The night’s battle ended with the rising sun. The chill of the early morning was punctuated by the somber tone of the army. The Ciel soldiers may have scattered in retreat after my dad executed their emperor but the Demonkin horde did not relent. Men and women moved lethargically as they gathered the corpses of their former friends. An exact number of casualties had not been counted yet but it only took a casual glance to know it was much higher than the first assault.

As I walked through the rows of wounded, I also noticed a disturbing trend. There was an unnaturally high number of soldiers not outright killed by the Demonkin but instead heavily maimed. More than three-quarters of the injured I spotted were missing one or both of their legs.

“The Demons are forcing us to either use our limited food supply on the wounded or let them starve. Either way, the outcome is not good for us.” I mumbled in thought.

“Definitely not the actions of mindless beasts,” General Arthur responded with a nod. He looked even more exhausted than me after a night of battle. His normal pristine appearance was undercut by the bags under his eyes and thick stubble on his chin. “Did ye know they used bait tactics against us last night? They pretended to fall back durin’ a cavalry charge, just like in the first assault, only to lead us into a pincer between two other groups of Demonkin. I lost a lot of good men to their trickery.”

“These Demons are not like the newborn you fought at Nebula tower,” I replied, “They understand how to control their underlings and how to use their strengths properly. The lack of coordination in the first attack was just to give you false confidence. Never forget, that each of these Demons is a being with hundreds of years’ worth of battle experience. There is no tactic you can use they have not seen before.”

General Arthur grinned as he looked towards the blood mist. “I would like to put that to the test.”

I raised an eyebrow but decided to leave the tactical decisions to the general for now. Instead, I simply warned General Arthur of the common tricks Demons liked to pull.

My discussion with General Arthur was interrupted by a sudden uproar of angry shouts. Two groups of soldiers from opposing countries had started hurling insults at one another and before anyone could intervene, a fight had broken out. Fists were thrown and noses were bloodied as more soldiers from the two opposing countries were drawn into the scuffle. In less than a minute it was practically a full-blown riot.

General Arthur’s face turned red as he stormed towards the source of the commotion. His voice bellowed at the brawling soldiers. It was almost deafening. “What do ye fools think you’re doin’!”

A portion of the soldiers came to a halt with a guilty expression when they realized that their actions had been caught by a commanding officer. However, there were a few that completely ignored General Arthur’s shout and continued trying to beat each other to a bloody pulp.

General Arthur strode forward with a fury and I spotted a small glyph shine on his cufflinks. He threw out a single punch and the remaining soldiers still fighting were all sent tumbling across the ground by a sudden burst of wind.

“If ye got enough energy to be fightin’, ye got enough energy to prepare for the next assault. I want all of ye to report to the excavation core immediately. Diggin’ trenches for a few days should cool your heads.”

All bravado was gone as the brawlng soldiers realized who it was that shouted at them. They practically stumbled over each other as they hastily formed a line and saluted the general.

General Arthur took a deep breath and calmed himself as he dismissed the soldiers, making sure an officer escorted them to their new assignment. “That is the fourth fight I have broken up personally in the past couple of days. The unrest is gettin’ worse by the hour.”

“The effect of having six Demons nearby and the natural stress of this war will only continue to grow. At least most of their discipline still remains for now. The real trouble begins when even the veteran start ignoring what you have to say and start only caring for their own lives. Have there been any deserters?” I asked curiously.

“Our total was about a hundred as of yesterday,” General Arthur replied with a solemn nod, “By the end of the day, I expect that number will be over a thousand.”

I sighed in disappointment, even if it was expected, I had still hoped people would understand that there was no place to run to. If we lost here, it was all over. “This is why I prefer to fight with undead. At least in the Divisions we always had people with talents that could help stabilize the soldiers’ emotions.”

“We have a few, but none are strong enough to affect the entire army,” General Arthur responded. “For now, their focus is the commanders and a few of the more extreme cases.”

“If you need help, I can treat a few people as well.”

“Ye need to rest. Ye are no use to anybody if ye can barely stand.” General Arthur said sternly.

“Now you sound like my mom.”

“Ye should listen to her. Mothers are rarely wrong about this sort of thing.”

I considered his words for a moment and reluctantly nodded. “Fine, but I need you to do a few things for me. I have a plan for later today that I would like your army to carry out.”

Despite agreeing to rest, my mind could not shut off. I only had a few hours until when Berith wanted to speak to me. I had met with many Demons over my lifetimes but this was different. I could not understand Berith’s goal. She could see the future. She knew every response I would give before I said it. What was the point in us talking? The only answer I could think of was that it is a trap but if so, it was a little too obvious.

