"Sir," one lieutenant said carefully, "the Fallen Heroes are... they're not reliable. They attack anything that moves. Last deployment in the Eastern Campaign, they killed forty-seven of our own soldiers before we contained them. The Church Council nearly court-martialed you for using them."
"I know," Elric said. "But circumstances have changed. We're facing demon lord, not regular enemies. The Fallen Heroes were created specifically to fight supernatural threats beyond normal human capacity. This is exactly the situation they were designed for."
He walked to a covered area at the command post's rear, where fifty large cages had been positioned under heavy canvas, guarded by twenty soldiers wearing blessed armor.
"Remove the covering," Elric ordered.
The guards pulled away the canvas, revealing the cages.
Inside each cage stood a figure that had once been human.
Now they were something else.
