"Damn it, quickly set up the heavy machine gun!"
"Oh God!"
"Save us!"
The soldiers on the perimeter line were trying to free the machine guns and use them.
But the heavy Browning machine guns were fixed, and in the panic there was no chance to redirect them.
In despair, the third and fourth class soldiers could only use their personal weapons, automatic rifles, pistols, and the occasional rocket launcher.
They fired volleys at the demons.
Gunfire echoed everywhere, but the demons remained almost untouched.
"Damn it, they tricked us!"
"Our weapons can't even move these monsters!"
The soldiers quickly realized they were right. Even when they used bullets with steel or tungsten cores, the effect was almost negligible.
General Ross had said that such rounds would be able to blow the demons to pieces.
But reality was the opposite.
Rifle fire could only inflict shallow wounds, enough to leave traces of blood on the demons' skin.
But it wasn't lethal.
On the contrary, it only enraged them.
"Raaah——!"
"You stupid… stupid intruders!"
The wounded demon, enraged with pain, roared at the soldiers. He even remembered that his leader was also human, so he quickly changed his words, calling them intruders instead of humans.
"Slaughter them all!"
At the same time that Nastir raised his demonic voice, the earthly demons, those without wings but of immense strength, broke through the artillery fire and charged forward.
There were more of them!
More than three thousand demons!
Even with the losses they had suffered under the bombardment, the number was still terrifying.
Even more dangerous, unlike Nastir and his winged followers, the wingless demons were far stronger in physical power.
They were taller, bulkier, and deadlier.
At first glance they looked like an army of thousands of smaller Hulks, running like an avalanche across the battlefield.
"General!"
"The perimeter defense line is collapsing!"
General Ross received the first dreadful news.
His face twisted in a grimace.
The flying demons led by Nastir had already broken through the front ranks, and all the carefully planned formations and orders Ross had given in the early phase of battle had fallen apart in an instant.
Even though mankind had powerful military technology and modern weaponry, all of that only mattered as long as the enemy was kept at a distance.
When the demons came face to face with the soldiers, all that advanced technology became a useless burden.
He remembered a saying from World War II: "If the enemy breaks into your trenches, you don't reach for your gun, you reach for the shovel beside you."
The frailty of the human body was a weakness that no technology could make up for.
"General, the outer front can't hold any longer!"
"What should we do?"
The staff officer beside him was desperate.
They had plenty of high-tech weapons at their disposal, but the enemy was now mixed in with their own soldiers.
They couldn't unleash the most destructive means without cutting down their own men as well.
"General?"
"… "
Ross listened to the screams and cries of his soldiers as they fell under the demons' assault.
And only then did he make his decision.
"Bring up the electromagnetic cannon we prepared for the Hulk!"
"And the sonic cannon!"
"The laser emitter!"
"… "
His officers froze in disbelief.
"But sir… our men are still there!"
"They sacrificed themselves for the fate of all mankind!" Ross growled.
"I'll report this to Capitol Hill. The soldiers who die will be awarded the highest honors and pensions for their families!"
Then he shouted loudly:
"Soldiers, obey my orders at once!"
At those words, vehicles equipped with high-tech weapons began moving toward the front line.
Sonic cannons.
Electromagnetic cannons.
Laser emitters.
These were the same weapons Ross had once prepared to capture the Hulk.
Now they were aimed directly at the mass of demons.
But also at their own men.
"Fire!"
The order was given.
In an instant, electromagnetic cannons and laser beams showered the battlefield.
Sound waves exploded in massive bursts of energy.
"Ahhh!!"
"Aaaah!"
The soldiers on the front line were struck by the sonic weapons, and one by one their faces twisted into masks of agony. In the next moment their bodies exploded like balloons, flesh and blood blown across the battlefield.
It wasn't just human soldiers who were hit.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Electromagnetic shells, accelerated to dozens of machs, pierced through the demons as if they were paper. The hellspawn's physical resistance to heat meant nothing here. The laser that followed scorched their bodies with ultra-high temperatures far beyond their limits.
For the first time on this battlefield, demons were dying in droves.
But Nastir reacted instantly.
"Leave the humans! Follow me! Destroy those damned weapons!"
He led a squad of death demons and dove straight at Ross's weapons line. Before the soldiers could even respond - Boom!
A blazing blade swept through everything, electromagnetic cannons, laser emitters, sonic launchers. Everything Ross had taken pride in vanished in a single strike. The battlefield split in two, and even the ground of Limbo cracked, opening chasms.
"Your ability to command is not very impressive."
In the air floated Aron, holding his flaming battle knife. As he spoke, the whole of Limbo shook. From all sides surged the demon soldiers, a sea of red silhouettes flooding the horizon. The sky was covered by an army of winged demons, and the earth trembled under the stampede of titanic beasts.
Nastir had only about five thousand soldiers, most of them newly recruited lesser demons. But the true army of Limbo numbered in the tens of millions. Even after Hela's campaign, more than thirty million remained. With a wave of a hand, an army of millions could be mobilized.
Aron hovered above, gazing at General Ross and his exhausted men, thinking this was almost perfect. Everything was ready for the invasion of Lucifer's realm. And then Ross appeared here with his 150,000 soldiers, perfect prey.
"Since you've come already," Aron shouted, "then leave your lives here. 150,000 souls! Whoever gets them first, they're his!"
The demons roared, blood boiling, eyes blazing with the desire for slaughter. In hordes they rushed at the terrified soldiers.
"Kill!"
"Slaughter them!"
The ground shook as though entire mountains were marching forward.
The faces of the American soldiers turned pale. They weren't stupid. General Ross had told them this was a battle they could win, that the demons were just a pile of ruins easy to topple. But now, when an army of millions thundered above them, the illusion collapsed.
Just five thousand demons earlier had broken their defense and butchered their comrades like cattle. Even with all the hidden weapons, they couldn't stop that small number.
And now… now they were facing a sea of hellish legions.
The soldiers cried out in panic:
"Run away!"
"Mamaaa!"
"I want to go back to Earth!"
"I won't fight anymore, I won't die here!"
"The portal! Retreat to the portal!"