Liam stood before them, his arm still bandaged, his armor stained with the blood and mud of yesterday's battle. He looked human and small against the backdrop of demon warriors, and for a moment, he felt the weight of that disparity.
Then he remembered he'd killed a Grand Commander in single combat, executed an Archon with perfected authority, and led this army deeper into enemy territory than any demon force in living memory.
Small didn't mean weak.
Human didn't mean powerless.
"I won't lie to you," Liam began, his voice amplified by Sovereign's Dominion until it carried across the assembled army. "Yesterday was brutal. We lost sixteen hundred and eighty-three soldiers breaking through a defensive line that was designed to stop us. Some of you lost friends. Comrades. People you'd fought beside since the beginning of this campaign."
The assembled demons were silent, watching him with expressions ranging from reverent faith to barely concealed skepticism.
