The Broken Halo

Some of the leaders of the Carpathian Front stood around the floating map inside the command tent.

There were other leaders elsewhere in the camp, but only five had been invited into the final strategy meeting.

At the head of the table stood Mara Veles, Commander of the Carpathian Front.

She appeared to be in her early forties, with pale olive skin and short copper-coloured hair brushed away from her face. A thin streak of silver ran from her right temple to the back of her head, while her left eye had been replaced by a smooth metallic lens containing three slowly rotating rings.

Mara wore a dark-blue command coat over light silver armour. There were no medals on her chest and no decorative cloth hanging from her shoulders. The only mark of her position was the white insignia of the Carpathian Front above her heart.

She was an A-rank Demon Slayer.

Her Guardian Blessing, experience, and artifacts allowed her to contend with an average Superior Demon Lord. She was the strongest human currently inside the tent, but not the only one capable of facing the leaders expected to cross from the Demon Realm.

To her right stood Tomas Radu, commander of the Front’s first assault division.

Tomas was tall and broad-shouldered. His dark-brown skin carried old pale scars across both arms, while his head had been shaved clean. A long black spear leaned against the table beside him, its blade hidden beneath strips of white cloth covered in sealing runes.

He was also an A-rank Demon Slayer.

Unlike Mara, Tomas possessed a Martial Blessing and specialised in direct combat. His duty was simple. When a Demon Lord broke through the first defensive line, he was one of the humans sent to stop it.

Across from him was Pavel Orsic, the Grand Runemaster responsible for the formations covering the northern Carpathians.

Pavel was an elderly man with a narrow face, long grey hair, and fingers stained permanently blue from decades of handling Aether ink. Six transparent lenses floated around his head, each displaying a different section of the mountain range.

He was only B-rank in direct evaluation.

However, calling him weak would have been foolish.

Within the formation network he had spent weeks preparing, Pavel could seal teleportation, redirect attacks, strengthen thousands of soldiers, and trap a Minor Demon Lord long enough for the elite Demon Slayers to kill it.

Beside him stood Doctor Ilona Serrin, commander of the healing and recovery corps.

She wore a white coat over armour made from overlapping green scales. Her black hair had been tied into a single braid, and a pale-gold circle rotated slowly behind one of her hands as she examined casualty estimates on a suspended screen.

Ilona was a B-rank Healer with a Guardian Blessing.

She was not expected to defeat a Demon Lord through raw offence. Her rank came from her ability to protect herself, heal severe wounds, suppress and expel Demonic Energy inside wounded humans, and keep entire units alive during battles that should have killed them.

The final leader was Dorian Kest.

He looked less like a military officer than the others. A thick brown beard covered much of his face, and he wore armour made from metal plates, leather, and the hide of an Aether beast. Several knives rested across his chest, while a massive curved bow remained strapped to his back.

Dorian was a B-rank Hunter and the commander of the forces guarding the outer forests, mountain passes, and supply routes.

He had killed Abyssal beasts before and possessed enough strength to fight a Minor Demon Lord. Even so, he had never accepted the title of Demon Slayer. He preferred to be called a Hunter rather than a Demon Slayer.

Two other powerful humans guarded the command tent from outside.

Elena Dravic and Mihai Corvin were both C-rank Demon Slayers. Either of them could contend with a Greater Demon, and their presence ensured that the leaders inside would receive a warning even if an enemy somehow bypassed the outer barriers.

No weak human had been placed close to the centre of the Carpathian Front.

However, strength did not make every fighter the same.

Hunters and Demon Slayers were both humans who used Blessings, Systems, skills, and artifacts to fight. The difference lay in what they had proven themselves capable of killing.

Hunters mainly fought beasts.

They hunted Aether beasts born on Earth, creatures mutated by unstable regions, and demonic beasts that wandered out of rifts. Some Hunters were immensely powerful. A high-ranking Hunter could destroy a beast that would wipe out an ordinary town.

But beasts and demons did not fight in the same way.

A beast relied mainly on instinct, natural abilities, and physical power.

A demon could lie, plan, retreat, use artifacts, hide bloodline abilities, coordinate with an army, and deliberately target the weakness of a human’s Blessing.

The title Demon Slayer was therefore not given merely because someone killed one weak demon.

A human had to prove that they could repeatedly survive and defeat intelligent demonic opponents. Their System records, confirmed kills, resistance to Chaos and Demonic Energy, performance during rift battles, and judgement under pressure were all examined.

Once those requirements were met, the System recognised the title.

Every experienced Demon Slayer could hunt beasts, but not every Hunter was suited to killing demons.

That was why a C-rank Demon Slayer could sometimes be more valuable against a Greater Demon than a B-rank Hunter whose entire skill set had been developed to bring down enormous beasts.

The letter beside a human’s name was also not a cultivation stage like a Demon Heart.

It was the System’s evaluation of their overall combat ability.

The System considered their Blessing, Aether reserves, physical attributes, skills, artifacts, experience, and proven achievements before assigning a rank.

An offensive fighter, a healer, artisan, and a Runemaster could all be B-rank while possessing completely different abilities.

The ranking system of humans was much simpler compared to that of demons.

F rank, E rank, D rank, C rank, B rank, A rank, S rank, and the Demi-God rank.