Leon walked out of the castle with a strange sense of calm. He breathed easily, despite the lives just taken by him and his, the smell of death hanging thickly in the air. As he inhaled, he removed his helmet, feeling the ping of darkness magic from his reinforcements echo through his mind.

Narses the Black waited for him in the castle’s bailey, standing between Leon and the gatehouse, nearly all of his retainers there with him. All were facing the castle’s front door. All were glaring, their auras still roiling and churning, just waiting to be unleashed. Leon rather felt like they were waiting for him to walk out and were mere moments away from attacking him.

However, as he took a few steps out of the door, Narses, still smiling pleasantly, said, “Is the castle secure?”

“Yes,” Leon confirmed. “We found several hundred captives down below. They’re going to need some help.”

Narses didn’t even blink at the news, but Leon wasn’t expecting him to; instead, he glanced around at the man’s retainers, noting that not a single one looked even remotely concerned about the fate of the captives. They were simply staring at him, their weapons and magic at the ready.

Narses himself, despite smiling, didn’t come forward, choosing instead to stay with his people and speak with Leon across practically the entire bailey. Leon didn’t move closer, either, remaining by the door with his people as they filed out after him, his own magic still inundating the sky.

Silence descended upon the bailey as the two groups stared at each other, neither seeming to be willing to make the first move. There they stayed for what seemed an eternity but was more likely just thirty seconds or so. Neither Leon nor Narses looked away from each other at all during this silence, and neither did they let go of their weapons or restrain their auras.

Narses, still smiling at Leon, stated, “Leon… How much longer should we keep this farce going?”

“I was going to leave that up to you,” Leon replied. “You gave us a large blood farm; I have no idea what else you might’ve offered up.”

Narses darkly chuckled. “One blood farm’s enough,” he growled. “Giving up any more of my assts would not be… advantageous…”

They stared at each other for another long moment, tension building rapidly in the air.

“I have to ask…” Leon said, “why have a ruse like this at all? Why send those vampires to their deaths? Seems like a waste of power right there…”

Narses grinned. “Better to sacrifice vampires who have no loyalty to me than let them run free. I should thank you for that, actually; those vampires were a rival for my patron’s favor. With them gone, all the other vampires on this plane will have to bow to me, and to me only.”

“That’ll be hard for them to do once you’re ash on the wind,” Leon replied, his tone as light as air.

Narses grinned and chuckled. “You’re rather nonchalant, Leon. You don’t understand the position you’re in, do you?”

“I have a pretty good idea of my situation…” Leon replied as his eyes finally peeled off Narses and scanned the area. The flow of magic was subtly different, so it was clear that Narses had set up additional wards, likely meant to counter anything that Leon could do. But what exactly Narses had done wasn’t yet clear, and he guessed wouldn’t be clear until they started fighting. As it was, though, Leon still had command over his magic, so he didn’t think he or his people were in too much danger.

So, he turned to Anna, who was glaring at Narses with such intense hate that Leon did the thing he was already planning on doing, and what he thought was the only thing he could do. He nodded to her and stepped back, while reaching out as subtly as he could with his darkness magic to coordinate with those outside the wall.

Narses cocked an eyebrow in surprise, but when Anna spoke, his expression froze on his face.

“Do you remember me, Casimir?”

“… I have no idea who you are,” Narses growled, though Leon noted the sudden shift in his demeanor. Instead of the light, joking attitude he’d had with Leon, he completely iced up, though his smile hadn’t slipped.

“That’s fine,” Anna replied, her tone fairly even, though Leon could sense her aura flexing and straining against her self-control. She wanted Narses dead; and quite terribly, too. So badly that she was barely holding herself back, despite her calm voice. “It’s been a long time, Casimir, and though you don’t remember me, I remember you.

“I was only a girl when last we met, barely more than sixteen years old. My sister was even younger. You worked for my mother, spending enough time at our estate that I recognized you almost as soon as I saw you, more than sixty years later.”

Anna fixed Narses in a vicious glare, and Leon saw Narses slowly tensing his sword arm.

“You murdered my parents, Casimir. I know you did.”

Narses’ frozen expression softened for a moment and his smile widened. “Did I?” he asked. “If you’re hoping for me to remember them just from that, you’re going to be disappointed. I’ve murdered many in my life, and I can’t possibly be expected to remember them all.”

“That’s also fine,” Anna replied. “You’ll remember when I’m done. Or you’ll be dead. That’s acceptable, too.”

Anna then lunged forward with her spear, the weapon glowing with brilliant white magic power. In the same moment, Leon summoned a dozen bolts of lightning to fall upon Narses’ people, and he saw his other retainers making their moves, as well.

