Chapter 3: Hell Let Loose
The sky was blue and clear, as was the case for any summer day. Yet one thing was amiss. Amidst the clouds, a huge shadow loomed over the ground. It wasn't a cause of any natural phenomenon. No, it was an object created by man that loomed over the planet. A Super Destroyer.
Gazef gazed at the ship with amazement in his eyes. Never had he thought to see such a thing, never. He stood on the castle walls, overlooking any change the thing did. But until now, it stood still, showing no movement.
'This feels wrong. It is waiting for something. Why would they declare war and then simply do nothing?' Gazef didn't know. He returned from his thoughts as a group approached him on the walls.
"Is that it? Is that their flying ship?" Lakyus asked, astonished by the scene. Truly, the only thing one could compare with it was a sword. The Warrior Captain didn't exaggerate.
"Woah…" Gagaran couldn't believe her eyes. She thought wyverns were something to be fascinated about. But this put all her expectations to shame.
"I don't trust this." Evileye said, eyeing the object in the sky carefully.
"They have to make a move yet. I have been watching them for quite a while now, but they just don't seem to do much." Gazef said, suspicion growing within him.
"It's just- Wait, what?!" Lakyus called out, prompting the others to look up as well.
One by one, more of those ships simply appeared, exactly the same size and shape as the first one.
"What the hell…" Gagaran said.
"This can't be!" Gazef couldn't believe his eyes. No, he should have thought of the possibility that there were more of them, but the thought of it was simply insane.
"So they have more of those, troublesome." Evileye answered, tense as she watched one ship after another appear. She counted about 10 of those things. Yet she didn't know how many would still come or if these were all that would appear.
"We need to infor-" Before Gazef could continue, he heard a loud boom from his right. As he turned around, he saw a huge mushroom of flame where once houses lay. More and more explosions appeared around them, and as Gazef looked up, he saw the cause.
"We are in more danger than we thought! The enemy can shoot down explosions from the sky! We need to bring the king underground!" He quickly informed the stationed men. "Blue Rose! If you would follow me." Gazef said, and Lakyus nodded.
"They're killing civilians just because they want to win the war." Evileye commented.
"But there is no way we can stop them. Not now." Lakyus replied while running.
They entered the castle and went down to the cellar, Gazef following later with the king, the two princes, and the princess at hand.
"Quickly!" Gazef gestured to the entrance leading deeper into the underground tunnels. Climb followed, sword in hand, as he stood close to the princess.
The earth shake continued as they went deeper into the tunnels. Torches held by guards lit up the area as Blue Rose went first.
"I should have accepted, Gazef. Because of me, countless Re-Estize citizens have died…" Rampossa asserted, head low as he felt ashamed and guilty.
"No, your Majesty. Who would have known they had this kind of power." Gazef said, continuing forward.
"I'm not even sure if it's magic. It seems they throw some projectiles at us, which explode once they reach the ground." Evileye said, having seen the things with her superior vision for herself. They were pointy at the end, like an arrow, yet huge in diameter.
"This enemy of ours is truly dangerous. Unknown in numbers and power, I should have acted more cautiously. But, Gazef, you're right. There was no way to predict this would happen." Rampossa repeated. Still, he wasn't sure if he could even continue the fight with this "Super-Earth" as they hadn't a method to even reach their ships.
"Lakyus, I have an idea." Evileye suddenly said, gathering attention to herself. "I'll teleport to them and see what I can do to make them stop." She said. She would sound crazy if it were under any other circumstances, but this time, it was actually a plausible idea.
"You think you can do it?" Lakyus asked. She worried that something could happen to Evileye if she went up there.
"There's no choice." Evileye said, vanishing on the spot.
"Where did she go?" Gazef asked.
"She intends to stop their barrage of fire. Let's hope she succeeds."
Flying above the ruined city, Evileye held a clear target in her eyes.
'I should reach them from here.' She thought. Teleporting had quite a range, so reaching the ships shouldn't be a problem; being able to defend against them could be.
Concentrating on the position she wanted to appear, Evileye materialized before the ship, her mouth dropping in astonishment.
'This thing is huge!' She hoped she hadn't been spotted yet, but they didn't seem to expect any visitors. Evileye scrutinized the weird design of the ship, trying to find any similarities with the ones she knew of.
'It seems the projectiles are thrown out of these tubes. I wonder if I could damage them so they wouldn't work.' That was what the vampire was going to do. Ten ships were bombarding the city from high in the sky. She had to be quick before they would notice her presence.
"[Crystal Lance]!"
The crystal shot toward the ship, penetrating it right above the tube. It seemed to stop, and Evileye took this as a sign it worked. She quickly went to the next ship, doing the same.
"[Crystal Lance]!"
Ship after ship, she stopped them from raining fire on the town.
'This is the last one.' All ten ships seemed to stop firing. Evileye was relieved.
'What-' A yellow light came toward her from one of the ships. Not just one ship, but some of them in range started to fire at her with weird projectiles made of rays.
'I need to get out of here!' Before anyone could hit her, she disappeared back underground to Blue Rose.
"You stopped them, how?" Lakyus asked. She no longer heard the sounds of explosions nor felt the earthquakes that followed.
