I met a man with a mysterious lance.
Actually, he was more like a devil disguised as a man.

I believe it was when I just arrived at a forest in a bordering region of the Empire to investigate it under the imperial order.
The forest was extremely quiet, suspiciously so.
I was bout to order the soldiers to search.

Suddenly...
I saw a man in the shadows of the forest.
He was alone, but he was mumbling as if he was talking to someone else.
Then he saw us standing out here with our mouths agape. He slowly walked out of the shadows with a creepy smile on his face.

He didn't look like he was of this world.
I thought he was the devil himself.

Maybe it was because I didn't know who my enemy was.
A gut feeling of fear that I hadn't felt for a long time came back, screaming at me to run.
I ignored it and was about to crouch into a fighting stance when I saw the lance in his hand shimmer.

I don't remember clearly what happened next.
I think the soldiers were lying on the ground. My right arm felt numb. And I heard the mysterious man's maniacal laughter.

When I opened my eyes, I was at an Imperial medical relief station, missing my right arm. That explained the numbness I felt before I lost my consciousness.
But I didn't have time to wallow in pain.
I had to let my superiors know about the devil.

Two years have passed since I turned in my last report and returned home.
I still dream about the devil sometimes.
A while ago, one of my comrades from my days in the Imperial Army visited me and brought me up to date on what's happening in the outside world.

Abaddon was what the devil was called.
It refused to cooperate with the Empire, so the government sicced armies on it. It obliterated every single one of them.
But it always let one soldier leave alive, my comrade said.

Suddenly the devil's maniacal laughter rang in my ears again.
I know now that I didn't survive that day; I was saved, so I could send a warning to everyone else who would come to the devil after me.

- From a memoir of a former Imperial Army officer