In the chronicles of our valiant struggle during the Reclamation War, we encountered no adversary more daunting than the Mareian Rangers. These formidable foes were not merely adept horsemen, akin to the Kingdom’s Hussars, nor simply exemplary marksmen like the Mareian Chosen, nor merely accomplished woodsmen, reminiscent of our own Imperial Scouts. Each Ranger was a paragon of all these virtues, underpinned by an indefatigable spirit that drove them to persevere against insurmountable odds—far beyond the endurance of any ordinary soldier. Tales of their rigorous training, necessary to earn the esteemed title of Ranger, were recounted around our campfires, intended to instill a profound sense of respect and caution. The presence of even a single Ranger on the battlefield was a harbinger of doom for many, with the extent of the carnage constrained only by the ammunition at his disposal. Within their ranks, it was said, there were those whose very presence invoked trepidation amongst their comrades. These were the Rangers who ventured into the desolate and perilous expanse known as the Badlands. Thus, they became legends in their own right—a testament to the valor and tenacity that epitomized the Mareian Rangers. – excerpt from “Memoirs of the Reclamation War” by Lord Junis Vallen, commander of the Eagle Division
RIN
In the Republic of Marei, common wisdom was one shouldn’t enter the Badlands if one wanted to remain alive – or sane. The Badlands were a cursed expanse of desert. Most people went mad in a few months. Rin was one of the few who could traverse the Badlands and keep his sanity. He wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse.
The magic might not make me insane, but seeing things like this might, Rin thought. After nearly eight years working in the Badlands as a Republican ranger, Rin thought he’d seen all the horror the cursed lands could throw at him. He should have known better. Rin climbed down off his horse and carefully tread on the sandy ground. His horse refused to go any closer. Common sense was for Rin to gallop back to Fort Killian as fast as he could and return with as many of his fellow rangers as he could. Sometimes, unfortunately, common sense needed to be put aside to get the job done. Particularly when dealing with demons.
“Just as I told you,” hissed the foul creature, as it shimmered into visibility. Rin ignored the demon as he studied the scene.
Most people thought of demons as monsters who tore through army platoons without effort. Some demons could, but most of them were little more than shadows. Nothing like the daemon they once had been. When those monsters opened gates two centuries ago, the daemon slaughtered millions. The races of the world threw whatever they could forge, build, or cast against the invaders. It wasn’t until almost all the world’s natural magic was locked away by Killian’s Benevolent Betrayal that the races of the world had a fighting chance. Without being able to tap into natural magic, the daemon were vulnerable. They died, but they didn’t leave this realm. They became demons and drawn to the Badlands because somewhere in the cursed land was where Killian performed his ritual.
“Done what required. Fulfill your bargain,” the demon said, with a voice like a loud, malicious whisper. Demons were able to use a bit of their own magic. Enough to channel the trickles of the world’s natural magic still left into powerful spells. Demons used their magic to lure idiots looking for power. Those idiots never understood that the demons’ magic also allowed them to enforce the bargain. Any demon’s ultimate goal was to gain a shard of a person’s soul. The power of a soul allowed the demon to fully come into the world with all the power and terror of the long-dead daemon. A souled demon was immensely powerful on its own, but it could also bind any other demon and use their power. Most of Rin’s job was stopping fools looking for demons before the demons found them. That didn’t mean he was above bargaining with the demons when necessary. He just had to be very careful about the terms.
Demons ranged the gamut from simple innocent-looking tricksters to true horrors that hurt a person’s mind just by looking. Most demons tried to mimic humans when dealing with people, but for some reason they could never get the details quite right. The eyes were too big, or the hair was a metallic color, or there were tentacles instead of fingers. There was always something off. This demon didn’t bother with pretenses. Rin wasn’t a short man at nearly two meters, but the demon towered over him. Its current form was a slimy, bulging mass of gray flesh, tentacles, and claws. There was only a small protrusion with eyes and mouth. Usually, these kinds of demons just slaughtered anything around it until it was put down. Rin was surprised when it approached him the night before to bargain for information.
“No, you haven’t done what was required,” Rin replied. The demon shrank back from Rin’s gaze. It wasn’t going to do anything stupid while Rin still held the prize of a soul shard. Demons were often depicted in paper novels as wily, cunning foes. They could be – if you forgot what they were after. Above all else, the demons wanted soul shards. All their promises, all their gifts, all their magic was devoted to gaining those precious shards. Hold that out as bait, and a demon would agree to damn near anything.
