The darkness stirred. Someone was calling to it from beyond the veil, inviting it to a visit to the corporeal world, one that would award it with blood and sustenance. The darkness liked the proposition, so it moved towards the calling like a hungry dog is attracted by the sweet aroma of a fried chicken. The corporeal world denied the darkness for its unnaturalness, its contradictions for the principles of matter, blocking its path and making the darkness even more hungry.

  The darkness squeezed out to the light filled realm of existence, first as a formless blob of dark liquid, then in the shape of the sacrifices offered as invitation. The two-legged small humanoids weren’t the most comfortable of avatars, but the darkness would make do with what it had, since it already saw the promise of blood in front of itself through its now many eyes. The shape of humans, a species that the darkness hadn’t seen in a long time, materialized in the sights of the sacrifices.

  Wielding strange weapons, much different from the swords and spears that the darkness was used to see the humans with, they fought with fury, such fury that didn’t allow the darkness to get close to them for their ichor in the form of blood. It seemed that they rediscovered the secrets of the accursed Magic, the long-forgotten gift of creation, and, on top of that, the sacrifices were subpar on dealing with the warm-blooded individuals containing the sustenance the darkness craved so much.

  But it didn’t matter, the sacrifices were numerous and it could drown them with shadows. The darkness would have its needs fulfilled, one way or another.

  ----

  Tomás was cutting Goblins left and right, his halberd now covered in the blood and the black ooze that seeped from the now dead Goblins. He deliberately put himself between the advancing shadowy Goblins and the rest of his Platoon, holding the bulk of the beasts on his own. Without him ordering, the Earth Mages dug up a two meters tall trench that cut off much of the beasts, so now the darkness empowered Goblins became easy pickings to the superior range of the soldiers.

  Still, they advanced recklessly under heavy fire. Even with Tomás being a bigger and easier target for the monsters, some reached the retreating soldiers and attacked them with their wicked claws, bringing some of the soldiers down to the ground. Pinned and obstructed by the monsters, Tomás watched in dismay as his soldiers were cut down by an enemy that he thought weak. It was becoming clear that the difference in strength between him and the rest of the men was great, and, because of that, he miscalculated the possibilities of more problematic enemies appearing.

  "Cut them down! Cover the fallen!", screamed the Lieutenant. "Gustavo! Where are you?!"

  He needed the Fire Mage to use one of his wide area Magic to clear the bulk of the enemies but he couldn't find the young man between the chaos. While Tomás searched, he was killing frenzied Goblins now even with the blunt end of the halberd by bashing it at the uncaring enemies. Amidst the confusion, Tomás found Yara instead. The petty officer was gesturing orders at her fire team while she shot at the nightmarish enemies.

  "Yara!", screamed Tomás. It was hard to hear anything over the cacophony of shots, screams and spells, but Tomás made himself heard somewhat. "Gustavo!! Where is he?!"

  By some miracle or by the woman's good ears, she understood the question, but, because of her low voice, she didn't even try to scream and instead pointed to a pile of rubble where a soldier appeared to be crawling in fear.

  'For fuck's sake, Gus!', Tomás thought. 'This is not the time for that.'

  Tomás now had to create a gap so that he could run and get to his Seargent, so he drew his pistol and strengthened it. By this time, the Goblins began to pile up and climb out of the trench, crawling like ants from a burrow, so their numbers had swelled to a crowd on Tomás' side of the trench. The Goblins' command cadre, the Captain and the Infantries, were looking at thus scene with a joyous smile upon their faces, appreciating the diabolical scene with great pride and gusto. The Casters, on the other hand, were in deep concentration, much probably keeping the spell up through sheer will and nefarious intentions.

