章 9: The Past
Opening his eyes, Jack found himself in a black room, and as if it was his usual reaction he looked down to see if he could see his body. It was his usual routine, every time he found himself in a room with nothing but darkness surrounding his every move, which wasn't uncommon at all.
And with nothing in mind, Jack started to walk forwards. Time passed slowly whilst he was inside, with nothing to see for even an hour of walking, and boredom started to strike Jack.
However, that all soon came to a stop when faced with a group of men and women. In front of him stood a crowd of familiar faces, wearing his same uniform, smiling towards him, and chanting his name.
""""""Unit leader, Jack""""""
They all screamed the same cheerful words, Jack couldn't help but smile at this sight. However, inside him, he could feel his stomach turning as he faced forwards. The soldiers who once stood under Jack, all started to signal him to come closer, yelling for him to join them in the happy moment.
Jack complied, slowly walking closer and closer whilst increasing his speed ever so slightly, only to start running as the figures that stood in front of him, got farther and farther away. But in a last-ditch effort, with what little stamina he had left, Jack reached for the hand of a young girl in her late teens, only for her to disappear like fine dust.
As the small particles scatter in the wind, all Jack could do was extend his arms, failing to grasp anything at all. And it was only then that he understood.
"Ah, yeah, you were already dead"
The dark floor was black no more, turning into dark red similar to blood.
Rising from the sea of blood, were nothing more than corpses, that all stretched their hands only to get a hold of Jack's legs and body.
'I can't move.'
Being held down, by the many hands, Jack couldn't even lift a single finger or even open his mouth, all he could do was look at his sins. But Jack didn't mind it, or so that was until seven figures appeared in front of his eyes.
Mia, Sarah, Zain, a man missing his arm, and the demonic humans he was raising.
'Wait...'
However, even as he looked at them, he couldn't help but tremble while looking at them. Then the voices started to appear. Filling Jack's mind with even more worry and pain.
"""""""You have some cute comrades, unit leader."""""""
'...'
"""""""Are you going to kill them as you did so for us? Give them the false hope of glory only for them to lose it all? UNIT LEADER?"""""""
'Shut up.'
"""""""ANSWER"""""""
'SHUT UP.'
It was only during this final inner scream, in which Jack's eyes turned bloodshot that he had finally returned to his land. Jumping up from his bed drenched in his sweat. Breathing heavily in panic, Jack only started to feel relieved after looking at his surroundings.
Lowering his head whilst clenching his covers, and putting his hand over his head, he gave a last murmur.
"...I'm not going to let them die."
*
On the other hand, however, inside the fifth division building a single light was still on, in the middle of the night. Zain's room, which was now being used as a gathering location was filled with brightness, as the children all sat on the floor waiting for Zain to answer their questions.
'Sigh, stupid children and their curiosity...'
"So, go ahead and ask.", Seeing as though he had no escape he decided to just get it over with. And as always the most curious out of the group, Stefen was the first to try and ask a question.
"Are you part of the first legion?"
"No, the first legion which was a group formed of many divisions was created to fight against the blind demon, during that time I was 10 so I couldn't join."
However, that answer made Stefen wonder, how did Zain obtain the powers of the blind demon. Zain, looking at Stefen's doubtful face, proceeded to answer the question.
"The blind demon was captured after the old man had shot it, and brought to town to celebrate the capture of the demo-"
"Ah, I remember that..."
Anastasia who was normally quiet, cut Zain off, and the moment she realized that she went pale but unlike what she expected, all Zain did was path her head.
"So anyways during the celebration, I threw a rock at the demon and hit it in the head...years later I was forced to take an experiment to see whether what I did counted as enough of a contribution to obtain its powers."
The room soon turned sour and grim, as the three children listened to Zain's words, however, a feeling inside of them also arose, comradeship. The feeling of comradeship to those that had similar experiences as yours.
But to change the mood like she normally did, Anastasia decided to ask her question, "Why does the commander hate being called a hero?"
It was a pretty innocent and common question with a hard answer. However, Zain answered it, nonetheless, normally he wouldn't have responded to the question but knowing that they were going to face death not long after, he replied anyways.
"...Imagine being known as the savior of your city, and becoming static after obtaining this title. But the title you obtained made others want to join you in the journey of righteousness only for them to die gruesome deaths in front of your eyes."
"..."
"Imagine blaming yourself for every single one of their deaths...Remembering the fact that each one of them had a family and a dream. All taken away because they followed you. Can you really call yourself a hero, aren't you more of a villain that leads many to their demises?"
"..."
"Those are the thoughts that linger on that old man's head, after all, he was the only one to go and inform their families of their sons' and daughters' deaths, only for him to be belittled and screamed at them for not being able to protect them...Thankfully last time, it was just a unit composed of orphans."
***
And just like that, a month of training had already passed.
The past few days were nothing interesting, to say the least, after all, nothing had really deviated from Jack's usual routine. Although some changes had indeed happened over the past few weeks.
Jack had moved into the fifth division building after Zain had begged him to take care of the rowdy Lily who was consistently running rampant and howling at night.
The physical capabilities of the demonic humans had also surprisingly increased in just a matter of weeks, with all of them being able to easily carry the 100kg with no difficulties. Jack also noticed the fact, that Carl, Stefen, and Anastasia seemed closer to Zain than one would expect.
Over the past few days of training with increasingly more difficult exercises, the three of them would always head over to Zain to ask him questions, which made Jack wonder what was going on.
However, when Jack questioned Zain the answer he received was vague, "I just told them about my past."
But that was enough for Jack to understand, after all, to say that Zain was any different from the children was a significant overstatement.
As Jack greatly remembered Zain's story.
From an abused child abandoned by his parents to an experimental rat that was then forced to fight for his life every day. Nevertheless, the time for physical training had come to an end for the fifth division, now it was time for them to truly start preparing to leave the sacred land.
For the past month, Jack had already thought about the way in which the fifth division was going to operate, and so in the middle of the field, everyone took their positions.
Lily - Frontline
Lily would basically act as a hunting dog for the unit, there was nothing more she could do, Jack also took into consideration the fact that her only attacks were for close quarters so this was a given.
After that, both Anastasia and Stefen were positioned behind her, acting more so as people that would support Lily in her fights.
Finally, the backline was composed of Jack, Zain, and Carl. Together with the simple strategy of Carl creating a shield with his beard, allowing the three of them to shoot down the enemy whilst being protected.
Normally for the units in the demon force, no formations were really needed apart from the basics, however, now that humanoids with special abilities were involved, it brought with them a need for change.
But whilst it was necessary to practice this, Jack didn't find much use in them, seeing as though the only time remaining for the expedition was nothing more than a month and he knew they wouldn't be in the outside for long.
'They could have at least given me some more time.'
Whilst Jack did understand the fact that they wanted him to get killed, he was still upset at the fact that he had only been given two months.
Although he had planned for it, he didn't expect such a thing.
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