Bretayal

  ---

  The air around the crater remained unnaturally still. The distant groan of shifting trees echoed faintly through the Silverwood, yet within this scarred expanse of nd, there was no sound—only a vast, sm silence.

  The bined force of Eldoria’s knights, are schors, and the silent presence of the Sylvan Guard stood far away irees, the air thick with unspoken tension. Seleill pale from her earlier enter with the mae’s inprehensible status, steadied her breathing. Her fiwitched at the memory of those broken symbols, the ed strings of magic… that unnatural wrongness.

  Leonhardt kept a firm hand on the hilt of his sword, his golden eyes flickeriweeionless metal colossus within the crater and the elven warriors surrounding them. The tensioween both groups was a delicate thread, frayed and strained, yet held intaly by the decree of their king and Vaelith’s relut cooperation.

  As the group gathered just beyond the crater’s rim, Leonhardt was the first to break the silence.

  “Vaelith,” his voice was steady but firm. “You’ve seen it before. This… creature, this golem—whatever it is. What happened when you first entered it?”

  All eyes turo the elven warden, his silver gaze id detached. Vaelith remained silent for a moment, his haing on his stag as he absently stroked its fur. Then, with a gentle nudge, he released the creature. His expression grew distant, as if lost in thought, before he closed his eyes and began repying the events of the previous night in his mind—over and over, like a haunting refrain.

  Finally, he spoke.

  “It was the night after the sky was torn asunder,” Vaelith said, his voice soft but clear. "Six of us were sent to observe the crater’s destru and the one responsible for it while dug the Seythari Cycle, a rite to heal the nd’s wounds and guide any lost souls or spirits back to nature."

  Selene’s violet eyes sharpened. “Did you find anything unusual? Residual magic or tainted ley lines?”

  Vaelith nodded slowly. “The flow of mana was twisted and unstable. The creatures we fouhe crater. Birds, foxes, even a great stag, had perished. The explosion’s force turheir intact brains into mush... May their spirits rest in peace.”

  A murmur rippled through the human schors. Elias, the young magus, adjusted his gsses nervously. "Okay... now that you say that, what about other creatures? Maybe the drakes or something else? I heard they live nearby."

  Vaelith gazed at Elias and answered, "They who had a higher mana pool weren’t even slightly injured—perhaps only a faint ringing in their ears. That is another reasohe elves were not too disturbed by the explosion, as our Sanctuary is shielded by mana and the spirits."

  Vaelith then turned his gaze toward the crater, his expression darkened. "And then... it came from the crater."

  The atmosphere thied.

  Leonhardt’s hand instinctively tightened around his sword. “The golem?”

  Vaelith’s jaw tensed, his expression unreadable. “Yes.”

  He expihe enter sario—the silent approach of the eight-legged metal beast, its precise, calcuted movements. The way it loomed over them in the moonlight, its glowing blue gaze flickering as it analyzed their every twitd every breath.

  Leonhardt blinked. “You… shook its hand?”

  Vaelith’s expression remained bnk, but a flicker of something—humiliation or fusion—crossed his gaze. “It extended a limb. I assumed it lomatic gesture. It was… rough.”

  A choked sound escaped Elias—a stifled ugh—until Leonhardt shot him a withering gre.

  Selene, however, wasn’t amused. She was still focused on the anomaly. “It didn’t speak?”

  “No,” Vaelith replied. “It made no sound, save for the faint whir of its internal meisms. Eve killed a beast that attacked us—with a single, calcuted strike—it remained silent. Afterward, it uprooted a tree… and prese to us.”

  Silence.

  Leonhardt blinked. “A tree?”

  Vaelith’s silver gaze did not waver. “Yes. As though it were a gift—an to repce what had beeroyed by the impact.”

  Selene and Leonhardt watched each other upon hearing this, while the are schors questioned one another.

