RD 4 Ch 6

"How long are we going to stay here?” Merlin asked. 

“Not too much longer,” I answered, looking over where the ladies had begun to take turns holding back the waves of demons. I had a slight smile on my face as I watched Nyx. She really enjoyed being able to showcase her power.

Nyx was firing off dozens of arrows, all of them finding their mark and killing a demon. She was able to do so as fast as someone might strum a guitar, arrows flying out, constantly searching for demon skulls to bury themselves into. 

Meanwhile, Gloria was pausing and resting to make sure that she could recover her mana. Keeping up the wall of fire had taxed her. 

“Now that we've come and we've saved these people, where will we be going next?” Merlin asked. Everyone was curious about my plan. 

“We'll be staying here. I'll explain later.” I told her.

Several fighter jets flew through the air overhead, roaring past as they flew low, getting visuals on the situation. 

“I'm afraid we're going to soon start having quite a few guests.” Merlin observed.

“Let the military take over as soon as they're here.” I answered.

Merlin frowned. “They won't be able to do a damn thing about the demons.” 

I could only shrug at her words. “That's their problem, not mine. At least we gave them enough time to be initiated and work up a plan for what is to come. What I do know is that when they get here, they're going to be scared and confused. The last thing I want is for whatever chaotic fount of emotions comes out of that to be directed at me. So, we'll fuck off with anyone that Simone recruits and move on to our next step. The hell gates all appearing and pushing through the cracks in Earth's barrier is going to destabilize the reality of the world slightly. A large number of dungeons will be cropping up.”

Frankly, I just didn’t want to deal with the military. Right now they might think they can handle anything, but their reliance on guns and modern technology was going to bite them hard.

Merlin's face was stoic as she nodded. Really, the ancient wizard was mostly stoic. I had seen more than a few people become that way as they aged, usually it was a facade to hide their pain.

Nyx, the Medusaic archer, realized that she had let some through and decided to take a step back and let Merlin take over, holding the demons at bay.

The archmage instantly froze the demons as they tried to flee around the sudden disappearance of Nyx’s arrow storm.

***

As expected, it didn't take long for sturdy jeeps to come rolling into the area. Their backs opened up, and soldiers spilled out, rifles in hand, as they began to make a perimeter around the whole situation

Gloria looked up from where she was torching a cluster of screaming demons and raised an eyebrow as if to ask what she should do.

I waved her off, hoping to indicate that I would handle the situation. OF the group, I was bullet proof.

Out of the convoy of jeeps, first came dozens, then hundreds of soldiers. Every soldier that could be called up on short notice had been mobilized to handle this weird phenomenon.

I stood with my hands behind my back, trying to look as non-threatening as I could. It was a tall task, given that I was a rather large man currently splattered with demon blood and carrying a sword that could cleave a tank in half. But I did my best, standing with a smile on my face and my arms crossed behind my back. 

They ignored me at first, soldiers setting up barricades as quickly as they could. A few various construction trucks swung by, dropping off concrete barriers. Only a few glanced up at me, only to get back to work. They weren’t the decision makers, I was someone else's problem.

Still, I remained, watching the whole ordeal unfold. It didn't take too long, however, for a mustached man to run in my direction, even as others were trying to pull the college students away from throwing fireballs and rocks. 

"Hello sir, may I know your name?"

I grinned at his approach. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"You're American?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow. 

"From all over, if I'm honest. But English would be easiest, please." I told him.

His eyes wandered over me, and I stood there, stabbing my blood blade into the ground before resting my hands on the pommel. It was a powerful pose, but at least less aggressive by nature of having the tip stuck in the ground. 

"Well, I'm General Janssen, Todd Janssen, and I think a lot of people are about to have a lot of questions," he said, shifting his gaze to the mess behind me. 

"Oh, don't I know it. Not sure if you're going to like the answers, though." As we spoke, there was a distant crack before my head tipped back and something slammed into my forehead.

The General's eyes went wide, either from the shock of me surviving the hit or the fact that the hit had been ordered. My bet was he didn't make the order, otherwise he wouldn’t be standing still after I survived. 

I pulled my head back forward and rubbed at my forehead as I dislodged the deformed ball of lead. "Please don't do that again. If you do it enough, you might give me a headache." I did my best to keep a non-aggressive stance.

The last thing I needed was to turn this place into a shooting gallery where my body was the target. While I would be fine, the same couldn't be said for all of the students and perhaps some of my ladies.

