at her new pair of Wings and says. "Well, I don't know what has happened really. I was scared for my life and when I thought that I was going to die a female voice gave me the motivation to continue fighting for living my life and I ended up like this".
John could swear that with the tail of his eyes he had seen Lucifer tensing up when Maria said that she heard a female voice in her head. 'Maybe is simply my imagination'.
"Nevertheless, I am happy that you are fine. We will have all the time to chat when we resolve this mess, for now; simply try to make some form of head and tail of your new powers and do not try to bite more than you can chew".
"Yes, daddy"
"*giggles* this rascal of a girl" John says while Maria is going in the group with Lucifer and the other girls. Their special power suits are coming in fast from John's plane thanks to not having his communications blockaded. Together with the suits there will be also other communication devices like his so that they can remain in contact.
While he waits for the package to arrive, he looks at the burning city, and thinking of all the suffering and innocent civilians slaughtered by Shidou's forces, he feels cold rage filling his soul.
'I will find you Shidou and I will kill you. And this is a promise'.
[Meanwhile. In the Outskirt of Miami at the start of Asmodeus's Villa's Forest]
"Command. Command. Here is 1° Class Foot Knight Alberg of the 2° Battalion, 3° Regiment, 2° Brigade. My unit has made contact with the enemy. We have eliminated 95% of all human followers and 80% of all enemy combat capabilities. Recon has confirmed that all 3 Primary Targets and all 6 Secondary Targets are still alive, with all the Secondary one now recovering from the injuries sustained in battle".
"2° Battalion here Command. Affirmative. What is your level of losses."
"Command. As of current update we have 300 Soldiers KIA(Killed in Action), with 200 in various degrees of WIA(Wounded in Action). I have lost more than a Company worth of Men and the initial rocket barrage has not killed the Primary Targets has planned, but has stalled them long enough to give them more then 3 times our losses overall. None of the 2° and 3° Class Knights have been wounded or killed, but we have lost a good number of Squires in the action".
"2° Battalion. We confirm your losses and the Commander is pleased that none of the knights have died yet. Command wants to know How the new weapons have tested themselves in their baptism of fire".
"Command. We didn't had the chance to tests the rocket beyond the initial barrage. But we can confirm that hand grenades, machine guns and assault rifles are effective against non-human target as well as human ones".
"2° Battalion. Affirmative. We are receiving your combat data. From what we can tell the weapons are working in the parameters we had expect. Good work".
"Command. Thanks and Affirmative. We are currently regrouping ourselves to launch a new offensive. Are there new orders or changes for the plan?".
"2° Battalion. Affirmative. You are currently regrouping at the start of the private forest of the Primary Target. Correct?".
"Command. Affirmative".
"2° Battalion. Your orders are to take the whole of your current combat capabilities and launch an all out attack against the enemies. Heavy casualties are to be expected. But the chance of killing all the three primary targets now that they are in the same place is too much to be passed out. In addition recon has confirmed that one of the Primary target has called support from his vehicle at the airport and is arriving via air at their position in a couple of minutes. Your orders are to regroup the entire battalion and launch the offensive as soon as possible and kill all enemies in the area. Command Out".
And with that the connection broke. The 1°Class Knight, which is equal to a Major in the Italian Army, looks at his subordinate of the 2° and 3° Class Foot Knight. Their face do not betray any emotion, even if their displeasure of having their lives wasted like this doesn't stand right with any of them. Nevertheless, they know what they are. Clones, vat-born Therianthrope that have been made for this Holy Crusade and made to win it. As such they don't care how their lives are going to be used, even if his doesn't mean they have to like it.
"You have heard Command. Regroup your men. We start the attack in 5 minutes".
A shout of "Yes, Sir", fills the tent as all the knights leave their superior to rally their man for the assault. Meanwhile the Major looks at the map and starts to think at the best way to attack it.
'They may have ordered to attack the enemy. But they never said how'.
A grim smile fills his face, thinking of the best way to deal with John and his group in the Villa.
END
AN:
And it is done!
Honestly I am quite happy with how the chapter are coming out recently. Truly self-imposing 5000 words at chapters has been a good choice, especially from a psychological point of view.
As you can imagine shit as hit the fan, hard. And in the next chapters we will see the first real battle for the literal right to exist in the world. As well as more information on Shidou and the Hierarchy of the Therianthrope.
On a smaller note. I want to use this space to rapidly describe the military hierarchy of the Therianthrope, for now only the Army, Navy and Air will arrive later.
At the lowest grade we have the Soldier. Nothing to say about them. They are the bread and butter of the army and do all the same job and functions that a normal Private would do in a modern army within its special scope of responsibility. One noticeable thing however is that because they are Human-animal Hybrids, both for the sake of logistics, and for another reason that I will explain in Chapter 10, only Hybrids of the same species will be put together in the same Squad, up to a level of Regiment, and going from Brigade of species that live in the same terrain (for example both are land species). Only on the level of Division you will see different species. Again, I will explain everything in the next chapter.
10 Soldiers are lead by a Squire and this for a Squad, which is the smallest combat unit in the Therianthrope Land Army.
5 Squires are under the Leadership of a 3° Class Foot Knight, this is the Platoon level and this guys are not to be underestimated, because the ranking starting from this position has been decided through truly twisted and fucked up methods, believe me.
Five 3°Class Foot Knight are under the supervision of a single 2° Class Foot Knight.
Five 2° Class Foot Knight will respond to a 1° Class Foot Knight. This is the level of a Battalion and the people here are not only strong, but also extremely cunning. There is only a single word to describe them.
Survivors. You must be to arrive at this position. One thing to notice is that, contrary to our modern military, they don't have units to defend them. They obviously receive exceptionally good gear and weapons, but it is extremely rare for them to use other soldiers as bodyguards. The few one that do so only use at max two Squads led by Squires that they trust barely enough to do so. The reason being that having to rely on someone for your protection is seen as a sigh of weakness.
Nevertheless, Five 1° Class Foot Knight are under the command of a proper Knight. Five Knight will be lead by a Paladin and 5 Paladin, and by extension the whole Division is to be lead by 2 Generals, with each general having five for a total of 10 Paladin.
Each General will be of different species and in charge of its half of the Division. And considering that a Division is made of 10000 Troops, the math is simple. 2 Brigade of 5000, each made of 2 Regiments of 2500, each made of 2 Battalions of 1250, which are made of 5 Companies of 250, divide in 5 Platoons of 50 and in the end each Platoon made of 5 Squads of 10 Soldiers.
As you can imagine I have used the NATO army model. Both for its simplicity and to further highlight how much the Therianthrope have taken from Humanity will also screaming that they are superior to them.
Nevertheless, this is it for now. I will start to make the new chapter soon. If I am not much of a lazy ass I hope to publish Chapter 10 and 11 before the end of the week. But we will see.
Anyway, see you soon. Do not forget to review the chapter if you have liked it.