Dawn broke over Sanctum Lux like a blade catching light.

Liam stood at the head of his strike force—forty-seven Fourth Order specialists, Commander Koth, and Lilith herself, who had insisted on accompanying him despite his protests.

They waited in the shadow of a collapsed aqueduct two hundred yards from the northern wall, watching the main assault begin on the eastern side.

The sound of sixty thousand demons hitting prepared defenses was like thunder given physical form. Even from this distance, Liam could hear the screams, the clash of steel, the roar of battle-priests channeling holy fire.

Sixteen hundred casualties at the forward defenses had been brutal.

Today would make that look merciful.

"Eastern assault is fully engaged," Kael'thra reported, her dark eyes gleaming with zealous focus. "All attention is diverted. The northern approach is as clear as it will ever be."

Liam nodded, drawing a breath that tasted like ash and destiny. His ribs still ached from the fortification assault. His bandaged arm throbbed with each heartbeat. His entire body was a catalog of injuries that hadn't properly healed.

None of it mattered.

"Remember the objective," he said quietly, addressing his strike force. "We're not here to fight the entire garrison. We're here to reach the Cathedral and destroy the summoning infrastructure before the heroes can manifest. Speed over combat. Efficiency over glory."

"And if we encounter resistance?" one of the Fourth Order warriors asked.

"Then I remove it," Liam said simply. "Your job is to keep the path open. My job is to break anything that tries to close it."

Lilith moved closer, her golden eyes intense. "If this goes wrong—"

"Move out," Liam commanded.

They ran low and fast, using the aqueduct's cover to approach the northern wall. Kael'thra's scouts had mapped patrol patterns, identified blind spots, calculated the narrow window where this approach was feasible.

Thirty seconds to cover two hundred yards.

Twenty seconds to scale the wall using climbing equipment while Liam phase-shifted to the top.

Ten seconds for him to kill the two guards before they could raise an alarm.

The execution was perfect. Liam materialized on the wall's parapet, Abyssal Plate already formed around his hands, and struck before the guards could process his presence. They died silently, throats crushed, bodies lowered carefully to avoid noise.

The Fourth Order flowed up and over the wall like shadows, professional and lethal. Within ninety seconds of beginning the approach, they were inside Sanctum Lux's outer defenses.

"Phase one complete," Koth whispered, his scarred face split in something like grim satisfaction. "I hate that this is actually working."

"Don't celebrate yet," Lilith murmured. "We've breached one wall. We still have to cross the entire city and reach the Cathedral without being detected."

She was right. They stood on the inner side of the outer wall, and before them sprawled the capital itself—a maze of streets and buildings, all leading toward the massive Cathedral that dominated the skyline.

Two miles through enemy territory.

Against a garrison of twenty to thirty thousand soldiers.

With forty-seven Fourth Order specialists and two commanders who were trying very hard not to acknowledge how suicidal this was.

"Kael'thra," Liam said quietly. "Route?"

"Service tunnels beneath the administrative district," she said immediately, pointing toward a structure three blocks away. "They'll take us most of the way to the Cathedral district with minimal surface exposure. I have maps from our intelligence operations."

"Lead the way."

They moved through Sanctum Lux like ghosts, avoiding patrols, using Kael'thra's intelligence to navigate the city's underbelly. Twice they encountered small groups of soldiers—city watch, not full military—and both times the Fourth Order eliminated them with brutal efficiency before they could raise alarms.

The tunnels were exactly as mapped, and for twenty precious minutes, Liam allowed himself to believe this might actually work.

Then they emerged into the Cathedral district, and belief dissolved into ash.

The Cathedral of Divine Light stood before them, even more massive up close than it had appeared from a distance. White stone carved with three thousand years of prayers, spires reaching toward heaven like accusations, and at its heart—

Nothing.

The massive bronze doors stood open.

No guards. No battle-priests. No defenders at all.

Just emptiness that felt like a trap.

"This is wrong," Koth said immediately, his hand moving to his weapon. "They should have the Cathedral defended like a fortress. This is—"

"An invitation," Liam finished quietly.

Lilith's expression was grim. "We should retreat. Regroup. This is too obvious."

"We don't have time to retreat," Liam said. "Every minute we waste is another minute the summoning continues."

He moved toward the Cathedral doors before anyone could stop him, Phase Shift ready, Essence channeling through him in preparation for whatever waited inside.

The interior was vast—vaulted ceilings that seemed to stretch toward infinity, columns of consecrated stone, and at the far end, the summoning chamber.

Or what was left of it.

Liam stared at the ruins of the ritual circle, at the broken altar and shattered focus crystals, at the clear evidence of a summoning that had been *completed*.

The infrastructure was destroyed.

But not by them.

"We were expecting you, Demon Lord."

The voice came from the shadows near the altar. An old man in ceremonial robes stepped forward, his face lined with age and something that looked like profound sadness. The High Priest of Sanctum Lux, based on the elaborate holy symbols he wore.

Liam's hands erupted with Infernal Conflagration, ready to burn the old man to ash.

"I wouldn't," the High Priest said calmly. "You'll want to hear what I have to say before you kill me."

"We're here to destroy the summoning," Liam said, his voice hard. "Looks like someone saved us the trouble."

"Yes," the High Priest agreed. "We did. Three days ago, as a matter of fact. The ritual was completed, and the infrastructure was destroyed because it was no longer needed."

The words landed like physical blows.

Three days ago.

Completed.

"You're lying," Lilith said, but her voice carried uncertainty.

"I'm not." The High Priest gestured to the ruins around them. "The Twenty-One Heroes of Prophecy have been summoned. They walk this world now, preparing for their divine mandate. You're too late, Demon Lord. The prophecy has manifested."

Liam felt something crack inside his chest—not his synthesis, but something deeper. The desperate hope that had carried him through nineteen hundred deaths and a hundred and fifty miles of enemy territory.

"Where are they?" he asked quietly.

"Ready," the High Priest said. The old man's expression was genuinely sorrowful. "You fought bravely, Demon Lord. You led your people with conviction. But prophecy cannot be denied. The gods have spoken, and the Twenty-One will cleanse this world of demon-kind."

Liam's mind raced, calculating, adjusting, refusing to accept that they'd come this far for nothing.

"Kill him," Koth said flatly. "Kill him and we burn this entire Cathedral to the ground out of spite."

"You could do that," the High Priest acknowledged. "You could kill me. Burn this building. Slaughter your way back to your army. But it changes nothing. The heroes exist. The prophecy is manifest. You've lost."

"Then why are you telling us this?" Lilith demanded. "Why not just kill us while we're isolated?"

The High Priest smiled sadly. "Because I'm not without mercy. Because you deserve to know the truth before the end. And because..." He paused. "Because I wanted to offer you a choice."

"What choice?" Liam asked, though he already knew he wouldn't like the answer.

"Return to your army," the High Priest said. "Tell them what you've learned. Give them the opportunity to die with dignity, knowing they fought to the end. Or surrender now, and perhaps some of your people can be spared when the heroes begin their work."

"You're offering us the chance to deliver our own death sentence," Koth said incredulously.

"I'm offering you honesty," the High Priest corrected. "Which is more than most condemned souls receive."

Liam stared at the old man, at the ruined summoning circle, at the emptiness where victory should have been.

Nineteen hundred demons dead.

A hundred and fifty miles of desperate march.

Faith from nine hundred and sixty-seven followers who believed absolutely in his ability to prevent prophecy.

All of it... for nothing?

[Synchronization Index: 50%]

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