FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Red Winter

Chapter 3: Hell March

Sneak Peek

Your plan will never work, Bereft growled in the folds of their mind. It’s too complicated.

“If you believed that you wouldn’t have gone through with it,” Kaleth grumbled, his identity concealed by a hoodie, his wings folded up painfully into a backpack as he sat in a café just across the street stirring his coffee, a half-eaten muffin sitting on the plate in front of him.

I’m doing it because the little bound hellmage put his fucking big boy pants on and thinks he’s some master planner now. Just hope you ain’t getting too big for your britches, Bereft seethed from the corners of Kaleth’s mind, though the drake could still feel the demon’s begrudging acceptance of the plan’s cleverness. If I had any say in the matter I’d drag you away from here and hop the border.

“We both know that’s not an option,” Kaleth muttered, his breath fogging up the window.

How will we know if Landon can pull this off?

“You may understand how these things work to some degree across the many planes of existence, but I’ve lived in this world. Nothing causes more panic and confusion than the threat of a Hell March.” Kaleth took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fogging up the window more before he sat back. “Trust me, we’ll know when things go down.”

There was silence.

“What? No witty comeback?” Kaleth cocked a brow.

I can feel how nervous you are, Bereft piped up. You don’t need any more voices of doubt in your head right now.

“Thanks,” Kaleth smiled.

Even if you are a chicken shit little coward, this plan takes some guts. So, I’ll assume you’re not a complete invertebrate.

“Thanks,” Kaleth rolled his eyes and sighed.

Maybe you’re not as smooth brained as I thought, Bereft rumbled.

Kaleth felt Alice’s influence and Mathais’s will sooth his rising anger. Bereft was baiting him into an argument and he just let it go. One of them needed to keep an eye out and they couldn’t miss their chance.

You know this plan is going to be very loud, Bereft rumbled his discontent. The EC is keeping it quiet for now, but once you do this, there will be no coming back. It’ll be global news.

“It buys us time, something we desperately need,” Kaleth picked at his muffin with his claw. “Besides, they know who I am and what I’ve done, or will soon. If I’m going to go down, I’m not going quiet.”

Finally something we can agree on. Bereft rumbled, his essence thrummed with impatience. You really don’t know how much you use your phone until you don’t have it, huh.

“It’s fine,” Kaleth breathed in and let it out slowly. “It’s fine. I trust Landon will get it done.”

An awful lot of faith in a complete dipshit.

Suddenly an emergency alarm bell rang out from the precinct, it was soft, muffled by the distance and the glass, but it was there.

“I think we can say that Landon did his job right,” Kaleth nodded and threw some cash on the table. “Your turn Killer.” Kaleth breathed walking out the door and letting Bereft take over their form.

*** Moments earlier ***

“En route to the station now?” Sister Yule confirmed, her pristine claws flipping over documents. “Of course, sweep the office for any other hidden safes or caches. Turn the place inside out if you have to. Get those records down to the lab to see if anything had been tampered with as soon as possible.”

The arctic fox had the phone practically glued to her head as he glanced over documents. She hung up the phone and continued to read over the convent and its history to see if there was any indication that this demon occurred naturally. Her instinct was telling her that something didn’t quite smell right. She was looking over an old flyer about the convent’s Fall Festival that had been scanned over to her, the image of Father Ore plastered on the front with the other sisters and staff.

“I wish I had the original,” Yule chewed on her thumbnail. Properly forgotten or not, she wanted to know if this was premeditated, or a crime of opportunity. When a demon consumes a soul, they consume that person’s life. Many things are connected to our souls, pictures being one of them, and so much of our reality exists because we are here to perceive it. Consuming a soul, especially by force, alters reality; our perception of anything connected to the victim’s soul changes. If a soul is consumed against its will, then reality will buckles and warps around the demon, cloaking them in the victim's life. Though, being demonic in nature, one can still catch glimpses of the victim if exposed to holy energy. A simple sprits of holy water and the image would blur and show glimpses of the victim. Though, photocopies and displayed images didn’t work that way. Copies and images on a screen are newly created images, a new document with the corrupted demon’s face. She couldn’t just splash water on it and expect it to change because it was never connected to the victim’s soul to begin with.

The phone on her desk rang and Yule glanced away from the copy to answer.

“Mathias’s office, Sister Yule speaking,” she spoke clear. Though, the fact she knew who Mathias was and that his name was still attached to the office proved he gave his soul willingly. If consumed in a deal, everything they are can be kept the way it was. The laws and terms of the soul’s consumption can be guided by stipulations of the demon deal. In other words, Mathias was left in the world as an entity either because it was part of their deal, or because the demon had more use for Mathias’s existence than his erasure.

