“Holy Judgement!” the guard commander cried, thrusting his spear skyward. A pillar of blinding gold erupted from the weapon’s tip and thundered down the street.
“Argh!” Demon Cultivators caught in its path shrieked tragically, then dissolved to drifting gray ash before their screams fully left their throats. Yet for every soul erased, two more clawed forward, rabid and unthinking, their only purpose to drown the fleeing party beneath sheer numbers.
“Ms. Dusko, this can’t hold. We’re drowning out here!” Aurelius shouted over the din. Onneas felt own power sputtering like a guttering candle. “Hold fast! if we reach the gate, we still have a chance!”
“The gate! There, just ahead!” Yuliana’s voice trembled between pain and hope as pointed to the battered sandstone archway scarcely a hundred yards away.
Hope vanished an instant later. From the roiling sky descended a swarm of jet-black demonic souls that wove themselves into a vast, quivering barrier, sealing the exit with living darkness.
“Hahaha! None of you will leave!” The arrogant voice of Soul Devourer rolled from the distant palace, rich with cruel delight. “Today, every last one of you dies!”
Artemis, pale and sweating, legs already buckling beneath her, whispered, “What now?”
Onneas drew a shaking breath, eyes burning with resolve. “Golden Armor Guards! Full assault! Break that wall or die trying!”
Three hundred gold-armored sentries answered in one thunderous voice, the single syllable cracking like a drumroll across the ruined plaza.
A heartbeat later, each warrior emptied the last reserve of his spiritual energy. Golden light flooded out of their bodies, braided itself into a single radiant spear the length of a city street, and-with a howl that rattled teeth shot straight toward the onyx barrier ahead.
Boom!
The spear collided with the black wall. Concussive pressure ripped through the square, overturning debris, shredding banners, and driving even the strongest fighters a step back.
Veins of silver cracks darted across the obsidian shield. For one hopeful second, it looked ready to shatter, then the fractures froze, quivering, and the wall held. A cold, playful voice drifted through the smoke.
“Futile! Did you truly think such a parlor trick could breach my line?!” Soul Devourer sounded almost amused, as though carnage were a game had already won.
Onneas clenched jaw until it hurt.
If we don’t break that shell now, every soul under this sky dies with me…
“Quartet Celestial Guards! Stand with me!” shouted.
“At once!” Four guardians sprang forward. Their auras spiraled together, then knit seamlessly into the sea-green power rolling off Onneas.
“Holy Light!” Her cry rang like a cathedral bell.
Emerald brilliance fused with gold spiritual energy until the beam burned white-hot, a newborn sun that crashed against the dark barrier with righteous fury.
Boom!
The wall groaned. Shards larger than cartwheels spun away, leaving a jagged breach wide enough for two wagons to ride abreast.
“Through the gap! Move!” Onneas was already a blur of motion, racing for daylight beyond the wall.
Aurelius, Yuliana, Artemis, Flaxseed, and Infinides poured after while the Golden Armor Guards fanned out, shields up, to cover the retreat.
“Block them!” howled the Demonic Cultivators as they hurled themselves at the opening.
“Over our dead body!” roared the commander of the Golden Armor Guards. His spear became a cyclone of molten gold, each thrust bursting into a blossom of lethal petals that cut invaders down before their feet crossed the threshold.
At last, the survivors spilled beyond Celestia City’s walls, the midnight wind whipping smoke and ash from their hair. Still, the Demonic Cultivators refused to yield, flooding out of the city in murderous pursuit.
“We have to vanish before they reform!” Onneas shouted. No one dared slow. They ran as if chased by judgment itself, footsteps drumming a desperate cadence across the open plain.
Behind them, the capital shook. Echoes of titans colliding rolled across the night, Jared, ridden by the Vermilion Demon Lord, was still locked in brutal combat with Soul Devourer. Each distant blast lit the horizon, reminding the fugitives that dawn, and salvation, were a very long way off.
“Jared, he…” Yuliana began, the words snagging in throat. She whipped around, violet robes swirling, and cast an anxious glance over shoulder as though distance alone might let see what was happening behind them.”
Flaxseed laid a calloused hand on arm.
“Easy…” murmured, voice meant to steady them all. “Vermilion Demon Lord doesn’t fall that quickly. He’ll find a way to slip the noose. He always does…”
Onneas kept eyes fixed on the black-smudged skyline of Celestia City. A complicated light flickered there.
“We owe our lives,” said, the admission soft but iron-clad.
No one argued. They all remembered the moment Vermilion Demon Lord had seized Jared’s body and hurled himself between them and the Soul Devourer. Without that sacrifice, they would already be corpses inside the ruined capital.
“First we heal,” Onneas added, voice regaining command. “We find shelter, mend our strength, then we go back for him. We don’t leave debts like this unpaid.”
The others nodded as one. Bruised, bleeding, but unbroken, they turned and fled toward the pale horizon, putting mile after mile between themselves and the city now crawling with demon cultivators.
