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--- City of Dalko, Great Plains Region ---

Date: August 26th, 2026

The reports over the radio have been horrific.

Valker, the Demon God, had wreaked havoc with Charlie's company as they had no weapons that were effective against him. From the Nett feed, it seemed that Valker was trying to destroy their defensive line to allow the Demons to easily exit the Gate. This would result in the enemy flooding the valley and overwhelm their positions within moments. In the mix of the carnage, Valker was turning all the casualties from both sides into ghouls which caused further chaos.

From what he could understand from the Balrogs in the sky, it is causing the bomber fleet a huge headache. He had no idea if the enemy knew about the nuclear bomber or just understood that the US military heavily relied on air power, however, it became clear the demons were trying to contest the skies. Either way, the nuclear option might be off the table making the ground team the only hope to stop this invasion.

“Rory, Taylin,” Sharpe said. “Do your best to distract him but don’t fully engage. Lelei, Tuka, Yao, come with me. The rest of the team prepared the trap. Bailey, Johnson, protect them and take care of those ghouls.”

“Where do you want us, sir?” Andrew asked.

“Randy, take over and assist the other Rangers,” Sharpe ordered.

“What about me? I thought you wanted me to have your back?”

“Stay with the team. Valker is smart and will expect something so I don't want to show our cards just yet.”

“I understand sir. Good luck.”

Seeing the smoke from Charlie's company location, they saw soldiers carrying the wounded away from the hillside. It seemed that the company was overwhelmed and took heavy casualties but from the sound of battle they are still going at it.

Skirmishes from soldiers attacking the ghoul swarm could still be seen all around. Equipment is littered everywhere. Smoke from a laser-equipment Stryker was laying sideways, destroyed. It seemed that Valker took lessons from Sadera and destroyed anything that could harm him. Sharpe found this news good as he realized he could use this against the Demon God. If he was this protective, then he could use that against him.

"Lelei, will you be able to trap him with the containment spell?" Sharpe asked.

"I do not know, it will take me some time to regenerate my mana pool," Lelei said with a tired voice. "I had to drain so much of my mana to kill Galrik. I am sorry."

"As I said, it's not your fault," Sharpe said. "We will use the current situation to our advantage. Tuka, Yao, protect Lelei. Lelei, I am going to lure him down that path."

The girls moved away to get into position. Sharpe then rushed toward the battle.

Once he got there, he saw Valker attacking the soldiers. He tried to warn them however it was too late as he watched the Demon God kill three riflemen while others pull back.

As the soldiers broke their formation to get space between them and the Demon God, the Griffin reversed and fired at him.

The dust settled as the anti-personnel tank round proved to have no effect. Valker began walking toward the light tank. The vehicle fired again and unlike the first time when he phased out, he created a void barrier, deflecting the shot to a group of mages and legionaries. Before a third round could be fired, the Demon God leaped on top of the vehicle.

Ignoring the rifle fire from the infantry as they tried to protect the Griffin II, Valker moved his hand through the vehicle, bypassing the armor like it wasn’t there. The Demon God ignited the inside of the light tank. After a few moments, it exploded from within.

Rory landed next to him in shock from what she was witnessing. "Jackson. He is going to cleanse the entire line.”

“Rory, take Taylin and cut him off,” Sharpe ordered. “Don’t fully engage, just get his attention. We need him to move down this direction to spring Lelei’s trap.”

"We can do that," Rory said. "But how are you going to make him commit?"

Sharpe pulled the spear from his vest. "I think this will get his attention."

Rory looked at the spear and burst out laughing and then smiled. "Damn Jackson, you are insane. But I guess that's why I love you. You are on my level."

"I don't think that is a compliment," Sharpe responded.

Sharpe watched the two Apostles get into position as Valker tore apart another soldier.

Watching as Valker aimed his hand toward one of the mini hills, he clinched his fist tightly and swung it toward a group of retreating soldiers. The hill broke apart and collapsed onto the riflemen position, burying some of them. When he snapped his figures a burst of blue flames appeared from his fist. Before he could do anything with the blue fire, a burst of lightening impacted him. While it cause him to flinched, he looked toward a Imperial mage with a soldier preparing a rocket launcher.