Yule finished her call and put the phone back down, the status update coming back normal. She had taken over the coms for high priority calls for the duration of Mathias’s absence. She adjusted her glasses and went back to looking at the evidence on her desk.

“Who are you Father Ore,” Yule narrowed her eyes. “Or, better yet, who were you before? I can tell you weren’t properly forgotten, so you may be innocent in all this, but Mathias…we know you’re the root that started things. I doubt this was your intention all along, but you were a power hungry sort.”

The phone rang again.

“Mathias’s office, Sister Yule speaking,” the arctic fox’s ears twitched.

“Sister, we’ve got reports that could indicate a potential demon nest,” the officer spoke. “Strong sulfurous smells were detected. We’ve told the residents that it’s a gas leak, but it could be demon essence. A strong one. Or worse.”

“First, name and badge number,” Yule answered and opened her ledger, confirming the officer was on the roster, her ledger already pre-blessed so if an officer was taken against his will, his name would overlap with another. “Okay, report.”

“There was a reported gas leak. A standard evacuation was completed and residents are now outside. What should we do?”

“What’s the address?” Yule jotted it down and punched it into the system. The building was registered as a residential property, the owner a certain Kaleth Orebiter…

“Now why does that sound familiar,” Yule smiled.

“What was that mam?”

“Give me a second,” Yule pulled up Father Ore’s file. Full name Kaleth Orebiter. She pulled his name and put it into her system and got a hit on a confidential file. She smiled and typed in her password, unlocking the system and getting herself into the Kinling Registry. Sure enough, his known addresses were there and she pulled them all and looked at each one, finding the most recent to be owned by…

“Kaleth Orebiter, not so innocent huh,” Yule smiled and started drafting a report to search Orebiter’s properties and freeze his assets. “Do a standard sweep, assume demon activity in this situation. Round up all residents for questioning and demon dowsing.”

“Yes mam!”

“God’s will be done,” Yule gave her old affirmative before ending the call. No more than a few seconds later the phone rang again.

“Mathias’s office, Sister Yule speaking.”

“Yes mam, we have a reported gas leak.”

“Yes, we’ve already received the report from Delta team,” Yule smiled. “No need to send in another report.”

“Mam, this is Charlie team,” the voice continued.

“Huh…name and badge number please?” Yule confirmed the person’s identity in the registry before continuing. “Okay, what’s the address?”

Sure enough it was a different address, and once she looked it up, she confirmed it was another property owned by the infamous Father Ore.

“Understood,” Yule nodded. “Do a full sweep—”

A light started to blink on her phone, another call coming in.

“Mam?” the officer on the other end pressed.

“Standard demon protocol. Evacuate, contain, and dowsing. God’s will be done,” she hung up and answering the next call.

“Father Mathias’s office, Sister Yule speaking, name and badge number please.” She confirmed the caller and asked for their report.

“Yes Sister, it’s a gas leak.”

“What team?”

“Bravo mam,” the officer had a tired voice. “Like things could get any worse.”

“What do you mean?” Yule got her answer as several other lights of held calls started blinking on her phone.

“Romeo team is reporting a gas leak too,” the officer said. “Don’t know why the hell they’re telling me. I told them to call you—”

“Follow standard protocol, treat this as a serious demon threat. Evacuate, contain, and dowsing. That is a direct order, keep com’s open for further instruction. God’s will be with you.”

Yule hung up and answered the next call.

“Sister Yule speaking, is this about a gas leak?”

“Yeah, did Echo team already submit a report?” The officer asked. Yule didn’t bother taking the time to confirm the caller before giving her order to evacuate, contain, and dowsing.

Gas leaks were happening all over the city, all on properties owned by Kaleth Orebiter. They could just be gas leaks, but it was far too convenient. They needed to be sure the demon didn’t have any other brood nests or, God forfend, active summoning gates. If even one of the gas leaks were actually demonic activity, this could get out of hand fast. At best, it was a distraction, at worst; it was a damned Hell March! They failed to neutralize the demon, and they could have scared him into acting before he was truly ready to do so, but they didn’t know how long this demon had been out. He could have been here for a week or even years, they just didn’t have enough intel yet.

The properties were lighting up on the map one at a time in a crescent shape. Someone was going to each and either causing a gas leak, or activating something demonic in nature. At that speed, it was someone who could fly.

Yule froze mid-order and looked at Father Ore’s picture, his wings proudly on display.

“God bless it,” Yule was surprisingly calm despite the amount of adrenaline pumping through her veins. She hung up and pulled a wireless communicator from the desk, turning it on and sending out a silent alarm to all EC officers indicating a large scale demon attack could be imminent. They didn’t know if this was real, but until they had searched every building, they needed to treat it as though it were. She held down one of the talky buttons.

