+++ Adelaide von Wittenstein +++

June 12, 2040

"Father…why—?"

"It's only right," Adelyn's father, an old man in his sixties, said. "A traitor like him deserves to be sent over there. It is only just for the scum of society."

"But he was your friend. Doesn't your company need him?"

"Not anymore. In any case, you should really stop worrying about it. It's over now. He's been found guilty already."

"..."

Adelyn watched as her father's friend was dragged out of the courtroom. The sentence? Forty years in prison for fraud and high treason. Someone like him who sold House Wittenstein's highly classified information relating to chemical weapons being used in the Confederate Army, straight into Flandrian hands, was unforgivable.

Still…

Was this what every crime nowadays constituted? Adelyn doubted that. She had already seen so many men, those who committed low crimes to high crimes, even if they didn't murder anyone, being sent to the dead man's gallows, to the frontline against the Flandrians…

It didn't sit right with her.

At this point, studying the law only made her more cynical. Sentencing men to die in penal battalions was never in the law of her nation. Even the death penalty was supposedly disestablished. Why then, was this guy…?

"You look way too troubled about this," his father said, as he stood up from his seat. "I thought you were only coming here for your studies?"

"Watching lawyers do their job was my goal, yes, but, this doesn't sit right to me. I read the law. Even if it's high treason, it's not supposed to be a forty-year sentence. That's for murderers, rapists, and others. It feels like the judge only gave this verdict to ensure he goes to the frontlines."

"Bah. We need more men over there anyway. Let's just go. You keep doing this, and you'll end up just like your mother. Always so stressed."

She watched as her father left, walking out of the rapidly emptying courtroom as well. Honestly, that man, who committed a crime against her family, was someone she didn't like.

Still, what this sentence symbolized to her, was the extremity of injustice in her country today. She already had a few commoner friends who once were involved in anti-government groups before the war disappeared into the frontlines by false charges.

If it wasn't false charges, it was this. Inflated punishment was meant to ensure that they would join those death units.

It disgusted her.

And she couldn't do anything about it. Not as a mere student of the law. Unless…

+++

+++ Captain Adelyn von Wittenstein +++

Her targeting screens flickered. Coughing, as she felt pain shooting from her torso, she opened her eyes again.

Why am I even here?

The pain. It was…extreme. She remembered being struck by a shot from that calamity demon. It pierced her mech and nearly destroyed it. She felt as if her body was torn open. No…it was torn open. Blood, her blood, was splattered everywhere.

Mother…father…

She wanted to cry from the pain, even as she felt her body slowly stitching itself. It seemed to be the power of an angel who had awakened his or her ideal: the ability to heal themselves supernaturally like a demon would.

Still…the pain…

"Adelyn! Adelyn! I told you, it was a trap! Respond, please—!"

A shot scrambled that man's voice on her comms. She struggled to even press the restart button for her targeting sights, but she managed it. In a second, she found him, Hans, fighting alone against a demon that managed to nail even her.

What was his crime again? Why was he here?

She remembered that it was so ridiculously minuscule. He merely offended some noblewoman, yet he found himself in hell, without a place to escape.

He's fighting the same type of man now, she knew.

And why was she here?

…That's right. I vowed…to get them all out of here.

Because being a mere student of the law wouldn't mean she could change anything for these unfortunate men. But by joining the war, as their noble officer, she could command them, until they finished their terms. Until their unjust sentences could end. So they could live.

Trembling, her hands gripped her control sticks. She gritted her teeth, as the pain of her severe injuries slowly subsided. The fight was still on. That man, he turned into a demon. A calamity even.

Misery of the mind…

He must have been in an awful spot to turn into this. It was something she pitied, but she also hated him. After all, in that state, he was more of a murderer throwing a tantrum, and using his misery as a justification.

How pitiful. How unjust.

And she hated it.

I'll end it.

Her mech turned alive, its legs moving forward.

I'll end it all now!

"Lieutenant Hoffman! Get out of my way. Now!"

+++

Hans had been in quite deep trouble for a while now since this battle started. His goal of tying Injustice's attention while the 1st Corps' forces and Adelyn slowly wore the calamity demon down was perhaps one of the riskiest things any man could do in combat.

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Yet, he did it.

Only he could do it after all. The fear of death, while it still burned so deeply in his mind, was so numbed that he could face this creature and dance with death with pure calmness.

Until Adelyn was struck. He called out to her that she should hold back and not expose herself too much.

She didn't follow him.

"Adelyn!" he shouted, despair in his voice. "Adelyn! I told you it's a trap! Respond, please—!"

A shot zoomed to his side, forcing Hans to pull back again and fire a response shot against Injustice. The strength of their enemy's mech's firepower was almost godly, in Hans' mind. If these kinds of things existed in his homeland, he imagined even the steely generals and officers of the Confederate Army would flinch in horror.

He didn't.

Adelyn was exposed. Too exposed. There was only one way to keep her out of trouble now while she was recovering because he prayed hard that she was just disabled for a bit.

So he pooled all of his remaining courage and charged forward. Machine gun rounds, main gun rounds, he sent it all at Injustice, as the two dueled for supremacy at only six hundred meters. He watched as the calamity turned sluggish after his third shot, and he kept at it, dodging and dodging everything it was throwing at him.

Warnings flashed on his screen. Then a major explosion nearly struck him just fifty meters away. Rattled and damaged, two legs of his mech malfunctioned for a second as he pulled out to reposition. Yet, with a special maneuver that made his rear legs jump, giving a few seconds for his legs to straighten up, he fixed it the moment this mech landed, the mechanical joints snapping into their proper place.

