The NU Demon

It was the second purple flash across the city that drew Grey Spades attention. He turned back in time to catch the trail and trace it to its origin point. The fact it was originating from inside the bunker was….. Interesting. He waited and watched, much like many other defenders and drones in the sky above watching the central camp. Suddenly there was a flash of movement, and a figure shot from the side of the damned throne erected in front of the portal straight into the bunker. Not even a moment later it returned, stopping at the base of the pile upon which the throne was erected, and hurling something viciously into the ground. But that's all Grey spade could make out, and the drones were probably having the same problem.

The damned demon lord's aura was messing with everything. Electronics, magic enchantments, sight, everything was scrambled to some extent in an outer radius around the city. Grey Spade knew it was the lord because he could feel it, along with every other defender with a working sense of self preservation. That abomination was going to be nasty to deal with, even for him.

So all anyone could really make out was colors, movement, maybe some vague shapes if you were lucky. Suddenly the Lord and the lackey moved, both diving straight for whatever the lackey had thrown down before. They got on top of it at the same time, despite the lord's distance. They weren't quick enough. A purple beam shot out from under the mini dog pile, and slammed straight into the portal crystals across the yard from the throne. Grey Spade blinked in surprise, surely that wouldn't be enough to……

The crystal exploded, and the wretched sound of its shattering along the screams of the controllers consumed by its critical failing were clear for all to hear, even with the distortion field and shield still being up. They screamed for only a moment before presumably dying, then uneasy silence for a moment…….

Attention Mortals!

Lucy has performed the minor legendary action of almost single handedly stopping the invasion of Shimerview and dealing a crippling blow to the demons invading earth.

For this feat, she has been awarded the title Savior of Shimerview!

May word of her legend be passed for all to know!

PS - Duck……

That was not a message Grey Spade had seen before. And Duck?

Suddenly the two remaining crystals seemed to lose their control on the portal, the beams bending and snapping like twigs under the weight of a truck. The remains of the almost formed portal seemed to shake loose from reality and crash to the ground with the speed and fury of a falling star. Which is to say, almost damn near instantly.

Oh, that kind of duck.

As he put his shield up, a blur flew out from under the portal at the last second. It shot off into the distance at speeds nearly incomprehensible to even him. The lord, scurrying away like a rat from a sinking ship. Then the portal hit the ground, and everything went to shit.

…………………………………………….

Charles sat scrunched up against the barricade at the end of the hall, rifle clasped in his trembling hands. The memory flashing through his mind once again. The manager for his area bursting into the barracks, ordering every able bodied, and even some less able, man, woman, and even children to follow him. That was when Charles knew they were screwed. The only saving grace is that Anna got to stay safe. He had managed to seek her out shortly after getting inside. Her disability was limiting enough she would only be a liability. Except neither of her parents, nor Lucy, were with her. His parents weren't here either, and Lucy was nowhere to be found. Anna was shuffled off deeper into the complex while Charles was herded off to be given a gun and fight.

He understood why, they were going to die anyways so might as well fight. But that didn't mean he wanted to be here. No one wanted to be here. And that point was only reinforced as bullets pinged down the hallway, forcing everyone to double down into cover.

"Man down!" Someone down the hallway behind him screamed.

"Get him out of here!" The sergeant leading them snapped.

They had been broken up into loose squads led by actual soldiers. There were still some actual squads of soldiers moving about, but they were elsewhere.

"They're pushing up again!" Someone across the hall from him screamed.

Charles stupidly poked his head up to get a view. They were holding a side hallway on the fifth level, the demons and cultists were at the other end camped out around a corner, the line of sight break the only reason they could set up so close to start with. The hallway was littered with bodies, both demon and human alike. Most of the human ones were cultists, the rest of them weren't.

Initially they had people in those side rooms holding them. But slowly the unending tide of hell spawn whittled down the defenders as the demons slowly leapfrogged down the hallway room by room. A corjo demon lunged out of the closest room and tried to scramble over their impromptu barricade of tables, chairs, anything that was semi sturdy. Charles forced his shaking hands to swing his gun in its direction but it was dead by the time he got there.

Further down the hall, a few imps and corjos took advantage of the distraction to dart across the hall into a slightly closer room. One of them was caught by a spray of bullets from someone still watching the hall. The rest escaped unscathed, slightly farther down the hall than they were before. Suddenly a loud roar filled the hall, and a giant, mutated humanoid with some sort of demonic squid melded to its skull squeezes around the corner.

It starts thundering down the hallway while continuing to roar, and gunfire erupts all around Charles. The abomination didn't even make it halfway down the hall before keeling over. Unfortunately, the demons took the opportunity to charge. A corjo jumped out of a nearby side room and mantled the barricade, before leaping off and onto a poor woman caught reloading.

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She screamed as the demon dragged her to the ground. It was torn to pieces by gun fire, but not fast enough to prevent her throat from being ripped out. Charles watched as she clutched at her own exposed veins and arteries while the blood simply slipped between her fingers.

Another corjo tried the same thing a moment later, but was promptly sent tumbling back down with the amount of bullets that slammed into it.

"God damn it! Mind the barricade! Don't let them cross over! Medics get her into the back." The sergeant barked.

Charles looked away before he lost what little composure he had left. He leveled his service rifle down the hallway once again. It took not even a moment for a cultist to peak around the corner at the end of the hall and throw something. Charles reactively ducked as the object bounced halfway down the hall and exploded mid air.

The shitty frag toss didn't do anything to the defenders, though he heard a yelp and some screams from the damn imps. He looked up again just in time to see another frag grenade bouncing down the hall much faster. A corjo tried to rush out and leap the barricade as Charles ducked again. The blast caught the corjo and propelled it over the barricade, coming to land next to Charles with a wet smack.

