Chapter 7
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Dark Lord of Tartarus
***
A town full of smiles and feelings of safety. A middle aged man with black hair and brown eyes wearing a military uniform was walking on the streets, he is a man with a high ranking position. Citizens of the town was giving their utmost respect as the man was walking pass them. Eyes of young teenagers and children were shining with admiration when they saw this person deserving of great respect. The young ones wanted to be like that man.
Certain sounds are heard coming from the corner. The man strode to the direction of the sound and there he saw two soldiers guarding the gate. When the soldiers turned their eyes and saw the person approaching, they instantly stood straight. When the man was nearing them, the soldiers greeted him.
"General Jonas Hender, sir!" both the soldiers said and saluted together.
Jonas saluted back at the soldiers.
"Good day soldiers. Are you all well today?"
"Y-Yes sir! We are totally well."
"Everything's good here sir!"
"Good then. I'll be looking at the recruits and the ones training here. So keep up the good work."
"Sir Yes sir!" both the soldiers replied.
The soldiers opened the gate and Jonas entered.
Jonas walked around the training area. He saw young soldiers doing pushups, jogging, shooting and more.
The area was large enough to allow hundreds of people to enter and train here.
Jonas looked around and had an impressed look on his face. After that he walked to the shooting range, there he saw a young woman wielding a sniper rifle and had her eye on the scope.
Then a very loud bang rang out.
Jonas looked at where the young girl shot at. After seeing the aftermath of the shot, he smiled. In a distance the dummy target's head was nowhere to be found, the bullet must have shattered the head.
"Impressive as always, Ana."
When the girl heard the voice, she shrugged in surprise and quickly turned her head. The girl's eyes widened, she quickly stood up straight while leaving the sniper rifle supported by its bipod on the work surface.
The young girl is Private First Class Ana Bellross, she has black hair and orange eyes. At this moment she's wearing a military uniform. She's one of the youngest to join the army in the current year.
"General Jonas Hender, sir!"
The girl saluted to Jonas and he saluted back.
"You always train when you have the chance, I suppose you already beat the sniping skills of the high rankers than you."
"R-Really sir? I think I still have a long way to go."
Jonas smiled.
"You think so? Well for me I think you're already pretty good."
"Ah, thank you sir."
Jonas walked near Ana and looked to the sniper rifle.
"So, how's the Barrett M82?"
"It's incredible sir! With this weapon I can do a lot of damage to anything."
"With this weapon and your gift, I believe you can do a lot more."
"Thank you, sir. I will use this weapon as best as I can to help the people of this town."
"I'm sure you will. Oh, also, not for long this town will no longer be called a town. This place is already big and highly developed, so this town will soon be called a city."
Ana's eyes widened in surprised.
"Oh! That's wonderful! Turning into a city means this town has already reached that far. The city of Yusorga, that just sounds amazing, right sir?
"Yes it is Ana."
Jonas smiled warmly at Ana after what she said.
"This also means that this place will also greatly improve after it becomes a city, and everyone will be safer than ever, no one will ever have to worry."
Jonas looked at Ana's eyes. Her eyes were filled with excitement and were shining brightly. Seeing this made Jonas happy. Happy about knowing what people like her feels and this warmed Jonas' heart.
"Yes. Also as long as we are here, we the army will protect this land. We will fight off any danger which may co—."
Jonas' words were interrupted when suddenly the surroundings turned dark. It was just not the training grounds but the darkness was quickly spreading further. For a few seconds, the whole town was now already covered in darkness. It was darkness like when the sun was covered by thick clouds of a storm blocking its majestic light.
Surprised by the sudden and odd change of the surroundings, Jonas quickly moved out from under the shooting range's roof blocking the sky from his sight.
What he saw caused his eyes to widen. The clouds were not like the clouds of a typical storm. The clouds were pitch black and so thick that no trace of light from the sun on the top sky can be seen. There was not even a small gap to at least show a bit of the sun or the blue sky.
"W-What's going on? This is not normal…" Ana worriedly said.
Jonas glanced at Ana and quickly looked back to the sky. Jonas didn't answer to Ana's question because he himself doesn't know what's going on.
He also heard a lot of murmurs around him and saw some people pointing to the sky and people coming out of their working place.
Then thick white smoke descended from the center area of the pitch black clouds. The white smoke looked a bit beautiful with the black clouds around it, but Jonas thought that this is not something to be impressed with. The fact that white smoke just suddenly came down from the odd pitch black clouds is not something good and normal.
Jonas tried to think what could cause this strange event. It could be the because of magic. Then, something of this scale sure has required a vast and powerful power source. Probably this became possible because of some ritual by a number of people.
