The cannons rumbled, deafening even from here. He couldn't imagine what it was like to be near one.
Trying to make sense of their invisible projectiles, it was notable that some of them were pointed downward on the other side of the wall.
Probably aiming for terrestrial beasts. At this thought, memories of a few creatures floated in his mind.
He needed to figure out more about this world, and fast.
Truth to be told, there was little to see from this 'raid' until now. The flying beasts were taken down as soon as they came close to the wall, giving him a sense of security, despite his fear.
He was mostly regaining his composure from the shock of all the events that had taken place in such quick succession.
A faint purple fog slowly crept towards the wall, barely noticeable until the cries of the soldiers brought it to attention. They were heading to the wall, almost desperately, pointing to it. The military force was placing every hand on deck as the cannon's firing rates intensified.
It seems he spoke too soon. The raid was just getting started…
Tremors propagated through the area. Explosions raised clouds of smoke, and boulders arched through the city. Despite being intercepted midair, many made it into the streets. Some of them displaced the cannons, but they were not toppled. He could now make a faint outline of the projectiles.
"Is this mana? Energy or whatever?" The fear was there, but his fascination with the events overwhelmed it, keeping him glued to the window to see everything that was happening.
"But why am I only seeing it now? Am I only now adapting to see this, or do you need to do something to be able to see these energies? If so, what am I doing? Hmm." Focusing inwardly, chasing the same feeling he'd found during his meditation, and the contrast to when his concentration faltered due to Darian's torture.
Wincing in pain again at the thought of the sadistic guy, he got past his feelings and breathed in a rhythm, trying to feel what he supposed now was the energy circulating through him.
His pain lessened, his senses sharpened. It was an incredible feeling. A firmer grasp of it was still beyond him, but he was progressing nicely.
It felt almost instinctive, as if he'd done it hundreds of times, which he supposed he had. "Well, this excuse for a man did." he corrected himself.
But then sighed, "I really shouldn't piss on the dead guy's grave, sorry Gustav, wherever you are." Something shifted inside him as he thought this, like someone was cursing at him. "Bastard!" he could faintly hear.
It was like talking to himself.
"What? Hello? Are you still here? Scream once if you are, twice if you're not." No response came.
"What is really going on? Is his soul still lingering in his body? Am I really possessing him? Is that why I'm recollecting his memories?" Things did not look so simple after all, no answer came up to resolve his questions.
Pushing this dilemma aside and focusing on his body again, Gustav, or Dante, he wasn't sure anymore, was feeling something.
Attempting to pin down the feeling was like trying to hold water with a sieve, being able to sense it, but not control it.
"Maybe it shouldn't be controlled? Maybe I should just let it flow?" And flow it did. Trying to increase the flow was easier, and it also augmented his ability to perceive the energy. He was starting to make out the paths it traced.
Just when memories started to flow clearer than ever, the loudest explosion yet echoed. The shockwave tumbled him to the ground.
"What the hell are these guys throwing?! Atomic bombs? What happened?" Dante said aloud, and looked outside, just before a booming voice cried: "Everyone to the Bunkers!!! Now!!!"
Before someone pulled him away from the window, he was able to see a green panel materializing over the wall, and a purple glowing humanoid figure was flying and punching the green panel rapidly.
***
The bunker was not very big, but there were few people there, so it was not cramped in the least. Damp air and conversations replaced the chaotic atmosphere above, but the booming sounds and tremors still reverberated into the underground.
But he barely heard all that, still thinking about the monster atop the wall. A demon, he heard from one conversation. "Seriously, demon? What's next? Elves and dwarves?" He was mocking the tendency to name anything creepy demonic.
"But to be fair, if anything deserves to be called a demon, it was that thing." It had been too distant to make out the details in his features, but it had a humanoid shape, horns, and a wing of black scales. His skin was dark-greyish, with purple energy flowing through it.
With time, more people came in to receive treatment, and things started to get more cramped. They were the soldiers, alive but mangled. Some had missing limbs, others were completely burned off, and only a few had light injuries, who were just being given bandages and first-aid kits to help each other.
The healers and medic assistants, as they were called here, rushed from one side to another, coats stained with blood and its characteristic metallic tang following after them.
Going from soldier to soldier, pressing wounds with glowing hands, the same green hue the barrier was made of seeped into cuts, knitting muscles at a visible pace. It was impossible to look away.
A flinch, remembering exposure to this magical substance. "Essence", he heard faintly. Even though they did not heal them completely, closing them without stitches was an incredible effect.
Observing the healers, he was starting to understand it and its behaviors, but attempting to mimic them, pushing the energy outward, had failed time and time again.
The feeling of frustration at this was old, likely bleeding over from the remains of this body's former soul.
So he shifted his focus to hearing the conversations around him while circulating his essence. The picture was becoming clearer, these raids were frequent, but not at this scale.