However, Leon’s bolts struck a cloud of dark red demonfire of titanic power that sprang into place just in time, his bolt dissipating within without reaching the other side. Anna barely got more than ten feet from the front door before being repelled by another wall of demonfire. Valeria attempted to cut through it with a wall of ice, but her magic power melted away before even touching the fire’s smoke. Gaius attempted to open the earth and sever the wall of fire that way, but even though the earth shook, his magic power was unable to pass the line or affect the ground beneath it. Anzu, on the other hand, attempted to bypass the wall entirely, striking at Narses with blades of wind, but his wind was warped and destroyed by the heat of the wall.

In the next moment, Anzu took to the skies, the first of Leon’s people to do so, but almost immediately, he hit an invisible wall and almost fell back to the ground. Leon glanced upwards at it and, with it now triggered, recognized the enchantment as similar, though far more powerful, to the wind enchantments that the Royal Legions of the Bull Kingdom put on their camp walls to keep their enemies from simply leaping over them.

“I’m afraid that you’re not going anywhere!” Narses mockingly shouted from the other side of the demonfire wall. “This shield is quite impenetrable! My patron himself has lent me his power, ensuring your deaths!” As he spoke, the wall of fire began to grow and advance, and when Leon glanced around, he noticed that the wall completely surrounded the castle. Even if they were to retreat inside, the demonfire would follow them, eventually catching them.

“Nothing’s impenetrable!” Anna roared back, taking the words right out of Leon’s mouth. “Your power source won’t last forever! I’ll break though and take your traitorous head!”

As she screamed, Anna hit the shield repeatedly with her spear, but made no progress that Leon could see. The shield had stopped a dozen of his bolts of lightning, he didn’t think it was going to flicker too much against her weapon, as strong as it was.

“Keep wasting your energy, then, girl,” Narses calmly said, “as strong as you are, you won’t be breaking through this power!”

Leon had to admire Narses’ confidence. It was well-earned, as far as he could tell—the wall of demonfire was powerful, and it was keeping their offensive magics away from Narses and his people. However, it wasn’t preventing Leon’s magic senses, nor his ability to communicate with Maia outside the castle.

[Boy,] Xaphan growled, [release me.]

[That’s not needed,] Leon said, a confident smile spreading across his face. Narses seemed to think that he was in control of the situation, having backed Leon into a corner. However, Leon had his own trap to spring… [All right,] Leon whispered to his waiting reinforcements, [time to bring the heat. Blast open the walls, but watch out for those outer buildings; there might still be civilians in there.]

[On it,] came Maia’s reply, and Leon smiled uncontrollably as he calmly put his helmet back on.

As Anna kept striking at the demonfire with her spear and light magic, her magic being consumed with every attempt, Narses began to confidently stride forward, his followers obviously relaxing as they followed, arrogance clear in all their demeanors. They advanced toward the demonfire surrounding the castle, demonfire of their own starting to burn in their hands, but their backs were left covered by nothing but the castle’s curtain wall.

It took a few seconds for Leon’s reinforcements to make themselves known, but it was just long enough for Leon to enjoy watching Narses come right up to the burning wall and arrogantly smirk at him and Anna.

“Reel in your howling dog,” Narses commanded as he stared at Leon, “then we can discuss what we’re goi—”

Before he could finish, the gatehouse behind him erupted with incredible force, hit by a projectile traveling at an insane velocity, shattering the stone building in an explosion of golden lightning. Narses and his people were thrown to the ground by the blast, and the wall of demonfire, began to flicker. It didn’t die completely, indicating some level of redundancy in Narses’ demonic trap, but it was obviously weaker.

Before anyone could recover, another blast of lightning erupted on the castle’s west side, punching a hole ten feet wide through the thick curtain wall. Another blast hit the east side, knocking another hole into the curtain wall. The north side wasn’t destroyed, but a tremendous roar rolled over the castle, and appearing as if from nowhere, Red landed upon the wall in her massive eighth-tier wyvern form, and the wall nearly collapsed under her tremendous weight.

Leon didn’t waste a second, conjuring his anti-fire magic gem into his gauntlet and firing it at the demonfire. A hole was almost immediately punched through it, and through that hole went Anna, not an ounce of hesitation to be found within her. Leon and the rest of his retainers charged through right on her tail.

As they charged through the demonfire wall, dozens of Heaven’s Eye security officers began pouring through the destroyed gatehouse and holes in the wall. They were all sixth-tier or higher, more than strong enough to massacre Narses’ vampires. Leading these forces were familiar faces: Alcander, Alix, Marcus, and Narses the White. Not too far away, standing next to one of the armored carriages that had blown open the holes in the curtain wall with mounted Lightning Lances, was Valentina. Looming over them all was a massive serpentine water dragon, within which Leon would sense Maia, though she was merged with the water.

