Time nudged forward a breath.

Clive stuck to the plan. He drove two thousand heavy cavalry and three thousand infantry into a full sprint, aiming to lock the battle within half an hour of the gate opening. If they stalled, blood would drown the night.

They were sharper than the letter claimed. The stench of blood carried on the wind, thick enough to taste. It curdled Clive’s stomach. It was the blood of kin, and of asura. They’d long since stepped past being human.

On the gate, a figure gleamed under torchfire, bright as a lighthouse in a black sea.

He was red from head to toe, dyed by blood. Under blazing torches he looked inhuman. Those eyes pulsed crimson, devil-bright, making hell feel close.

Hmph. No matter what, once the battle ends, I’ll purge them all. Rebels don’t deserve to live.

Brick didn’t know. All his killing, all the shredding of his humanity for a sliver of survival, had been a mirage. Clive had never planned to spare them.

Warhorses hammered forward. Iron-shod hooves and heavy Impado armor made the earth groan, each stride digging deep brands into the soil.

“Move! Move—form the line—!”

“Where’s Commander Gerald? Where are the captains?! It’s slipping—”

“We’re done… we’re done… is the lord going to abandon us too?”

“Hold— we haven’t lost— not yet! Take back the gate control— now!”

“It’s useless… the heavy cavalry’s five minutes out at most. We can’t get it back. The front gate’s getting breached too. The timing’s dead-on… they coordinated this. There’s a traitor inside. Captain Brick tipped them off…”

“Even if we take it back, then what? The ones guarding it want it destroyed. If that’s the case, let it break. As Brick said, drop weapons and surrender—maybe we live.”

“You believe that garbage?! You think the Hexclaw Legion is merciful? From the lord’s intel, their goal might be darker than the Southern Kingdom’s. To reach it, they’ll do anything. Everything.

We refused their call at the start. You think they’ll accept us now? No! Dropping weapons is a dead end. Get a grip. If we die, we die with some dignity!”

Chaos crashed in. Voices tangled—despairing cries, furious shouts, agony’s howls, bewildered laments. Steel rang as lives wrestled. A few leaders still tried to lift hearts, refusing to yield hope.

But the front gate was drowning. With command gone, they bore the pressure of the rear collapsing, and faced the storming arrow rain and stalking fiends.

Siege ladders bit in, iron frames slamming. Hearts flipped, then broke.

The chief commander stayed silent. Captains scrambled, patching morale while holding the rear gate. At the front, only a few sub-captains and Norris were barking orders. Norris was green. Faced with a real war, his hands were tied.

Sub-captains hit their limit. Holding a wall was all they had left. Defeat balanced on a single thought.

“Medith… it’s your fault! You did this to us! Aren’t you clever?! Did you foresee this?! Did you foresee a traitor inside?! Did you see tonight coming?!

I hate you— if you don’t show yourself tonight, I’ll come back as a vengeful ghost and kill you— Medith Waheit—!”

Norris loosed arrows and roared his rage. From his lean frame, hatred surged like a volcano. It rattled hearts.

“They can’t hold! Stop wasting Bonecrusher Arrows! Silver Arbalest Guard, give cover fire. Heavy Shield Corps, protect the Arbalests. Everyone else, press! Ten minutes, tops! They’ll shatter!”

Harrison’s eyes flashed with savage delight. The plan ran smoother than dreamed. The gates were open. Inside was a storm of confusion. Even Gerald had broken and dropped command.

Even their Commander’s gone silent—what fight’s left?

Against a trained, well-armed army storming in formation, the mercenaries tottered. They threw everything in the way, but death climbed the ladders, steady as winter.

Then, a clear, airy female voice rang across the sky: “Regido—”

War-horns wailed in layered notes.

Beast-throats thundered in answer.

The earth shivered. The sky tore. A holy pillar of white shot upward, turning night into pure day. Its force twisted the heavens into a fearsome spinning maw. Under its gaze, breathing felt like drowning.