Then the thick white smoke broke apart and separated from each other. The trail of smokes flew and spread across the entire town. There were roughly a hundred of these trails of white smokes circling around the entire town. Faces appeared on the front edge of every smoke, the faces were not very clear but they were shifting and changing appearance every second.
"What the hell are those?"
Jonas quietly said.
Ana beside Jonas heard what he said and she glanced at him. Then Ana felt something, she felt cold, she felt like cold wind was passing through her.
She looked at her hand. The hairs on her hand were standing on end. She raised her other hand and she held her hand together, trying to at least warm up a little.
She looked at the smokes. As she looked at the faces on one of the smokes, she felt a chill up on her spine. She felt like the faces were going to eat her, she felt afraid. It was though like the faces were emanating a fearful aura, and it was creeping through her.
Then a hoarse voice rang out – no, there were more than one voice.
"Hear us inhabitants of this area!"
Each smoke that was flying near her and the others voiced out. The voices were like several people suffering and shouting while in agony. Just hearing these unknown beings' voices made Ana shiver. She tried to release a bit of her voice to say the word 'what', but she couldn't, all she could do was watch and hear the flying faces.
"We have been sent by the Peerless One as heralds!"
Peerless One?
Ana in her thoughts asked.
"Death comes for you!"
Upon hearing those, Ana was confused.
What do they mean death? Why is it coming?
She asked in her thoughts.
"Your days are now numbered. The Peerless One has mobilized his formidable army to exterminate you. However, the Peerless One has given you a chance to fight for your lives, even though it is futile. Seven days from now, this town's assured demise will begin."
Ana began to shakily breathe. She felt her heart pounded more than before.
"Please do fight with all your power and might. Entertain the Peerless One with your pathetic effort of resistance."
Each white smoke began to ascend back to the dark clouds and merged once again.
"Do not dare to forget. Seven days!"
The merged group of smoke ascended into the clouds until they were gone from everyone's sight. After that, in a flash the pitch black clouds disappeared into nothingness.
The instant change of the sky caused Ana and the others to instantly cover their eyes in reflex. They were all looking to the sky and the sun was at its peak, the instant change of lighting requires their eyes to adapt to the brightness.
"W-what was that? S-sir do you know what that was?"
One of the rookies asked Jonas.
"How should I know what that was?"
After the rookie heard Jonas' reply, he closed his mouth and lowered his head.
"This will have negative effects on the civilians. I need to talk with the officers about this so I'll be going now. See you kids later."
Jonas said his goodbye and walked to the exit of the training grounds.
One of the rookies noticed Ana staring to the ground – she seems to be spacing out.
"Uh, Ana. Are you alright?"
Ana quickly looked up to where she heard her name.
"Ah yes I am, I'm just thinking about what just happened."
"Am I the only one that was scared when they appeared? I'm still getting goose bumps." One of the rookies said.
"Of course you're not the only one. That was scary as hell." One of the rookies replied.
"Yes, especially when they declared our death. Hmm, seven days huh." Ana said.
"Looks like we're going to have a big fight soon. Any ideas who or what might be behind this?"
"Probably someone just did a prank." One of the rookies said.
"Do you really think someone could pull off that kind of prank in that kind of scale?" One of the rookies refuted.
"Yeah, also it would be a great waste of time and energy just to do that kind of meaningless prank." One of the rookies supported.
"Yeah, you guys are right."
"Could it be a doing of some other country?" Ana said.
"That's quite possible."
The others nodded in agreement.
Ana walked back to her weapon and held it.
"If there is going to be a fight. Then it's best to better ourselves for the coming fight."
"Yes, you're right Ana. Now everyone! Back to your training."
The rookies and other experienced soldiers returned to what they were doing before.
Ana looked at Barrett she was holding and gripped it tightly.
If a battle really is coming. I will fight to protect this town with my life. Just like how you fought… father.
***
It was almost night time, and the sun was already setting. When Ana was done in her training, she first went to the armory to deposit the Barrett that she was given permission to use.
The military in the town acknowledges every talent or gift of their soldiers. That is why Ana was given the permission to freely use the Barrett M82 sniper rifle. The high ranking officers especially General Jonas Hender recognized Ana's skills in using a weapon especially in wielding a sniper rifle. Also it was just not her skills in using a sniper, but also in her innate gift. Her innate gift is very effective when used in a modern weapon, which is why she was given a 50 cal. Weapon the Barrett M82.
There are weapons that are powered by magic and there are weapons that use actual bullet. Magic powered weapons can be easily carried because one doesn't need to carry ammo magazines for the weapons, magic powered weapons can shoot more than weapons with actual bullets. The power source of these weapons have smaller body than magazines, the magical energy were kept in something like battery. While for the ones with actual bullets are just like any normal weapons, but these kinds of weapons are more effective in certain circumstances, for instance bullets have even more piercing power than magic powered weapons. Ultimately, a weapon that uses bullet is perfect for Ana and her innate gift.
