Chapter 58
[Ren POV]
The alarm hit the rec sector hard enough to kill every conversation in the room.
I set my drink down and looked toward the speaker mounted in the corner.
"All personnel, prepare for deployment. Gibraltar sector is under attack. Ismaila sector is also under attack by a second wave. Repeat, Gibraltar and Ismaila are under monster assault. Sector teams report to assigned deployment points."
Jean stood before the message finished.
Luna was already moving.
I picked up my scabbard-box from beside my chair and slung it over my shoulder. I had not bothered putting it away after the spar. Apparently the universe liked rewarding laziness now and then.
"I'll take Gibraltar," I said.
Jean looked at me. "We take Ismaila?"
"You and Luna. Keep the support line alive until reinforcements settle."
Luna gave me a long look. There was worry in her eyes, maybe doubt, maybe too many questions she did not have time to ask.
Questions could wait their turn behind monsters.
"Don't die," she said.
"Bossy already."
"That was not a joke."
"I know."
Jean adjusted the strap of her healer kit. "Ren."
"I'll be fine." I glanced toward the door. "Time to take my siblings to their first real Human Realm fight."
Then I teleported straight to the demon barracks.
The room was already moving.
Marasuki looked up as I appeared. "You are late."
"I was drinking."
"That explains your timing."
Lucas was buckling on his gear. Hendrian had his straps perfect and his face too pale. Sara bounced on her heels like the alarm had personally invited her to a festival. Serena looked relaxed, which meant she was paying too much attention. Julia was already checking everyone's translator and making annoyed little corrections like she had been born to weaponize competence. Tim stood near the door, quiet but ready.
That would have to be enough.
"We're going to Gibraltar," I said. "Marasuki and I observe unless someone is about to die. This is your first real field test with humans around. Do not show off. Do not panic. Do not wreck anything important unless the monster is standing on it."
Sara saluted too fast. "Yes, Commander!"
"Too cheerful."
"Sorry, Commander!"
"Still cheerful."
Julia tightened her glove. "You think this is a scouting push?"
"If I'm right, yes. This is not the full invasion. Something is testing response times, defenses, and command habits." I looked over all of them. "That does not make it safe."
Hendrian nodded. "Understood."
Lucas rolled his shoulders. "So we kill monsters and try not to embarrass ourselves."
"Mostly. In your case, start with not embarrassing yourself."
"Rude."
"Training."
Marasuki grinned.
I pointed toward the exit. "Move."
We reached the deployment strip with soldiers already loading onto cargo planes. Engines roared. Floodlights cut through the dusk. Human soldiers shouted over one another while crews dragged crates, stretchers, and ammo cases into position.
Hendrian glanced at me. "You are not teleporting us?"
"No. You are going to deploy like the rest of the military."
"Why?"
"Because if you want to fight beside humans, you need to know how humans reach a fight."
Lucas looked at the cargo plane. "Loudly, apparently."
"Correct."
I walked up the ramp of the nearest plane like I had been invited.
I had not.
A U.S. captain turned and blocked the aisle. "What do you want?"
"You headed to Gibraltar?"
The pilot looked back from the cockpit. "Yes, ma'am. Emergency reinforcement run."
"Then we're riding with you."
The captain's jaw tightened. "Like hell you are."
I looked at him.
He had the kind of beard that came with too much confidence and not enough recent consequences. U.S. Marine. Probably angry about the assignment before I even stepped onto his plane.
"Commander Ren Daimonas," I said. "Demon-side deployment lead. Move."
"I don't take orders from demons."
"Then take one from the alarm screaming in your ear."
His vice captain stepped in fast. "Sir, we're going to the same place. We need to lift."
The captain glared at him. "Jim."
Jim did not back down. "Sir."
The pilot shouted, "We're taking off. Everyone sit down or fall down."
That ended the argument better than I could have.
We took the bench seats along one side of the cargo bay. The Marines sat across from us, tense and watching. My siblings tried not to watch them back. They were doing a terrible job.
Serena leaned closer to me. "He is going to be a problem."
"Probably."
"You are calm about that."
"He has too many witnesses to do anything stupid right now."
"Including surveillance?" she asked in Narlic.
"Always assume someone is watching."
Sara leaned forward from my other side. "Ren-sis, you think Lucas will be alright?"
Lucas looked offended. "I am right here."
"You can still be not alright right here," Sara said.
I glanced at him. "He'll freeze for a second. Then he'll remember he is not useless."
Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it.
That was about as much progress as I expected from him before a fight.
A Marine across from us tilted his head at me. "Hey. Demon girl with the colorful eyes."
I blinked. "That better be going somewhere useful."
He lifted both hands. "Why join us? Heard your group has no combat experience."
"Not in this realm."
"That supposed to make us feel better?"
"No."
