The sun hadn’t even crawled its lazy butt down the horizon yet and Grace was already drowning in her own sweat.
[I’m supposed to be immortal, right? This armor and this heat are gonna put that to the test.]
She stood at the edge of town with Seraph and Valkyrie, all three of them staring at Mount Ignata like it might suddenly sprout legs and walk away. Which honestly? Would be nice. Way easier than what they were actually about to do.
Behind them, Alia’s voice rang out.
"GO GRACE GO! KILL THOSE DEMONS! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU’VE GOT!"
Grace turned around slowly. Very slowly.
Alia and Zephyr had sohow acquired pom-poms. Pink and blue strears that sparkled.
"Where... where did you even find those?"
"Made them!" Alia did a little jump, her barely-there outfit leaving nothing to imagination. "From curtains!"
"MY CURTAINS!" The beef jerky innkeeper’s head popped out of a window. "THOSE WERE ANTIQUES!"
"We’ll pay you back!" Zephyr promised cheerfully. She did a high kick that definitely flashed everyone. "After Grace saves the world!"
"I’m not saving the—"
"YOU’VE GOT THIS!" Both Love Sisters shouted in unison. "FUCK. HER. UP!"
Valkyrie’s eye twitched. Then twitched again. Grace was pretty sure she was having a minor stroke.
"Are they always like this?"
"Yes."
"Fantastic." Valkyrie’s scarred hands clenched and unclenched. "Love Sisters doing choreographed cheers while we wait to get incinerated. This is how I die. Not in glorious battle. Watching two idiots wave curtains around."
"Hey!" Alia protested. "Moral support is important!"
"Very important!" Zephyr added.
Grace rubbed her temples
"Can we maybe focus on the demons that are about to—"
The air changed, trying to ignore her growing headache.
It went from regular desert-hot to oh-fuck-sothing’s-wrong hot. The kind of heat that made your lungs seize up. Made your skin prickle.
"They’re coming," Valkyrie said. All business now, her hand on her sword.
Grace tried to find them. Shapes moving down the mountain. Fast. Way too fucking fast. Numbers blazed above their heads—level fifty, fifty-five, sixty-three, and—
[Oh crap.]
"Fifteen of them," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "All- uh, I an, they all look pretty strong."
"How can you tell?" Seraph asked.
"Gut feeling."
"Okay. How strong do you think?" Seraph’s grip tightened on her sword.
"Really strong."
"That’s... helpful."
The demons burst into view properly and Grace’s stomach dropped to sowhere around her ankles. Fire given form, but not in any pretty taphorical way. So walked on two legs like mockeries of humans. Others crawled on all fours, leaving molten footprints. All of them had too many teeth and probably had a hard-on for violence.
The lead demon screeched. Grace swallowed.
"Positions!" Seraph barked.
Right. They’d planned this. Sort of. Seraph would draw their attention. Valkyrie would flank. Grace would stab things until they stopped moving forever.
Simple.
[Nothing about this is simple and this is going to hurt.]
The first demon reached them faster than Grace expected. Seraph t its charge head-on, her sword clashing against claws that glowed white-hot. Sparks flew everywhere.
The demon swiped left. Seraph leaned right, the claws missing her face by inches. Her knee ca up hard into its gut, folding the creature in half.
Before it could recover, Seraph’s sword swept down. The demon’s head rolled away, already dissolving into ash. But three more were already closing in.
"Any ti now, Grace!"
Grace’s body moved on autopilot. Three months of getting her ass kicked in training had beaten so instincts into her. She darted in, summoned her Blade of Eternia, her tiny little rapier, and drove it straight through the demon’s spine.
The thing scread. Then it did that beautiful thing where it dissolved into nothing instead of just falling down to get back up later.
Two more demons rushed Valkyrie. Valkyrie struck, dodged, and dodged again. Her sword left silver trails in the air that hurt to look at.
"Little help!"
Grace sprinted over, nearly tripping on rubble. She managed to stab one demon while it was busy trying to bite Valkyrie’s face off. The second demon spun toward her, mouth opening wide.
[Oh shit that’s fire—]
Seraph’s boot connected with its head hard enough to snap its neck sideways.
"Pay attention, rookie!"
The demon stumbled. Grace’s blade found its heart. Another one down.
Behind them, Alia and Zephyr had started a full chant.
"G-R-A-C-E! WHAT DOES THAT SPELL? GRACE! WHO’S GONNA WIN? GRACE! WHO HAS THE BEST BUTT? ALSO GRACE!"
