+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

"Halt! Lay down your arms and surrender yourselves! By the orders of His Holiness, Pope Paul IX, you—members of the western Imperial Army, are to be arrested for desecrating the authority of the church!"

"Hey, Hans, what are we going to do?"

"Ignore him. Load MPAT incendiary—"

"I don't have one. I didn't expect the need for anti-personnel munitions!"

"I see. Then stay back, and support me from any armored or demonic threats."

"We are members of the Templar Knights! If you continue resisting our authority, you shall be executed—"

"Hey, you. The one in the front who's shouting at us," Hans ominously spoke using his speakers. "Do you recognize who we are?"

The 'knight templar' flinched, backing off a bit with his horse. They wore quite the elaborate, white, almost 'angelic' like armor and uniform. From what he knew, these people were usually quite powerful, on par or superior to the Imperial Mage Corps and Empress Elisa's personal guards.

But, regardless, as soldiers back in Terra would say, 'we're in a tank, and they're not'.

To be quite frank, Hans knew the reality of this land. Outside of truly exceptional individuals like Alizée, Adelyn, and to a lesser extent, Lady Emilia, no one had the ability to fight a mech. Of course, there would be other people like them too…

But he doubted that in the face of the Angel of Justice and him, these knights would stand much of a chance.

"You're a part of a rebellious force!" the knight templar shouted, defensively. "You have rejected the orders that will give salvation to mankind! And thus, you spat in the gospel of our gods! Have you no shame?!"

"Cowards!" more of the knights shouted. "Get out of those metal wagons! Face us with honor!"

"Traitors! Traitors! They are puppets of the demon scum!"

Ironic…

Hans tiredly sighed as he looked at these people. Some of them were clearly already charging their staves and wands. Others were preparing AoE spells using large magic circle rituals on the ground.

He can even see from his thermals that there were guns, at least six of them, most likely of older design, being prepared from the ruins of a town nearby, all aimed at Hans and Adelyn.

"Get out of our way," Hans demanded. "By the authority of the Empress, Elisa d'Ottavio, I order you to vacate your blocking positions, or I will have no choice but to eliminate you. You've all been deceived by the church, so I wish to grant you mercy at least."

"Deceived?! What foolishness?! We are the servants of the gods, who are you to speak to us—"

"The church you knew is long gone. I'm sorry, there's nothing else that can be done here. None of you deserves to die—but I cannot let you live and delay us any longer. That's just how it is."

Hans pulled back rapidly, as his main gun opened fire at the man. An explosion murdered the knight, and the rest panicked from that show of force. He used that to its fullest.

Belt after belt of his machine guns bellowed out incendiary rounds. His main gun tore through their ranks each reload, not even letting their distant artillery a chance to open fire. Even battlemages who managed to fire spells at him failed, as they were mowed down without mercy.

By the time he fired five MPAT rounds and four hundred rounds of incendiary magazines, the rest of them scattered in terror, running away, while the rest burned brutally or bled out in the fields.

His mech advanced through the carnage he created, as his eyes turned hollow. Anyone he found using his thermal sights was eliminated. Some cried, some begged for mercy, but ultimately, it was hard to hear—because he turned off his external audio receivers.

All he could see was the chaos he was unleashing. He was supposed to be mankind's 'Grey Knight', they said, but the way things were, he now once again felt like a true soldier.

Not a hero, but a soldier. Someone who killed because he had to. Nothing more, nothing less.

No one could be allowed to escape, or they would only sow chaos with their words. He cut them all down, and no one could outrun his monstrous machine. Even those who boarded horses or used flight magic barely managed to get out of a three-kilometer radius before being gunned down mercilessly.

When he was done, he turned his mech to Adelyn.

"Captain," he called out using his radio. "We can proceed now."

"...Hans?"

"Yes?"

"Why?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"You know why. We're on different teams now," Hans coldly said. "Let's go. We cannot waste any more time. I'll inform General Kohler about this. From now on, our enemies aren't just demons anymore…but anyone deceived by them."

The fact that he barely received any XP from that made Hans wince, even if necessary. Indeed, not even the 'system' could recognize his act as something worthy of being rewarded with strength.

Why? Because all he did was kill defenseless fools.

But isn't that just how war is?

+++

Principality of Armonia

Caecum Hill

August 20, 1539 CE

It had been days since that incident.

The rest of the journey to the city overlooking Caecum Hill, one of the prominent hills near the Imperial Capital, had been a difficult one.

Constantly, they had been harassed and skirmished by local units that were now given orders from the top to attack 'western forces'.

Fortunately, the YEF was strong. A lot of the garrison and knightly units loyal to the pope melted upon first contact, and a lot of fights devolved into both sides firing a few potshots at each casualties, before one side surrendered.

Apparently, his massacre a few days ago killed most of the high-ranking Templar knights who would have organized the defense of the Imperial Capital. A lot of the soldiers resisting them only received conflicting orders, and weren't given proper organization by the pope's men.

