In the middle of the night, the situation for the Carnivores collapsed all at once.
From the edge of the forest came a massive charge of horns and hooves advancing without stopping. It was not a coordinated attack in the human sense. It was something simpler… and more brutal.
The mountain herbivores had changed.
With the mana of the Mother Tree flowing through the ecosystem once again, they no longer fled or retreated. They advanced.
Deer with antlers hardened like crystal, beasts of burden the size of small houses, and entire herds slammed against the barricades as if they were rotten wood.
The defenses collapsed within seconds.
The Carnivores tried to react, reorganize, hold the line… but it was already too late.
They were trapped between two fronts.
Above them, the chaos of battle and the electrical mana still falling in scattered bursts.
Below, the land itself advancing against them.
The battlefield turned into mud, screams, and confusion. Formations broke apart. The predators stopped looking like hunters and started moving like prey.
In the village at the top of the mountain, Lusian was angry.
—Elizabeth, I told you not to use demonic mana.
Elizabeth kept her head lowered. She did not argue.
—I'm sorry… I got carried away.
Lusian had been terrified. Losing Elizabeth… he would never forgive himself for that.
—You're not fighting anymore. Stay in the rear.
She stood up.
—I won't leave you alone.
He refused to accept any objections.
He asked her several questions. Only Elizabeth could answer them. The "Demon Queen" could not.
When he finished, he left the room.
At the heroes' camp, Aurelius paced back and forth.
The problem was not small.
It was a disaster.
The artifact had been destroyed.
And without it, the demon could fight with his full power.
That woman… she had almost killed Kaelen.
If he sent the heroes now and lost them, he would have no replacements.
But if he reported to the gods… what would he even say?
That the demon had been weakened.
And what if they discovered the truth?
The consequences would be worse than defeat.
He stopped.
His hands trembled.
He activated the communication device.
He dropped to his knees.
And lowered his head to the ground.
—…done…
The heavenly voice answered immediately.
It was not human.
It was not warm.
It was pressure.
—Speak.
Aurelius swallowed hard.
—My lord… the situation has changed.
Silence.
The air became heavier.
—The artifact… has been destroyed.
Another silence.
Longer.
—…useless.
The word fell like a sentence.
Aurelius did not move.
—I am sorry… my lord.
Aurelius stepped out of the room while adjusting his clothes. The camp was still restless even at that hour; distant shouting, overlapping orders, and the constant smell of damp smoke filled the air.
He walked a few meters, intending to rest a little before dawn.
Then he saw her.
Berenia stood alone near the edge of the camp, staring at the night sky.
Still.
Aurelius clicked his tongue. Strange.
Ever since the campaign had begun, that woman had done nothing. She did not train with the other heroes, did not speak with the priests, did not attend meetings. She only appeared to eat and then vanished again, wandering through the camp like a ghost.
Berenia looked at him for a second.
She did not bow.
She did not speak.
She only watched him with those empty eyes, as if Aurelius were just another object in the landscape.
Then she looked away.
She slowly stood up and began to walk.
Without hurry.
Without making a sound.
The darkness of the camp swallowed her between the tents and shadows until she simply disappeared from sight.
Morning came, and with it another battle began.
But this time it was obvious.
They were losing.
The defensive lines kept retreating, soldiers were falling by the dozens, and exhaustion was beginning to show even among the blessed.
And the worst part was not the casualties.
It was what happened afterward.
The vampire named Dayana moved across the battlefield like an elegant shadow covered in blood. Every corpse she touched rose again seconds later, clumsy, broken… but still capable of killing.
The enemy numbers never stopped increasing.
Aurelius watched another group of fallen soldiers rise behind their own lines and exploded in fury.
—Morgana! —he roared—. Can't you deal with that vampire?
Morgana froze for a moment.
Her hand slowly rose to her neck.
She could still feel those fangs piercing her skin.
The memory twisted her stomach.
She shook her head.
—I still… need to recover.
—Go! —Aurelius shouted—. Just block her ability!
Morgana clicked her tongue.
She went unwillingly.
She crossed the battlefield while explosions of fire and lightning illuminated the smoke and blood. In the distance, Dayana raised another corpse with a simple touch.
Then the vampire saw her.
Her lips slowly curved upward.
—Oh… impure woman, you came back.
Dayana smiled, barely showing her fangs.
—So you decided to become my servant. Come, I'll bite you quickly.
Morgana immediately grimaced.
—Shut up —she growled—. Who would want to be your servant?
Dayana let out a small laugh.
Morgana pointed at her neck in annoyance.
—And stop calling me impure. What's wrong with that?
Meanwhile, in another sector of the battlefield, Lusian was holding back Valerius.
Or more accurately, crushing him into the ground.
Dark mana gathered over Valerius like a gigantic invisible mass, a brutal pressure deforming the earth around him. From the outside it looked as if he were holding up something impossible with both hands.
His arms trembled.
The veins in his neck bulged as he struggled to resist.
The ground beneath his feet had already sunk several meters, burying him little by little beneath shattered rock and compressed earth.
Every second the pressure increased further.
As if a gigantic sphere were slowly falling on top of him.
And Valerius could barely stop himself from being completely crushed.
—Bastard…
An arrow shot through the air straight toward Lusian.
He dodged it with a slight tilt of his head.
The next instant, Caelum appeared at full speed, his spear wrapped in light.
The impact came head-on.
Lusian blocked with Dainslein, and the collision unleashed a shockwave that split the earth around them.
Caelum pushed harder, trying to break his stance.
—Now! —he shouted.
Valerius barely managed to rise.
Covered in dirt and blood, he forced himself back into the battle, still breathing heavily after enduring the pressure of the dark mana.
Lusian felt something strange.
For several days now, he had been using divinity over and over during battle.
At first it had been unstable, uncomfortable, like holding something that did not truly belong to him.
But now…
It became easier every time.
More natural.
The power responded before he even finished thinking, blending with his dark mana without resistance.
It no longer felt borrowed.
It was starting to feel like his.
Ironically, it was thanks to the heroes.
Fighting them again and again had forced Lusian to adapt to divinity far faster than normal. Every clash, every blessed ability, every absurd pressure they tried to impose on him only pushed him toward a better understanding of that power.
Without them, it probably would have taken him years to achieve this.
Or maybe he never would have.
Lusian slowly let out a breath.
Good.
It was about time he returned the favor with violence.