Chapter 81: Recruits [Part 3]
Jon watched on in horror as hell descended upon his camp.
It was the middle of the afternoon, Jon and his men were busy working on the makeshift sand table for their upcoming operation.
They still had scouts positioned around the manor who were sending reports regularly and the civil engineering students were working with the criminology kids who had experience with sand tables during ROTC.
But just as they were about to set up the models, hell descended upon them.
Monsters that looked like they came from an Augmented Reality story appeared from the woods.
Their scouts were all silent and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what had happened to them.
Jon could only watch as his men were caught off guard and killed one by one.
The female officers screamed as they were kidnapped, Jon could only imagine what kind of horrors they would have to endure.
Fortunately or unfortunately for the men, they were killed on site.
Some were able to pick up their rifles and fight back but it was no use.
Their bullets were shrugged off like air gun pellets-
No, air gun pellets would still cause pain, hit in the wrong place and it could be fatal.
But the bullets were bouncing off the thick skin of the thin monsters-
It was surreal but there was nothing Jon could do as it was happening right before his eyes.
"AHHHH!!!"
"HELP!"
"Claymore! Get the GAH-"
"JEROME!!! YOU BASTA—"
His men were going wild but even their sacrificial attacks with grenades and claymores did little to the monsters.
Jon had no way of fighting back, he turned to flee, even if he was chased, running was the only way he could get even a 1% chance of survival.
Yet, just as he turned around he met with "her".
"Maria... YOU BITCH! YOU SOLD US OUT!"
Seeing Maria, the woman who had just gone missing, moreover, she was dressed in a robe that was unfitting for this situation.
But that was all he needed to see, without any hesitation, Jon accused his former comrade of betrayal but Maria was unaffected by his babble as she scoffed while answering.
"Idiot, you thought you were being sneaky but they already knew about us. They were waiting for you to make a move but you just had to make some comments about their leaders woman"
Maria mocked Jon, the man who thought that he could do whatever he wanted because he had a safety net prepared at all times.
Well, that man was now staring blankly at her, unable to make sense of her words but that was just as she expected.
Jon was never the sharpest tool in the shed, he was just the shiniest spade. But a clean tool is an unused one and it remains unused for good reason-
"Huh?"
Jon did not know what to say, he expected Maria to be ashamed to look regretful and even beg for forgiveness.
Even in this situation, Jon believed that his identity would save him.
After all, the witches wouldn’t want to become the enemy of the state right?
Jon had already guessed long ago that the witches were refugees. Illegal immigrants that escaped from the US or Europe after the big witch scare.
He believed that his identity as the son of a powerful political actor would give him some benefits.
Even if his people were to become victims, Jon had the confidence that the witches would spare him and even give him some "benefits" because he could be their tool to get close to the government.
After all, why wouldn’t they go after him?
The surprise attack would usually start with the leader but he seemed to have been spared?
The longer he stood there unable to answer Maria, the bolder he grew.
"Shut up! I know what you’re here for! The witches set you up for this right? They’re offering you up so that I’ll help them contact my dad... yes... if you want my support- then show me that glasses witch! Give her to me naked! I WANT HE-"
In the middle of his declaration, Jon was stopped, an earthen spear had impaled him pushing the air out of his lungs and making it impossible for him to breathe much less say a word.
"Sorry Cindy... he got on my nerves"
Richard appeared right beside Maria and the woman Jon was calling for appeared with him.
"No, you’re doing good with keeping him alive..."
Cindy answered with a smile.
Jon was still alive, not barely but VERY much alive.
Despite bleeding profusely and suffocating, Jon was still living- not breathing, but living.
Though the state he was in could not be said to be anything but torture.
"Do you still want to take him?"
Richard asked Cindy, ignoring the man who was desperately reaching out his hand.
"Yes, I have a special place where I leave people like him"
Cindy answered with a grin after which Richard turned to Jon.
"Don’t worry kid, your dad will be taken care off, this country is already corrupt as it is, no one would care if one or two politicians vanish... still, manipulating a whole government seems difficult"
Richard commented on the side as he made Jon understand that his power and influence were worthless.
"The Spanish decimated the mystical population 300 years ago, the only mystical powers left are those in the south but even they are easier to deal with compared to their counterparts in the middle east."
Cindy responded to Richard making sure that her words were heard by Jon.
"I thought the Vatican would have a strong pull here? Isn’t this country famous for being a christian nation in the east?"
