Chapter 22 Elmer
The Demon Corps remained in town overnight while the young man healed inside the orb, their group camping out in a nearby business for the night.
Chicago and Phuture were both asleep while Terrance and Willie Lou stayed awake for security purposes.
Based on the bite marks detected from the soldier's neck, they were dealing with Vamps.
Terrance activated a domain summoning technique, gathering The Realm members together at the round wooded table.
Phuture, Greenland, and Itaska were all shocked by the sudden timing of the meeting, although it had been a week since the last meeting as planned.
"Itaska, demons and vampires are amongst the supernatural creatures you've spoken about?" Dark questioned without greeting, unexpectedly getting straight to business. "Also, what other monsters are you encountering?"
Itaska cleared his throat and nerves simultaneously, still shaken up by the sudden summoning so early in the morning.
"Yes sir." Itaska answered. "I travel... a lot... and in just these last couple weeks I've come across demons, vamps, wolves, ghost, and even a masked man with hell hounds. But I'm currently dealing with a group of powerful demons... they've been extremely hard to kill and murdered five of my members. They've forced me to recruit more strength to my squad..."
"I understand." After a moment of mulling decisions, he asked another question. "Itaska, would you like some assistance?"
"You would like to work together, Divine Lord?"
"Indeed, because I have an issue with the supernatural appearances as well. I would like your assistance with slaughtering these supernatural beings and getting to the bottom of it. I need to know where they're coming from... I'll repay you with a wealthy sum of spiritual prowess."
Greenland and Itaska were both amazed by the prize, a piece of spiritual prowess as the payment of finding the source.
"How may I be of assistance?" Itaska questioned. "I usually have a team of ten men... but I'm currently down to seven. Two of them are women... is that an issue Lord Dark?"
"I hold no bigotry towards anything." Dark shook his head, he replied. "I could utilize your team for more missions... would you like to join The Demon Corps?"
"The Demon Corps... you mean ran by The Ward family?" Itaska struggled with his thoughts for a moment, he answered. "They are known to have exceptional spiritual prowess... I didn't know they had connections with Divine Gods..."
"There's many unknowns to the universes, Itaska. I want you to send a trio of three of your members to Richland, East Greenland. I'll detect them when they arrive... and The Demon Corp will properly greet them. I need you to use the rest of your unit to kill many as you can... try doing city sweeps but this time when you come across something powerful, you'll have our assistance."
"Very well..." Itaska was impressed by the compassion of Dark. "We'll handle many as we can... but we'll likely be calling you soon. The Hooded Demon with hellhounds was our biggest threat... I was unable to defeat him."
A hooded demon... could he be even stronger than The Axis Demon? It shouldn't matter because Dark is at full power now... he's definitely much stronger than these demons. He just wanted to use Itaska to help us getting closer to finding whatever Valeur planned.
"We'll be in contact once our teams meet, allow me to handle The Hooded Demon soon as you find him. Let me know any information you get about the supernatural, and I'll return the favor with anything I come across. Do you have any questions?"
"I know what I need to do... and I entrust our battles against the monsters will weigh in our favor."
"Are there any more questions around the table?"
There was a moment of silence while everyone gathered thoughts, that silence would continue until the meeting was dismissed by Dark.
"Do you have history with The Ward family?" Greenland suddenly glared ahead Itaska and asked, speaking before The Realm was activated. "I apologize for the last second question. I'm just curious."
Itaska nodded, understanding that he likely brought that question upon himself. He had quite the history with Ward's since he was a teenager, back then he was a pupil of The Demon Corps founder. The Ward's father.
"I was a member of Demon Corps ten years ago... training under the founder, Marcus Ward." Itaska answered honestly with no hesitation, and Greenland was beginning to think he wasn't bad as she assumed. "Marcus was a brilliant man... he was an advocate of helping my family become free."
Greenland nearly gasped at the sound of her father's name, but she kept her cool and nodded gently to acknowledge his words.
Greenland and Itaska both were slaves who fought for their freedom using their spiritual energy prowess, dealing with demons that wanted to keep them weaker and enslaved.
"That's all for this time... we'll have our next meeting in seven days. We'll strictly focus on killing the supernatural until then." Dark's deep-toned voice echoed. "Meeting adjourned."
Dark deactivated The Realm and everyone's soul returned to their respective vessels.
Phuture was still resting in her sleep after the meeting, likely assuming it all happened in her dreams or being too sleepy to get up.
Willie Lou sat on her buttocks with her head resting against her knees, crying from grievance of her parents and siblings. She was a warrior on the battlefield at all times and assured herself to remain a fighter, but she was still hurting inside with a broken heart. She didn't expect Itaska to know her father, nonetheless, bringing up his name with such highly touted respect.
Terrance approached her sympathetically and placed a hand on her shoulder, he said. "You're heartbroken...no time to grieve any of your loved ones because you're too busy trying to survive."
Willie Lou looked up with tears falling from her round eyes, she failed to speak before sobbing more with Terrance's words in mind.
"You have been stronger than asked, it's okay to break character and cry about your loved ones. From everything I hear about you guys...and from what I can remember inside your brother's mind...your family has done nothing but great things in hopes of a better world. It's none of your fault the world contains such satanic and demonic behavior." Terrance rubbed her shoulder supportingly. "Is there anything I can do for you, Willie Lou?"
Willie Lou jumped up and hugged Terrance, thinking about the warm hugs from her older brother. She just wanted one more hug from her true brother, accepting that she would have to use the next best option. Hugging the man that transmigrated as her brother instead.
The black and orange healing orb created by Terrance began to crack, signaling the Union soldier's healing process was finished and he was ready to exit the orb.
The young man kicked and punched his way out of the weakened orb, meeting eyes with Willie Lou soon as he broke free.
The Union soldier examined his injuries then reached for his neck; the same location Terrance spotted the bite mark.
Terrance asked. "What's your name soldier?"
An expression of bewilderment rested on his face as he answered. "I'm Elmer."