The Broken Halo

Two days passed, and Velmora did not become calmer.

Instead... it became even more bloody.

On the following night after Simon went back to the Pipeline Inn, Black Horn units entered the western district and began removing every demon connected to the rebel names in their records.

Some were taken from their beds.

Others disappeared from workshops, gambling dens, storage yards, and cheap inns before they understood why their doors had been broken down.

Not everyone was taken alive.

By midday, seven corpses hung from iron posts along three busy roads in the western district. A torn black banner had been nailed above each body, while a Black Horn notice described them as enemies of Velmora and the Darkness Kingdom.

The displays attracted crowds.

"They say all seven were rebels."

"Then why didn’t Black Horn hold a public judgment?"

"Why waste time judging corpses?"

"I heard the poisonous artifact story was a lie."

The demon who said that was pulled away by his companion before he could speak louder.

Rumours spread anyway.

Some claimed Black Banner had attacked the Black Horn Office. Others said a forbidden prisoner escaped. One merchant swore that a Demon Lord had fought beneath the western district, although nobody could explain how the buildings remained standing afterward.

Black Horn neither confirmed nor denied anything beyond its original explanation.

An unstable poisonous artifact had caused a temporary containment response.

Nothing more.

Inside the Office, however, the response was far less simple.

Internal Duty Routing was sealed. Its officials were separated, questioned, and forced to account for every slate they had touched during the previous week. Several did not leave their rooms after the questioning ended.

Ossik remained confined inside Black Horn.

His access token had been taken, his movements were reconstructed repeatedly, and every demon he contacted during the last month was placed under investigation.

Sorn stopped appearing at his duty station entirely.

His desk remained untouched on the first morning. By the second, Black Horn officials had emptied it, removed the floor beneath it, and sealed everything they found.

No one publicly announced that he was missing.

Korran’s operatives also continued watching Simon.

They followed him whenever he left Pipeline Inn, noted when he ate, and recorded the amount of time he spent at the Red Sand Hall watching Sonya and Akaza.

Simon noticed all of them, and he behaved as though he noticed none.

That was the quiet arrangement between them.

They watched Blackmoon live an ordinary life, while Blackmoon gave them nothing worth reporting.

Simon spent most of those two days inside a private training chamber at the Red Sand Hall.

He did not attempt to create the Fourth Storm Crown.

Instead, he focused on controlling the first three while moving.

The Gale Crown stood vertically behind him. The Rending and Crushing Crowns rotated diagonally around the same Storm Throne, crossing at six Silent Nodes.

Maintaining them while sitting had been difficult.

Maintaining them while stepping, turning, punching, and suddenly changing direction was another matter.

Several times, the Rending Crown released thin currents that scratched the chamber walls. Once, the Crushing Crown compressed the air too close to Simon’s shoulder and nearly forced him off balance.

He corrected each mistake.

By the end of the second day, Simon could move around the chamber while keeping all three Crowns stable. He was still far from mastering them, but he no longer needed most of his attention merely to stop the Silent Nodes from colliding.

The improvement pleased him.

But the contents of the Fifth Needle’s spatial ring did not.

On the night he arrived at the Pipeline Inn, he emptied the ring onto a table and checked its contents.

There were several sets of black needles, thin filaments used to redirect them, six vials of Nethri poison, four antidotes, medicine, spare robes, and an average pile of hell stones.

There were no letters.

No communication device.

No hidden record concerning Crownless Dawn.

And no useful artifact that could be of help to Simon.

The Fifth Needle had carried only what he needed to kill and escape.

The needles and other weapons were useless to Simon personally. The Chaos Wraps would not allow him to wield ordinary weapons, but he kept them regardless. They could be sold, planted as evidence, or given to someone else.

The poisons were more valuable, although Simon had no intention of opening the vials before learning exactly what each one did.

While Simon trained, Akaza practically lived inside the Red Sand Hall’s arenas.

He fought nine times across the two days.

He won seven.

The Half-Step Greater Demon who defeated him fought him again on the second evening. Akaza still lost, but this time he remained standing for almost twice as long.

He left the arena with a split lip, a swollen eye, and a satisfied expression.

Sonya also fought.

The Hall manager demanded a damage deposit before allowing her into any arena, and two demons who mocked her height learned why.

She threw one through a stone barrier and drove the other waist-deep into the sand.

Fortunately, neither attack damaged anything outside the arena.

For Sonya, that counted as excellent behaviour.

By the evening of the second day, the three-day wait after the recruitment test finally ended.

A crowd gathered at Black Horn Recruitment Square in the western district, and at its centre stood a broad black obelisk covered in glowing red names. Guards kept the road open while applicants pushed closer, searching for themselves among those selected.

Simon, Sonya, and Akaza arrived together.

The list had been divided into assault, defence, reconnaissance, and support candidates.

Near the top of the first section were three familiar names.

[BLACKMOON — FIRST ASSAULT CANDIDATE]

[SONYA — FIRST ASSAULT CANDIDATE]

[AKAZA — FIRST ASSAULT CANDIDATE]

Sonya smiled.

Akaza folded his arms, though satisfaction could be seen in his eyes.

Simon looked beneath the names.

Another notice had been carved into the obelisk.

[ALL SELECTED RECRUITS MUST REPORT TO THE RIFT PREPARATION HALL AT DAWN TOMORROW.]

[IDENTITY TOKENS WILL BE VERIFIED AGAIN.]

[TRAINING ASSIGNMENTS, BENEFITS, AND THE FIRST FIELD MISSION WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT THE ASSEMBLY.]

Simon’s gaze remained on the final line.

The recruitment was over.

The real preparation for Earth was about to begin.

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