Chapter 6: Ashes of the Broken Veil
The battlefield had become a graveyard long before the fighting finally ended.
Blood stained the frozen earth.
Burning houses collapsed one after another, sending towering pillars of black smoke into the sky. Screams echoed throughout the ruined village as demons rampaged through the streets like starving beasts unleashed from the abyss itself, destroying everything humanity had spent ten years rebuilding.
And amidst the chaos-
Neel stood perfectly still.
Crimson energy twisted around his body in violent currents, casting flashes of scarlet light across the battlefield. The very air trembled beneath the pressure radiating from him.
The First Stage of Dominion.
The Veil had cracked.
Five demons charged toward him simultaneously.
One was a massive creature covered in black fur, wielding two enormous rusted axes.
Another skittered across the ground on twisted spider-like limbs, its jaw stretching unnaturally wide.
The remaining three were leaner demons with glowing yellow eyes and claws sharp enough to carve through steel.
"Kill the human!"
The horned demon attacked first.
Its axes descended with enough force to split stone apart.
But Neel vanished.
A thunderous crack exploded across the battlefield.
The demon froze.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then slowly-
Its body split cleanly into two halves before collapsing into the snow.
The remaining demons recoiled in horror.
"What?!"
Neel stood behind them.
His glowing crimson eyes were empty.
Cold.
Inhuman.
Without a word, he raised one hand slightly.
The pressure surrounding him intensified instantly.
BOOM!
Two demons were smashed into the ground by an invisible force.
Bones shattered violently.
The earth collapsed beneath their bodies.
The final two demons immediately turned and fled.
Too late.
Neel moved faster than their senses could follow.
One demon’s head exploded into a spray of blood.
The other convulsed violently as Neel’s bare hand pierced directly through its chest.
Five demons.
Dead within seconds.
Silence briefly spread across the battlefield.
Even the humans stopped fighting.
A wounded warrior stared toward Neel in disbelief, blood running down his forehead as he struggled to hold a broken sword.
"That’s impossible..."
Nearby, Ragnar Vael watched silently.
And for the first time since the war had begun-
Even he felt fear.
Because the power surrounding Neel no longer felt entirely human.
Then-
A deep laugh echoed across the burning battlefield.
"Interesting..."
The demons immediately stepped aside.
A tall figure emerged slowly from the flames.
Unlike the others, this demon wore dark crystalline armor engraved with ancient symbols Two curved horns extended from his skull, while purple fire burned within his eyes like living hatred.
General Varkros.
One of the commanders of the demon army.
The atmosphere changed the moment he appeared.
"So," Varkros said calmly as he studied Neel with interest, "the frightened little human awakened something unexpected."
Purple flames spread beneath his feet as he stepped forward.
"Perhaps this battle will entertain me after all."
Behind him, the surviving demons roared savagely.
The brief hope that had appeared within the humans vanished instantly.
Ragnar immediately raised his weapon.
"All remaining warriors!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"Protect the civilians!"
"Do not let the demons break through!"
The surviving humans regrouped desperately.
Barely three hundred fighters remained alive.
Many were wounded.
Many were exhausted.
Nearly all of them were terrified.
Yet they continued fighting.
Upon the remains of a collapsed rooftop, Lyra Vale released arrow after arrow with trembling hands.
Every shot pierced a demon’s skull with deadly precision.
Nearby, Dren Hollow swung his massive war hammer despite the deep wound running across his arm.
Each strike crushed bone and flesh alike as demons fell before him.
The battlefield descended into madness once more.
Meanwhile-
Varkros approached Neel slowly.
"You possess strength," the demon general said quietly.
"But strength without control destroys its owner."
Neel remained silent.
The Dominion within him continued expanding violently.
Crimson veins spread beneath his skin.
Fragments of black energy drifted around him like shattered glass suspended in the air.
Varkros smirked.
"Show me your despair."
Then he attacked.
BOOOOOOM!
The collision shattered the ground beneath them.
