The Broken Halo

"Where are they coming from?"

Ammor’s question came out harsher than he intended.

The demon holding the glowing War Tag looked southeast.

"From Ironcrest. They are crossing the lower trenches and heading directly toward us."

Ammor followed his gaze.

At first, all he saw was smoke, shattered walls, and humans and demons fighting across the mountainside.

Then the wind shifted.

Five figures moved through the battlefield beneath a thin current of dark emerald air. They were still several hundred metres away, but they were closing the distance quickly.

The one-horned demon led.

The short Kragh moved beside him.

And a wounded, tattooed Martial Demon followed with two others.

Ammor’s expression darkened.

"Damn it."

He had spent the period after the tests avoiding Blackmoon, Akaza, and Sonya... especially Sonya.

His pride had suffered enough during the tests. He had underestimated the little blind Kragh, insulted her, and discovered too late that she was neither weak nor easy to frighten.

The cheerful smile she wore whenever she noticed him afterward had been worse than open anger.

Ammor knew what it meant.

She wanted to beat the shit out of him.

So he had stayed away from the training grounds she used, changed corridors whenever he sensed her nearby, and avoided any place where she could conveniently "teach him a lesson."

At first, he called it caution.

After watching Ironcrest fall, he stopped lying to himself.

Blackmoon, Sonya, and Akaza were absolute monsters.

No.

Calamities.

Ironcrest had possessed walls, formation pillars, Demon Slayers, cannons, a divine shell, and Sunshear. However, Assault Core Seventeen had still become the first unit to capture its assigned watchtower.

Ammor had wanted to avoid the three even more after that.

Unfortunately, they were coming straight toward him.

For one shameful moment, he considered running.

He could abandon the split ridge and disappear among the thousands of demons around the rift. However, this thought lasted less than a heartbeat.

Velmora had invested too much in him.

Black Horn had provided training grounds, instructors, medicine, formations, and resources he could never have afforded himself. Deserting after accepting all of it would make him a thief who had used Velmora.

Black Horn would kill him even if the humans did not.

A wave of heat struck Ammor before he could push the thought away.

"AMMOR!"

He snapped back to the battlefield hearing one of his teammates scream his name.

The Level 57 C-rank Demon Slayer descended from Frostveil’s second terrace with orange Aether burning around his body. A broad curved sword rested in both hands, and behind him ran a lean lion made from dark-orange fire.

The human swung.

A burning crescent tore down the split ridge.

Ammor slammed both palms together.

"Rise!"

Three layers of rock erupted before him.

The crescent carved through the first, melted through the second, and exploded against the third.

BOOOOM!

Heat and shattered stone swallowed Ammor. He crossed his arms before his face, but fragments still cut his shoulders and cheek.

The C-rank landed on a blackened ledge.

"You demons should have died at the rift," he said with cold contempt. "Instead, you crawled this far to die beneath Frostveil."

Ammor lowered his arms.

Frustration, exhaustion, and fear had pressed against him for too long.

The human’s words gave them somewhere to go.

"I am already having a terrible day," Ammor growled. "Come closer and make it worse."

He looked toward the strongest demon still standing beside him.

"Rathen! With me!"

The two-horned Supreme Archfiend tightened his grip around a heavy crescent axe and stepped forward.

During the recruitment tests, Ammor’s physical strength, with or without demonic energy enhancement, had been comparable to that of a Supreme Archfiend.

Velmora’s training and resources had changed him.

His Heart rank had not advanced, but his control, techniques, endurance, and use of his Low S-grade Earth affinity had improved. At full strength, his combat prowess could now be compared to a Half-Step Greater Demon.

Rathen had reached a similar level.

Together, they might survive against a C-rank comparable to a Minor Greater Demon. They might even drive him back or kill him if fortune favoured them.

But neither stood at full strength.

Ammor’s reserves had fallen below a quarter. Rathen’s armour was cracked, one eye had swollen shut, and blood flowed from beneath his ribs. Both had spent too much energy protecting the Runemasters from Frostveil’s cannon and formations.

The human noticed.

"Two exhausted Archfiends?" His lips curved. "Come."

Ammor stamped, and the ridge split beneath him. Two stone hands rose from opposite sides and slammed together.

The human jumped before they closed.

Rathen was already above him.

His crescent axe descended with enough demonic energy to darken the air.

The C-rank twisted in midair. His sword struck the axe, while the fire lion crashed into Rathen’s chest.

BANG!

Rathen flew through one of Ammor’s walls.

Ammor thrust both hands forward.

Dozens of stone spikes shot from the ridge.

The human cut seven apart. The fire around him melted five. The rest forced him backward, and one tore through the armour over his thigh.

Ammor clenched his fist.

The spike inside the wound expanded.

The C-rank grunted and ripped his leg free before the stone could destroy it.

For the first time, his confidence weakened.

"S-grade earth affinity. But a low one?," he muttered.

Ammor raised another section of the mountainside behind him, and his eyes flashed with a cold light.

"Just because I have a low S-grade earth affinity does not mean I’m weak! Many humans and demons would die to have my affinity grade!"

Even though the human had not said or meant that Ammor was weak, Ammor felt insulted and his mind went back to Sonya.

He furiously brought his arm down.

A mass of stone fell like a collapsing cliff.

The human roared. The fire lion entered his sword, and one slash split the descending stone in half.

Rathen burst from the rubble and struck from behind.

His axe cut into the C-rank’s shoulder, but the wound was shallow. The human turned, drove an elbow into Rathen’s jaw, and released a ring of flame.

Both demons were thrown away.

Ammor hit the ground hard and his sight blurred.

Before he could rise, the C-rank reached him.

The curved sword moved again and again. Ammor formed stone armour across his arms, blocked one slash, diverted another, and raised a pillar beneath the man’s feet.

The human stepped off it as though he had expected the attack.

His knee struck Ammor’s mouth.

Bang!

Blood and two broken teeth flew through the air.

Rathen attacked from the side, but the fire lion caught his axe between its jaws. A burning tail swept across his legs and sent him tumbling down the ridge.

Ammor pushed himself upright.

His breathing sounded like stones grinding together.

The earth still answered him, but every response was slower. Earth’s resistance pressed against his affinity while Frostveil’s Order arrays tightened around the mountain.

The C-rank walked toward him.

"You are strong, demon," he said, his tone almost respectful. "You would have been troublesome before reaching this road."

Flames gathered along his sword.

"But you reached me exhausted."

Ammor tried to raise another wall, but only a broken slab emerged.

’Fuck! My energy reserves have gone dry!’

Ammor’s eyes widened in disbelief, then the human appeared before him and swung toward his chest.

The blade would carve him from shoulder to waist and end his battle.

’Damn it.’

Ammor forced his remaining demonic energy into his arms.

Then a shadow passed over them.

The C-rank’s eyes widened.

A boulder larger than a carriage tore through the smoke from the side at a ridiculous speed.

BOOOOOOM!

It struck him before his blade reached Ammor.

His bones cracked beneath the impact.

The human vanished with the boulder, flew across the split ridge, and smashed through two defensive walls before disappearing inside a cloud of stone and blood.

Ammor remained frozen.

Slowly, he turned his head.

Five demons approached through the smoke.

Blackmoon walked at the front with wind curling around him. Akaza moved beside him, still injured and bloodstained. Virella and Rellis followed behind.

And between them walked the short blind Kragh Ammor had spent weeks avoiding.

Sonya lowered the hand she had used to throw the boulder.

Her lips curled with displeasure.

"Damn it," she grumbled. "Little kitty actually made this Honourable save that weak bastard."

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