  Selene closed her eyes briefly. The pieces weren’t fitting. This wasn’t just an unknowy—it was something intelligent, but alien in its logic. It uood basic diplomatic gestures yet struggled to trol its strength. It observed them but didn’t immediately resort to violence.

  Leonhardt broke the silence again. “And what of its status?” He g Selene. “You saw… something in its stats. Could you expin what exactly happened?”

  Her jaw tightened. “It wasn’t a status s—not a normal o was an error.”

  Vaelith answer. "A bunch of structural errors, am I right?"

  Selene nodded. “A plete corruption of its values. Numbers and symbols that didn’t follow any disible pattern—its strength was marked with abstract symbols, its endurance seemed to imply infinity, and its skills were just… gibberish.”

  The other are schor, who had just been watg the se, now spoke for the first time. “That sounds like something the dwarves might create—they’re known for crafting golems or something beyond our own uanding. Maybe this is some fotten relic of theirs?”

  Leonhardt nodded slightly. “It would make sehe dwarves build maes of iron and magid their work sometimes leads te results. A golem with a broken core could expin the unstable mana flow—”

  “No.”

  Vaelith’s voice cut through the versation like a bde. The schors fell silent.

  He stepped forward, his gaze locked onto Selene’s, then shifted toward the crater. “The dwarves may craft wonders, but they are not careless. Even their failures hold stats structure. If this was a dwarveion, then expiatus.” His tone was sharp, unwavering. “Tell me how a mere golem could bear a status that should .”

  Leonhardt frowned. “Then what do you believe it is?”

  Vaelith’s voice was quiet, but his certainty sent a chill through the gathered knights and schors.

  “I have been watg it, studying it sihe moment we entered it,” he said. “At first, I thought it might have been an unknown relic of the dwarves or an a struct buried beh the world. But the more I exami, the more I uood.” His silver eyes darkened. “This creature—this golem—was not made by the hands of any ra this world.”

  A deep silence followed his words.

  Leonhardt exhaled sharply. “Then what is it?”

  Seleated before finally answering, her voice a whisper.

  “The only time I’ve seen a status s break like this… was during a hero summoning.”

  The world seemed to freeze.

  Leonhardt’s head soward her. “A hero summoning?”

  Selene nodded grimly. “Yes. When a being is summoned from beyond this realm—when a hero is pulled from another world into ours—their stats don’t always align immediately. The system takes time to stabilize. And during that time, the summoned hero’s status will sometimes appear like… this.”

  She gnced back at the mae in the crater.

  A heavy silence followed. The implications were uling.

  Vaelith's voice was cold aain. “Then there is no more doubt. This thing—came from beyond our world.”

  ---

  Tension grew betweehered forces of Eldoria and Sylvaris. The human knights and schors stood on one side. For some reason, the royal knights were already dismounting from their horses as if preparing for something, their armleaming uhe sunlight, while the scouts each other before deg to observe from afar, closing themselves toward the trees where the elves observed.

  Leonhardt crossed his arms, his goldeeady as he addressed Vaelith. “We’re taking it.” His voice was resolute, unyielding. “King Aldric ordered us to iigate, and now that we’ve seen it firsthand, it’s clear—this creature could turide of the war against the Demon Legion.”

  Vaelith’s silver gaze remained impassive. “You would cim something you do not uand. You assume it will serve you, fight for you, simply because you wish it so?”

  Leonhardt exhaled sharply. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting. You elves have seen what the demons are capable of. They burned half of your sacred groves, butchered your warriors, and even now they advance further into the ti. If we have a on—”

  "You call it a on. You speak as if it is not a living being but merely a tool." Vaelith interrupted, his voice like a bde drawn from its sheath. "You do not know its iions, its in, or if it even prehend your ands."

  Seleepped forward, her voice ced with urgency. “Leonhardt isn’t wrong, Vaelith. The Demon Legion is relentless. If we could harhis golem’s power—”

  Vaelith turo her, his cold expression unwavering. “And if it does not wish to be harnessed?”