A white flash burned. A towering, perfect, terrifying mushroom cloud bloomed. It swallowed everything within two kilometers. The mercenaries didn’t know what hit them—only the blast wave slammed in.

Even the trailing blast kicked up a secondary Cyclone. It scraped armor with a rasping hiss. At the center? No one dared imagine.

They didn’t need to. This great white day was Dawnlight. Breath of the morrow. Its owner was obvious without a name.

“Medith? Hell… is this the rumored Lawbreaking Ability?”

“My god! If I hadn’t seen it, I’d never believe it. The rumors… it’s beyond words…”

Horses screamed. The iron thunder of hooves broke into chaos, heavy and grieving. They shrieked and bolted, spooked to the bone.

Soon, Hexclaw Legion men were shouting in panic, crying in fear. Bone snapped with sickening cracks. Clive’s voice ripped the sky: “Retreat— retreat— retreat—!!”

Elsewhere…

“That’s the mushroom cloud from the report. And the Magic Breaker. Damn! Medith! It’s Medith! She really didn’t leave. Is this all your design?

No! No!! Everyone, back— withdraw— withdraw—!!”

Harrison’s heart seized. The thought of Medith watching from the dark, tracking his moves, planting a fake trail that day—it froze his soul. Goosebumps pricked alive. Cold sweat slid.

His warhorse snorted and danced, spooked by his fear or the far-off, skull-splitting blast.

He didn’t explain. He ordered it. They hesitated, but the side gate roared like armies falling from the sky. They chose the ladders and pulled back.

At the front gate, Norris stared, stunned. The Hexclaw Legion, fierce and certain a heartbeat ago, broke and ran, spooked by a Medith they hadn’t even seen. The side field’s noise turned. His own men were roaring with fire.

“This can’t be… Medith… did you really see all of this?” Norris turned by instinct. Through the open gate he glimpsed a demon-masked warrior carving with a long, blood-bright blade. A proud ponytail snapped in the wind. A long spear flickered, tapping lives out.

Ooooooh—!

“Damn you, Hexclaw Legion! Weren’t you grand? Don’t run! Come back and fight me three hundred rounds—!”

“Look! Look at them fleeing—how pathetic—hahahaha—!”

“We won! We won!”

Ohoooo—!

The mercenaries howled. Some cried for joy. Hope had shattered, despair had filled them, faith had bled dry. Now it burst back like spring flood.

It felt like standing on a gallows, head in the noose, and hearing, “Spare him.” The aftershock of survival nearly dropped them cold.

Gulo stood at the window. He saw familiar backs. Tiger tears fell in two hot lines. His legs loosened. He slid down and sat, spent, back against the wall.

Gerald did the same. He slid, limp. His face wore madness—crying and laughing. Twisted expression, blood-caked body—he looked unhinged.

“Ha… hahahaha… hahahaha—!

Hahahahaha… Gulo… do you… do you believe it? That miracle… miracles are real… hahahaha…”

Gulo cried and laughed back. The two of them leaned against cold steel. They laughed like men set free.

9/12, 6:00. A new day for the Talos Continent. Dawn came. Fishbelly white brushed the horizon. Gentle light broke the edges of night. Sun returned, lit the dark, and sparked hope.

For some, warm sunlight couldn’t touch the pitch inside.

“I’m sorry, Duke Harrison. I ordered the retreat without your leave. I… I…” Clive had never faced this.

After that blast, he saw her—a green-haired girl with an orange-red long sword, red eyes burning. A soul-deep survival urge forced his hand.

Though there were only ten of them, with a scholar among them, the threat felt like a legion.

But… desertion in battle is death. It’s the sin he hates most. And the sinner was him.

“No… you did well. If you hadn’t been that decisive, we might not have even these few alive,” Harrison said, dazed, looking at the two thousand he brought back.

Medith’s Magic Breaker was far beyond imagination. She sprang from nowhere and broke law and world. In a breath, a thousand died. The rest were torn apart by the blast and scattered, forced to abandon…