The Broken Halo

As Assault Core Seventeen moved across the battlefield, the wind spread ahead of them as they crossed the mountain basin, flowing through trenches, over broken stone, and between the humans and demons fighting across their path.

Through it, Simon felt everything.

The turn of a rifle. The tightening of a finger around a trigger. The vibration of boots behind smoke. Even the brief disturbance created when a Demon Slayer gathered Aether inside his body.

”Left,” Simon said.

Virella struck the ground.

Thick roots burst from beneath the soil and intertwined into a wall just as a barrage of Aether bullets reached them. Blue-white light tore chunks from the roots, but none reached the Runemasters.

Rellis swept one hand forward.

Water poured from the air and coated the damaged roots. Their pale wood darkened, hardened, and grew twice as thick.

Then Virella opened her trembling fingers.

The wall separated into dozens of roots and shot forward.

Humans screamed as the roots coiled around their legs, waists, and weapons. Some were dragged into the earth. Others were lifted from the ground and slammed against one another.

A Level 26 D-rank Demon Slayer cut through two roots and charged her.

Virella flinched, however, she did not panic.

Bark spread across her right arm a moment later, then she stepped forward and punched.

The human’s reinforced breastplate folded inward. His feet left the ground, and his body flew through a silver barrier before disappearing into a trench.

Virella stared at her fist for half a breath.

”Still nervous?” Rellis asked as he walked past her.

”Yes.”

”You hide it well.”

Virella gave a forced smile.

”I don’t think so.”

”Well,” Rellis chuckled. ”If you say so.”

A nervous laugh almost escaped her, but another group of soldiers appeared through the smoke.

Rellis raised both hands.

A wall of water rose in front of them, caught the incoming flames, and collapsed over the humans. The ground became mud beneath their feet. Before they could recover, Virella’s roots moved through the water and pierced their armour.

Captain Veyran watched the two Superior Archfiends without slowing.

”They are good,” Drevik muttered.

”They would be the strongest members of most assault cores,” Osra replied.

Namis looked toward the three demons walking in front of them.

”Then what are those three?”

Before Veyran could answer, Sonya stamped one foot.

The ground fifty metres ahead rose like the back of an awakening beast. A trench split apart. Soldiers, rifles, and chunks of reinforced stone were thrown into the air.

Sonya entered their midst before they fell.

Her fist struck the first human in the stomach and tore him in half. She caught the second by the ankle, swung him through two others, then released him toward an artifact cannon.

All three bodies struck it together.

The cannon overturned.

Sonya landed on its side and smiled as the humans around her raised their weapons.

”More.”

Akaza moved along the opposite side.

He did not possess Sonya’s overwhelming destruction. His violence was narrower, cleaner, and just as terrifying.

An Aether spear passed beside his face.

Akaza caught its shaft, pulled the Demon Slayer forward, and drove his elbow into the human’s throat. Before the body reached the ground, he stepped around it and punched through another soldier’s shield.

Metal, bone, and flesh collapsed beneath his fist.

Three humans attacked his back.

He shifted once.

A blade missed his neck. A bullet passed beneath his arm. A hammer struck empty air.

Akaza’s hands moved.

Three impacts sounded almost as one.

The humans fell with broken heads and chests, while Akaza continued walking without looking at them.

There was no urgency in his movements.

None in Sonya’s either.

And Simon appeared calmer than both.

He remained close enough to protect the four cases, guiding the entire formation with small movements of his fingers.

Wind pushed a human half a step into Sonya’s path.

It turned another’s wrist just before he fired, sending an Aether bullet into his companion.

It lifted dust into the eyes of a Demon Slayer facing Akaza and pulled Rellis’s water across a wider area so Virella’s roots could spread through it.

Simon killed only when he needed to.

A thin blade of wind opened the throat of a soldier aiming at Namis. Another crushed a human against the ground before she could reach Veyran’s case. Two more were struck by their own redirected bullets.

His kill count was lower than Sonya’s and Akaza’s, but not by much.

More importantly, almost every death around them carried a trace of his interference.

Drevik noticed it first.

”He is controlling them.”

”The humans?” Osra asked.

”Everyone.”

They watched Simon tilt two fingers.

Akaza changed direction without looking back. Sonya struck the ground at the same moment, forcing six humans toward him. Rellis blocked their retreat with water, and Virella’s roots rose behind them.

The six died before they understood they had been surrounded.

No order had been spoken.

Captain Veyran’s eyes became solemn.

”They have trained together for more than a month,” he said. ”But that does not explain this.”

Virella and Rellis had also noticed.

For a moment, the two paused behind the Runemasters and watched the three figures ahead.

”I already knew they were monsters,” Virella said quietly. ”Seeing them here is different.”

Rellis stared at the trail of bodies leading back toward the rift.

”They are not fighting like demons trying to reach the watchtower.”

Virella looked at him.

”What does that mean?”

”They are fighting like the battlefield belongs to them.”

Sonya turned her blind eyes toward him from the overturned cannon.

”I can hear you.”

Rellis chuckled nervously.

”I assumed you could.”

”You sound jealous.”

”I am trying to remain grateful that we are on the same side.”

Sonya raised a brow before shaking her head slightly and choosing to focus on their destination.

Assault Core Seventeen continued forward.

Their speed soon drew attention from Ironcrest Watchtower.

Human officers at its summit had been tracking the twelve Runemaster teams since they crossed the rift. Most had been slowed, separated, or forced into prolonged battles.

Core Seventeen was different.

It had already crossed more than half the distance.

An order travelled down the ridge.

Soldiers withdrew from one of the defensive paths. A silver barrier opened, and seven figures emerged from behind it.

They descended together and stopped at the narrowest point leading toward Ironcrest.

Seven Demon Slayers.

Six carried the pressure of D-ranks.

The woman standing at their centre was C-rank.

A long silver spear rested in her hand, and the insignia of the Grey Pike Squad marked her armour.

Simon stopped.

Sonya stepped down from a cannon. Akaza wiped blood from his knuckles. Virella and Rellis closed around the Runemasters.

Across from them, seven Blessings awakened.

The female captain lowered her spear toward the cases.

”You are not reaching Ironcrest.”

Simon raised an amused brow.

For the first time since they moved from the rift, Assault Core Seventeen stood still.