“What do you think Mare? You know more than I do about oracles. Do you know why the Demon would want to meet with me?” I asked the empty room.

The room pulsed with purple light but Mare did not respond. I was left alone with my thoughts.

“Some help you are,” I mumbled grumpily.

With no reply from Mare and no way I was going to get any actual sleep, I soon found myself wandering the halls of Dragon’s Nest as I tried to think of a plan Berith would not be able to foresee. With almost everyone focused on the war effort, the floating island was eerily silent. Mom and Dad were both training my new Immortal Guard. Charly was overwhelmed with healing requests and Donte was acting as his assistant. Even Dom and the other warriors from Bellator were out patrolling the nearby mountains, in case any Demonkin tried scaling the cliff to attack us from behind.

As I wandered the halls, however, I did stumble across the only two people that remained in Dragon’s Nest, Sebastion and his newfound sister Tia. I watched the two of them from a distance, curious at how the new siblings were getting along.

“No, not like that,” Sebastion said gruffly, “Light-based abilities are more delicate than any other talent. You cannot let it waver or the effect will be impacted. Try again.”

Tia had her eyes closed as her body radiated a warm orange glow. Even from a distance, I was impacted by her talent. It felt like I was snuggled up in front of a cozy fireplace on a cold day. It was a comfortable feeling that filled my body with boundless strength.

“An area of effect buff?” I remarked in surprise.

The sound of my voice was carried by the stone walls of Dragon’s Nest and echoed through the room. The light radiating from Tia flickered erratically and collapsed as she looked up curiously.

“If you want to join this war, you cannot get distracted,” Sebastion said without looking in my direction, “If your allies are expecting your ability and it suddenly vanishes, you will get people killed.”

“Ah! Right!” Tia replied with an embarrassed blush. She closed her eyes again and the radiant light returned.

“I did not expect to see you teaching someone so seriously, Sebastion,” I said with a grin as I approached the two.

Sebastion ignored me with a huff as he spoke to Tia. “Try and focus. Let your talent affect only me and nobody else.”

The warm glow radiating from Tia dimmed slightly but even though I feel she was trying to direct the talent; I could still feel its effects. It was only after several tries that I felt the increased power flowing through me begin to weaken.

“No wonder Dom said she would be the first one targeted in a war. Even without the light, this talent is basically a big target,” I said as examined the light radiating through the room.

Sebastion nodded. “If she could awaken a domain, she would instantly become a force that could turn the tides of battles but as it is now, she is more of a liability than an asset.”

Tia’s cheeks puffed out in indignation and her talent extinguished. “You know, I can hear you, right? I am standing right here.”

“Obviously,” Sebastion replied imposingly, “Understanding your weaknesses is more important than praising your strengths. Overestimating what you can do gets people killed.”

I poked Sebastion with my elbow and grinned. “That is good advice. Where did you hear it from again?”

Sebastion scowled at me in irritation. “If you listened to your own advice a bit more, perhaps you would not have died so many times. What number are you at again? Twelve?”

“I have only died seven times and if I remember correctly, you are responsible for one of them!” I replied indignantly. Sebastion raised an eyebrow as if that proved his point. I crossed my arms with a huff and turned away from the annoying student.

Tia started laughing as she watched the two of us argue. “You two are nothing like the stories I was told. I thought all great warriors were supposed to be stoic and calm, always in control of everything.”

“She likes to pretend she is,” Sebastion said.

Feeling slightly irritated, a wicked memory filled my head. I looked at Tia and grinned. “Sebastion certainly is not. Do you want to hear about the very first time I took him to fight a Demonkin or maybe about how the great hero that overthrew the Undead Empress once wet himself when…”

“Finish that sentence and I will kill you a second time,” Sebastion threatened. He pointed his finger at me, a faint glow of golden light on the tip.

“Fine, fine, you want to look cool in front of your sister, I understand. I will not share your deepest darkest embarrassments,” I replied with a shrug.

“Don’t you have somewhere else you need to be?” Sebastion said in frustration.

“Nope, everyone keeps telling me I need to rest. So, I must look pretty bad.”

“Nothing new there.”

I narrowed my eyes at Sebastion. “On second thought, maybe I should share everything you did when you were a kid. It might be a good lesson for Tia. For example, there was the time you thought you could sneak out of Bellator in a trader’s cart. We found you half a day later covered in rotten plums and smelling of three-day-old sewage.”

“Will you just go away so that Tia can focus on her training!”

I chuckled at Sebastion’s embarrassed outrage. “I can be convinced to leave you alone but I need you to agree to do something for me first.”

“What?” Sebastion asked through clenched teeth.

“It is simple really. We need to repeat what you did with that trader’s cart on a much bigger scale.”