The journey wasn’t difficult, it rarely is. The real hard part was confronting what was waiting for me when I reached my destination.
Sometimes it was finding that the city I was sent to save was no more, other times it was having to haul whatever was left of my men out of an ambush site, knowing that their corpses were going to be experimented on like some common sewer rat by the very people they died protecting, and this time was no different.
The corpse of one of the men I sent to investigate the residential area was waiting for me when I got close, clearly moved from wherever it was originally and put in my way on purpose. It was a simple, but very effective warning.
I knelt on the snow, now red with blood, to check on the desecrated corpse, trying to find clues as to what exactly killed him. knowing what magic I was dealing with was necessary, otherwise, I’ll just end up like this unfortunate fellow.
His wounds were unusual. thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of needle-sized holes shredded through his body, mostly the chest area. His death was instant and painless, that’s a better end than most other soldiers get, but it was odd that such an attack killed him.
Augments are powerful enough to completely nullify much more destructive magic, so why would such a relatively weak attack kill him?
“he must’ve been caught off guard. Completely unaware.”
It was the only sensible explanation I could think of, but it too fell flat when I noticed the very small ice shards stuck to his armor. a regular human wouldn’t even be able to spot them, it’s times like these when I realize how truly different I am from regular humans.
“the attack was point blank, must’ve been. So, he didn’t see or react to the enemy when he was standing right next to him…invisibility? In this weather the snow would completely nullify it…so what was it?”
Once I stood back on my feet, having gotten what I needed from the corpse, I realized that I was no different from the very people I hated. There I was poking around with the body of one of my men, one of the people who died following my orders while feeling no sympathy whatsoever. I was no different from all the politicians and scientists who saw us as tools for war, tools that can be discarded and replaced once they outlive their usefulness.
I didn’t even know his name, he followed me till his actual death and I did not even know who he was. It was actually common now, the real 7th dragon knights’ regiment was no more, only I and my retired mentor are still alive from the original members. The others died a long time ago and were replaced by strangers that I didn’t even know. Strangers whose inexperience led them to an early grave, and thus they themselves were replaced by more strangers, this happened so often that I simply stopped remembering their names.
Eventually, I moved past the body, leaving it behind for the snow to claim, at least until the scientists in the capital make a fuss and it gets retrieved for testing.
It didn’t take long to reach the residential area, a rather boring place all things considered. All the houses looked exactly the same, they were basically just snow-covered rectangular boxes…not exactly what I would point to when talking about human creativity.
I walked around for minutes but found nothing but more snow and dull houses. Not even a footprint or drop of blood to lead me in the right direction.
That was until I came across a door that was left slightly open, an oddity in a place where the weather was this extreme.
I showed myself in and locked the door behind me to avoid any unwanted surprises as I made my way deeper into the home I was invading.
The rooms were normal. No sign of the other missing soldier or the demons who attacked them in sight, only bookshelves, folded clothes, and food left out to spoil. Every single room was the same, except for one.
What appeared to be the home office was completely destroyed. The desk was wrecked and the papers and computer were in pieces, but more importantly a safe in the wall was broken open and a metal box was left open on the floor, it was rather easy to connect the dots, the demons must have attacked this place to find whatever was inside the box.
This was unusual. Whatever that box contained couldn’t have been more valuable than what was left inside the safe. Papers detailing the routes used to transport the oil for the next month and the exact locations it was headed, such sensitive information would not have been left behind by the demons, not in a million years.
For a second or two I had my doubts, I thought that maybe it wasn’t them behind it, not this time. demons don’t sneak around like this, they don’t leave important structures standing and they sure as hell don’t leave very valuable information behind. This was different, this was too out of character for them.
A gust of wind filled the room. Coming through the open window I neglected to close.
Just then, I felt it again. someone was in the room with me, I was sure of it. I whipped my head around but I saw nobody, just the curtains fluttering in the wind.
I activated my augments and made sure to defend my head and chest especially well, insuring that I wouldn’t meet the same fate as the soldier I sent here. I scanned the room again, making sure to focus all of my senses to the extreme, but I found nothing. There was no heartbeat, no body odor, and certainly no visible trace of anyone, it was just the cold wind and I in that office.
That was when it hit me, both times I felt a presence close to me was after a gust of wind had passed by; I felt stupid for not getting it sooner. Whatever it was, it wasn’t using invisibility or some camouflage magic, it was the wind itself.
Once the shock wore off I grabbed my rifle and fired at random. Hitting everything from bookshelves to potted plants, I only stopped when the magazine was empty and the room fell back into silence.
A second passed and nothing happened. I started doubting myself again, feeling like an idiot who just wasted valuable resources and gave away his position to the enemy based on a hunch.
I reloaded and was about to run out of the office when I noticed it. it was as if the air itself was being molded into a humanoid shape, slowly taking form and eventually revealing a demon crouched in a corner, holding his bleeding stomach and grunting in pain.
It was different from any I’ve seen before that’s for damn sure. All demons are different shades of dark blue with two horns, but this one was pale white. It was as white as the very snow falling from the sky, and its horns were so small that it was hard to spot them under its pure white silky hair.
In truth, it looked more like a mutated human than a demon. If it wasn’t for its ability to use magic I would’ve even felt some sympathy for it, but I didn’t, not one bit.
“the thing you took from the safe, is it why you came here? What was it?”
I tried talking to it, hoping that maybe I could get some information out of it before blowing its head off but he wouldn’t talk.