“All team units I am sending locations to each of you. Evacuate, contain, and sweep each building. We have a potential triple six alert on all these properties. Alpha team, I have a special assignment for you.”

Several confirmations came out through the coms before she opened the office doors and slammed the emergency alert button. A bell rang loud and true over the complex. “All hands on deck! All trained officers are to report to their designated location. Call in all men off duty and see if retirees can assist.”

“Um, mam,” one of the officers sitting at his desk got his order and looked up at her. “Alpha team is…uh…out of commission.”

“God bless it!” Yule looked over the rosters; a quarter of their man power had been clensed from the force by Sister Lorain when she came in the other day and more brave souls were lost on Mathias residence’s raid. They no longer had the numbers for this kind of attack. “Send any men we can spare to the address on this list. If I’m right, Father Ore will be hitting this location next and we need to be there to stop him. Until further notice, we are to initiate the protocol for a Hell March. Reach out to any other surrounding districts and get boots on the ground yesterday. God’s will be done!”

That sent a shiver through the skeleton crew and Yule took a breath. She was used to dealing with officers hardened by the Demon Slayer Core, these were just Exorcists Officers. They weren’t trained for mass scale invasions. She calmed herself.

“This could just be several gas leaks. The most important thing is that we prevent panic. Get Foxtrot team on crowd control and order emergency closures to all schools in the designated areas. Get everyone home and start putting wards up at prime locations like hospitals and shelters. We don’t know what’s coming, but we are prepared and trained.” Yule lied, but her men needed comfort more than they needed a reality check. “I’ll handle coms from here. You all get suited up!”

“Yes mam!” The rest of them saluted and went off. Lorain had put the fear of God in them and whipped them into shape, but they didn’t need fear right now, they needed guidance.

And that’s why she was always paired with Lorain.

“Well, one of the reasons,” Yule stepped back into the office, closing the door behind her. She strode back to the desk and pulled the phone up to start directing orders. She was quick, she was concise, and she was gentle yet firm. Most of these men were used to Mathias’s iron fist, but Yule had a velvet glove that gently brought people into line. After the harsh, biting sting of Lorain’s tongue, Yule was usually a welcome contrast.

There was a knock on the door that gave Yule pause on her call, but broke away from her conversation just long enough to give the all clear to enter while she continued to handle the situation.

“Um…shouldn’t I give my name and badge number?” The officer said cracking the door open. “I mean, if we’re treating this as a potential Hell March?”

“Of course,” Yule glanced up at the officer, it was the lamb that Lorain couldn’t harm back when they took over the lead of the Exorcist Core, a soul free of mortal sin. “Okay Gregory, what’s your badge number?”

He rattled it off and entered the office, walking to Yule’s desk as she did a quick glance over her registry.

“Kilo team, are you approaching the property—” the call ended with a click. “Kilo? Hello?”

Just then she found Gregory’s name and the hair on her neck stood on end. The name was shimmering between two as though they were floating atop the paper. She had never seen something like this. Both the names were clearly on display, Gregory’s and…”

Lorain glanced over at the phone, the lamb’s hand having clicked the receiver. She followed the hand up to his face where empty sockets met her. His soul had been ripped from him. Only yellow pinpricks of light existed inside those inky voids.

“Kaleth?” Yule’s voice was even as she cocked a brow.

“Wow,” the hellmage spoke from the hall as he came in, his imposing form swaggering into Mathias’s office like he owned it. “I was expecting a scream or at least a scuffle.”

“Coward, Gregory wasn’t trained for combat,” Yule answered standing up, pulling a bible from her habit. “He was mainly tech and support.”

“Hold on,” the hellmage smirked, pulling back his hood and exposing himself. The dragon was tall and powerful, already gorged himself on several souls with how imposing he was. His blond hair was messy, no doubt from running about, his eyes glowed a demonic red. “You don’t want to lose poor Greg here, do you?”

“He’s already a thrall,” Yule cracked her bible. “He’s gone, and soon you will be too.” Golden light rippled through the letters on her bible’s pages, but the hellmage did something that she never expected him to do.

“You sure about that? His soul is right here,” the hellmage opened his maw and a golden light shone deep inside it.

Yule’s eyes went wide. He hadn’t completely consumed the soul yet. There was still a chance to save him. That explained why the names were both present without completely overlapping. Yule had only ever met demons that were ravenous from hunger, or senseless beasts that consumed all in their path without a second thought. She never once considered one of them would use a soul as ransom.

“What do you want?” Yule narrowed her eyes, not putting her bible down.

[b][url=https://www.patreon.com/Bighope]HERE: Read the rest on my Patreon![/url][/b]