"The Vatican gave up its mystical roots long ago, the people who abuse the system that remains are clergy and knight orders that separated from the church centuries before"
Richard and Cindy were having such a conversation right in front of Jon as if it was normal.
Maria stayed silent as she did not have anything to add to their conversation but that was when Richard turned to her and asked.
"What do you want to do to him?"
It was a simple question but it made Maria’s position clear-
"I... uhm... want him to-"
Maria looked at Jon, he could see the look in his eye. He was not pleading nor was he begging for reprieve.
The man was glaring at Maria, it was a silent demand for assistance.
Even after all that, Jon still believed that he had some semblance of authority.
Maria didn’t want to play along any further.
"Make him suffer"
Jon’s eyes opened wide in shock and panic as dark shadows enveloped him.
"I still can’t understand how you’re able to teleport between your bases but not anywhere else"
"I’m not teleporting, my summons are, passing a living being through my teleportation formation could cause... accidents"
In Richard’s group, the only one working on teleporting people from one place to another was Richard and Nyx.
Even when Cindy was doing so constantly with her summons, she doesn’t do it with herself or with others.
"But you just teleported a living being though?"
"Is he important?"
"..."
Richard did not want to ask what kind of accident could happen to living beings teleported through her formation.
Instead, he turned towards Maria and told her.
"The women were all spared, the ones you claimed to be trustworthy are now going through screenings while the others... there are better uses for them"
Maria nodded her head at his words but then she turned to the massacre and asked.
"The men?"
This time, the one to answer her was not Richard but Cindy who gave a kind smile and said-
"It’s been a while since my pets ate meat, I called dibs on them long ago!"
After she said her piece, the earth rumbled and a small tree emerged, the tree morphed and turned into a silver haired woman who immediately added on to CIndy’s words.
"I called dibs on the souls, I’m quite interested in the techniques Richard thought of regarding more efficient utilization of unbound wills."
Hearing the two witches talk about actual humans as if they were materials made Maria shudder.
"Don’t get too scared now, that’s just child’s play. The world of mystics have even more horrific things"
Richard tried to calm Maria down with his words but they had the opposite effect as the scene before them had already taken on a far more gruesome image.
The monsters which Cindy referred to as her "pets" had started eating the men that they killed.
Some were still barely alive, others were just dead but all of them were being devoured.
Some watched as their friend’s corpse was being devoured, others had to endure getting their own bodies devoured.
It was a truly horrific sight, even for Maria who was already used to seeing blood and gore.
She was not some flower raised in a greenhouse, Maria had experience with the more visceral part of life.
Her parents were not born rich, Maria kinda was but her parents had struggled through their early life.
Moreover, her extended family was not a bunch of wealthy landowners.
When they had family parties, Maria saw how her uncles would slaughter a pig by driving a stake into its chest. The dying wail of the swine was something that haunted her back when she was still a kid.
The smell of blood and guts was not new to her, even when she finally ended up in medical school. The sight of human entrails were not that bad but-
It changes depending on the situation.
Seeing a human body cut open for surgery or a cadaver opened up for medical analysis and teaching was different from seeing a man have his stomach ripped open so a deer headed monster could gnaw at his guts while he screamed in pain and agony.
The gore Maria was used to is orderly, either an orderly mess for food preparation or an orderly state for medical reasons.
She was numb to sights of gore that were purposeful, but... the actions of monsters were anything but.
They were efficient yes, they rushed to take first dibs on the "best parts" of the human body and some went for their "favorite parts".
How did Maria know?
Cindy was happily explaining things to her while trying to keep her calm alongside Richard.
’They’re doing this on purpose aren’t they?’
Cindy thought as she tried desperately to calm her mind but the sight was just too much...
*GRAB*
*SHUDDER*
Maria felt something grab onto her leg, she looked down and what she saw would haunt her forever.
It was the half eaten face of a man she knew, he was one of the men who tried to court her before and now-
"... elp-"
He was begging for help below her, his body had countless bite marks and his head was cracked open by what could only be described as a monster’s bite.
The brain matter had been partially devoured and yet the man was still able to cling to Maria-
"EEEKKK!"
Alas, the poor man did not receive empathy, all he got was a cold and ruthless kick from Maria who was too shocked at the sight.
Maria cried as she clung to Richard who was glaring at Cindy but the young witch only rolled her eyes as she ordered her bear headed pet to properly finish the poor man.
"Bad joke"
"You gotta admit- it was pretty funny right?"
"... yeah"
