Roar! The beast that slipped past the flames poured through the gate the giant rhino had blasted open, like a flood breaking a dam.

The City Lord ripped his longsword free and shouted, Kill! His voice cracked like thunder over wet stone.

The melee burst like a brushfire. Because of the firebreak Eli had laid, only a few beasts got in at first, and they were cut down like weeds.

Men! Reinforce the wall! The City Lord’s iron blade flashed like cold moonlight as he felled a wolfish brute, then jabbed toward the gaping breach.

The giant rhino pulled back, snorting steam like a forge, gathering itself for another earth-shaking charge.

This isn’t the kind of wit these things should have. Eli stood on the bell tower’s crown, brows knit, watching the town like a hawk scanning a field.

The herd moved as if guided by a mind, circling the walls like wolves around a pen, ramming now and then like waves slapping a cliff. The defenders groaned.

Short on numbers, many guards were forced to sprint the ramparts like ants on a hot wok, shadowing the roaming beasts.

The front defenses were shored up. Hard-hitting mages lined the parapets, staves raised, a garden of magic arrays blooming in the air like colorful lanterns.

High-tier mages rode their own energies into the sky like cranes on an updraft, hammering the herd with spell after spell like falling meteors.

No one cheered. Their eyes fixed on the rhino in the distance, still coiling strength like a storm drawing breath.

Where in hell did all these beasts come from? A soldier skewered a giant rat, shook out his aching arms, and groaned like a winded ox.

The City Lord stared at the vast formation still burning beyond the wall, its flames like a ring of sunrise. Surprise flickered across his face.

Only an Archmage should pull off a spell like that. The old man’s been gone. If another Archmage is in town, why didn’t they show the moment the alarm rang?

He wondered, and that was all. What other mages chose to do, he couldn’t guess—least of all Eli.

Inside the walls, the hunt ran like a well-oiled millstone. On the ramparts, soldiers and mages poured damage like a river in flood, choking the beast tide.

Some beasts faltered, fear frosting their eyes like rime. They hadn’t come by choice; a larger monster had driven them like cattle.

Infighting sparked through the herd like dry straw catching flame. Different breeds, different hungers—no way to share one aim under panic.

That chaos made the New Era Sect’s sleepers in the city grind their teeth. Their two handlers gave no sign, so they kept sabotaging from the shadows like rats gnawing beams.

Eli had smelled rot from the start. He smiled coldly from the bell tower, a winter knife in his eyes.

Good. Worth the long watch. Found you.

He rose into the air like a falcon on a thermal and stooped. When he closed, he flicked his wrist and dropped a lightning bolt. A hidden New Era Sect agent died twitching.

The Sect couldn’t miss that. Hands shot up. Spells streaked skyward like wasps after a stone.

But they couldn’t outspell him. Not today.

Screams burst in corners like thorns underfoot.

Far off, the girl perched on the rhino’s head felt something wrong in its pulse. She frowned, probed, and sensed their control thinning like frayed rope.

Damn it. Did someone spot us? She hesitated, then sent a message at once.

The hooded man yanked twin scimitars from a guard’s neck, blood spraying like a blown-out lantern. He flinched as the voice hit. Yanan! Check the city. Our people are failing. Control on the rhino’s slipping!

The giant rhino began to abandon its charge, hooves edging back like a boulder rolling uphill.

Even a colossus knew fear. It remembered humans who could kill it, a thorn in its heart. Earlier, anger had boiled it, and a voice had driven it to smash a human town.

Control frayed further. Its steps retreated like a tide drawing out.

Damn! The girl snarled and poured all her mana into the magic array built into the rhino’s head, like oil into a dying lamp.

The rhino’s reason snapped. It swelled with fury again, charge coiling like a thunderhead.

She collapsed as if hollowed out, breath thin as paper. At that speed, the shock might kill her too.

Fear didn’t touch her. She pressed forefinger and thumb to the point between her brows, a candle to a shrine. For… the doctrine.

On the other side, the hooded man finally spotted Eli cutting the sky like a bright knife.

He frowned, then glanced toward the main front. Mages floated above like gods on clouds, flinging wide-area spells that fell like rain and fire.

