Welcome to the War [Chapter XIII]

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

Rather than assaulting Sparda head on they allowed the mech to simply try to step on him. They instead continued to advance forward as two units splitting in half and taking to the left and right side of the street, moving around the scene.

One unit apiece had a heavy gunner.

Likewise, the docks were suddenly infiltrated by the shield bearer unit as they began shooting and mowing down the kinfolk of Hallowton. To make matters worse for those using unnatural powers, they too dropped null grenades.

The snipers nest continued to pick off targets moving along the outside edges of the town. They had no orders to take specific targets just yet, instead they were making a game out of it over the radio.

"Hey, hit the one that looks like a poor Queen Elizabeth, she's running in the park three blocks from the meadery. I'll give you thirty rations if you hit her in the left eye!"

The sniper fired, the 50 caliber bullet traveled a long distance between rows of houses and buildings. The other sniper watched as the bullet hit the woman square in the left eye, she was lifted off her feet and tumbled like a ragdoll.

"I guess that's thirty rations to me right? Double or nothing?"

A cargo truck entered the area behind the lines of soldiers. They opened rank allowing it by and saluted it. The truck pulled alongside the buildings and stopped. Steam bellowed from it.

One of the two snipers eyed it, "They're really bringing him in?"

[Raal]

The creatures immediately vanished after the generators had been thrown into action and the grenades had popped. Everything was chaos. He tried tossing some psychic energy bolts, but only purple sparks shot forward. He heard a missile coming, and out of instinct, moved out of the way just by leaping off of the docks and onto a rooftop. His legs were shaped in a way that would've made him jump far higher than any human anyway, demon or not. No strain was involved, except the strain of trying to figure out where this energy was coming from. He didn't see any Null crystals....

It seems big brother dearest wasn't involved this time.

He continued to spring around, making himself a hard target to hit. His jumps allowed him to soar past three rooftops per jump. Until he could figure out where they were coming from, he had to make himself impossible to shoot. Raal hopped off of the rooftops and decided to take to the alleys, heading for the castle. Damn this Vulture. Damn him to the Nine Circles!

Raal would burst out laughing if Oouxxi decided to show up here and now just for the sheer irony of it all. This Vulture guy would be so fucked every which way if the crystalline behemoth were to appear. The psychic demon hoped he didn't.

[Sparda]

Unfortunately for the soldiers, Sparda was not stopped.

The first mech may have thought its armour had defeated him, but when it turned to stomp him into the ground for his trouble, he wasn't there - and the crimson light smashed through it from the other side before continuing on its rampage against the Vulture. This light was Sparda himself, in his demonic form, flying across the battlefield at nigh-sonic speeds and rending his foes with blade, claw and gargantuan strength. The power nullifiers failed utterly to stop his assault, because there was nothing supernatural about it.

Superhuman, certainly, but not supernatural.

Thus, the Dark Knight remained in place before the teams advancing on the castle, with the mechs, fighters and sniper towers destroyed. In the wake of the nullifiers' deployment, he elected to holster his guns; this battle, it seemed, would have to be fought with sword and fist.

[Silver Eyes]

It was subtle at first. Everyone was too distracted to take note of it, but it began to become more noticeable. Light reflected off what looked liked silk threads, but instead of remaining stationary like a spider web, they were heading towards the oncoming army.

And they were growing in number.

They didn't look threatening until they made contact. Soldiers were being vaporized in searing, white flames.

The Huntress pulled back another silver arrow, slipped her fingers away from the string, and it streamed from the window, split apart, and hailed down. The message had been sent, damage had been done, and it was time to relocate before they attack this building.

"Rowen. What's your position?"

"Down the street. When the armies get closer, it'll be ready."

"Good. I'll be there in a moment."

Jenna pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back, threw it down by the window, and ran out of the room to meet up with her brother. Should anyone storm the building for the source of the arrows, they'll find a realistic illusion of the Golden Eyed Huntress staring outside. It'll be a suitable distraction, that is, until the arrow is disturbed.

[Yuna]

Yuna called back Valefor, the flying beast vanishing from sight as the High Summoner turned around to look at the others. A frown appearing on her young features at the sight of a person losing a loved one. That was a feeling Yuna could personally relate to. "Lori, I am so sorry..." Yuna didn't know much about Hallowton but the little she did know suggested they weren't the sort to fight, with or without a queen. And just by looking outside it would take nothing short of a miracle to drive this force back before all of Hallowton was destroyed. "We can't stay here. If we can't save the city then at the very least we can save some of its people."

