Anarim sighed. He never thought he would relive his trauma while he was relaxing. Yet, it was necessary. He knew Eshdar would learn about his past, about how he was almost sacrificed as a blood offering, and why he never had parents that could raise him.

At first, Anarim thought Khielis would be able to raise her son as she should, but she never recovered from the traumatic experience involving Ensalder and Eshdar. The drug that was used to incapacitate her was also administered incorrectly, severely damaging her lungs and making her susceptible to the humid air of the surface world. Returning to the Underworld was made impossible when Shadar and Sastura destroyed the Crossing Gate to stop anyone from following them.

Khielis, on her death bed, made Anarim promise that he would raise Eshdar well, and to tell him everything when the time was right. The Hunter hellhound fell into a coma the next day, before passing away a week later.

Eshdar was too young to remember either his mother or his father, so Anarim told him that they, as the reigning monarchs of the kingdom, fell to the Uprising while entrusting him to Anarim. Thus, for 25 years, Eshdar was never told of what really happened, and frankly, Anarim did not wish to tell him until he faced death himself.

This would soon change when his grandson found the royal crest bearing Ensalder’s initials. Eshdar was a smart Hunter. Even if Anarim lied to him, he would find out sooner or later. Knowing that it was inevitable, he decided that it was time. After he had finished with his bath, he should give Eshdar a call.

But then, Anarim started to wonder if the demon had something else in mind. The demon said that it was playing a long game, meaning that it had a grand strategy that even Anarim was unable to anticipate. Assuming that Khalhess summoned the demon out of spite after being dismissed from the court, Anarim could surmise that the demon took over Ensalder’s life when he was young, or at least when he had matured and started taking over Anarim’s responsibilities. Those visits Ensalder made could easily be visits to start the hellish incursion by corrupting the relatively justified Uprising into a demonic invasion. Was it also his idea to attack the surface on the fronts of Tragoria and Dusdolf?

“(Two fronts?)” he thought. Suddenly, a thought came to him. Could he be reading the whole situation the wrong way? What if the real battlefront was not the borders, but instead within Dusdolf? The attempts at an invasion in Dusdolf were easily quelled because of the Demon Hunters’ defense, but what if that ended up giving a false sense of security?

Then he shuddered when he realized that, when he reminisced about the demon, it had been waiting for him at his most vulnerable. If that was the case, then it would be like what happened years ago. Everyone thought they managed to defend the towns from a horde of demons, while in truth it was something else.

They were the decoy. A very effective decoy with two circle demons.

He quickly climbed up the hot spring and, without even bothering to dress up, asked for a telephone. He quickly phoned one of the Council members he could easily connect with: Mizarka.

As he expected, Mizarka was still working in the Council room when she heard the phone ringing. She answered it.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Arbal and Stadelitz are just decoys!” warned Anarim. “Their real target is Dusdolf! Call the demon hunters to stand by!”

Mizarka took a while to realize that the caller was none other than Anarim.

“W-wait, hold on,” said Mizarka. “Are you sure about this, Anarim? Where did you get the intel?”

“It’s my deduction! Listen to me. The increasingly frequent demonic attack in Dusdolf is not a constant attempt to penetrate their defense, but to spread the demon hunters thin! Then, the attack on both Arbal and Stadelitz were predetermined because they knew we’d prioritize those two towns as they presented a hole in our defense. They were always vying for Dusdolf!”

“But Anarim, Dusdolf has an anti-demonic system that can detect any attempt of summoning. You heard that from them, right?”

“Who’s the one maintaining it?”

“The demon hunters, of course.”

“And where are they now?”

“They….” Mizarka gasped. She now realized what Anarim was implying.

“Where is Albert? Did he ever report his current position?”

“He is in Angla. He just finished reporting his discussion with the newcomers from Main.”

“Call him again! Tell him that Erben Central is their target!”

“Erben Central? But that—”

“Don’t argue! Just do what I say!”

Mizarka wasn’t sure if it was warranted, but Anarim had always been right when it came to his intuition. The Jackal also trusted him after he managed to help her retrieve her prince, Anubis.

And so, she called the trading company Albert mentioned. After a while, someone answered the phone. It was the voice of someone she knew.

“Hello?” said Rhynsa.

