The Damned Demon

The plaza before the Infinity Tower fell into a horrific silence. The stench of blood lingered heavily in the Martian air, a gruesome reminder of the brutal massacre Lena had casually orchestrated with nothing more than a tap of her finger.

A dreadful pause ensued, during which hundreds of thousands of Hunters stared blankly at the shredded remains of their fellow comrades scattered gruesomely across the ground. Blood painted the sleek metal of their armor, limbs lay in grotesque angles, and crimson pooled ominously in the cracks of the pavement beneath their boots.

Lena stood proudly amidst the carnage, her wrist still poised above the deadly device she wore. Her cold, beautiful face was twisted into a chilling smile as her bright green eyes surveyed the trembling sea of shocked and fearful faces before her.

“Let this be a very clear warning,” Lena declared, voice calm yet loud enough to echo through every Hunter’s ears. Her gaze swept contemptuously over the horror-stricken soldiers. “Disobeying our orders will result in immediate death. From this moment onward, loyalty is not optional—it’s a matter of life or death. Choose wisely.”

Above them, Rachel’s gigantic projection gazed down in shock and horror, her blue eyes trembling with fury and disbelief. Her voice echoed sharply through the projection, filled with palpable anguish and anger.

“Lena! You…you monstrous wench! How could you slaughter your own people so casually? They trusted you!” Rachel cried out desperately, her voice echoing painfully in the Martian atmosphere, pleading desperately to reach the hearts of the Hunters. “You’re no less worse than my father!”

Lena turned her head slowly upward, a mocking, cold smile still fixed on her face as she gave Rachel’s projection only the barest glance of disdain. “Your naivete bores me, Rachel. Trust is for fools and pawns—and fools like you need to learn their place.”

Gregory stood frozen beside Lena, staring at his daughter with a complicated mix of relief, shock, and dread. Sweat trailed down his temple as he leaned closer, voice trembling with anxiety.

“Lena,” he muttered shakily, “You’ve done it now. There’s no turning back from this. Making them back down like this—it’s only temporary. We need to think of a solution fast. Our reputations are already in the gutter, and if civilians finds out—”

But Lena merely scoffed, cutting him off sharply with a flick of her blonde hair, turning coldly toward her father, her voice dropping lower but still dripping with scorn. “Father, stop whining like a frightened child. Our reputations? They’re meaningless now. Grandfather made it very clear—these pathetic Hunters’ feelings of betrayal don’t matter. Soon enough, they—or their offspring—will be our slaves anyway. There’s no need to coddle disposable tools.”

Gregory’s face paled further, his eyes widening sharply as he swallowed nervously, the realization of his father’s true intentions dawning clearly upon him. His voice was low, conflicted, laced with reluctant admiration and uneasy disgust, “My father—what the hell is he planning? Why he never told me all this.”

Lena smiled darkly, satisfaction glittering cruelly in her bright green eyes. She raised her wrist device, proudly admiring its lethal power. “I don’t know about that but grandfather gave me control over their M.A.M devices precisely so I could taste true power. He said I should savor what it feels like—to hold life and death at my fingertips. And I must admit, it’s intoxicating.”

Gregory stared at his daughter in disturbed silence, a blend of unease, admiration, and horror clashing violently within him. Part of him admired her ruthless decisiveness—another part disgruntled at the preferential treatment his father was giving her.

“Fuck them then,” he finally mumbled uneasily, his eyes reflecting ruthless determination, “But we still have to deal with the immediate fallout here.”

Lena rolled her eyes dismissively, turning away from her father’s concerns to once again face the gathered armies of shaken Hunters. Her voice rose sharply again, cold and unyielding as steel.

“You’ve seen the consequences,” Lena declared harshly, her voice cutting sharply through the frightened murmurs spreading through the ranks. “Anyone else who wants to defy our orders, step forward now. But if you have families you want to return to—wives, husbands, children—then shut up, pick up your weapons, and fulfill your duty. Continue with our original orders: storm the Infinity Tower, and eliminate every last traitor inside.”

