The assault on Sanctum Lux's eastern wall had been raging for four hours when Liam gave the order to commit everything.

"All legions advance! No reserves! Break through!"

The command rippled through the demon army like wildfire. Units that had been held back for tactical flexibility, soldiers who'd been rotating through rest cycles, even the wounded who could still hold weapons—all of them surged forward in a massive wave of dark steel and desperate determination.

One hundred and ninety-three thousand demons against a city that had never fallen.

The mathematics were still impossible.

But Liam had stopped caring about mathematics.

He stood at the front of the assault now, having abandoned the command position to lead from where the fighting was thickest. Infernal Conflagration wreathed his hands, Phase Shift kept him mobile through the chaos, and Sovereign's Dominion pulsed outward in waves that broke enemy formations before they could properly form.

A Paladin—Radiant Empire's elite foot soldiers—charged him with a consecrated blade that hummed with holy power. Liam Phase Shifted behind the man and drove Abyssal Plate-wrapped fists through the back of his armor. The Paladin died without ceremony, and Liam was already moving to the next target.

[Essence Feast activated]

[+180 Essence]

Around him, the demon army was paying for every foot of ground in blood. Paladins were individually stronger than standard demon soldiers, and they fought with the conviction of those defending their holy capital. The eastern wall had become a killing ground where bodies piled high enough to create makeshift ramps.

"PUSH FORWARD!" Commander Koth's voice thundered across the battlefield. "DON'T LET THEM REFORM!"

A section of wall exploded outward—not from siege equipment the demons didn't have, but from concentrated magical assault. Three demon mages had combined their power to shatter consecrated stone, creating a gap that troops immediately flooded through.

But the Radiant defenders weren't breaking. For every gap the demons created, Paladins and battle-priests rushed to fill it. Holy fire erupted in concentrated bursts, incinerating demon soldiers by the dozen. Consecrated arrows fell like rain, each one blessed to be lethal to demon flesh.

[Casualties: Eastern Assault - Ongoing]

[Dead: 2,847]

[Wounded: 4,223]

Seven thousand casualties and they'd barely breached the outer wall. The second wall loomed beyond it, and the third wall beyond that, each one independently fortified and defended.

This was going to cost everything.

"Lord Azra!" Lieutenant Zara appeared through the chaos, her armor splattered with blood that probably wasn't hers. "We've breached the outer wall in three locations, but the defenders are concentrating their battle-priests at each gap. We're taking unsustainable casualties trying to push through."

"Where are their commanders?" Liam demanded.

"Second wall ramparts, coordinating the defense. I count at least five—standard Radiant Commanders by their armor."

Commanders. A tier above Paladins, skilled enough to coordinate complex defensive operations but not individually powerful enough to be a threat to Liam or his senior officers.

"I'll handle them," Liam said. "Keep the pressure on these gaps. I want constant assault, rotating fresh troops forward every ten minutes."

"That rotation rate will exhaust our forces in—"

"I don't care," Liam interrupted. "We're not here for a sustained siege. We're here to break through before they can stabilize their defense. Exhaustion is a problem for later. Assuming there is a later."

Zara's expression was grim, but she saluted and moved off to relay orders.

Liam turned toward the second wall, calculating distance and approach angles. Too far for a single Phase Shift. He'd need to chain them, pushing his Essence reserves hard but fast.

"Going somewhere?" Lilith appeared beside him, and for the first time since he'd known her, she wore full battle armor. Not ceremonial plate or political regalia, but actual war gear—black metal that seemed to drink in light, etched with patterns that hurt to look at directly.

"Killing their commanders," Liam said. "Want to come?"

"Someone has to keep you from doing anything stupid." Her golden eyes gleamed with something predatory. "Besides, you haven't seen me actually fight yet. Consider this educational."

Before Liam could respond, she moved.

It wasn't running or charging. It was something more—a burst of speed that made his Phase Shift look sluggish by comparison. Lilith crossed fifty yards in what seemed like a single step, appeared in the middle of a Paladin formation, and simply... ended them.

Liam had seen efficient combat before. He'd trained with demon soldiers, fought Grand Commander Orin, executed countless enemies with brutal precision.

What Lilith did wasn't combat.

It was erasure.

Her hands—unarmored, just bare skin—caught a Paladin's consecrated blade mid-swing. The holy steel shattered like glass. She moved through the formation like water flowing around stones, and everywhere she passed, Paladins died. Not from elaborate techniques or flashy magic, just from the simple reality that she was fundamentally stronger than anything trying to stop her.

A battle-priest channeled holy fire directly at her. Lilith walked through it like it was warm rain, grabbed the priest by his robes, and threw him with enough force that his body cratered into the second wall.

The entire sequence took maybe ten seconds.

Twenty-three Paladins and a battle-priest, dead.

Lilith stood in the center of the carnage, not even breathing hard, and looked back at Liam with an expression that said That's how it's done.

Liam felt something shift in his understanding. He'd known intellectually that Lilith was stronger than him—she'd mentioned it, demonstrated it in sparring. But seeing her actually unleash that power in combat was different.

She wasn't just stronger.

She was a completely different category of threat.

"Are you coming or not?" Lilith called, already moving toward the second wall where the Radiant Commanders were coordinating their defense.

Liam Phase Shifted to catch up, channeling Essence in preparation for what came next.

They hit the second wall like a two-person apocalypse.

Liam Phase Shifted to the ramparts, appeared among a cluster of defenders, and unleashed Sovereign's Dominion at full strength. The psychic pressure was overwhelming—soldiers dropped their weapons, some fell to their knees, others simply fled in religious terror.

A Radiant Commander—middle-aged woman with scars that spoke of decades of combat—rallied her troops with a shouted prayer. Consecrated light blazed from her blade as she charged Liam with the conviction of someone defending their holy capital.

She was skilled. Fast. Decades of experience made her movements efficient and deadly.

She lasted approximately six seconds.

Liam Phase Shifted through her opening strike, manifested Infernal Conflagration in close quarters, and watched her armor begin to melt. The Commander screamed—not in pain but in fury—and tried to close distance for a desperate final strike.

Lilith appeared behind her and broke her spine with a casual backhand.

"You're playing with your food," the Demon Queen observed.

"I was being thorough," Liam protested.

"Be thorough faster. We have four more commanders and about six thousand soldiers who need killing."

She was already moving again, a blur of black armor and impossible strength. Another Radiant Commander tried to form a defensive line with his Paladins. Lilith simply charged through them like they were made of paper, grabbed the Commander by his helmet, and slammed his head into the rampart with enough force to crack stone.

Liam found himself in the surreal position of trying to keep up with his supposed subordinate or patner.

It didn't matter.

He Phase Shifted to the next commander position—an older man directing battle-priests from behind consecrated barriers. The barriers shattered under Infernal Conflagration. The battle-priests tried to channel coordinated holy fire. Liam's Primordial Authority disrupted their concentration, and they died confused and terrified.

The Commander himself was more competent, using defensive techniques that suggested extensive training against demon magic. He lasted almost fifteen seconds before Liam got through his guard and ended him with Abyssal Plate-wrapped strikes that crushed consecrated armor like tin.

[Essence +670]

[Essence Feast: Multiple targets eliminated]

Three commanders down. Two remaining.

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