The castle settled into hush like frost on stone; a Daemon Knight tilted his head, a wolf listening to the wind through pines.

He caught the corridor’s murmur fade, leaving only a beast’s ragged breath; his grin split like a scar under cold moonlight.

“Iron Duke, you’ve failed!” He laughed like iron clanging, lifting a black longsword that pointed like a spear of night at the Duke’s party.

The Duke’s party stood like a lantern in fog: the Duke, Princess Alice, the Dawn Knight Rakaid, and the Blazing Sun Knight Layne.

Knights lay fallen on both sides of the hall, like reed-stems after a gale, armor dull as drowned stars.

Behind the Daemon Knight, dozens of Fallen warriors leveled steel like a winter of thorns at the Duke’s chest.

The Iron Duke’s party was ringed tight like a noose; every breath felt like frost smoke in a sealed cave.

It was exactly as the Daemon Knight said, like a verdict carved in granite; their options froze to none.

Driven back step by step like surf before a cliff, the Duke’s face went taut as drawn bowstring.

“Now that it’s come to this, what do you think you can do?” The Daemon Knight’s smile was a blade sheathed in oil.

The Duke said nothing, retreating until stone pressed his back like mountain bone.

A small bump hid in the wall like a buried seed; it was the trigger to a secret way.

His hand moved quicker than a startled hawk; with a sharp clack, a section of stone slid open like a mouth in the rock.

He pointed at the dark passage, voice urgent as drumbeats. “Alice, go. Now!”

Alice shook her head, tears glittering like dew. “How can I leave you, Father?”

The Duke swung to the Blazing Sun Knight. “Layne, take her. Go!”

Layne’s armor was a map of scars, like bark after lightning; he answered like a torch flaring. “Understood!”

He seized Alice and pulled toward the passage like a tide toward the moon.

But—

“No one escapes, okay~~” A woman’s voice rose from the air, lilting and secret as a flute in fog.

A bolt of dark thunder dropped from the vault like a falling star; it veered at the last heartbeat, then plunged into the passage like a viper.

The blast roared like a collapsing kiln, stones avalanching to choke the only throat of escape.

“Damn it!” The Duke’s curse thudded like a fist on a coffin lid.

The Daemon Knight clicked his tongue like a knife on bone. “Charlotte, what if you’d killed the princess?”

“I wouldn’t~~” The same lilting voice drifted like perfume, cool as moon over water.

From the wide windows, dark-glow bats poured in like an ink-stained storm; their wings beat like a rain of paper fans.

The swarm lifted a silhouette like foam lifting a lotus; under moonlight, a Dark Blood Clan girl took shape like a red petal.

“I won’t fumble like my sister~~” she said, voice winding like a silk ribbon.

“Hmph.” The Daemon Knight’s snort cut like a flint spark; he turned back to the front, menace flowing like black rain.

He laughed at the shattered passage like a crow on a bough. “Iron Duke, didn’t you swear to fight to the death yesterday? Why flee now?”

The Fallen warriors joined with icy chuckles, like pebbles trickling down a grave.

Those laughs salted the air like winter wind, and the hall’s mood curdled dark as storm milk.

The Iron Duke’s eyes burned like banked coals, yet his hands were stone-bound. “A knight can be killed, not shamed. If you’ll do it, do it quick!”

The Daemon Knight’s smile was frost on a blade. “Death isn’t a favor for you, is it?”

He drew a dusky crystal that pulsed like a heart in tar. “The Earth Mother’s Tear. Better than a useless death. Become a Dark Spirit apostle. Swear to our Gaia Empire—”

“With you as vanguard, your lands won’t bleed like a butchered ox. The other duchies will follow, like geese after the first wing.”

His chest swelled with words like a drum before war. “Then Doran throws off the Heavenly Spirit yoke, and you rise like a banner. Humans will sing your wisdom for a hundred generations!”

“And many of your soldiers have already chosen,” he added, voice soft as poison smoke.

Another group walked out from behind the Fallen, faces familiar as yesterday’s bread, now strange as masks.

They had been loyal knights of the Lionheart Legion, sworn to contest the Dark Spirit invaders like cliffs against waves.

But that oath was stained like silk dropped in ink—

“My lord, listen to the general~!”

“Yeah, yeah~~ this way’s better!”

Twisted power curled their wills like fire warps lacquer; their minds were washed smooth like river stones.

Now they stood as faithful servants of the Dark Spirit Empire, eyes dull as salted wells.

The Iron Duke’s gaze was a winter sea; sorrow rose like tide. “I, Iron Duke Murphy, would rather die than obey you!”

Beside him, the Blazing Sun Knight clenched his sword like a sunrise forging a spear. “Well said, my lord!”

