Lux Locus: Fractured Family

Kormsin strode through the streets, the cultists to his side, ready to reinforce a group that had managed to gain a foothold closes to the headquarters of the Prosecutors. The followers had created a little camp with make-shift wooden barriers and burning vehicle hulls. Several had used the debris to create ledges to stand on and fire at the local law enforcement while others were busy relaying information to their comrades with pillaged radios.

The warrior stood up aside the radio operators for information acquisition. "Have you seen the prosecutors make a move yet?"

"Wh-Kormsin?!" the operator stuttered. "Wh...I didn't think I would be given the honor." She spread an arm out. "None of us did."

"Enough with the flattitude. Give me what I seek." He spoke with a stern voice hiding a hidden excitement.

"Uhhh, no. We haven't seen them yet."

"And how goes our progress of taking the city as our first foothold on the planet?"

One of the cultists was shot in the head and flew off her perch onto the ground far away.

"B-bad...The law enforcement here was guided with regimentary vehicles." She pointed to the sky. "Those massive gunships have been shredding us to pieces, and without the full power provided by a completely opened portal, even the greater demons stand no chance against them."

Kormsin pondered. "Then the best solution is to get or strongest magus and have them focus their blood magic into a focus point for penetration potential."

"Like javelins?"

"Precisely. A bit rustic for these times, but a gun is still a gun regardless of the era."

The operator went back to her tax of working on the radio box. "I'll share this across the networks."

"And what about me?" he asked. "Any demons or threats befitting of my abilities?"

One of the speakers emitting received transmissions was emitting screams and destruction. There were clearly growls of oni-kind on the other side, but it mattered little. Even they were silenced.

"The prosecutors...They...! They sent the afol anda!" a voice announced on the other side.

The operator pulled out two 'arms' from the side of the radio box that projected a two-dimensensional, holographic map.

"The best to reach them would be through the hangars here," the operator explained whilst pointing to a mass of buildings. "But a lot of that ground is already taken by the followers of the fat one. Our religious chiefs want us to capture this factory because it fabricates many of the law enforcement vehicles used."

Kormsin nodded and rushed into the ruins to his left.

"But the plan!"

The warrior of Blumarak trudged on ahead, vaulting over rubble and jumping out of the way of falling concrete and metal. On occasion, bullets would whisk past his head or he would see people rushing by in the roads or the buildings, but he never met them head on. One encounter saw him blocked by the followers of Mumbass using a pilfered heavy weapon ripped out of a hellcarrier.

The cultists of the god of marrow were blocked on a catwalk above and behind several metal plates on multiple railways to transport material and vehicle hulls. The warrior jumped over the catwalk and slammed hard into the railway several feet below.

"Are you okay?" one of the cultists asked.

Kormsin scoffed. "My blessings won't let my bones break from something as mundane as jumping from heights." He looked at the cultists' predicament and frowned. "Have you at least tried to flank them?"

"Yes!"

The warrior shook his head in disappointment. "You fools didn't even acquire any explosives or create any."

Another cultist ducked from one of the bullets sparking off the top of the plates. "Some created them, but they haven't reached us yet!"

Kormsin stared. "You never even bothered establishing a supply line plan before all of this." He sighed. "Blumarak must be desperate if he was forced to start this before everything was ready."

He looked around for a way to deal with the nuisance and saw a solution. A deactivated drone on a conveyor in the ceiling was holding a hellbender hull. Deactivated meant it didn't have anything but failsafes to hold the carcass in place. Kormsin sweat blood from his forearm, encasing both it and the hilt of his sword in crystallized red. He rolled to the side and slashed at the air before rolling back under cover. A crescent of sharp blood was shot at the cables and structure attaching the drone, but it didn't cut off all the cables.

The 'blade' sliced through the cables of one side as well as the metal beam, breaking it partially and causing momentum to make the drone swing back and forth, the claws eventually failing and dropping the hull onto the heavy weapons team; Crashing through the elevation they stood upon and indenting the floor below. The crash also tore bits and pieces of the wall off, revealing the rooms beyond the Mumbass followers.

There were a few who survived the fall, crawling out of the debris, but Kormsin was quick to jump on them. He forewent his sword in favor of grabbing a cultist by the leg and lifting her up.

"I'll beat a fool with another fool!"

He used the woman's body to pummel the survivors of the event, crumpling the bodies of her and the others as well. Several seconds of beatings later saw the warrior grunt in disgust at the disfigured pulp left over from his beatings. He cast the corpse aside and rushed through the weakened doors the cultists were blocking.

Most of the factory was heavily damaged by the demons rushing through them and the massive gunships outside. Roofs had collapsed and walls served as new floor tiles. Dust permeated the air, straining any lungs that tried to take in air. Kormsin was no different despite his helmet, but he didn't care. He was more concerned with intercepting the pillars that all humans feared, and the warrior was more than wanting to fight them.

Zenith was flying through the air in an empty vyrde with CQ. He would meet up with some law enforcers further in the city. The land around the Prosecutor's HQ was clear. Not much was disturbed here aside from some boxes that fell thanks to the explosions in the distance. While he took in the sights, he flipped the plate covering his mouth and removed the three full vials to replace them with fresh and clean ones.

"CQ? The evacuation is finished already?"

"No. It's still underway," she answered with monotone. "The people are still gathered on the first floor of the temple."

The prosecutor clicked his tongue angrily. "They couldn't hurry up?! This just makes our need to hurry that much more important."

"The location we need to reach is near the borders of the city," CQ explained. "In the military section of the industrial district. The cultists would need to secure vehicular transports to have an edge over their opposition."

Zenith pondered. "What about the gunships?"

"Not as easy to control as a land vehicle. Additionally, the Aecs Gecélnes require a coordinated control between four crew members. They are weapons of the regimentarium, lent to the law enforcement of this planet due to its important to the Magus Imperator."

"I see."

There was a long moment of silence afterwards, some turbulence and shockwaves rocking the craft back and forth. CQ's eyes slowly went from the emptiness outside to Zenith.

"What granted you the nominer of 'Night Spirit'?" she asked.

Zenith blinked a few times and slowly turned around from his seat. "What's it to you?"

"I am curious."

"Curiosity?" he repeated in disbelief. "An afol anda?"

"I require this knowledge to complete my census of you," she answered emotionlessly.

Zenith exhaled loudly, but he eventually gave in. "Fine. I'll tell you because not many don't know that story." He looked at the woman with a curious eye. "I'm more intrigued about you displaying any form of emotional intrigue."

CQ didn't answer. She remained silent, stoic, and with disturbingly wide open eyes.