Chapter 877

Why the hell wouldn’t this thing just die?

Evenson had been preparing to take over Fel Rift for a long time, so he knew exactly what stood between him and victory: the rift’s current lord, Haelmondas.

This operation had always been built around a surprise assault and decapitation strike. If the fighting dragged on, the situation could change in ways they couldn’t predict. The Burning Legion was simply too powerful for Evenson to gamble on a prolonged engagement.

With the Eredar Twins unavailable for reasons of their own, killing Haelmondas quickly had become the single most important part of the operation.

Fortunately, Evenson had planned for that.

He’d acquired two suitcase-sized nuclear weapons from Berikov, a Russian arms dealer.

And he hadn’t paid for them.

They had been sitting in his possession for nearly a year.

Finally, it was time to use them.

A suitcase nuke wasn’t remotely comparable to a proper strategic warhead. These were only measured in hundreds of tons of yield. But against a wounded and complacent demon lord standing at point-blank range?

That was more than enough.

Even if Haelmondas somehow survived, he’d be crippled.

"Hahaha. Old friend, our time has finally come."

G’nosh stood in the heart of one of the three soul engines beneath Fel Rift, gently running his hand over its long-cold core.

There was something almost affectionate in his expression.

Fel Rift had three soul engines, and G’nosh had personally overseen the construction of all of them. This one was the oldest and largest. He had built it hammer stroke by hammer stroke, pouring years of labor into every component.

It was practically his child.

Then the Legion’s front line had moved.

The fuel supply stopped.

And the new lord of the rift, Haelmondas, turned out to be an enormous idiot who not only shut the engine down but couldn’t even be bothered to maintain it.

Watching his life’s work abandoned had nearly broken G’nosh’s heart.

But today, at last, it would serve its purpose again.

A distant mushroom cloud climbed into the sky.

G’nosh’s eyes lit up.

He immediately opened the furnace of the soul engine and pulled an ancient scroll from inside his robes.

He tossed it into the flames without hesitation.

"Old friend. Enjoy these thousand sinful souls."

He smiled.

"Soon, we’ll never run out of fuel again."

He sealed the furnace, picked up the engine’s key—a massive Z-shaped iron bar—and jammed it into a socket beneath the core.

Then he started turning.

Once.

Twice.

The machine groaned.

BOOM.

Green light flooded the engine’s core.

One rune after another ignited across the machinery.

After thousands of years of silence, the fel-powered engine awakened.

The souls fed into the furnace were devoured and converted into energy. A massive surge of fel energy raced through the conduits buried throughout the rift.

Across Fel Rift, abandoned fel cannons suddenly began to hum.

Their dormant barrels slowly lifted.

Three Felguards manned each artillery station. They had been waiting for exactly this moment.

"Get the guns online!"

The crews scrambled into action.

Barrels were cleared. Ammunition was loaded. Targeting mechanisms were adjusted.

One after another, every cannon across the rift turned inward.

Then—

"There!"

The mushroom cloud rose above the rift.

Evenson’s signal.

"Move!"

Galyia immediately led the charge toward the upper levels.

Sif was right behind her.

"For the All-Mother! For Asgard!"

The Valkyries surged forward.

Agatha raised one fist.

"For the Burning Leg—"

She stopped.

"...Never mind."

Then she followed.

As she ran, one thought kept nagging at her.

That little warlock...

No.

Calling Evenson a little warlock was probably outdated by now.

He had clearly grown considerably stronger.

The destructive spell he’d just used had been terrifying.

Then again, Evenson was a warlock.

A three-kilometer blast radius and a one-kilometer casting range were hardly beyond the realm of possibility for someone like him.

But he’d disappeared immediately after the explosion.

Agatha frowned.

Did the idiot blow himself up too?

She wouldn’t put it past him.

"Everyone’s moving already," Evenson muttered.

He poked his head out from behind one of the pillars beside the portal through which Galyia’s forces had arrived.

He watched his troops disappear into the upper levels.

No resistance.

Excellent.

Only then did he cautiously step out.

Agatha had, in fact, been worrying about nothing.

Evenson had teleported away long before the nuclear weapons detonated. His demonic magic circle remained on the other side, so after briefly contacting the Eredar Twins to assure them he was alive, he’d simply jumped back through the portal and followed the others.

