⁛ Origin Year 138, 19th of Hana. 5:23am

“Vice Admiral! Sir!”

“Sir!”

“Sir! Good day!”

Soldiers and officers saluted him as he brisked through the corridors.

Chen QiangWei didn’t have the time to stop and greet everyone. Guided by Captain Ren, they rushed to the radar room.

The metal door slid open. A dark room with dozens of monitors on display with stretches of control panels managed by an intelligence team composed of technical soldiers.

Everyone rose to their feet and saluted.

“Vice Admiral Sir! Captain!”

“Where is it?”

QiangWei quickly moved to the commander’s station and observed the change on the large display happening in real-time.

Multiple large red dots surrounded a giant cluster of dense reds that filled the entire screen. No matter how many times he blinked, the lights just wouldn’t go away.

“It can’t be…”

A Category 5 Cloud Hive.

Was this the bad omen they spoke of?

“Hugee! I’ve never seen anything like this in years! This has to be a bonafide leviathan-class isn’t it?!”

While everyone showed anxiety, oddly enough, Rize was ecstatic. Her snappy remark loosened the tension in the room.

“Has the Fortress been notified?”

“Yes. They’ve requested more information.”

From current data, engagement would happen within two hours.

But that is if the Fortress remained stationary. It could be extended to three or four hours depending on how they act from here on out.

For an advantageous battle, the Fortress and Hive should engage horizontally for an even distribution, the battle shouldn’t be concentrated at the bottom.

“Tell all crew members to prepare for battle!”

If the Fortress was an anvil, the fleet was the hammer.

Now that the enemies have been spotted, they need to collect as much data as they can. And, depending on the command issued by the Fortress, they might need to perform multiple preemptive strikes to direct the Cloud Hive.

One wrong move here and the whole Fortress could end up falling from the sky.

QiangWei resolved himself.

“Don’t worry.”

He felt the touch of Rize’s hand on his shoulder.

“We got this.”

Her confident grin gave him the courage to do the impossible.

Who would deny her after saying something so bold with such a cool face?

“Yeah, we absolutely do.”

He had to respond to her conviction.

.- ▫☆\*: .｡ _ ▫.｡.:*☆▫.-⌎

Abyssal-class, leviathan-class and colossal-class. These are the three main categories for large size demonica.

Throughout the course of mankind’s history, the abyssal-class demonica had appeared only one time. It was during The Great Fall—the day when humanity lost the entirety of Stratum Zero.

That harrowing monster was best described as a True Leviathan. A long body serpent so long it spanned multiple islands, and so large it had a girth that exceeded the size of a military-grade mothership by many folds.

It was said that if it ever appeared again, humanity had no way to stop its damnation.

One step below that would be the leviathan-classes. Monsters of this class were roughly the size of a mothership. A demonica of this size could terrorise an entire city alone.

Depending on the marine life which is personified, some demonica of this class were easier to deal with than others.

Finally, there were the colossal-classes. Demonica of this class were much smaller in size, ranging between the size of a Corvette-type airship and a bus.

However, despite their seemingly small comparison to their larger counterparts, some colossal-class demonica could swallow as many as three whole humans at once.

“Six huge Krakens. Leviathan-class.”

“Approximate the size, look out for other species of monsters and gather data on composition.”

Estimated composition, hive cohesion, volume, shape, command structure— detailed information had to be gathered and relayed as soon as possible.

The swarm also presented signs of sentient-class demonica like Deep Ones and swarm-class Whirl Leeches.

Deep Ones were malnourished humans with blue skin, fins and hollow eyes that fight like drowned zombies. Whirl Leeches moved like locusts, swarming a host in the thousands and sucking them dry of blood. It was a horrible combination.

“This… this report will definitely send the command centre crazy…”

By protocol, a Category 5 was a scale which required the combined effort of at least two Fortresses and a battle-ready fleet.

The chances of Fortress 13, which had been sent far off the grid reach another partnering ally before engagement was low.

Furthermore, made up solely of Destroyer-type airships in absence of the main mothership, QiangWei’s current fleet was half the size of what would be considered a complete fleet.