Ana was walking on the streets to go back home. She looked around, it was still six in the evening but the surroundings are already empty and lonely. This was very unusual because it wasn't always like this, but this was understandable.
Ever since those unknown smoke entity came to speak their declaration of death earlier, some of the citizens were afraid and terrified, there were even some people that panicked.
Ana heard that there were a crowd of people assembled in front of the military's headquarters. They were trying to get immediate information about the earlier events and some were even angry and shouting for some reason.
Also after what happened earlier, there were people that stayed inside their homes because they were afraid. Some even didn't let their children go out of the house.
Ana saw a familiar gate and she smiled. It was the gate to their house. She opened the gate and walked inside.
She opened the door of their house and she shouted in an average volume with a happy tone.
"I'm home!"
She closed the door when she was now inside.
She heard footsteps, it sounds like someone was running – or rather two were running towards her.
"Big sis!"
"Big sis Ana!"
Two voices of children rang out.
Ana saw the two small children and she smiled warmly to greet them. The children also smiled broadly when they saw their big sister.
Ana lowered her knees and spread her arms. She then embraced her two siblings tightly.
"Welcome back big sis!"
"I'm back, Liam."
"I missed you big sis!"
"I also missed the both of you, Sara."
Liam is a young boy with the age of 12. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Sara is a young girl with the age of 10. She has brown hair and orange eyes.
"Where's mother?"
"She's cooking in the kitchen." Liam said.
"Her cooking smells so good big sis! It must going to be delicious." Sara said.
"Of course it will be delicious, its mother's cooking after all." Ana said.
Ana walked to the kitchen and there she saw her mother sitting on a chair with a small round table and another chair. The mother was sitting and waiting for the food to be cooked.
"Mother, big sis is back!" Sara said.
"Hi mother."
The mother smiled when Ana greeted her.
Ana's mother, June, she has black hair and brown eyes.
"Welcome back Ana, so what did you today? Let me guess, you picked training did you?"
"Yes I did mother."
In the military, soldiers were given two days in a week to either go training or go into duty like patrolling or guarding and so on. The soldier can freely picked whichever they want when it is their specified day.
Ana sat on the chair opposite her mother.
"So Ana, do you have any news about what happened earlier?"
Ana shrugged a little. She looked to her siblings and saw that they have worried and unease look on their faces.
"I have nothing yet. The higher ups didn't even talk to us about it."
"They were very scary." Sara said.
"Yeah. They were even more scary when they talked." Liam said.
The children seemed to know what their mother was talking about, that's why they expressed their feelings.
Ana looked to her mother, her mother seemed worried.
"Don't worry."
Ana held each of their hand tightly.
"Big sis is here. I won't let any monster harm you. Big sis will protect you, I will be your guardian angel. Alright?"
Both the children smiled and nodded, and Ana smiled.
"Oh it looks like the food's done. Liam, Sara go put some plates on the main table. Ana you must be tired, go change and we'll eat.
The two children went to get some plates and Ana stood up.
"Alright mother. I'll go change."
Ana was walking to her room then she thought.
I won't let any harm to ever come to you…
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Dark Lord of Tartarus
***
A town full of smiles and feelings of safety. A middle aged man with black hair and brown eyes wearing a military uniform was walking on the streets, he is a man with a high ranking position. Citizens of the town was giving their utmost respect as the man was walking pass them. Eyes of young teenagers and children were shining with admiration when they saw this person deserving of great respect. The young ones wanted to be like that man.
Certain sounds are heard coming from the corner. The man strode to the direction of the sound and there he saw two soldiers guarding the gate. When the soldiers turned their eyes and saw the person approaching, they instantly stood straight. When the man was nearing them, the soldiers greeted him.
"General Jonas Hender, sir!" both the soldiers said and saluted together.
Jonas saluted back at the soldiers.
"Good day soldiers. Are you all well today?"
"Y-Yes sir! We are totally well."
"Everything's good here sir!"
"Good then. I'll be looking at the recruits and the ones training here. So keep up the good work."
"Sir Yes sir!" both the soldiers replied.
The soldiers opened the gate and Jonas entered.
Jonas walked around the training area. He saw young soldiers doing pushups, jogging, shooting and more.
The area was large enough to allow hundreds of people to enter and train here.
Jonas looked around and had an impressed look on his face. After that he walked to the shooting range, there he saw a young woman wielding a sniper rifle and had her eye on the scope.
Then a very loud bang rang out.