I even tried prodding at his wound with my foot but all I got out of him were screams of pain, but not a single word of mercy, it was impressive for a demon, but impressing me had no effect on the outcome.
“compared to what the guys in the labs do to your kind, this is mercy.”
I aimed my rifle at his head and pulled the trigger, putting down the pale demon who might’ve been the only one in existence for all I knew, and I felt nothing as I did it.
I walked out of the house cleaning and reloading my gun, as I looked up to the roof of the neighboring house, I saw three other pale demons staring back at me.
They were so similar to the one I killed, I could’ve sworn that they were all just clones. They had the same long silky hair and barely visible horns as the first one, even their white robes were identical.
One of them held something in his hand, something that I instantly recognized. A data drive, and a military-grade one at that. Issued only to high leveled personnel within the upper echelons of human government and military.
Suddenly, them leaving all those documents back in the safe made sense because what they had in their hands was much, much more valuable. Yet there they were, standing still and looking at me, fully visible, obviously ready to fight. A weird decision considering they already had what they wanted.
I didn’t waste time trying to talk to them, if the one I tortured remained silent then it was obvious that I had no chance with these ones. I opened fire and leveled the house they were standing on with my augments simultaneously, focusing specifically on the one holding the data drive, but they were fast. Faster than most demons.
They instantly spread apart and turned into wind again, disappearing into the night sky. Their speed and agility covered for their obvious lack of raw power, physical and magical.
I tried to follow them but there was no way for me to tell which way they went, not until they decided to show themselves to me again, this time on another rooftop further away.
“so, you want me to follow you huh…fine.”
It was obvious. they were herding me into a trap but there wasn’t much I could do about it. getting that data disk was the most important thing right now, more important than rescuing the other soldier who I was sure was dead already anyway, or even accomplishing the original objective.
And just like that, I let myself be herded. I would get close and destroy the house they stood on with my augments, and they would fly away and ‘lure me’ into another house until we reached a relatively empty plot with half-built houses everywhere.
Once I got there, I realized that they were not herding me into a trap, but into a stage.
Dom, Isaac, and Nia, along with the two soldiers I came to look for. They were all long dead by that point, held up on icy spikes that penetrated through their bodies dyeing the snow-white ground in deep crimson.
I looked at their faces, especially Nia’s. it was stuck in this look of despair and pain as if she’s seen hell itself. I felt guilt, I felt remorse, but I couldn’t let it show on my face or hinder my progress.
My orders got them killed but there was nothing I could do to fix that now except to make it mean something, and the only way that was going to happen was by taking back that data drive.
The three demons stood next to the defiled corpses of my men, their eyes were just as dead as the bodies they mutilated. There was not a shred of emotion behind them, not remorse nor pride. They were just, empty.
Attacking them from afar wasn’t going to work due to their speed, and trying to destroy the whole area over and over again would leave me drained, and I can’t afford to be unable to use my augments when I only have 2 magazines of antimagic ammo left, a frontal assault was the only real option.
I activated my augments and rushed in, expecting that they would turn into wind again and try to flank me from multiple angles, and I had a counter plan prepared too, but they didn’t move a muscle.
As I got closer I aimed my rifle at the pale demons but before I could shoot, I noticed that the body of Nia, who was dead just a second ago, lunged at me.
Her twisted face along with her cries for help was enough to cause me to freeze for a second, just long enough for her to latch on to my body. Her arms and legs twisted like ridged snakes as she cried out in pain, and eventually, all her limbs twisted around me and turned into barbed chains of ice.
The jagged spikes dug into my body and I screamed out in pain. I tried to use my augments to push them away but that only resulted in them digging deeper. The more I tried to struggle the more pain I felt and the less I could fight it.
The other bodies also joined in once I was trapped, all screaming in pain and asking for help as their bodies contorted into chains and bound me. Eventually, I couldn’t resist anymore without risking the barbs piercing something too important.
I was completely helpless, and I thought it was the end. One of the pale demons approached me, the one holding the data drive. He extended his hand and prepared his magic.
He didn’t chant anything, he didn’t say anything, he didn’t even look me in the eye. it was like some robot kicking a pebble off the road, it had no emotional investment in it or in its fate.
But before he delivered the killing blow, I heard a sound I’m all too familiar with. The sound of a missile flying through the sky, about to hit its mark.
I couldn’t see it but I knew what was about to happen, so I risked it all and used my augments to shield myself the best I could as the barbs extended and tore deeper into my flesh, thankfully the missile reached its destination before I was stabbed through the heart and a blinding explosion engulfed the entire residential area.
When I woke up the magic that made the chains was undone and they broke apart easily. I was bleeding heavily and had a few dozen stab wounds all over my body, but I was alive. The same could not be said about the pale demons.
They didn’t notice that the missile was on its way and had no defenses set up against it. it wasn’t anything too powerful but with no armor or magic barrier, it was enough to kill all three of them.
The data drive was very durable so the chances that it survived weren’t zero but I could barely move, let alone look for it in the chaos. The airplane that fired the missile descended to the ground, and I recognized it instantly. It was the same one that dropped us off earlier.
“the extraction. They must’ve called for it before they were killed.”
I walked into the plane and lay on the cold, metal floor, waiting for it to move, to take me anywhere but there.
I survived after intensive medical care and included everything about the pale demons in my report, but apparently the scavengers didn’t find the corpses when they went back to secure the area.
It was concluded that they are a new, never seen clan, we dubbed them the pale winds. countermeasures were made but were never used because that was the last time we encountered them. Until now apparently.