He stared at me.
Serena leaned forward slightly. "Her honesty gets worse under stress."
"It gets better," I said. "People just like lies."
The plane rattled as it climbed.
For a few minutes, the only sounds were engines, gear checks, and the occasional clipped order from the cockpit. Hendrian sat too straight. Tim's fingers moved through a silent count. Sara kept peeking toward the rear ramp. Julia watched the Marines like she was deciding which of them would make the most paperwork. Lucas looked relaxed, but his left knee kept bouncing.
The hull shook.
Hard.
Hendrian grabbed the strap beside him. "What was that?"
"Airborne monsters," one Marine muttered. "Welcome to Gibraltar."
I stood and made my way toward the cockpit.
The captain snapped, "Sit down."
"No."
Jim rubbed his face like he had already accepted this was his life now.
I reached the cockpit and looked through the forward window.
The sky ahead was filthy with movement. Harpies swarmed in messy packs. Smaller wyverns cut through the clouds with quick turns. The plane's guns flashed, but the monsters were thick enough that the tracers only carved lanes for a few seconds before the gaps filled again.
"You okay flying through this?" I asked.
The pilot gripped the controls. "Guns are holding for now, but it's dense."
"How far?"
"Almost over the outer wall."
"Open the rear door."
The pilot glanced back. "Ma'am, we are eight hundred meters up."
"Yeah. Humans jump out of planes all the time."
Jim stepped closer. "Not without gear."
I sighed. "Fine. I'll clear the air support."
The captain barked, "You will do no such—"
I teleported out before he finished.
Cold wind hit me like a slap.
I appeared above the cargo plane, high enough to see the swarm curling around it. Harpies shrieked and turned toward me. Wyverns snapped their wings and dove.
I drew Hou Yao first.
Fire caught along the blade, red-gold and tight against the edge. I cut through the nearest harpy before it finished screaming, then shifted three meters sideways and took the wing off a wyvern diving past the plane's left engine.
The body spun away, and I kept moving before the gap closed again.
I kept the jumps short. No wasted movement. No big show unless the swarm forced it. Hou Yao burned through anything close to the hull. Ors flashed bright enough to blind a pack of harpies before they could claw at the cockpit glass. Heian Emo cut through the darker shapes trying to slip underneath the belly of the plane.
Fushi Emo came out only once.
A wyvern barreled straight for the ramp, mouth open and claws tucked close. I drew the green blade, stepped into its path, and cut across its throat. Rot spread fast, ugly and quiet. The wyvern went limp before it could even fall properly.
Useful blade, but nasty enough that I sent it back to the box and used the others.
The monsters did not think like normal animals. That bothered me. Harpies should scatter after enough losses. Wyverns should avoid the fire. Instead, the swarm shifted around my attacks and kept trying to push me away from the plane's rear.
Someone was giving pressure.
Not orders exactly. Pressure.
I cut through another pair of harpies, pulled Ors back into my hand, and let the light flare once.
The sky went white.
The cargo plane broke through the thinning swarm.
That would have to do.
I teleported back to the rear ramp, boots hitting metal as the Marines and my siblings stared.
"The air is mostly clear," I said, wiping monster blood off my jaw. "You can handle the rest."
No one moved.
I clapped once. "Hey. War still happening."
That got them moving.
The pilot shouted from the cockpit, "Rear ramp opening!"
Wind tore into the cargo bay as the ramp lowered.
The captain shouted orders to his Marines. His voice had less ego now. Not none. Just less. Jim moved beside him, calmer, already directing his squad.
Marasuki stepped up beside me and looked down at the drop. "You cleared half the sky alone."
"Mostly around the plane."
"Show-off."
"Efficient."
Sara bounced closer. "Are we jumping?"
"Yes."
Hendrian looked over the edge. "That is very far."
"It is lower than it was."
"That does not help."
Marasuki jumped first because she liked pretending she did not enjoy things.
Sara followed with a laugh that got ripped away by the wind. Serena went next, light on her feet. Tim swallowed hard and jumped without saying anything. Julia gave me one annoyed look like this was somehow my fault, then stepped off cleanly.
Lucas stayed at the ramp.
I looked at him.
He looked down.
"Do not say anything," he warned.
"I was not going to."
"You were."
"Eventually."
He stepped forward, hesitated, then jumped badly enough that I almost respected the commitment to disaster.
I jumped after him.
The wind screamed around us.
Sara did well, warping between shadows cast by the plane, the wall, and the monsters below in short, clever skips. Serena fell with frightening grace, using shield bursts under her feet to adjust her descent. Tim formed sheets of ice in the air, stepping off them one after another. Hendrian was stiff, but his control held. Julia used compact Soul Power barriers to slow herself and landed near the inner wall like she had planned the whole thing.
