The Broken Halo

Simon stood in the middle of a room filled with corpses.

Blood darkened the front of his clothes and ran in thin lines down the Chaos Blade. A severed hand still clutched the broken half of a communication orb near his feet, while the demon it belonged to lay several metres away with a long opening across his chest.

The other bodies were scattered around the underground shelter.

One had fallen beside the only exit. Another was bent over the edge of a stone table, his head hanging at an angle no living neck could endure. Three more lay close to the circular platform at the centre of the room, where fragments of a black spatial scale continued to release weak silver sparks.

The air smelled of blood, hot metal, and the faint bitterness of poison carried over from Black Horn.

Simon flicked the Chaos Blade once.

Dark blood left its edge and struck the floor.

The hidden shelter had been carved beneath the remains of an old underground reservoir. Thick stone ribs supported the low ceiling, and narrow crimson lamps burned between them. Shelves filled with medicine, weapons, and sealed supplies lined two walls. A reinforced door blocked the only visible tunnel leading out.

It was not a large Black Banner base.

It was an emergency shelter prepared for the rebels who were returning through the two connected spatial scales.

That was why the rebels had been waiting.

The spatial road had almost collapsed while carrying Simon and the vice-leader. Its silver edges twisted around them, repeatedly narrowing until they were barely wide enough for one body.

Simon had to further reinforce the weakest sections with spatial energy and forced the injured demon ahead of him.

They emerged above the circular platform less than a minute earlier.

The matching scale had been fixed to a short pedestal at its centre. It cracked the moment two living beings passed through, and the spatial tear threw both of them into the room before closing.

Eight rebels had been present.

They expected the Fifth Needle.

Instead, an injured vice-leader fell from the spatial tear, followed by a pale-grey demon carrying a black sword.

For one brief moment, nobody reacted.

A Supreme Archfiend nearest to the platform looked from the vice-leader to Simon.

"Where is the Fifth Needle?"

Simon answered with his blade.

The Chaos Blade entered beneath the demon’s jaw and left through the back of his skull. Simon pulled it free before the corpse touched the floor and stepped into the space behind another rebel.

By then, the others had begun moving.

One reached for the communication orb.

A current of wind struck his wrist and ruined the movement. The broken black ring around Simon’s pupils rotated at the same time, making the demon believe Simon was still beside the platform.

He never saw the blade that opened his chest.

The chamber erupted into chaos after that.

Two Supreme Archfiends attacked together, one with a heavy spear and the other with metal claws covering both hands. Simon allowed the spear to pass beside him, caught the shaft beneath one arm, and pulled its owner forward.

The spear wielder saw Simon’s sword coming toward his throat and raised his defence too early.

The black blade changed direction and severed both arms at the elbows. Before the demon’s scream could fully leave his mouth, Simon turned and removed his head.

The clawed rebel lasted only a second longer.

The Chaos Blade cut through his metal claws, fingers, and skull in a single diagonal stroke.

The remaining rebels tried to spread out, but the shelter worked against them. The low ceiling restricted the rebels from jumping too high and even flying, the shelves narrowed the available space, and the reinforced door needed several breaths to open.

Simon gave them none.

A Half-Step Greater Demon stood between him and the exit. He was the strongest demon in the shelter, with a thick body covered in dark scales and an aura that made the crimson lamps tremble.

He did not panic like the others.

The moment Simon killed the third Supreme Archfiend, the demon drew a broad sword and stomped on a dark rune beside the reinforced door.

Red light spread through the formation lines beneath the floor.

Simon drove the Chaos Blade into one of the glowing lines.

Crack!

The formation cracked and destabilized.

The Half-Step Greater Demon’s expression changed.

That was the only opening Simon needed.

He crossed the distance between them.

The demon raised his broad sword and released enough demonic energy to shake the room. In his eyes, Simon remained two steps beyond the reach of his weapon.

However, HollowSkyEye had altered his sense of distance by less than a metre.

His sword descended on empty air.

Simon appeared inside his guard.

The Half-Step Greater Demon tried to retreat, but the Chaos Blade was already against his neck.

Shiiing!

His scaled head separated from his shoulders.

The difference in rank did not save him. Not when he misunderstood the distance, lost the first exchange, and faced a weapon that could kill gods.

After their strongest fighter died, the rest became easier.

One rebel begged.

Another attempted to surrender.

Simon killed both.

Their willingness to submit had no value to him, while their survival carried risk. He had arrived in a hidden Black Banner shelter with a prisoner he intended to question. Leaving witnesses alive would only invite pursuit before he obtained what he needed.

The final rebel reached the door and placed his palm against its formation.

Simon’s sword passed through his back and emerged from his chest.

That was how the room became silent.

Now, the Eastern Warden’s vice-leader sat against the base of the spatial platform. His arms hung weakly beside him, and his legs were weak to support his weight for long.

He stared at the bodies around the shelter.

He knew some of them.

Three were Supreme Archfiends trusted with guarding the return point. The scaled Half-Step Greater Demon had commanded the shelter for years and survived several raids carried out by Velmora’s forces.

Simon killed him as though none of those things mattered.

The vice-leader’s gaze slowly moved toward Simon.

Confusion still lingered within his eyes, but fear had swallowed everything else.

Blackmoon had died inside the treatment chamber.

He had watched the poison spread through his body and seen the light leave his eyes. Then the dead demon rose, cut off the Fifth Needle’s head, dragged him through a spatial road, and slaughtered everyone waiting on the other side.

The vice-leader could no longer tell which parts of what he remembered were real.

That frightened him almost as much as the corpses.

Simon lowered the Chaos Blade and spread ShadowSense through the surrounding stone. He felt no one approaching through the tunnel and no second presence hidden behind the shelves.

They were alone... at least for now.

He walked toward the injured rebel.

The vice-leader pressed himself harder against the pedestal, though there was nowhere left for him to go.

Simon stopped in front of him.

The bloodied Chaos Blade rested loosely in his hand, and his sky-blue eyes showed no emotion after the massacre.

"I have a lot of questions to ask you."

The vice-leader looked at the dead demons surrounding them and realised that they might have been the fortunate ones.

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