The rain had just begun to fall on Anime Rome, the site of a grand-scale battle between the guilds of the realm and the foreign enemies known only as Venom. They were comprised of mostly humans, but all of the members had differing ideals and beliefs that meant problems for the rest of the realm.
“Captain!” A young man ran into the tent of Captain Ghaleon of the 13th Battalion. “We just received word that the outbreak has begun to spread outside of the zone.”
“What?!” Ghaleon stood up quickly, slamming the palms of his hands down onto the desk loudly. “Where is it close to hitting?”
“Reports say that Haon'dor and Xenogaeus are showing threat levels, and they're slowly increasing.” The captain slowly slid back down into his seat, sighing. “Your… orders, sir?”
“Leave me.” The young man departed the captain's presence, allowing him to think about the situation peacefully. The captain's guest sat across from him, biting her lip softly as she saw him worrying. Seeing her own reaction, he relaxed and chuckled. “It's fine. We did prepare if such a thing happened. Are you sure you want to stick around here, though?”
“Of course. I want to be here… with you.” Ghaleon nodded, standing up.
“Well, let's try to claim this battle as ours, then.” He took his weapon off of the desk and stepped out of the tent, planning to take part in the battle now.
Xenogaeus was bustling with activity in preparation for any larger threats. Venom agents had recently been spotted on the outskirts of the city, increasing the pressure that was put on the citizens to evacuate. Porunga and the other city guardians had been called away to the main battlefield, halfway across the realm, leaving the guilds to take care of the place on their own. The 15th and 19th Squads, led by Karona and Fairanko respectively, were positioned for the main defense around the western gate.
“Three of my men will scout the other gates and contact Central if a large force is sighted.” Karona had tried to plan as much as he could with the minimal amount of soldiers he was given, but hadn't expected to see any action for another day, when his unit was to be moved to the main area.
“Sir!” A young ranger shouted from above, positioned in one of the watchtowers. “A large force is heading this way through the forest! I can't keep track of the numbers, but the front should break in your view around ten minutes.”
“Gotcha. Get ready, everyone!” Karona rallied his troops. “Lady Fairanko, are you okay with this?”
“I guess… I don't like battles like this, though.” She sighed as the archers under her commands readied their bows.
“Stand your ground, men!” Ghaleon yelled at the guild members fighting. A group of Behemoths had been freed from the zoo by Venom, running amock on the field and causing heavy damage to both sides. Ghaleon shifted into a mist as he ran, passing quickly through the ranks towards one of the mighty beasts. Solidfying himself briefly, he pushed off of the ground and took a large jump, tightly holding his weapon, the Devil's Horn Fragment, in both of his hands.
“Don't count on it!” spoke a squeaky voice. Before he knew it, a mighty wind pushed Ghaleon off-course, causing him to dig his weapon into one of his own men. “The mighty Demon General, demoted to a low-rank battalion. How the mighty have fallen, indeed.” Ghaleon turned around to get a look at the person who was talking, but couldn't see anyone. “Down here, dolt!”
A small, sickly-looking Moogle fluttered its wings in anger near the ground. Ghaleon didn't take long to realize who it was. “Oh, it's you, Momo…”
“That's right! This is the only way you all will notice me; serving the enemy of the realm! Fear Darth Momo now!” He began to cackle, his squeaky voice making both sides groan in pain, covering their ears instead of fighting. Ghaleon growled, lifting his right leg behind him a bit.
“Get out of the way!” Carrying his leg forward, he dug the tip of his foot just under Momo and sent him flying high above. As the Moogle began to descend, the Captain spun about to gather speed and send the opponent flying with a powerful kick. Momo shot off like a rocket across the battlefield, soon disappearing out of sight. Both troops cheered Ghaleon on before resuming their own battles, allowing the Captain to regain his composure. “Now, where's that Behemoth at…”
More than twenty minutes had passed since the scout's report, yet there had been no sighting of a large Venom force. Karona was starting to feel uneasy with how quiet the forest of Haon'dor had become.
“What's the situation, rangers?” he shouted up at the watchtower above.
“Sir, they're not visible anymore.” Karona took out a map of Haon'dor and studied it, asking another ranger where the force had been sighted. Calculating that the city was their target, he had expected to see more than what had shown up, four or five agents showing up every couple of minutes and posing no real threat.
“Oh no!” Fairanko saw the connection first. “What if they're using the river?!”
“What?!” Karona looked at the Dark River, seeing it run right through the center of town. “You stay here and defend the gate. Let's go, Squad 15!” He pushed the gates open, entering the city as he though, “Damn them…”
The city was still trying to get all of the civilians out. Death Squad and Box of Under guards bit their lips in frustration, the wartime peace treaty forcing them to work together and evacuate all of the civilians instead of fighting one another. Karona passed by the Mall Square, bumping into a lumpy-looking Hellsing guard limping his way to the Temple Square. He thought nothing of the sight until a Cabbit began hissing violently at it. Allowing the rest of his squad to deal with the levee, Karona turned back around and slowly walked to the guard.
“Officer, shouldn't you be guarding the gates?” he asked cautiously, studying the guard's body closely. He saw a foreign weapon holstered on the waist. “Definitely not standard issue…” he thought. He silently motioned for a Death Squad member to come over, but before they could do anything more, the guard clutched at its chest and began to pull its clothes off.
Pulling off more than just clothes, the disguise of a Hellsing guard was pulled off and a young man with green hair emerged into sight. “Don't think you can catch me yet. The name of Jade shall be known once again!” With that, he laughed maniacally as he disappeared amongst the crowd of panicked citizens. Karona hailed one of his men to quickly contact Central while the rest of the squad took care of the Venom soldiers trekking through the water. “This is really, really bad,” he thought as Jade's laugh echoed around the city.