  Silence.

  Leonhardt's jaw tightened. “Then we secure it before it falls into the wrong hands.”

  The elf warden’s fiwitched against the hilt of his bde, but he did not draw it. “And what do you think will happen when you force it into your custody?” His tone was measured, but his voice carried a warning. “You say it is intelligent, but not once has it spoken. Not once has it shown uanding of uage. For all you know, it perceives you as nothing more than obstacles to its unknown goal.”

  But Leonhardt remained firm.

  “We will restrain it if necessary,” he said. “With proper study, we may even learn to unicate. But doing nothing is not an option.”

  Vaelith’s silver eyes darkened. “And that is where you make yravest mistake. You assume that force will not breed retaliation. It does not act like a mere golem. It analyzes, it adapts, it learns. If you strike first, do not expect mercy.”

  Leonhardt ched his fists. “You speak as if you would simply let it wander freely. That is reckless.”

  “Not as reckless as provoking something beyond our uanding,” Vaelith shot back. “We earn its trust. We do not cim it as property.”

  Selene rubbed her temples. “We don’t have time to wait. We need every advantage against the demons. If they capture it first, we’ll be fag an enemy unlike anything we’ve entered before.”

  Vaelith’s voice dropped to a chilling whisper. “And what makes you so certain they haven’t already taken notice?”

  The air stilled.

  Leonhardt’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  Vaelith exhaled slowly, his gaze distant. “The explosion. The fre of its arrival. You humans saw it from your kingdom over fifty kilometers away, did you not?”

  Selene’s eyes widened. “You’re saying—”

  “The Demon Legion has eyes everywhere.” Vaelith’s voice was grim. “If we saw it, then so did they.”

  Leonhardt’s expression darkened. He khe truth ih’s words. The demons were not oo hesitate. If this mae held power, then the Legion would covet it. And if they reached it before the allied forces did…

  Selene’s breath hitched. “Then we don’t have much time.”

  Leonhardt turoward the crater once more. The mae remained motionless, its optics dim, as if it were simply waiting and seems like looking at something.

  Perhaps Vaelith was right. Perhaps it was best to wait.

  But time was a luxury they no longer had.

  Leonhardt’s voice was grim.

  “Then we move. Now.”

  ---

  The tense iatioween Eldoria’s and Sylvaris's had finally reached a clusion—an uneasy truce. The decision was made: they would observe the golem or thing, rather than seize it ht. Vaelith remained wary, but even he uood the y of a united front in the face of an unknown power.

  The heavy silehat followed was unnatural.

  Leonhardt’s fiwitched he hilt of his sword. Something was wrong. The presence of the Sylvan Guard had vanished, and the natural mana—spirit, or whatever the elves called it, was gone as well, as if another force had erased it. Other than that, where the hell did his scout unit go?.

  Vaelith narrowed his silver eyes. His elven instincts fred with arm. He took a slow breath and whispered in his native tohe melodic resonance of his words carried by the wind, seeking a response from his hidden kin.

  Nothing.

  His heart pouhis was no mere withdrawal. Something had taken them.

  Before he could warhers, a blur of motion pierced the air.

  A sharp gasp escaped Vaelith’s lips as a cold steel bde drove into his back. His vision blurred, his body lurg forward. The pain was instant—but it was the creepiion of something burning in his veins that sent a deeper dread through him.

  "Vaelith!" Selene cried, reag for him.

  The attacker was fast—inhumanly so. The figure twisted in the air, leaping again toward Selene, bde gleaming.

  Fortunaly, Leonhardt’s sword intercepted the strike with sheer force, sending the assassin skidding backward. The armored knight stepped in front of Selene, his golden eyes log onto their foe.

  The assassin’s form shimmered, dist for a brief moment before revealirue self—a tall, voluptuous woman with crimson skin, pierg violet eyes, and two bck horns curling elegantly from her forehead. Her revealing outfit barely covered her ample figure, a leather corset adorned with gold s, thigh-high boots, and an amused smirk that carried both danger aion.