[Hotaru]

Saturn didn't give sympathy, but at the same time she didn't rub her nose in it. She remained neutral and looked outside the window of the castle to see how the battle was going. A unit of armored soldiers and a single individual in violet with white hair opposed them. Foolish to take them on head on by yourself but she was unaware of the man's power which she couldn't sense from this distance. Saturn was also interested in why the Princess of Hallowton wanted to dress up like a civilian and skip town on a boat, but none of that was important right now. The Soldier would finally speak up when Yuna proposed saving the people they could who were currently the victims of a massacre.

"And how do you suppose we do that? They destroyed the only other way out of the city and your creature can only hold so many people on its back. Let's face facts, this town is finished."

[Queen Lori]

Lori, look at me. I'm sorry about your mother but we have to do something about the Isafaro's forces coming this way. Your country needs you. Please tell me you guys have some way to defend yourselves. Lori shook her head. "No. No we don't. We're not warriors, Ayen. And even if we were I wouldn't know the first thing about war. I'm not ready for this."

We can't stay here. If we can't save the city then at the very least we can save some of its people.
And how do you suppose we do that? They destroyed the only other way out of the city and your creature can only hold so many people on its back. Let's face facts, this town is finished. "She's right. We should just ride your creature's back out of here. That's all we can do..."

[Ariel]

Ariel returned to the surface, the top of her head and eyes emerging from the ocean's waters just in time to watch the half naked male from a night previously fled as troops stormed the docks and started slaughtering the people there. The sound of the weapons being fired were so loud it caused Ariel to cover her ears and squint. So much has changed in Genesis in the past two centuries.

[Ayen]

The two heavy mechs were both the size of a building, when the first toppled over by Sparda's strength it crashed right into a house crushing a family of five children. The second mech fell back towards the entrance and crashed, now blocking the exit to where there were no way in or out of the city on foot, trapping the citizens of Hallowton within their own burning city.

The light and heavy infantry were next to fall by the inhuman strength of the Legendary Dark Knight, but as soon as the men were slaughtered and left on the ground they stood up their cells having been reanimated and began mutating accordingly to the damage inflicted upon their bodies. Adapting to their surroundings as the hoards of undead attacked the runaway citizens, spreading their infection, their curse.

The jets had to go somewhere. The first one crash landed right into an orphanage setting fire to it and killing a total twelve children as the second crash landed into the castle right where Ayen, Yuna, Saturn and Lori were located. Vulture watched the collateral damage from the visuals inside of his blimp while still snacking on his steak.

“Orphanage burning? Must be Wednesday.”

Vulture then began playing the following music and moved to the rhythm in his seat.

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

"Circle him," said the group leader of the Power Armored team.

In unison they moved and began firing, the two gatling lasers moved into the buildings on the left and right sides of the streets. Eventually the team itself would fall back into those buildings as well. They almost dared Sparda to follow them.

The shield teams blocked citizens from getting past them and began pushing them back toward the ruined docks. Together they all pushed toppling dozens of people into the water. Once their job was done they turned back to their original path heading toward the castle. Word had it that the Armored Unit was slowed so they would become the leading team.

With most of the sniper towers in ruins or flames the two lone remaining snipers moved into the city just before the mech fell. They took to the roof tops using grappling hooks to get around. One set up and spotted instantly the castle and what was happening there he aimed but then an entire Jet smashed into the side of the tower. "Toasty."

[.:Amilia:.]

"Clear the way!"

This man had been moving up the castle for a while, but he only made it in time. The jet smashed into the side wall and he was right in front of it. His left arm came up and a massive dark energy suddenly engulfed the entire wall causing the explosion to do only structure damage. Once he lowered the energy field he pulled both of his swords free.

His left arm was engulfed in this blue energy, his right sword was fiery, and the left seemed to mimic his arm. When he looked back at Lori she could see in his bright blue eyes that he was truly a monster in disguise.

"Sorry I'm late, now if you'll excuse me, I've got more lives to save."

