Vir knew Janani would keep the orphans cloistered and hidden—rather, it was the rebels who were the type to do something rash.
It soon became clear that Vir’s plan wouldn’t work. The distance between the walls was simply too vast, and while he dispatched enemies with ease—far faster than most demons would’ve thought possible—it wasn’t enough. By the time he finished with the monsters at the northern wall and arrived back south, the city was perilously close to falling.
More than once, Vir lamented the Chitran’s neglect of Samar Patag’s most valuable defense. If only they’d maintained the walls. If only they’d filled the gaps…
Faster. I need to take them down even faster.
Vir glanced up worriedly at Samar Patag’s ramparts. Whether emboldened by his success at protecting the city or because they had a death wish, he now had a gallery.
From this distance, he couldn’t be sure if it was Chitran guards or civilians, but either way, it meant his movements were now under scrutiny, his every strike observed.
Vir had two choices—continue as he had, thereby allowing Ash Beasts into the city, or unleash the might of his full power, revealing his unique strengths. Any unique power he used now, he’d have to hide in the future, lest people trace his identity back to Vaak.
Vir didn’t have to ponder hard. That risk was incomparable to the value of even a single life saved.
Reaching under his cloak, Vir retrieved the Artifact Chakram from his back.
He grinned. Let’s see how you do now.
The Artifact buzzed angrily, and were this the Ashen Realm, Vir could have left the weapon to its own devices, flying autonomously and annihilating any Ash Beast it came across.
The Demon Realm’s lack of prana, however, compromised its capability. Without prana to power it, the disk was no different from any other finely crafted chakram. Vir had spent long hours struggling with making it useful again.
The deadly razor blades spun at unimaginable speeds as it ripped through the air, homing in on the nearest Ash Wolf. The poor beast fled, but it couldn’t outrun an Artifact of the Gods.
The chakram entered its belly, exited the other side, and lodging itself into the dirt. When Vir recalled the disc, it sailed right back into his hands.
By itself, the disk would’ve been useless, but as it happened, Vir possessed an ability that synergized perfectly with the Artifact. As if they had been made to work together, when fired alongside a Chakram Launch, something magical occurred.
It’d surprised Vir so much that he had to reproduce the phenomenon several times just to convince himself it wasn’t a fluke.
His hard-won ability, Chakram Launch, sent a disc of pure Ash prana flying from Vir’s body. While he couldn’t alter its path, the Artifact had no issue consuming its energy as it flew. At first, Vir wondered if Ashani had built the feature in to allow it to function outside the Ashen Realm, but realized that wasn’t the case.
The Artifact simply pulled prana from its surroundings. In this situation, all the prana was concentrated in one particular area—the Chakram Launch disk. This meant the prana disk could power the Artifact’s spinning blades, multiplying its lethality. More importantly, just enough residual energy remained within the Artifact afterward to be recalled to Vir’s hand, thus preserving its most useful feature.
While not as potent as it was in the Ash, the weapon remained supremely devastating, nevertheless. Groups of enemies that had previously taken Vir ten minutes to dispatch now took barely a third of that as Vir shifted his fighting strategy, engaging targets directly around him while simultaneously throwing the chakram at more distant threats.
The weapon’s range was limited only by the range of Chakram Launch, and while an incredibly prana-intensive ability, Vir just happened to have hundreds of nearby reserves to tap into—the Ash Beasts themselves.
What had once been an effective offensive strategy in the Ashen Realm now served to also replenish Vir’s own reserves, allowing him to remain fighting far longer than he otherwise could have.
Well, Vir thought. Now that the secret’s out of the bag, might as well make the most of it.
Vir whirled, confronting another horde that had just broken through the forest.
He hurled his Artifact Chakram and Blinked into the fray.
“This way!” Hiya whispered, urging Bolin and Ekta through Samar Patag’s streets. “I think it came from over here!”
“Why are we doing this again?” Ekta muttered anxiously. “I feel like we should have told Janani.”
“And how long do you think that’ll take?” Hiya replied. “The people who screamed need help right now! Isn’t that right, Bolin?”
“That’s right,” Bolin said with a serious expression. “We can’t just leave them.”
“But what if it’s an Ash Beast?” Ekta said with slumped shoulders. “We’d just die.”
Bolin gave her a confident smile. “You saw what Neel’s doing for us out there. He’s fighting all by his lonesome. If we don’t help him out, who will?”
Though Bolin did his best to project an aura of confidence, he could hear the shaking in his voice. Ekta knew he was scared. Because she was scared. And she was right—if an Ash Beast truly had entered the city, there was little any of them could do.
But how could they just turn back? They couldn’t. Not after seeing Neel fight.
For years, hadn’t they complained about their meager rations and their ripped, too-small clothes, expecting Janani or Greesha to help? But what had they ever done about it? What had they done to change things for the better?
Nothing. Not one thing. At least Bolin went on the food raids—the others just sat quietly at home. They’d grown complacent.
That was until Neel came along and showed them that anything was possible. That one demon could change the fate of an entire city. Hiya may not have been a Warrior of Ash, nor even a Porcelain-ranked Guardian, but she did know the city like the back of her hand. So did Ekta and Bolin.
They rounded a bend, and in less time than it took to gasp, Hiya knew she’d been wrong. About fighting. About the Ash Beasts. About everything.
Her body refused to move. Her eyes were glued to the bipedal monster in the distance, pecking at a dead body on the street. Its skin was see-through, revealing its bones and blood and ghastly organs.
It was the most hideous thing Hiya had ever seen. She knew, then, that they would die if it noticed them. Forget fighting or even distracting it—there was no running away from such a beast.
Worse, backed up against a wall, cowering in terror, was none other than Svar and two of his friends.
Finally regaining her senses, Hiya inched backward… Only to collide with Ekta, who had rounded the corner just after her.
Hiya whirled in panic, desperate to shield Ekta from the horrific scene, but she was too late.
Ekta’s eyes widened in horror. And then she screamed, “AAAAAAAAH!”
Bolin clasped her mouth from behind, but the damage was already done.
We should never have brought her. She’s too young, Hiya thought as dread flowed through her veins. We’re all too young! What was I thinking?
Bolin reacted first. “Run!” he screamed, shoving Hiya and Ekta into the alley they’d just come from.
“C-Come here, you lousy monster!” Bolin shouted. “Svar! Let’s work together!”
Bolin’s plea fell on deaf ears. Svar and his goons had taken the opportunity to sprint in the opposite direction. The beast ignored them, focusing on Bolin.