  “My-My~ That was quite a fast rea, handsome,” she purred, her forked tail swaying behind her. “How thrilling. I almost got to carve a piece out of that lovely magus.”

  Leonhardt scowled. "A succubus."

  Selene gasped, immediately rushing to Vaelith’s side. His breathing was uneven, his plexion paling by the sed. She pressed a glowing hand to his wound, whispering an intation.

  It didn’t heal.

  Her stomach ched. “Demon poison…”

  The succubus tilted her head, watg Selene’s desperate attempts. "Oh? You're still trying? That's adorable, really. But that poison es straight from the Demon Realm, sweetheart. It’s not something your little spells fix~"

  Selene gritted her teeth, p more mana into her healing spell, while her wyvern, now close, also tried to cover her.

  Leonhardt pointed his sword at the demon. "You targeted him first."

  The succubus giggled. "Of course I did. I don’t want those high-level wardens to interrupt our date, honey." Her violet eyes gleamed with mischief. "But I was really here for something else."

  Her gaze slid toward the thing, which remained eerily still at the crater’s ter, its blue optics flickering faintly, judging every move they made.

  “What an iing creation,” she purred. “Not a mere golem. Not a summoned beast. Not even bound by the world’s ws… How fasating.” Her forked toraced her lips. “I wonder what I’d have to do to make it us.”

  Leonhardt took a step forward, positioning himself between her and Harbinger. “You’re not taking anything.”

  The succubus sighed dramatically. "I was hoping you'd say that~"

  She snapped her fingers.

  From the line, all of Eldoria’s knights who had been standing still without reason suddenly turheir eyes bnk, their ons raised.

  Leonhardt's blood ran cold. "Bitch i know it...Damn Charmed."

  Selene barely had time to react before the mind-trolled knights lunged.

  "Barrier: Astral Veil!"

  A shimmering force field burst ience just in time to block the ented bdes from cutting into the schors and mages. The royal guards struck with brutal efficy, smming against the barrier, their movements eerily trolled.

  The succubus let out a soft moan of delight. "Oh my~ You're quite something, little magus. That spellwork is exquisite." Her gaze flickered with a deeper hunger. “I regret not charming you first.”

  She vanished in a blur of speed.

  "Selene, move!"

  Leonhardt barely intercepted the strike. Sparks flew as steel met steel, the force pushing him back.

  The succubus giggled, pressing her curvaceous fainst his bde. "You’re a strong one, aren't you? I’d love to break you in~"

  Leonhardt's jaw tightened. "You'll have to push me aside first."

  Selene barely registered their exge, her hands trembling as she tried again to heal Vaelith. His dition worsened. Her spell wasn’t enough.

  But she refused to stop.

  She whispered another intation, p more of her lifeforto the magic. The golden glow around her hands intensified, flickering wildly against the unnatural toxin.

  The battle raged arouhe Are Schors fought back, unleashing torrents of magic to repel the ented knights, aiming to break the hypnosis.

  Leonhardt and the succubus cshed violently, the grouh them crag with every exged blow.

  Selene’s breath hitched. Vaelith wasn’t responding.

  “Damn it,” she hissed, sweat trig down her brow. Think. There has to be a way—

  A low growl rumbled from the trees.

  The air turned suffog, and some trees slowly began to rot.

  Selene looked up—just in time to see a horde of demons emerge from the Silverwood’s depths.

  Large, grotesque creatures with elongated limbs, snarling hounds wreathed in shadow, and t figures with burning eyes. The demon forces had arrived.

  Leonhardt barely mao shove the succubus away as the first monstrous beast lunged.

  “Selene, get Vaelith the fuck out of here!” he roared.