The three-hundred-strong force reached the uppermost level quickly.

They didn’t know the terrain, but that hardly mattered.

They had Agatha.

And every defensive checkpoint along the route had already been quietly cleared by the female demons loyal to her.

The assault force reached the summit.

Then stopped.

The enormous platform was gone.

In its place was a gigantic crater.

Haelmondas’s grotesque fortress had been reduced to rubble.

And the lord’s personal guard had vanished.

Agatha narrowed her eyes.

"Something’s wrong."

The explosion had been enormous, but surely it hadn’t been enough to completely vaporize a demon lord.

Yet there was no Haelmondas.

No body.

Nothing.

Galyia studied the crater.

"Something is wrong."

Of everyone present, she had the best understanding of nuclear weapons.

Even a low-yield tactical warhead was still a nuclear weapon.

And after their transformation, the Demon Hearts weren’t particularly concerned about heat or radiation.

What bothered her was the fortress.

"If the detonation was centered here..."

She stared at the ruins.

The fortress had been shredded, but it hadn’t been vaporized.

That was impossible.

At this distance, an ordinary structure should have been reduced to dust.

Which meant the fortress had possessed extraordinary defensive capabilities.

Galyia activated Spectral Sight.

She swept the rubble.

And then—

The ground shook.

Something enormous moved beneath the debris.

Rocks tumbled aside.

A massive figure clawed its way free.

Haelmondas.

He was alive.

The demon lord staggered upright.

Evenson had underestimated him.

Haelmondas might have been stupid, but stupid didn’t mean slow.

Something about Evenson dropping two boxes at his feet and immediately teleporting away had felt wrong.

Fortunately, Abyssal Lords possessed limited spellcasting abilities.

It was a talent that made ordinary mages deeply resentful.

A mortal mage had to spend years mastering arcane mathematics, magical geometry, and enough theory to make their skull ache.

Meanwhile, this enormous idiot could barely perform basic arithmetic and still got to teleport.

Unfair.

Haelmondas had sensed the danger just before detonation and teleported back into his fortress.

And that fortress had once belonged to the Eredar Twins.

Which meant it had been built properly.

The Twins had always been... extremely enthusiastic about staying alive.

Their fortress might have looked like an extravagant Eredar noble estate from the outside, but that was mostly decoration.

The actual structure was a sprawling network of low buildings and underground facilities.

More than twenty meters of walls made from enchanted fel-copper surrounded the complex.

Defensive enchantments covered the structure.

Emergency teleportation routes had been built into it.

Under normal circumstances, the fortress could probably have survived a small nuclear blast.

Then Haelmondas took over.

He hated the Eredar aesthetic.

And the fortress was too small for his enormous body.

So he ordered extensive modifications.

The result was bigger.

It was also weaker.

The original defensive structure had been compromised by his renovations. It survived the nuclear blast for a while, but eventually collapsed, burying Haelmondas beneath the ruins.

He had survived through sheer physical toughness.

Now he dragged himself free.

"You dare attack my territory?!"

He took two steps forward.

Then stumbled.

The damage was severe.

Abyssal Lords were famously difficult to kill, but even their durability had limits.

His enormous wings were gone.

Half of his draconic tail had been blown away.

One eye was destroyed.

Hundreds of wounds covered his body, green blood pouring from them in thick streams.

Haelmondas coughed.

A mouthful of blood spilled onto the ground.

Then his remaining eye swept across the attackers.

He recognized the Valkyries.

But then he saw the Demon Hearts.

His expression changed.

"Illidari!"

Fel Rift was far behind the Legion’s front lines, but reports still reached the rear.

Haelmondas knew about the demon hunters who had been launching reckless raids against Legion positions.

Apparently, they’d chosen his territory this time.

Of course.

The Illidari had joined forces with their little warlock pet, Evenson.

Haelmondas suddenly laughed.

"I’ve been waiting for you."

His grin widened.

"And now you’ve come straight to me."

Sif and Galyia exchanged stunned looks.

They’ve been watching us?

They’ve been planning to invade our world?

Their suspicions seemed confirmed.

