With the police force having a week to prepare, we're coming up to our final, most recent history lesson and the final development in the humans' fight against demons.

Fret not, the story is far from over.

Tartarus, more commonly referred to as "Tar", is a substance that reared its head in the past decade among the exiled demons, and became a thorn in the side of police forces worldwide, as it was directly tied to recurrence in rampage cases.

While rampaging exiled demon had to harness every bit of magic the had and sometimes steal remnants of it from other exile demons in order to break their seal and regain their form and power, it took a lot of preparation and not every demon could regain their full potential in the first place, or weren't desperate enough to steal from others as unfortunate as them.

But just as humans have made advances in research and development of anti-demon measures, the demons themselves saw value in the findings gathered by humans, mainly with how decay changed the composition of the dead demon bodies left behind. They found out that before it becomes a deterrent, the blood reaches a certain peak in its composition, as the seal breaks from their body, when it restores its magical properties briefly, potent enough to be used to break the seal, but it's highly likely to send the demons using it into a frenzy as they regain their true form.

Think of how cannibalism degrades the mind, but speed it up by a thousandfold.

Demons have proved to be surprisingly adept to the modern world, far more than humans considered them to be at first, and have managed to find methods of drawing and aging blood and preserving it in its peak before it decays, to get the strongest magical effect off it without having to kill each other for dead blood. Thankfully, this meant it could only be produced in small batches over the long period of time that it'd take to stabilize the blood in the right time frame, so it didn't cause a complete power shift between the humans and the demons, but it became an undeniable problem.

Becoming the modern version of busting a drug lab, police forces had to mitigate the problem by nipping it in the bud and prevent exiled demons from regaining their power, as they became immensely strong and unrestrained at that state, posing a threat even against a unit fully equipped with ADA. Even without changing much in size, the magical surge that demons get from using Tar sometimes goes even beyond their innate power levels, to the point the wouldn't even know how to handle it while they're clear-minded, causing them to burn out - figuratively and physically - but not before wreaking havoc and chaos around them.

It didn't take a lot of rampaging destruction for police forces all around to crack down and locate as many of the place where the distilling and stabilizing of the substance, achieving a notable decrease in rampaging incidents that has been maintained for long, with small flare-ups that were typically followed up with widespread police-initiated Tar heists to once again nip things in the bud.

As part of those heists, some of the refined materials have been seized to be studied by research teams. Finding Tar in different states of refinement and having already mapped some of its composition thanks to the early effort of Stella Roberts and her teams of researchers, the new teams found new attributes to the modified blood, some of which appearing incredibly similar to chemicals used in performance-enhancing drugs.

In what became the most controversial experiment in the history of the fight against demons since weaponizing the decayed blood, a dedicated team was tasked with further refining the seized substances to create something that could give humans an edge again even against rampaging demons. While the end result of this research was never meant to become commercially available and given only to anti-demon units under strict conditions, the part that gave a rise to those who knew about it was that it inevitably required human testing to ensure not only that it really works, but that it's safe.

The experiments went through under heavy scrutiny and close medical supervision, and could only be performed on officers who have signed a waiver after having the risks of participation being made clear to them.

After a few months and a battery of tests later the enhancement team managed to refine a safe variant of the demon's blood, and even synthesize an artificial version of it - a pure refined substance that looked almost like liquid silver and was given to officers and measured amounts in a small vial, filled and portioned according to each officer's individual body mass, and each use must be documented and reported. Quickly evaporated once the vial is snapped near the user's nose, their focus, stamina and reaction speed increases for the span of several minutes within seconds of inhaling the vapor, depending on the individual, but typically followed by a state of mild exhaustion roughly equal to the duration of the effects. It can be countered by things like caffeine in a pinch, but if possible it's better to simply rest.

Due to its color and the way it sharpens the senses, the substance became known in the force as "Shrapnel", and is strictly illegal outside the use of registered police officers. While initial trials showed side effects to be rare, officers are required to receive a medical follow up whenever Shrapnel is used, just to make sure that there are no lingering adverse effects.

Well, that's enough yammering. Officer Young and the rest of his team are surely prepared for their first Tar heist by now.

"Approaching the Black Market. Keep alert, everyone." Sofia's voice came strong and steady through the comms as the unit advanced through the demon district on their way to their heist target. Black Market was a designation used by the forces for a designated heist location the unit has been briefed on in advance, to avoid anyone outside the force from knowing where they're heading, and refers to the distinct black color of Tartarus.

Hurrying right by Sofia, Lionel was breathing deep behind his protective gear, clutching his rifle at the ready. He wasn't scared, no. He was excited, getting to finally do something big. Something meaningful.

Half of his unit were spread in a farther perimeter around himself and the Sergeant and four other officers, making sure that no one attempted to ambush them from any vantage point. This allowed Lionel to stay focused on the route ahead of them, alert to anyone and anything that might jump them.

The protective mask fully covering his face didn't let his piercing gaze through, but luckily he didn't need that as a warning. He had only been in the demon district once before, but even then it seemed that its residence knew better than to interrupt patrols, and especially operations like this one. They may not cooperate and tell on their own kind, but simply clearing the street and staying out of the way was definitely second best, as far as the unit saw it.

"Perimeter cleared, ready for break in," the comms sparked to life again as the rest of the unit joined back on ground level once they were all gathered around what was supposed to be an abandoned storage unit.

They have practiced for this.

They knew what waited inside.

There were no more than four demons at that time.

All they had to do was neutralize them before they could use any amount of Tar to keep it from escalating, but even that was a scenario they were prepared to tackle.

After that, it was an easy task to seize all the refined blood and safely transport it back for proper disposal or purification.

Lionel ran through the steps multiple times in his head, preparing to provide cover fire if needed as two officers approached with a battering ram to make quick work of knocking the door down.

"We ought to make quick work of it. Stay sharp, everyone." Sofia nodded to the team and raised her hand, preparing to send the people with the battering ram to crash the door down, as Lionel glanced down to a compartment at the wrist of his glove, where a small, hourglass-like vial was placed. 

Calling a team to 'stay sharp' meant that they were all authorized to use their Shrapnel dose if they saw fit, without having to individually ask for permission. She knew this could get dicey, too. It wouldn't be the first time Lionel would use his dose, he knew how to handle it, but it's the first time it would be his call on when to use it. 

Everyone looked to Sofia with bated breath as she carefully listened in, assessing the perfect timing for them to storm in, for maximum surprise and minimal risk to her unit.

When she took a deep breath, it was as though everyone did so in perfect sync, so much that one could think even their hearts were beating in sync. For a split second it felt like one could hear a pin drop in the distance as the Sergeant dropped her hand, and the two officers holding the battering ram charged forward - two hulking masses of muscles in uniform, each weighing about as much as the ram itself and using it as an easier vessel to channel the sheer momentum of their bodies – and the barred lock gave with hardly any resistance.