The snow crunched under the men and women's feet, as they navigated the white ground, against a white backdrop, interrupted by the grey columns of trees of the forest.
They had no memory of their past, no names, and no understanding of how they came to possess such skills... just kidding...
Egil had read stories like that in the past, but reality seldom afforded people the luxury of new identities, forgetting, and painless training montages.
He and the group with him were a mix of demonic summoners and local militia. Of course he was a summoner. The local militia plebs were just along for the ride... gripping their flintlock rifles like they'll do a damn bit of good.
These poor bastards were in for a crash course in why summoners weren't just "hunted down, door-to-door, and executed" as their anthropomorphic talking mustache of a commander put it. Backwater prick. Of course, the simplicity of such a statement suggested he never attempted the endeavor himself.
Egil reached out with his "third eye." It was't a literal third eye on his forehead... though, that would make for an amazing ice breaker. Instead, it was a means to see the 'flows of entropy' 'through his mind's eye.'
Aaaannnnd... nothing out of the ordinary. Demons exist along a "spectrum of chaos." At the low end of the spectrum, there are human-like beings such as succubi, and at the high end are eldritch abominations. Yes... they came from 'Hell' but they were never 'human in a past life.' Human souls didn't actually end up in hell either (its complicated).
In this particular case, Egil and the team were in the lookout for something normal, with unusually dense entropy within it. While everything exhibited some level on entropy, demons actually had a constant 'tether' to Hell, and didn't use energy from the 'mortal' layer, so its common for them to show up sharply on scans.
Egil saw out of the corner of his eye, Alexi appeared to be tense as fuck. Shoulders up, head darting side to side. He'll be mentally exhausted by the time... if... they find this demon. Alexi was one of the recent training graduates. While he had the education, he was still short on experience.
Egil grabbed the kid's arm, which predictably got him to jump. Egil began shaking it, while flopping his other arm limply. "Relax, or you'll drive yourself crazy."
Alexi smiled, relaxing his arms. "Ok, ok."
It wasn't the 'current state of affairs' that usually did people in. It was stress and time. Like a muscle, the mind can only stay tense so long, before it stops cooperating.
"Hey!" Egil heard a whispered shout from David, and looked over in his direction. David then pointed off in the distance. A brown bear appeared to be walking between the trees.
Egil looked at it through his third eye. There was the target. It glowed in comparison to its surroundings.
Then the bear turned its head, noticing the group. Egil wondered if attempting to be stealthier would have helped, but that would have slowed the group down, and leadership wanted these excursions to somehow be faster.
This would be a direct encounter. The bear didn't go into a threat display like a regular bear would. Instead, it seemed to enter a moderate trot.
Egil went through the notes in his head. What can we glean so far? Its in bear form, which means its likely some sort of shape shifter. Its completely unfazed by the presence of three summoners. ...and for what its worth, four riflemen.
David looked over at his two partners. "Im going to imprint on it. You two, try to get through its shielding."
Imprinting was effectively the art of taking away a sizable chunk if the demon's free will. Frowned up for use against conversational demons, but beasties were fair game. The challenge was busting through its defenses, when pretty much meant 'weakening' it to the point of not being able to block the overwrite of its consciousness.
