I've stopped counting the days. Time inside the Demon King's citadel feels... stretched. It flows slower here, like syrup. Or maybe it's just me.
I wake before the torch crystals flicker alive in the stone halls. I dress in black, no armor. Just a long, sharp coat and gloves that cover the mark burned onto my hand. The Demon's Pact. A reminder of my choice. Of what I've become.
In the war room, the maps are cold beneath my fingers. Human kingdoms spread across parchment, so confident, so fragile. I stare at them for hours. I study their rivers, their mountain paths, their trade roads. I know their logic. I once defended those routes.
Now I plan to break them.
"Lady Ayaka", says Sythe, one of Valekhar's shadow-knights. "You summoned the captains."
"Yes", I say. "Bring them in."
They enter in silence, Kael, silent and sharp-eyed as always. Darius, tense but respectful. Veylan, the newest among us, watching everything with that unreadable calm.
I nod toward the map.
"We attack Westmarch next", I say. "But not as they expect."
Kael speaks first. "You want to strike their garrisons in the valley?"
"No", I say. I take the charcoal stick and circle a small, nearly forgotten village west of the trade roads. "We'll take Fenlow."
Veylan frowns. "That's farmland. No military value."
"It's bait", I say. "They'll rush to defend it. Their general, Halbric, is too predictable. He still values hearts over minds. He'll assume we want to starve them. So he'll bring his army down the main road from West-march."
I draw a jagged line in red ink, cutting through the canyon to the east.
"We let them march", I continue, "then collapse the canyon behind them. I've placed sappers in the cliffs already. Once the rocks fall, they'll be trapped between us and their own supply lines. And they won't even realize it until we strike from both sides."
Kael smirks. "A clean execution."
Darius, always cautious, leans in. "What of the villagers in Fenlow?"
"They'll be evacuated. Quietly", I say. "I already sent Shadow-Wings last night."
I don't mention the part that nags at the back of my mind, that if the villagers refuse to leave, they may not survive what comes next. I've stopped letting that voice win.
Veylan watches me. He sees too much. I don't flinch.
"Lady Ayaka", he says, "how far will you go?"
I meet his gaze. "As far as I must."
Later that night, I sit in the empty chapel. It was once sacred. Now it's just stone and silence. I trace my fingers over the scar on my hand. The pact still burns, sometimes.
Kael finds me there. He doesn't ask permission to enter. He just stands beside me like a statue.
"You knew Halbric once", he says quietly.
"Yes", I reply. "He was my superior. Trusted me. I gave him victory. He gave me betrayal."
"You loved him?"
"No", I say it too quickly. "I admired him. He was a fool, but a brave one."
Kael nods. "And now?"
"Now he'll die in a trap I built with my own hands."
He doesn't speak for a while. Then he says, "There's something hollow in your eyes now, Rin."
"I gave up warmth for clarity."
In the days that follow, the pieces move.
Fenlow is emptied without a scream. The villagers leave before dawn, herded by whispers in the mist. My spies return with word: Halbric is marching.
He took the bait.
I feel nothing when I hear it. No triumph. Just motion. This is the path I chose.
In the silence of my room, I write a letter. Not to send. Just to write.
"To the girl I once was.
You thought justice meant mercy. You thought betrayal would end you. But it was only the beginning. This world does not reward kindness. It remembers cunning. And I will not be forgotten."
I burn the letter.
The night before the assault, I stand on the cliff above the canyon. Below, Halbric's troops march. I watch the torches like ants crawling toward a trap.
My hand trembles. I curl it into a fist.
Kael stands beside me.
"You still feel guilt", he says.
"No", I lie.
He says nothing more.
When the rocks fall, it's like thunder splitting the world.
The canyon chokes with dust and screams.
Halbric's forces panic, trapped. My army waits on both sides. The signal goes up, a green flare into the sky.
We strike.
When the battle is over, I walk among the corpses.
I find Halbric dying beneath a shattered tree. He looks up, dazed.
"You", he breathes.
"Yes", I say. "Me."
He coughs. Blood. Dust. Regret.
"You were... better than this."
I kneel beside him. My voice is calm. "No. I was just unfinished."
Then I rise. I leave him there.
Behind me, the canyon burns.