The Three Dark Angels

The fear in the voice had now become stronger as the awe faded.

"By then, it was too late. Balnakaru had been tracking us all and bringing us in little by little. We were unable to escape, and Balnakaru wanted to test on human subjects. I suspect this was his goal from the start. He new exactly what this was, and what it would do. He just needed a high tech lab to do so. He explained that it was possible to control the mutation of the alien DNA, which he now stated was demon DNA."

"Yes, Balnakaru confirmed that he is referring to the same demons as the ones of legend, which had invaded Magicka in the ancient past. No supposed trace had been left behind, but Balnakaru himself and his specimens were living proof of it."

"The results of the remains of the mouse alone were astounding. Despite the appearance of the mouse, we discovered that the mutations vastly improved all internal systems of the mouse. The organs themselves required far more strength to cut open, thick as normal human skin. The skeletal structure was also far more durable, as were the muscle tissues, nearly every single aspect had been improved as though it had undergone a super evolution."

"On top of that, we didn't see a trace of the cut that Balnakaru had made when he severed the limb of the mouse. Not a single trace of a scar, the wound was perfectly healed to the point that one would never know that it had happened. That kind of healing power alone is far beyond anything seen on any other living creature in Magicka. Along with that, strength and durability were vastly improved, meaning that as a species and life form, demon DNA is far more evolved than anything else."

"It had managed to start out as a simple small DNA sample, which instantly went on a rampage, and not only infected it's host at an incredible rate, but mutated it and skyrocketed it in terms of evolution."

"Further results proved to be even more astounding. It is able to forcibly reanimate dead tissue for further or extended use, though a majority of the flesh and cells rot and die almost immediately, as though going through centuries in age."

"Viruses, bacteria, or any other cell sized organism are infected by the demon DNA, rather than the reverse, making them the greatest predator on the cellular level by far. With this, it could theoretically be possible to eliminate all viral and bacterial threats, doing away with disease completely. On the other end, this is also the most dangerous biological weapon ever seen in the world."

"But this isn't even the most powerful aspect of this discovery. Depending on how much of the legend of Nirvana is true, that may mean that we are not the first to inject demon DNA into human subjects. For instance, Balnakaru didn't even need us, he himself is able to infect anyone with his power at will. What he was looking for was how to find humans who were compatible with demon DNA, and why they were compatible."

The voice on the recording was now shaking, desperate, and far different from the normal voice the recording had started out with.

"The tests on live human subjects were just as fascinating as they were horrifying. These nightmares now haunt me even more than Balnakaru's eyes. As with the mouse, several subjects underwent a super mutation like the mouse, turning them into mindless killing machines, or, the mutation went so horribly wrong that the mass that was created died almost instantly. However, the most fascinating part, is that like Balnakaru, certain subjects were able to control the mutation. Rather than just possessing the body completely, the demon DNA instead formed a symbiosis with the host."

"Unfortunately, we discovered that strong electric signals sent are sent directly to the brain, and one who cannot control that suffers a massive mental breakdown, which includes hallucinations, paranoia, loss in memory, and others. Further analysis concluded that perhaps the greatest factor in control was the mental capacity of the subjects."

"Consistently, subjects with more stressful lives or weaker minded subjects were more susceptible to the mutation process, while stronger minded subjects resisted the mutation."

"This has brought up perhaps the strongest issue to the table yet. Balnakaru has not spoken of this directly yet, but I did hear him speak of the idea before. He wants to experiment with children next. I...I don't know if I can sit back anymore and do nothing. At this point, I'll accept whatever punishment I deserve for staying quiet for this long, but I can't let this go on."

The audio recording ended.

"Little late, isn't he?" Captain Nicholas commented with no pity in his voice, picking up the file in front of him.

"Yes he is, and he'll get what he deserves. In the meantime, our sole focus is Balnakaru."

Captain Nicholas decided to take a look at the photos and files next.