  Looking at this, Tomás aimed his weapon at the direction with the most monsters and fired. The first round hit the possessed Goblins and turned the first ten it hit into a pile of minced meat, blood and black goo as it passed, piercing meat and bones with the same easiness. This drew the attention of almost everyone on the battlefield, making Goblins and humans alike turn to look at the Lieutenant. The shadowy Goblins, uncaring for their own well-being, kept advancing, so Tomás fired a second time, this time hitting and destroying eight monsters. Using the opportunity to test the Casters and their shields, Tomás fired a third shot at one of the concentrating monsters. To his dismay, but according to his expectations, a black shield appeared to protect the three dammed Magic users, but not from any of the three, which meant that there was a fourth, hidden Caster. Turning to reach Gustavo, Tomás grabbed his radio.

  "Samantha, Glória, if you are hearing this, there is a fourth Caster.", he screamed at the piece. "Find it and kill it. Check if there is more and do the same."

  After some seconds, a response came from Samantha, saying "Affirmative, sir. It will be done."

  By now, Tomás reached the pile of rubble and quickly discovered that the crawling soldier was in fact Gustavo in a fatal position and crying tears of blood. It wasn't a good signal.

  "Gus! Gus!?", Tomás screamed, shaking the man so he would wake up, but to no avail. Tomás shook him again, this time even slapping his face, but no reaction came from the soldier.

  After trying everything he could, even pinching the man, Tomás decided to try a little trick he involuntarily learned from Silvia. He touched the young man's brow with his hand open and pressed his Aura onto him, sensing for any disturbances on his Presence. It was in complete turmoil, his already burning hot Fire Mana being polluted by some of the Goblin Casters' disturbing Dark Mana causing the young man to lose control of even his physical faculties. Tomás, remembering what Silvia used to remove the Drake's impurities from his body, maneuvered his Aura inside Gustavo, collecting and removing the dark lumps of foreign Mana. After being satisfied, Tomás pulled his Aura and the Dark Mana onto his body, initiating the process of burning and converting the Mana into his own Presence, and, after that, Tomás gave another slap on Gustavo's face, seemingly waking him up.

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  "Tom?", asked the confused nineteen years old man. "Where am I?"

  Tomás sighted with relief. His untested treatment method worked. Following his waking and his long and serious conversation with Silvia, Tomás deepened his understanding of Aura and Mana, discovering that the two energies only differed in their manipulation, with one being internal and the other external, respectively. Tomás even learned that he could apply different aspects to his Aura, the only limitation being the even more difficult process of mastery. With that in mind, one could use Aura to heal his own and someone else's wounds the same way an Healing Mage could use Mana to do the same, and that was what Tomás just did by stabilizing Gustavo's Mana, or, more precisely, his Presence wounds.

  "No time to explain, Gus.", Tomás said while picking Gustavo up by his bulletproof vest and making him stand up like a father would do to his small child, even though Gustavo was taller than Tomás. "I need you to burn those motherfuckers to a crisp, goy it?"

  Tomás pointed at the crowd of frenzied Goblins and Gustavo appeared to break out of a trance. Putting on a serious face, he began manipulating his Mana, as Tomás could sense, and increase the heat on his surroundings.

  "With pleasure, sir.", the Fire Mage said. "I have been practicing this, so I hope it works. I call it 'Fire Drake's Advance'."

  Tomás cringed at the naming of the technique, but quickly shut himself. A figure started leaving Gustavo's hands, a perfect rendition of one of the Land Drakes they fought earlier but made of fire, all of his features perfectly mimicked using flames and blazes, and then it started walking, and then running.

  Ignoring the fallen soldiers in its path, the Drake advanced throughout the battlefield killing and burning all the Goblins on its path, leaving behind only smoldering husks of flesh. Gustavo appeared to not move his hands, instead controlling the Magic only with his eyes. Even in the wake of this one-sided massacre, the possessed Goblins kept on charging until the last one, attacking the intangible fire creature like if it was a killable creature. Using this as distraction, the other soldiers either rescued the wounded or killed unsuspecting and charmed Goblins, making the pile of dead even higher.

  All of the more than three hundred Fighters who fell to the Casters wicked spell were either burned down to ashes or was cut down by the other soldiers.

