Broken World Chapter 5

New Chapter! It took a while but I've finally written it. I'm also thinking on a new name, although I am unsure at the moment. Broken World just doesn't sound right to me. Perhaps I should go back to the old title of just 'Demons'. Or perhaps something like 'Demon World'. Am unsure at the moment as I said.

Previous Chapter: Broken World Chapter 4

Chapter List: Broken World Chapters

 

A few days had passed since these incident at the hospital. Since the monsters kept showing up around Edwin, coupled with the helpless feeling he had felt at the hospital whilst they had attacked and killed people, he had decided to accept Seymour’s offer. He would join the fight, by joining the organisation, and learning how to defend himself and fight back. Not much had changed since going back to school. No one in his class talked to him. Tom kept giving him evil looks. The only things that had changed were that Melisandre would look over to him every now and again. When he caught her he could see she was looking disapprovingly at him. The other thing that had changed was that Beatrix would now seek him out during break times to talk to him. He hadn’t gone to boxing practice yet, but he had assured her he’d start attending soon. This particular day, however, he was going to be busy with something important. This was when he was meeting with Seymour, where, hopefully, he would learn how to defend himself.

School had ended, but Edwin and Seymour remained. Seymour was leading Edwin somewhere.

“That woman that appeared to you in the hospital Edwin. I’m worried about what she said to you. She called them ‘children’? Strange, very strange. We don’t know anyone that matches your description of her, but we’re going to be on the lookout from now on. If she really has some connection to the demons, then we need to find out exactly what it is. Here we are”

They’d arrived in front of the door of the toilet for the disabled.

“Did you know that out of all the students and all the staff, there surprisingly isn’t a single disabled person at this school? And yet it’s always occupied.”

He took out a key and unlocked the door. Instead of a toilet inside, however, just beyond the doorway, was an elevator.

Clever Edwin thought.

Seymour pressed the button to open the elevator.

There were a few beep noises and what looked like strange symbols glowed on the elevator door for a moment. Then the door opened and in they went.

Once the door closed, Edwin spoke “This is all pretty crazy. A secret elevator inside the school itself? Why do you seem to have a key for every door here? And what were those strange glowing symbols?”

“So many questions” Seymour sighed. “Strange symbols? Don’t know what you’re talking about. I have a key for most doors because I work for the organisation, and yes the secret school elevator is a bit crazy. It works well though. Now, before we arrive, the floor I’m taking you to isn’t some registration hall for new members or anything like that. I’m not taking you to reception to sign in. That isn’t exactly how we do things. I’m taking you to a training facility, where I can safely show you how to fight against the demons. Once that is out of the way is when we can start introducing you to other members and you can start to learn about the actual organisation itself.”

Clearly Seymour wasn’t going to give him any more answers than that for now, so Edwin waited patiently.

Eventually the lift stopped. How deep does this go, I wonder? Seymour led the way out into a metal corridor, that reminded Edwin of the inside of a submarine he’d seen in a movie, except without any windows. Corridors branched off in cross sections but no one else was to be seen. They came to a door with a computer terminal next to it. Edwin pressed some buttons and typed something and the door opened. Here they came into a very large room. Along the walls were benches, and hanging on the walls above them were clothes; what looked like some sort of tactical armoured gear. Also hanging on along the walls were all sorts of weaponry. There were guns, daggers, and even swords and shields. At one end of the room was a large screen, although it was currently turned off. There were also doors at each wall of the room.

“These weapons, as well as the armour, are designed to be effective against demons, apart from the guns, unfortunately. They’re ordinary guns. They’re not very effective against the bigger ones, but they can be useful against the weaker ones, and sometimes can be used as a distraction. As it stands though, Demons are made out of, to put it simply, harder stuff than we are. Than anything in our world is, actually. Normal metal can’t always pierce their skin. That’s why we have these specially designed weapons. For now, I want you to armour up and take a dagger from the wall. We’ll start with the dagger and move on from there.”

Edwin did as he was told. The clothing he put on covered every part of his body except for his head, and there were helmets available as well, but he left them alone for now. The dagger seemed like an average military knife, except that the metal wasn’t as shiny. It had a darker tint to it. Seymour was at another door with another terminal that he used to open it. He led Edwin into the next room.

The next room was even larger. This one was as big as a sports field, with the height of a mansion.

“A training room for what we train for has to be big.” Seymour remarked.

“So how does this work?” Edwin asked. “I’ve got the armoured clothing and a knife. So, how do I fight them?”

“We fight them by fighting them. We train to fight them by fighting them. And to join us, I didn’t mention this, you need to prove yourself, and you prove yourself by fighting one of them” Seymour answered.

Edwin felt his blood run cold. I have to fight one?