Subject A: Male, mid 30s, high stress job and an unhappy marriage. No previous medical illnesses.

Subject was incorporated with what is considered a small dose of power. Shortly after, the subject's mental capacity broke down, and instantly began to mutate, which died minutes later. As with other mentally stressed subjects, they appear unable to control the power given to them.

The captain didn't read on into all of the various details. Both the short summaries, along with the pictures associated with the experiment were enough. The photos turned his stomach, and Nicholas couldn't even imagine how the mass of flesh and bone in the photos had once been human. And that was exactly what it was, a mass. A mass of flesh, blood, and bone which had splattered everywhere in the photo, with several rib bones emerging from the mass. And somehow, the skull had got caught up in the one of the rib bones, for one was sticking through the skull's eye socket.

The following results were similar, and Captain Nicholas sped through to the end.

Subject G: Female, early 20s. Unusual yet healthy lifestyle. Environmentalist, exercises, and has no commitments or hindrances.

Subject G's first injections proved successful in the fact that the subject survived the process. Unfortunately, though complete mutation was avoided, the subject's mental capacity was severely diminished. Attempting to determine if it was either a mental or physical handicap that prevents subjects from maintaining sanity after the infusion.

In conclusion, it is found that almost no human has the ability to truly adapt to demon power. This reason, however, is not a physical defect, but a mental one. As we have discussed once before, it is time to find out just how large of a factor age can be when it comes to control.

This time, the figure in the photo appeared human. Except for the face. The woman's eyes were completely blood red, and she had a blank but mad expression on her face.

The Lt. Colonel then pulled out another photo of three men speaking with each other, and he pointed to one of them. The man in the photo was what one would call average all around. Average build, height, weight. Even his short brown hair could be called average. All except that he had a really menacing face for some reason, and he was smirking in the photo.

"This is Balnakaru. And honestly at this time, that's all we really know about him. We know that he comes from across the desert, and that's where we lose any trail. Magi aren't exactly good at keeping records, nor would they share it with us if they did."

Tensions between the Magi and Techs have always remained chilled and distant throughout history, and both sides constantly clashed for dominance or out of distrust. Because of this, small favors were never asked between the two. In a more practical sense though, one could not exactly pick up a phone and call the Magi. They did not possess any communication technology at all.

"What we do know is that in recent years, he's infiltrated Montania without being noticed, and quietly began collecting scientists to help him along with subjects to experiment on. But, that's not the real bad news. The real bad news is the one experiment that worked, Balnakaru himself."

Lt. Colonel Johnson then pulled out a new set of photos. The pictures showed what the Captain recognized to be other Black Ops members, judging by their uniforms and equipment they were carrying. They were currently out to kill, and their target was Balnakaru.

As the photos continued, however, things went from bad to worse. The photos clearly show that Balnakaru had gotten shot a few times during the engagement. Yet, he kept on fighting somehow, and the photos showed him picking off members of the squad with close range edged weapons.

And yes, although it was Balnakaru, he was different in these photos. The whites in his eyes, like the woman's, had gone blood red. However, the pupils in his eyes remained, and Balnakaru appeared to have full grasp of his surroundings.

"These were taken by the only survivor of Snake squad, who was sent in to raid the hidden labs and bring Balnakaru in. His response, which is not shown in the photos here, was to kill off everyone he was working with along with Snake squad, and he burned the place to the ground where we lost his trail. Recently, though, someone had a slip of the tongue and spilled out where he currently is. Someone who Balnakaru may have overlooked when he scorched everything else."

"And Balnakaru did all of this...by himself?" Captain Nicholas asked as his eyes scanned the photos.

Lt. Colonel Johnson nodded. "An entire Black Ops squad, by himself. And as the photos show, he is able to fight even after being shot. According to our witness, which corresponds with what is revealed on the tapes and files, he has revealed that he has some sort of super healing. His wounds may not have completely healed on the spot, but it is enough to keep him going. On top of that, he is far stronger or faster than normal humans. Our guess puts him as a Class 1 Magi, based on what we've seen."

