The sky bled red.
Hundreds of lesser demons (Foundation and Golden Core rifts) poured from the secondary cracks that had opened across the capital while the ten Greater Demons hunted Ethan.
They didn't care about strategy.
They cared about slaughter.
Market district
A flame-winged demon landed in the middle of a crowded street market.
One swipe of its claw sent ten civilians flying in pieces.
Screams.
Fire.
A mother clutching her child tried to run; the demon grabbed her by the hair, bit her head clean off.
Shopping mall
Glass shattered as bat-like demons crashed through the roof.
They snatched teenagers from the food court, tore them apart mid-air, laughing as blood rained on the tables below.
Residential area
Entire apartment blocks collapsed under acid breath and shadow tentacles.
Children's toys burned in the streets.
A grandfather shielded his granddaughter with his body; both were impaled on a single bone spear.
Hospitals
Demons specifically targeted the wounded.
Nurses dragged patients from beds only to be disemboweled in the hallways.
Premature babies in incubators, left behind in the panic, cooked alive when hellfire licked the neonatal ward.
Royal highway
Cars piled up in flaming wrecks.
Demons dragged drivers through broken windows, feasting while people were still screaming.
Live footage on every screen:
- A demon holding a severed arm like a trophy.
- Another juggling screaming toddlers before crushing them one by one.
- Rivers of blood running down the palace steps.
The death toll climbed past ten thousand in minutes.
Military and supernatural response teams were spread thin fighting the Greater Demons and the rifts.
No one could stop the tide.
The kingdom wasn't just under attack.
It was being devoured.
And the wedding venue, once white and gold, now stood at the heart of the inferno.
Liana's penthouse – living room, emergency news playing on every screen
The footage looped without mercy:
- a demon laughing as it crushed a child's toy
- a burning orphanage sign collapsing
- blood running in the streets like rainwater
Ariel sat curled on the couch, knees pulled to his chest, long silver hair hiding his face.
His whole body shook with silent sobs.
Liana sat beside him, arms wrapped around his trembling frame, trying to pull him into her lap like he was something small and fragile.
"It's happening again…" he whispered, voice cracking.
"My parents… my little sister… same demons… same screaming…"
A tear fell from under his bangs, then another, then a flood.
"They burned everything. I couldn't save anyone. I was too weak… too small…"
Liana's own eyes were wet, but she kept her voice steady, soft, warm.
"Shh. You're here now. You're safe. I've got you."
He turned and buried his face in her chest, clutching her shirt like a lifeline.
"I don't want to lose you too… please… don't leave me…"
Liana held him tighter, rocking gently, kissing the top of his head over and over.
"Never. I'm not going anywhere, pretty boy.
You're my home now, remember?"
The news kept playing, volume low, a constant reminder of the nightmare outside.
But inside the apartment, for this one moment, there was only the sound of a broken boy crying himself to sleep in the arms of the woman who had become his entire world.
She didn't move until his breathing evened out.
Then she pulled a blanket over them both, held him close, and stared at the burning city through the window with steel in her eyes.
No one would take him from her.
Not again.
The apartment was silent except for the distant screams from the city and the soft sound of Ariel's sobs.
Liana held him tighter, her own tears drying into steel.
Then she pulled back just enough to look into his violet eyes.
"Crying won't bring them back," she whispered, voice steady but raw.
"But we can make sure no one else loses their family tonight."
She wiped his tears with her thumb.
"Become my sword, Ariel.
Life and death contract.
Let me wield you."
Ariel didn't hesitate.
He nodded, tears still falling.
"Kill those bastards," he said, voice breaking but certain.
Liana stood, pulling him with her.
They faced each other in the center of the living room, city burning beyond the windows.
She drew a small silver dagger from her drawer, sliced her palm first (blood dripping like liquid ruby).
Then she took his hand and cut his (gentle, but deep).
Their blood met in mid-air.
The moment it touched, the world stopped.
A massive golden-and-violet magic circle exploded beneath their feet, fifty meters wide, ancient runes spiraling up like living flames.
The glass windows shattered outward from the pressure.
Wind howled through the apartment.
Liana's voice rang out, clear and unbreakable:
"I, Liana Voss, bind my soul to yours.
I become your master, your shield, your will.
Forge yourself into my blade.
Let none who harm the innocent live."
Ariel's voice answered, soft but filled with absolute conviction:
"I, Ariel, offer everything—my body, my heart, my pain.
Turn me into vengeance.
In life and death, I am yours."
The circle ignited.
Golden chains erupted from the floor, wrapping around Ariel's body (arms, waist, throat), then shattered into a storm of violet light.
His form dissolved into pure energy (silver hair whipping like comet tails).
The light condensed, compressed, solidified.
In Liana's hand appeared a flawless katana:
blade forged from starlight and tears, guard shaped like two interlocked hearts, hilt wrapped in violet silk that pulsed with his heartbeat.
The apartment trembled.
The city itself seemed to feel the birth of something new.
Liana raised the living katana to the sky.
Ariel's voice echoed from the blade, no longer broken, now sharp as steel:
"For the ones we couldn't save."
Liana's eyes burned with the same resolve.
"Then let's save the ones we still can."
She stepped onto the shattered balcony, katana glowing, wind whipping her hair.
The war had a new weapon.
And its name was vengeance.
The capital burned.
Liana dropped from the 38th floor like a falling star, katana (Ariel) unsheathed and glowing violet.
She hit the street at terminal velocity.
No impact.
The moment her feet touched asphalt, she moved.
Not running.
Disappearing.
A Golden Core flame demon was mid-laugh, roasting a family alive inside their car.
Its head simply vanished.
Body still standing.
Blood fountained three meters high.
The family never even saw what saved them.
Liana was already gone.
Fifty meters away, a pack of six demons had cornered a school bus full of children.
One blink: all six demons were in pieces.
Limbs raining.
Heads rolling.
Children screaming, then suddenly safe, staring at a silver-haired woman in a torn office outfit who was already somewhere else.
She wasn't fighting.
She was harvesting.
Every kill fed the katana.
Every soul of the innocent she saved strengthened the blade.
Aura farming on nightmare mode.
A Nascent Soul lesser demon lord turned to strike.
Liana was behind it.
One slash.
Demon lord split from crown to crotch, two perfect halves falling apart.
A swarm of a hundred bat-demons dove from the sky.
She raised the katana.
A single horizontal cut.
The entire swarm became red mist and falling chunks.
A demon general with bone armor laughed, thinking itself safe.
Liana walked straight through its guard.
Blade didn't even glow.
Armor, bone, flesh, soul, all parted like smoke.
No demon saw her coming.
No demon lived long enough to scream.
Rescue teams found streets littered with demon corpses and crying civilians suddenly free, unharmed, staring at empty air where their savior had been a heartbeat earlier.
Bodies piled so fast the blood formed rivers.
The katana drank it all.
Aura surged into Liana and Ariel like a flood.
From late Golden Core → peak → half-step Nascent Soul in minutes.
And she never slowed down.
One woman.
One living sword.
One purpose.
The demons came for a feast.
They became the meal.