Other airships operating around the airspace of Fortress 13, were Frigate-types designed for smaller, spread out engagements. They were robust and mobile, but didn’t have the firepower to tackle anything above the colossal-class range.

They were way below minimum requirements needed for a successful battle.

“Still, it’s too soon to declare defeat.”

The demonica had shown their might. Now, it was their turn.

“The Black Siren is with us.”

The forecast was terrible, that much was true. But, those that have been part of the company since the founding days knew—victory will be theirs to seize.

The Goddess of Victory, Black Siren, Rize-chan… it was their devout faith in this girl who had created miracles time and time again that gave them the courage to fight.

With her onboard, nothing was impossible.

¸☆▫.-⌎.- ▫☆\*: .｡ _ ▫.｡.:*

⁛ Origin Year 138, 19th of Hana. 6:12 am.

I woke up to the sound of blasting sirens. My body jolted, and quickly I rushed up to the closet to realise… this wasn’t my room.

I looked out the window. A pale blue sky tinged with strokes of cream-coloured clouds. However, far out in the distance slightly below the horizon was a giant black mass.

A chill wrecked my body.

“N-No, no. What should I do, what…”

This disaster. I felt it yesterday.

I knew it. I should’ve died.

“I have to…”

I have to? Really?

Even though getting involved would only lead to even more casualties?

Ms. Chu was gone. I reached for the doorknob.

A stifling feeling grabbed my chest.

A nauseating dilemma.

Serve death on their platter.

Or do nothing and watch them die.

“There’s only one way.”

Before things got worse.

I have to…

I pushed open the door and ran out.

◜\⌝▫◆▫.

All soldiers were mobilised and gathered at the assembly.

The commander gave a brief, solemn speech informing the soldiers of the current status.

Words like ‘Category 5’, ‘Leviathan-class’, and ‘sacrifice’ were tossed around, my body trembled uncontrollably.

The classification of Cloud Hives was based on an exponential scale. In that regard, wouldn’t that make this Hive at least ten times larger than the previous one?

The soldiers were going to take on a Hive this size?

If the scale of battle I become involved in expands like this…

What XiaoLe meant when she said I was too dangerous of a factor… It was only when I was present that these massive Hives appeared.

She would’ve made sufficient preparations if she knew something like this would happen at Fortress 13, the fact that she didn’t would mean that this event didn’t happen in her knowledge of the future.

The future had deviated, I didn’t have much time to waste.

Before people die.

I must…

I ran down the stairs and headed towards the open platform.

Ignoring the confused eyes of those that noticed me, I reached the fifth line of defence.

Proceeding to the fourth and third…

Someone grabbed my hand.

“The hell are you doing?”

It was First Sergeant Hai.

“Let me… go. I will sacrifice myself, the demonica will stop…”

“Go back.”

“Leave me!”

First Sergeant tried to reel me in.

I, against his resistance, stood my ground.

“Ms. Hwang. Go back to your room, we have this handled.”

“You d-don’t understand. I brought this horde. Everything was my fault. People will die if I don’t do something. I must be killed. Otherwise, I’ll bring ruin to every—”

“Go back, things will be alright!”

“No—!”

BANG.

Ah.

First Sergeant Hai said something. I couldn’t hear a thing.

My ears buzzed really loud.

White smoke left the barrel of the pistol he held.

He… actually pulled the trigger on me.

I dropped to the ground completely limp.

I hadn’t expected this to be so painless.

Finally.

With this, it’s over.

God…

Protect them. Grant them victory.

I lost consciousness.

◜\⌝▫◆▫.

“First Sergeant!”

“Do you have any idea where Staff Sergeant Chu is?”

Hai Aki turned to the soldier who approached him.

“No sir.”

“Bring her to the infirmary and lock her up properly. Don’t let her commit suicide.”

“Understood sir!”

The soldier carried EunHa who had fainted and went on his way without questioning anything.