Then Haelmondas doubled over.

"Urgh!"

He coughed up another mouthful of blood.

His massive body tilted sideways.

Only the broken shaft of his spear prevented him from collapsing.

Evenson watched him with a raised eyebrow.

"You’re not looking so good."

Haelmondas’s eye searched the crowd.

Eventually, he spotted Evenson hiding behind one of the heavily armored female warriors.

Seriously?

If you’re going to taunt me, shouldn’t you at least stand in front of everyone?

Then Haelmondas saw Agatha approaching.

"My loyal lieutenant!"

His voice boomed across the battlefield.

"Those creatures are enemies! Help me!"

Agatha stopped.

She looked genuinely puzzled.

"Really?"

She placed a hand against her chest.

"The mighty Lord Haelmondas requires the assistance of a lowly Felguard’s mistress like me?"

Haelmondas immediately understood.

The sarcasm.

The phrase lowly demon.

Those were his own words.

He’d used them against Agatha countless times.

His voice dropped.

"Agatha..."

He extended one hand.

"Give me a hand."

His expression twisted with humiliation.

"For the Legion’s sake."

Agatha smiled.

Then drew one of her six curved blades.

Slash.

Haelmondas’s outstretched hand hit the ground.

"Don’t touch me," Agatha said coldly. "You filthy, worthless idiot."

Haelmondas stared at the severed limb.

Then roared.

"You dare betray the Legion?!"

He forced himself upright.

"I am Haelmondas, Lord of Fel Rift!"

"This is my territory!"

"I will not die so easily!"

"My loyal forces will come!"

"And when they arrive, you’ll be the ones dying!"

Naturally, the explosion had not gone unnoticed.

The mushroom cloud was visible from virtually everywhere in the rift.

The demons loyal to Agatha had already been prepared for this. After a brief moment of surprise, they simply continued carrying out their assigned tasks.

The others—the demons still loyal to Haelmondas—were confused.

They had not seen an enemy in thousands of years.

Their minds weren’t exactly prepared for an invasion.

So when they saw the explosion, their first thought was surprisingly simple.

The boss finally killed himself.

Figures.

Of course an Abyssal Lord would make his suicide this dramatic.

Then Haelmondas’s enraged roar thundered through their minds.

ENEMIES HAVE INVADED MY TERRITORY!

DESTROY THEM!

The demons went berserk.

After thousands of years without a real battle, they finally had something to do.

The forces stationed throughout the main structure immediately began moving upward.

Those stationed on the peripheral floating islands activated their teleportation devices and poured through the portals.

The first demon through didn’t even have time to look around.

His foot landed on nothing.

"AAAAAAAH!"

He plummeted.

"WHO THE HELL PUT THE PORTAL ON THE EDGE OF A CLIFF?!"

Evenson watched Haelmondas stagger beneath the combined assault.

He was still alive.

That was a problem.

The nuclear blast had torn him apart, but the Abyssal Lord’s monstrous durability had kept him standing.

Evenson glanced toward the Valkyries and Demon Hearts.

"Lady Sif, I need you to take the Valkyries and two hundred of the Demon Hearts."

Sif looked at him.

"Your objective?"

"Delay the reinforcements. Buy us time."

The demons stationed throughout the main structure were already moving.

The forces on the floating islands were struggling to arrive because their portals had been placed disastrously.

But the troops still inside the rift were another matter.

They were scattered, but they were close enough to reinforce their lord.

Agatha and her allies had already reduced their numbers as much as possible.

Now they needed to stop the survivors.

Sif nodded.

"Understood."

Then she frowned.

"We only have three hundred fighters. We won’t hold them for long."

"We don’t need long."

Agatha stepped forward.

"I’ve spent the last few days putting the rift back in order."

She smiled.

"Quite a few demons are on my side now. They’ll fight with you."

Sif’s eyes narrowed.

"You expect us to fight alongside demons?"

Agatha laughed.

"Yes."

Sif clearly hated the idea.

The demons radiated evil.

Everything about them screamed enemy.

But there weren’t many options.

"Fine."

She tightened her grip on her spear.

"But if I mistake one of your demons for an enemy and kill her, don’t blame me."

Agatha’s smile became wicked.

