The lower courtyard of Zephyria was a chaotic bloody meat grinder.

The massive fleshy tentacles of the Abyssal Dreadnought had punched through the city’s Void-shield and anchored themselves directly into the black-stone pavement.

Thousands of heavy-class Abyssal monsters, hulking Brutes and jagged-armored Knights, poured out of the pulsating tubes and swarmed the defensive lines.

The mortal soldiers of the Zephyrian Empire were holding, but just barely.

"Shields up! Do not break the line!" the scarred Templar Captain roared.

His silver armor was dented and splattered with highly corrosive purple blood. The two hundred Solaris Templars formed a desperate curved wall of glowing holy light.

They struggled to hold back a relentless wave of twelve-foot-tall Abyssal Brutes.

High Ranger Celeste stood on the roof of a nearby barracks building with her heavy longbow drawn.

She was not shooting rapidly anymore. She was breathing heavily and sweat stung her eyes. She carefully tracked the chaotic melee below and picked her targets with absolute precision.

Twang!

An aether-tipped arrow buried itself deep into the eye socket of an Abyssal Knight just as it raised its massive rusted sword to execute a fallen militiaman.

The monster’s head exploded into purple ash, and the heavy sword clattered harmlessly to the ground.

"That’s forty-two," Celeste muttered to herself and winced as a sharp pain shot up her drawing arm. The physical toll of rapid-firing a heavy siege bow for an hour was immense even with the Warlord’s buffs.

"You’re counting? How incredibly quaint," a smooth mocking voice floated down from above.

Celeste did not flinch. She kept her eyes on the battlefield and smoothly notched another arrow.

"I prefer metrics, Princess," Celeste replied dryly. "It helps me ignore the fact that we are currently being overrun by giant rotting space bugs."

Princess Vexia landed gracefully on the roof beside the Ranger. The Sanguine Princess folded her massive red bat wings.

Her usually pristine crimson silk dress was stained with dark soot. She looked down at the swarming monsters in the courtyard with an expression of profound disgust.

"They are ruining the stonework," Vexia sighed and waved a dismissive pale hand toward the horde. "I spent hours weaving the blood wards into this sector. It is very rude of them to bleed all over it."

"If you’re not going to help, kindly step out of my line of sight," Celeste snapped and tracked a massive Brute trying to flank the Templars. "I have a job to do."

"Oh, I am going to help, little archer," Vexia smiled and revealed her razor-sharp fangs. "I was just waiting for the pressure to build up."

Vexia did not draw a weapon. She raised both hands and her eyes ignited with fierce blinding crimson light!

"Sanguine Detonation," the vampire whispered.

Down in the courtyard, the battlefield was slick with the foul corrosive purple blood of thousands of dead Abyssal monsters. It coated the cobblestones in thick bubbling puddles.

Suddenly, the purple blood stopped bubbling.

It shifted violently and turned a bright glowing unstable crimson!

The Abyssal Brutes and Knights stomping through the gore of their fallen comrades did not notice the magical shift until it was entirely too late.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The puddles of blood did not just ignite. They exploded with the concussive force of heavy artillery shells!

The entire courtyard became a massive chain-reacting minefield. The corrupted blood was purified and weaponized by Vexia’s Level 65 Blood Sorcery! It detonated directly beneath the feet of the invading horde.

Hundreds of massive Abyssal monsters were violently blown into the air! Their thick bone armor shattered from the inside out by the concentrated kinetic force of the sanguine explosions.

The shockwaves ripped through the dense formations and cleared entire swaths of the courtyard in seconds.

The Templars lowered their shields and stared in absolute shock as the monsters trying to crush them were suddenly vaporized by the ground they were standing on!

"By the Light..." the Templar Captain gasped and wiped purple ash from his visor.

Up on the roof, Celeste lowered her bow with her jaw dropping slightly as she watched the catastrophic destruction. She looked sideways at the vampire.

"You turned their own blood into landmines," Celeste noted with genuine awe in her voice.

"I am very resourceful," Vexia said proudly and crossed her arms and inspected her nails. "And it’s incredibly efficient. I don’t even have to aim."

"It’s effective," Celeste admitted and cracked a small tired grin. "But you missed a few."

Celeste smoothly drew her bow and fired a single perfectly aimed arrow.