The armies remained frozen, eyes flickering uneasily among themselves. A desperate, angry voice shouted defiantly from the back, “You expect us to fight for monsters like you?”

Lena calmly raised her wrist again, eyes narrowing dangerously. “Exactly. You fight for us, or you die right here. Your choice.”

Rachel’s projection watched helplessly from above, her face twisted in despair, heart aching terribly as she saw the tide of fear slowly overwhelm the Hunters’ resistance. One by one, weapons were reluctantly raised again. Despite their anger, despite their disbelief, the sheer terror Lena had instilled was overpowering.

“We have no choice,” whispered one Hunter bitterly, eyes downcast in shame. “I have kids… I can’t leave them fatherless.”

“Me neither,” another muttered brokenly. “She’ll kill us all otherwise.”

“We can’t fight this,” a third said grimly, gripping his weapon tightly, teeth gritted in despair. “They’ve rigged us all with this damned tech.”

“But what if she kills us after anyway?”

“Do you seriously think they would dare to kill us all and deal with the consequences? Of course not!”

Slowly, hopelessly, the massive army of Hunters fell back into formation. Their gazes were hollow, filled with bitterness, anger, and defeat, yet resignation compelled them onward. The heart-wrenching conflict within each Hunter was palpable, heavy silence falling upon the army as they prepared once more for battle, knowing they had been betrayed and forced to serve a monstrous agenda.

Rachel’s hologram trembled above, pain and disbelief clear in her anguished voice. “Don’t do this! Please, there has to be another way!”

But her pleas now fell on deaf ears, drowned out by Lena’s chilling ultimatum and the Hunters’ own desperate fear.

Layla, who was standing behind Rachel in the tower, scoffed coldly, “See? They choose obedience over death. This is human nature in a nutshell—weak, predictable, and easily controlled. How could they not realize that they won’t live to see another day.”

Grace sighed but said, “Just trust the process. We humans might be everything you said but sometimes we need a little motivation,” Grace then turned towards Anna and said, “It’s your turn now.”

Anna, now dressed in her black suit, nodded slowly as she prepared to leave.

But Grace noticed Anna taking deep, heavy breaths just for walking and immediately pulled Anna towards a corner and said in a low voice, “You…You are dying, aren’t you? That M.A.M thing must have really done a number on you after all this time. You won’t even make it past a few hundred meters. “

Anna didn’t say anything but only lowered her head as she mumbled but in a resolute tone, “It is what it is but I will make sure those few hundred meters won’t be wasted.”

“This won’t do,” Grace said with a narrowed gaze as she took out a vial of green glowing liquid, making Anna furrow her brows upon seeing it.

“Maybe you already know what this is but this is Eternum. It is basically used to make you young temporarily but for someone who is already young but dying, this could you give one last boost of power…enough to unleash hell for someone like you,” Grace said with a cold light in her eyes.

Anna didn’t even hesitate as she grabbed it from Grace’s hand and injected it into her body.

“Ungh…” Anna groaned briefly before she slowly straightened her back, the dark yellow veins on her body receding gradually until she felt like a flood of energy was overflowing through her body.

“This is more than enough…” Anna mumbled, her dark yellow eyes crackling with thunder.

Layla sighed, seeing that poor girl pushing herself to death like this when she could have finished this without such troubles. But then again, she was holding herself back knowing that these good humans were trying to save most of their own even if all of them weren’t worth saving.

Rachel stared down desperately while trying to buy time, unable to hide the sorrowful tremble in her voice. “This isn’t over, Lena. You and my father… you’ll both face justice for your crimes.”

Lena laughed scornfully, her voice echoing cruelly. “Justice? There is no justice—only power. And you’re about to witness exactly who wields it here.”

Rachel’s projection faded slightly, her face filled with pain and turmoil as the vast army of Hunters reluctantly advanced once again toward the Infinity Tower, marching in lockstep despite their shattered spirits. They moved like puppets, forced forward by invisible strings of terror and desperation.

And as they marched onward, the dark Martian skies closed ominously overhead, the path ahead bleak and uncertain, each step bringing them closer to a fate they dreaded yet felt powerless to escape.

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