…You d-don’t understand. I brought this horde. Everything was my fault. People will die if I don’t do something. I must be killed. Otherwise, I’ll bring ruin to every—

She didn’t die, and he didn’t shoot her either. The shock from firing the gun beside her ear was enough to make her faint.

“You’re the cause of all this huh?”

It had nothing to do with the people or politics. He finally understood after hearing her crazed delusion that the problem with her life was herself.

He stared towards the horizon—the black mass in the distance growing larger and larger.

“Just you watch.”

Many times, he thought that it would be his last. Yet despite such thoughts, his troops still prevailed everytime.

It happened over and over again until he realised a certain truth about the nature of reality.

“We’ll win.”

The one with stronger conviction bends things to their will.

“Rize-chan.”

He noticed small squarish shapes in the distance, the airships which Rize was supporting with Vice Admiral Chen.

“Don’t let your papa down.”

So what if you had a fate that attracted disaster? The disaster herself was here to break it.

.- ▫☆\*: .｡ _ ▫.｡.:*☆▫.-⌎

“What do you recommend?”

“We will engage from this side.”

Strategist Koek drew figures on the map with a marker.

“Based on the weather data we currently have, the wind current is likely to form some barrier here. It would create the needed resistance to push the swarm.”

“If the bow of Fortress 13 was north, they would have decided to point against the wind. The first engagement will happen on the eastern side. While the Fortress continues steering Northwards, slowing the demonica will likely attack the southern side, thus reducing concentration in this area. The spiral shape Hive would turn into an L-shape formation, stretching the battle along the east and south coast.”

“Instead of defending the Fortress’s southwest quadrant, I suggest we perform a blitzkrieg from the southern line. With the demonica’s attention focused on the Fortress, we will make a break and kill the queen.”

“For that to work, we would need at least five of the six Krakens attacking the Fortress.”

This offensive plan suggested would incur more deaths on purpose. However, just because they were creating more casualties, it didn’t mean playing defence was the right option either.

If they dragged the battle on for too long, everyone might just die.

“Tell backup not to defend, but support us in a joint assault from the southern line. We will make the hammer stronger, the anvil should be able to hold.”

“How about the Whirl Leeches? There’s no way the Fortress can hold against those.”

“I got an idea! We can try to get rid of as many of them as possible before engagement with the Fortress by throwing fire at them. Remember the chemical fire we used last time? We’ll use that, we just need a strong catapult device or launcher to ignite the first spark.”

“How about using the bazookas?”

“But the range…”

“If we fire downwind, it’ll reach a maximum range of 2 km.”

“Then we’ll need one ship to close in on the Hive.”

“How about contacting one of the Frigates?”

“We’ll do it.”

Suggestions thrown here and there.

“It’s impossible to break into the queen with our fleet alone. We still have to wait for backup. I think it would still be better to position our fleet towards the southwest. We can still make our way to the south when Admiral Lan arrives.”

“But that would require us to get into formation afterwards. There’s no guarantee that we’d have enough time, or if the condition of the Hive changes.”

A major decision, despite its logic, was met with pushback.

Destroying the queen of the Hive was at the core of their strategy.

With limited resources and time, they wouldn’t be able to thin out the monsters enough to reach the core easily either.

It must be a focused assault. One that was fast and strong enough to break through the defences of the Hive before it was replenished.

“If we continue towards this direction, we’ll enter a large cloud storm. That would become a disadvantageous field for soldiers on the Fortress.”

“Mr. Koek, calculate the latest possible timing for engagement and give me an estimate.”

“We can have the Fortress move slightly eastwards during flight. We don’t need to compromise time for them to prepare.”

Criticism served as feedback to improve their strategy.

“We can use up the excess poison bait bombs Rize-chan made last time too to stall them can’t we?”

“Right! We should shoot them together with the chemical flames!”

“No. We’ll use those to direct attention to the western side if the southern side becomes too dense.”

◜\⌝▫◆▫.

“Are the warheads good?!”

“Here ya go!”

“Load it up guys!”

“Hey! Frontline defence! Some of them are getting too close!”

With strong winds beating at her face, Rize-chan complained to the receiver.

[“Understood. Will correct our mistake.”]