Jonas looked at where the young girl shot at. After seeing the aftermath of the shot, he smiled. In a distance the dummy target's head was nowhere to be found, the bullet must have shattered the head.
"Impressive as always, Ana."
When the girl heard the voice, she shrugged in surprise and quickly turned her head. The girl's eyes widened, she quickly stood up straight while leaving the sniper rifle supported by its bipod on the work surface.
The young girl is Private First Class Ana Bellross, she has black hair and orange eyes. At this moment she's wearing a military uniform. She's one of the youngest to join the army in the current year.
"General Jonas Hender, sir!"
The girl saluted to Jonas and he saluted back.
"You always train when you have the chance, I suppose you already beat the sniping skills of the high rankers than you."
"R-Really sir? I think I still have a long way to go."
Jonas smiled.
"You think so? Well for me I think you're already pretty good."
"Ah, thank you sir."
Jonas walked near Ana and looked to the sniper rifle.
"So, how's the Barrett M82?"
"It's incredible sir! With this weapon I can do a lot of damage to anything."
"With this weapon and your gift, I believe you can do a lot more."
"Thank you, sir. I will use this weapon as best as I can to help the people of this town."
"I'm sure you will. Oh, also, not for long this town will no longer be called a town. This place is already big and highly developed, so this town will soon be called a city."
Ana's eyes widened in surprised.
"Oh! That's wonderful! Turning into a city means this town has already reached that far. The city of Yusorga, that just sounds amazing, right sir?
"Yes it is Ana."
Jonas smiled warmly at Ana after what she said.
"This also means that this place will also greatly improve after it becomes a city, and everyone will be safer than ever, no one will ever have to worry."
Jonas looked at Ana's eyes. Her eyes were filled with excitement and were shining brightly. Seeing this made Jonas happy. Happy about knowing what people like her feels and this warmed Jonas' heart.
"Yes. Also as long as we are here, we the army will protect this land. We will fight off any danger which may co—."
Jonas' words were interrupted when suddenly the surroundings turned dark. It was just not the training grounds but the darkness was quickly spreading further. For a few seconds, the whole town was now already covered in darkness. It was darkness like when the sun was covered by thick clouds of a storm blocking its majestic light.
Surprised by the sudden and odd change of the surroundings, Jonas quickly moved out from under the shooting range's roof blocking the sky from his sight.
What he saw caused his eyes to widen. The clouds were not like the clouds of a typical storm. The clouds were pitch black and so thick that no trace of light from the sun on the top sky can be seen. There was not even a small gap to at least show a bit of the sun or the blue sky.
"W-What's going on? This is not normal…" Ana worriedly said.
Jonas glanced at Ana and quickly looked back to the sky. Jonas didn't answer to Ana's question because he himself doesn't know what's going on.
He also heard a lot of murmurs around him and saw some people pointing to the sky and people coming out of their working place.
Then thick white smoke descended from the center area of the pitch black clouds. The white smoke looked a bit beautiful with the black clouds around it, but Jonas thought that this is not something to be impressed with. The fact that white smoke just suddenly came down from the odd pitch black clouds is not something good and normal.
Jonas tried to think what could cause this strange event. It could be the because of magic. Then, something of this scale sure has required a vast and powerful power source. Probably this became possible because of some ritual by a number of people.
Then the thick white smoke broke apart and separated from each other. The trail of smokes flew and spread across the entire town. There were roughly a hundred of these trails of white smokes circling around the entire town. Faces appeared on the front edge of every smoke, the faces were not very clear but they were shifting and changing appearance every second.
"What the hell are those?"
Jonas quietly said.
Ana beside Jonas heard what he said and she glanced at him. Then Ana felt something, she felt cold, she felt like cold wind was passing through her.
She looked at her hand. The hairs on her hand were standing on end. She raised her other hand and she held her hand together, trying to at least warm up a little.
She looked at the smokes. As she looked at the faces on one of the smokes, she felt a chill up on her spine. She felt like the faces were going to eat her, she felt afraid. It was though like the faces were emanating a fearful aura, and it was creeping through her.
Then a hoarse voice rang out – no, there were more than one voice.
"Hear us inhabitants of this area!"
Each smoke that was flying near her and the others voiced out. The voices were like several people suffering and shouting while in agony. Just hearing these unknown beings' voices made Ana shiver. She tried to release a bit of her voice to say the word 'what', but she couldn't, all she could do was watch and hear the flying faces.
"We have been sent by the Peerless One as heralds!"
Peerless One?
Ana in her thoughts asked.
"Death comes for you!"
Upon hearing those, Ana was confused.
What do they mean death? Why is it coming?
She asked in her thoughts.
