The fortress loomed ahead, its walls scarred by the Aegis's bombardment. Black smoke rose from the damaged sections, curling into the gray sky like funeral pyres. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and burning stone.
Aurelion stood at the edge of the water, his eyes fixed on the eastern wall. The shards beneath his skin pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, guiding him toward the place he needed to be.
"The breach we made before," he said, pointing at a section of the wall. "That's where we need to go."
Corrin studied the wall through his scope. "It's been repaired. They've reinforced it."
"Repaired, yes. But the structural integrity is still compromised." Aurelion's voice was steady. "We hit it hard enough, it'll break again."
Ami moved up beside him. "And the demon soldiers?"
"They'll be waiting."
"Then we give them something to wait for."
Aurelion turned to look at the battlefield behind them. The allied forces were pushing forward, their lines advancing despite the relentless demon counterattacks. The Americans had established a beachhead on the eastern approach, their heavy weapons raining fire on the demon positions. The Japanese contingent had carved through the western defenses with surgical precision, their hunters moving like ghosts through the chaos. The Eurospan forces held the center, their lines unbroken.
And above it all, the aerial forces dominated the sky.
Helicopters thundered overhead, their rotors beating against the smoke-choked air. They swept low over the demon positions, their mana cannons carving lines of destruction through the enemy ranks. The flying demons that rose to meet them were cut down in swarms, their bodies raining from the sky like black rain.
The Aegis fired again.
The beam struck the fortress's eastern wall, the impact sending shockwaves through the ground. Stone shattered. Demons disintegrated. The wall buckled but held.
Reyes's voice crackled over the comm. "Kade. The wall is weakened. The Aegis can't fire again for another 10 minutes. It's on you now."
Aurelion touched his comm. "Understood. We're moving in."
"Good hunting."
Valley's Watch moved through the chaos.
Aurelion led the way, his blade carving a path through the demon soldiers that blocked their advance. Ami fought beside him, her movements precise, her strikes deadly. Corrin and Kael covered their flanks, their weapons flashing in the dim light.
The battlefield was a nightmare of noise and fire. Mana bolts streaked through the air, their light reflecting off the smoke and debris. Soldiers shouted orders. Demons roared their defiance. The ground shook with the impact of heavy weapons.
Aurelion cut down a demon that lunged at him, its claws inches from his throat. He spun, his blade finding another demon's heart. He moved without thinking, his body responding to threats before his mind could process them.
Ami was beside him, her blade a blur of motion. She had grown so much since Lancet, since the valley, since the tournament. She was no longer the soldier who had followed him out of desperation. She was a warrior in her own right.
"Left flank!" Corrin shouted.
Aurelion turned. A group of demons was trying to outflank them, their claws gleaming, their eyes burning. He moved to intercept them, his blade finding throats and hearts with mechanical precision.
Kael's pistols hummed with energy as he fired into the advancing horde. Each shot found its mark, each demon fell. He was a force of nature, his aim unerring, his movements fluid.
They pushed forward.
The battle for the breach was brutal.
Demon soldiers poured from the fortress, their numbers seemingly endless. They fought with the desperation of creatures that had nowhere else to go, their claws gleaming, their eyes burning.
But the allied forces were relentless.
The Americans pushed forward, their heavy weapons clearing a path. The Japanese moved with lethal precision, their hunters carving through the demon ranks. The Eurospan forces held the line, their blades flashing in the dim light.
Aurelion fought at the center of the storm.
His blade was a blur, a silver arc of death that carved through demon after demon. The shards beneath his skin blazed with light, feeding him strength, accelerating his movements.
Ami fought beside him, her blade finding gaps in the demon armor, her strikes precise and deadly. Corrin and Kael covered their backs, their weapons flashing in the dim light.
"We're almost there!" Aurelion shouted. "Push harder!"
The soldiers surged forward.
The breach was in sight.
Aurelion could see it—the section of wall that had been repaired, the fresh stone and mortar that marked the weakness. The Aegis's bombardment had done its work. Now it was up to them.
"Corrin!" he shouted. "With me!"
Corrin moved up beside him, his spear ready. They struck together—blade and spear, their combined force driving into the weakened stone.
The wall cracked.
"Again!" Aurelion shouted.
They struck again. The crack widened. Stone crumbled.
"One more!"
They struck a third time.
The wall shattered.
A gaping hole opened before them, revealing the darkness beyond. The passage they had used before, the one that led deep into the fortress.
"Go!" Aurelion shouted. "Go!"
They poured through the breach.
The interior of the fortress was chaos.
Demon soldiers swarmed through the corridors, their claws gleaming, their eyes burning. They had been waiting for the breach, expecting the attack. They met the advancing forces with desperate fury.
But something else was waiting too.
The statues.
They lined the walls of the inner corridors—massive figures of dark stone, their wings folded against their backs, their faces twisted into snarling masks. Their eyes were empty sockets, but they seemed to follow the soldiers as they passed.
Aurelion recognized them.
Gargoyles.
He had fought them before, in the outer chambers. They had been dormant then, waiting for something to wake them.
Now they were waking.
The first one moved.
Its stone skin cracked, fragments falling away as it unfurled its wings. Its empty eyes blazed with crimson light. Its claws extended, sharp as razors.
"SENTINELS!" Aurelion shouted. "INCOMING!"
The gargoyle lunged.
Aurelion raised his blade—then stopped.
He remembered the last time. The way his sword had shattered against their stone skin. The way he had been left with nothing but a broken hilt and his bare hands.
He sheathed his sword.
