Kat hadn't really been to hell. Of course, there was the accounting offices, but they had been pretty benign. And, if you were to ignore the strange inhabitants of the place, it looked downright normal. As if you'd visited a local accounting office, and not one in an alternate dimension staffed entirely by demons.
The scene in front of Kat though, it was a lot closer to the idea of hell. There wasn't quite any fire and brimstone, but it didn't need any. The sky was bleeding red, and that was to be taken more literally then Kat would like. There was a clear line on the horizon that seemed to let the colour bleed in.
Above that line wasn't much better, it was dark and cloudy, but at least it was normal. Everything else, from the sky to the mountains on the horizon, to the scene in front of Kat was dyed with that strange bloody red.
And the scene that played out before her. Oh the scene. The plains in front of Kat were extremely flat, with nary a hill in sight. There was only the cursed mountains in the distance, looking more like jagged teeth ready to clamp down than true mountains.
But, it was what was on the grassy plain that was cause for concern. At either and of Kat's vision, regardless of where she seemed to look, spewed forth a veritable wave of humanoid figures dressed in armour.
Even with Kat's vision she could hardly work out the details, but these armed and armoured figures… these soldiers marched endlessly together from each corner of her sight to clash in the middle.
That was perhaps the worst part, not the visual clash no, that was still indistinct even to Kat's extreme vision. It was the sound, the clashing and grinding of steel on steel, alongside the grunts of effort and the battle cries of the warriors arrayed before her. The sound of tens of thousands of marching feet, all trudging forward endlessly.
But the concerting part of the sound was actually what it lacked. There were no screams. Not a single scream of pain, of horror, of despair. It was as if every combatant in the mix of endless soldiers wanted to be there. Even as Kat watched the figures fall and be tread upon by their companions, not a scream could be heard.
Kat felt it as Minor pulled herself in close to her and she returned the gesture, wrapping her tail around Minor and pulling her in tight. Minor's ears tickled Kat's shoulder but she didn't react.
*What in the world is this. How is this possible? What has Major seen for this to come alive in her mind…*
"Minor, what do we do?" asked Kat trying to steel herself as much as possible for whatever task might lie ahead of her.
"I… I don't know… what could possibly be at the core of this…" said Minor
"Well, it has to be the army right" said Kat straining her voice to make it sound like a joke. She failed, and bother herself and Minor recognised that but they let out low chuckles anyway as if they could convince each other it really was funny.
"I-I don't know, but I think your calming aura might be necessary now" said Minor
Kat nodded, spreading her aura out… but as she did so, Kat felt something pushing down on her aura. *What is this? I've not really encountered something like this… except for fighting people specifically… Minor isn't fighting me so why is it like this.*
Kat grit her teeth and felt her aura expand, finally pushing past the strange pressure she was feeling and over herself and Minor. To Kat's surprise, it evened helped calm her slightly. The effect was not as pronounced as Minor who relaxed instantly but Kat could tell the feeling of dread that had been welling within her had vanished.
This still left her scared and worried, never before had she seen such battle playing out before her… but it was not an all encompassing fear that made it hard to breathe. Now it was a subtle pressure telling her that something was very wrong. Which was of course, more than obvious to Kat.
"Thanks" said Minor breathing out a sigh of relief "I wasn't sure if you'd have been comfortable doing that after I'd previously asked you not to use it on me"
*Well… now that you mention it maybe I should have been. You clearly weren't in your right might to decide if you really needed my calming aura… but of course that's the issue isn't it. Nobody needs it when they are sound of mind, that's the whole point unless I'm trying to use it to put people to sleep.*
"No problem. I think it might actually be something to do with this scene, like there is an additional effect permeating it. I had to… push against something for lack of a better word, and I'd only ever experienced that when someone was fighting my influence before… so I'm not sure what it says, just that it says something" said Kat
Minor nodded "I- I can't really begin to consider what we need to do to break this… I mean could you fight them all?" asked Minor
Kat narrowed her eyes and let her demonic energy circulate "Maybe? I suppose it depends. They are quite far away… and I don't really know how strong they are… but they seem endless. I'm not sure that even I can fight an endless army, and considering that's what they are already each trying to do… I feel like that won't break the scene" said Kat
Minor put her tail in her mouth and started to chew lightly on the end. "Hmm, I think you have to be right Kat… fighting probably isn't the answer… but I think we have to get closer. We have to know what is going on with them"
Kat nodded "Ok"
And so, the two set off. After a short time, it was clear that Minor was slowing Kat down, so she simply scooped her up and started running again. Kat debated a few times if it was a good idea to burn some energy to get to the fighting faster but…
Decided that using up her primary offence and defensive resource just to get to the fight earlier was a gross misuse of her abilities. Even still, carrying Minor was easy even running at high speed and it didn't take long before she arrived at the edge of the carnage.
Kat wasn't really paying attention, simply marching one foot in front of the other and concentrating on keeping her energy expenditure at around the same level as her regeneration so that she'd be full when the fight started.
It was a surprisingly enjoyable and slightly difficult task. She didn't want to be too slow, and be wasting energy as she kept at full, but using enough energy to see that she was starting to move faster than her regeneration to keep was also not ideal.
She made quite a few minor adjustments along the way. The easy way out would have been to just run faster for a bit then slower, but Kat tried to find the perfect balance. She'd gotten really close, traveling only burning the slightest fraction too much energy, likely so small that if her full attention wasn't on her energy she would say she was at full.
That was when Minor shouted something breaking her perfect concentration "What are they!"
Kat looked up, and finally the sight before her registered properly to her brain. The army in front of her was filled with humanoid figures to be sure… but that was the most accurate description figures.
Faceless wooden things when weapons and armour of steel, or some other metal endlessly crashing into each other. Each trike chipping away at both attacker and defender, as wood splintered and cracked under the weight of heavy swords.
What she had thought were blood splatters, were instead splinters of wood breaking free from their original home, and she could now clearly see each defeated 'soldier' cracking and breaking as they were tread under foot, until they were broken into tiny pieces and absorbed by the soil.
"Where the heck could Major have even seen something like this!" said Kat
From Kat's arms Minor replied with a quiet voice "This is like nothing I have ever seen, there is no way Major has either��� there has to be something else… some reason for this. This is a dream, sure as any other, so she can bend the rules…
"This doesn't have to have been real… but if we can figure out what it is based around then we might be able to discover what the central crux is. That way we can find out how to break the world"
"How are we doing so far" asked Kat
"No progress… it's as stable as it could possibly be" said Minor
"Of course" said Kat narrowing her eyes as they wandered across the mannequins.