"Your days are now numbered. The Peerless One has mobilized his formidable army to exterminate you. However, the Peerless One has given you a chance to fight for your lives, even though it is futile. Seven days from now, this town's assured demise will begin."
Ana began to shakily breathe. She felt her heart pounded more than before.
"Please do fight with all your power and might. Entertain the Peerless One with your pathetic effort of resistance."
Each white smoke began to ascend back to the dark clouds and merged once again.
"Do not dare to forget. Seven days!"
The merged group of smoke ascended into the clouds until they were gone from everyone's sight. After that, in a flash the pitch black clouds disappeared into nothingness.
The instant change of the sky caused Ana and the others to instantly cover their eyes in reflex. They were all looking to the sky and the sun was at its peak, the instant change of lighting requires their eyes to adapt to the brightness.
"W-what was that? S-sir do you know what that was?"
One of the rookies asked Jonas.
"How should I know what that was?"
After the rookie heard Jonas' reply, he closed his mouth and lowered his head.
"This will have negative effects on the civilians. I need to talk with the officers about this so I'll be going now. See you kids later."
Jonas said his goodbye and walked to the exit of the training grounds.
One of the rookies noticed Ana staring to the ground – she seems to be spacing out.
"Uh, Ana. Are you alright?"
Ana quickly looked up to where she heard her name.
"Ah yes I am, I'm just thinking about what just happened."
"Am I the only one that was scared when they appeared? I'm still getting goose bumps." One of the rookies said.
"Of course you're not the only one. That was scary as hell." One of the rookies replied.
"Yes, especially when they declared our death. Hmm, seven days huh." Ana said.
"Looks like we're going to have a big fight soon. Any ideas who or what might be behind this?"
"Probably someone just did a prank." One of the rookies said.
"Do you really think someone could pull off that kind of prank in that kind of scale?" One of the rookies refuted.
"Yeah, also it would be a great waste of time and energy just to do that kind of meaningless prank." One of the rookies supported.
"Yeah, you guys are right."
"Could it be a doing of some other country?" Ana said.
"That's quite possible."
The others nodded in agreement.
Ana walked back to her weapon and held it.
"If there is going to be a fight. Then it's best to better ourselves for the coming fight."
"Yes, you're right Ana. Now everyone! Back to your training."
The rookies and other experienced soldiers returned to what they were doing before.
Ana looked at Barrett she was holding and gripped it tightly.
If a battle really is coming. I will fight to protect this town with my life. Just like how you fought… father.
***
It was almost night time, and the sun was already setting. When Ana was done in her training, she first went to the armory to deposit the Barrett that she was given permission to use.
The military in the town acknowledges every talent or gift of their soldiers. That is why Ana was given the permission to freely use the Barrett M82 sniper rifle. The high ranking officers especially General Jonas Hender recognized Ana's skills in using a weapon especially in wielding a sniper rifle. Also it was just not her skills in using a sniper, but also in her innate gift. Her innate gift is very effective when used in a modern weapon, which is why she was given a 50 cal. Weapon the Barrett M82.
There are weapons that are powered by magic and there are weapons that use actual bullet. Magic powered weapons can be easily carried because one doesn't need to carry ammo magazines for the weapons, magic powered weapons can shoot more than weapons with actual bullets. The power source of these weapons have smaller body than magazines, the magical energy were kept in something like battery. While for the ones with actual bullets are just like any normal weapons, but these kinds of weapons are more effective in certain circumstances, for instance bullets have even more piercing power than magic powered weapons. Ultimately, a weapon that uses bullet is perfect for Ana and her innate gift.
Ana was walking on the streets to go back home. She looked around, it was still six in the evening but the surroundings are already empty and lonely. This was very unusual because it wasn't always like this, but this was understandable.
Ever since those unknown smoke entity came to speak their declaration of death earlier, some of the citizens were afraid and terrified, there were even some people that panicked.
Ana heard that there were a crowd of people assembled in front of the military's headquarters. They were trying to get immediate information about the earlier events and some were even angry and shouting for some reason.
Also after what happened earlier, there were people that stayed inside their homes because they were afraid. Some even didn't let their children go out of the house.
Ana saw a familiar gate and she smiled. It was the gate to their house. She opened the gate and walked inside.
She opened the door of their house and she shouted in an average volume with a happy tone.
"I'm home!"
She closed the door when she was now inside.
She heard footsteps, it sounds like someone was running – or rather two were running towards her.
"Big sis!"
"Big sis Ana!"
Two voices of children rang out.
Ana saw the two small children and she smiled warmly to greet them. The children also smiled broadly when they saw their big sister.
Ana lowered her knees and spread her arms. She then embraced her two siblings tightly.
"Welcome back big sis!"
"I'm back, Liam."