“(Rhynsa, is Albert there?)” asked Mizarka. “(Look, you gotta tell him this. Anarim told me that their target is Erben Central. I don’t really understand why, but he’s serious about it).”

“(Their target is the headquarters of the demon hunters? That’s the most random thing I heard today).”

“(Just tell him!)”

Rhynsa was still unable to understand why the demons would be foolish enough to attack the most anti-demonic place on the surface. But he could tell that Mizarka was not joking around, so he told this to Albert, thinking the human would brush it off.

Albert didn’t brush it off. In fact, he was intrigued that Anarim would suggest such a thing. He then took Mizarka’s call, who then told Albert to wait.

Anarim, on the other hand, dressed up quickly and ran towards the Council Room where Mizarka was. He lamented the fact that, as he aged, he was unable to run as fast and could no longer do acrobatic moves like when he was in his prime. Of course, part of that was also because of his broken hip, caused by the traumatic experience with the demon. It never truly healed, which made his legs rather weak, forcing him to use a walking cane.

Yet, he was spurred by the surprising revelation, and this gave him the strength to run and climb as fast as he could. Unfortunately, it was the limit of what he could do. Once he reached the Council Room, he could barely stand up. His mind was still sharp, however, so after Mizarka reprimanded him for overexerting himself, he rushed to the phone and said, “Hello, Albert?!”

“Anarim? You’re in Avicelis?”

“Listen to me. The frequency of the attempted demonic invasion in Dusdolf was enough for most of the senior hunters to be deployed to deal with the circle demons and destructive demons. This makes Erben Central defenseless.”

“Erben Central is not defenseless, Anarim,” said Albert. “We have powerful anti-demonic barrier that can prevent anyone from attempting to summon a demon within the city.”

“You don’t need demons to do their job! All you need are thralls that cannot be detected by the anti-demonic measures!”

“Thralls? What are you talking about?”

“Not everyone serving the demons are corrupted!”

Albert was quick to grasp on what Anarim was implying. Like Anarim, realizing that it could be possible, made him scramble towards his assembled new allies. Without delay, he said, “I need to get to Erben as soon as possible. Can I ask for the help of your dragons?”

“What’s wrong?” asked Hans.

“We made a mistake. The demons have already infiltrated Dusdolf,” said Albert. “The Tragorian front is the obvious danger. We didn’t consider the subterfuge attempt!”

“And Erben Central is the headquarters of the demon hunter association,” said Adeline. She also realized the situation and said, “Zenithia!”

“On it, Adeline!” said Zenithia, who started to shine.

Albert did not hesitate to grab Adeline’s hand. Just like before, Zenithia’s teleportation instantly teleported them from Angla to Erben. The light dragon had studied Ternor to know where to appear regarding space. She still needed to manage her teleportation quota if she did not want to end up being powerless when the situation demanded it. She started to miss her time connected to the Source, when her light powers were virtually unlimited, and when she could jump across realities.

Yet, she made her choice. There were no regrets. This was her reality.

The teleportation was instant and took no time at all. They appeared in Erben’s Peace Square, right in front of the building used as a demon hunter headquarters. He ran up the stairs and reached the reception area.

However, he was too late.

Just as he approached a receptionist, an explosion blasted the reception area. The explosion was loud enough to shatter all glass windows near the building and severely damaged parts of the reception area. Another explosion soon happened; this time big enough to cause the roof to fall on to unfortunate victims.

That flash of light and the resulting explosion were the last things Albert saw before he closed his eyes to shield them. He expected to feel immense pain and to be concussed, but to his surprise, none happened. Instead, when the smoke cleared, he saw the faint shimmer of a barrier shielding him from harm. Behind him, Zenithia, with Adeline keeping her head low, shielded him and several other survivors, including the receptionist Albert was talking to.

Albert had no time to be surprised. He did not hesitate to quickly take command and directed everyone to evacuate. However, before the effort could even properly start, he could hear someone shrieking along with the unmistakable sound of something being sliced open.

“Demons!” shouted someone.

“He’s right,” said Albert. “This is their real target.”

“Should we go and help these people evacuate?” asked Adeline.

“No, you two stays with me. We need to stop the demons and find the Gestjager leaders. There are more than enough emergency responders to help the evacuation.”

