The Broken Halo

”Are you looking down on me?”

Simon looked at the Grey Pike captain as though she had asked a question whose answer should have been obvious.

The woman’s silver spear remained lowered toward him. Aether flowed through her arms and entered the weapon, sharpening the pressure gathering around its tip.

”I will give you one piece of advice,” he said indifferently. ”If you value your life and those of your companions, leave. I will make sure my assault core does not chase you.”

The seven Demon Slayers stared at him with eyes filled with confusion and anger.

The woman’s fingers tightened around her silver spear.

”We were ordered to hold this road.”

Simon raised a brow.

”So you’ve made your choice?”

The female captain scoffed with killing intent.

”We are not the ones who will die here, demon.”

Simon gave a nonchalant shrug.

”Begin.”

Gravity suddenly pressed against the road.

Loose stones sank into the earth around Akaza’s feet, while the point of the captain’s spear dipped by a fraction. She corrected it immediately, but Akaza had already noticed.

”My first human,” he said as he approached her. ”Try not to disappoint me.”

Silver Aether erupted from the spear.

Akaza met it with one fist, and their first collision threw both of them toward the higher side of the road.

”Sonya,” Simon said.

Sonya walked forward while slowly twisting her neck

”Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let this Honourable warm up a little bit.”

Simon glanced at the last two members of his core.

”Virella and Rellis, take the remaining two. Keep them away from the Runemasters.”

The two of them nodded and moved.

Captain Veyran watched them separate, then he looked at Simon. ”You truly intend to remain here?”

”I said I would protect you,” Simon said indifferently.

”That is not what I meant,” Namis said uneasily. ”You seem stronger than them. Your control over the battlefield earlier was-”

”Do not look down on the members of my core.”

Namis fell silent.

Simon’s eyes remained on the battles.

”And most importantly, do not look down on my judgement. I assigned their opponents because I know what they can handle. Your inability to judge them does not make my decision wrong.”

None of the Runemasters spoke again.

Ahead, the Level 49 shield-bearer struck his rectangular shield against the ground.

A massive, headless knight formed behind him from dark-blue Aether. It carried a second shield broad enough to cover all four humans, and six translucent plates appeared around them.

The Guardian Blessing settled over the group like a fortress.

The Level 47 swordswoman raised her narrow blade. A white serpent made from frost coiled around her arm and breathed across the road. Ice swallowed the stone, filling every crack and burying the earth beneath a smooth frozen layer.

The Level 30 chain user whispered a prayer.

Golden symbols appeared across his hooked chain before it shot forward and wrapped around Sonya’s small body. The semi-divine presence within the symbols revealed the source of his Blessing.

A Guardian Blessing.

The chain did more than restrain. It weakened whatever resisted it while transferring that stolen strength to the person holding the other end.

Sonya looked at it with raised brows.

”Huhh? Interesting.”

Lastly, the Level 35 fighter brought his metal gauntlets together.

A four-armed Martial Spirit appeared around him.

The four humans had chosen their roles well.

The shield-bearer protected them. The swordswoman separated Sonya from the ground. The chain restrained and weakened her. The gauntlet user would finish the attack.

He rushed forward.

His first fist struck Sonya’s stomach.

The six arms of the Martial Spirit followed, each repeating the blow from a different angle. Seven impacts landed within a heartbeat, shattering the ice beneath her feet and sending a violent shockwave across the road.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

However... Sonya did not move.

Stones fell from the point of impact, and the gauntlet user’s eyes widened.

’When did she manipulate the earth to create a shield? And how was she able to do is so quickly and with such a sturdy defence?’

Her blind eyes settled in his direction.

”Was that your Blessing,” she asked, ”or did seven little kids just hit me badly?”

His face twisted, and he attacked again.

Sonya leaned aside. Every fist missed her by the width of a finger.

The chain user pulled, lifting her from the frozen ground, while the ice swordswoman appeared behind her and slashed toward her neck.

Sonya caught the blade between two fingers despite the chain binding her.

Frost climbed across her hand, but she didn’t seem concerned.

The swordswoman’s eyes widened.

”You froze the ground because you thought I needed my feet to see you,” Sonya said with a slight tilt of her head.

Metal groaned, and the sword bent between her fingers.

