บท 148: RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 22: Among Us
Author notes:
I am back! With a totally not sus chapter :D
Or is it?
Anyway, allow me to congratulate on the promotion of Captain JTSSE and Captain Raymond! The Reich is stronger with you!
P.S: Managed to fix Stable-Diffusion, thank Yggdra!
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In this day and age, mankind is contending not just against themselves but also against the enigmatic threats that are the Demons. In some places, Demons seem to materialize out of thin air, preferring locations with little to no sentient lifeform to spawn into existence. There are rarer cases, however, in that Demons are induced, herded from elsewhere, to lessen the infestation of one area but worsen another. An example would be Spain, which has revolted against the Sardegnian Papacy for their underhand play of fostering the Demonic threat on Spanish soil.
Yet, how do these Demons appear in the first place?
Funnily enough, whatever knowledge the world knows about these Demons is released publically by the Belkans themselves. At first, not many countries were keen on listening to Belka's warning about the Demonic spawning period, the first Months of Demons. After all, who in their right mind would waste their money on a magical threat that only exists according to a singular, upstart of a country? Especially one that they just fought a whole World War against. Oh boy, if only they had heeded the warning then.
When the first Months of Demons arrived, many nations, world superpowers included, were caught completely off-guard. Demons, in all shapes and with their now feared ghastly white bodies with glowy pink lines, suddenly tore through the sparsely populated countryside and suburbs that were still struggling to recover from World War 1. Nobody knew when or where exactly did they start to appear, but what they knew at the time was that Demons were nigh unkillable short of overwhelming firepower. To make matters worse, lives were lost to Demons either directly or indirectly, were reanimated, and malformed into threats against the living. The males turned to mindless beasts akin to the Demons that killed them while the females woke up as zombies with special abilities. Together with the naturally spawned Demons, they reign terror on small settlements and towns, causing a degree of communication blackout and chaos as nobody knew what the Hell was going on. The status quo was maintained like that for at least a month until countries start sending out their armies to squash the Demonic threats. It was a slow process, however, as aside from Belka, nobody knew how to effectively repel the borderline supernatural enemy. But they would rather endure than allow themselves to be indebted to their former enemy.
Other, smaller countries though, have no choice but to request Belka's expertise in staving off the threat. A matter that Belka had been very proactive in giving out their advice while requesting little returns. In the eyes of a few, Belka was seen as a timely savior back then.
Regardless of whether they asked for Belkan intervention or not, humanity still went through the first Months of Demons somewhat intact. Lives were lost, most regrettably, but at least they had recovered the lost farmlands and saved their industrial complexes. With those, they could at least try to stabilize their nations' economies. At this point in time, the money flow that made the world goes round was in shamble. The sudden Demonic assault worsened that situation by a large margin, making it so that World War II would occur in the future.
So while capitalists and bankers tried to save what was left of the world's economy, researchers worked their brains on this new threat to humanity. Despite many autopsies, humanity only went as far as recognizing these Demons as silicon-based lifeforms and classified them into many classes. With the publicized information from Belkan, however, they learned that these lifeforms were formed naturally when the so-called 'mana concentration' in the air was thick enough and the spawning point was remotely inhabited or was filled with 'negativities'. The latter could be expanded into places like dreary graveyards, mass burial sites, and even populated slums sometimes. The probability of Demon spawning increased when there was already another living Demon in the area and Demons tended to go in herds, further exacerbating the spawning process.
Note that even without the Months of Demons, the period in which mana in the air is at its densest, Demonic threat can still spawn but at a much lesser rate.
But what about those female Zombies? It's unknown to this day why a distinction, determining what gender is turned into either a Demon or a Zombie, is presented. What the scientists knew though, was that the Zombies were often time the deadliest due to their wide range of inhuman abilities and attack patterns. Many could be seen wielding weapons with instinctual ease like masters and could perform feats that were only possible by the Belkan and their witchcraft. Noticing this point, politicians were quick to grab onto this straw to point fingers at the Belkans, who were pretty much in the same boat as them, albeit more prepared. But did they care about that, no. What the world needed right now was a common enemy, that way, they could save their own hide for their struggle in revitalizing the economy. This was one of, if not the biggest reason why the discrimination against Belkans and inhuman beings exists.
Back to the matter at hand. Knowing that these Zombies could wield supernatural powers and that their bodies seem to possess an ethereal beauty to them, it didn't take long at all for attempts to be made to incorporate a Zombie's traits into a human. Needless to say, the world herself didn't take too kindly to that, and she retaliated hard. Many, if not all attempts, ended in an explosion of energy that spawned a horde of Demons, killing the scientists and researchers involved. After the loss of many bright minds and especially the funding, research into acquiring supersoldiers using Demonic corpses effectively ceased. What came after was more normal research on how to counter these beings effectively using nothing but conventional means. A matter that was crucial enough for the scientists of the world to band together, even Belkan ones, and disregarded their heritages to protect the foundation of mankind.
As a result of the international partnership that exists to this day, albeit on a smaller scale due to the ongoing war, it has become the norm to see cities and settlements surrounded by tall walls. This is a drastic measure undertaken by governments around the world to control population density and reduce the risk of Demons spawning. Land management has also been reformed to fit the current tumultuous period, making it so that the nation would have all rights to that plot of land when a Demonic threat is spotted. For the betterment of society as a whole, more heavily armed police forces can be seen patrolling and stopping crimes more effectively with their weapons. Even the armies of the world are allowed to step in with wartime firepower if the Demonic threats escalate. And while they can not remove the slums, regular cleansing of the areas to remove unsavory individuals and improve the hygiene there have kept the possibility of mass-spawning lower than before. Other cultural methods are also implemented by countries, either spiritually or through regular nationwide broadcasts to uplift the national spirits. Most commonly, and perhaps the most drastic of them all, would be the government directives that encourage cremating the deceased instead of burying, some countries outright enforce the act of cremating. It's an understandable precaution to take, however, as one less body is one less Demon or Zombie when the next Months of Demon hit.
But with all that said and done, there's still something missing here.
If there are Demons and Zombies on the ground, and sometimes even ones capable of flying, then would there be Demons in the sea? The answer would be an astounding yes for every single scientist worthy of their degree.
But much to their collective confusion, Sea Demons have never raised as many waves as the ones on land, despite the underwater environment being the perfect spawning location for many, many hordes. There exist sightings of seaborne Demons, yes, it's why there are contingencies for such to ensure maritime integrity but never to the extent of landborne Demon attacks. In fact, the most recent Sea Demons assault was one on a Long Dynasty cruiser a few years back. Of course, each of the sightings almost always devolved into the deaths of a few people no matter how rare they were. But humanity truly has limited capability against Demons already, much less seaborn ones. The best they can do, however, is to treat the underwater threats like any submarine. This means convoy escorts, hydrophones, and depth charges... And if Demons successfully board a vessel, then the lost art of anti-boarding combat will be revived. The greatest example of this is the Chinese sailors and army men defending their ship against squid-like Demons.
Despite the world being befuddled as to why Sea Demons are a rarity, they are nonetheless thankful that they have one less threat to worry about. But although the rest of the world is in the dark about this matter, the same can't be said for one particular group of people.
They are the protectors in the dark, keeping the Demonic threat from bumping into you in the night. They can be everywhere, anytime, all at once.
They can be among us.
And they are ONI Section Zero.
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