“Squad! All in position, yes?!”

“““YES RIZE-CHAN!!”””

“All ready and bucked to go?!”

“““YES RIZE-CHAN!!”””

“To Captain and Chief Gunner Team! Cease firing and decelerate ship in 3, 2…”

The deceleration created a great force pushing them towards the front.

“NOW! FIIREEE!!!”

Rize’s roar coincided with the coordinated firing of multiple bazookas.

Many of the warheads exploded preemptively at the collision with stray demonica. But some of them managed to find their way into the first layer of the Hive.

The ship suddenly began accelerating in the opposite direction.

“UUWAAA!!”

A few stray demonica managed to reach onboard. Deep Ones and Redfin Swordfish rushed towards one of the soldiers.

“Private Lin!”

Rize lept and threw her hand down like a conductor with a wand.

Sharp blades of ice coalesced and quickly pierced the demonica.

Black blood splattered aboard, their corpses quickly fell off the deck from the wind current.

She grounded herself and heaved a sigh.

“Thanks.”

“No problem… ow…”

Rize grabbed her right arm.

The purple-red explosions kept popping in the direction of the Hive. The blaze soon engulfed the whole front face of the spiral-shaped Hive.

It was as if a giant burning ball of flame.

It created a truly mesmerising sight.

Sure, Rize was an inspiring commander and fighter.

But one would wonder how she concocted something so dangerous? She wasn’t even a chemical engineer. If a terrorist got their hands on this, couldn’t they burn down an entire island?

[“Hey. Is it just me or does this look way more destructive than the last one…”]

“I upgraded the recipe, you know?”

[“…”]

[“Fuck. You go girl.”]

The Hive spread out to prevent the flames from further spreading.

The Fortress was notified that the Hive movement had changed. The strategy and distribution of soldiers were allocated as needed.

Assess, process and change.

War was constant uncertainty.

Such a review system continued until the battle’s end.

¸☆▫.-⌎.- ▫☆\*: .｡ _ ▫.｡.:*

I believe that everyone is born with a purpose. From fulfilling a political position to taking arms to war. Bringing new innovation to the frontier, or helping those in need.

Defining life in this manner would imply that death is a form of purpose too.

Culturally, suicide is taboo. Even more so in this world where human resources were scarce and fleeting. Every life mattered.

The kind of pain and trauma you would bring to people around you if you took your own life wasn’t worth the trouble.

But if viewed as an act to remind those around them of the importance of life… it didn’t seem too bad.

Death was the simplest solution to life’s problems.

I’m sure many would disagree.

But who the hell cares.

Death forces people to reflect and change.

Change for the better.

And I believe this to be my ultimate purpose.

I felt an impact shake the ground heavily.

In my disoriented state, I touched my head. My eyes opened to a room with busy people running around yelling commands.

I had not a single wound. There was no pain, just vertigo.

So he didn’t shoot me.

Hence I didn’t die.

Fuck.

I recognize this place.

It was the sub-command centre of the underground dome Rize-chan showed me last time.

But unlike then, the whole room was a giant mess. Officers of various ranks were dishing out orders and commands into receivers. Displays of the current situation on big monitors detailing orders and demonica movement.

The ground shook heavily again.

Trying my best to comprehend the situation, I notice Ms. Chu conversing with someone in the distance.

There was no clock here so I couldn’t tell the time.

Her expression didn’t look too good.

How long had I been out?

Why am I still alive?

What was going on outside now?

Are we winning the battle?

Ms. Chu quickly noticed my gaze and excused herself.

She quickly hugged me. A soothing, gentle embrace that made me melt into further confusion.

“Ms. EunHa. P-Please don’t do anything rash… alright?”

“W-What is going on…”

I said in between choking breaths.

“It’s going to be alright. We’re going to win—”

The shaking of the whole Fortress was growing worse.

“Sorry, I need to work. Please don’t go anywhere.”

Don’t go anywhere?

Looking towards the window, my hair stood on end at the sight of the dense swarm of demonica. The thing they were covering was the Fortress’ prana core.

