Chapter 597: Counter Attack

The barrier collapsed.

Instantly after, Asmodeus fell against the wall, panting and weak.

This isn’t the time to worry about him…

Velvet’s breath burned in her throat as she ascended higher, wind screaming past her ears.

The war barge below her loomed like a fortress on water, its deck bristling with gunners and heavy artillery. Crossbow bolts cut the air around her, and one grazed her thigh, hot blood spilling into the wind.

“Squad One, keep your heds down!” She shouted, her voice sharp and hoarse from the thinner oxygen this high up.

Her knights acted like birds of prey.

They dove as one, black wings slicing through the eye-watering smoke. They raked the deck with steel and claws, ripping gunners apart before they could reload. One knight tackled a mage mid-incantation, dragging him screaming over the rail into the churning sea.

Velvet crash-landed on the deck, her boots hitting the blood-stained wood. Tossing her bent spear aside, she drew a pair of twin blades without hesitation, cutting through a sailor who lunged at her with a boarding pike. A ballista bolt from a friendly ship tore into the barge’s mast, sending splinters raining over her squad.

Their bodies shook at the sudden impact.

“Target the cannon crews!”

Two more knights landed beside her, wings folding tight as they sprinted toward the forward cannons. Velvet followed, weaving through the chaos until she spotted a line of gunners reloading a massive, rune-etched barrel.

Her steps hastened as she darted through the mayhem.

Her blade took one man across the chest. The second fell with a wet gurgle as she drove her sword through his throat. The third had time to raise his pistol, but not in time to fire. A shadow passed over him, and a demon knight ripped his head clean from his shoulders.

“Set the mana charges,” Velvet yelled, ducking behind a splintered railing as a cannon roared from another ship, followed by their vulgar shouts.

“Kill the demon whores! FIRE!”

Her squad worked fast, jamming black-powder charges into the cannon’s breach and lighting the fuses.

“Off the deck!”

They launched themselves skyward just as the charges went off, the deck below vanishing in a spray of wood, fire, and bodies.

Velvet’s wings strained as she climbed, scanning the fleet for her next target. The war barges were still coming. And without Asmodeus’s barrier, they had nothing but their blood and steel to hold the line.

“Take flight! Regroup with Squad Two!”

“We’ll cut them down one ship at a time if we have to.”

***

Meanwhile, at the same time, Velvet and her flight targeted the gunners and cannon fire.

Levia’s gauntleted fist caught the incoming spear, snapping the shaft before it could pierce her chest. She hurled the jagged end into the nearest enemy soldier, then raised her glowing blade in both hands.

“Hold the line!” she roared, voice carrying over the chaos.

She used her giant shield, deflecting half the magic flung at her troops as she stepped closer to the port.

Her paladin-trained Demon Knights formed a wall of shields at the breach in the western wall, the broken stone littered with corpses, both theirs and the enemy’s.

Arrows and crossbow bolts rained down from the battlements, clattering off armour and shields, but the enemy kept pressing forward, trying to flood into the city.

Levia’s sword blazed with golden light, and holy energy coiled tight inside it. She stepped forward into the crush, cutting through three men in a single sweeping arc. The sacred aura burned them where it touched, leaving smouldering wounds.

“Push them back!”

The Demon Knights surged forward, shields slamming into the enemy line. Behind them, mages chanted, unleashing waves of fire and lightning into the packed enemy ranks.

An enemy captain broke through, his axe glowing with enchantment. Levia met him head-on, their weapons sparking with every clash. His strength was monstrous, but she was faster, and with a twist of her wrist, she disarmed him, driving her sword clean through his chest.

“Next!” she spat, yanking the blade free.

The push slowed. The breach was holding just barely. But for every enemy cut down, two more seemed to appear, climbing over the rubble and bodies.

“Don’t give them an inch!” Levia roared, raising her sword high. The Knights answered with a single, thunderous shout, bracing for the next wave.

***

Sariel and Riel moved like lightning through the smoke-filled streets, thier wings beating in unison. Enemy soldiers had landed from smaller boats at the southern docks, bypassing the main walls entirely. Now cutting their way towards the central market and city.

“Sari to the left!” Riel called out before darting into an alley.