The Dawn Knight lifted his chin like a blade of dawn. “If the Duke dies here, the other four won’t yield. Doran will rally like a stormfront. You won’t take it easy~!”

Alice’s voice rang like a bell. “This is the Blazing Fire Knight’s homeland. For him alone, we won’t give an inch!”

Steel hearts answered steel; the Daemon Knight spat like fire on snow. “Fools, the lot of you!”

Then cold laughter rose like a raven’s flight. “So be it. You’ll serve as corpses.”

He snapped an order over his shoulder like a whip. “Charlotte, leave them whole. A fine chance to clear Shelika’s name.”

Charlotte, the Dark Blood girl, smiled like a crescent blade. “As you command~~”

Dark thunder gathered again like storm-sap in a thunderhead; the spell swelled like a kettle about to sing.

If it landed, the Duke’s party would vanish like moths in a forge.

The dark thunder was about to arc like a crack in the night.

In that instant, a young knight burst through the window like a swallow through ice!

Time slowed like honey. Lance shattered the stained panes, a rain of ten-colored shards spinning like petals.

As those shards glimmered like fish scales in moonlight, he sighted the Dark Blood mage and flicked a small sand pouch like a sling-stone.

Inside lay spell powder, glutinous rice starch, and wood shavings, simple as a village trick—yet deadly as a wasp’s nest.

His left hand cast the pouch like a seed; his right lifted the Sirius Sword, then slashed a Secret Sword Blazing Fire like a comet tail.

Boom!

The explosion hit like a bell struck by thunder; the roar ripped the spell like cloth, and the forming arc popped away with a sharp snap.

In Nordland, a failed chant bites back like a snake; the mana backlash mauled the mage like surf against a skiff.

Her levitation failed like a cut kite; she dropped with a thud, then pushed up, eyes blazing like coals.

“You’re… the Blazing Fire Knight… Lance!”

His entrance stunned both sides like sudden lightning. Alice’s face bloomed with joy like peach blossom. “Lance, why are you here?!”

Even in a grave moment, his voice danced like a jester’s bell. “Heard the Duke planned another grand ball. So I showed up~~”

A breath later, his eyes turned razor-cold like frost; he counted foes like stars. “A Daemon Knight on the guest list. And an archmage of the Dark Blood Clan…”

Then he chuckled, sheepish as a fox with feathers on its mouth. “The Duke really thinks highly of me, haha~”

The hall briefly became his stage, light flickering like waves; even awe took a step back.

His arrival stoked the Duke’s side like wind to coals, and needled the other like grit under armor.

The Daemon Knight pointed his sword at the boy like a signpost, frowning like thunderheads. “You’re the Blazing Fire Knight, right? If intel’s right, you should be in Maple City. Why are you here?”

“A knight only exists when needed,” Lance said, grin bright as flint. “Otherwise, he’s just a man in iron.”

He hopped onto a long table like a cat to a wall and struck what he deemed a heroic pose, a lighthouse that refused the storm.

The other side boiled like sap; eyes reddened like embers under ash.

Charlotte of the Dark Blood Clan burned like spilt wine. “You’re the Blazing Fire Knight… I’ll avenge Shelika!”

She raised her hands, but the Daemon Knight cut in like a dam. “Hold, Charlotte.”

“Don’t you stop me,” she hissed, voice a saw on bone.

“Cool your head,” he warned, eyes narrow as knife slots. “His Battle Aura isn’t a flood. But intel says he’s the butcher of many legion commanders, and the assassin of Shelika. He kills giants with strings you can’t see. We move with care.”

She cooled like iron in a trough. “You’re right…”

Then her mana flared, a dark bloom like a night flower, and her smile turned honeyed like poisoned tea. “Blazing Fire Knight, I’ll let the Earth Mother’s servants solve you.”

Her power felt different, light sickly-beautiful as foxfire; unease crawled like ants over skin.

The glow condensed and fell like ashes, hatching beasts one by one like eggs cracking under midnight wind.

They took shape with roars like drums; the beasts faced Lance with muzzles wrinkled like storm-cracked bark.

“Kid,” the Blazing Sun Knight warned, voice a torch in mist. “See the beasts in the city? She summoned them all. Watch yourself.”

“I will,” Lance nodded, calm as a lake under stars.

He stepped forward like a blade leaving its sheath, but Charlotte kept chanting, the eerie glow pouring like spilled mercury.

“Not done yet~~” She lifted her hands skyward like a priestess. “Come forth, Bloodseeker Hound!”

Light swallowed the hall like a white tide; eyes squeezed shut like clams.

When it drained away like ebb tide, a massive three-headed hound stood there, a mountain of shadow crowned with fire.