"All the demons loyal to me are women."

She thrust out her chest.

"Trust me. You won’t have trouble telling them apart."

Galyia adjusted her blindfold.

"Did she really just say that?"

Agatha continued.

"If she’s shorter than that, don’t bother killing her. She’ll manage it herself."

Sif’s eyebrow twitched.

"I am wearing armor."

She glanced downward.

"Without it..."

She stopped.

"...Never mind."

Evenson rubbed his forehead.

"Could we focus on the actual battle?"

"Identifying the enemy is part of battlefield tactics," Sif replied.

She turned.

"Valkyries!"

Her spear rose.

"For the All-Mother! For Asgard!"

The Valkyries charged.

Galyia raised her own blade.

"My warriors! Follow them!"

Two hundred Demon Hearts moved as one.

Galyia watched them disappear into battle.

She wouldn’t be joining them.

She had to remain behind with the other fifty and help Evenson kill Haelmondas.

She silently watched her comrades go.

"If we don’t meet again..."

Her expression hardened.

"Make your deaths count."

Agatha spun all six of her curved blades.

Fel energy and shadow swirled around their edges.

"So."

She looked at Evenson.

"Do you want to start, or should I?"

"I’m a warlock."

Evenson gestured toward Haelmondas.

"I’m not exactly built for trading punches with that."

"Fair enough."

Agatha crouched.

"Then we’ll go first."

Across the battlefield, Haelmondas forced himself upright.

His body was broken.

His wings were gone.

Blood poured from dozens of wounds.

Yet the pressure radiating from him seemed heavier than ever.

A wounded beast was often the most dangerous kind.

His hatred toward the Illidari was nothing compared to his rage toward Agatha.

She had betrayed him.

And worse, he’d trusted her.

He should have known.

The fel-demons’ loyalty to the Burning Legion had always been questionable.

Two previous demon matrons had already defected and joined the Illidari.

Agatha was apparently the third.

But then again, the Legion’s entire army had a loyalty problem.

Imps betrayed their masters the moment a warlock enslaved them.

The Eredar had produced the Legion’s greatest traitors.

And even the dreadlords—creatures supposedly born from fear itself—had produced individuals who embraced the Light.

At this point, perhaps only Abyssal Lords were truly loyal.

Haelmondas almost felt proud.

He raised his broken spear.

"Agatha!"

His voice thundered across the battlefield.

"Your betrayal doesn’t surprise me."

"I should have slaughtered you and every one of your malformed kind long ago!"

Agatha’s expression hardened.

"We’re ending your reign, Haelmondas."

"My people—and Fel Rift itself—will have a new beginning."

"Beautiful speech."

Haelmondas swung his spear.

"It means nothing."

"Finally!" he roared.

"The moment has come!"

Evenson stared.

Then sighed.

"Could you please actually attack him?"

Haelmondas glared at Agatha.

Evenson rolled his eyes.

"You said you’d go first."

Agatha was still standing there trading insults.

"What’s the point of all that pre-battle boasting if you’re just going to stand around?"

He sighed.

"You’re like one of those players who talks trash before the dungeon, spends the entire boss fight doing nothing, then runs in first when the boss dies so they can loot everything."

Agatha’s eye twitched.

Evenson pointed toward the battlefield.

"Galyia, send in some of the tougher ones."

Galyia immediately raised her hand.

A dozen Demon Hearts charged.

Their bodies transformed.

Muscle expanded.

Spikes erupted from their flesh.

Their demonic forms tore into existence.

They rushed Haelmondas from every direction.

And screamed their battle cry.

"Hey, asshole!"

Haelmondas roared and swung his broken spear.

The massive weapon swept across the battlefield.

But his enormous body had always made him slow.

Now, half-dead and crippled, he was slower still.

The Demon Hearts slipped around his attacks.

Even when he managed to hit one, its hardened spikes caught and deflected the blow.

Then one of the demons spat a stream of fel fire directly into his wounds.

The flames weren’t particularly destructive.

They didn’t need to be.

They carried a life-draining effect.

Haelmondas’s wounds began to close.

Then the Demon Hearts attacked again.

Galyia saw the first wave holding him down.

"Brothers and sisters!"

