The skies were growling as dark clouds began to cover them. However, the clouds seem to move on the whims of a certain lone man who was walking not too fast nor too slow.
"Issue a Red alert ASAP! He is coming!" Ripley shouted at the top of his voice as the soldiers around him quickly scrambled to their posts while inwardly sweating.
For some, it took even a while for the fact to sink into their minds. They couldn't believe that the Crimson Devil was walking towards their place.
Heavy artillery was placed on the roof, and even a tank inside the safehouse, ready to roll.
Ripley also made sure team 'Hound' was ready for immediate action. He had put together this team which consists of the best Ascended ones he got, and this included Bella as well.
Bella had an excited expression on her face thinking that she had finally got the chance to face this terrifying Crimson Devil.
She wanted to fight him and prove that the Crimson Devil was no god but a mortal who could be easily defeated.
No one could tell whether she was foolishly overconfident or it was because of her confidence in her own skills. But one could surely tell that she held intense hatred for the Crimson Devil.
She actually wanted to enjoy her morning by torturing Nathasia but received this call from duty which she could not refuse.
However, she was surprised by the fact that Nathasia still hadn't broken even after all these days of ill-treating her and thrashing her.
She was sure if it were any other person, they would have lost their mind and given in to the pain and despair by now.
Nathasia, who was in the dark and secure room all alone, heard the alarm going off, which woke her up.
However, her face was looking bloodied, and her figure looked pitiful and in bad shape. One could notice from her face that she was made to starve for the past few days.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})But her eyes still had a strong and defiant light that showed how adamant she was to not break before the person who killed her parents.
After a few moments, getting some clarity of mind, she wondered why these alarm bells were going and if there was some threat outside.
But the only threat she could think of to make these people trigger such a loud alarm was Damien.
A soft smile crossed her face thinking that she might be seeing him again soon, but at the same time couldn't help but feel bad for what happened to him.
There were 75 soldiers stationed across the building, while some were in squads to work together and fight the Crimson Devil.
All had the best assault rifles, but their faces held no confidence at all. But the thing most of these people, including Ripley, worried about was their families.
Since they had gone into total lockdown, their superiors had allowed them to bring their family into these safehouses since staying out was not considered safe.
Ripley already knew that the people who participated in the killing of the Crimson Devil's wife were in his safehouse as well, and one could even tell who all it was by looking at their ashen faces.
He felt that this was probably one of the reasons why the Crimson Devil was approaching their building.
He didn't condone the actions of those people, but there was no way he could speak against what they did since in the eyes of the world, they were seen as heroes.
After all, who would speak against the killing of the devil's wife and unborn child? They would consider it as a relief since there won't be a 'devil spawn' anymore.
Nobody had the time to talk to their families since they were all made to proceed towards the prison room where Nathasia was in since that was the most secure place in the building.
Some men got inside the tank and had already moved out through the large gates of the safehouse.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Be ready. Fire on my mark," Ripley commanded as he stood on the roof where the men were sitting behind the heavy artillery.
Even though his voice sounded firm, his face looked quite pale as if drained of all color. His hands were slightly trembling as he looked into his binoculars again to give the signal to his men on when to fire.
The men were sweating as they looked into their scope, preparing their weapons to fire.
Ripley zoomed his binoculars even more to see the Crimson Devil's face clearer but felt his hair rising on their ends when he saw how cold and impassive the devil's eyes looked.
It was as if there were no sign of human emotions left in them but what replaced them was pure cold killing intent, which even seemed to make his blood curdle from afar.
But one fact he definitely realized was that the Crimson Devil had appeared to shed blood and would only leave this place after he made sure that everyone was dead. And he could understand where all his rage was coming from, and anyone else who loved their wife to the death would feel the burning desire to take revenge.
Even a blind man could tell that by feeling his killing intent spreading from him like a raging wave.
Ripley felt like a dead man and didn't dare to waste any more time. Thinking that the Crimson Devil was within range, he gave a loud order, "FIRE!"
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
Several projectiles were sent shooting through the air, curving in the air, before heading towards the Crimson Devil at an insane speed.
However, to the shock of Ripley and the others, they saw the Crimson Devil simply raising his hand, and all the projectiles stopped in mid-air, losing their momentum completely.
But what made Ripley and his men despair was when they saw the projectiles slowly turning around in mid-air, facing their direction!
The Crimson Devil, with just a twist of his hand, sent all these projectiles back towards where they came from.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"TAKE COVER!!!" Ripley shouted like never before as he quickly jumped down before those projectiles could hit the roof he was standing on.
"RUN!!"
"Aaah, NOOO!"
*BOOOM!!*
However, some of the men on the roof were too late as they failed to avoid the incoming projectiles by a hair's breadth and exploded to bits and pieces as all the projectiles exploded on the roof at the same time.
The whole area shook, making most lose their balance and fall. Ten soldiers died on the spot on the roof as they weren't fast enough to jump down.
However, even Ripley didn't have a good landing and sprained his ankle, making him grimace as he got up.
His mind was in total disorder as he felt his ears ringing from the explosion and seeing soldiers running here and there while some were bleeding profusely.
The explosion had not only killed some of his men but even severely injured some others.
Ripley had never fought the Crimson Devil head-on before and based on the latest intel, the Crimson Devil was weakened after his escape from the supermax prison.
His communication to other safehouses was also cut due to some precautionary protocols, because of which he was totally in the dark.
He then looked towards the side to see that the tank was still moving forward, its barrel slowly rotating to aim towards the Crimson Devil.
"No, hold it!" Ripley shouted since the last thing he wanted was a repeat of what just happened.