Its baleful pressure pressed the lungs like deep water; each step made the castle shudder like a drum-house.

Each of its heads was a nightmare carve, eyes cold as winter moons; each maw panted, showing fangs like kiln-white blades, heat shimmering like hidden coals.

Flame whispered in those breaths like foxfire; this beast wielded fire and threat, a special-grade calamity with a crown of smoke.

If Lance charged now, he’d strike a cliff with a reed; the Bloodseeker Hound ruled this hall like a tyrant star.

The Dawn Knight moved to stand by Lance, shoulders squared like twin pylons. “Careful. It shredded the Duke’s sea-wall defense. When it breathes, fire can blanket half a city.”

The Iron Duke’s voice was gravel and care. “Blazing Fire Knight, I’m glad you came. You don’t need to fight it. Take Alice and run!”

Seeing them bristle like hedgehogs, Charlotte laughed high and bright, a peony masking a blade. “Tremble, be afraid. This power’s the Earth Mother’s gift. You’ve got no chance.”

She soared onto the Bloodseeker Hound’s back like a raven to a warhorse; the beast roared to the rafters like thunder cracking oak.

The shockwave alone shoved at Lance like a winter gale; the floor hummed like a drumhead.

The Daemon Knight smirked like ice catching sun. “Give up, Blazing Fire Knight. You can’t beat it. How can man match a god’s hand?”

Lance looked up at the five-meter beast, calm as a stone lantern. “You’re right. I can’t beat this monster.”

“So you’re here to die, or to kneel?” the Daemon Knight asked, voice a hook under silk.

“I’m here to end you,” Lance said, thumb to his chest like a stamp. His pride rang like steel against steel.

“Then die!” Charlotte snapped, and the Bloodseeker Hound heard the whip-crack like thunder.

All three heads drew breath like bellows, swelling with heat like a kiln; mere watching chilled spines like shade on a grave.

It only took three heartbeats, quick as raindrops; then all went still as a held breath.

“Breath incoming!” Layne shouted, voice a flare through smoke.

In the next instant, three maws yawned like gates of a furnace.

Beams of concentrated flame shot out like sunlances, chaining into a wall; the hall’s front drowned in a sea of fire.

When the blaze passed, Lance was gone like a candle pinched out.

Not just Lance—so were the Duke and the others, vanished like footprints in surf.

Only embers coiled on the floor like sleeping snakes.

The Daemon Knight snorted a laugh like ash from a pipe. “So much for men. Char to gray, in the end.”

The Fallen chuckled among themselves like hyenas in scrub.

But Charlotte’s face tightened like a snare-string, and the Bloodseeker Hound growled low, a millstone turning in a well.

Then the scorched floor and walls, bruised by a violent swing of heat to cold, cracked and collapsed like crust over lava.

It was the sea-facing outer wall to the hanging garden; its fall opened a vast mouth, a door to night.

From the hall, they could see the sea, lovely even at night, a silk of silver under the moon.

Moonlight painted the water like ink wash, whispering of stillness like a temple bell at dusk.

Yet no one tasted peace; nerves were tight as harp-strings in frost.

Because the air itself was rumbling, quiet as a buried drum, heavy as thunder sleeping behind the clouds.

Dread hit the Daemon Knight like ice water. He snapped at Charlotte, sprawled on the hound’s back, "What is that sound?!"

Before Charlotte could speak, another voice cut in, a wind through old stone.

"That’s the roar of the Eternal War Armor." Lance’s voice rolled through the hall like thunder in a vault, slow and shadowed.

The Daemon Knight jolted, eyes skittering like startled crows. "What do you mean?! You didn’t die?!"

"Of course I didn’t die. I’m the Blazing Fire Knight—I don’t die. And—" Lance’s voice kept echoing, drifting like smoke. "A knight has his armor—"

"Come, Eternal War Armor!" His tone surged like a blade flashing free, all calm gone.

With that cry, the rumble snapped off, and a giant silhouette rose like a mountain from fog.

It was the very Eternal War Armor, Lance at the helm like a heart sealed in iron.

"This is my armor—the Eternal War Armor, iron thunder made flesh!"

It dropped from nowhere, its presence looming like a cliff over surf. The moment it arrived, the hall froze under its shadow.

The Daemon Knight screamed, his voice breaking like a struck hawk. "Impossible! That’s the Heavenly Spirit Empire’s secret weapon! Why do humans have it?!"

Lance piloted the Eternal War Armor, pointed a steel finger at the Bloodhound like a spear of night, and beckoned.

He called to its rider, his voice cold as river ice. "Weren’t you here to avenge Shelika? Then come."