A Small Town

"I made a promise... I loved her. But did she love me? In the end, the end began. She died knowing the truth, sending us to hell and back. And now it's our time to repent. To rejoice. To seek the truth." (Mars)

"I love you!" (Sofia)

---

Hundreds of years ago a great catastrophe happened.

Rifts in space and time opened up across every great nation and country.

And in these Rifts monsters came, destroying, pillaging, and killing.

So all the nations of the world came together in community to stop this evil destruction.

They created a worldwide organization, a force of special individuals who could harness the magical energy coming from the Rifts in space and time.

These individuals worked around the globe in order to stop the monster invasion.

They were called... The Magic Force.

---

The world overrun by monsters.

Agencies and organizations in major cities across the globe have increased tenfold.

The rate of persons to monsters has increased from ten to five per monster.

Nowadays in the modern age, cities have become a cesspool of uncertainty. Every other day could be another attack, another death, another explosion of monsters.

But humans have counteracted in their own ways.

Bunkers on every street corner, police and military guarding every road in and out, satellites watching every corner of every inch of every city.

The biggest cities have become harbors of safety and security, where the smallest monster can be picked off before anyone can even notice.

The average death rate in cities has decreased tenfold. And the average person has a higher chance of dying by car accident than dying by a monster in a city.

But this same safety doesn't apply to living outside the cities. In places with fewer people, and larger areas of farmland, where there are no soldiers or Sorcerers to fend off monsters.

In small towns, the death rate has skyrocketed.

And the Magic Force only has enough Sorcerers to control cities and densely populated areas. They only have enough resources to help people in concentrated defined spaces.

So in an age of modern technology and innovations, there has come a problem.

How do we protect the world from monsters?

---

In a plane high above the clouds. A man and a woman are talking to each other whilst wearing parachutes.

"So it's an A-Class Monster?" (Marsh)

"Yup the meters were going off. The biggest one in a while." (Red)

"And why are they sending me a Third-Class Sorcerer and you a First-Class Captain Sorcerer?" (Marsh)

Red leaned forward, her hands clasped together, staring deep into her own past.

"Most of the Third and Fourth Class Sorcerer work is done in cities. But we're the Magic Force, not the City Force. You're gonna have to experience the outside world eventually. And nows the time. Just prepare yourself. For lots and lots of death." (Red)

Marsh gulped dramatically. The plane door swung open. Red stood up. Marsh as well. They looked over the edge. A small town one mile in length.

"Remember, extractions in two hours time. By then we must have hunted, killed, and burned the remains of the monster." (Red)

"Got it!" (Marsh)

They jumped.

---

Meanwhile. In a small town. In a small cottage in the middle of a dense forest. A guy stands with an axe. He looks off into the sky. He slams the axe hard into the ground.

"It's near." (Mysterious Human)

He walked through the woods, his fists ready and steady. He listened closely. A rumbling in the ground, trees falling over in the distance.

He planted his feet firm in the soft dirt ground. He pointed one fist out. He took a deep breath.

The rumbling grew closer. Closer. Closer. Trees falling closer and closer. He took a heavy step forward.

The Monster shot out a beam of magic.

"Yin!" (Mysterious Human)

The sky parted.

A monster with a thousand teeth, its hundred eyes surrounding its monolithic mouth, a tail slapping across half a mile long. It stood five stories tall.

And it was dead.

---

The small town of Grand Marais, Minnesota. Two visitors came from the skies. Landing in a field outside of the town. They waited for hours as the sun drew close to the horizon.

"Where is it?" (Marsh)

Red looked at her tracker.

"It says the monsters still in the forest north of the town. It should have come by now." (Red)

"You think it's munching on some forest dwellers?" (Marsh)

"It should be too big, it should have just stepped over them." (Red)

"What's the name of this creature again?" (Marsh)

"Gilgamesh." (Red)

"And we're supposed to kill it?" (Marsh)

"Don't worry. A Captain is stronger than any A-Class Monster." (Red)

Marsh looked to the tall woman standing next to him, her beautifully elegant white suit, silhouetted with her long black hair. He looked at his black suit, the blue flower pin strapped to his left breast pocket.

He looked at her black flower pin pitch against her white uniform.

"Captains are scary. But you seem nice." (Marsh)

"Don't compare us. Understand that you are only here because I owe your sister a favor." (Red)

"Oh that makes me feel better." (Marsh)

"But don't worry. I won't let you die." (Red)

---

The monster was ripped in two. Two halves of a teeth riddled creepy eyed creature. Its body slimy and red, its forty legs spread like an eagle, its body bleeding blue blood.

Marsh and Red looked up at the dead monster.

"It's dead." (Marsh)

Marsh touched the monsters skin.

"Can we go back to base now?" (Marsh)

"No. This is really bad." (Red)

"Why?" (Marsh)

Red's beautifully elegant face turn fierce and scary.

"There's something else out there. Something stronger than the A-Class monster Gilgamesh." (Red)

Marsh stepped back. He looked at the gigantic monster, its towering appearance, its destroyed gory body. He looked up in fear, in terror of something beyond power, beyond strength.

"Are you saying there's a stronger monster than this." (Marsh)

"This wasn't done by a monster." (Red)

She smiled.

"This is the work of a Sorcerer." (Red)

---

The small town of Grand Marais Minnesota.

Rate of death by monster per year in the United States: 200,000

Rate of death by monster per year in Grand Marais, Minnesota: 0