The Demon God casted the blue fire at the near buried soldiers with the intent to burn them alive. With his other hand he aimed it at the other two soldiers. The rocket first and impact his position which did nothing but cover the area with smoke. He again clinched his fists and the red blood that soaked the battlefield formed a wall around the two before totally freezing into a ice cube, suffocating them.

Valker then turned and placed his hands together, forming a void. He turned to another group of soldiers who were trying to keep the demons from climbing the hill. As he prepared to launch his attack, Taylin swooped in and attacked his legs, causing him to lose focuse. Rory flanked form the opposite direction and sliced through the void, forcing the Demon God to cancel his spell.

While their attacks failed to do no harm however they got the Demon God's attention.

Valker stopped his attacks against the other allied soldiers and focused on the two Apostles. The two synced their attack to hit him at the same time. Knowing that Valker would phase out to allow them to pass through.

Once their attack failed and land on their fleet, they sprinted away to get away from imitate danger. Seeing the Apostles fleeing, Valker quickly followed.

Seeing the Demon God approaching, Sharpe radioed Lelei to be ready to spring the trap.

Once in position to where Valker could see Sharpe, he pulled the spear from his vest and grabbed the M17 with the intention to get noticed.

The two Apostles conducted another coordinated strike against Valker, both passing through him. Before Valker could strike the two rushed away, heading down the path and stopped by Sharpe.

“I think we pissed him off,” Rory said.

“You two have always had a habit of doing that,” Taylin nervously said. He then looked at Sharpe. A sign of frustration and nervousness ripped through his facial reactions. “I do want to apologize for everything that has happened since we first met.”

Sharpe struggled to find a proper response to Taylin's apology. They have been enemies for so long, being some of the most intense life-and-death fights, only surviving because of teamwork.

“It is no problem; we can talk about this later.”

The two Apostles jumped away to secure the flanks. Hearing over the radio that Lelei was ready, Sharpe took his M17 sidearm and unleashed a few rounds at the Demon God. As expected, the bullets harmlessly passed through him. Valker looked over to see who it was.

Not wanting to seem strange, Sharpe started backing up as he started loading the modified spear into the barrel of his sidearm.

Seeing that Valker got the message and marched toward the Ranger with great pace.

Sharpe walked backward until the path narrowed between two hillsides, a perfect choking point for what he needed to do. He knew Valker wouldn't fall for such a thing, but he wanted to create the false illusion of springing into the trap.

Valker appeared on the side of the left hill, bypassing the narrow path and flanked Sharpe as expected. The trap is set.

A moment later, Valker moved down the hillside and onto the path. Lelei was supposed to spring her trap by now. "Lelei?"

A bright light and explosion appeared where Lelei and Tuka were supposed to be.

"It is Kagash," Tuka struggled to say over the radio.

"Shit," Sharpe mumbled and then saw the shadow on the ground. Looming up he saw the twelve-foot god in thick, dark armor. The demon god's hand reached toward him.

As Valker’s hand approached, Sharpe heard Rory's voice and felt a sudden impact, being thrust into the ground. Feeling pain across his body from her impact, he said, “Thanks, Rory.”

“We need to fall back,” Rory said.

---

Staring out on the valley, clusters of demons could be seen emerging from the Gate. With the horde, the only thing keeping them at bay was the combination of magic, the few bombers, mortars, and the remaining tanks all concentrating their firepower to thin the herd. This has bought the infantry, both melee and range enough time to clear out the stragglers. However, no one thinks this will last long.

Krysist stood on top of a hill with the American field commander, Brigadier General Smith as the two oversaw the battle. While it was not in his nature to stand behind the fight, he realized that with his missing arm and his responsibility to give orders.

Seeing that a Cohort needed to tighten their formation, he contacted the Centurion in command with his radio and gave the order. The error was quickly fixed, and he received word from the others that all their Cohort were ready for a glorious fight.

With all the technology that the General has seen so far, the one piece that he adored the most has been Terrans' simplest. The ability to communicate at range with near perfection. Glossing over memories of past campaigns, having this one ability would have radically changed his tactics.

