CHAPTER 23: LAST LIGHT OF DUSKFALL

The torches quivered against the stone, and every rumble of artillery in the distance made the walls of the war room tremble. The maps spread across the great table sometimes lifted in the breath of the explosions, as if they themselves refused to accept the world they described. Albrecht, hands braced on the wood, straightened slowly. His black armor gleamed with sweat and dried blood. His steel eyes swept the assembly, and his voice roared, deep, thunderous:

— "Not even speaking of our soldiers who come back as enemies... what will doom us is this. Their own death."

A leaden silence. Only a hoarse cry could be heard somewhere behind the ramparts: a soldier being evacuated, leg torn off, screaming like a slaughtered pig. The room shivered, but Albrecht went on, relentless.

— "They become animated corpses. Weak, yes, but insensitive to pain, to wounds. As long as their skull isn’t smashed to pulp, they get back up. And if we have to kill each enemy twice... then this war is already lost."

My throat tightened. Fuck. It was true. I’d seen with my own eyes a still-warm corpse latch onto a soldier’s ankle, its lipless mouth biting flesh like a dog. No one flinched. Not even Miyu, usually so quick to sneer. The truth crashed down on our shoulders like a wall.

Albrecht drew a breath, his eyes fixed on the map.

— "Maeron, you stay here. You cover the fortress with the mages. Elias, you and your archers, on the walls."

— "Yes, sir!" Elias answered without hesitation. Even Maeron, usually grouchy, merely inclined his head, lips pressed tight. Not a word out of line. The gravity of the moment left no room for sarcasm.

Albrecht raised his hand, palm rigid as a blade.

— "I’ll leave with Thorn and Kael. The others, you stay here. If we fail... you will be the last rampart."

A heavy breath passed through the room. Even my heart skipped a beat. "Last rampart" meant: sacrificed.

— "Very well," I murmured despite myself, squeezing Aurelia until my knuckles whitened.

And suddenly, a hand rose. Slim, pale. I recognized it before she even spoke. Ayame.

She stepped forward, her kimono fluttering in the air saturated with ash, her brown eyes fixed on Albrecht.

— "Excuse me... but since the start of this war, I’ve felt a premonition. Something that has no place in this world." She raised her hand, pointing toward the darkened horizon beyond the ramparts, where the mass of enemies heaved like a sea of mud. "I think I can feel... the necromancer. If he’s hiding among them, I can be useful to you."

— "WHAT?!" Reina, Miyu, and Hikari exploded in unison.

Hikari, red and trembling, crossed the distance at once and seized her mother’s hand. Her fingers quivered as they brushed the brown strands, sliding through hair damp with sweat and dust.

— "Are you really... going?!" Her voice broke. "Mom, that’s madness..."

Ayame gently placed a hand on her cheek, caressing skin reddened by fear. Her lips twisted into a sad smile, but her gaze remained fixed on Albrecht.

— "I feel it. If I don’t come, your mission will fail."

The commander’s jaw clenched. His voice fell like an anvil:

— "It may be nothing more than a random premonition. I can’t risk taking you. Your life is worth more than all of ours combined."

Silence. A crash suddenly shook the fortress, a section of wall fissured, flinging dust into the room. Soldiers shouted outside, the metallic clatter of weapons reverberating through the corridors.

And Selene spoke up. Her slender silhouette detached from the shadows, the scythe resting nonchalantly on her shoulder. Her black, icy eyes shone with a resolute gleam.

— "Albrecht. I’ve been training this woman for a week. And believe me... her S-rank skill is no accident."

She took a step, her cutting voice ringing between the cracked walls.

— "In all my life, I’ve never seen anything so terrifying."

A distant rumble made the slabs tremble beneath our feet. Dust fell from the ceiling, my ears buzzed. The rattling breath of a dying soldier drifted in through the half-open door, mingling with the acrid smell of blood and powder.

Albrecht closed his eyes for a second, then reopened them. His features had hardened even more.

— "...So be it." His voice vibrated with cold regret. "Then I’ll take you."

Fuck. My heart leapt in my chest. Ayame had just sealed her fate.

Miyu shattered the silence with a rough bark, her katana resting on her shoulder.

— "Then I’m going too."

Her eyes blazed, predatory, but I knew that flame. It wasn’t just courage: it was fear smothered behind her insolent smile.

Hikari raised her scepter, her voice shaky but firm.

— "Me too..."

Her white fingers clenched on the sacred wood, her lips trembled, but she stepped forward anyway.

Reina, upright, icy, pressed her scepter to her chest.

— "I’m coming as well."

The thunder in her voice left no room for doubt.

I saw Ayame about to speak, her lips already parting. But I knew. Fuck, I knew that if I didn’t stop her now, I’d lose her. So I grabbed her arm—hard, harder than I should have—and the words burst out of me, raw, shaking but clear:

— "I’ll go with Ayame."

Silence fell. Even the rumble of the bombardments outside seemed distant. I locked my gaze on my sisters’, my voice trembling but steady:

— "Girls, don’t worry. I promise you... I’ll do everything to bring her back alive. No matter what it costs me. Even if I have to lose my other eye, even if I have to break my arms, I’ll bring her back. So... stay here. Help the others, like you know how. That’s your role."

They hesitated. Their eyes pierced me, but Reina yielded first.

— "I trust you." Her voice cracked like a whip, cold, but her eyes shone with a fragile gleam. "Make sure everything goes as well as possible."

— "I will," I replied without wavering.

Miyu sneered, but her lips twisted.

— "You’d better come back alive with her!"

