09: A Pyrrhic Victory

   [ ❉ TWO WEEKS LATER - September 14th 2016 ]

   The fluorescent hospital lightning covered Chanyeol in a cold glow. Only the steady beeping of his life support machine punctuated the heavy silence in the room. Baekhyun sat alone beside his friend, nursing his heavily bandaged arms. He had spent every day here, waiting around for Chanyeol to wake up, but a fortnight had passed since that day in the capital, and there had been little progress. Feeling another wave of solitude wash over, Baekhyun sighed heavily and closed his eyes, trying to block out the multitude of negative thoughts that he had been circling his mind since that day.

   About five more miles to the west of Greyfleur lay the great city of Merehua; a sprawling urban metropolis that was widely considered as the unofficial human capital city after the Great War. The peace treaty was the only thing that kept Merehua untouched under the demon reign, but Merehua wasn’t as abundant as Central. Modest in size, residents dotted far and wide across the city, with the centre dedicated to a sea of high rise buildings that looked like sparking trophies from afar only for closer inspection to reveal broken glass planes and long-abandoned offices. Under the demon reign, the humans didn’t have much, but they made do with what little they had. At the very least, it was better than living in the Outskirts.

    Fortunately for its residents, the humans lived mostly in peace under the governing of the Human Liberation Vanguard. The organisation had initially been established during the Great War with its roots as a rebel army against the demons, but after signing the peace treaty, they officially downgraded their military purpose and expanded into a peaceful organisation dedicated to looking after the citizens of Merehua.

   Or so, that was what the HLV led the demons to believe.

   On paper, the military department of the HLV was only large enough to settle domestic disputes, but behind the scenes, the HLV continued researching, developing and training; ready for another battle. Every single member knew in their hearts that the peace treaty was just words on a piece of paper. War would come again, and it was only a question of when. So until then, the humans hid the real purpose and strength of their organisation.

   It was on that fateful day two weeks ago when the HLV revealed what it actually was, surprising the demons and infiltrating further into Central than they had expected. Overall the mission was a victory – the ritual had been stopped, but the losses they had suffered were immense. Not only had they lost many highly trained soldiers that day, but they had effectively declared war on the demons, breaking the peace treaty once and for all.

   It was truly a pyrrhic victory.

   On the westside of Merehua was a medium-sized high rise that had been converted into a secret HLV hospital. That was where Baekhyun and Chanyeol had been for the last two weeks, recovering slowly at the farthest point from Central that they could, the furthest they could be from her.

   Baekhyun remembered that day like it had only happened yesterday. With his demon form activated, he had managed to escape Central with Chanyeol on his back, running the entire ten miles between there and Merehua until his energy reserves ran out at the border. From there, HLV paramedics rushed them by ambulance to the hospital. Baekhyun didn’t remember much; it had all been such a blur. Doctors and HLV Healers were already waiting for their arrival. They pulled Chanyeol out first followed by Baekhyun on a separate hospital bed. For a short while, they were wheeled together in the same direction, Baekhyun had tried to reach over to hold Chanyeol’s limp hand, pleading for the doctors to save him until they were forced to separate as they headed off into different departments at the facility. 

   Tired, Baekhyun stood up and stretched his aching muscles, wincing with every movement. He still had bruises covering his body, tingeing him all over in shades of green to purple. The doctors told him that he had sustained heavy internal bleeding and several broken bones, and that if he hadn’t have been half-demon, he probably wouldn’t have survived. They fixed him to the best of their abilities and Baekhyun was released within a couple days, but Chanyeol was on a whole different level of injuries. The doctors had been blunt; if Chanyeol were a regular human, he most certainly would have died.

   Chanyeol’s carbon steel skeletal reinforcement had been stressed to the point of breaking, cracking most of Chanyeol’s bones and the multiple gunshot wounds he had suffered induced heavy blood loss. The only reason he had survived was because the nanomachine’s in his blood had repaired some of the injuries on a cellular level, allowing blood flow to the critical organs, keeping him alive.

   Sighing again, Baekhyun turned to look at Chanyeol, watching at how Chanyeol’s chest rose and fell steadily, his breath fogging up the breathing apparatus wrapped around his face. His gaze trailed down, following the hundreds of wires that s under the covers connecting Chanyeol to the dozens of monitors surrounding his bed.

   They had joined the HLV together shortly after Chanyeol’s sixteenth birthday. The orphanag