All because he murdered them all. The fact that Hans and Adelyn even met them was a fluke, as they were already about to spread out after they received an order from the pope that night, when they were sent out with outdated orders.

That kind of luck was something Hans didn't consider lasting, and right now, Hans and Adelyn reached Caecum Hill, right in front of the fortress city of Regisa. Sat in front of Regisa, however, was an army.

Not to mention, Regisa itself was a star fort. Artillery of all kinds was arrayed on top of its bastions and ravelins, and there were ditches and trench lines that circled the fort.

With his long-ranged thermal sights, he could even see soldiers and mages hard at work, digging and fortifying their lines. Sure, there were no demons here, which made sense, because there was a large presence of human forces.

But there were human forces loyal to the pope.

"Can we bypass that?" Adelyn asked.

"Probably not," Hans said. "With the last updated positions given by the Empress about lesser demons, it seems that this place is the only gap at the moment—and there's a fortress standing in front of it."

"Is it an option to ride around this region then?"

"No. We'll run out of supplies by then."

The pope's strategy was quite evident to Hans. While he didn't know where the YEF's individual units were moving, and he didn't have enough lesser demons to cover ground and much less resist their advance, adding fortresses manned by loyalists meant that his demons wouldn't need to patrol as much land area.

With Regisa blocking this road, which was the major road leading to Serenus, sending the rest of the brigades transported by long lines of carriage convoys might prove difficult too. They were, in other words, sandwiched.

Even if they moved to the countryside and quickly dispatched whatever demons came their way, the fortress could send troops out to harass their ad-hoc transit lines.

"I think it'll take two brigades to take these guys out," Hans analyzed. "If they can launch an overwhelming assault in a day, we can blast through Regisa and drive to Serenus in a flash."

"But then, those brigades will use up valuable supplies. Isn't that what we're avoiding?"

"Indeed, but if the losses only happen to a few units, the rest will still arrive at Serenus fresh and ready for combat," Hans grinned. "I'll run this through with General Kohler. For now, let's get to work scouting them further."

"I see."

And so, Hans and Adelyn got to work. Using their spare maps of the area, they began marking the positions held by the enemy. With their long-range sensors and equipment, they could see the enemy, but the enemy couldn't.

It was an easy affair, that by two hours, they practically scouted a semi-circle perimeter around Regisa. All that was left was to turn back after the Empress gave her updates, which was when Hans and Adelyn informed her about the fortress.

They drove back and met one of the advance units of the 1st Anti-Demon Unit. Hans and Adelyn gave their officers instructions about what to do at Caelum Hill, before moving onwards to the command staff convoy that carried Elisa and General Kohler.

+++

+++ Empress Elisa d'Ottavio +++

It was already late in the afternoon.

Elisa was truly sickly at this point. She had been exerting her mana and abilities to her absolute limits since they set out here, and it was difficult.

She had been unable to restrain herself, anyway. The battle against Cowardice scared Elisa sufficiently that she couldn't accept sloppiness when it came to her command and control mission.

With General Kohler's help, Elisa communicated constantly with their lower command as she used her ability, and so far, it worked. Not a lot of demon encounters happened. In fact, the only times they had to fight demons were when they chose to do it because they were easy pickings.

But now…

She found herself in a predicament, and so did the rest of the YEF. How would they bypass demons when that would mean combat with loyalist troops? Her subjects, deceived by the pope, had taken up arms against the YEF.

And while they were weak, they were a thorn in their side. Not only did they delay the YEF, but fighting them also sapped fighting morale. They were here to fight for mankind, for heaven's sake, not to shoot their own.

And Hans Hoffman's solution was to shoot them.

"...Is there really no other option than this?" Elisa quickly made her skepticism clear. "Look, while I've overlooked you gunning down the pope's guards so gruesomely to destroy their chain of command, this time around, you're proposing a pitched battle. Regisa is also a populated city."

"Yes, and that will mean collateral casualties," Hans declared. "However, that's unavoidable. The plan is simple. We'll surround them with two of our reserve brigades, and with Captain Wittenstein's ideal, we'll blast a hole so massive on Regisa's walls they'll have no choice but to surrender."

"Regisa is a magical fortress, like the Imperial Capital," Elisa countered. "I understand the power of the Angel of Justice herself, but…the cities we're assaulting are no slouch. Not only are its walls reinforced by magic, but Regisa is also surrounded by a powerful barrier artifact at the city's citadel."

"I can fire 'Divine Judgement' at least four times in a day," Adelyn said, trying to smile a bit. "Even if their defenses hold one or two, the third should break through."

"Indeed. And with the firepower of two brigades, they should be able to force a surrender," Hans coldly followed up.

Elisa turned to General Kohler. At the end of the day, this man decided what would happen.

And she watched him nod.

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