Li moved quickly, blade still wet with blood, her body aching, but her resolve burning.
She found Sofie buried beneath a slab of broken concrete and rubble. With a grunt, she heaved it aside and dropped to her knees, pulling vials of serum from her belt and slamming them into Sofie's veins one by one.
The seconds felt like years.
Sofie's eyes finally fluttered open. A breath, shaky and deep, followed.
"I'm getting real tired of waking up like this," she rasped.
Li gave her a small, sharp grin. "Then stay on your feet this time."
Not far off, Diego reached Tyler, who was sprawled, bloody and unmoving. He crouched, wincing from his own wounds, and began administering the serum.
"Come on, Tyler," he muttered. "Don't let that bastard be the last thing you see."
Tyler stirred slowly, face contorted in pain. His first breath came as a growl.
"He fights like a pissed-off machine," he said, coughing. "Where's Ara when I need her backup?"
"She's dead," Diego said quietly. "But you're not. Not yet."
Across the scorched field, Harry had the hardest task of all.
Kairos hadn't stopped.
He was still beating Slacovich down, methodically, violently. Every time Slacovich tried to rise, Kairos slammed him back into the ground, fists like hammers, bones cracking.
Harry tried to approach, once, twice, but had to fall back every time as Kairos's strikes sent shockwaves that shattered the ground around them.
So he waited.
Watched.
Timed.
"Now!" he shouted the moment the others rejoined the fight, blades drawn, fangs bared. They charged Kairos all at once, not to win, not yet, but to distract.
Li's blades flashed. Sofie's power surged. Diego and Tyler pounded from both sides, keeping Kairos spinning. It barely dented the war machine, but it bought time.
Harry lunged in.
He slid across the rubble-strewn earth, grabbed Slacovich's limp body, and dragged him back with all the strength he had left.
"Come on, don't you dare give out on me now," he muttered, dropping to his knees.
He dumped every last vial into Slacovich, two in the neck, one in each wrist, and one forced straight down his throat.
It took longer.
Slacovich's body was wrecked.
His spine was bent at the wrong angle. His chest barely rose. Blood dripped from every orifice.
Then, his fingers twitched.
Then, his breathing steadied.
Then, his body tensed, the bones cracking back into place with a grotesque symphony of snapping cartilage and reforming muscle.
And slowly, slowly, Slacovich stood.
Burned. Broken. Bleeding.
But standing.
The six of them stood again, together, surrounded by ruin, trembling from the serum overload, but refusing to fall.
Even in their vampire forms, heightened senses, amplified power, they couldn't land a fatal blow on Kairos. Every hit was a gamble. Every dodge was barely a breath ahead of destruction.
But still, they tried.
Because if they stopped now, there would be no one left to stop him.
Because the world behind them wasn't just brick and sky, it was people.
And if they didn't win here---
No one else would.
---
The battle raged, silver crashing against steel, rubble flying with each bone-crushing impact.
Then---
A rumble.
A crack.
A tower began to groan under the weight of Kairos's rampage.
And it fell.
The massive structure collapsed with a roar that drowned out the clash of battle. Chunks of concrete and metal plummeted straight toward a secluded section of the field, where Carolina and Ania had taken refuge behind a broken wall.
Carolina's instincts kicked in instantly. Years of training surged through her veins. She wrapped her arms around Ania, diving out of the way just in time, just barely clearing the largest slab.
They hit the ground hard. Carolina groaned but didn't stop moving.
Ania winced, a sharp cry escaping her lips. Her small hand went to her knee, scraped open, blood pooling beneath the torn fabric of her leggings.
And that was the mistake.
That was the moment everything shifted.
Across the battlefield, something snapped.
Kairos, halfway through a strike against Slacovich, froze. His head tilted. His nostrils flared.
A pause.
A beat.
He turned.
Toward the scent.
Toward her.
A child's blood, innocent, pure, human.
The system in his twisted, vampiric body reacted instantly. Eyes dilated, chest heaving, movements sharpening with feral precision. He moved, not with rage, but with instinct.
Predator.
Target.
He lunged.
"NO!" Li screamed, voice shrill and raw.
Diego and Harry saw it too. Panic surged in their chests.
"He's going for Ania!" Harry shouted, already sprinting. "He caught her scent, he's locked in!"
Slacovich turned, confused. "What the hell are you talking about?!"
Tyler's face drained of color. "Ania's here?!"
"She slipped out!" Harry yelled. "She's in the blast zone!"