General Janssen swallowed audibly before he turned around and started shouting in Danish at the top of his lungs. He turned back to me. "You have my assurances that won't happen again," he said, as he flicked his gaze up to my forehead where I suspected there was at least a moderate red mark. People got rattled when you defied their expectations too much.

"Bran. Bran Heros." I held out a hand to him. "Pleasure to meet you, General Janssen. I just happened to be in the area," I lied, "and thought that I'd stop this mess from spilling too far over before someone capable like you could take over."

"Heros, huh?" He said, narrowing his eyes as he likely recalled a distant thought.

"Family name, I often wish I didn’t have something so corny. There are a number of us though, and you'll find there are many as extraordinary as me." I pointed at Circe, who was floating in the air. "Also a Heros, though very very distantly related."

He narrowed his eyes at the clarification, but didn't say anything. "All right. So I do have to ask if you caused this phenomenon behind you."

I smiled at the man as he carefully tried to approach the subject. "No. It's called a Hell Gate. And while I caught one in my fortress to use as a shooting gallery, I don't have the ability to make one, activate it or deactivate it. That's all on those demons that are currently spilling out." I gestured at the red-tentacled-faced demons that were trying and failing to wreak havoc.

"Demons you say…” The man tried to piece together what was happening.

“Why don't you inspect them yourself, General Janssen? I assume the system hasn't left you out and has offered you a class." I answered.

He cleared his throat. "Official orders are to not interact with the screen. We don't know what it does or what it will do," he said firmly.

"I can tell you exactly what it does. It gives you what you need to fight these creatures, and in fighting them, you'll grow stronger physically, mentally, and magically." I spoke the last bit with a pointed look as I turned to regard the magic being thrown around behind me.

The general followed my gaze. "Even seeing it, I have trouble believing it. I hope you understand this is going to be an awful mess. Those who give me orders don’t like change." He answered.

I only shrugged. "Not my mess. Now that you guys are here, I'm going to let you figure out what exactly you want to do with the situation. All I wanted to do was keep it contained so all the bystanders didn't get swept up." I frowned over at the mass of students.

General Janssen followed my eyes. "They seemed to be taking to it quickly."

"I may have given them a speech. But how quickly they pick it up is because they're young, General," I said with a heavy sigh.

He once again looked me up and down. "Don't tell me you're a vampire or something, because you don’t look old enough to say something like that."

I glowered at him. "Not a vampire." The tone I took must have given him a little shock.

One eyebrow rose slowly as he said, "Understood, sir."

I fought to keep a grin off my face as he called me 'sir'. A little respect went a long way. "I will offer my recommendations though before I leave," I glanced over at the looming problem, "guns might be moderately effective, and if you bring enough, you can probably hold the demons back with guns alone for a few days." I shrugged. "But if you really want to stop this, you're going to need to level using that system screen you are avoiding.  And you're going to need to level quickly. If you don't trust the system, pick a bunch of soldiers, have them interact with it, and start leveling. I think you'll see the effectiveness easily enough."

He narrowed his eyes and looked back at the situation. "Can't say I'm going to be able to make that call myself. This has caused quite a stir. The people in charge don’t like it when the rules change."

I chuckled. "Well, they can get used to the change or die. There’s not any other way around this one. If they haven't received the reports yet, there should be hell gates opening all over the world, each one spewing out unique demons.”

He eyed me again, his gaze filled with suspicion. "You seem to know quite a lot for someone who didn't cause this."

I could only shrug in response. I was sure his mind was already reeling from the possibility of demons and monsters. "Please, by all means, do what you need to do to confirm. We'll be here a little longer. It seems one of my wives is doing a little recruitment. Don’t worry it’s completely harmless," I added after a moment.

His expression told me he didn't quite believe my answer, or perhaps something else was amiss. "While I'd like to take your word, there are protocols I must follow. I'll heed your advice as best I can and have someone try to push through to investigate this leveling. Certainly, I don't suspect that's going to take much effort on our part. If what you say is true, well, there's going to be people speculating about the long-term effects and probably causing more than a few issues," he rumbled, rubbing his chin.

I gave him a helpless shrug. "That's their problem. My only goal is to ensure that you can keep as many people alive as possible. Now, have your men start dealing with the demons. I'll pull my people back, and we'll stay here long enough to see that you at least have some handle on the situation."

He wasn't a fan of my words, that much was clear. However, that didn't stop him from snapping into action, yelling at his people in a far harsher tone than he had used with me.

I folded my arms behind my back and watched with amusement and a bit of pride.

Already, this timeline was a much better start than my previous. I was ready to make the kind of waves that could change the outcome for humanity.