"I missed you big sis!"
"I also missed the both of you, Sara."
Liam is a young boy with the age of 12. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Sara is a young girl with the age of 10. She has brown hair and orange eyes.
"Where's mother?"
"She's cooking in the kitchen." Liam said.
"Her cooking smells so good big sis! It must going to be delicious." Sara said.
"Of course it will be delicious, its mother's cooking after all." Ana said.
Ana walked to the kitchen and there she saw her mother sitting on a chair with a small round table and another chair. The mother was sitting and waiting for the food to be cooked.
"Mother, big sis is back!" Sara said.
"Hi mother."
The mother smiled when Ana greeted her.
Ana's mother, June, she has black hair and brown eyes.
"Welcome back Ana, so what did you today? Let me guess, you picked training did you?"
"Yes I did mother."
In the military, soldiers were given two days in a week to either go training or go into duty like patrolling or guarding and so on. The soldier can freely picked whichever they want when it is their specified day.
Ana sat on the chair opposite her mother.
"So Ana, do you have any news about what happened earlier?"
Ana shrugged a little. She looked to her siblings and saw that they have worried and unease look on their faces.
"I have nothing yet. The higher ups didn't even talk to us about it."
"They were very scary." Sara said.
"Yeah. They were even more scary when they talked." Liam said.
The children seemed to know what their mother was talking about, that's why they expressed their feelings.
Ana looked to her mother, her mother seemed worried.
"Don't worry."
Ana held each of their hand tightly.
"Big sis is here. I won't let any monster harm you. Big sis will protect you, I will be your guardian angel. Alright?"
Both the children smiled and nodded, and Ana smiled.
"Oh it looks like the food's done. Liam, Sara go put some plates on the main table. Ana you must be tired, go change and we'll eat.
The two children went to get some plates and Ana stood up.
"Alright mother. I'll go change."
Ana was walking to her room then she thought.
I won't let any harm to ever come to you…
Dark Lord of Tartarus***A town full of smiles and feelings of safety. A middle aged man with black hair and brown eyes wearing a military uniform was walking on the streets, he is a man with a high ranking position. Citizens of the town was giving their utmost respect as the man was walking pass them. Eyes of young teenagers and children were shining with admiration when they saw this person deserving of great respect. The young ones wanted to be like that man.Certain sounds are heard coming from the corner. The man strode to the direction of the sound and there he saw two soldiers guarding the gate. When the soldiers turned their eyes and saw the person approaching, they instantly stood straight. When the man was nearing them, the soldiers greeted him."General Jonas Hender, sir!" both the soldiers said and saluted together.Jonas saluted back at the soldiers."Good day soldiers. Are you all well today?""Y-Yes sir! We are totally well.""Everything's good here sir!""Good then. I'll be looking at the recruits and the ones training here. So keep up the good work.""Sir Yes sir!" both the soldiers replied.The soldiers opened the gate and Jonas entered.Jonas walked around the training area. He saw young soldiers doing pushups, jogging, shooting and more.The area was large enough to allow hundreds of people to enter and train here.Jonas looked around and had an impressed look on his face. After that he walked to the shooting range, there he saw a young woman wielding a sniper rifle and had her eye on the scope.Then a very loud bang rang out.Jonas looked at where the young girl shot at. After seeing the aftermath of the shot, he smiled. In a distance the dummy target's head was nowhere to be found, the bullet must have shattered the head."Impressive as always, Ana."When the girl heard the voice, she shrugged in surprise and quickly turned her head. The girl's eyes widened, she quickly stood up straight while leaving the sniper rifle supported by its bipod on the work surface.The young girl is Private First Class Ana Bellross, she has black hair and orange eyes. At this moment she's wearing a military uniform. She's one of the youngest to join the army in the current year."General Jonas Hender, sir!"The girl saluted to Jonas and he saluted back."You always train when you have the chance, I suppose you already beat the sniping skills of the high rankers than you.""R-Really sir? I think I still have a long way to go."Jonas smiled."You think so? Well for me I think you're already pretty good.""Ah, thank you sir."Jonas walked near Ana and looked to the sniper rifle."So, how's the Barrett M82?""It's incredible sir! With this weapon I can do a lot of damage to anything.""With this weapon and your gift, I believe you can do a lot more.""Thank you, sir. I will use this weapon as best as I can to help the people of this town.""I'm sure you will. Oh, also, not for long this town will no longer be called a town. This place is already big and highly developed, so this town will soon be called a city."Ana's eyes widened in surprised."Oh! That's wonderful! Turning into a city means this town has already reached that far. The city of Yusorga, that just sounds amazing, right sir?"Yes it is Ana."Jonas smiled warmly at Ana after what she said."This also means that this place will also greatly improve after it becomes a city, and everyone will be safer than ever, no one will ever have to worry."Jonas looked at Ana's eyes. Her eyes were filled with excitement and were shining