"I was able to destroy their cannons, as I believe them to be. Just more advanced than anything we have seen. Luckily, they weren't expecting me to teleport up there and destroy their weapons." Evileye explained. It seemed a crucial weakness had been found in the enemy: the unawareness of magic.
"At the courtroom, they were surprised to see Evileye cast magic. I suppose they don't use it and have probably never seen it. Meaning they have no idea what magic is capable of." Lakyus theorized.
"We also have little knowledge about them and their weapons." Gazef stated. Lakyus quickly got an interesting idea at the thought, turning to the king who stood at the side of Gazef.
"Your Majesty. The Magician's Guild has some skilled magic casters that could be useful in this battle. Under these circumstances, we should employ some to protect our cities and soldiers. If we can't keep up with them in technology, we should use what we have to our advantage." Lakyus explained. There was logic behind her reasoning, and the king seemed to consider her words.
"You are right. We should employ the mages from the Magician's Guild and all the adventurers we can get. This is not a war for conquest but for survival. I am sure the Adventurers Guild will agree with us." Rampossa said. His two sons stood silent behind him, watching the walls as they feared another earthquake, while his daughter stood there unbothered, watching the talk with rested eyes.
"Of course, your Majesty." Gazef replied.
"What just happened?!" The Death Captain called forth his subordinates, seeing the bombardment had stopped, the one that the Skull Admiral ordered.
"It seems our ship has been damaged. The other Super Destroyers seem to harbor the same damages. I will scan for any unknown objects nearby. Maybe we missed an asteroid field." The officer replied, earning a grunt from the captain.
"Sir, you want to look at this." Another officer said, pulling up a picture of a replay just outside the ship. It showed a figure appearing out of the air before it hit the Super Destroyers with some kind of crystal?
"Alert all other ships! We have an unknown enemy of humanoid stature destroying our cannons! We can't let whoever this is damage our ships longer!" The captain ordered, and the communications officer instantly transferred the message to the other vessels.
Instantly, the unknown entity was spotted and shot at, laser upon laser erupting toward the anomaly. Yet again, it seemed to just disappear.
"Dammit! Our enemy seems capable of teleportation and matter manipulation. Worrisome, but nothing Democracy can't win against! Make a report. We must keep track of every contact with this new world!" The captain said.
"On it, Sir."
Hovering in the sky was a platinum-colored knight gazing at the cosmos-traveling ships before him.
'What should I do?'
The ancient and wise being asked itself. It had taken upon the task of protecting the world from any danger that would bring great catastrophe and calamities. Yet now he was before a dilemma. Stop these intruders or not? They didn't seem a great enemy, at least for now. They only seemed interested in the human nation called Re-Estize. Its downfall would not even change the mood of the son of the Dragon Emperor. He simply didn't care about it.
'Should I watch? If I show myself, it could very well be a trap made to lure me here. Not many know of my existence as protector of the world. There are just too many variables right now.' The disguised dragon mused, gazing into the vessel as he looked upon the humans in it.
They wore weird armor of black. Some wore white, while others had orange, green, and brown armor.
'They are not players. At least, that is what I believe. They are too weak.'
One possibility less, but still so much empty knowledge he had to fill with whatever he could get his hands on. Which wasn't much. He knew they were called Helldivers from a government called Super-Earth, but that didn't give him much to ponder about.
If he showed himself now to these newcomers, he wouldn't know how they would react. They would probably act hostile, meaning if he made himself known, he would have to destroy all of their ships to make his appearance a secret once more.
'I should speak with Rigrit about this. Azuth would also want a word.'
Soldiers marched in unison toward the capital, the nobles at the front leading the charge. No one was spared from the king's call, and refusal would be met with an accusation of treason and execution.
Thus, even before this unknown adversary, the levies of Re-Estize appeared at their king's call, ready to fight a war they couldn't win in their biggest dreams. But they were unaware of that fact, simply enjoying their time.
Their march came to a halt as the captain ordered a stop. From beyond, black smoke rose into the air, leading many men to recognize the flying vessels up above in all their glory.
"What is that…"
"May the gods be with us."
The capital lay in ruins, the walls not as impregnable as before, while houses barely stood left and right. Children, mothers, and fathers mourned for their fallen ones, the ones responsible for being right above them.
"What happened here?" Marquis Raeven asked a guard as he approached the gates, which have seen better days.
"F-Fire rained upon our city! I c-cannot explain it, m-my Lord! We aren't sure if the king is still alive even." The soldier explained, his body shaking from the aftermath as he tried to keep up his composure.
"You don't say, soldier…" Raeven said as he watched the destroyed landscape, kraters filling the streets as huge holes made it difficult to pass through. The earth seemed charred, and the air filled with smoke. "You don't say."
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Here's my discord invitation code. Join if you're interested in becoming a proofreader of my next chapters, or you just want to hang around. Both work.
The New World isn't as defenseless as you thought. Even a lesser magic caster can give Helldivers trouble. Evileye, being a vampire, is quite durable and strong at her level 50. I'm not even sure anything from the Helldivers would even hurt her. Maybe the orbital laser, but only because of its extremely concentrated heat.
Does Nazarick appear in this story? Some of you asked this question a lot. I won't answer since I am not even certain about it. So keep up for a surprise.
Also, I seem to be uploading at a time with fewer and fewer good fanfics released. For those who are reading that have an idea and the need to express that idea, feel free to write a story yourself.