Soldiers at the lower levels pointing their guns up towards the prana core dome were fighting to their deaths. Corpses of both humans and demonica littered everywhere.

“Where are the damn reinforcements!”

“We need assistance down here! There are no troops left alive!”

“Have the noncombatant teams safely reached the bunker?”

“The eastern Fortress is gone. Tell the second platoon to fold in and focus on defending the central core. Use the hidden passages of the Fortress to their advantage!”

“Tell the airships to fucking do something about that Kraken outside!”

“Isn’t it about time we leave too?!”

It’s going to be alright?

After seeing all this, you’re saying we’re fine?

Liar.

You fucking liar. How is this alright?

“You’re that damn devil aren’t you?”

It’s been too long since I heard people call me that.

I turned to the gruff voice addressing me. A soldier in his mid-twenties like myself wearing a dark expression.

He seems to know my identity well. But I didn’t know how to reply to him.

Yes.

“You’re the one who brought this disaster on us, aren’t you?”

Yes. I’m the one.

The harbinger of death and calamity, the devil, The One Who Heralded Death.

“You fucking curse! If you knew this was going to happen, why are you still here?!”

In this world, superstition holds a degree of veracity because science has failed us.

I sympathised with him. Even I myself wonder why I’m still here.

“So many people died because of you! So many fucking people…!”

I hear you loud and clear. You’re not the first to say this to me.

I know it’s my fault.

I should’ve died a long time ago.

I shouldn’t have come here.

I didn’t die, so this happened.

Because of me everyone…

Everyone was going to die…

“Sergeant Suzuki! Stop it!”

“Hey, you guys all agree right? We should finally put an end to this girl? You know, The Devil? The one to bring disaster wherever she goes? You remember right? We were told just earlier in the week that we’d have a special guest, you remember right?”

From fear, and despair.

“So all this time…”

“This girl is the one?”

“No… I thought those were lies…”

“Damn it. If it helps then just kill her! It’s not like she can contribute anything to battle now!”

They needed something to release the tension, something to ground them back to calm.

When death was knee-deep, and logic fails, they turn to the supernatural.

The man, Mr. Suzuki, pointed his gun at me.

I closed my eyes, hoping that this time, he wouldn’t miss his mark.

“…”

BANG!

I felt warm liquid.

But it didn’t hurt.

I squinted my eyes open.

And saw Ms. Chu.

Blood trickled down her chest as she coughed up blood.

“Please…”

Her voice was faint.

“No matter what…”

She pressed her head against my shoulder.

“Don’t die…”

“AHHHH!!!!”

“No! Sergeant! Why would you protect her!!”

Those who saw it went into a frenzy.

For me, sounds faded and the world slowed to a crawl.

What do I do?

What should I do?

What can I do?

Why does this always happen?

Why do people always sacrifice themselves for me?

Why am I the only one who comes out unscathed on the other side?

Why do they put my life before theirs?

Why God?

Why do you curse me with so much pain?!

With each breath she took, a groan leaked from her lips. Blood began trickling down the side of her mouth.

“Someone get the first aid!”

“It’s all been used up!”

“Get something to patch her with?!”

“Get it from the infirmary!”

Save her.

Someone save her…

…I’ll save her.

I grabbed the pistol on her waist and checked the contents before pulling Ms. Chu over my shoulder.

I started burning my prana. The veins on my skin glowed, chills ran through my entire body, a weightless feeling spread along my limbs.

“What the hell?!”

Ignoring the complaints of the superiors, I kicked the door open and threw myself out towards the upper platform.

I ran down the mezzanine pathway with Ms. Chu on my back.

Burning the prana in my body allowed me to compensate for some of the weight against my body.

Emitting prana in a suppressed quantity, instead of a bleeding fish, I represented a wounded one.

In a tank of sharks where a giant chum existed—the meteorite-sized prana core—I would only attract the attention of the strays.

The closer demonica that had been roaming quickly set their sights on me.

I will save her.

At the cost of my life, I will protect her. For the life she has given me.

