The Broken Halo

Darkness Kingdom Rebels.

Sonya remembered the chained demon who had been dragged from a carriage at Velmora’s gate. Mira had said that he might have been a rebel trying to enter the city.

It seemed the demon’s companions had succeeded.

Inside the chamber, the thief approached the demon with the heaviest presence.

The leader was a Half-Step Greater Demon.

He sat at the end of the room while two Supreme Archfiends stood close to him. When the thief handed him Sonya’s spatial ring, the leader examined it briefly.

”The child’s demonic energy is still on it. No. Maybe it’s the child’s guardian since the demonic energy is too powerful for it to come from a child.”

He glanced at one of the Supreme Archfiends.

”Can you remove it?”

The Supreme Archfiend glanced at it with slightly furrowed brows.

”It will take time.”

Sonya pushed away from the wall.

She had heard enough.

The rebels were preparing to sabotage a convoy carrying spatial materials, hell stones, stabilization cores, and other resources being sent to the rift.

It sounded important.

But that was not why Sonya stepped into the chamber.

Her ring was in the leader’s hand.

The first demon to notice her froze.

Sonya walked out of the tunnel with a relaxed expression, and the conversations inside the chamber slowly died.

More than twenty gazes settled on her.

The thief’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

”You...”

Sonya ignored him and faced the Half-Step Greater Demon sitting at the end of the room.

”Give me back my ring.”

The leader looked at the ring, then at Sonya’s small body.

Before he could speak, one of the Supreme Archfiends beside him took a step forward.

His breathing changed.

”I know her.”

The other rebels turned toward him.

”She participated in the recruitment today,” he said. ”Honourable Sonya. A Supreme Archfiend with peak S grade earth affinity.”

The thief slowly moved backward in fear and caution.

Sonya smiled in the direction of the Supreme Archfiend that recognized her.

”Ohh?”

She tilted her head slightly and looked at him from top to bottom.

”Oh yeah. Now that I think about it, I recognize you. You were one of the ordinary ones. So you’re a rebel?”

She laughed softly and with immense amusement and excitement.

”Interesting. Truly interesting.”

”Who knew that rebels were part of the recruitment. Not bad at all.”

The leader rose from his seat. The air inside the chamber became heavier as his demonic energy spread through it.

He looked at the maps and stolen materials around them, then back at Sonya.

She had heard too much.

Even if she had only followed them because of the stolen ring, allowing her to leave would expose everything they had prepared.

Besides, she knew their hideout and she also knew that they were rebels.

The leader placed Sonya’s ring inside his robe.

Sonya’s left eye twitched.

”Hey. That’s not yours.”

The leader, however, did not care about her words.

He looked at his subordinates.

”Kill her.”

Weapons were immediately drawn.

Demonic energy rose, and several tunnels behind Sonya were blocked by some rebels.

Sonya listened to the sound of blades leaving their sheaths, claws extending, and feet spreading across the stone floor.

She had left Simon because she wanted entertainment.

A thief had stolen her ring.

And somehow, she had found an underground rebel safehouse filled with demons who wanted to kill her.

Sonya’s smile slowly widened.

”I only came for my ring.”

The ground beneath the chamber trembled.

”But this is better. This is why I chose to follow him.”

She stretched out her hand at the rebels and gestured with one arm behind her back.

”Come. Let this Honourable teach you what your mother could not.”

For a brief moment, none of the rebels moved.

Sonya stood alone at the entrance of the chamber, surrounded by more than twenty demons. Some were Fiends, but most were Archfiends, and the tunnels behind her had already been blocked.

Yet she looked far more excited than afraid.

The Half-Step Greater Demon frowned.

”Kill her now.”

The command broke the hesitation.

Three Archfiends rushed toward Sonya from different directions. One carried a short sword, another had claws covered in demonic energy, while the third leapt into the air with a spear aimed at her head.

Sonya remained still.

She could feel all of them.

Their feet pressing against the floor.

Their breathing.

The movement of their weapons through the air.

Even the slight change in their heartbeats as they approached her.

Sonya moved when a sword was only a few inches from her neck.

She tilted her body, allowing the blade to pass beside her, then grabbed the demon’s wrist and pulled him into the path of the spear.

Pierce!

The spear entered the sword user’s chest.

Both demons froze.

Sonya released the wrist, stepped forward, and drove her elbow into the spear user’s throat.

Crack!

His neck bent backward, and his body crashed to the floor.

The claw user reached her from behind.

Sonya lowered her head, avoiding the claws, then kicked backward without turning around.

BAM!

Her heel struck his stomach.

The Archfiend folded around her foot and flew across the chamber, smashing into one of the stone tables. The table shattered beneath him, scattering stolen identity tokens and maps across the floor.

The remaining rebels became more cautious.

Sonya slowly lowered her leg.

”Is that all?”

Her tone was one of disappointment and a budding wildness.

The thief who stole her ring was already moving toward one of the tunnels. He was a mere Prime Fiend, and from what he just saw, he knew that Sonya could easily kill him.

He was the one that stole Sonya’s spatial ring, so he would definitely not be spared.

He wanted to escape.

Sonya sensed him immediately, but she did not stop him.

Not yet at least.

One of the Supreme Archfiends raised his hand.

”Destroy the lights.”

Several attacks struck the glowing stones fixed to the chamber walls.

Bang!

Bang!

The lights shattered one after another, and darkness swallowed the underground chamber.

Some of the rebels smiled.

Sonya’s own smile widened.

They foolishly believed darkness would help them.

They had no idea that it made no difference to her.

In fact, the darkness removed the advantage of sight from everybody else while leaving her senses untouched.

A metal blade cut toward her from the left.

Sonya shifted one step and allowed it to miss. She grabbed the attacker’s arm, twisted it until the bone snapped, then drove her palm into his chest.

BANG!

The Archfiend flew backward and collided with another rebel.

Before either could stand, the earth beneath them opened.

Both demons fell into the hole, and the ground closed over their screams.

The chamber became silent for half a second.

Then chaos erupted.

Flames, wind blades, metal spears, and stone projectiles moved toward Sonya from several directions. The attacks illuminated the darkness for brief moments, revealing her small figure standing at the centre of the chamber.

Sonya stomped lightly.

A thick wall of earth rose around her.

BOOM!

The attacks struck it from every direction, breaking pieces from its surface but failing to reach her.

Behind the wall, Sonya placed one hand against the ground.

Her senses spread through the entire underground structure.

She felt the rebels surrounding her.

The thief running through the eastern tunnel.

Several hidden rooms.

And beneath the chamber, she sensed something else.

Thin lines carved deeply into the foundation.

A formation.

The Half-Step Greater Demon had not joined the battle yet. He stood beside one of the walls with his hand resting on a hidden control rune.

Sonya’s expression changed slightly.

’Don’t tell me that...’

The formation was connected to every support holding the bathhouse and tunnels together.

If activated, the entire place would collapse.

The leader smiled in the darkness.

”You should have left when you had the chance.”

Sonya slowly turned in his direction and raised a brow.

”After stealing my ring?”

The leader poured his demonic energy into the control rune without responding to her words.

The formation beneath the chamber lit up.

Sonya’s smile disappeared, and the underground safehouse began to collapse.