Thud! Thud! Thud!
From within they emerged.
Towering behemoths of men, their bodies clad in obsidian armor that seemed to drink the faint starlight. Each stood at least seven feet tall, their forms unnervingly still, as if carved from the night itself. Their faces were hidden behind full helms fashioned into grinning skulls, their sockets burning with the same crimson fire that now bled from my portal.
In their gauntleted right hands, they clutched massive halberds, the axe-heads glowing with malevolent runes, and in their left hands, they carried black metal tower shields lined with wicked spikes. A single blood-red rune pulsed on every shield, beating slowly like a heart.
These were my Crimson Sentinels.
The Harbingers of Silence.
The elven nobles, still naked and slick from their debauchery, froze. The orgiastic frenzy that had filled the clearing moments ago curdled into pure, animal terror.
One sentinel stepped forward.
Then another.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Each step made the wooden platform tremble.
The clearing, once filled with moans and drunken laughter, now echoed only with the slow march of death.
Behind me, the portal continued to widen.
More silhouettes appeared within the crimson vortex.
Sylvana's eyes widened.
"You…" she whispered, gripping the World Tree staff tighter. "What are those things?"
I tilted my head slightly, smiling.
"My greeting committee."
Another line of sentinels marched out of the portal, forming a massive wall of black armor behind me. Their halberds lowered in perfect synchronization, the sound of metal locking into place ringing across the forest.
CLANG.
The old demon recovered first.
"Kill her!" he snarled, his illusion fully cracking now. His skin rippled as patches of reddish flesh and jagged horns flickered beneath the failing disguise. "She is the source! Kill the intruder before she disrupts the ritual!"
The four disguised "elves" behind him instantly dropped their illusions.
Their bodies twisted grotesquely.
Bones cracked.
Skin split.
Within seconds, the elven forms collapsed, revealing their true shapes—thin, long-limbed demons with charcoal skin and too many joints in their arms. Their yellow eyes burned with murderous hunger.
Each one began to form magical seals in the air, demonic energy crackling around them. Within seconds, multiple small portals opened from within them, disgorging swarms of skittering black bugs.
"Go!" they screeched. "Destroy her!"
The demonic swarm surged toward me.
Aeli whimpered, burying her face against my chest.
I didn't even look.
I didn't need to.
"Kill them all," I ordered. "Except the queen."
THUD!
"YES, MOTHER!" three hundred metallic voices responded in unison.
The ground didn't just shake; it groaned under the collective weight of three hundred killing machines. The heavy sound of their armored boots striking the earth became the metronome of slaughter. Each beat was another life snuffed out, another scream swallowed by the silence that followed.
The demonic swarm hit first. Thousands of skittering, obsidian-shelled bugs, each trailing a wake of corrosive rot, carpeted the ground like a living shadow.
"Shields!" the lead harbinger barked.
The frontline slammed their tower shields into the earth. The blood-red runes on the black metal flared with a blinding, rhythmic pulse. As the bugs collided with the shields, they didn't bite or sting; they disintegrated.
"Advance!"
The line moved forward. Each step was deliberate, crushing any survivors beneath spiked sabatons. The space between my army and the remaining demons shrank by ten feet.
The swarm broke against them like waves against a cliff.
Halberds rose.
Halberds fell.
WHOOM! WHOOM! WHOOM!
"PURGE THE FILTHY XENO!" The leading sentinel bellowed, its voice a metallic death rattle, as its halberd cleaved two bugs in half in a single arc. Black blood sprayed across obsidian armor, only to sizzle and evaporate without a trace.
"SLAY THE UNWORTHY!" another one roared, its shield smashing into a big bug trying to sneak past the left flank, the impact audible over the din, crushing bone and sending the creature flying into a tree with a wet crunch. Without breaking stride, the sentinel reversed its halberd and drove the spike at the base of the blade into the fallen bug's head.
The fight was over before it began. A brutal, symphonic execution.
"Hmph. Pathetic," I muttered.
The old demon stood, frozen in place, his true form fully revealed—a hunched old creature with skin the color of dried blood. He stared at my legion, a flicker of true fear in his yellow eyes.
"This is impossible…" he stammered. Then he turned to his subordinates. "Don't waste time using bugs; summon our forces."
"Hmph. Pathetic," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "More trash is still trash."
Four remaining demons began chanting in unison, their hands weaving new patterns, summoning greater horrors from their home dimension.