Rin covered his face with a bandanna. The cloth cut the stench down to bearable. Torn human innards smelled bad enough. After baking in the hot sun, the odor would make most people wretch. Unfortunately, the stench wasn’t what was causing Rin’s stomach to flop over. According to the demon, this scene was two days old. Badlands scavengers never passed up a free meal, but there weren’t even any flies on the bodies. Eighteen people tied hand to foot in a large circle, including the half-dozen children. From their features and clothing, these people were probably refugees escaping the Northern Kingdom’s civil war. Instinctively, Rin undid the leather lashes on his sword and revolver. Rin could feel the wrongness from the remnants magic of a powerful spell. Damn, the demon was telling the truth.
Rin swallowed again and took another step to inspect the bodies. From the bruises and scrapes on the men’s faces and knuckles, they tried to put up a fight. Examining the expressions on the faces, these people were alive when the ritual symbols were cut into their flesh. Just looking at the symbols gave Rin a headache. The perpetrator murdered all of these people to fuel the ritual. Rin had seen it before. Use the demon to bring in the trickles of natural magic and then use a sacrifice to intensify it.
“What was this ritual?” Rin asked as he stood up from his examination. The demon’s flesh pulsed quizzically.
“What about the bargain?” the demon asked, ignoring Rin’s question.
“You told me you watched a human attack these people two nights ago, tie them up, and do a ritual.” Rin said, keeping his voice calm as he stepped back to his horse.
“You promised a shard!” the demon boomed.
“If you want me to give you a shard, then you need to tell me everything. That was the bargain,” Rin said.
“Told you everything,” the demon retorted, but it sounded pleading. The promise of a shard was too strong.
“If you told me everything, you would be able to enforce the bargain. You haven’t, so you can’t. Tell me everything or the bargain is forfeit,” Rin told the demon.
“Shard! Give the shard!” the demon wailed. Rin reached back and yanked the grapegun from its scabbard. He brought the double-barreled weapon up to his shoulder and touched off the first barrel. The demon let out an otherworldly howl as shards of obsidian penetrated its form. The gray flesh darkened as the demon became stuck between this world and their original one.
“Everything, now!” Rin demanded, “Or you get the second barrel – and it’s silver.” The demon quivered. Obsidian anchored demons to this world without the protection of a soul shard. While anchored, silver could banish a demon. For a time, at least. There was only one way to permanently banish a demon.
“Human said it would trade a shard for help,” the demon croaked, “Helped get these humans. That all! Human did its own ritual.” Rin quirked his eyebrow up. Since the near elimination of natural magic from Killian’s Benevolent Betrayal, there were only two sources of magical knowledge – the deities and the demons. No religious order would use such a horrific ritual, and no demon would have told a human about a ritual that powerful without getting a shard in payment. The rangers would have known if there was a souled demon. If the sheer carnage didn’t alert them, other demons would have been tripping over themselves to do so just to keep from being enslaved. Still, the demon was bound by the deal to tell Rin the truth. It could leave out parts, but whatever it told Rin must be true or the bargain would be forfeit. Demons who forfeited their bargains suffered the same fate as those who were bound with obsidian and hit with silver.
“What was the ritual for? What did it do?”
“I don’t know. The human was talking foolish things.”
“What did the human say?”
“It would find the heart of magic.” The demon pulsed with terror as Rin considered the words. Find the heart of magic? What under the Protector’s gaze would that mean? Rin studied the demon. It wasn’t lying. It wanted the shard too badly.
“You helped the human. So why didn’t you get a shard?” Rin asked, looking up at the demon.
“Ritual broke the bargain!” the demon exclaimed. The words sent a chill down Rin’s spine. Demon bargains were unbreakable. Not even clerics wielding the power of their gods could break a demon bargain. Magic that could break a demon bargain terrified Rin.
“Where did he go after this?” Rin asked, motioning to the human corpses.
“That not the bargain,” the demon protested, “Give shard!”
“The bargain was you lead me to this place and tell me everything you observed,” Rin said, “If the sorcerer said or hinted anything about where he was going, then you would have observed it.” The demon snarled as its flesh pulsed angrily.
“Hate humans. Especially hate you,” the demon said.