"My engine overheated," Hans cursed, as he pushed his feet on the gas pedal. "Damn it! Damn it all!"

Another shot came from his barrel, penetrating the turret of the demonic mech ahead of him. As his autoloader tried to slam a new one in, it once again malfunctioned. The parts that pushed his AT rounds into his barrel didn't move.

"Not now! Not now!" Hans shouted, moving and dodging the response shots from his enemy, countering him instead with his machine guns as he furiously restarted his autoloader's control software.

In seconds, it fixed itself, and a new round was placed from his bustle rack straight into his main gun.

But by then…

"Lieutenant Hoffman! Get out of my way. Now!"

"Adelyn? Be careful! He's—"

"His attention is all on you. Thanks for the help!"

Hans pulled his mech into a hard stop, as Adelyn charged another 'Divine Judgement' round. Her mech glowed like a jewel on top of a small hill, and then, a shot was fired from it.

The moving mech of Injustice was struck, and in a second, it was almost torn to half, before another torrention explosion struck the battlefield. Hans barely had time to register the shockwave when his head was suddenly bashed into his controls.

Then, darkness.

+++

+++ Captain Ebert Strobel +++

"Captain Wittenstein is so strong!" one of the artillerymen gushed as he watched the distant explosion. "I bet that shot took out the bastard!"

Ebert on the other hand was less amused compared to his subordinate. While he felt, even from here, the sheer shockwave of that shot, he wasn't convinced by it. His assessment was proven correct when he saw a dozen demons rushing toward the position held by Hans and Adelyn.

Lowering his spyglass, he turned to his artillerymen and their officers. His guns were all lined up in scattered formations across the small hills overlooking the western flank of their dug-in army.

"Obviously, it didn't," he declared, as he frowned. With his fists clenched, he gave them his command. "So begin bombardment at once! Let's not let them regain an ounce of momentum!"

"Aye, Captain!"

In seconds, his artillery answered what he imagined were desperate calls for help from the soldiers stuck in the quagmire of their western flank. As their first shots began to rumble, in the distance, on one of the mountains, shots too began to emanate from it.

Heh…so those guys are still alive?

He expected that they'd be killed by a demon or two already. In fact, he disapproved of sending artillery so far into that place. But it seemed that General Kohler and Hans were right.

Truly, they seemed unable to even touch those bastards.

With us firing in the left flank of Injustice, and those guns firing on his right flank…

Ebert grinned as his artillery tore the demons to shreds.

This is a very good setup.

+++

+++ Captain Adelyn von Wittenstein +++

"Damn you! Damn you! You little—brat!"

"..."

"How dare you approach me? This is unjust! None of this is fair! Haven't I given you enough honor to make me deserve it? I withdrew from Nomos to give you time to think!"

"..."

"You rat! You absolute rat! Don't come any closer!"

Alone. Damaged. And barely alive. His mech was limping pathetically, while blood continued to pour from his crew compartment.

On the other hand, Adelyn approached Injustice slowly, each step purposeful, almost menacing. Her round was already loaded. For some reason, ever since she manifested her ideal, she could feel the concentration of magic on those she looked at.

She saw almost nothing, but small flickers from this pathetic creature.

It was why she barely responded, as Injustice threw profanity after profanity against her. He lied, he bargained, and he told her how ungrateful she was for not accepting his surrender terms.

Is this what becoming a demon does to you?

To reduce a human being into nothing but a contradictory, extreme, and nonsensical creature. Understanding them was difficult. There was no logic, not a shred of it. Perhaps that was why they killed so many for no reason.

They were former people, driven to madness, and turned into speaking, beastly animals.

The Diligence stopped.

"I really wanted…to pull you back," Adelyn said, her voice cracking. Her blood was still on her uniform when she looked down. Her eyes glazed empty. "Just like with all those before you. But, I realized, there is nothing left in there that is human."

"Human? Are you insulting me? I have ascended, ascended to greater heights. I am the Calamity of Injustice, beyond any mortal—"

"So I'll just free the human trapped in there. Goodbye."

A shot sliced through Injustice's mech. It wasn't 'Divine Judgement', it was simpler. Nothing but her special plasma rounds that she stockpiled before the battle. It only lasted a second, before the mech in front of her detonated in a gory fashion. This time, instead of only burning steel falling from the debris, his blood, so much of it, rained on the fields.

Adelyn remained silent, as Injustice's blood splattered on her mech.

She won.

Against Injustice.

[CALAMITY OF DESIRE LIQUIDATED!]

[LVL UP! NOW LVL. 36!]

[PROGRESS TO LVL. 36: 22%]

[ATTRIBUTE SLOT OPENED!]

[NEW MECH UPGRADE SLOT OPENED!]

[NEW SKILL SLOT OPENED!]

So much…

"H-hans," her shaky voice called out. "Hans…we…we won."

She felt almost giddy by it. She…she did it. She killed a calamity, with her shot. Tears fell on her cheeks. This thing, which cursed so many people, the thing she vowed to kill to free them, died in her hands.

"Hans. We won!" she cried out. "Hans…we…we…"

Suddenly, her eyes turned hollow. Why wasn't he replying? He always replied.

He always did.

"Hans…?"

She turned the turret of the Diligence to her side, straight in Hans' direction.

His mech remained still. Unmoving. She watched it for many seconds. No movement.

A cry filled with terror shrieked through the comms.

"Hans!"

[ARC VIII END: YOU ENFORCE]

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