Carine Forest — Forward Battlements
"Bring the thing."
Logos did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
The order moved down the battlements immediately.
Several Laosian soldiers vanished behind the artillery positions.
Below them—
The chanting continued.
"Death to the Demon!"
"Death to the Demon!"
"Death to the Demon!"
The words rolled across the battlefield in thousands of ruined throats.
A chorus of hatred.
A chorus directed at one man.
Darian looked increasingly disturbed.
"Why is it getting louder?"
"Positive feedback loop," Logos replied.
"That explanation explained nothing."
"It is reinforcing itself."
Darian stared.
"That somehow sounds worse."
"It is."
A group of Black-armors returned carrying a reinforced metal cylinder suspended between chains.
The object looked less like a barrel and more like a siege weapon.
Thick black metal.
Runic locking mechanisms.
Warning sigils.
Impact dampeners.
Even Bal frowned.
That immediately worried Kleber.
"What is that?" Adrean asked.
Logos glanced toward it.
"The same compound."
A pause.
"Approximately one thousand times more concentrated."
Silence.
Then—
Darian pointed.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"NO."
Logos ignored him.
"Deploy it."
The cylinder disappeared into the green haze.
A moment later—
The battlefield changed.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The chanting stopped.
Every voice.
Every scream.
Every curse.
Gone.
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Thousands of creatures had been screaming moments earlier.
Now—
Nothing.
The mist thickened.
Darkened.
Spread.
The chemical cloud sank downward.
Into roots.
Into tunnels.
Into nests.
Into everything beneath Carine Forest.
Then—
Something screamed.
Not ahead of them.
Not below them.
Everywhere.
The sound vibrated through the earth itself.
The battlements shook.
The walls trembled.
Trees exploded apart.
Roots burst upward.
Entire sections of forest began tearing themselves open.
Sous looked toward Logos.
"What did you do?"
"Applied pressure."
"That is not pressure."
The forest rose.
Not a creature.
Not a nest.
The forest.
Entire hills ruptured.
Miles of roots dragged themselves from beneath the earth.
Trees snapped apart.
Stone shattered.
A colossal mass of roots, bark, bone, flesh and corruption hauled itself upward into daylight.
And it kept rising.
Higher.
Higher.
Higher.
Until its shadow covered entire sections of battlefield.
The scale broke comprehension.
Thousands of roots formed limbs.
Countless malformed bodies hung from its frame like diseased fruit.
Faces covered its surface.
Human.
Animal.
Half-formed.
Still screaming.
Still alive.
Still suffering.
Several soldiers simply froze.
Their minds refused to process what they were seeing.
Mirelle spoke first.
Her voice sounded unusually small.
"...That was underground?"
"Yes," Logos replied.
Nobody found that reassuring.
The colossal thing slowly turned.
Thousands of eyes opened.
Then every single one focused on the same target.
Logos.
Of course.
Kleber sighed.
"Wonderful."
Bal lowered Beleth's axe.
"...My lord."
"Yes?"
"...I think it dislikes you."
"That seems reasonable."
The creature's roots writhed violently.
Entire sections of its body split apart and regrew as the concentrated acid continued eating through it.
It was suffering.
Badly.
That only made it angrier.
Then—
A mouth opened.
Not one of the smaller mouths.
A real one.
Massive.
Formed from fused skulls and twisted flesh.
The battlefield fell silent.
The thing stared directly at Logos.
Then spoke.
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
The voice shook the walls.
Shook the forest.
Shook the soldiers.
Shook the air itself.
Silence followed.
Every eye turned toward the battlements.
Toward Logos.
Waiting.
Watching.
Then Logos adjusted his glasses.
Looked up at the mountain-sized abomination.
And replied with complete sincerity.
"You seem upset."
Kleber immediately covered his face.
"Saints preserve me."
The creature screamed again.
The sound alone shattered nearby trees.
Logos pointed toward it.
"It will require approximately one hour to cross the chemical barrier."
His voice remained perfectly calm.
Analytical.
Like discussing rainfall.
"That gives us time."
Sous stepped forward.
His expression had changed.
No humor.
No banter.
Only focus.
"I can kill it."
That finally made Logos look at him.
"Can you?"
Sous pointed toward Penelope.
The runes across the crimson armor were already beginning to glow.
"It will take everything."
The air around him crackled faintly.
"I get one attempt."
Adrean immediately looked over.
Because he understood.
A Kingdom Hero's final strike.
The kind of attack that entered history books.
The kind that reshaped battlefields.
The kind that killed monsters.
Or failed.
"What do you need?" Logos asked.
Sous looked toward the approaching abomination.
Then toward the chemical sea separating them.
"Keep it still."
For the first time since the creature appeared—
Logos smiled.
Not the scholar's smile.
Not the curious smile.
The strategist's smile.
"Understood."
He pointed toward Sous.
"Charge the spell."
Then he turned toward the battlements.
Toward the artillery.
Toward twenty thousand waiting Banes.
Toward the largest target he had ever seen.
And spoke three words.
"Prepare every gun."