With a roar of his own, Narses the Black sprang to his feet, his arms alight with demonfire. He became as a volcano, spewing fire and smoke all around him with little regard for who or what was near him. Leon even had to squint at the outpouring of power—Narses was clearly being boosted with power from Amon.

In the same breath, the rest of his vampiric kith started launching balls of demonfire at everyone who now surrounded them. However, they weren’t facing just any Heaven’s Eye force, they were facing Leon. He had dragon blood flowing through his veins; handling demonfire was no tall order.

He extended a hand, flooding the castle bailey with his magic power. He held little back, letting all of his aura crash down upon them, seizing control of all fire in the area. The demonfire thrown by the vampires dissipated before finding their targets, and the fire streaming out from Narses the Black was contained into a small cylinder around him.

Leon didn’t have to issue any orders at this point; his retainers knew what to do. Gaius surged forth, cutting one vampire down with his sword in one hand, while petrifying another with his other hand. Valeria cut one vampire in half with a single swing of her glaive, while at the same time launching a wave of ice that consumed four more.

Anna, however, was the fastest to react to Leon’s dominance of the battlefield, and the most focused. She ignored all of the other vampires, running past them and leaving herself open to strikes from behind, while lunging forward with her spear. The glowing weapon pierced Narses’ demonfire, but didn’t find purchase in the vampire’s body.

At the same time, the rest of Leon’s retainers and those who Narses the White attacked. Red spewed fire, killing four; Maia crushed three vampires with her water dragon; Alcander, a fire mage himself, and not as powerful as Red, used only his massive ax to split two vampires in half; Marcus shot two more in the neck with a bow of thunder wood; Alix impaled one on her sword, practically vaporizing the vampire as she filled it with golden lightning.

Narses the White and his security team charged, putting an end to the other remaining vampires. Those who weren’t immediately killed quickly burned as their patron extracted his remaining due from their mortally-wounded forms.

In barely more than a few seconds, Narses the Black, barely visible in the swirling cyclone of dark red demonfire, was alone, all of his retainers now dead.

“Wait!” he shouted, his tone hateful. “Attack me, and you’ll—"

Leon, still containing the man’s demonfire, punched a hole through his fiery cloak with his antimagic gem, and Anna’s fist connected with Narses’ jaw before he managed to squeak out his intent. As Leon held the Narses’ demonfire back, keeping his attempted counter from hurting his retainer, she followed up with another blow. But then Narses’s aura flared up with power, and his fire surged beyond Leon’s ability to control, hurling Anna off with apparent ease. However, he was now surrounded by the entire force Leon had assembled to counter his trap, and Leon knew there was no way he was going to get away from them. Leon focused and redoubled his efforts on keeping the man’s demonfire contained, and for a moment, everyone just stood there, staring at Narses, the vampire glowering back.

“Get back!” Narses shouted, his words slurring together from his jaw, apparently broken from Anna’s punch, though still more than decipherable. “None of you will take me! Back off or you will all die in fire!”

Leon, ignoring the sounds of the rest of Narses’ vampires being finished off, advanced upon the circle of demonfire.

“Is that so, my friend?” Leon asked. “Let’s say it is: just for kicks, what are your demands?”

“Let me leave!” Narses shouted. “You can’t kill me! Cease this and let me go!”

“Fuck no!” Anna shouted, and Leon didn’t see much reason to contradict her.

“I can give you information!” Narses shouted, suddenly switching tack. He suddenly slammed something down on the ground and Leon felt some kind of enchantment activating, though it seemed to concentrate around Narses. “I will surrender to you if you guarantee my life! Give me what you gave Valentina!” He glanced over his shoulder in Valentina’s direction, a look of desperation and panic on his face.

“What kind of information?” Leon curiously asked, drawing a look of disgust from Anna, which he responded to with a conciliatory smile—he wasn’t looking to accept this offer, but he wanted to hear what the man had to say. “I can’t imagine you have anything of value…”

“I have much!” Narses insisted. “Vampire dens! The networks they use to evade capture! Magical secrets taught to me by my patron!”

“Chatty, isn’t he?” Gaius quipped as he took up position at Leon’s side. “Wasn’t all of this just a trap meant to kill us? Or you, I suppose?”

“A mistake!” Narses the Black slurred.

“How are you not being roasted alive?” Leon asked. “You’re offering to surrender, is Amon happy with that?”

“I’ve managed to block his influence,” Narses explained. When Leon gave the dark red demonfire surrounding him a pointed look, Narses added, “… To a degree. He cannot kill me, nor can he cut off my power.”

“That sounds… interesting,” Leon admitted.

“He has to die!” Anna shouted.

Responding, Narses the White said, “That information on vampires and their hiding places is very interesting to me. Blocking out influence from hostile demons is even more so.”