  After he was satisfied with the destruction he brought upon the monsters, Gustavo redirected the Fire Drake towards the Goblin command cadre, sending the fire monstrosity crashing at the vile group. Again, the black shield appeared and saved the monsters from annihilation, but, this time, cracks appeared upon the incorporeal barrier, a testament to Gustavo's Magic might. Still, the Casters maintained their chanting stance, manipulating the residual black ooze that lingered in the surface of the ground. Tomás didn't like that.

  Fully using the opportunity, Silvia and her orderlies, six soldiers differentiated by a red cross over a white armband, began the treatment of the civilians. Quickly identifying the most grievously wounded, Silvia was treating them with her Healing Magic, closing deep stab and laceration wounds with ease, and, with the help of other soldiers, she was standing them back up ready to fight again. Tomás remembered that he was also an orderly, so he quickly got to treating the closest wounded to him, a soldier from his squad with an ugly broken arm, probably from blocking one of the Goblins' attacks. Hastily beginning the procedure, he ordered the soldier to bite something and put the bones back in place by infecting the soldier's arm with his Aura and moving the broken pieces with the energy. The soldier screamed in pain, which was muffled by the piece of cloth he bitten, but endured the entire procedure without anesthesia since Tomás left his kit behind.

  "Try not to move it.", Tomás said while improvised immobilizing the arm by tying it with the man's rifle. "Wait for Corporal Silvia."

  Tomás looked around in search of more wounded but only found those already being treated. Surprisingly, nobody appeared to have died in the attack, but some soldiers, at least five, were grievously wounded and already removed from the fight by stretchers, with some soldiers being kept close to keep them safe in the rear guard.

  "Sir?", said Gustavo from behind Tomás. "Take a look at this."

  Tomás turned to see what Gustavo meant, quickly noticing an agglomeration of the black ooze and of the bodies of the dead Goblins in front of the three Casters. It swirled with the profane smell of sulfur and bubbled disgusting liquids everywhere. An arm made of darkness surged forth and clawed the ground around the black mass, seeking a grip to drag itself up from the infernal pit. Then a head appeared from the tar and quickly gasped for air like someone that was drowning for a long time. The features of the creature were covered in the black tar so it was still indistinguishable from a normal human except for a pair of horns that grew from the top of the creature's brow, just like a demon from the biblical stories.

  Tomás sensed the danger emanating from the creature, a sharp sensation of dread and discomfort that made him question his capability of dealing with the new monster. On top of that, the Infantries, the Captain and the Casters were preparing to make some kind of push using the new creature as distraction, so he would have to deal with that too.

  The pit monster finally was able to put its other arm out of the hole in the ground and then it crawled out with ease. It was tall, more than two meters in height, and it was still covered whole in the black ooze that summoned it, so its skin color was still unknown, but it had a tail more than one meter long and its feet were like that of a bovine or caprine.

  'The Fighters were sacrifices to pull this out from only God knows where.', Tomás thought, watching in dismay while the monster cleaned itself from the black tar.

  Tomás charged, not wanting for the new foe to acclimate itself with the new surroundings. Brandishing the halberd like a spear, he run at the creature while it was mesmerized with its own arms and hands. It appeared impressed with the, probably, new body, extremely likely because of the sudden change of environment.

  But, when the halberd was about to connect with its target, the creature nonchalantly grabbed the tip of the weapon and twisted it, shattering the haft and making Tomás lose his balance and fall down, all of this in a matter of less than a second.

  The Demon, the only way Tomás could call the creature now, was still with the blade of the machete in their hands, looking at it like a child with a new toy. But, perhaps because of the low quality of the thing or the preferences of the creature, they threw the thing at Tomás like it was a discarded piece of trash. The machete blade would have hit the unprepared Lieutenant if the Demon wanted, but, instead, it stuck itself on the ground in front of the stunned officer.

  Tomás stood up and turned to look at the creature, watching as the Demon resumed their mesmerization with themselves. He observed the creature while picking up his machete, which once was a halberd, which once was a machete. He remembered the words of Atena just earlier in the day.

  'Things were about to get exciting.', he thought.