At a speed impossible for someone his age, Francisco charged at Conquest and swung his chainsword. Conquest met the attack with his axe, and their weapons clashed once more, the massive power behind each blow blasting them back a few meters apart.
"For being at the age of someone with dementia and couldn't form a sentence, you are quite the formidable warrior. I am impressed." Conquest said, "Be thankful I'm not even using a single percent of my strength, unless, of course, you entertain me with that indomitable human spirit I've been hearing from you, humans."
"Will you shut your filthy mouth, or do you want to see more?" Francisco retorted.
"Yes. Bring me more. Try to make me bleed with your blade. Even if it takes centuries or a millennium, come back and challenge me again, warrior."
"Or maybe it will take less than ten minutes!" the Major General shouted as he charged at Conquest once more and swung his chainsword twice, but Conquest deflected both strikes with his axe with ease.
Francisco went for a thrust, but Conquest sidestepped to the left, avoiding it before swinging his axe down. Francisco quickly leaped away from the attack and drew a giant customized pistol and fired multiple reactive rounds, which are bullets that explode upon impact.
At blinding speed, Conquest effortlessly deflected the bullets with his axe, but one of the bullets struck his left knee and exploded.
"Pure silver Macedonian processed mercury ammunition in Marvel's NNA9 cartridges. 39 cm in length, weighing 16 kilogram, with 13mm armor piercing reactive rounds. A fine tool I've built myself," Francisco silently muttered as he charged at Conquest once more, firing his customized pistol at Conquest, which he effortlessly deflected the rounds with a single swing of his axe.
While Conquest sported an excited grin beneath his mask, General Francisco wore a hateful expression beneath his gas mask as he fired another shot from his pistol, and the bullet struck Conquest's left arm and exploded. Unfazed, Conquest swung his axe at increasing speed, but Francisco managed to slid underneath it.
Shing!
To the Major General's amazement, the moment Conquest swung his axe, a wind slash was created, killing two random demons and cleaving a frozen tank in two in the distance.
If Francisco hadn't avoided it, he would have met the same fate as those demons and the battle tank.
As he stood back up on his feet, he was met with another attack from the demon.
Shing! BAM!
In seconds, he leaped, rolled, and sidestepped every attack that nearly split him apart.
Not trying to stop, Francisco stood back up again and proceeded to attack Conquest, who leaped back and stood a hundred meters from him.
"What about spicing things up a bit?"
With a snap of his fingers, a pair of Hell Priests stepped forward. As they chanted their unholy magic, the bodies of the fallen soldiers of the Major General's army began to twitch as a mist of darkness began to emanate from their corpses.
In the next second, the fallen soldiers rose to their feet. Growling and staring at the General with bloodthirsty eyes, the reanimated soldiers, known as Deadites, stood between him and the Archdemon, creating a distant barrier between the dragon and the knight.
"What will you do now? Your dragon stands before you, Holy Knight. You plan to slay me, is that correct? How likely are your chances of survival? One in a hundred? A thousand? A million? No, maybe a billion stands to reason."
"Your taunts mean nothing to me. I am prepared to slay you even if the odds are one in a trillion."
"Oh, and how do you plan to do that? How are you going to win when you are about to fight your own men? Will you die like a dog? Or on your feet with the mind of a warrior?"
Reloading his gun and activating his chainsword, which roared to life, the Major General never took his gaze off the demon.
"You think that playing psychological games with me by using my fallen comrades as meat shields will pare my unwavering loyalty to God? Now silence! And fight me!"
Conquest was surprised by Francisco's will to still keep fighting against the odds.
"Such indomitable spirit. These humans are such fascinating creatures." he smiled. If any of his colleagues or the Demon Lord himself heard what he said, he would surely be punished.
With the passion of God flowing through him, Francisco charged through the gates of hell with his Chainsword roaring and sharpened for battle.
As soon as he began his assault, the Deadites began dropping like flies.
The progress he was making in such a short period of time became palpable. It was like his Chainsword was a lawnmower, which it is, and the Deadites were merely grass being mowed down by the blades of God.