  The succubus merely licked her lips, violet eyes gleaming with anticipation. "Oh~, looks like the real fun is just beginning~”

  Selene's heart pounded as she g the golem. The creature eyes flickered again—watg, calg its moves.

  It had yet to act, but before it could, an explosioed from an are schor hidden from view within the smoke.

  Behind the thick haze, the four blue lights flickered and dimmed before slowly turning into a bright red glow.

  ---

  The battlefield was chaos. Demonic forces surged forward in waves. Leonhardt Vale stood amidst the age, his greatswleaming with blood and fme, his breath ing in steady, trolled exhales. His golden eyes flicked across the battlefield, calg every movement, every opportunity, every threat.

  A monstrous hellbeast lunged—an abomination of sinew and darkeeel, its jagged maw filled with writhing tendrils. Leonhardt pivoted sharply, boots grinding against the blood-slicked earth. His greatsword fshed—a devastating downward arc—cleaving through the beast’s skull. Its roar choked into silence as its body colpsed in a pool of bck ichor.

  Before the corpse hit the ground, another charged him—a 4 legged demon with elongated cws that crackled with dark energy. Leonhardt’s grip shifted. His muscles coiled like a drawn b, and in an instant, he vaulted into the air—Draic Leap—s above the lungi. He twisted midair, greatsword wreathed in searing fme as he plummeted down. Fmefang Thrust—a strike of pure devastation. The demon’s carapace cracked apart, fire bursting through the seams as its body was ied from the i.

  Yet, even as he nded, his instincts screamed danger. From the periphery of his vision—a blur of violet and midnight silk.

  The succubus.

  A razor-thin cw shed toward his exposed side, a killing strike aimed for his ribs. But Leonhardt did not falter—his free hand shifted, his gau igniting in a golden bze. Shield of the Phoenix. A sudden fre of divine energy erupted, intercepting the attack with a fiery barrier. The succubus’s cws scraped against the shield, sparks dang in the air before she twisted away, her serpeail flig mogly.

  The demons were relentless. More emerged—a t wolf-like fiend with obsidian fur and three burning eyes, a serpenti with multiple heads spitting acidic bile, and a chimeriightmare with bat wings and a scorpion tail. They surrounded him, fangs bared, muscles teo lunge.

  Leonhardt exhaled sharply. His bde trembled—not with fatigue, but with raw, unshackled power. He surged forward. Twin Fang Reversal.

  A blinding motion—his sword shed twice, faster than the eye could track. One ssh cut through the wolf-demon’s neck, severing it in a single fluid motion. The sed strike whirled back, cleaving through the serpent’s midse before it could spew its venom. The battlefield echoed with the siing sound of rending flesh.

  Then, without missing a beat, he shifted again.

  The succubus lunged for an opening, but Leonhardt turned on his heel, greatsword raising in a high guard. Her cws screeched against his bde, the force of her strike sending sparks into the darkened sky. He gritted his teeth, muscles flexing uhe pressure. She grinned, lips curving in amusement as she whispered something—words he ignored.

  He shoved her back, smming his bde into the earth. War Cry.

  A thunderous shockwave erupted from his stahe very air trembled as a primal roar swept across the battlefield, sending lesser demons reeling in fear. Even the succubus faltered, her fident smirk twisting into something more cautious.

  But there was no time to savor the brief advantage.

  Behind him, the battlefield was utter chaos. The remaining horses screamed in terror, their riders long dead or dying. Some tried to flee, but hulking hounds with bck, molteore into them, ripping through their fnks and dragging them down in a frenzy of snapping jaws. Leonhardt’s obsidian warhorse reared, kig a spined demon in the skull, crushing it us hooves. But even it could not stand forever against the tide.

  The Are Schors were falling, their fragile bodies crushed under gnashing maws, their robes torn and drenched in blood. Some tried to t defensive spells, while others attempted to fight back, but the sheer ferocity and number of the beasts overwhelmed them. It was only a matter of time until all of them became food for those demons.