As planned, the Legionaries took a position below the hillside at the base of the valley in the shield wall-line formation. It was agreed they would bear the brunt of the enemy attack while the American infantry picked the enemy off. For the situation, the defense was solid; however, from Krysist's experience from Sadera, these demons make these kinds of tactics mute. To make matters worse, ghouls are used as meat shields to exhaust the defenders and distract them while the demons are ready to swarm.

“At this rate we are not going to hold,” Brigadier General Smith said by his Infantry Squad Vehicle.

“All we have to do is hold on long enough,” Krysist said.

“According to Command, our local bomber fleet has nearly depleted their ordinance. We blew through them far faster than we expected.”

“I thought your ‘Air Force’ was rotating their bombers to prevent this from happening?”

“That was before a horde arrived. If this was on Earth, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”

A soldier approached the Brigadier General and said something to Smith. He said that he had to leave for a moment and followed the man away.

“Krysist,” Malena whispered. “I can hear what they are saying.”

“And?”

“Valker has made his move. Vanguard-7 has engaged him; however, from what it sounds, things are not going well.”

Seeing the Warrior Bunny warn him that the Brigadier General was approaching, he saw dread in the man's eyes. “I take it things are not going well?”

“How did you… Oh yea, the Bunny ears,” Smith said. “I will never get used to that.”

“Have no fear, General,” Krysist said. “We shall win today.”

“How can you say that?” Smith said. “Look, literally hell is upon us. We were sent here in a hail-marry attempt to stop this. We don’t have the forces to fight these demons and a god.”

Krysist looked toward the battle. A group of humanoid demons breached a legionary line as melee combat began. As some of those demons were hacked away while others were taken out by rifle fire.

The signs of faith amused him, reminding him of his campaigning in Elies and the events that rippled afterward. While he did fail there, his goal of forcing Piña Co Lada to carry his legacy and overthrow the Empire was fulfilled in the end. His faith was well deserved as his plan to topple the Empire succeeded. Now, he knew he must have faith that Sharpe and his comrades would defeat Valker and Zufmuut and bring an end to this madness. They just need time and no other distractions.

“Neither did I when I faced your people in Elies. But we stood tall, and our actions laid the foundation to finally destroy the Empire and reborn the Republic. We must have the same resolve and faith that our comrades will pull through. If we do our part, others will.”

“It is not like we can go home,” Smith said. “Get your men in order, we hold here no matter what.”

“No retreat.”

Hearing the battle raging, Krysist saw three Rondel and Republican mages that stood on the hill staff glowing. In front of this section of the legionaries, the ground was raised in the form of a wall, stopping the incoming group of demons.

This only bought a little time as either the demons quickly dug through like starving beasts or leaped over the wall. The ones who leaped landed on the hill, among the riflemen and mages, and ravaged them.

“Guards,” Krysist yelled as he watched a demon slice a rifleman before falling from a hail of bullets.

Other demons landed nearby and attacked two Royal Guards. One of the guards quickly fell as the other rammed his blade into the chest of the abomination beast - while inflicting some damage as blood oozed down, the demon refused to die.

As the Demon struck the shield of the Royal Guard, muzzle sounds were heard as bullets impacted the back of the demon, finally killing it.

More demons landed and attacked the command unit.

“This is coordinated,” Smith said as he pulled out his sidearm and fired. “They are intentionally coming after us.”

Krysist unsheathing his sword, he noticed a demon landing nearby. Once the beast landed, he quickly saw the threat as other demonic monsters were easily knocking or slicing through other soldiers with pure raw strength. Sword firmly gripped in his hands he attacked, slicing off its arm and then head.

Turning around, he saw Malena dancing around a demon, aiming for the joints with her blades. Once the demon was wounded enough, she went for the kill.

A squad of Airborne appeared and started picking off the remaining demons, rebalancing the line.

“Sir's,” Malena said. “The wall is gone.”

Krysist rushed over and saw that there was barely anything left of the ground wall as a hulking demon just smashed the Cohort into pieces. Smaller ice and firewalls emerged from the mages, but they seemed to barely delay the enemy. “General, we need to go.”

“Hold the forward line General,” Smith said. “I will reorganize everything here.”

Krysist rallied his guard, and they slid down the hill to join the other legionaries.