Something down the hallway screamed in demonic fashion, and suddenly the whole hallway burst into motion as a horde of corjos, imps, wolgi, and various other demons came crashing around the corner. More than all the other times before.

Then the notification hit. He didn't know how, he didn't have magic. But somehow he knew it was a magical system notification anyways. Which shouldn't have been possible.

Attention Mortals!

Lucy has performed the minor legendary action of almost single handedly stopping the invasion of Shimerview and dealing a crippling blow to the demons invading earth.

For this feat, she has been awarded the title Savior of Shimerview!

May word of her legend be passed for all to know!

PS - Duck……

Charles could only stand there gawking, like most of the other humans. The demons weren't unaffected either. The intelligent ones stopped in their tracks. The stupid ones following suit out of confusion. For a moment the whole war zone became so silent Charles could hear the demons breathing. Then the cultists panicked.

"Oh fuck this! Let's get outta here!" One of the ones following behind the horde screamed.

And then they broke, the cultists and intelligent demons pouring out of the side rooms and down the hall in a desperate bid to retreat. The stupid demons, like the corjos, stood hesitant for a second, before deciding to follow the pack.

Someone cheered out "We fucking won, get em!"

"Get down you id…" the sergeant started to scream. Except he didn't get to finish his warning before everything shook so violently under the force of an impact that everything and everyone was thrown to the floor. Not even the imps in flight remained up. Several aftershocks followed, tossing any and everything about as somehow the bunker didn't collapse on top of them.

Finally the shaking stopped enough for some to clamber to their feet. And the cultists and demons found themselves rapidly being shot in the back as more people stood up and brought their guns to bear. Still they panic rushed down the hall and around the corner, now tramping over and crushing one another in their escape bid.

The last one rounded the corner as the final body fell to the floor in the hall. And while the sounds of war resumed around them, they were now joined by the rallied war cries of the defenders.

Some dumb asses tried to cross the barricade to chase, but the sergeant grabbed them and yanked them back down screaming "We are on defense, not offense you idiots! We are waiting here until told otherwise unless you want to walk straight into an ambush!"

Around Charles the shouts of victory and moans of pain from the impact rang through the air as he sat down and laid back against the wall. Relief ran through him, it was finally over. Somehow he made it.

But that message, it couldn't have been a lie right? The demons and cultists seemed to believe it if anything. But Lucy, was it the Lucy he knew? No way it was. Lucy is a defender, but she isn't that strong. And she said she was a healer!

Suddenly he felt something wet on his leg. He looked down, his paints were stained red. He didn't have any holes in them, no it was dripping off his left arm. He touched the red liquid running down his arm, it was warm. Oh, that was blood, his blood, he got hit at some point. Suddenly resting seemed so much more tempting. Yea, just a little rest, he'd bandage it after he closed his eyes for a moment to get some energy.

…………………

Grey Spade stared down at the shattered remains of a once functioning city. It wasn't the greatest little place on this hell touched earth, but it still worked. That was better than many of the places he had visited. Especially near the front lines.

Unfortunately, not even Oracle's predictions could save the city. Poor woman is haunted by her prediction magic. It always gives vague premonitions so broad they are hard to make out properly but will always fit the description after the fact. 'Shimerview will be shattered. The sky will fall and leave only in its place a twisted echo of what was.' Unfortunately it fit what remained of the city.

Sometimes Oracle's predictions were enough for them to head off catastrophe. Other times, they guessed the meaning, or acted on them wrong.

Every skyscraper in the city was gone or collapsed. Save for one on the northern edge that had only its top half fall over. Around the edges of the city the land undulates in some places, but the seemingly smooth changes are still enough to destroy buildings, rip conduits from the ground, and wreck roads.

In other places it isn't as nice. The ground is more jagged. Sudden small cliffs rip buildings in half, chasms and pits swallow buildings halfway or even wholesale while also splitting roads. That wasn't counting the fire on the east side that torched half a residential neighborhood before someone managed to put it out.

Then there was the main problem. Centered around where the central bunker once stood was a circular mass of seemingly liquid magic about three miles in diameter. Parts of it changed color at seemingly random as it rotated around a small island. Which was connected to the mainland by a road bridge that by all accounts of physics should have collapsed, having no supports the entire way. On the center island sat a singular structure, a perfect replica of the entry way for the central bunker, except all the doors but the big main one were closed. And the main door seemingly led into a dark abyss no one could see through. The only reason they haven't buried it in ordinance is because of what magic says when you look at it.

Shimerview Central Bunker Dungeon

Recommended power rating: 1,000 - 10,000

Enemies: Humans, Demons

Rewards: Essence, Loot Drops, Treasure.

And generally shooting magical things with wanton abandon has one of two effects. First, it isn't effective. Or second, it explodes, usually quite spectacularly.

It was turning out to be an interesting day, even if the bad and tragic kind of interesting. They were cleaning up, fighting on the outskirts was fierce but short as what remained of the demons and cultists' fortifications cracked and and their occupants scattered to be picked off.

Soon they would have what's left of the city. While that wouldn't bring back those who already died, it would let them evacuate the ones who haven't. Though that was little consolation, given how many they lost. Like that Lucy person. Assuming it wasn't some infighting spat, they performed a selfless act knowing the consequence would be death, if not by the failing portal, then by the demons looking for retribution. They did it anyway, and now the're gone, because there was no way in heaven or hell that someone would have survived that without divine intervention. And as Greyspade had become all too aware since starting his career, there were no gods. Only man and demon. And sometimes, it was hard to tell one from the other.