The Broken Halo

"So, what do you want to do now?"

The Biggest Kev asked the question again when Korran did not answer immediately.

Korran lifted his gaze from the reports and looked at the enormous demon standing across the desk.

Kev was not a member of Black Horn and neither was he a resident, guard, soldier, or official of Velmora City.

The Biggest Kev lived in the capital city of the Darkness Kingdom, where he had his own duties and interests that Korran rarely asked about.

He was here because Korran had asked a friend for help.

When Korran explained that Black Banner had infiltrated Velmora’s military preparations and that he intended to use the convoy to draw out the eastern faction of the rebels, Kev accepted without much hesitation.

Partly because Korran had asked, and partly because Kev also disliked the rebels.

His intended role had been simple.

He would remain concealed inside the convoy while the ambush unfolded. If the rebels failed to steal anything, Kev would subtly protect the surviving soldiers as they moved. If they succeeded, he would stay hidden and join the pursuit once the marked cargo led Black Horn to one of their hideouts or a more important base.

The hidden pursuit unit would follow the trackers and the Armor King would break whatever waited at the location of the trackers.

That had been Korran’s plan.

However, man plans and the heavens laugh.

Or in this case, demons plan and hell scoffs.

The Furnaceback Centipede had ruined every plan Korran made.

The moment the Half-Step Abyssal Beast appeared, allowing Kev to remain hidden would have turned a calculated sacrifice into pointless slaughter. Korran had been forced to reveal his strongest hidden piece before the pursuit even began.

Korran’s eyes moved across Kev’s damaged armour, and he could not help but think that the official title of Armor King suited him. The armour, chains, gauntlets, and weapons made him resemble a fortress that could walk into battle on its own.

Yet almost everyone who truly knew him called him the Biggest Kev.

His real name was Kelvin.

The Biggest Kev was from a race called Serevons.

Many years ago, other young Serevon demons had shortened it to Kev. When his body began growing beyond theirs, the name became Big Kev. By the time he stood taller and broader than almost every adult around him, even that was no longer enough.

He became the Biggest Kev.

What began as a careless nickname eventually followed him into the capital’s military circles, shops, arenas, and noble halls. Kev liked it far more than Armor King and corrected anyone who used only the title for too long.

His size did not come entirely from birth.

Serevon demons were unique in the sense that they possessed additional demonic pathways called Artifact Channels. Those pathways reached close to the surface of their bodies and allowed weapons, armour, and other artifacts to become part of their energy circulation.

An ordinary demon wore armour.

A talented Serevon could use an armour almost like another organ.

And Kev was a rare talent even among them.

Serevons usually have Noble bloodlines, however, the Biggest Kev had a Minor Royal bloodline

His Minor Royal bloodline gave him Artifact Channels that were unusually strong, and decades of carrying, bonding with, and controlling heavy equipment had changed his body. His bones thickened. His muscles grew. His pathways adapted to burdens that would cripple other demons of his race.

Korran had witnessed that difference for himself.

Years ago, he had visited a barracks in the capital when one of its suspended forging platforms broke loose. Several workers stood beneath it, and the platform was heavy enough to crush the entire lower floor.

Kev stepped under it.

He caught the falling platform across his back and one shoulder, held it there while the workers escaped, then complained that the smith responsible had used cheap rivets.

The first thing he checked afterward was not his own body. It was the dent in one of his newly repaired shoulder plate.

The Biggest Kev was the type that valued his artifacts, his creations, and artifacts in general almost more than anything in the world.

That was the demon Korran had asked to join the convoy, and despite everything that went wrong, Korran did not regret bringing him.

’Without Kev, the centipede would have turned the convoy into a graveyard.’

"We wait," Korran finally responded to the Biggest Kev’s question.

Kev tilted the Blood Jaguar helmet slightly.

"For the pursuit unit?"

"They followed the imprint north-east. Until they return, sending another group into the cracked lands would only create more trails and confusion."

Kev looked at the chair again.

This time, he pulled it farther from the desk and sat down carefully. The wood groaned beneath his armour, but it survived.

Korran had asked for his chairs to be especially durable cause of the Biggest Kev.

"I was meant to follow them after the rebels led us somewhere useful," he said.

"Yes."

"Instead, I fought a giant worm."

"You sound disappointed."

"I am. The worm escaped."

Korran glanced at the torn plate of the Furnaceback Centipede hanging from Kev’s chain.

"You kept part of it."

"That is not the same thing."

A faint silence settled over the office, then Kev rested his forearms on his knees.

"If the cases reach an eastern base, your plan still works."

Korran shook his head.

"That is if the tracking devices and runes remains intact."

The Biggest Kev could not help but give Korran a strange look.

"It’s still surprising that your tracking devices are still working. One would think that they would have stopped working after the rebel was swallowed by the worm."

Korran looked to the side and stared at his window.

"I know. It’s strange, which is why I sent the pursuit team after the cases."

Kev was about to speak, but at that exact moment, someone knocked on the door.

Korran looked at the door.

"Enter."

The door opened, and the leader of the pursuit unit stepped inside.

Teren was a lean Prime Greater Demon wearing dust-covered Black Horn armour. A long tear ran down one sleeve, while sand coated his boots and the lower half of his coat. He closed the door behind him and gave Korran a brief salute.

"You found it?" Korran asked.

Teren’s expression became troubled.

"We followed the residual imprint north-east through the cracked lands. At first, the movement appeared normal. It travelled quickly, then it slowed down twice before continuing."

Korran watched him carefully.

"But?"

"The three direct signals disappeared much earlier."

Korran frowned, and Teren continued.

"They did not weaken gradually. All three vanished at the same moment. After that, only the residual imprint left on the rebel’s spatial ring remained."

Korran’s began tapping his finger against the desk.

What the leader just said could not be explained by the Furnaceback Centipede simply carrying the rebel’s corpse deeper underground.

If the cases had remained inside the same ring, their signals should have moved with it. If the centipede destroyed them, the signals would not have vanished cleanly at the exact same instant while the ring continued travelling.

’Someone removed the cases and deliberately kept the ring moving.’ Korran thought with a cold glint.

"Where did the residual imprint end?" Korran asked.

"In a field of smoking fissures far to the north-east."

Teren reached into a black pouch at his waist, then he brought out a dull-grey spatial ring and placed it in the centre of Korran’s desk.

Korran recognised it from the recording crystals. He picked it up and sent his perception inside.

Unsurprisingly, he found no cases, no tools, no medicine, and not even a single hell stone.

The spatial ring was completely empty.

Korran’s expression could not help but darken.

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