“Agreed,” said Adeline.

Albert and the other two rushed in, with the human stopping to take some equipment from a fallen demon hunter. He checked his pistol and his rifle, hoping that he had enough magazine. If not, the dagger from the fallen member, the anti-demonic water flask, and his own demon hunter crest, should do the trick.

The three went into the offices and towards the auditorium where the demon hunters were expected to be, as they usually discussed what to do for a lot of their operations throughout Dusdolf. What they did not expect, however, were the demons. They came out of the auditorium and started attacking the demon hunters, many of which were caught unaware. It became a massacre, only stopped by the quick actions from the senior hunters who managed to start the cleansing ritual almost immediately.

As soon as they reached the auditorium, they were greeted with a scene of battle. Ferocious demons attacked and managed to injure or kill many of the demon hunters in assembly, while circle demons with extra abilities pushed the advantage further towards the demons. These demons were Albert’s immediate priority. Without hesitating, he pulled out his rifle and shot one of the demons, a succubus, through her head. He pulled the bolt, then resumed shooting, repeating this action a couple of times, with each bullet for each head of the demons.

Adeline and Zenithia were responsible for dealing with the heavily armored demons, ones that could not be shot by bullets. Their unique use of light made short work of these demons, along with the other demons they came across. She cut through them using her bladeless light sword as she worked in tandem with Zenithia bending light to become powerful beams that she could completely control.

“Get to safety!” exclaimed Adeline. “Now!”

The hunters nodded and, while also dealing with the demons they came across, managed to escape the building. Unfortunately, it was the least of their worries.

Soon after Albert, Adeline, Zenithia, and a group of demon hunters managed to end the attack on the headquarters, they were quickly told of a citywide appearance of demons. They started wreaking havoc and killing those who were defenseless. Unlike with the situation at the Tragorian front, Erben fell into chaos unexpectedly.

The situation became known to everyone by a distress radio call from within the city. The people of Stadelitz, especially Maximillian and Sahia, were horrified that, despite their victory, they were completely blindsided by the attack on Erben. Anubis, Wepwawet, and the other Jackals were similarly surprised.

Everyone in Angla, also hearing the call, were also surprised, as they did not expect the demons to be attacking the least expected place on the whole continent. This surprising turn of events spurred Hans to try and help, with Lilac and Ifrit volunteering to help. Azureath told them that she could get them to Erben as fast as a normal dragon could, noting that she couldn’t teleport like Zenithia and she was aware of the light dragon being engaged on her own fight alongside Adeline. But upon realizing that Azureath could fly much faster without anyone burdening her, Hans entrusted Erben to her, to which she quickly opened her wings and flew away.

As for Adeline and Zenithia, they started to realize the gravity of the situation when they became overwhelmed. It further convinced them that Erben was always the target; there weren’t any opposition as bad as what they were facing in Erben. While they weren’t the first circle demons they faced, something about them felt wrong.

Adeline sensed it first, and said, “Zen. Did you get that?”

“I did,” said Zenithia. “There is something wrong with them. It’s like…they’re enthralled by something.”

“Whoever can enthrall circle demons must have been quite formidable,” said Adeline, returning to her stance after cutting a demon in half. “Could it be…?”

“No, it’s not,” interrupted Zenithia. “I couldn’t find any of their signatures. This sensation…it’s old. Very, very old.”

“How old?”

“I can’t tell for sure.”

They kept fighting, with Zenithia and Adeline’s teamwork starting to cut through most of the opposing demons. However, they did this with considerable difficulty. It didn’t take long before Adeline started to become exhausted. She must admit that she wasn’t exactly the most durable fighters around, hence her adoption of the one-strike attacks. However, the demons she fought were too formidable to be killed with one strike, or two strikes for that matter.

Something stopped the light blade from completely piercing through. Zenithia also noticed this. This also revealed the weakness of her light manipulation ability, which had become severely limited by the rules of the reality she helped spare from its certain fate. She expected this, but she never thought she would have a hard time using it against the demons that felt so wrong.