Neel blocked the strike with his arm, but the impact launched him backward through a burning building.
Stone and flames exploded outward.
The structure collapsed instantly.
Nearby humans stared in shock.
"So even that monster can bleed..." Lyra whispered.
From within the rubble-
Neel slowly stood.
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Yet his expression never changed.
Then-
The crimson aura surrounding him exploded outward.
Violently.
Snow across the battlefield evaporated instantly.
Even demons instinctively stepped backward.
Varkros narrowed his eyes.
"Now this..."
Purple flames intensified around the demon general.
"...is becoming interesting."
Neel vanished again.
But this time-
He was different.
Faster.
Sharper.
More violent.
A storm of crimson light erupted across the battlefield as Neel attacked relentlessly from every direction.
Shockwaves tore through the ruins.
Razor-sharp arcs of energy carved deep scars into the earth itself.
Varkros blocked several strikes-
But deep cuts began appearing across his crystalline armor.
For the first time-
The demon general’s expression darkened.
The clash between them shook the entire village.
Humans and demons alike occasionally stopped fighting simply to witness the battle unfolding before them.
It no longer resembled a fight between mortals.
It looked like two disasters colliding.
Then tragedy struck once again.
A monstrous demon beast suddenly broke through the eastern defenses.
Its massive body tore through the barricades before charging directly toward the civilians hiding behind the ruins.
"No!"
Ragnar lunged forward immediately.
But he was too far away.
The beast crashed into the crowd.
Bodies were thrown aside instantly.
Children screamed.
Panic erupted everywhere.
Dren Hollow roared and charged toward the creature despite his injuries.
His war hammer slammed into the beast’s skull with enough force to crack bone.
But the demon retaliated instantly.
Its claws pierced directly through Dren’s chest.
Blood poured from the warrior’s mouth.
Yet even while dying-
Dren turned toward the fleeing civilians and screamed:
"KEEP RUNNING!"
Moments later, the beast threw his corpse aside.
Lyra’s hands began trembling as she watched him die.
One by one-
More humans fell.
The battle raged on for hours.
By nightfall, the village no longer existed.
Only ruins remained.
Ash.
Smoke.
Corpses.
And brief moments of silence between distant screams.
Then suddenly-
Varkros leaped backward, creating distance between himself and Neel.
His crystalline armor was cracked.
Purple blood burned across his wounds like living fire.
For several long seconds, the demon general simply stared at the young human standing before him.
"That power..." he muttered quietly.
His eyes narrowed.
"If this human survives..."
The surrounding demons trembled nervously.
"...he may become a threat to demonkind itself."
Neel stood silently amidst the ruins.
Covered in blood.
Surrounded by corpses.
His crimson eyes glowed within the darkness like a curse born from war itself.
Then Varkros turned away.
"Retreat."
The demons froze.
"But General"
"I said RETREAT."
His voice exploded across the battlefield.
The surviving demons obeyed immediately.
Some fled without even looking back.
The humans could barely comprehend what had happened.
The demon army...
Had retreated.
But there was no victory upon that battlefield.
Only survival.
Ragnar Vael slowly looked across the destroyed village.
Bodies covered the streets.
Entire families had vanished.
Homes had become piles of ash.
Everything humanity had built over ten years-
Destroyed in a single day.
After counting the survivors, silence fell once more.
Only one hundred humans remained alive.
Just one hundred.
Kael lowered his head in grief.
Lyra silently cried beside the ruins of her home.
Even Ragnar’s expression finally cracked beneath the weight of loss.
After a long silence, he spoke quietly.
"We cannot remain here."
No one answered.
"This land is dead."
The surviving humans gathered what little remained.
Food.
Weapons.
Medicine.
Blankets.
Memories.
Then beneath the freezing night sky, the last survivors abandoned the ruins of their home and walked into the unknown, searching for a place where humanity might survive once more.
Far behind them-
Neel stood alone before the burning village.
The crimson aura surrounding him gradually faded into darkness.
But deep within him-
The Veil had already shattered forever.