Chapter 4 - Prototype

The sun had set by the time the 10 members of Squad 0, including the commander, Alastair, and vice-commanders, Reisa and Seilon arrived at the palace. The cold wind blew from the east and the howls of demonic creatures had become louder than before. The palace gates were locked tight with hundreds of guards surrounding every wall.

As the group approached the front gate, the guards quickly held their spears out in caution.

"Halt! Who goes there? State your name, rank, and intention!"

Alastair slowly walked forward and held out a black badge with the Demonic Emperor's insignia imprinted on it.

"That! That"s the royal seal! I apologize for blocking your path!"

The guards quickly saluted while withdrawing his spear completely flustered and ordered for the gates to be opened.

Within 15 seconds, the gates had been completely opened presenting the full glorious view of the majestic palace within.

Alastair led the group inside as the giant gates quickly closed behind them.

"Squad 0, retire to the barracks." He ordered, "I wil report to His Majesty."

The squad nodded, chatting and completely relaxed as they made their way towards the mountain located a far distance towards the back of the palace.

Alastair separated from the group as quickly entered the giant double doors of the palace, making his way towards the king"s chamber.

The giant double doors of Heliro"s room loomed ahead as Alastair approached quickly.

"This is Commander Alastair of Squad 0." He knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice replied from within.

The chamber"s doors slowly creaked open to reveal His Majesty, sitting beside a giant bookshelf on a soft velvet couch, reading an old dusty thick book with its title faded off.

Heliro looked up from his book and glanced at Alastair.

A smile emerged on his face as he closed his book and got up from his seat.

"Alastair." Heliro's voice echoed throughout the dark room as Alastair instantly got down on one knee.

"Your Majesty, We have successfully completed our mission. The village has been erased and barriers have been placed around as ordered."

Heliro slowly approached him, holding the book under one arm.

"[Teleport]," he chants, placing one hand on Alastair's shoulders.

Their vision slowly changed as the space around them seemed to have become warped, but just after a few seconds, their vision stabilized once more and they found themselves in the middle of the Empirical Demonic Training Chamber. The largest training center in the whole of the Demonic Empire.

Alastair slowly stood up, looking around the gigantic hall.

"That training doll there. Release 25% of your Demonic Energy and attack it." A voice behind him rang out.

Spinning around, he saw Heliro somehow sitting on a seat in the middle of the training ground and was back to reading his book.

Alastair walked towards the training doll, releasing his Demonic Energy to 25%. A sudden ping sounded out above him as a monitor with the number 12,500 appeared.

"This is Professor Rean's newest prototype," Heliro explained, "There's a detector under the platform beneath you which scans the amount of mana you emit, calculates the amounts of mana strands are within your core, then converts it into a number so it's easier to gauge your strength."

Alastair nodded and focused his attention back on the doll. Getting into position, he whips out his sword and dashes straight for the doll, gathering the Demonic Energy into his blade. With a single slice, the dummy burst into a dark violet flame, before dividing into 4 separate pieces.

A ping echoed out as the number raised to 15,000.

Swinging his blade, he slid it back into its sheath before a gush of blood escaped his mouth as the muscle in his body began clenching together, causing him to collapse onto the ground.

"With this system, it'll be easier to manage your limit point. Your current limit is 12,500. So 25% of your current total mana. As you already know, once over that mark, you will experience the backlash you just had. The higher you go, the more severe the backlash," Heliro explained, closing his book and walking over. However as he walked onto the platform, the monitor once again pinged. Looking up, Alastair expected to see a number indicating his master's current strength, however only the word, "ERROR" was spelled out.

A small smirk appeared on Heliro"s face as he took something out of his pockets.

"Pills. Made by Professor Rean. Take this to delay the effects of the backlash, but only during emergencies. They can delay the backlash of a 100% release for up to an hour. But remember that after the pill loses its effect, the backlash would reappear 10 times stronger. You can stack effects up 24 hours, but then that would also make the backlash 240 times stronger, so be careful."