My sentinels weren't idle.
As the demons chanted, my army changed formation.
The front line of sentinels slammed their tower shields into the earth with a deafening CLANG. Behind them, the second rank knelt, placing their shields atop the first. The third rank did the same.
Within seconds, a massive, interlocking shield wall—a black metal tortoise—formed, its entire structure humming with the combined power of the blood-red runes. The air in front of the shield wall shimmered, distorting as the runes projected an invisible barrier of energy.
Screaming, multi-limbed horrors poured from the demonic portals. They were met with a wall of absolute black.
"Let them tire themselves against our iron!" the lead sentinel commanded, its amplified voice cutting through the creatures' shrieks. "Let them learn the meaning of despair!"
A massive, hulking brute with four arms and a mouth full of needle-like teeth slammed into the shield wall. The impact should have shattered stone.
The shield wall didn't even tremble.
SQUELCH.
A halberd shot from a gap in the shields, a blur of obsidian steel, and impaled the brute through its open mouth, exiting the back of its skull with a spray of black ichor.
The shield wall held.
The portal behind me pulsed again.
This time, one figure emerged.
Winged as black as the moonless night, its armor was not the bulky plate of the sentinels but sleek, form-fitting, etched with veins of crimson that looked like living blood. Its helm was a masterpiece of artistry—the skull of some great bird of prey, a wicked, jagged beak jutting forward. In its gauntleted right hand, it held not a halberd, but a long black spear. On its left, a shield shaped like a round black mirror.
"Mother," the figure spoke, her white hair visible beneath her helm. "My will is yours to command."
"Eir." I nodded. My first Valkyrie daughter.
Behind Eir, more of her kind appeared, assembling into perfect, silent ranks. There were four Valkyries in total, two red-feathered wings, and two black bat wings.
The red-haired Valkyrie—born from my War aspect—with massive phoenix-like wings stepped forward, her armor glowing with an inner heat.
"Oyya~... mother," she said, her voice a crackling of embers. "Shall we burn the world clean?"
"Patience, my dear," I said, shifting my gaze to one of the black-haired Valkyrie, born from my night and blood aspects.
"The stench of weakness sickens me, mother," she said, her voice a whisper of cold iron. "Let me spill their entrails and paint the ground with their blood."
"Hehe..." A chuckle came from the last one, her helm shaped like a skull, with large ram horns curling around it. Somehow, she inherited some of my minor lust aspect. "I'd rather play with them for a bit. Maybe break their minds before their bodies?~"
They were my monsters. My Valkyrie daughters. My beautiful, deadly creations.
"Kill everyone except the elven queen and the old demon," I commanded. "I have some... questions for them."
"As you wish," Eir said, her spear igniting with black energy.
"By your will," they all spoke in unison.
Then they moved.
They were not a wall of death like the Sentinels. They were a storm. They flew high into the air, their wings a blur of black and red feathers. Then they came crashing like a meteor shower, their spears and swords raining down on the demons.
The old demon watched, his face a mask of disbelief and terror.
"NO! NO! THIS CANNOT BE!" he roared, his voice cracking. He turned, gazing at the queen's back. "YOU! YOU BROUGHT THIS UPON US!"
Without hesitation, he attacked her with his black staff, its tip glowing with a sickening green light.
"Eh?..." Sylvana's eyes widened. She tried to dodge, but the staff was too fast.
"What are you doing?!" she screamed, the green light hitting her chest, then splitting up, binding her arms and legs.
"The ritual must be complete!" the demon roared, a desperate, insane glint in his eyes. "I will use you as the vessel! You are the queen! Your body is strong! Your blood is pure! You will bear our god!"
"NO! YOU CAN'T!" Sylvana struggled, but the green energy held her fast.
The old demon did care about her. He just needed a vessel. He dragged the queen to the center, forced the golden cup of mixed essence into her hands, and then, with a flick of his wrist, he made her pour the entire contents into her mouth.
Then he began to chant in a demonic tongue.
"Eir," I called out.
"Yes, mother?" Instantly, my daughter appeared before me.
"Take care of Aeli," I said, gently handing the trembling elf to her.
"Of course, mother." Eir wrapped her arms around Aeli, her touch gentle.
"M-Morgana..."
"Don't worry, little rose," I whispered to Aeli, stroking her hair. "I'll be back soon."
I then turned my gaze to the wooden platform, a predatory grin spreading across my face.
"It's my turn to have some fun."