“Debilis Fames Daemon Crypta Immortalitas Resigno” Seymour said these words in a strange tone that echoed through the hall. As each word was spoken a glowing symbol appeared before him in the air, just like the symbols that were on the elevator door. When the last words were spoken the symbols aligned themselves on the floor in a circular formation. They rose from the floor and from beneath them appeared a creature.

It looked like a person at first. However, Edwin soon realised that it couldn’t be human. Its skin was unnaturally pale. It had fingers and toes but no nails. It had no belly button but it’s stomach was unnaturally large. It was completely bald from head to toe. It had no reproductive organs at all, and didn’t even have any nipples. What was most unsettling, however, was the face. It lacked eyes and ears, and its nose was sealed over. Edwin assumed the only thing it had was a mouth, but he couldn’t tell. What looked like a metal plate had been bolted over where its mouth should have been.

“Now as you can see I’ve taken every precaution to make sure your life isn’t in danger. This is one of the most common, one of the weakest, and even then still one of the most dangerous demons. Make no mistake that this is a mindless beast. All it feels is hunger that can never be sated. It will try to devour anything and everything until its own stomach bursts. And now you’re going to fight it.” Seymour explained.

The creature moved its head around as if it was looking at its surroundings, even without any eyes. Its head stopped at Edwin. It crouched down to all fours then started to run towards him.

“Just remember to stay calm. You’re armoured, and you have a weapon, whereas this beast has none” Seymour shouted.

Edwin had frozen to the spot. It was another demon. And, once again, it was coming for him. His other encounters came back to him in flashes. This one was also a demon. Except something was different this time….

It’s a lot smaller. He felt the grip of the weapon in his hand. Seymour is right. I’ve got a weapon this time too.

He held his knife outwards as he imagined he should, as the demon came charging towards him. When it was a few feet away it suddenly jumped at him. His knife got knocked aside and he was thrown to the floor, with the demon on top of him. He felt a slimy hand grabbing at his face. The demon’s mouth was on him then. It was trying to bite at him but it couldn’t.

“Get…. OFF!” Edwin shouted, trying to push it off him. It was heavier than he’d thought. He took the knife and stabbed it in the side. The demon stopped moving for just a moment. Edwin used that moment to get one of his feet up between himself and the demon and pushed it over his own head. He then quickly got to his feet. He was breathing fast and heavy now, and as he looked over to the demon he could see that it was bleeding from where he’d stabbed it.

The demon seemed like it was looking around in apparent confusion. It raised its hands to the metal plate bolted over its and started scratching futilely at it. Then, as it found the edged of the plate, it suddenly grabbed on. As Edwin watched on in shock and horror the demon started pulling furiously. Blood started leaking from the sides of the plate as it started to rip from the demon’s face. With a loud clang the metal came free of its face and was flung to the floor.

Any lips the demon might have had had been ripped from its face. The flesh that was left looked jagged like some strange, covered in blood, mountain range. All too clearly Edwin could see its teeth. Larger than any normal human’s teeth, and as it opened its mouth Edwin could see more, this time sharp fang-like teeth, inside. Its mouth, what was left of it, extended to the sides far more than a human’s would as well, allowing it to open its jaw unnaturally far. It truly looked to Edwin like a monster out of a horror film. Then it moved towards him.

Edwin held his knife out again. This time, however, looking at the demon’s rows of teeth, he felt outmatched.

Then a loud bang went off and the demon staggered back. What looked like bullet wounds had appeared in its side.

“This wasn’t meant to happen Edwin. It shouldn’t have been able to take off that seal around its mouth. You’ve got my backup for now. I really should’ve been more careful… I’m not wearing any armour and the only weapon I’ve got is a normal gun. You’re going to have to be the one to take centre and kill it. I can only act as support and a distraction at most” came Seymour’s shout. He suddenly sounded very professional, and it reassured Edwin. Seymour was a member of this organisation, whose job it was to fight demons, and this was a weak demon at that.

Wait, I’m going to have to kill it?

The demon was looking around now, as if looking for its attacker. Edwin decided to take his chance and swung at it. He managed to cut flesh but the demon reacted and grabbed Edwin with its hands as it opened its mouth and moved in. More bangs sounded and the demon staggered to the side, allowing Edwin to break face and stab it multiple times in the chest. He then carefully and swiftly put some distance between himself and it.

The demon recovered almost instantly. The numerous knife wounds and bullet wounds didn’t seem to slow it down at all.

“This really isn’t working!” Edwin shouted in panic. “What do I do to take this thing down, Seymour!?”

“Stay calm. This is one of the things I meant when I said they’re made of harder stuff than us. You won’t be able to kill it by stabbing it in the chest, only slow it down, temporarily. It won’t die of blood loss either. The only way to take it down is to stab it in the head.” Seymour shouted back.

