The gaze of three villagers locked onto me as I stepped out of the small building I once called home. They did not look special. One woman was clearly a baker. The second man was a blacksmith. The third was the mumbling man I had given a flower to upon entering the city. None of the three stood out in any way, and yet a pressure radiated from them. It was a feeling of blood and steel, the feeling that only came from soldiers that had survived death countless times.

As I stepped out of the cabin, all three of them immediately knelt on the ground. “Welcome back, Empress.” They all spoke in unison.

I smiled at seeing the three old soldiers still here after all this time. “Rise, none of you have to kneel in front of me.”

The three stood up and the man I had given the flower too, a soldier that went by the name of Owen stepped forward. The distant look in his eyes was nowhere to be seen. They were now as sharp as blades. “Aurielle, welcome back to Bellator. We hoped you would return soon. Unfortunately, there are not many of us left capable of helping you in this dire hour but the three of us stand with you always.”

“The three of you are already more than I could have hoped for,” I replied with a brilliant smile, “It is great to see you all again and my honor that you are willing to fight alongside me once more.”

The young girl, Tia, could have caught flies with her mouth as her jaw hung open. “Owen, Florence, Lewis, all of you serve Aurielle?”

Dom laughed as he patted his daughter on the back. “Do not be so surprised. The village was built by Aurielle, after all. Many of us old timers served the Thirteenth Division at one time or another. The four of us however, are the few still able to fight.”

“All this time…” Tia muttered

“Your father is a perpetual liar,” Sebastion said gruffly, “You should assume that everything he has ever told you is false.”

“Don’t talk about my dad that way!” Tia shouted angrily.

The three villagers looked to Sebastion in surprise, having just noticed the man for the first time. “Little Sebastion, is that you?” the woman, Florance, asked, “You have grown so much since you left the village. I hardly recognized you. I still remember when you were little. You and Lucia would always come over to my house to steal my pastries.”

Sebastion’s face went slack at the mention of Lucia’s name and he turned silent. I shook my head in disappointment and interjected before the man said something he would regret.

“With the four of you willing to help, our number of Domain warriors now outnumber the Demons two to one. With any luck we will have more allies gathering soon. So long as we act smart, we might have a force powerful enough to go on the offensive. Owen, you should know much of what is going on with your talent, can you tell me anything about Ater-Albus. We need to get into the palace.”

Owen nodded grimly. “The Demons have completely overrun your former capital. I cannot get any eyes into the palace itself but by my estimate, there are more than ten thousand Demonkin that have already gathered and increasing by the day. If we wanted enter the palace, we need to get past them first.”

“A direct assault is out of the question,” Sebastion said firmly.

“Why?” I asked curiously, “None of my defenses should be usable by Demonic energy.”

Sebastion looked somewhat embarrassed as everyone’s eyes focus on him. “I told you that I prepared for Envy’s invasion if he ever returned. I planned for the palace to be my last stand. It was never supposed to fall. I cannot even begin to imagine what fault in my defenses that teleporter found to get inside.”

“What did you do?” my voice now falling to a dangerous undertone.

Sebastion cleared his throat. “I did not have access resources from the Divisions as you did so to prepare, I struck a deal with someone from the Ninth Division that was hiding in this realm. With her help, I started manufacturing splinter cannons.”

I felt a headache form as I realized how completely Sebastion had fallen for Irene’s ploy. “How many?”

“Over the past fifty years, we constructed more than a thousand of them and I prepared more than fourteen thousand crystals for ammunition.”

Seeing the sudden change in expression across the faces of the veterans, my dad spoke up. “What are splinter cannons.”

I frowned. “Under normal circumstances, splinter cannons are a rather middling weapon used by the Ninth Division. They work through the same concept that Cyra used to help me regain some of my strength. Using your domain, it is possible to crystalize the energy of your innate talent for later use. These crystals have a huge variety of uses but one of the most common in war are splinter cannons. These cannons splinter off a piece of the crystal, unleashing the energy inside in a directed blast. The cannons are bulky and hard to move so, for most talents, the effect is rather lackluster but for Sabastion’s talent… Worst of all, splinter cannons are easy to operate. Any random Demonkin under a Demon’s control will be able to use them. It is no wonder Berith felt safe staying alone in Ater-Albus. Sieging the walls of the city is no different than facing one thousand Sebastions simultaneously.”

“How could you be so stupid?” Dom shouted at Sebastion.