”The chain around me tells me where he is. Your sword tells me where you are. His gauntlets are louder than his breathing.”

Her blind gaze shifted toward the shield-bearer.

”And that enormous shield might as well be screaming.”

She closed her hand.

The narrow sword crumpled.

Before its owner could release it, Sonya pulled her forward and struck her forehead with a short headbutt.

The woman’s skull fractured and she lost consciousness.

The frost serpent dispersed into pale mist.

Sonya twisted her body and kicked her head while coating her feet with demonic energy.

Shatter!

Her skull shattered, then Sonya landed.

Earth resisted her through the ice and the pressure of its World Law. However, her smile widened.

She stamped once.

Her earth affinity surged beneath the frost, and the entire frozen section of the road rose.

Ice and stone folded upward like the jaws of a colossal beast. The six protective plates from the Guardian Blessing broke at the same time, and the three surviving humans were thrown apart.

The chain user screamed as Sonya’s metal affinity seized the links wrapped around her.

The hooked chain uncoiled from her body without his permission.

Then it reversed.

It wrapped around his wrists, throat, and waist.

”No!” Golden symbols flashed as he fought for control. ”That is mine!”

”You brought a metal you’ve not bonded with and to make it worse, a metal you’re not familiar with to fight me?”

Sonya tilted her head before chuckling.

”That was generous of you.”

The earth beneath him opened. The chain dragged him halfway into the ground before the stone closed around his waist.

Sonya flicked one finger.

The links tightened, then... his head left his shoulders.

Thud

Thud

Thud

Behind her, the gauntlet user released a roar. The six-armed spirit expanded, and all its fists drew backward with his own.

Sonya faced him calmly.

He hesitated.

Only for a moment, but Sonya heard it in his heartbeat.

”There it is,” Sonya said with a disappointed sigh. ”Your body still wants to fight, but your courage has already stepped away.”

He attacked anyway.

Seven fists descended.

Sonya jumped and raised one of hers while coating her fists with gauntlets made out of earth.

Her small fist struck the centre of the Martial Spirit’s chest.

The spirit burst apart.

The human’s gauntlets cracked. Both arms snapped backward, and the force entered his chest before erupting from his back in a spray of blood and armour.

His corpse flew down the slope.

Only the shield-bearer remained.

Elsewhere, Virella faced the Level 45 dual-spear fighter.

His Martial Blessing caused every thrust to leave two delayed copies behind it. Virella retreated from the first, blocked the second with bark covering her forearm, and flinched when the third cut across her cheek.

She was trembling, but she did not stop.

Roots moved beneath the road while the human concentrated on her frightened expression. They burst out behind him, wrapped around his ankles, and pulled.

He fell.

Virella drove a bark-covered fist into his chest, then a sharpened root passed through the opening her punch created.

Rellis’s opponent fired from farther up the slope.

A transparent marksman spirit hovered behind the Level 40 rifleman, and his Guardian Blessing curved every Aether bullet toward a marked target. Rellis surrounded himself with hundreds of floating drops, using each disturbance to read the bullets’ paths.

Water struck them from the side.

One missed his throat.

Another turned back toward its owner.

The rifleman barely avoided it, only for water to enter the barrel of his weapon. Rellis closed his hand.

The rifle exploded.

A thin stream passed through the human’s open mouth and tore out through the back of his skull.

Two more bodies fell.

The shield-bearer saw them.

He also saw what remained of his companions around Sonya.

The headless knight behind him raised its enormous shield, but cracks already covered its body. The man stepped backward despite not wanting to.

Sonya heard it.

One frightened step.

Then another.

She walked toward him, and despite the fact that she was short enough to the point that the ruined shield hid most of her body, the shield-bearer was still terrified of her.

”Stay back.”

Sonya continued.

The headless knight brought its shield down.

The metal in the human’s rectangular shield twisted first. Its edges folded around his arms and locked them in place.

Then the earth rose beneath his feet.

Stone climbed his legs, crushed his armour, and forced him to his knees before the little demoness.

The Guardian behind him shattered.

He stared at Sonya’s smile.

”You’re a monster,” he whispered. ”A demon.”

Sonya raised one finger and wagged it.

”Nah.”

Her smile widened.

”Refer to me as the Honoured One.”

The stone compressed, and his heartbeat stopped.