Sariel followed, her black and purple whip coiling around an enemy’s leg before she yanked him off his feet, then landed beside him and drove a dagger into his throat.

“Hmph.”

Vinea was already ahead, her black lace gown torn at the hem, one hand raised as she sent a wave of shadow magic roaring down the street. It tore through a cluster of enemy troops, flinging them into walls and windows like dolls.

“Keep them off the civilians!” she snapped.

Sariel vaulted onto a cart, flipping over a swinging sword to land behind its wielder. Her claws raked across his back, and he crumpled to the cobblestones. Riel was a blur beside her, cutting down another before he could even turn.

When Sariel let her guard down, Riel would appear from the shadows.

A pair of twins in perfect sync.

They regrouped at the market square just as a fresh squad of enemy knights spilt from a side street. Vinea’s eyes glinted.

“Cover your ears.”

Sariel and Riel obeyed instantly.

Usually, Vinea fought with her sword… but after finally mastering magic, she began to use it more and more.

Vinea’s voice rang out, a single, haunting note. Like a banshee’s wail the air split with raw force. The enemy line staggered, hands clapped to bleeding ears.

The sisters were on them in a heartbeat, cutting down the disoriented men.

Within minutes, the square was clear, though the streets beyond still echoed with battle. Sariel wiped blood from her cheek, her chest heaving.

“That’s three streets held,” she said.

“We should head back to the walls and help the others.”

“Asmodea is overworking herself…” Vinea muttered after the two sisters.

They took to the air again, wings slicing through the smoke, ready to meet the next wave.

***

The world beyond the battlements became nothing but fire and smoke.

Asmodeus leaned against the shattered wall, each breath sharp, stinging his lungs. The blood barrier’s collapse had drained him more than he imagined. It had taken a chunk of his body with it.

His muscles still twitched from the strain, his vision pulsing at the edges with a haze of red.

Below, the city was a living wound. Smoke rolled through the streets, thick with the stench of burning pitch. He could hear the clang of steel on steel, the shouts of commands, the screams of the dying. His women fought like the goddesses they were, cutting swathes through enemy ranks, holding the city together by sheer will.

He hated that he wasn’t there beside them.

Not Yet….

I am still not fully recovered.

He closed his eyes and forced another breath, drawing the lingering scraps of magic back into his veins. His aura spread faintly, but far weaker than he wanted, but enough to move. Enough to kill.

Then he felt something…

A faint ripple of divine power cut through the chaos. It was different from the barrage of spells and steel, this heavier, older. A shadow fell over the field, stretching long toward the wall where he stood.

He opened his eyes.

The Grand Duke was coming.

Even at this distance, Darius Kaiser was a presence that seemed to warp the air. His black armour was unscarred despite the carnage, every movement deliberate, measured. In his hands was a greatsword forged of pure shadow, its edge drinking the light. The weapon hummed with restrained violence, the kind only a god-touched warrior could wield.

Asmodeus straightened slowly, rolling his shoulders.

He lacked a considerable amount of divine power, but that didn’t mean he’d meet the man barehanded.

“Fine,” he muttered, bending his right hand.

The air around him thickened with the scent of copper. From the blood-soaked stones beneath his boots, dark tendrils slithered upward, coiling together in his grasp. They twisted and hardened, forming the jagged haft of his great axe, ready for combat. The crimson edge pulsed faintly, as if eager to taste fresh life.

The axe was heavy, but it belonged in his hands. Each battle with it had been carved into his muscles, his stance shifting into the instinctive balance of a killer.

He swung it once, the blade leaving a red arc in the air. The weapon thrummed as if answering the challenge.

“You’re finally here.”

Darius was close enough now that Asmodeus could see his expression calm, but with the faintest curl of disdain. The Grand Duke’s boots crushed the bodies beneath them as if they were nothing but debris. He did not rush, did not raise his sword in premature threat. He came as if sure of the outcome.

Asmodeus gripped Bloodfeast tighter, planting his feet on the stone. His breathing slowed, every muscle in his frame locking into readiness.

If the Duke wanted him, he would have to wade through the axe’s bite to get it.

“Come then, “Asmodeus growled under his breath.