I nodded, my gut in knots.

Hikari came closer, her soft hand resting on my bandage, where my eye was missing. The gesture cut through me like a blade.

— "Don’t overdo it... but bring Mom back. Please."

I swallowed. Fuck, my throat burned.

Albrecht broke the silence, his voice rolling like thunder.

— "Then we will depa—"

But a clear, cutting voice sliced his words in two.

Elyra.

Her silver hair whipped the air as she stepped forward, her shining spear vibrating in the torchlight.

— "Albrecht. You’re getting too old. And I’ve decided it’s my moment. I’ll go in your place."

A silence of stone.

— "You will stay here. You will command the defense. You’re not going to dump the boring job on others while you play the martyr."

— "But..." he began, jaw tight.

Elyra slammed her spear to the ground, her gray eyes glinting with a fierce light.

— "Don’t forget who among the Seven is the strongest. I’ll go kill those fucking lieutenants."

I thought I saw Albrecht waver. His face closed, his weathered features contorting into a grimace of icy remorse. He knew. If this mission failed, it was the end. And if he sent with her two other Spines, me, an SSS-rank hero, and Ayame... then losing that group was to gift humanity one more step toward extinction. One step... no. A chasm.

Slowly, he placed his hand on Elyra’s shoulder. His lips moved, whispering something in her ear. I couldn’t hear it, but I saw her eyes close for a fraction of a second. Then he declared, in a drained voice:

— "I’m counting on you."

His shoulders straightened, his arm rose like a cleaver.

— "You leave in one hour. Prepare as much as possible. Weapons, potions, everything you can carry."

His eyes settled on us, a funereal gleam burning in his steel irises.

— "The elite unit of the Black Hound will depart with you."

On my right, Elias, impassive until then, gave the slightest twitch. His lips pinched, his eyes burned for an instant. A brief reaction, but one I didn’t forget.

~

Elyra adjusted her black spear, Thorn was already laughing as he brandished his greatsword, and Kael idly made a dagger dance between his fingers, a crooked smile on his lips.

We were armed to the teeth. Not a hand empty, not a breath wasted. Our kimono inventory was stuffed with potions and every kind of weapon.

Behind us, a dozen men took their places. The Black Hounds. The elite beneath the elite. Their black leather shone with oil, their cold eyes fixed on the closed gate. They looked like beasts kept in a cage.

Then I saw him. Elias. His lips moved in a silent prayer, his fingers squeezing a young woman’s hand. His voice trembled with an unbearable gentleness in this death-soaked air.

— "Be careful... come back to me alive."

She nodded, eyes shining despite the fear.

— "Yes, Father."

Fuck. So that was it, that micro-reaction I’d caught earlier. He wasn’t playing statue out of discipline. He was gambling his life. His daughter was leaving with us. If he lost her here... he lost everything.

My fingers clenched on Aurelia. The promise I’d made to Hikari, to bring Ayame back, had just gotten ten times heavier.

We took our positions on either side of the gate. The mages in a circle, Maeron at the center. I had never felt such density of mana. The air vibrated, heavy, saturated, to the point my skin prickled as if a thousand needles were piercing my pores. The old man, usually cranky, wasn’t smiling. He raised his knotted staff, his lips sputtering an illicit litany, and around him the mages were already trembling.

A crack. A breath. Then his shout split the silence:

— "IT’S READY! OPEN!"

The steel doors groaned, chains screamed. And behind the gate... the tide.

Hundreds. Thousands. A surging wave of demons, their howls drowning everything, their eyes burning like enraged coals. They charged, a compact mass, a goddamn mountain of flesh and fangs.

Then death fell.

I have no other word.

A beam. Red and black. A forbidden breath that tore the air as if the sky itself were splitting. Light exploded from Maeron’s staff, an incandescent torrent that swallowed everything it touched. Demon flesh melted before they even understood, their armor burst into dust, their bones disintegrated. The ground itself was gouged, scarified, as if a divine claw had just razed the earth.

A gaping, blackened furrow opened in the tide. Thousands. Fuck, thousands reduced to nothing in seconds. The howls stopped. Nothing but a silence cut by the breath of magic, a dull rumble that throbbed in my chest.

I was nailed in place. Mouth open, unable to breathe. I had seen spells, I had seen hell. But this... this surpassed everything. It was forbidden. A cataclysm.

One by one, the mages collapsed, mouths foaming, eyes rolled back. Their bodies fell like broken puppets, emptied. Even Maeron staggered, lips pale, breath wheezing. But his gaze, yes, it shone with icy pride.

— "A... trump card..." I muttered.

Elyra roared, her voice cracking like a blade.

— "NOW! MOVE!"

We crossed the gate, our boots clacking on still-burning flagstones. And I saw it. The battlefield was no longer a plain, it was a split sea. Like Moses parting the waters, we walked through a gigantic scar opened in the flesh of the enemy army. Charred corpses collapsed on either side, some still aflame, others reduced to pulverized shadows.

And at the end... he was there.

A giant. Charred skin, smoking horns. His left arm torn off, flesh melted, bone blackened—proof he’d tried to stop the beam and paid the price. Even he, the colossus, was staggering, his scarlet gaze rabid with pain and hate.

Fuck. Even he had nearly fallen.

My heart pounded hard enough to crack my ribs. Blood hammered in my temples. Every breath was a burn. But my legs kept moving anyway. No choice. No more choice.

This was our path. Our hell.

And I swore, squeezing Aurelia so hard my fingers bled:

Ayame, I will bring you back. Even if I have to burn in this furrow.