Deep Ones, SnapJaw Narwhale and Redfin Swordfish.

These were the main enemy composition. No visible swarms.

There were only 12 rounds inside the semi-automatic pistol I took from Ms. Chu. I need to conserve—

No.

I can use weapons from the dead soldiers.

A bullet to the eye for each of them, I finished all 12 rounds and passed it to Ms. Chu who was on my back.

I grabbed the nearby rifle in a mad dash up the stairs.

A Redfin Swordfish jousted with its rapier-like beak.

I twisted my body to the side and smashed it with the stock.

Following that a single bullet pierced its brain.

With the remaining ammo, I sprayed the bullets towards the wall of demonica coming at me. Most of them hit critical points.

Click. Click.

I threw the empty weapon hard towards the SnapJaw Narwhale trying to get me.

A Deep One came with a spear.

I braced Ms. Chu and dodged. Grounding myself, I grabbed the shaft of the spear and reversed the direction from where it came from. It pierced the Deep One’s head.

“Ugh… H-here.”

Ms. Chu desperately clung on.

“…!”

She passed me the pistol from earlier. It now had a full magazine.

I didn’t waste another second and emptied all 12 rounds.

I snatched a random pouch off the floor and found PP-grenades inside.

PP-grenades were short for Prana-Pulse Grenades. They short circuits prana function in devices and organisms.

These are just as dangerous to demonica as they are to me, so I had to be careful to stay out of range.

I pulled the pin on them and let them scatter.

When they exploded, the demonica in the vicinity sank to the ground.

I finally left the dome through the upper exit and reached the long-stretching colonnaded halls of the Fortress interior.

There were no soldiers in sight, the place was teaming with demonica.

Just how far have we fallen?

“There—!”

She pointed to a security door with a big sign saying ‘emergency’.

“Here?”

“Quick…”

I heeded Ms. Chu’s advice and entered the door she pointed out.

She operated the complex twist handle mechanism with deft movements.

The door unlocked. We entered, and quickly shut it from behind.

The sound of demonica banging against the reinforced door echoed.

I stopped burning prana, my body returned to normal as I breathed out a breath of cold mist.

I didn’t know what kind of hallway this was, but they looked like secret tunnels.

“The infirmary… go.”

Ms. Chu weakly pointed towards the darkness.

I had no idea where any of these paths led to.

In the dark I noticed a light. I felt Ms. Chu’s grip loosen.

Soldiers.

We weren’t the only ones here. When they saw me with Ms. Chu, they quickly helped me carry her to the infirmary.

Even though it was only a bullet wound, I felt that her blood had soaked through the entire back of my clothes.

It was the consequence of not performing hemostasis earlier.

But what choice did I have?

The infirmary was located a few turns ahead.

The main entrance had been barricaded to protect against the demonica outside, yet the sight of so many injured soldiers was awful. With the lack of beds, many had to resort to laying on the floor.

The smell of Chinese medicine, western medicine, sweat and blood created an unearthly odour.

Ms. Chu was immediately attended to by the medics.

I was assessed for injuries, but nothing was found wrong. It was only my dress, so they provided me with a change of clothes.

I sat on the ground blankly as I waited for the result.

Funnily enough, my mind was completely clear.

No. It was completely white.

The battle continued outside, but about thirty minutes later the tremors died.

There was a short phase where large popping explosions rang out constantly and then silence.

Then a transmission. The chattering in the infirmary fell silent.

I wasn’t sure who the person was listening in on the receiver but…

“We won.”

The news he gave everyone.

It was just as Ms. Chu had said.

“The news just arrived. The queen is dead, all Krakens have been disposed of. The small demonica are scattering.”

He declared our victory.

“We won?!”

“WE WON!!!”

“WAAWWWWWHHH!!!”

Tension ran high. Everyone cheered.

For some reason, the heavy feeling weighing on my body since yesterday also disappeared.

I must be dreaming.

This can’t actually be real.

“Miss, please come here.”

The medic called me from over the curtain. I walked over, still fuzzy in the mind.

“She…”

It wasn’t a dream.

“…didn’t make it.”