“I’m not fond of you either. Now answer!”
“Demanded human give shard. It said no. Tried to invoke bargain. Magic broke bargain. Threatened to kill human. It laughed. Said it was too busy to deal with demon. Had to catch a ship to elf lands.”
“So why didn’t you kill him?” Rin asked, ignoring the sudden pulsing from the medallion around his neck. Rin ignored it. Damn thing started up anytime someone mentioned the elves.
“Magic strange after ritual. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t think right,” the demon admitted. An unknown ritual that disabled a demon? What under the Protector’s Gaze could do that? Whatever it was, Rin needed to find out.
“Told everything. Now give shard.” Rin felt the wave of power as the demon invoked the bargain. Rin scanned the flat sandy area. His eyes locked on to the light glinting to the north. Well, it was about damned time. Rin looked at the demon.
“I, Rinaldo Batista Acciaio, give you a shard of my soul,” Rin said. As soon as he uttered the words, a wave of weakness hit him. Rin collapsed to the ground. The demon screamed in exaltation. Rin felt the unnatural shift in the air as the demon absorbed the shard of his soul. Rin rolled over and with the little bit of strength he could muster, flashed his signal mirror. The demon should have known better than to make a deal with a ranger.
Rin barely blocked a clawed tentacle with his mirror. The blow tore the signal mirror from Rin’s hands. Black fluid erupted from the demon’s body as the bullet struck. The report of the rifle echoed a second later. The demon quivered before screaming in agony. Silver could put down a demon once it was anchored in the world, but the demon would reappear anywhere from a month to a few years later. To permanently banish a demon, it needed to be pierced by star-iron. Every ranger carried a few of the precious bullets.
The demon went into spasms as the star-iron expelled its unnatural presence from the world. The demon’s body went still as the daemon ghost struggled to remain in this world. The fight lasted a few seconds. The demon’s body splattered across the ground as the daemon ghost was shoved out of this reality and back to its own. Rin felt his strength come back as the shard of his soul returned to him. The gamble paid off better than expected – and much worse. As much as he wished he could shove this duty off on anyone else, Rin knew he had the best chance of catching the sorcerer responsible for the horror in front of him. He staggered over to his horse and pulled out his writing tablet.
Rin was finishing his short report as his partner trotted up. Like Rin, Sergeant Nico Ignaccio had traditional Mareian features. Nico’s hair was straight and black, but unlike Rin, Nico kept his long enough to be tied back. Rin found short hair was much cooler in the heat of the Badlands. Nico was short and heavily-muscled, where Rin was of above average height and slim. Both had skin darker than the normal olive tone due to long days in the Badlands sun. Nico’s dark eyes normally twinkled with amusement.
“You were late with the shot,” Rin growled as Nico approached.
“Why are you always such a sheep’s cock? Most people would start with ‘that was a great shot, Nico. Especially from that distance. And with a star-iron bullet’,” Nico said.
“Yes, it was an excellent shot. Thank you. Now, I need you to help with that,” Rin said, pointing to the ritual site. Nico’s indignation evaporated as soon as he saw the ritual site.
“Sweet Protector, what happened here?” Nico asked. “I’ve never seen a demon ritual like this before.”
“It’s not a demon ritual,” Rin said.
“The Protector would ynever condone such a thing in His name. Not even the elves’ god would do this. Even to humans,” Nico said. Rin stopped himself before correcting his partner. Rin didn’t have the time to explain why he knew the elves worshipped a goddess. Nico was already too inquisitive about Rin’s past. The man absolutely refused to take the hints to leave well enough alone.
“If this wasn’t a demon ritual, then what was this?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Rin said. He held out his account of what the demon told him. “I need you to take this to the major. He’s going to need to get some scholars down here. Maybe they can figure out what happened.” Rin hoped they would find something that contradicted what his instincts were telling him.
“If I’m supposed to be taking this to the major, then where are you going?” Nico demanded.
“Fools Port, as fast as possible.” Rin climbed up on his horse.
“Fools Port? Are you insane? They’ll kill you as soon as they see your badge. Why under the Protector’s gaze would you go there?” Nico asked, perplexed.
“Only place in the Republic I can find a ship to take me to the elf lands fast enough to catch the bastard who did this,” Rin answered. He spurred his horse into a gallop as Nico’s jaw dropped. The medallion around Rin’s neck pulsed happily.