“I can’t…” Anna muttered, tears beginning to pour as she glanced from Leon, to Narses the Black, and back again. “… I can’t let him live… He killed my parents…”

Leon was tempted by Narses’ offer, he had to admit. However, Anna’s heart-wrenching tone had him second-guessing himself. Before he could say anything, however, Narses the White stepped forward and said, “Leon, this is a matter for the Security branch. I’ll take our wayward Eye into custody and pump him for information. He’ll answer for his crimes after that.”

“I can live with that, so long as you guarantee my safety” Narses the Black struggled to say, practically jumping at the opportunity. “I hereby surrender myself into your custody, Narses.”

“I accept your surrender, Narses.”

Anna suddenly lunged forward, screaming in anger and hate as she plunged the spear Leon had forged for her into the demonfire, aiming right for Narses the Black’s heart.

Her spear passed through the demonfire, the white glow of Anna’s light magic tarnishing as the steel heated up orange-hot. But with Narses the Black relaxing with the White’s acceptance of his surrender, the demonfire barrier weakened enough that the spear made it through, finding its target. The power of the weapon, backed by Anna’s eighth-tier magic and all the rage she could pack into a single thrust, cut clean through Narses the Black’s armor and pierced his body. Narses the Black didn’t react until it was too late.

The eighth-tier vampire screamed in pain as Anna’s spear slipped between his ribs and found his heart. His body, for just a moment, illuminated from within as Anna used her light magic to obliterate everything within the vampire, and Narses the Black went limp.

As he died, the body burst into flame, turning to ash as it was consumed by the dark red fires of Amon, whose eyes appeared in the air above Narses’ sudden funeral pyre. The eyes glared at Leon, and for the first time, Leon realized they were staring at him, not through him, to his soul realm where Xaphan resided. Amon was glaring at him.

And then Narses’ body disintegrated, leaving nothing behind but Anna holding the back third of her spear, the rest destroyed just as Narses’ body had been. The demonfire dissipated in the air and Amon’s eyes vanished. For a long moment, silence fell upon the broken castle, only breaking when a disbelieving and furious Narses the White stepped forward.

“… what are YOU DOING?!” Narses the White roared. “I had ACCEPTED HIS SURRENDER!” The Chief of Security advanced, wrath writ large upon his face.

Anna collapsed, sobbing, not even seeming to hear Narses the White, staring at the blackened spot where Narses the Black had just stood.

Leon, stunned by Anna’s actions, though less surprised as his brain caught up with what had just happened, quickly ran forward, interposing himself between the furious Chief of Security and his retainer.

“Leon!” Narses the White shouted. “I accepted his surrender! He was my prisoner! She had no right to kill him!”

Finally looking up, Anna, tears still streaming down her face, screamed, “I have every right! He murdered my parents!”

“That doesn’t matter!” Narses loudly responded. “He was to face Heaven’s Eye for judgment!”

Narses, for a moment, tried to force his way past Leon, but Leon threw him back as the rest of his retainers formed up around Anna. Gaius, Marcus, and especially Valeria all looked rather put out by her actions, but Anzu, Alix, and Alcander all looked more than ready to throw down as Narses’ security officers assembled around him. Maia and Red formed up behind them, looking no less intimidating for it, being an enormous water dragon and red wyvern, respectively.

“She has murdered a prisoner,” Narses declared. “You would shield her from me?”

“We’re not in Occulara, Narses,” Leon pointed out, his tone cold. “Your authority doesn’t extend this far. But let’s set aside our anger for a moment and take a breath. We have civilians still in the castle whose needs are more important than ours right now. Let’s see to them, and you and I can work this out later.”

Leon was firm and let his aura spill out, causing many of Narses’ several dozen followers to pale slightly. Even Narses himself began to look a little more uncertain, but as he stared at Leon, his expression softened.

“Very well,” he said. “We’ll deal with this when our heads have cooled. For now, our duty must be to the people we’ve rescued…”

“Thank you,” Leon whispered as Narses turned around and began issuing orders to his security forces to take control of the castle. With a deep breath, Leon turned back around and saw that his people were mostly doing the same, forcing themselves to relax as it became clear that they weren’t about to get into a giant fight with the Chief of Security right after cutting down a whole nest of vampires.

But that didn’t seem nearly so important as Anna began bawling her eyes out there on the ground. Valeria knelt down and wrapped her arms around the other woman, giving Leon a look that cut right to his core.

She wasn’t saying anything, and yet she was saying everything. Or maybe Leon was just reading too much into some eye contact with his silver-haired lover. Regardless, he could at least breathe a little easier now that the violence was over, and he could throw himself into evaluating the aftermath for at least a little while.