This only happened when a greater demon appeared: the humanoid creature attacking the barrier. And it could collapse under the demon assault at any minute now, that's why they ordered everyone to go to the bunkers.
The destruction that would follow was not absurd, but the constant attacks ensured the underdevelopment of society. So over time they constructed downward.
Wealthy families established themselves within a cave system discovered a few decades ago and assembled a massive underground city. They separated themselves from the lower classes, who slowly migrated to the surface fortress that served as a military base to reclaim the planet from the hands of the demons.
The poorer population lived on the surface in fear, constantly under attack, but what could they do? This was a war-clad world, and the military dictated the rules.
Just as you guessed, the top dogs of the military were the same rich people who controlled how the society progressed, who would get a seat at the decision table, and whose lives were worth more than the others…
Most of this information was brought by the conversations, which triggered some memories that tied up the loose ends of the history. With the memories came the sense of indignation towards the military, and he felt it was something Gustav had a distressing experience with.
When their thoughts became intertwined, he stopped triggering memories, afraid of losing his sense of self. Gustav's emotions and thoughts had already bled over a few times, and it was starting to get confusing to discern between Gustav's and his own.
He didn't know what to make of it. Was he still Dante, or was he already Gustav? Would he end up a mix of both? What should he be called then? "I'm spiraling again. Shut up, shut up. Shut up!!" he banged on his head, then suddenly grew stiff.
Looking around to see if anyone has noticed. "Stay cool, man, calm down. You're not like this, get a hold of yourself." This situation was messing with him more than he liked. And for once, both sides appeared to be in agreement.
***
After a couple of days in the bunker, the thundering of the battle faded, replaced by the chatter that filled the bunker, now packed with people.
Circulating his energy during this time boosted his recuperation, lessening the pain and discomfort, but not eliminating them completely.
Dante didn't try to start any conversation, and few people were trying to initiate one either. They were polite but otherwise uninterested, keeping to small talk and complaints about the crampedness and the food.
He was more interested in listening, the more he spoke, the more he would give away his ignorance.
By the time they were going out of the bunker, he had learned a lot of things. Including that his family was one of the military families that governed over Veritas. At one point, a soldier talked about his father being too strict after learning his injuries were due to training.
Torvin Krieg was a Colonel in the army, famed for his authoritarian and brute demeanor. But he was framed as one of the strongest officers of the city. Some memories displayed him, those made him shiver. "I really hope to be spared the pleasure of meeting him in person."
Back in the room, he looked out at the damage to the city. It wasn't as bad as one expected for two days of battle. The hospital and nearby areas were a priority to protect, but a few buildings had chunks missing, and some areas were a complete wreck, probably by the boulders thrown by the demons.
There were still other monsters, in the sense of the word, beasts that started mutating after The Awakening, as they called it, 42 years ago. They, however, minded their business most of the time, dominating various regions across the continent. The humans at the time had little problem with them in the beginning, they saw them more as new resources than anything.
Thinking of facing these was absurd for Dante. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, the figure was laughable. It would take a lot of effort to make a difference in humanity's tribulation.
If he were going to live here, at least for the foreseeable future, he should start to look into ways to navigate through this world's problems.
The real issue was the demons. They corrupted everything with their essence, which included the fauna and flora of their planet. All the creatures that were present at the raid were minor demons, corrupted beasts that aided the demons, and were always at their necks in an endless clash of attrition.
The only silver lining was that they couldn't stay away too long from their sources, having to retreat before depleting their energy reserves.
Thinking back on this gave him some relief, "at least it's not an impossible situation, they just need to fight back enough to carve back out their territory."
There still was a constant back and forth between both sides, and although the corruption spread slowly, humanity had an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers. Many people died every time a raid like this occurred. Thankfully, they were less frequent than the normal ones without a greater demon in the lead.
The population fluctuated constantly, between the raids and external missions, the number hovered around five million people, and they couldn't make a tally of all the demons there were, but it was greater by multiples.
There was a limited number of confirmed greater demons, and the military constantly sent units to deal with what they called nests: a concentration of demonic essence that increased the rate of the corruption spread. It was the mission of every soldier to aid in the battle against the demons, and it was mandatory to join the military at the age of eighteen.
Dante shuddered at the information. A few soldiers commented about how they expected to see him in the coming years. Judging his injuries, they deduced that his intensive training was giving birth to a great soldier.
Little did they know, he did not look his age at all, he would be entering the army next year in a few months. He would probably be the smallest soldier in the history of their military… "Oh… I'm not just fucked, I'm the main dish at a white party…"
NOTE: White party is just a local reference, a translation to our culture; he's not necessarily from Earth, maybe just another human-seeded world. It's very hard to navigate through our endless list of cultures, so I won't even try, I'd rather focus on other points.