"Is this really helping?" Valkyrie grunted. She had three demons trying to turn her into a kebab and was sohow holding them off.
"Morale support is crucial!" Zephyr did a cartwheel. An actual cartwheel. In the middle of a demon attack. "GO TEAM GRACE!"
A demon broke through their defensive line, heading straight for the Love Sisters.
[No no no no—]
Valkyrie may as well have teleported, the way she appeared by their side and took the demon down.
"Ugh, gross! Flaming demon muck!" Alia swatted at her body.
"GRACE! LESS STARING, MORE KILLING!" Seraph’s voice cut through the mont.
Right.
The fight turned into chaos. Pure, exhausting chaos. Grace lost track of individual monts. It all blurred together—dodge the claws, stab the thing, try not to die. Repeat until everything hurt.
Seraph and Valkyrie did most of the real work. Grace just had to land the killing blows, but even that was getting harder. Her arms felt like overcooked noodles.
A massive demon nearly took her head off. Would have, if Valkyrie hadn’t full-body tackled her.
They hit the ground hard, rolling through ash and gravel. The demon’s claws scraped stone where Grace’s neck had been.
"Watch your fucking left!"
"I was watching my right!"
"Watch both!"
"I only have two eyes!"
They scrambled apart. The demon lood over them, Level 70 blazing above its head like a sign that said ’You’re fucked.’
Seraph dropped from the sky like an avenging angel—which, technically, she was. Her sword punched through the demon’s skull with a wet crunch.
"Stop arguing and kill it!"
Grace lurched to her feet and stabbed the thing through the chest. It dissolved with a sound like screaming wind.
[That was way too close.]
More demons poured down the mountain. How many had the Fla sent? This wasn’t a scouting party. This was a fucking army.
"There’s too many!" Valkyrie’s silver hair was matted with ash and blood. Not her blood, thankfully.
"We hold!" Seraph commanded. But even she sounded strained. "None of them are Primal. Don’t be scared!"
The ground shook.
Not from the demons. From the mountain itself.
"ENOUGH!"
The word made Grace pull back. Her ears rang. The remaining demons froze mid-attack, then scrambled back up the slopes like kids who’d just heard dad co ho.
The Fla’s voice rolled down from the peak, carried on wind that slled like sulfur and rage.
"I grow tired of gas. Co, Eternia. Face properly. Or I’ll burn this entire town to glass."
Silence fell over everything. Even the wind stopped.
Behind them, Alia’s pom-poms drooped.
"Well," Grace said into the quiet. "Guess... that’s my cue."
She tried to sound confident. Ca out more like soone had grabbed her by the throat.
"You’re not going alone." Seraph wiped demon blood off her sword. The blade still glowed faintly. "I’m coming with you."
"Seraph—"
"That’s an order, rookie." Her commander voice was in full effect. "I told everyone back at the Dominion I’d keep you alive. I intend to keep that promise."
"I can handle—"
"I don’t care." Seraph’s eyes blazed. "You think I’m letting you walk up there alone? After I spent three months teaching you which end of a sword to hold? Not happening."
Grace wanted to argue. This was her fight. Her burden. Her weird divine identity crisis to sort out.
But looking at Seraph’s face—jaw set, eyes hard, already ntally preparing for battle—she just nodded.
"Okay."
"We’ll stay here," Valkyrie said. She looked around at all the dissolved demon corpses. "Make sure nothing doubles back to the town."
"And we’ll keep cheering!" Alia had already perked back up. "From a safe distance!"
"Very safe," Zephyr agreed. "Like, behind several buildings safe."
"But with enthusiasm!"
Grace looked up at Mount Ignata. The peak was wreathed in smoke and fire that moved in ways fire shouldn’t move. Shapes in the flas that might have been faces. Or screaming mouths.
Sowhere up there, a piece of Eternia’s discarded rage waited for her. Thought she was Eternia. Wanted to prove... sothing.
[The identity issues are gonna be the death of .]
"Ready?" Seraph asked.
"No."
"Good. ans you’re not stupid." Seraph started walking toward the mountain path. "Let’s go et a god."
Grace followed, her legs feeling like they were made of water. Every step took them closer to what was probably going to be a very painful, very fiery death.
[At least it’ll be quick. Probably. Hopefully.]
Behind them, Alia’s voice carried on the wind:
"GO GRACE GO! TRY NOT TO DIE! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!"
Grace sighed.
[Well...] She looked up. [That’s nice.]
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