My Hermes System

More than half a century ago, when order still did not exist in the Encampment; when Latanya Boss still lived amongst the Locals, the attacks on the Wall have become frequent, uncontrollable.

Almost every day, the Prisoners tried to bombard and attack the Wall. Their attacks were uncoordinated, however. So Latanya and the rest of the Locals just scoffed at their pathetic attempts.

But everything changed when one of them died. With just one death, Latanya had enough.

She ordered the Culling of the Prisoners, not even waiting for the City to grant them to do so. She took a hundred of her best men and infiltrated them during the night.

With the darkness as their ally and the element of surprise with them, everything became easy. The Prisoners had no coordination whatsoever, their counterattacks were futile. In fact, before they even got there, there were already corpses littered everywhere-- the Prisoners have been killing each other.

So, even though Latanya and her men were outnumbered; even though there were almost half a thousand Prisoners, they killed them all in a single night without even a single casualty. There were a lot of people injured, but with Latanya on their side-- a lost limb might as well just be a scratch.

All it took was a single night to drown the Prisoners' Encampment with their own blood.

Latanya's men cheered, their roars filling the darkness as they raised their hands in victory. Some of them even questioned if they even need the Wall in the first place. They could just kill every single Prisoner that dared to go through the White Gate as soon as they come.

But then… one of them had an idea-- to pass through the Gate and see what was on the other side. The others jeered and laughed, taunting the man to try it if he had the courage to do so. Even Latanya herself jeered and cheered for the man.

They have always been warned by their parents, and their parents' parents, that the other side was hell itself; that only the vilest of man came from it, and for one to voluntarily pass through it was suicide. In some way, they always taunted themselves that if one day, they had a chance to pass through the Gate, they would do it.

And without even a warning, perhaps in a way to prove himself a man, he did. He ran through the Gate with no one being able to stop him.

"..."

Their group, however, continued to laugh and made fun of him even as he was gone. They just thought that the Gate was just some old lady's tale meant to scare them off. Even Latanya didn't care about it.

They joked that they wouldn't pull him out if he gets stuck on the other side, they laughed and celebrated… until their comrade came back in two pieces.

"!!!"

Their jeers quickly stopped as the only sound that remained was their comrade's head rolling to their feet. They did not suffer any casualties in their battle against the Prisoners, but with just one foolishness, a friend of them died.

They just had to tempt fate.

Still, maybe enraged with their comrade's death, or perhaps a pang of guilt crawling into them for encouraging their comrade to his death; or maybe perhaps even a curiosity-- they decided to venture together to the other side.

They planned an attack, first sending the men with the stronger bodies, Enhancers. Covering them in a thick layer of armor created by their Mages. They used them as a sort of distraction before all of them rushed through to the other side.

What awaited them there was darkness; a huge cavern, or so they thought. There were also almost a dozen men waiting for them, wearing this sort of armor they have never seen before in their windowed lives.

But even though there were only a dozen, the Locals battled for their lives. The Prisoners from the Encampment and these armor-wearing devils from the other side were too different. Even though the Locals held the advantage of numbers by their side; even with Latanya healing them, almost a half of them died.

But still, they were once again victorious. And once again they cheered.

"We defeated them!? Was that it!?"

"We… we won!" They cheered. They waited for something to happen, they examined the bodies of these so-called devils, only to find out that they were the same as them-- just human.

One of Latanya's men, one who could somewhat control the minds of others, tried wearing the armor of one of these devils.

"Look! Look, I am now one of hell's dogs!" He laughed.

"Gahahaha!" And once again, they too laughed.

But before they could once again fully celebrate their 2nd victory, a wave of light suddenly bathed their eyes; revealing the cavern that they were in...no, a Dome.

"That… was it that light?" Curious, one of them stepped forward, only for his head to be blown without any warning.

"!!!"

That was when they were almost wiped out, Latanya ordered their retreat before they could lose more men; they were bombarded with attacks without even a chance to fight back. Latanya Boss, however, saw a glimpse of the other side-- it was neither heaven nor hell, it was just… different.

--A different world.

But they had to retreat. However, one of them managed to see the other side, the one was lucky enough to try on the armor that the humans from the other side were wearing.

Latanya returned back to the Wall Village, defeated, tired. But the light that she saw from the other side never faded, instead, it only grew stronger.

It consumed her and her men. They told the Village, but not one of them believed them. How could they when they were taught from a very young age that those that came from the said Gate were demons of their ancestors?

They thought that Latanya and her men had become crazy, that they were tainted by the Gate. And in a way, they have. They became obsessed with it.

Obsessed enough to march into the City where they were forbidden from ever stepping. They went…

...Only for them to meet their end.