He took a running jump out of the massive hole there in the cobble stone and plummeted to the ground. The steel of his boot hit first and he hunched over sliding leaving a trail of sparks behind him. Then he casually walked forward toward the advancing army, "I'm going to kill you just for playing shitty music!"

[Yuna]

Yuna shook her head in response to Saturn and Lori, being as stubborn as ever. "There must be something we can do." As soon as she said that a sound of something fall from above would come to their ears and Yuna would realize that the sound was only growing louder to their position before it was stopped completely by an unknown male in armor with bright blue eyes. He left as quickly as he came and having had their lives saved by this man the High Summoner thought it only right to repay him by saving more innocent life as her eyes went over to the burning orphanage up ahead. "Come on!"

Yuna made it back to the window and resummoned Valefor, climbing on her back and flying over the burning orphanage using its wings and inhuman speed to create enough wind to blow out the fire in one part of the orphanage, dropping down from there and grabbing the burnt victims she could, bringing them out of the now cleared entrance to heal them while Valefor protected them from any enemies that came their way.

[Hotaru]

Saturn grabbed Lori and pulled her up to her feet quickly, getting her out of the way just in time as Arix halted the path of the fallen jet from the night's sky. Looking at Arix the first word that came to mind was monster but she felt no evil in him, at the same time she felt no good in him either. For now he was a blessing in disguise as the attention of the others went back on the city itself. Saturn jumped on Valefor's back when it appeared and rode behind Yuna as they made their way to the burning orphanage and dropped down soon after the High Summoner cleared the way. Helping her drag out the orphans Yuna couldn't carry, she brought them to the entrance and held a hand over them demonstrating her healing powers for the first time as she stopped the bleeding and healed the burns as best she could.

"We can't do damage control forever. We have to find a way to drive them out of the city."

[Raal]

Raal skidded to a stop, re-thinking his actions for a moment. Where was the energy coming from? If he could find the source, he could take it out! No doubt they would be guarded. Unless he's so cocky that he doesn't even bother to guard them.... It was worth a try!

His strategy changed, the psychic demon bounced up to roof level. Raal had a hunch that a good general would have his prizes close to the main force, where they could be guarded and watched. Finally growing a pair, he bounded off to where he thought the generators would be. He could scout around for them, then report back to the castle where he figured the resistance were holding out.

Golden rule about scouting: Don't get shot or caught.

[Queen Lori]

Lori was still weeping with her dead mother in her arms when Saturn snatched her away. She was about to scream at her for it until the sight of a male holding off a fallen jet caught her attention. She looked into his eyes in awe, instead of showing fear or judgment all Lori saw was a miracle surrounded by a blue light as he ran off to push back the advancing army.

Come on! Though it was the hardest thing she had to do Lori left the body of her dead mother in the castle and joined the others on the back of Valefor as they went to save the orphans that the fire has yet to consume. Seeing the destruction on her own home was heart breaking and the horrible burns upon the bodies of children even more so. It was clear that the reason Hallowton had lasted this long unopposed was because Isafaro allowed them to last this long unopposed. And they were no longer content on having them around. And had she not run away from home she'd be dead alongside her mother and Hallowton would have no leader.

We can't do damage control forever. We have to find a way to drive them out of the city. Lori closed her eyes and her fists, for the first time in her life she felt anger. Anger at the Vulture and she had enough. Forcing the tears away Lori opened her eyes and saw the energy field that covered the area. It was a similar energy field that covered the area before when their city was first attacked by demons. According to reports the energy field concealed the powers of demons and vampires, and she knew there were such beings in her city that could be of benefit to her if they had all their abilities. Finished playing the victim Lori looked over to Yuna. "Yuna, I need you to take to the skies on Valefor and look for a series of high-tech looking generators that are powering that energy field. We need to take them down. If you run into anymore enemy aircrafts keep them at bay and keep an eye on that blimp just in case."

Lori then turned around to Ayen. "Ayen, your powers are from a mutation of the human genome so your abilities should be just fine. Is it possible for you to create a telepathic link between us and the enemy, let us know what their next move is going to be?" Then she turned to Saturn. "And I know you don't like me but I need you to stay here and protect Ayen and the children. If Ayen can pull this off he'll need someone to protect him just as much as they do." After saying her piece she looked over in the direction the new arrival had gone off to. "I can only hope whoever that man was that save us will be able to take out their main forces on his own because we don't have the numbers to help him."