  Elias…His body y twisted amidst the age, his lifeless eyes still open—gazing toward the sky as if seeking salvation. Demonic hounds tore into his remains, ripping flesh from bone, dev him in a grotesque feast.

  Selene’s wyvern reared back, hissing as it lu a horned demon, its cws raking across the creature’s flesh in a desperate attempt to protect its master. It bit down on the demon’s shoulder, but before it could tear away, a massive, lupi with six burning eyes pounced, crushing the wyverh its weight. The wyver out a shrill, pained cry before using its tail to whip the creature, fortunaly splitting its skull.

  Selene’s voice rang out—a desperate intation. More shields. More reinforts. Her hands trembled as she jured yers of magical barriers around the remaining Schors, but it was clear—without warriors or knight to defend them, they would not st.

  She could only reinforce. She could not strike—if she tried to attack, it would ore mana to use. However, she could still buff Leonhardt while healing and reinf the Are Schors with shields.

  Leround his teeth, a growl building in his throat. His fingers ched around his on, his rage igniting into something dangerous. The bloodshed around him, the dying cries, the stench of burning flesh—it all coiled into a singur purpose.

  He would not let this sughter tinue.

  Power surged through his veins. His movements sharpened, each strike carrying greater force, greater wrath. He became a whirlwind of destru—one moment exeg a fwless Fmefang Thrust into the chest of a charging minotaur-like beast, the parrying a succubus’s talorike with a brutal ter.

  And still—he endured.

  His Drake’s Resilience kept him standing even as minor wounds accumuted, even as fatigue tried to gnaw at him. His Ironblood Fortitude prevented hesitatio his bde steady, kept his mind razor-sharp. Every move recise, every motion designed for absolute efficy.

  But the horde was unending.

  Even as he struck them down, more emerged from the abyss, their grotesque forms pushing forward iless hunger. Selene’s magic could only hold so much, and the Are Schors were dwindling.

  Leonhardt’s grip tightened on his on. His eyes burned with fury.

  He would not fall.

  He would not break.

  He will protect everyone.

  ---

  But...the battle had turned grim. Selene’s shields flickered, cracks spiderwebbing across their surfaces. The Are Schors were falling—devoured, crushed, torn apart. Their screams were fading, repced by the guttural snarls of feedis.

  Selene herself stood amidst the age, her face pale, her breath ragged, and blood p from her nose. She ted—desperate, relentless—p every ounce of her mana into barriers and reinfort spells.

  And her wyvern’s cries was silenced.

  The beast that had once carried her y crumpled in a pool of blood, its throat ripped open, its eyes dull and lifeless. Selene’s lips parted, but no sound came. She could not mourn.

  Leritted his teeth. His obsidian warhorse, surrounded, kicked and reared, trampling demoh its hooves.

  Leonhardt’s grip tightened. His body ached, his mana reserves thinned, but still, he stood. He parried arike, crushed another demon’s skull beh his boot, but the weight of battle ushing him to the brink.

  And then—

  A sudden shift in the air.

  A thunderous impact behind him.

  The ground shuddered, a metallic screech splitting the battlefield. The demons froze, their predatory snarls faltering. Even the succubus took a step back, her expression shifting from fideo uainty.

  Leonhardt turned—and saw it.

  A form loomed behind him and Selene, bathed in the dim glow of fire and blood. Eight t legs, razed and angur, smmed into the earth, carvirenches into the battlefield. Its mandibles snapped forward, in a precision—cleaving a demon in half. A massive front leg lifted, intercepting an ining attack, the forpact sending a shockwave rippling outward.

  Then, a whirring hum.

  A fsh of red light.

  And in the instant—

  A searing bst of explosioed from the creature bodies, tearing through the demon horde in an explosion of molten age.

  The battlefield fell silent.

  And as the smoke began to clear, the only sound was the eerie meical whir of the monstrous war mae—its red eye glowing, unblinking.

  Bretayal