Lucas flailed like gravity had insulted his bloodline.
I sighed and teleported him to the ground before he could invent a new way to break a leg.
He appeared beside a bunker entrance on one knee, breathing hard.
I landed beside Marasuki on top of the inner wall.
She was watching Serena's descent.
"You do not need to worry," I said. "She is catkin. She'll land on her feet."
"She is doing well," Marasuki said. "Better than half the Marines."
"That bar is on the floor, but it still counts."
The Marines landed in more organized fashion, helped by Jim's telekinetic control. Rifles came up fast. Boots hit the wall. Orders snapped into place. Human soldiers were good at making chaos look like a checklist.
Then I looked inside the fort sector.
Gibraltar was a mess.
The outer energy barrier still held in sections, flickering where monsters slammed against it. Other pieces had gone down completely. Emergency shield posts sparked along the wall. Inside the defensive ring, smaller monsters had already breached through broken service gates and drainage lines.
Civilians were in bunkers. Regular soldiers were pulling back to layered positions. Someone here still had a brain.
"Focus on containment!" I shouted. "Do not chase into the streets. Keep them off the bunkers and away from the shield posts."
The siblings moved.
Tim raised both hands and sent ice spikes into spiderlings climbing the inner wall. The first three fell. Two more kept coming. He adjusted and pinned them through the joints.
"They're all over the place!" he shouted.
"Then stop looking at all of them," I called back. "Pick a lane."
Sara vanished into a shadow near the wall and appeared beside a pack of acid hounds trying to slip through a maintenance gap. She cut one through the neck, skipped backward before the acid blood splashed, and shouted, "Flank gap!"
Julia moved without needing an order. A shield snapped into place over the gap while two human soldiers dragged a wounded man clear.
Serena dropped from the battlement into the courtyard, daggers flashing. A shield burst kicked under her feet midair, changing her angle just enough to avoid an ogre's swing. She landed on the beast's shoulder, carved across its neck, then sprang away before it fell.
Hendrian stayed high on the wall. His hands moved in sharp patterns, placing explosive Soul Power marks along the ground below. Each one flared red before detonating, not huge, but controlled enough to break monster charges without blowing holes in the fort.
He remembered the part where walls were expensive.
Lucas, now grounded and angry at gravity, summoned fire around his fists and slammed into a charging ogre. His first hit was ugly. The second was better. The third cracked the ogre's jaw sideways and dropped it to one knee.
"Good!" I shouted. "Keep pushing, but do not overextend!"
A Marine near me stared down at the courtyard. "They're tearing through them."
"They're supposed to."
"They are also tearing through the courtyard."
"They'll clean it up later."
The Marine looked at me.
"What?" I said. "It is a learning experience."
Marasuki laughed.
I dropped from the wall and teleported beside Sara as a beast twice her size lunged at her from behind.
She barely dodged its claws. "Little help?"
"I thought you had the flank."
"I have most of the flank."
"Greedy flank."
I drew Heian Emo and sent a wave of shadow tendrils across the ground. They caught the beast's legs and locked it in place. Sara stepped in with a clean upward slash, cutting deep into its underbelly before kicking away from the blood spray.
The monster collapsed with a heavy groan.
"Better," I said.
Sara grinned. "That was better?"
"Do not make me regret saying it."
I teleported back to the wall.
Marasuki stood beside Hendrian now, watching the field with narrowed eyes.
"They're adapting," she said.
I followed her gaze.
She was right.
The monsters were not just throwing themselves at the nearest targets anymore. Small groups shifted away from Tim's ice. The acid hounds stopped trying Sara's gap after Julia sealed it. Harpies circled higher, avoiding the plane's guns now that they had seen the firing pattern.
Too fast.
Too coordinated.
"These are not just beasts," I said.
Hendrian looked at me. "Someone is guiding them?"
"Looks that way."
Below us, Lucas punched through another ogre's knee and nearly got clipped by a second one because he celebrated too early.
"Lucas!" I shouted.
He ducked as Serena's dagger flashed over his head and cut the ogre's wrist open.
Serena landed beside him, panting lightly. "That one was ugly."
"The ogre?" Lucas asked.
"Your timing."
He scowled. "I killed mine."
"And almost died admiring it."
"Enough flirting," I said.
Both of them looked at me like I had insulted their bloodline.
Embarrassment kept people alert. I was basically doing them a service.
A fresh roar rolled out from beyond the outer barrier.
The monsters inside the wall paused.
Not stopped. Paused.
Every head turned toward the forest.
My grip tightened around Heian Emo.
Marasuki's ears twitched.
"There," she said quietly.
I saw movement between the trees. Not the main wave. Not an ogre. Not a harpy.
Something smaller. Smarter.
Watching.
The attack was not the message.
It was the test, and someone had stayed close enough to grade us.