brightly. Seeing this made Jonas happy. Happy about knowing what people like her feels and this warmed Jonas' heart."Yes. Also as long as we are here, we the army will protect this land. We will fight off any danger which may co."Jonas' words were interrupted when suddenly the surroundings turned dark. It was just not the training grounds but the darkness was quickly spreading further. For a few seconds, the whole town was now already covered in darkness. It was darkness like when the sun was covered by thick clouds of a storm blocking its majestic light.Surprised by the sudden and odd change of the surroundings, Jonas quickly moved out from under the shooting range's roof blocking the sky from his sight.What he saw caused his eyes to widen. The clouds were not like the clouds of a typical storm. The clouds were pitch black and so thick that no trace of light from the sun on the top sky can be seen. There was not even a small gap to at least show a bit of the sun or the blue sky."W-What's going on? This is not normal" Ana worriedly said.Jonas glanced at Ana and quickly looked back to the sky. Jonas didn't answer to Ana's question because he himself doesn't know what's going on.He also heard a lot of murmurs around him and saw some people pointing to the sky and people coming out of their working place.Then thick white smoke descended from the center area of the pitch black clouds. The white smoke looked a bit beautiful with the black clouds around it, but Jonas thought that this is not something to be impressed with. The fact that white smoke just suddenly came down from the odd pitch black clouds is not something good and normal.Jonas tried to think what could cause this strange event. It could be the because of magic. Then, something of this scale sure has required a vast and powerful power source. Probably this became possible because of some ritual by a number of people.Then the thick white smoke broke apart and separated from each other. The trail of smokes flew and spread across the entire town. There were roughly a hundred of these trails of white smokes circling around the entire town. Faces appeared on the front edge of every smoke, the faces were not very clear but they were shifting and changing appearance every second."What the hell are those?"Jonas quietly said.Ana beside Jonas heard what he said and she glanced at him. Then Ana felt something, she felt cold, she felt like cold wind was passing through her.She looked at her hand. The hairs on her hand were standing on end. She raised her other hand and she held her hand together, trying to at least warm up a little.She looked at the smokes. As she looked at the faces on one of the smokes, she felt a chill up on her spine. She felt like the faces were going to eat her, she felt afraid. It was though like the faces were emanating a fearful aura, and it was creeping through her.Then a hoarse voice rang out no, there were more than one voice."Hear us inhabitants of this area!"Each smoke that was flying near her and the others voiced out. The voices were like several people suffering and shouting while in agony. Just hearing these unknown beings' voices made Ana shiver. She tried to release a bit of her voice to say the word 'what', but she couldn't, all she could do was watch and hear the flying faces."We have been sent by the Peerless One as heralds!"Peerless One?Ana in her thoughts asked."Death comes for you!"Upon hearing those, Ana was confused.What do they mean death? Why is it coming?She asked in her thoughts."Your days are now numbered. The Peerless One has mobilized his formidable army to exterminate you. However, the Peerless One has given you a chance to fight for your lives, even though it is futile. Seven days from now, this town's assured demise will begin."Ana began to shakily breathe. She felt her heart pounded more than before."Please do fight with all your power and might. Entertain the Peerless One with your pathetic effort of resistance."Each white smoke began to ascend back to the dark clouds and merged once again."Do not dare to forget. Seven days!"The merged group of smoke ascended into the clouds until they were gone from everyone's sight. After that, in a flash the pitch black clouds disappeared into nothingness.The instant change of the sky caused Ana and the others to instantly cover their eyes in reflex. They were all looking to the sky and the sun was at its peak, the instant change of lighting requires their eyes to adapt to the brightness."W-what was that? S-sir do you know what that was?"One of the rookies asked Jonas."How should I know what that was?"After the rookie heard Jonas' reply, he closed his mouth and lowered his head."This will have negative effects on the civilians. I need to talk with the officers about this so I'll be going now. See you kids later."Jonas said his goodbye and walked to the exit of the training grounds.One of the rookies noticed Ana staring to the ground she seems to be spacing out."Uh, Ana. Are you alright?"Ana quickly looked up to where she heard her name."Ah yes I am, I'm just thinking about what just happened.""Am I the only one that was scared when they appeared? I'm still getting goose bumps." One of the rookies said."Of course you're not the only one. That was scary as hell." One of the rookies replied."Yes, especially when they declared our death. Hmm, seven days huh." Ana said."Looks like we're going to have a big fight soon. Any ideas who or what might be behind this?""Probably someone just did a prank." One of the rookies said."Do you really think someone could pull off that kind of prank in that kind of scale?" One of the rookies refuted."Yeah, also it would be a great waste of time and energy just to do that kind of meaningless prank." One of the rookies supported."Yeah, you guys are right.""Could it be a doing of some other country?" Ana said."That's quite possible."The others nodded in agreement.Ana walked back to her weapon and held it."If there is going to be a fight. Then it's best to better ourselves for the coming fight.""Yes, you're right Ana. Now everyone! Back to your training."The rookies and other experienced soldiers returned to what they were doing before.Ana looked at Barrett she was holding and gripped it tightly.If a battle really is coming. I will fight to protect this town with my life. Just like how you fought father.