Edwin slowly and carefully closed the distance between himself and the demon. As he closed in, Seymour shot it in the leg. Its leg buckled for a moment and Edwin had his chance. Or so he thought. With unnatural speed the demon suddenly jumped at Edwin, seemingly ignoring the wound in its led.

Its hands were grabbing a hold of Edwin’s head then, as its horrific rows of teeth came closing in towards Edwin. Edwin dropped the knife then, using both his hands to try to grab its own head and keep its mouth away from him.

“Never drop your weapon, Edwin!” came a shout from Seymour, followed by more gunshots. The demon didn’t seem to notice any of them now that it was this close to its prey. Then one of them hit its head, a mere inch from Edwin’s own hand. Its head was knocked to the side and its grip weakened. Edwin managed to roll and swing the demon to the ground, so that now he was the one on top. He kept one hand on its head to keep it down and managed to grab his knife with the other hand. As the demon’s hands grabbed frantically at Edwin’s face he swung the knife in and managed to stab it into the side of the demon’s head. The demon stopped moving as the killing blow was struck.

Edwin left the blade in the side of its head for good measure and fell to the side onto his back, breathing heavily. Seymour appeared above him.

“Not bad. I mean I’ve seen better but you did good. I’ve seen worse.” He extended a hand to help Edwin get up.

“What the hell was that?” Edwin asked between breaths.

“I told you. It’s one of the most common and weakest of demons. It’s a hunger demon. It spends its entire life in starvation, constantly hungering for anything and everything. These things devour whatever they can find as fast as they can. Even then they carry on eating. Like I said, they will literally eat until their stomach bursts, and then eat more. Their bodies are tough, and they don’t die easily. Like any demon really…”

“I didn’t mean that” Edwin clarified, although the information, unnerving as it was, was appreciated. “I mean what was that. Suddenly unleashing that thing on me! Making me fight to the death without any training!”

“Oh. That. Don’t worry it was perfectly safe. You had a weapon, and you had your armour on. Besides these beasts are unpredictable. There isn’t a way to train you against them. You just have to be able to handle them. Think of it as a test. If you weren’t able to handle this one as you are, then no training in the world could prepare you for the bigger ones. This is the training. Although I will give you one piece of advice, and you can consider it lesson number one. Always make sure, and I mean really make sure, that your target is dead before you turn your back on it” Seymour’s eyes went to the creature on the floor behind Edwin.

                Edwin turned around in horror to see the demon getting back up to its feet. Its hands found the knife in its head and it violently pulled it free.

Bang. The gunshot made Edwin’s head ring. This gunshot sounded different somehow. He felt something go through him, although when he looked down at his chest there was no wound. When he looked back to the demon a wound had appeared in its. From the wound what looked like cracks appeared and spread across its body, and from the cracks sprouted flames, burning the entire demon from the chest outwards, until it was completely burnt and fell to the ground.

                “Okay, so maybe a head wound isn’t the only way to kill it” came Seymour voice. As Edwin watched on, the burnt corpse suddenly juttered and started to glow, giving off a strange purple hue.

                “What the hell is going on?” Edwin asked.

                “This is one way to be sure a demon is dead. When they die, because they’re not originally from this world, their body grows unstable. They start reverting to a sort of base primitive material that makes up their body, unique to their world. This material is actually what we use to make our weapons. It’s a shame it doesn’t work well with gunpowder, or we could make bullets out of it…. Medietas Horreum Depositum”

                Once again as he said the words strange glowing symbols appeared in the air and floating over to the corpse of the demon. They positioned themselves in a circular formation above it and seemed to suck the glowing corpse away into nothingness.

                Edwin turned to Seymour. “Why didn’t you do that as soon as the demon ripped its mouth free?” he asked.

                Seymour shrugged, a guilty looking grin on his face. “Alright you caught me. I could’ve killed it straight away. It was actually all part of the plan. I had control of the situation, so you don’t need to worry so much. I just needed to show you what a real fight against these monsters is like. Every instant you’re against one is a fight for your very life, an inch away from death at all times. You need to be able to deal with that, or you won’t be able to deal with them.”

                Edwin felt just a tad outraged. How could that situation be under control?

                “Also, did you shoot me? I felt something go through me but obviously I don’t have a hole in my chest. And I thought you just said that you can’t make bullets from this material” he asked.

                “You felt it? It’s a special bullet. Only affects demons. And yes like you said, it’s not made out of that material. Its secret is separate. All in due time. I don’t want to overload your senses. It’s a lot to take in” Seymour answered.

                “It’s a bit late for that.”

                Edwin was starting to dislike this guy.