Albert, too, was starting to get overwhelmed by the relentless demons, which had claimed more demon hunters than usual. They fought valiantly to the point where the demonic invasion force started to thin out. By this point, however, they were too exhausted to even fight anymore. Soon, the demon hunters started to lose their grounds. Albert himself had lost his primary means of offense and had started using an anti-demonic dagger to defend himself. When that was also gone, he retreated towards Adeline and Zenithia, along with the survivors.

They could fight until the end, but then someone’s voice commanded them to stop. Everyone turned to see who said that. Albert was the first to be surprised.

“A-Anarim?” he said, aghast.

The vulpine hellhound did not reply; he was just staring at them blankly. The one who replied was a different vulpine hellhound, though this one was wearing black, pointy armor that exuded a dark aura.

“Not Anarim,” said the hellhound with an unsettling chuckle. “He and I go a long way back for me to even mistake his son with him.”

“His son?” Albert turned to the other hellhound. “Him?”

“Oh, dear. He never told you he had a son?”

“He never told me his son is alive,” clarified Albert, before he pulled out his pistol. “And there is no way is son looks so old. He’s more a brother than a son.”

“Believe whatever you want, human,” said the demon. “Whatever the truth is, you clearly did not expect this to happen, didn’t you? The grand capital of demon hunters, now in ruins and its people dead. Can’t ever imagine this would happen.”

Albert kept his ground, wondering if they were stopping because they thought they had won. Nevertheless, whatever happened next were entirely out of their control. They lost, badly. In fact, this was the moment when Albert considered raising his hands, only for him to realize that surrendering meant an undignified death. Thus, he held onto his gun, even though it only caused the demon to laugh, followed by all his servants.

“Acting tough until the end, eh?” mocked the demon. “You know, being tough and being dead aren’t the same thing. Playing hero is nothing but an illusion of grandeur.”

“I am no hero,” said Albert. “But I’ll be damned if I don’t believe in myself.”

“You’ll be damned anyway,” said the demon. “You humans believe of valor, justice, and truth, while in reality, I can always claim your soul. There is no heaven for you to rest eternally, but there is always a hell.”

Albert did not want to believe that there weren’t any afterlife and kept holding to the fact that he must believe in himself.

Adeline, on the other hand, relied on Zenithia to give them a chance to escape, knowing that she could still teleport the three of them away from the compromised city. If not, she could still change into a bigger size to fly them out of there, possibly taking on some survivors along the way. But on the contrary, Zenithia was not going to do either of those.

Instead, she walked forward, showing her small form to the demons. At first, the demons mocked her, even calling her a cat. However, when one of them tried to tease her, she formed light beams that quickly rend the demon apart, all without even glancing at the demon. This caused the assembled demon to become silent.

“So, you hid your true power in such a weak form,” said the demon possessing Khalhess. “Light magic. Truly, the most uncommon form of magic.”

“So, you know this is magic,” said Zenithia. “Even though you have been imprisoned for far too long.”

The demon’s expression changed. “You know who I am?”

“Of course, the real question is…do you know who I am?”

The demon was intrigued, but that intrigue turned to worry as Zenithia stared directly into his eyes. That worry somehow unnerved the demon enough for the other enthralled demons to be affected, even the vulpine hellhound under his thrall. They showed signs of fear and realization.

“No…impossible,” said the demon. “Not you again!”

“So, I was right,” said Zenithia. “So much fear in such a deplorable creature.”

“But you don’t have that power! You’re…you’re just a dragon now! Why am I…?”

At that moment, Azureath swooped down and attacked the demon from the sky using her ice, freezing and shattering many of them. However, she couldn’t affect the more powerful demons that were enthralled by the lead demon, who became distraught upon realizing what Zenithia really was. This distraction was good enough for Zenithia, who quickly became a full-sized dragon big enough to save Adeline and Albert, plus the survivors nearby. She opened her translucent wings and quickly flew away from the dangerous situation. On the sky, they could see many people who managed to flee the city running from the demons chasing them. Zenithia pointed Azureath towards them and they both worked together to protect the people that could still be saved using the combination of Zenithia’s light and Azureath’s ice.

They soon landed some distance away from the city, with some demon hunters coordinating the evacuation efforts while also communicating with the rest of the region. All three, however, never felt such a waking call like this one. It was a failure that they had not foreseen.

Erben, the capital city of Dusdolf, and the headquarters of the demon hunters, was lost.