Before the storm

'What's this?'

In front of Alain were two completely different situations, delimited by a thin line whose location happened to be at his nose. Thus, each of his eyes could observe one of the two situations that could even be called 'worlds' at this point.

Towards his left was a devastated world. The buildings looked more like ruins than anything else, making it difficult to pinpoint its location or time - if it had ever existed.

There seemed to be no life except for a winged figure, flying through the skies on his two black wings.

Free, the Demon laughed as it flew - showing its demonic nature. At least, his laughter had something else in it... Alain couldn't explain it but he felt sadness in it. It was the kind of laughter a madman would have just before he understood the situation he was in, that would then leave him felt despair.

It was a short vision. Less than 30 seconds of this passage was shown before it started again, without change.

And the situation on his right was identical as it stopped right after the same length of time. Still, the situation encountered was the opposite of the left situation.

This world was doing well. Everyone around him were smiling people, living in good spirits, in a new city where buildings stood firm, with the sun quietly caressing them.

This situation was in itself a contrast.

For the protagonist was on the ground, curled up under his wings as he was crying.

Even though he was in the middle of the street, no one seemed to recognize him or even see him. Then, during the excerpt, his feathers gradually peeled off till his wings fall off completely.

It was then that Alain remembered: Angels do not age. When they die, they lose their wings and fade away into silence.

'That's so strange.'

Looking at them continually, he seems to enter a trance.

Blinking his eyes, he felt something different. He inspected his body, to no avail, and finally realized soon after that the only things disturbing him were emotions.

They were new feelings, and saying they weren't pleasant was an understatement. It was a weight that seemed to have settled on his mind, something that nobody would have wanted to carry.

Fortunately, the feeling was removed as quickly as it appeared.

At the next blink, however, he felt a strange sensation in his hand - and his whole body in general - looking at it, he saw something strange.

His hand had transformed into that of an Angel, possessing a slight white plumage on the outside, which seemed to protect it as armor would. The next moment, however, all this disappeared.

He definitely did not understand the purpose of this ordeal, if there was one.

Pulling himself together, the two worlds in front of him no longer affected him. Soon, he was able to get out of there, joining his squadron.

...

Rejoining their group, they learned that, apparently, everyone had seen something different. Sometimes it was the past, a completely different world, embodying an Angel or a Demon, and so on.

In any case, the doors had remained closed and a new one had appeared.

The test they just passed was to fight the demons to get the reward: the visions obtained. This was the conclusion they thought of since not only there weren't any death but these visions helped the soldiers progressed.

The reward had been very varied, different for everyone, adjusting to the level of resistance of the person. But even if the reward was positive, the test still exhausted them psychologically, and with the stress - present especially for the troops who weren't from Cleppe - caused by this ancient area, as well as the exhaustion they had already undergone with the explosion or the night march, they came to a conclusion.

They decided to stay for the night

Although it is always dangerous to stay in an unknown place, being in a hurry would only lead to a quicker death. And as François (2nd of Jean) had pointed out, given their position, it was very likely that all around them were demons. Fortunately, they weren't in a hurry as even if their food would diminish with each passing day, they still had prepared some, where the enemies would surely lack some.

In fact, the longer they waited, the weaker their enemies would become.

...

The next day

The group prepared to move on to the next stage, with no suspecting that outside the zone, the real war would begin. If more than half of the troops sent by humanity were wiped out by the bombs, all of the battlefields weren't touched the same. More than 90,000 of the 100,000 men had died in their zone, making it even easier for the 65,000 demons in the zone to attack along with their 130,000 demons reinforcements.

Staying there may be the best choice they could make, but as much as Jean wanted to contact Cleppe's army with his artifact (entrusted to him by the viscountess), it seemed ineffective in this area, rendering him devoid of information.

- - -

Knowledge: Normally, and despite the strong death rate, demonic wars aren't intended to exterminate either side. Rather, after the initial charge allowing the stronger ones various feats and promotions, battles are fought on a much smaller scale. At most a few squadrons. In these battles, the main objective is to capture the enemy as they could ransom them. This is basically where social promotion is created, whether it be through money or titles.

Knowledge: The Failed Paladins have the best survival rate in wars. After all, they are few in number, powerful, and never face Demons. Moreover, only the best of them continue to fight after the shame of failing to become a Paladin. Losing most of their hopes of promotion, they prefer to take up strategic or administrative positions (all powers (Knights and above) must have an education).