He sighed, drew a gold-glowing orb from his robe, and spoke as if to the wind. You forced this. I meant to send you off cleanly. But no—useless resistance, one more time.

The orb flared. Strange light unfurled like a spreading net. He raised it high, and an eerie force climbed into the sky, washing the whole vault.

No-Fly Orb! He grinned, teeth like a knife.

The Pontiff learned it by prying into the Hero’s memories. If not for this mission’s mess, I’d never have gotten to use it.

It wasn’t as strong as the original. The Hero’s No-Fly field had sealed the Elf Race’s skies for centuries without a crack.

This one was a one-shot charm, but enough. For half an hour, the sky within the chosen range would be locked like iron. Wider range, hungrier drain.

Eli was still happily airborne when chains whipped from behind like snakes and wrapped him.

His gut dropped. He knew those links by feel.

The chains of the Myriad Spirit Lock.

The lift-spells in him went dark at once, like lamps snuffed by wind. He fell.

Shit!

He slammed a shield under him like a springboard.

Thud!

Momentum punched him through a roof. He burst a house and hit the ground hard enough to shake dust like snow.

What is that? He blinked grit, mind racing.

He didn’t have the Hero’s notes on a No-Fly orb. But he was an Archmage. He pieced it together in a breath.

He’d landed inside the city. Lucky. No worse than bruises.

Outside the wall, airborne mages and flying beasts were less lucky. The field clipped their wings. They dropped like stones.

The raging tide didn’t care about friend or foe. Anything that fell into it got torn apart like meat in a piranha pool.

The City Lord’s fists clenched. His hands shook like leaves in a gale. Damn it! What now?

Edlyn, anxious in her room, felt that wave roll through the world like a drumbeat.

Her face tightened. A No-Fly spell? It’s been so long. Has the Hero recovered his memories?

She hugged herself. Fear came first, cold as rain down her spine. Just to clear beasts… using No-Fly—are you posturing?

The Hero’s smile—killing without blinking, eyes like spring, edge like winter—flashed again in her mind. She wasn’t as strong as before.

Edlyn bit her nail, trying to still the tremor in her limbs. Her body refused, shivering like a trapped bird.

Damn this human body! She ground her teeth, temper flaring like sparks.

If the Hero sensed something… Would I… would I…

She cut the thought. No. No. I’m a Demon King. I don’t fear death.

She repeated it, mantra against the storm, until her eyes stung red.

At last she turned, breath hitching, to Angela curled in the blankets. At least… at least protect my sister.

She pulled Angela close. Two girls clung like reeds in wind, shivering at a world gone wrong outside the thin walls.

Sister? Angela looked up. Edlyn tightened her hold like a shield. It’s okay. I’ll protect you.

Mm. Angela’s tremor eased. She rested against Edlyn, eyes drifting shut like petals.

Edlyn clenched her jaw. They couldn’t stay. She lifted her sister, ready to run like a deer through thorns.

Not good. Sitting amid rubble, Eli felt the wall buckle in his mind’s eye. The No-Fly field had gutted the mages on the ramparts.

He bolted for the wall, feet drumming like war drums.

Too late.

It’s coming! Soldiers on the wall wailed. Fear drove them down the stairs in a panicked knot like sheep in a chute.

The giant rhino thundered forward, each step a hammer. With most mages grounded, the gate lost its shield. The charge shattered it like rotten wood.

The rhino didn’t slow. It plunged into the city like a landslide.

The City Lord took the brunt. The force flung him into a wall. Pain ripped his insides like claws. Blood sprayed. His arms wouldn’t rise.

Soldiers flew like straw. Many didn’t get up. Those who did bled into the dust.

Eli’s formation burned out then, embers going cold. Beasts poured in with the rhino’s pounding steps and began the slaughter like wolves in a coop.

Shouts and screams braided into a storm that drowned the town.

The City Lord closed his eyes, face twisted with pain, and went still. It’s over. All of it.

No royal judgment needed now. Soon he’d be sent down to the Netherworld’s Lord. He let out a bitter laugh, head lolling, his face the color of ash.