The rapidly approaching objects streaking across the sky didn't escape the attention of the demons.
The four-armed high demon narrowed his eyes, gazing toward the cylindrical projectiles.
With a hint of disdain, he muttered to himself, "So the big toys finally show up?"
Unlike the earlier barrage of conventional missiles and rockets, these were strategic-class warheads—true weapons of mass destruction, launched only from specialized military installations.
Even though the demons had only skimmed through fragments of local memories harvested from the souls they'd devoured, they recognized these weapons for what they were. They had a rough idea of both their power and how they functioned.
With a flick of his arm, the four-armed demon casually tore off a helmeted human head, gauging its weight like a pitcher testing a ball. Then, with a few steps of buildup, he hurled it with all his might.
The sheer force of the throw turned the head into a fiery meteor, tearing through the atmosphere and smashing directly into one of the incoming warheads—piercing it clean through.
By now, the missiles were only two to three kilometers away.
BOOM!!
The ruptured warhead's detonation sequence triggered immediately.
A massive ball of fire blossomed in midair, releasing a flood of blistering heat, shockwaves, blinding light, and radiation, engulfing the surrounding sky in a searing inferno.
The detonation cascade began.
The shockwave caused several nearby warheads to prematurely detonate, creating a chain reaction in the upper atmosphere.
More than a dozen towering mushroom clouds erupted in unison—
a fiery curtain of destruction that stretched across the sky.
Even though the blasts occurred in midair, the ground-level devastation was hardly diminished.
Entire districts, filled with steel-reinforced concrete skyscrapers, were torn apart like sandcastles in a typhoon.
The area beneath the epicenter—where the demons had gathered—was utterly engulfed.
Within seconds, half the capital city was obliterated.
Only buildings far removed from ground zero managed to withstand the wave—barely.
Even places hundreds of kilometers away felt the tremors. Across the nation, millions stared in horror at the apocalyptic plumes now rising on the horizon.
Panic erupted.
Wild rumors spread like wildfire:
"Is this the start of World War III?"
"Run! It's nuclear war!"
"Grab food and supplies—find shelter!"
From space, military satellites transmitted chaos: Traffic jams. Riots. Power outages. Widespread hysteria.
Government officials tried desperately to regain control, but with most communication systems fried by the nuclear pulses, they were powerless to broadcast calming statements. Only specialized secure lines remained functional.
Inside the command center, the president stared grimly at the giant mushroom clouds on the screen.
"Let this be enough…"
He had never wanted to authorize this level of force.
But the demons had left him no choice.
They were intelligent, powerful, and utterly bloodthirsty.
They slaughtered everything—soldiers, civilians, even stray wildlife. Their behavior left no room for negotiation.
Experts unanimously concluded that if the enemy dispersed across the globe, they would become walking catastrophes—unstoppable natural disasters in the form of living beings.
Their combination of:
Immunity to conventional weaponry
City-levelling destructive power
Supersonic movement beyond fighter-jet speeds
…made them nearly impossible to counter.
Once they spread into strategic areas, there would be no way to contain them.
And so, while the cost was immense, annihilating them at once—here in the capital—was deemed the only viable option.
"Known losses," one expert had said, "are always preferable to unknown threats."
Even governments on the other side of the planet agreed.
Foreign nations flooded in satellite-phone transmissions pledging unconditional post-war aid, so long as the threat was eliminated.
Of course, if any corpses survived, political intrigue and global research races would follow.
After all, this was the first time living extraterrestrials had been encountered.
If their power source could be uncovered, the value would be immeasurable.
But that all hinged on one thing—
the assumption that the demons had been vaporized.
---
Back in the command center, the president sat anxiously, watching the still-rising mushroom clouds.
"Are you sure this will kill them?" he asked, voice hoarse.
His military advisor replied solemnly:
"Almost certainly. Each missile yields enough force to level everything within a 50-kilometer radius. Those demons were at the epicenter. At the moment of detonation, the temperature exceeded hundreds of millions of degrees. By all calculations, they should've been completely vaporized—no remains, no trace."
The president began to exhale in relief.
"Alright, then—"
But before he could finish, the advisor suddenly froze, staring wide-eyed at the satellite feed.
"...What the hell…?"
On the display, silhouettes began to emerge from the firestorm.
Tall, unburned, completely intact figures stood amidst the inferno.
The scorching heat hadn't so much as singed them.
One of them—a high demon in the form of a humanoid flame wreathed in lava—shivered in delight.
"Mmm… that feels incredible."
Unlike the others, who needed protective auras to withstand the heat, he, as an infernal flameborn, thrived in it.
The initial explosion had been dodged using spatial abilities, and the residual heat and radiation that followed?
A feast.
Another high demon—part serpent, part lion—snorted dismissively and glanced upward.
His sharp senses could detect the satellites tracking them.
But he didn't care.
"As per our original contract—this planet poses no real threat. We'll move independently from here."
With that, he disappeared in a flash, off to hunt on his own.
Having witnessed the weaponry firsthand, the demons had reached a conclusion:
The strategic weapons of this world, while potent in raw power, were far too rigid and predictable. As long as one possessed even basic spatial manipulation, dodging them was trivial.
With no credible threats remaining, there was no reason to stay grouped.
The others quickly followed his lead, dispersing in different directions.
Each ready to begin their hunt.
__
T/N:
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