The shaft zipped past Vexia’s ear and struck an Abyssal Knight that had survived the explosions and was attempting to climb the side of the barracks building.

The monster fell backward with an aether-arrow buried deep in its throat.

"Show-off," Vexia muttered, though a faint smirk touched her lips.

"We all have our talents," Celeste replied.

The dynamic between the two women had been frosty at best since Vexia joined the Warlord’s inner circle.

Celeste, the hardened practical mercenary, viewed the aristocratic dramatic vampire as a flighty liability. Vexia viewed the gritty mud-covered human ranger as hopelessly common.

But as they stood on the roof of the burning city, watching the endless tide of demons pour from the sky, the petty rivalry felt entirely irrelevant.

They were both fighting to protect the exact same thing.

Lucifer had pulled Celeste out of a life of bitter suicidal revenge. He had pulled Vexia out of a dying subterranean tomb.

He had given them both a home in the clouds, and they were absolutely ferociously determined to keep it from falling.

"The blood mines cleared the courtyard, but the tentacles are still pumping them in," Celeste observed with her tactical mind engaging.

She pointed toward the three massive fleshy tubes anchored into the black stone. "If we don’t sever the connection, they will eventually overrun the mortals by sheer attrition."

Vexia frowned and looked at the massive pulsing boarding tubes.

"I can’t detonate the tentacles," Vexia admitted and her crimson aura flickered slightly with frustration. "The flesh is too dense, and it’s saturated with pure Primordial Void magic. My blood sorcery can’t penetrate the outer membrane."

"We don’t need magic to cut them," Celeste said and her dark eyes narrowed. "We need raw physical trauma."

She tapped her comms rune.

"Titan Command," Celeste ordered sharply.

A heavy synthesized hum replied through the link.

"I need three Arcane Sentinels in Sector Four, immediately," Celeste commanded. "Target the boarding tubes.

Do not use aether-cannons; the splash damage will melt the Templars. Use the broadswords. Cut the lines."

"Understood, Commander," the synthesized voice confirmed.

The ground shook.

Three twenty-meter-tall Paladin-Mechs emerged from the shadows of the central keep! The golden giants marched with terrifying synchronized precision into the chaotic courtyard.

They completely ignored the scattered Abyssal monsters slashing uselessly at their indestructible Star-Metal legs.

The Mechs reached the three massive tentacles.

They raised their colossal twenty-foot Star-Metal broadswords simultaneously!

SHING!

The heavy blades came down in flawless brutal arcs! The pure physical mass of the Star-Metal combined with the holy smite enchantments cleaved cleanly through the thick fleshy boarding tubes.

The tentacles were severed perfectly!

Thick corrosive purple sludge sprayed across the courtyard as the upper halves of the massive tubes recoiled.

They violently snapped back up into the sky toward the Abyssal Dreadnought! The lower halves collapsed limply onto the cobblestones, dead and useless.

The endless stream of monsters abruptly stopped.

"The breach is sealed!" the Templar Captain roared triumphantly and rallied his exhausted men. "Clean up the stragglers! Purge the courtyard!"

The mortal soldiers reinvigorated by the sudden halt of enemy reinforcements surged forward and brutally hacked down the remaining isolated Abyssal beasts.

On the roof, Celeste let out a long shuddering sigh of relief. She lowered her bow and the tension finally left her aching shoulders.

"We held the lower tiers," Celeste said and looked up at the pitch-black Void-shield enclosing the city.

"We held the basement," Vexia corrected her and hovered slightly off the roof. The Sanguine Princess looked up at the massive imposing shadow of the Abyssal Dreadnought floating ominously just outside the shield. "The Warlord is still up there, on the enemy ship."

"He has Elara," Celeste noted smoothly with her absolute faith in Lucifer unwavering. "The Warlord doesn’t lose."

"I know," Vexia agreed quietly. A rare genuinely soft expression touched her pale face. "He is entirely too stubborn to die."

She turned back to the Ranger and her aristocratic smirk returned.

"You’re not a terrible shot, for a human," Vexia offered and crossed her arms.

Celeste chuckled and shook her head. "And you’re not entirely useless, for a giant bat."

The two commanders shared a brief silent nod of profound battlefield respect.

They had secured the foundation of the empire. Now, they just had to wait for the Emperor to finish tearing the roof off hell.