"A Class 1!?" The Magi class system. It was a brief and crude system, and only gave a general idea of a Magi's abilities, but it served a good purpose.

Class 5 Magi were the average population, or noncombatants.

Class 4 Magi were the Conscripts. The Conscripts, for the most part, were little more than an actual police force than a true military power in the Magi world.

The Class 3 Magi is the class that starts to become significant. The Class 3 Magi is the lowest level Dragoons, which included the ranks of Graduate, Adept, and Junior. However, the Dragoons were highly trained combatants, and history has shown just how capable even low level Dragoons have been against Tech nations in the past.

Class 2 Magi were the Seniors and Veterans, the next step above the other ranks, for they were the commanders and were considered very capable.

Class 1 Magi, however, stood almost in a class all by itself, which were the Masters and the Grand Dragoon. Class 1 Magi were the extremes of the Magi world, and were considered extremely dangerous. Though always few in number at any given time, some of the greatest influences in Magi history were Class 1 Magi, and Class 1 were not to be taken lightly. This was proven when Osirus, the great figure of Magi history, had single handedly defeated the invasion of the tyrant Ticonderus, who sought to reunite humanity under one banner once again. In the year 226, Ticonderus attempted to invade the Magi world by sea, the first to do so since he realized that the world was not flat as previously believed, and had landed with hundreds of thousands of troops. Only a few thousand out of this force at best survived at the hands of Osirus and the few dozen Dragoons and a couple thousand Conscripts who happened to be at Juniper at the start of the siege.

In retaliation for the invasion, Osirus led his best spell casters at the time to the ocean, and to protect themselves from future invasions by sea, created a mass of unexplained chaos that had turned the vast ocean into the now known Sea of Chaos, an ocean hostile to all with a giant never ending storm that sank all who attempted to sail deep into the vast ocean.

History was riddled with various accounts such as this. The Magi didn't have all of the success, and they had suffered many defeats as well, especially in more recent years as technology became more and more advanced. However, both sides had more or less silently decided that invasions across the desert were just impractical and doomed to fail. The two worlds simply acknowledged the other's existence, and only quietly interacted with each other.

Lt. Colonel Johnson nodded. "It gets even worse. Take a look at these two pictures."

Both of them were of Balnakaru. The one on the left seemed really blurry for some reason when compared to the right. "Sir?" The captain asked, confused.

"The photo in your left hand was taken when we first started picking up his trail. The one on the right was taken when he resurfaced. Here's the problem. We first picked him up fourteen to fifteen years ago."

"What!?" The captain took a look at both photographs. Now he noticed it. The difference was camera quality. A fifteen year difference. Yet Balnakaru was the same. Not a single sign of aging.

"...does demon DNA prevent aging?"

"Nothing has lived long enough to prove that, except for him. If that's the case, we absolutely cannot afford to have this guy running around in the shadows. On top of that, he his attempting to breed an army of humans as powerful as himself. That makes it imperative that we take him out as quickly and quietly as possible. If any of this information gets out and others pick up progress on this, the results could be disastrous."

Disastrous couldn't even begin to depict what would happen. An army of Class 1 level individuals that could regenerate their wounds almost instantly? Just a handful of them could potentially ruin the entire eastern side of the Lost Desert. Even just an handful of these supposed 'failures' could cause chaos. And if they were ageless...then such a nightmare could go on for...

"What about the idea of recreating the White Angel?" Captain Nicholas asked, stopping himself before trying to answer the previous question. That was an answer he did not want to hear, even in the back of his mind.

Lt. Colonel Johnson sighed. "Who knows. History can't even correctly account for how powerful Garserimos was at that time. If the legend is true, then the White Angel can match that of a demon god. I don't know how, but this guy is somehow carrying information that has been lost for thousands of years, and he may know the full truth of what really happened. At any rate, we won't let him get that far. White Angel or not, what this guy has already is a large enough threat."