Ami's eyes went wide. "Aurelion! What are you—"
He didn't answer.
He just stepped forward and wrapped mana around his fists.
The energy coiled around his knuckles like gloves of pale blue light, crackling with contained power. The shards beneath his skin pulsed in rhythm, feeding the mana, strengthening it.
He punched the gargoyle in the face.
The impact was immense—a shockwave that rippled through the corridor, cracking the stone walls, sending dust raining from the ceiling. The gargoyle's head snapped back, fractures spiderwebbing across its stone skin.
It stumbled.
Aurelion hit it again.
And again.
And again.
Each blow cracked the stone, sent fragments flying. The gargoyle tried to raise its claws—too slow. Aurelion's fist, wrapped in mana, drove through its chest, shattering its core.
It crumbled to dust.
Aurelion stood among the rubble, his fists still raised, his knuckles raw but unbroken. The mana around his hands flickered, then settled.
Corrin stared. "Did you just—"
"Punch it to death?" Kael finished. "Yes. Yes he did."
Aurelion shook out his hands. "My sword broke on them last time. I figured I'd try something different."
"That's not different," Ami said. "That's insane."
"Same thing."
He turned to face the next gargoyle. It was advancing, its eyes blazing, its claws extended.
Aurelion cracked his neck.
"Next."
He moved.
The battle that followed was brutal.
The gargoyles were faster than anything their size should be. Their stone bodies were nearly impervious to ordinary weapons. Their claws could tear through armor like paper.
But Aurelion had found their weakness.
His mana-wrapped fists drove through their stone shells like they were made of clay. Each punch shattered stone. Each blow sent fragments flying. He moved through the gargoyles like a force of nature, his fists a blur of pale blue light.
Ami fought beside him, her blade flashing. She was faster than she had been in their first encounter, more precise. She carved through a gargoyle's wing, sending it crashing to the ground.
Corrin held the line, his spear finding gaps in their armor. Kael's pistols hummed with energy, each shot cracking stone, each kill precise.
But there were too many.
"They just keep coming!" Ami shouted.
"Then we keep fighting!" Aurelion shouted back.
He threw himself into the fray, his fists a blur of motion. The gargoyles fell before him, their stone bodies crumbling to dust.
And then—
The last one fell.
Aurelion stood among the rubble, his chest heaving, his fists still crackling with mana. The corridor was littered with the remains of the gargoyles, their stone bodies scattered across the floor.
Ami appeared beside him, her face streaked with dust. "That was too close."
"It was."
"Are there more?"
He looked down the corridor. The statues were gone—either destroyed or retreated. The path was clear.
"Not now," he said. "But there will be."
He turned to the soldiers.
"Keep moving! We need to push deeper!"
The soldiers surged forward.
The allied forces were pushing deeper into the fortress.
Aurelion could see it in the way the demons fought—desperate, disorganized, leaderless. The gargoyles had been their last line of defense. Now there was nothing stopping them.
"Push harder!" Valeris's voice echoed through the comm. "They're breaking!"
The soldiers surged forward.
Aurelion carved a path through the demon ranks, his fists still crackling with mana. The demons fell before him, their bodies piling up at his feet.
And then—
He saw it.
A passage leading deeper into the fortress. Narrow, dark, its walls covered in the same pulsing symbols he had seen before.
The path to the center.
"I found it," he said into the comm. "The way to the throne room."
Valeris's voice crackled. "Go. We'll hold the breach."
Aurelion turned to his party.
"This is it," he said. "The Demon King is waiting."
Ami stepped up beside him. "Then we go together."
He looked at her. At Corrin. At Kael.
"Together," he agreed.
They walked into the darkness.
The passage was narrow, its walls rough and unworked. Aurelion led the way, his fists still crackling with faint mana, his eyes scanning the shadows. The shards beneath his skin pulsed in a steady rhythm, casting faint light on the walls.
Ami walked beside him, her blade ready. Corrin and Kael followed close behind, their weapons drawn.
The air grew colder.
And then—
A voice echoed from the darkness behind them.
"Going somewhere?"
They spun.
Malagar stood at the entrance to the passage, his great axe resting on his shoulder, his featureless helmet tilted toward them. His armor was scarred, dented, streaked with ichor—but he was still standing. Still fighting.
Still hunting.
"You," Aurelion said.
"Me." Malagar stepped forward, his boots echoing on the stone floor. "Did you think I was dead? Did you think a few soldiers could stop me?"
Corrin raised his spear. "We can stop you."
Malagar laughed—a cold, hollow sound.
"You can try."
He raised his great axe.
Aurelion's hand went to his comm. "Reyes. Malagar is here. We need that plan of yours."
Silence.
Static.
"Reyes?" He tried again. Nothing. Just the crackle of interference.
Kael's voice was quiet. "Something's blocking the signal. The fortress. The symbols. They're jamming us."
Aurelion's jaw tightened.
He turned to Ami.
"Go."
She stared at him. "What?"
"Run back. Find a spot where the signal works. Contact Reyes. Get the plan." He met her eyes. "You're the fastest. You can make it."
"Aurelion—"
"I'll hold him off."
She hesitated. Her eyes flicked to Malagar, then back to Aurelion.
"Don't die," she said.
"I'll try."
She ran.
Corrin and Kael moved to flank Aurelion, their weapons raised. Malagar watched them with his empty helmet, his great axe gleaming.
"Three of you," he said. "Against me."
Aurelion cracked his neck, the mana around his fists flaring brighter.
"Four," he said. "Ami will be back."
Malagar laughed—a cold, hollow sound.
"By then, you'll all be dead."