Blood, guts, and explosive bullets were flying through the air as Francisco made his way through the horde of possessed monsters.
Bang! Bang!
From Francisco's other hand was his giant customized pistol which fired a series of Reactive rounds to explode the heads of the Deadites.
The Major General continued charging through the horde and cutting them down to reach Conquest with no sign of giving up.
"What kind of a human is this? He reminds me so much... of him. Yes, come to me, human. Come and stand before my gaze like those men did long ago. Try and face this demon!"
Fracisco's fury and determination only grew as each blade and bullets paired these undead monstrosities. With each swing, Francisco hacked and slashed at all of his former comrades, watching their lifeless bodies falling to the ground and being crushed under the weight of his body.
After brutally splitting a deadite in two with his chainsword, Francisco thrust his weapon and sent it plunging through the head of a large, bulky deadite that stood in his way.
But for the first time, it wasn't enough to bring the monster down.
With Francisco's hand still gripped on his weapon, he could do nothing to protect himself as the powerful demon grabbed his arm, causing him to let out a moan of pain.
With a ferocious roar, he placed his gun under its chin and pulled the trigger, firing another round which exploded its face.
As soon as he killed the demon, his ears picked up the sounds of clopping and metal clanging. He looked behind the Deadite army and noticed an armada of Demon Knights with Hell Mounts charging toward him, their eyes blazing red with bloodlust.
General Francisco knew exactly what these demons were. They are the infamous fearsome demons at the early of the war.
The Hell Mounts, just the flames on their body alone is enough to burn anything to a crisp. He even witnessed one burning a whole forest in minutes before being taken down by three Thunderhawks.
And the Demonic Knights. The armor of these sons of bitches are tough as a Fortress Tank, and one of them was the main reason why there was a demon infestation at General Santos.
Now facing five of these monstrous beings charging towards him, how could an 80-year-old man, despite his strength and agility defying his age, stand against creatures capable of toppling cities and small countries?
'Is this how I die? What a disappointing death. Forgive me, God.' Francisco grimly braced himself for the dozens of swords about to impale him.
When out of nowhere...
Bang!
A single 30mm round struck directly at the exposed head of one of the Demon Knight, obliterating it and sending it falling to the ground.
Not before long, a shower of rockets and high-caliber bullets were shot from behind him, quickly sending the demon knights and their mounts in the front of the armada to their permanent deaths.
Despite his life being saved, Francisco didn't seem happy, but instead, he clenched his teeth in anger. There was only one person who could have intervened in such a manner.
"Damn it! I ordered you to retreat, you stupid meddling idiots!"
Trese, whose anti-tank rifle was still releasing smoke from her fired rounds, popped open the visor of her Hercules exosuit and shouted back to her superior, "And what did you expect us to do, General? Just pack up our things and run away like a bunch of cowards?! If we did that, none of us could call ourselves Templar Knights!"
"Screw that, Trese! You and our creed are the only important things to survive! Stop being a fool and selfish!"
"'Sa pamamagitan ng sigaw ng amen at pagpatay sa mga hindi karapat-dapat, ibinalik ito ng mundo sa lugar.' Those are the words that you taught us to live by every day of our lives! Do you think we would abandon your teachings and our righteousness? You are the fool and the selfish one, lolo!"
"You imbecile! All I wanted was for the legacy of the Roman Catholic to live on! To have the Pope be protected by the soldiers of God! The world is changing for the worse, and too many of us have gone to Limbo today." Francisco turned his head back to the army of his fallen soldiers. After a moment of deep thought, he sighed heavily, "You know what, screw it. Since I'm charging full-speed into hell, I believe some company wouldn't hurt. I guess we're going to do this together, then."
In his words, nearly a hundred soldiers of the Black Army lined up into formation behind General Francisco, ready to rally under their leader. While many soldiers held their rifles and their bayonets attached, some of them held... shovels, for some reason.
"Sabihin natin sa kanila kung sino tayo!"
"KAMI ANG TEMPLAR KNIGHTS NG SIMBAHAN! PARA SA INANG BAYAN!"
"CHARGE!"