"I'm assigning Wolf, Bear, Raven and Python to you. As leader of Dragon, it is only fitting that you will be the field commander. Your top priority will be both Balnakaru, and the results of his experiments. We don't want to give this information a chance to leak. The scientists are expendable at this point. If you can get them, great. If not, then we can't let them see the light of day either. Not after being exposed to this."

"Anyone else know about this?" Captain Nicholas asked.

"No. At least, not outside our small community. And we're getting a blank check for this."

Captain Nicholas figured that. Otherwise, they wouldn't round up all of the Black Ops squads like this.

"We're going to need it too, just to get you out to where he is."

Captain Nicholas looked up. "Where is he?"

"Back home, across the desert. Some small farming town called Overlook which he is using as his current base of operations."

The Captain held back the annoyed sigh that he wanted to give out. That meant that this was going to be a long and painful trip.

And it was. It started out comfortably enough with a several day to a week long ride aboard the aircraft carrier Juggernaut, arguably the greatest aircraft carrier in the Montanian navy. Once in range, however, they were crammed aboard a small transport plane that flew them out the rest of the way which lasted several long and painful hours until they themselves had to jump out once over the designated landing target. What made the jump even worse for Captain Nicholas was that he wasn't comfortable with heights to being with, and being asked to jump out of a moving plane and into a dark sky almost proved to be too overwhelming. Almost.

Bait. That's the best explanation. Take the few patrols out here, and that can make one overconfident, as well as spring a trap. Even more importantly, there was no visible evidence of any experimentation going on here. However, both the patrols and sighting of Balnakaru meant that this place was important.

But, this kind of setup seems to be specifically designed for Black Ops. Magi flat out refused to use technology, and would never dream of using guns or any other form of modern weaponry due to their ideals. This kind of behavior would attract a lot of negative attention in the Magi world, whose soil they were now on.

Captain Nicholas began to wonder if Balnakaru was already several steps ahead, and is prepared for something like this. He had already fought and won against a Black Ops unit once before (which he did by himself), so he knew he was being tailed by the Montanians at least.

But he didn't reveal this location himself. That was done by another...and something Balnakaru might have accounted or even planned for. What kind of trap was he trying to set? Why Black Ops members, out here, in the middle of nowhere?

However, there was nothing else to do but take the bait at this point. Balnakaru had been visually spotted here earlier in the day, when Black Ops had first arrived on site.

Though they would take the bait, this fight will be fought on Black Ops' terms.

The guards were also carrying comm devices, which meant that after a guard was taken out, it would only be a very short time before that is noticed. If this was to be done right, it had to be done fast. The plan had already been decided just a few hours ago, and now was the time to carry it out.

The cold winter breeze almost forced Captain Nicholas to shiver, but he held it in check. Instead, he reached for the comm on his own helmet.

"All leads, Dragon lead. Green or red?"

"Dragon lead, Raven lead, green."

"Dragon lead, Wolf lead, green."

"Dragon lead, Bear lead, green."

"Dragon lead, Python lead, green."

"All units, Dragon lead. We are green. Repeat, we are green. Good hunting. Dragon lead out."

Captain Nicholas then raised his right hand, and signaled those around him to proceed forward. The tall grass of the field that they were hiding in covered their approach as they moved forward, their weapons raised.

Several hundred feet needed to be covered as quickly and as quietly as possible. Whatever Balnakaru was doing here was not important. What is important is that he needed to be taken out.

The silenced guns did their jobs well as Dragon approached the first three individuals, and took them out quick and clean with a quiet put. But, because of the silence of the night, that little put was enough to catch the attention of two more. They turned their heads towards the sound they heard, and dropped dead seconds later as they were taken down.

Still hiding at the edge of the field, Captain Nicholas waited a few moments more to see if anyone else may have heard what happened. Once satisfied for the moment, Captain Nicholas silently ordered his team out of the field and out into the open night.