The Broken Halo

"Frostveil."

Pavel’s answer settled over the command tent.

The enlarged screen followed Assault Core Seventeen as they descended from Ironcrest and moved northwest. Thin formation lines marked the route before them, crossing trenches, artillery positions, and the broken ground surrounding Frostveil Watchtower.

No one around the floating map looked away.

They had watched the five demons since the moment they reached Ironcrest’s defensive road.

At first, they had been another assault core escorting four Runemasters.

Then Grey Pike disappeared.

Ironcrest’s western path collapsed, but the demons emerged from the destruction. Three C-ranks failed to slow them. The divine shell shattered beneath the one-horned demon’s sword, and Sunshear, Ironcrest’s strongest weapon, was cut apart after failing to kill him.

From that moment, the threat attached to Assault Core Seventeen had changed.

Especially the threat attached to its leader.

Pavel moved two fingers. Several smaller screens opened around the first, replaying fragments recorded before Ironcrest’s observation network failed.

Simon walking through Sunshear’s lasers.

Sonya raising the road and commanding metal torn from the trenches.

Akaza crushing soldiers with gravity despite the wounds covering him.

Virella and Rellis advancing behind them with roots and water moving together.

The final screen showed Simon turning toward Ironcrest’s hidden command chamber.

Then it went black.

"Varga was Level Ninety," Dorian said. His thick brows had drawn together. "Peak C-rank. Against the correct opponent, he could fight like a Half-Step Demon Lord."

"And now he is dead," Ilona replied.

A pale-gold circle rotated behind her hand as casualty reports continued appearing in front of her. The number beside Ironcrest had stopped changing. There were too few living humans left inside the tower to provide new reports.

Dorian’s gaze remained on Simon.

"An Archfiend killed him."

"An Archfiend also destroyed a divine shell and redirected Sunshear’s Full Execution Ray," Pavel said. "Whatever our formations read from his Demon Heart does not describe his full combat ability."

Tomas rested one hand on the sealed spear beside him.

"Then I will intercept them."

Doctor Ilona looked toward him immediately.

"You would leave this place to hunt five Archfiends?"

"One of those Archfiends just killed Varga."

"And sending an A-rank after him may still be excessive," she replied. "Your strength is being preserved for Demon Lords, not for every abnormal enemy that appears."

Tomas’s expression remained hard.

"If he reaches Frostveil, we may lose another watchtower."

"If you leave," Pavel said, "the demons commanding this invasion may notice the opening."

Six transparent lenses rotated around his head. Each displayed a different part of the mountain basin.

"The White Crown has not appeared. Commander Marek of Black Horn remains beyond the rift, and Velmora and the Darkness Kingdom still has Demon Lords and Half-Step Demon Lords it has not yet shown. We cannot reveal every answer we possess because one assault core exceeded our expectations."

Dorian pointed toward the route between Ironcrest and Frostveil.

"Collapse the ground beneath them. Use the energy stored in the pillars and the engine of Frostveil to bury every demon once those abnormal demons arrive."

Pavel shook his head.

"That would consume three prepared formations and remove part of Frostveil’s own defensive road. It would also kill the soldiers withdrawing through that sector."

Dorian folded his arms.

"Varga sacrificed more for less."

"And Ironcrest still fell," Ilona said coldly. "We should not repeat his failure merely because we are worried by the same demons."

Dorian’s jaw tightened, but he did not argue. Meanwhile, Mara remained silent at the head of the table.

The three rings inside her metallic eye aligned as she studied the five figures moving across the screen.

They were fast.

Even the injured Martial Demon kept pace. Wind surrounded the group and reduced resistance against their bodies, allowing them to cross broken slopes without slowing down. At their current speed, they would reach the battle beneath Frostveil long before the defenders could destroy Ammor’s Runemaster team.

"What can we place in their path without weakening the first line?" Mara asked.

Pavel examined the markers.

"Two C-rank squads."

"Don’t forget that a C rank squad does not necessarily mean that all the members are C ranked. At least two need to be C ranked to be called a C rank squad ," Tomas said with a solemn tone, then his eyes landed on Simon.

"And don’t forget that Varga was comparable to a Half-Step Demon Lord no matter how weak he was for a Level 90. Very few C rank squads have C rank demon slayers or hunters comparable to Varga’s level of strength."

Everybody frowned.

"Then a B-rank combat unit," Dorian suggested.

Ilona frowned.

"The available B-ranks nearby are in strategic positions. Pulling them out can cause us to lose more than a watchtower. And the B ranks we stationed to the battlefront are currently engaged in a deadly battle with Demon Lords."

Silence returned.

Every solution demanded something from another part of the battlefield.

That was what made Assault Core Seventeen dangerous. They did not merely kill whoever stood before them. They forced the humans to move strength away from places where that strength was already needed.

Ilona looked at the images again.

"The prophecy."

Pavel’s floating lenses slowed down for a moment.

Dorian turned toward her.

"You believe they are the Three Calamities?"

"I believe the possibility can no longer be dismissed."

She pointed toward Sonya.

"The first portion can be connected to the blind demoness without much difficulty after what we witnessed. Stone and metal answer her, and four experienced D-ranks died before they could truly inconvenience her."

Her finger moved toward Akaza.

"The Martial Demon fits the second closely enough. He controls gravity, then he survived and defeated a human and her Martial Spirit while Earth itself resisted his power."

Tomas looked toward Simon.

"Then the third should be him."

No one agreed however despite the fact that it should be the case.

The third part of the prophecy had never made sense to any of them. Even now, after watching Simon destroy Ironcrest, they could not force what they had seen to fit the Blind Sister’s final warning.

Simon used wind.

He wielded a strange and mysterious black sword.

He possessed regeneration, abnormal physical strength, extraordinary perception, and battlefield control that exceeded his rank.

None of those things explained the third calamity.

Pavel enlarged Simon’s image until his sky-blue eyes and single black horn filled the screen.

"It does not add up," he said. "The first two prophecies have meanings we can recognise after watching those two demons. The third is just confusing. What does, The last will wear the face of a dead moon and return to the world that buried him, even mean."

"Perhaps the Blind Sister was wrong," Dorian said.

Mara finally looked away from the screen.

"The Blind Sister of Retezat Monastery is rarely wrong."

"Rarely is not never."

"No," Mara agreed. "But a prophecy is never straightforward. Our failure to understand it only proves that we do not possess enough information."

Her gaze returned to Simon.

"Whether he is the third prophesied calamity or not changes nothing about the present situation."

The screen showed Assault Core Seventeen crossing another ruined trench.

"Assault Core Nine has already forced Frostveil to commit more defenders. If those five reach the split ridge, the pressure on the tower will change immediately."

Mara’s metallic eye contracted.

"Ironcrest fell because we understood the danger too late. I will not allow Frostveil to fall for the same reason."

Tomas’s fingers tightened around his spear.

"Then he must be stopped."

"No. He must be killed," Mara said with a bone chilling coldness in her tone.

The words carried no anger, only a cold and indifferent decision.

"If he is allowed to continue moving freely, every failing demon assault will become a successful one the moment his core arrives."

Ilona’s expression became solemn.

"Who or what do we send then?"

Mara did not answer immediately.

Her eyes moved across the battlefield markers, past the squads, commanders, and reserves already committed to the defence. Then they stopped on one symbol positioned away from the main lines.

For several seconds, she considered the cost.

When she spoke, every person around the map became still.

"Send them."

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