The Broken Halo

The explosion did not happen the way the rebel leader intended.

The moment Sonya tore the underground structure upward, the formation lines carved through its foundations broke apart.

Several explosives still detonated.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOOOM!

But they no longer exploded together.

Instead of a single blast travelling through the entire formation and tearing apart the street from beneath, scattered explosions erupted through different sections of the ruined tunnels.

The first blast swallowed the western passage.

The second destroyed one of Sonya’s earth pillars and sent broken stone, metal supports, and parts of two rebels flying into the air.

The third erupted beneath the abandoned bathhouse just as it collapsed.

A wave of heat and demonic energy rushed across the street.

Windows shattered.

Doors were torn from their hinges.

The walls of two nearby buildings cracked, while the front of another building collapsed completely.

Demons on the surface screamed and ran.

Some had already fled after Sonya’s warning tremor, but not everyone had reacted quickly enough. A carriage overturned when the road split beneath it, crushing one demon and trapping another beneath its side.

A merchant standing too close to the explosion was struck by a piece of stone travelling faster than an arrow. His upper body disappeared beneath the debris.

Several others were thrown from their feet.

The street sank in three places.

One section dropped by almost two metres, swallowing stalls, carts, and part of a small medicine shop. Another section rose at an angle after the underground chamber was forced upward, leaving broken stone slabs stacked over one another like jagged teeth.

The damage stretched across almost a hundred metres of the street. Six buildings had suffered some form of damage, and cracks had spread into the walls and foundations of several others.

The abandoned bathhouse no longer existed.

Its walls, pools, roof, and foundation had become part of the enormous mound of rubble now sitting in the middle of the district.

The rebel safehouse had been ripped open beneath it.

Tunnels that had remained hidden for years were exposed to the evening air. Weapons, broken tables, and corpses were scattered across the ruined street.

Some rebels died during the ascent.

Others died when the remaining explosives detonated.

A Fiend was crushed between two sections of stone. An Archfiend was thrown through the wall of a nearby building, leaving only half of his body visible. Several wounded rebels who had survived Sonya’s attacks were buried beneath the collapsed bathhouse.

Sonya could sense more than a dozen heartbeats beneath the rubble.

Some were steady.

Others were weakening with every passing second.

The Half-Step Greater Demon did not escape either.

He had covered himself in layers of metal when Sonya lifted the safehouse, but the western tunnel collapsed before he could reach it. One of the scattered explosions tore through his defence and threw him against a broken support.

He was still alive, but just barely.

Sonya landed on a tilted section of the street while stones and dust rained around her.

Her clothes were torn in several places. Blood covered one sleeve, and there were cuts on her cheek, shoulder, and side.

She looked around, and though she could not see she could hear the screams, shouts, and plea for help.

She could also feel the destruction she caused.

Around her, demons shouted for help. Some called for healers, while others dragged injured companions away from the unstable road.

A demon child was crying inside one of the damaged buildings.

Someone screamed about a dead husband.

A woman knelt beside the overturned carriage and tried to pull out the demon trapped beneath it.

Sonya took another glance and indifferently looked away.

She didn’t feel any sort of regret, pain, or pity for the demons who became casualties of her battle with the rebels.

She had sent a warning tremor beforehand so that the casualties would be lower, but she also knew that the time was too short for it to have that much of a difference.

Besides, this was a result of being weak.

The weak could also indirectly be affected from a battle of powerful individuals.

Sonya stepped over a severed arm and moved toward the rebel leader.

The Half-Step Greater Demon tried to lift himself, but one of his legs had been crushed beneath a metal beam. Blood flowed from his mouth with every breath.

His hand moved toward the inside of his clothes.

Sonya noticed this very quickly, and she ruthlessly placed her foot on his wrist.

Crack!

His bones broke.

The leader released a groan and cursed.

"Fuck!"

Sonya’s lips curled into a smile.

"What are you trying to hide?"

The rebel leader said nothing.

Sonya chuckled softly, then she flicked two of her fingers at the leader’s head.

Crush!

A boulder that was twice the size of his head appeared from nowhere and crushed his head into mincemeat.

The rebel leader died and his body slumped like a headless chicken.

Sonya wiped away the blood from her face with an indifferent expression, then she crouched and searched his clothes.

She found another spatial ring that was hidden in his clothes. The spatial ring was protected by a formation, so she could not check its contents.

She shrugged and kept the spatial ring in her pocket.

She also took the leader’s personal spatial ring and stored it too.

The sound of horns suddenly echoed from several streets away, and Sonya knew what that meant.

Velmora’s guards were coming.

Sonya rose and listened to the vibrations moving through the city.

Dozens of armoured demons were approaching from three directions. Some travelled on beasts, while others moved across rooftops.

Two of the approaching presences belonged to Greater Demons.

Sonya sighed.

She had no desire to explain why an entire street had collapsed.

"Oh well. I didn’t go looking for trouble. Trouble found me. Little kitty should understand."

She chuckled with a mischievous smile, then her body flickered before vanishing completely.

The first squad arrived less than a minute later.

"Nobody move!"

"Seal the street!"

"Anyone who attempts to leave will be treated as a suspect!"

The guards spread across the district while civilians shouted over one another.

One of the civilians pointed in the direction Sonya left.

Two guards followed the direction the civilians pointed at.

Meanwhile, Sonya slipped behind an overturned carriage, rubbed dust and blood across more of her clothes, then bent her posture slightly as she joined a group helping an injured demon away from the street.

Her breathing changed, and her footsteps became uneven.

She moved like someone frightened and hurt rather than a Supreme Archfiend trying to escape.

A guard glanced at her but quickly turned toward a rebel crawling from one of the exposed tunnels.

"Stop!"

Sonya continued walking.

Behind her, another horn sounded.

The strongest guard finally arrived.

His presence spread across the district as he landed in the centre of the destruction. He was a Greater Demon wearing dark armour marked with Velmora’s crest.

However, by the time he arrived, Sonya had already left the street.

She changed her pace twice, crossed through a crowded market, entered one alley, and exited from another street wearing a clean cloak from her spatial ring.

Several streets later, she stopped suppressing her aura.

No one followed her.

Night had already fallen when Sonya returned to Pipeline Inn.

Distant alarm bells continued to ring across Velmora.

She entered her room, closed the door, and leaned against it.

Then a satisfied smile slowly appeared on her face.

"Velmora isn’t completely boring after all."

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