The Broken Halo

(Korran’s POV)

Korran left his office with a thin stack of reports held beneath one arm.

The door closed behind him, and the low noise of Black Horn’s Velmora branch immediately surrounded him.

Clerks moved between offices carrying sealed documents. Armoured soldiers crossed the broad corridor in groups of two and three, while formation engineers in dark-grey coats argued quietly beside a wall covered in updated campaign routes. Farther ahead, several recruits were being led toward one of the lower examination halls.

The entire building had become busier as the invasion approached.

Korran walked through it without slowing.

A Prime Archfiend wearing the insignia of a records officer moved aside and lowered his head.

”Vice Commander.”

Korran acknowledged him with a short nod.

Two Greater Demons emerged from a side passage a moment later. One greeted him verbally, while the other merely placed a fist against his chest. Korran responded to both before continuing.

Respect followed him naturally through Black Horn.

Some of it came from his position. Some came from his strength. The rest came from the fact that most demons in the building had seen what happened when someone wasted his time.

Today, however, Korran barely noticed any of them because his thoughts remained on the reports beneath his arm.

Blackmoon’s return.

The empty spatial ring.

Teren’s pursuit report.

Tarvak’s statement.

The Fury Tempest Art.

And the unknown demon who had supposedly torn open the Furnaceback Centipede beneath the cracked lands.

Each piece answered one question and created three more.

Korran had already submitted a preliminary account to the Branch Commander, but a written report could not convey the instinctive unease he felt whenever he thought about Blackmoon.

The one-horned demon had entered Velmora as an exceptional Minor Archfiend.

Now he was a Supreme Archfiend surrounded by rare artifacts, strange explanations, hidden abilities, and coincidences that refused to remain coincidences.

Korran turned into another corridor and began climbing a wide staircase.

The higher floors of Black Horn were quieter.

The walls became thicker, the guards more powerful, and the formations beneath the stone more numerous. Thin lines of dull-red light occasionally travelled across the floor before disappearing into the walls. They checked identification, recorded movement, and prevented anyone without the proper authority from entering restricted sections.

Korran passed through each formation without interruption.

At the final landing, two Prime Greater Demon guards stood beside a reinforced black door. Both straightened when they saw him.

”Vice Commander Korran.”

Korran nodded once and continued past them.

The corridor beyond contained only six doors.

The offices of Black Horn’s highest officials in Velmora occupied this floor. Korran’s own office remained below because most of his work involved recruits, field units, combat deployment, and emergency operations. The other two Vice Commanders spent far more time here due to the nature of their responsibilities.

At the end of the corridor stood the office of the Branch Commander.

Korran stopped before it.

He adjusted the reports beneath his arm, then knocked twice.

”Enter.”

The voice behind the door was not loud, but it contained a depth of power and authority that could not be masked or ignored.

Korran opened the door and stepped inside.

Three demons were already waiting for him.

The Branch Commander sat behind a long black desk positioned near the rear of the office. The other two demons occupied chairs on the opposite side, leaving one empty seat between them.

The office was spacious without being luxurious.

A large map of Velmora and the surrounding region covered the left wall. Black, white, and crimson markers had been placed across roads, military depots, suspected rebel routes, and the location of the rift site. Another section of the wall held several layered formation diagrams connected to the road to Earth.

Three locked cabinets stood behind the desk.

A narrow window overlooked the central courtyard, while a circular stone table near one corner held sealed reports from the convoy, recruitment divisions, city guards, and rift rune masters.

Nothing in the room existed merely as decoration.

The demon behind the desk was Marek, Commander of Black Horn’s Velmora branch.

He possessed dark copper-red skin and short ash-grey hair. Two smooth black horns rose from his temples and curved backward close to his skull. His eyes were pale orange and his pupils were perfectly round.

Marek appeared to be somewhere in middle age, although the seriousness on his face made estimating his true age difficult.

His aura was completely restrained.

Even so, Korran felt the pressure of the Prime Abyssal Heart beating inside him.

Marek was a Minor Demon Lord.

The demon seated on the left was Selan, the Vice Commander responsible for intelligence, counterintelligence, infiltration, covert operatives, and the internal screening of Black Horn’s personnel.

Selan was lean, with muted brown skin and black hair shaved close to his head. His two horns were narrow and almost straight, while his smoke-grey eyes also held round pupils.

His Superior Forged Heart gave almost nothing away.

Selan’s aura did not feel weak. It felt absent, deliberately folded so tightly into his body that even Korran had to focus to sense its depth.

The final demon was Dorel.

He oversaw logistics, campaign supplies, military formations, transport beasts, spatial-material allocation, and nearly every practical preparation connected to the road to Earth.

Dorel was broader than Selan, with sand-red skin, thick brown hair tied behind his head, and two heavy horns that curved outward before bending back. The tip of his left horn had been broken long ago and polished smooth instead of repaired.

His dark-blue eyes had round pupils.

The aura of his Superior Forged Heart was steady and firm. It reminded Korran of a large formation built from hundreds of smaller parts with nothing wasted and nothing placed without purpose.

The presence of both Vice Commanders made the purpose of the meeting obvious.

Blackmoon was no longer merely a recruit connected to Korran’s failed field assignment.

His mysteries now touched intelligence, infiltration, military security, the stolen spatial materials, and the preparations for the Earth road.

Selan watched Korran enter without any change in his expression.

Dorel glanced briefly at the reports beneath his arm.

Marek leaned back in his chair.

”You are finally here, Korran.”

He gestured toward the empty seat.

”Sit.”

Korran walked forward, placed the reports on the desk, and took the chair between the other two Vice Commanders.

Marek rested one hand over the documents.

”Now, tell us your report and suspicions concerning the recruit called Blackmoon.”

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[A/N: Read the author’s note below. It’s VERY VERY IMPORTANT!]