I. Funeral
Douglas was dead.
He died in a tavern. An Infernal killed him in that tavern. No one knew the Infernal’s name, nor did anyone know how he did it. There was only the result: Douglas collapsed onto the tavern floor and never stood up again.
Louise buried her father in London. She chose a spot in the cemetery and had another pit dug beside it—she pulled strings to relocate Uncle Byrne’s grave from Paris as well. The two graves sat side by side, identical gray granite, identical engraved formats.
“It was what Dad wanted.”
Louise cried for three days and three nights.
Her Infernal friends came to comfort her. A girl from next door, two years younger than her, held her in her arms.
“It’s alright. Everything will get better.”
Louise wiped her tears and turned to another person—a male Infernal one year older than her, red-skinned, tall and lean.
“I won’t be going back to Prague, because I’ve already graduated.”
Her voice was flat. Her tears had dried.
Then she looked at the red-skinned man.
“Marvin Strong, there’s no future for us. You see it now. Our community doesn’t welcome your kind.”
“But, Louise…”
“Please call me Louise Cromwell, not Louise.”
Louise stared at Marvin, leaving him no room.
Marvin Strong was someone Louise had met at Charles University. A doctorate student in the Law Department. He was also her boyfriend.
In the past, Louise had argued with Douglas because he forbade her from dating Marvin. Those had been good days. Louise liked to laugh, liked beauty, like a lively little princess. Marvin had been conquered by her agility and charm—just as Douglas had been when he first met Louise. Two men from different eras, drawn to the light of the same girl.
Only now, that light had gone out.
Seeing her father killed by an Infernal in a tavern, Louise could not quiet her mind for a long time.
“Father might have been right. The Infernals are all ungrateful wretches.”
She shuddered with anger inside. These words were spoken to no one else. They were spoken to herself.
Marvin heard this, his face turning pale with shock.
Was this still the Louise he knew?
Marvin’s father was the deputy chief of the Prague Police Department.
Every day, his father patrolled the streets. If he encountered vagrants, he executed them on the spot. Of course, only humans.
His father often instructed him: Stay away from humans. They are despicable wretches who forget honor for profit.
“Your grandfather was worked to death in a factory. Do not repeat his mistakes.”
This was the sentence Marvin remembered most vividly.
Until he met Louise. Conquered by her agility and charm, he fell deeply in love with her. Even though many Infernals described Douglas as the “God of Destruction of the Infernals” and an “extreme, heartless nationalist”—after meeting Louise, Marvin’s attitude did a complete turnabout.
His father originally had no objection to it. Until he learned that Louise’s father was Douglas.
After that, he refused to let Marvin see Louise.
Every time his father stopped him, Marvin cut a slit into his own arm in protest. The scars on his arm stacked one upon another, like tree rings. His father had no way around it. He simply chose to ignore it.
“I don’t like you at all. You disgust me now.”
Louise showed no warmth or affection.
Marvin stood at a loss. He stood for a moment, then left sullenly.
As he walked out of the cemetery, he looked back. Louise was facing away from him, crouching in front of the two tombstones. The girl next door stood beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
He did not walk over. He left.
II. Live Broadcast
“According to reports, this conflict has resulted in at least approximately 200 deaths and 500 injuries. Alliance forces are maintaining order in Prague.”
A news broadcast. Aerial footage. Viewed from above, Prague Square looked like an overturned anthill—people everywhere, fire everywhere.
Prague’s Slayer Party and Infernal Party engaged in a bloody, violent battle.
Many humans took to the streets in righteous indignation. They raised signs:
“Prague Yes, Infernals No.”
“Infernals Get Out of Prague.”
“If it wasn’t Douglas who died today, then it will be me tomorrow,” a demonstrator told the camera.
His eyes were bright. There was white foam at the corners of his mouth. He was clearly agitated.
“Douglas was an outstanding strategist and politician who pushed society forward. He was the first among us to foresee the peril of the Infernals.”
Just as the words left his mouth—
A bullet tore through his head.
He fell. The camera shook, then cut to the studio.
It was a live broadcast.
Many human teenagers picked up homemade Molotov cocktails and threw them toward neighborhoods where Infernals gathered. Glass bottles shattered, gasoline ignited, and fire spread across the streets.
The Infernals immediately spewed fire in retaliation. They opened their mouths, orange-red flames surging from deep within their throats, merging with the fire from the Molotovs, turning the entire street into a river of fire.
“Look, they are a dangerous race. If fire-breathing Infernals are left unchecked, humanity will live in shadow forever,” another young man said indignantly before the camera.
Immediately after, he too was killed by the police.
The camera did not cut. This time, it did not cut. A man collapsed on the ground, blood surging from his chest. The image held for three seconds. Then the screen went black.
White text appeared on the black screen: “Technical difficulty, please stand by.”
III. The Purge
Alliance forces surrounded Prague Square.
Heavy transport ships landed on the open ground around the square. The doors opened, and fully armed soldiers poured out. They wore black combat uniforms, masks covering their faces, making their races unrecognizable.
The dragnet began.
Everyone involved in the incident—whether Slayer Party or Infernal Party, whether humans throwing Molotovs or fire-spewing Infernals—was dragged out of their homes one by one. Some were arrested in their sleep; others had their legs broken while trying to flee.
Over the following week, everyone who had been involved in the incident was executed by firing squad.
The Alliance dismissed the mayor of Prague. They executed the police chief by firing squad.
The deputy chief was stripped of his post. Only stripped of his post.
The deputy chief was Marvin’s father. He returned home, closed the door, and never stepped outside again. He survived. No one knew what he did afterward.
IV. The Rift
This move enraged the Infernals holding power within the Alliance.
They demanded the dissolution of the Alliance and the formation of a new one.
“Infernals are human too. I propose forming a new alliance that excludes humanity.”
A radical Infernal spoke at the Alliance assembly. His voice was loud. The hall went silent for a second.
But this man died the very next day.
The cause of death was not announced. The Alliance conducted no investigation. Other Infernal leaders did not press the matter either.
Leaders of other races continually mediated the conflicts. They believed this was merely caused by extremists within, not the fault of the Alliance.
Human leaders and Infernal leaders argued furiously at the meeting.
Ultimately, the meeting was forced to adjourn, to be held at a later date.
Epilogue: The Old Path
Prague took the old path once again.
The streets were washed clean. The bloodstains were gone. Scorched walls were repainted. Bullet holes in the square were filled. Broken glass was swept away.
Alliance forces withdrew. A new police chief took office—a human, white, known to no one.
A new mayor also took office. No one remembered his name.
The Slayer Party and the Infernal Party were both gone. Not because of reconciliation, but because the people were gone.
The 200 dead and 500 injured were recorded in a statistical report. Report number BRG-2552-003. Deposited into the Alliance archives. Security classification: Internal.
Louise Cromwell never returned to Prague. She remained in London and planted a tree beside her father’s grave.
Marvin Strong did not return to Prague either. He dropped out of school. No one knew where he went.
On their arms, one had scars, one did not. One was an Infernal, one was human.
They were once lovers.
Now they were nothing.
—End of Chapter 7.