A rush of movement.
A race against time.
The Demonfires didn't need to coordinate, they just moved.
Because now, this fight wasn't just about saving the world.
It was about saving her.
Kairos barreled forward like a freight train. He wasn't attacking, he was pushing past them, shrugging off blows like they were rain. His focus was singular. Unbreakable.
Ania.
Diego and Tyler dove in first, grabbing his arms, holding him back with every ounce of strength in their battered bodies.
"Hold him!" Slacovich barked, leaping to intercept.
Kairos roared, tossing his head back, trying to shake them off like insects.
Sofie turned to Harry, her voice low and cold. "Take them. Now."
Harry didn't argue.
He ran.
He grabbed Carolina by the arm. "Come on. We're splitting."
"But---"
"Now!"
Sofie scooped Ania into her arms, shielding the girl's small frame with her own body. Together, she and Harry darted in opposite directions, away from Kairos. Away from the scent.
"Cover her wound!" Harry ordered, grabbing Carolina's scarf and tying it tight around Ania's bleeding knee as they moved.
But it wasn't enough.
Kairos followed.
Not them, but her scent. Like a bloodhound on a singular trail. Unstoppable.
Li gritted her teeth, running interference. "He's locked on her! He's not even fighting! He's tracking!"
Kairos surged forward again, knocking Slacovich back with sheer momentum. Diego and Tyler wrestled with his limbs, but it was like trying to hold back a landslide.
Then--
A scream.
Ania.
Kairos leapt.
His shadow swallowed the sky above them.
And Slacovich caught him.
Mid-air. Bare hands.
Slacovich dug in, his boots tearing up earth, his muscles tearing beneath skin, veins bulging. He held Kairos back, arms straining, face twisted in agony.
Diego and Tyler clamped onto Kairos's sides, pulling him down, holding him still.
Kairos fought, not with technique, not with elegance. But with need.
Sofie's eyes widened. "We can't outrun him like this!"
"Split up!" Li shouted. "He won't follow what he can't trace!"
She grabbed Carolina, yanking her away into the east rubble fields.
Sofie and Harry took the opposite direction with Ania in arms, every footstep a thunderous sprint against the ticking clock.
But Kairos followed.
He didn't run, he hunted.
Each second that passed, the distance shrank.
And the Demonfires knew---
This wasn't a battle anymore.
This was a chase.
And if they didn't end it soon---
He'd take her.
---
The chase felt endless.
Buildings collapsed behind them, ground cracked beneath their feet, and the sky above churned like it, too, wanted to run. Carolina ducked with Ania in her arms while Sofie and Harry ran beside them, breath ragged, feet bleeding.
Behind them---
Kairos thundered on.
Unrelenting. Unstoppable.
Not even looking at the ones shielding her.
He was tracking her scent alone.
It wasn't a battle. It wasn't even a pursuit.
It was inevitable.
Until--
Ania opened her mouth.
"It's like the game."
Harry turned, still running. "What?"
She sniffled, wiping her eyes with a small wrist. "When my big sister was still alive... Ara… she'd bring us food, the yummy ones."
Her voice was quiet, fragile under the weight of chaos.
"She'd blindfold me and my brothers and say, 'Guess the food by smell only!' It was always warm… always good. I always guessed wrong," she smiled softly, tears still in her lashes, "but she said it didn't matter. It was more fun when we tried."
Sofie looked back, Kairos was still gaining.
Harry's eyes widened.
"That's it."
His voice cracked out like a spark. "That's it!"
"What is?" Sofie asked, breathless.
"He's not seeing, Sofie. He's smelling. He's tracking Ania like she's the prize in the middle of that damn game."
His mind fired to life, rebuilding tactics under pressure.
"His vampiric drive is feral, it's not about recognition or logic. It's instinct. Hunger. If that's true, if he's that locked onto her scent…"
He grabbed the scarf wrapped around Ania's knee, already soaked.
"We use it. All of it."
Carolina caught on. "You mean, spread it."
Harry nodded, frantically opening a pouch. "We smear Ania's blood across every surface in this warzone. Every wall, every rubble, every ledge. If he's following the smell of her, then we make sure she's everywhere."
Sofie's eyes gleamed. "Confuse his instincts."
"Exactly." Harry pulled out tiny vials. "We douse everything. And maybe, just maybe, we can trap him in his own hunger."
Carolina tightened her hold on Ania. "But… will it be enough to take him down?"
Harry didn't flinch.
"It's our only shot."