“You think I expected the city to fall before the war started!” Sebastion shouted back, “If not for the foresight of that Demon, everyone here would be praising my preparations. Envy’s army would have been scattered without a single soldier lost.”

I rubbed my temples as I interrupted the growing argument. “We can pass around blame after the war is over. For now, we need to focus on how to get past the palace’s defenses. So, Sebastion, do any of my old passageways still exist?”

“I naturally filled in any tunnels I found. I did not want you sneaking back into the palace while I slept but it is possible I missed a few. Seriously, why did you have so many secret passageways in your own palace? I found a new one every month for over twenty years. The place was practically a maze.”

“I liked being able to come and go with having to deal with my annoying chancellors,” I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand, “That only leaves the choices of hoping one of my passageways was missed or drawing the Demons away from the capital. So long as there is not a Demon there to command, the Demonkin are little more than animals and cannot operate the splinter cannons.”

“A Demon with Foresight will not be easily tricked,” Svend sighed.

“That does not mean it is impossible though,” I said with a grin, “We just need bait that is worth more to the Demons than the city is.”

“What kind of bait is worth more than a perfect stronghold? You already destroyed the rift stone.”

“I did, but they do not know that. Berith cannot see what happens inside Dragon’s Nest. That gives us an opportunity.”

I decided not to decide on the exact details of my plan for now. Once I was back in Dragon’s Nest, I planned to flip a coin a few times to determine how I would go about tricking Berith. If everything was done carefully, I might be able to draw her out. Even if we could not get her, we still might be able to draw a few of the other Demons into our trap. We had enough domain warriors now that I did not need to fear their attack. The four veterans from Bellator were not strong enough to go up against one of these Demons alone but if they worked in a group, I had no doubt they could at least distract two of them.

As much as I would have liked to stay in Bellator for a few days, I could not justify it while our army was marching into danger. The sooner we could rejoin with them, the safer the army would be from any Demon attacks. However, not everyone was excited about our departure.

“What do you mean I cannot go!” Tia shouted angrily and pointed towards Donte and Charly, “Both those boys look younger than me and they are going.”

“Just because they are going, that does not mean I am giving you permission,” Dom said, “You have a decent innate talent but war is far crueler than you imagine. I will not allow you to march to your death.”

“So, I am just supposed to sit here, look after the bar, and wait to see if you come back or not? No way.” Tia then turned to me with pleading puppy dog eyes. “Please, tell him I can go. I can be helpful, I promise.”

“I said no and that is final!” Dom shouted back as he stomped his foot on the ground. A domain spread out from the man that reeked of blood. Tia flinched back in surprise and Dom’s domain faded. He took a breath and placed both his hands on Tia’s shoulders. “Listen, I need you here, safe. I cannot fight if I am worried about your safety. Please, just listen to me this one time.”

Tia looked down at the floor with tears in her eyes. She did not reply as she turned and ran out the door of the tavern.

Sebastion entered the tavern as the crying girl fled the building. He crossed his arms as he spoke. “I see your parenting skills are still as stellar as ever.”

“As if you ever listened to anything I had to say,” Dom said as he sat down at one of the nearby tables. He let out a long sigh as he leaned back in the chair. “Aurielle, what do you make of my chances in making it back here to see her again?”

I bit my lip as I looked at the man who had served me for so many years. His strength had stopped him from visibly aging much over the centuries but at that moment he looked incredibly old.

“When Envy comes through… maybe thirty percent.”

Dom chuckled. “When did you get so bad at lying? If that is the number you pick trying to comfort me, we must really be in trouble.”

“It might not be a bad idea for her to come along. I have an emergency escape set up for my family. If this realm falls, this valley will not be safer than anywhere else.”

Dom shook his head as he stood up from the table. He walked behind the bar and opened a hidden compartment on the wall. Inside was what looked like a pair of cast iron gauntlets, an envelope, and a few other small things. Dom took the gauntlets and placed the envelope on the counter. Tia’s name was written on the front.

“Thank you but no, I will send Tia to her mother. If the worst comes to pass, she will keep her safe.”

I nodded, understanding. Dom had always been a careful man. I would not be surprised if he had a backup plan already that allowed his family to escape the realm. He probably even had a rift stone of his own hidden away somewhere. I knew better than to ask, though. The answer would only put his family in danger.

His next words though, surprised me. He looked towards Sebastion and gave him a small smile. “If I don’t make it through this, look after her for me.”

Sebastion hesitated to reply as he looked at his father. His words were barely more than a whisper as he spoke. “I will.”