She spread her wings.

"We have nowhere left to retreat!"

"We are the last line protecting this world!"

Her body transformed.

Demonic wings exploded from her back.

She launched herself into the air.

The Demon Hearts attacked with the speed expected of demon hunters.

They avoided Haelmondas’s frontal assault and attacked from both sides.

Their warglaives carved long wounds across his body.

They deliberately angled their strikes to tear away chunks of flesh.

Green blood sprayed across them.

But instead of recoiling from the foul-smelling liquid, the Demon Hearts absorbed it.

Not a single drop touched the ground.

The blood seeped into their bodies.

The demonic markings across their skin brightened.

Evenson watched.

"Looks like they’re pretty useful after all."

A voice came from beside him.

"They certainly are."

Evenson turned.

Peggy Carter had finally spoken.

She had led the Demon Hearts through the portal, but since arriving, she’d said almost nothing.

She had deliberately left command to Galyia.

To everyone else, it looked like Peggy was giving her talented student an opportunity to lead.

Evenson knew better.

Peggy still hadn’t fully accepted that Galyia and the others had once belonged to Hydra.

She was willing to train them.

She was willing to use them.

But fighting beside them was another matter entirely.

Frankly, Evenson suspected Peggy’s ideal outcome was for Haelmondas to eat every last one of them and then choke to death.

"I think it’s time you changed your attitude."

Peggy glanced at him.

"They’re fighting to protect this world."

"They may have been Hydra once, but that’s not what they’re doing now."

"Are you really going to stand there and do nothing?"

Peggy sighed.

She didn’t answer.

Instead, black wings unfolded behind her.

A heartbeat later, she was airborne.

Haelmondas was too busy fighting the Demon Hearts below to notice.

His damaged eye left a massive blind spot.

Peggy appeared directly above it.

"Look into my eyes."

Fel energy exploded from her burning eyes.

Two concentrated beams of fel energy slammed into Haelmondas’s head.

This time, Peggy had abandoned the wide-area version of her eye beams.

She concentrated everything into a single point.

Haelmondas staggered.

His balance broke.

He stumbled sideways.

But he’d survived too many battles to be caught that easily.

The moment he began falling, he hurled his massive spear upward.

Peggy tried to dodge.

Too late.

The weapon struck her.

She crashed into the ground.

Haelmondas recovered his footing.

He saw Peggy lying helplessly below.

His remaining eye widened.

He raised his spear.

Then brought it down with all his strength.

BOOM!

Something crashed between them.

Galyia.

She landed directly in front of Peggy, driving both warglaives into the ground.

The impact sent a shockwave through her entire body.

The spear bounced away.

Galyia remained crouched.

She couldn’t immediately stand.

The force of Haelmondas’s attack had traveled through her weapons and into her bones.

Her palms were split open.

Every bone in her body seemed to ache.

Peggy slowly sat up.

"You saved me."

Galyia looked over.

"Now you know who I am."

Peggy’s mask had been knocked away by the impact.

Her true face was exposed.

Galyia pulled her warglaives free.

"We’re the same."

Peggy stared.

"You should know better than anyone how special our eyes are."

"Did you really think that mask could hide you forever?"

Peggy wiped blood from the corner of her mouth.

"Apparently not."

Her mask had been enchanted.

Back when the Demon Hearts were still learning to control their new abilities, it had been enough to fool their senses.

But now they had mastered Spectral Sight.

The illusion had probably been obvious for a while.

Peggy looked at Galyia.

"Then why did you save me?"

Galyia stared at her for a moment.

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"Because I used to be Hydra?"

She shook her head.

"I’ve changed."

"You keep looking at us as though we’re still the people we were."

"I didn’t have a choice back then."

She extended a hand.

"Now I do."

"And I choose to protect this world."

Peggy looked at the offered hand.

Galyia smiled.

"I’ll never forget who taught us how."

"Teacher."

Peggy’s expression softened.

She reached out.

Their hands met.

"Then let’s protect this world together."

"My best student."

Peggy rose to her feet.

Her wings spread wide.

She looked toward the battlefield.

"My students."

Her voice hardened.

"Kill that demon."

The Demon Hearts roared.

And the battle surged forward once more.