Heliro tossed the bottle of pills into Alastair's hands, "Take this sword too. Better than that Black Iron sword of yours." He says throwing over a sword, "It"s capable of producing Demonic Energy which you can use instead, but the maximum of around 5,000 mana strands."

Alastair quickly swapped out his old weapon with the new one he received, taking it out of its sheath and preparing to strike another training doll.

Using the Demonic Energy emitted from the sword, he once again slashed forward, this time exploding it into a thousand different pieces as it burst into a dark violet flame.

With another ping, the machine showed 17,500.

"Good," Heliro clapped, patting him on the back, "That"s enough for today. Let"s go back, [Teleport],"

Their vision once again distorted and stabilized right outside the gates of Squad 0's barracks.

"Tomorrow morning, Come into my office with your squad. I have another mission for you." He chuckles before teleporting off once again.

Alastair nods, turning around and opening the gates.

The sound of laughter filled the air as shouts and lights illuminated the common area of the barracks. Walking towards the sound, Alastair found himself at the entrance of the barrack cafeteria, half the members were fully drunk while the remaining were leaning over trash cans.

"Co-Commannnderrr~! The commander"s backkk everyoneeee~!" Len"s voice rang out

"Tonia! To. ni. a! Get uuupp~ The commander!" Her drunk playful voice rang out. Looking closely, Alastair could see Len forcefully shaking up Tonia, who seemed to have passed out from drinking.

"Ah?" Tonia groggily replied, rubbing her eyes, "Morning…?"

"Commander"s here~! Look~! Look~!" Len says, pointing one of her arms in a circle at the direction of Alastair whole the other one gripping Tonia"s elven ears, "Eh..? C-Commander… stop duplicating yourself… it"s not funny…" a concerned look appeared on her face, "No. Wait. The world"s spinning~ Why is the world spinning~? Woooowww!"

Then she passed out.

"Ah commander, I am so sorry for the mess." A worried voice sounded behind him, snapping him out of the comedic scene in front of him. He turned around and saw a red-haired demon, who seems to be in her early 20s, holding a long staff.

"Reisa. Cast cure on them. I have an important message." He said in his usual monotonal voice, making his way into the cafeteria.

"[Mass Cure]," Reisa chant as a giant green flash of light surrounded the kilometer of her vicinity.

'Her magic is as impressive as always,' Alastair thought, glancing at the spell and its wide range.

Suddenly all the members sat up and looked around, confused about their situation.

"The commander has an announcement to make, take a seat in the cafeteria please!" Reisa exclaimed, clapping her hands as her voice echoed throughout the building, amplified using a spell.

A few moans and groans could be heard from the drunkards as they picked themselves up off the ground and slowly walked into the cafeteria. Taking their usual spots, all chatter was stopped.

"We have an order from His Majesty. Tomorrow morning, we are to go to his office and receive our next squad mission." Alastair's voice rang through the room.

Chatter and excitement filled the room as faces lit up from anticipation.

"Is it another massacre?"

"But isn't that all we"ve been doing for the past few years?"

"That's true."

"That is all. You can go back to what you"re doing, as long as a healer is on standby for any unexpected situation," Alastair explained, getting up from his seat. The chatter became louder as cheers and excitement once again filled the atmosphere.

"Let"s go another round!" Len"s cheery voice called out,

"Cheers!" Multiple people could be heard hitting their cups together and gulping down their drinks.

Alastair slowly made his way towards the east end of the barracks, arriving at the Barrack Training Ground. He pushed open the door and entered.

Taking out his new sword, he held it out firmly in front of him with both hands, closed his eyes, and with a deep breath, he raised up his sword whilst emitting his demonic aura out towards the blade and swung as he breathed out. The sword sliced down with a large gust of violet wind trailing behind. Taking another deep breath and releasing, he relaxed his arms and opened his eyes, revealing the wall in front of him now had a deep cut from top to bottom. However, within the next 10 seconds, the large cut had slowly begun to repair itself, fully regenerating to its previous intact form. Once again readying his stance he held out his sword and swung. Within a few seconds, the Training ground wall was littered with large cuts.

He repeated the same steps over and over until the morning sun rose from the horizon.