***It was almost night time, and the sun was already setting. When Ana was done in her training, she first went to the armory to deposit the Barrett that she was given permission to use.The military in the town acknowledges every talent or gift of their soldiers. That is why Ana was given the permission to freely use the Barrett M82 sniper rifle. The high ranking officers especially General Jonas Hender recognized Ana's skills in using a weapon especially in wielding a sniper rifle. Also it was just not her skills in using a sniper, but also in her innate gift. Her innate gift is very effective when used in a modern weapon, which is why she was given a 50 cal. Weapon the Barrett M82.There are weapons that are powered by magic and there are weapons that use actual bullet. Magic powered weapons can be easily carried because one doesn't need to carry ammo magazines for the weapons, magic powered weapons can shoot more than weapons with actual bullets. The power source of these weapons have smaller body than magazines, the magical energy were kept in something like battery. While for the ones with actual bullets are just like any normal weapons, but these kinds of weapons are more effective in certain circumstances, for instance bullets have even more piercing power than magic powered weapons. Ultimately, a weapon that uses bullet is perfect for Ana and her innate gift.Ana was walking on the streets to go back home. She looked around, it was still six in the evening but the surroundings are already empty and lonely. This was very unusual because it wasn't always like this, but this was understandable.Ever since those unknown smoke entity came to speak their declaration of death earlier, some of the citizens were afraid and terrified, there were even some people that panicked.Ana heard that there were a crowd of people assembled in front of the military's headquarters. They were trying to get immediate information about the earlier events and some were even angry and shouting for some reason.Also after what happened earlier, there were people that stayed inside their homes because they were afraid. Some even didn't let their children go out of the house.Ana saw a familiar gate and she smiled. It was the gate to their house. She opened the gate and walked inside.She opened the door of their house and she shouted in an average volume with a happy tone."I'm home!"She closed the door when she was now inside.She heard footsteps, it sounds like someone was running or rather two were running towards her."Big sis!""Big sis Ana!"Two voices of children rang out.Ana saw the two small children and she smiled warmly to greet them. The children also smiled broadly when they saw their big sister.Ana lowered her knees and spread her arms. She then embraced her two siblings tightly."Welcome back big sis!""I'm back, Liam.""I missed you big sis!""I also missed the both of you, Sara."Liam is a young boy with the age of 12. He has black hair and brown eyes.Sara is a young girl with the age of 10. She has brown hair and orange eyes."Where's mother?""She's cooking in the kitchen." Liam said."Her cooking smells so good big sis! It must going to be delicious." Sara said."Of course it will be delicious, its mother's cooking after all." Ana said.Ana walked to the kitchen and there she saw her mother sitting on a chair with a small round table and another chair. The mother was sitting and waiting for the food to be cooked."Mother, big sis is back!" Sara said."Hi mother."The mother smiled when Ana greeted her.Ana's mother, June, she has black hair and brown eyes."Welcome back Ana, so what did you today? Let me guess, you picked training did you?""Yes I did mother."In the military, soldiers were given two days in a week to either go training or go into duty like patrolling or guarding and so on. The soldier can freely picked whichever they want when it is their specified day.Ana sat on the chair opposite her mother."So Ana, do you have any news about what happened earlier?"Ana shrugged a little. She looked to her siblings and saw that they have worried and unease look on their faces."I have nothing yet. The higher ups didn't even talk to us about it.""They were very scary." Sara said."Yeah. They were even more scary when they talked." Liam said.The children seemed to know what their mother was talking about, that's why they expressed their feelings.Ana looked to her mother, her mother seemed worried."Don't worry."Ana held each of their hand tightly."Big sis is here. I won't let any monster harm you. Big sis will protect you, I will be your guardian angel. Alright?"Both the children smiled and nodded, and Ana smiled."Oh it looks like the food's done. Liam, Sara go put some plates on the main table. Ana you must be tired, go change and we'll eat.The two children went to get some plates and Ana stood up."Alright mother. I'll go change."Ana was walking to her room then she thought.I won't let any harm to ever come to you
