The Broken Halo

Nadia moved before anyone gave the order.

Aether exploded beneath her feet, and her body crossed the distance between the hill and the child in a blur of white light.

One of the black wolves leapt.

Nadia drew a crescent blade.

Shiiing!

A pale-green arc separated the beast’s head from its body before its jaws reached the child. Nadia caught the boy with one arm, turned, and cut through a second wolf approaching from the side.

”Open the rescue passage!” she shouted.

Stefan’s expression darkened.

”You reckless woman.”

Despite his words, he raised his spear.

Blue light gathered inside his right eye, then travelled along the weapon. Stefan thrust once, and five narrow spears of Aether crossed the battlefield.

Three wolves fell.

A six-legged reptile was nailed to the ground.

The final spear passed above Nadia’s shoulder and pierced a winged insect behind her.

Petru sighed and lowered the Aether cannon from his shoulder.

”I suppose we have made our decision.”

BOOM!

A thick beam of golden light tore through the first section of the beast wave.

The battlefield erupted.

Human soldiers opened fire. Rifles released streams of Aether bullets, formation-guided weapons launched elemental attacks, and the artifact cannons positioned along the ridges awakened one after another.

Fire descended upon the demonic beasts.

Lightning travelled through their ranks.

Large sections of stone rose from the ground and crushed anything caught between them.

The first invisible barrier opened a narrow passage.

A rescue team of twelve soldiers rushed forward beneath three overlapping shields. Two Runemasters followed them, maintaining a temporary corridor through the kill zone.

Nadia placed the child into the arms of the woman who had carried him earlier.

”Keep running.”

The woman stared at her in disbelief.

”You’re saving us?”

”Yes.”

Tears appeared in her eyes.

”Thank you.”

Nadia turned before she could respond and struck both crescent blades together.

A circular wave of Aether spread from her body, throwing six demonic beasts backward and clearing a path for the remaining captives.

”Move!” she shouted. ”Anyone who can walk, run toward the barrier!”

The naked humans obeyed.

Some supported the wounded. Others carried children or dragged those who could no longer move properly.

Several captives had already died, but more than twenty remained alive.

The beasts chased them relentlessly.

Then four new roars emerged from the rift.

System windows flashed across many humans near the front reacted.

[Warning!]

[Four Abyssal-class entities detected.]

[Estimated threat level: Minor Abyssal Beast.]

The first beast stepped through the opening.

It resembled an enormous lion, but six muscular legs supported its body, and a mane of long white bones surrounded its head. Black flames leaked from between its teeth as it looked directly at Nadia.

Above it emerged a gigantic vulture covered in iron-grey feathers. Crimson lightning travelled across its wings, and every flap struck the cavern like thunder.

The third was an armoured rhinoceros nearly as large as a building. Three horns rose from its head, while dark plates covered its body from neck to tail.

The final beast crawled onto the cavern wall.

A pale spider with twelve legs.

Its swollen abdomen opened along several lines, revealing rows of smaller eyes beneath its skin.

”Abyssal Beasts,” Petru muttered.

The armoured rhinoceros lowered its head and went into a charging stance.

Petru dropped his cannon and seized the rectangular shield with both hands.

”Of course I get the heavy one.”

The beast charged.

Petru jumped from the hill and struck the ground in front of the first defensive line.

BOOOOOOM!

The rhinoceros crashed into his shield.

Stone exploded beneath Petru’s boots, and he was pushed backward through two defensive markings before his body finally stopped.

At the same time, Stefan launched himself toward the iron-feathered vulture.

The creature opened its wings, and crimson lightning descended.

Stefan’s spear rotated above his head and split the attack around his body, sending lightning into both sides of the battlefield.

The bone-maned lion rushed Nadia.

She crossed her blades before her chest.

BANG!

Its paw struck her weapons and launched her through the air. Nadia twisted, landed beside the fleeing captives, and immediately blocked another claw aimed at the woman carrying the child.

BANG!!

The pale spider remained near the rift.

It raised four legs and fired thick strands of black web toward the silver pillars supporting the first barrier.

”Focus artillery on the spider!” a front-line officer shouted.

Three cannons turned.

Their attacks struck the creature’s abdomen and tore away several layers of pale flesh, but the Abyssal Beast continued releasing webs.

The rescue team reached the barrier.

One by one, the captives crossed through the narrow passage and entered the isolation area prepared behind it.

Soldiers surrounded them without lowering their weapons.

A Runemaster swept a silver artifact over the first woman.

”No visible demonic transformation.”

Another scan passed over the child.

”Human Aether signature confirmed.”

The woman hugged him tightly and began crying.

”We’re safe,” she whispered. ”We’re finally safe.”

Across the battlefield, the captives who had fallen beneath the beasts lay among black wolves, reptiles, and horned creatures.

Then something pulsed inside the nearest corpse.

Once

Twice

The pale spider released a high, piercing scream.

Stefan’s glowing eye shifted toward the dead humans.

”What was that?”

A Runemaster inside the isolation area suddenly froze.

The silver artifact in his hand flashed crimson.

”Commander!”

Black lines appeared beneath the skin of every rescued captive.

They spread from their chests and stomachs like cracks forming beneath glass.

The humans stared at one another in terror.

”What is happening?” the woman asked.

The child looked down at his chest.

A small circular shape pressed against his skin from inside.

Nadia’s eyes widened.

”Get away from them!”

The captives’ gratitude turned into confusion.

None of them understood.

They had never known that small spheres filled with compressed Demonic Energy had been implanted inside their bodies. Concealment runes hid the devices beneath their human Aether, while the high screech of the pale spider activated them all at once.

The bombs inside the dead captives awakened too.

Across the battlefield, more than thirty bodies began glowing black and crimson.

Nadia rushed far away from the captives.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Every bomb detonated at the same time.

Black-red fire swallowed the isolation area, the rescue team, and the captives within it. Other explosions tore through the beast wave, destroying wolves, reptiles, insects, and human soldiers caught outside the barrier.

The first defensive wall disappeared behind a storm of Demonic Energy.

Formation pillars cracked.

Artifact cannons were thrown from their foundations.

Even the four Abyssal Beasts were caught by the blast.

Nadia crossed her blades and formed a curved shield a moment before the explosion hurled her away.

Her body struck the hill and buried itself inside the stone.

For several seconds, no one could hear anything.

Then the smoke parted enough to reveal that half of the first barrier had gone dark.

Stefan stared at the burning ground where the captives had disappeared.

The demons had not sent prisoners for humanity to rescue.

They had sent living bombs.

They had sent Trojan Horses.