They reached the king's dueling.

The interior of the palace was a maze of marble corridors and consecrated architecture designed to funnel invaders into kill zones.

The demon army advanced room by room, floor by floor, paying for every step in blood as the Royal Guard fought with the desperation of soldiers defending their final sanctuary.

Liam moved through it like a ghost, Phase Shift carrying him past the heaviest fighting, seeking the throne room where intelligence suggested the king would make his final stand.

Behind him, the sounds of battle echoed through marble halls—screaming, steel on steel, the roar of magic meeting consecrated defenses.

"Lord Azra, wait!" Lieutenant Zara appeared from a side corridor, her armor cracked and bloodied. "We're encountering heavier resistance the deeper we push. The Royal Guard is—"

An explosion cut her off. Part of the ceiling collapsed in a shower of marble and holy fire. Three demon soldiers died instantly, crushed by falling stone or consumed by consecrated flames.

"They've rigged the palace," Zara continued, pulling herself from the debris. "Defensive wards, trapped corridors, battle-priests hiding in prepared positions. This place is designed to bleed attackers dry."

"Then we bleed it faster," Liam said. "Where's the throne room?"

"Upper level, eastern wing. But Lord Azra, we have another problem." Zara's expression was grim. "Commander Koth reports contact with... something. Not regular soldiers. Not even Royal Guard. Something else."

"The heroes," Liam said quietly.

"He didn't confirm, but his exact words were 'three opponents, impossible strength, requesting immediate support.'" Zara met his eyes. "That was three minutes ago. We've lost contact since."

Ice formed in Liam's chest. Koth was a veteran, someone who'd seen countless battles, who didn't panic easily. If he was calling something "impossible strength" and then going silent...

"Location?" Liam demanded.

"Western wing, second floor. Approximately two hundred yards from your current position."

Two hundred yards between him and potentially three divine champions tearing through his best commander.

Two hundred yards in the opposite direction from the throne room and the king.

The tactical choice was obvious—proceed to the objective, kill the king, complete the mission. Koth was one commander among many. Sacrificing him to achieve victory was a mathematically sound decision.

Lord Azra would make that choice without hesitation.

But the synthesis was only at forty-nine percent.

Which meant Liam Cross was still in there somewhere.

"Show me," Liam said.

"Lord Azra, the mission—"

"Show me," he repeated, harder this time.

Zara studied him for a moment, then nodded. "This way."

They ran through corridors that were becoming increasingly damaged as the demon army's advance literally tore the palace apart. Bodies littered the floors—Radiant soldiers, demon troops, Royal Guard, all mixed together in the brutal arithmetic of urban combat.

The sounds of battle grew louder as they approached the western wing. Then Liam heard something else—a scream that cut through stone and steel and every other noise. A demon scream. Agonized and brief.

They burst into a grand hall and found hell.

Commander Koth was down, his armor shattered, blood pooling beneath him. Around him, the remains of what had been approximately fifty demon soldiers—Legion Two's elite fighters—lay scattered like broken toys. The walls were scored with impact craters that suggested tremendous force. The floor was cracked in places, as if something impossibly heavy had struck it.

And standing in the center of it all, barely breathing hard, were three figures.

They looked young—maybe early twenties, human, dressed in armor that gleamed with divine light. But their presence was wrong. Reality seemed to bend slightly around them, as if the world itself was struggling to accommodate what they'd become.

The Heroes of Prophecy.

The left one—a woman with blonde hair and eyes that glowed faintly blue—noticed Liam first. "Another one," she said, her voice carrying an odd harmonic quality, like multiple voices speaking in perfect unison. "The little ones keep coming."

"That's not a 'little one,'" the center figure said. Male, dark-skinned, wielding a sword that burned with white fire. "That's him. The Primordial Demon."

The third hero—another male, shorter than the others but radiating power that made Liam's stolen magic recoil—laughed. "He looks human. They told us he'd look human. I didn't believe it."

Liam's mind was racing, calculating odds, assessing threats. These were untrained heroes, freshly summoned, supposedly still learning their powers.

They'd just killed fifty elite demon soldiers and incapacitated Commander Koth in what looked like minutes of combat.

"Get Koth out of here," Liam said quietly to Zara.

"Lord Azra—"

"Now," he said, not taking his eyes off the three heroes. "Rally whatever forces you can and proceed to the throne room. Complete the mission."

"You can't fight three heroes alone—"

"I'm not going to fight them," Liam said. "I'm going to delay them. There's a difference. Now go."

He felt Zara hesitate, then she was moving—dragging Koth's unconscious form toward the exit with strength born of desperation.

The blonde hero moved to intercept, faster than any human should be able to move.

Liam Phase Shifted directly into her path and unleashed Sovereign's Dominion at full strength.

She walked through it like it was a mild breeze.

"Interesting," she said, stopping to actually study him. "You're trying to impose will. That's... cute."

Then she hit him.

Liam had been struck by Grand Commanders, by Lilith during sparring, by enemies wielding consecrated weapons designed to kill demons. None of it compared to this.

The impact sent him flying across the hall to crater into a marble pillar. He felt ribs crack—not the ones that were already damaged, new ones. Felt his Abyssal Plate shatter completely. Felt blood fill his mouth.

[Health: 47% → 31%]

[Critical Damage Sustained]

[Warning: Multiple fractures detected]

[Warning: Internal bleeding detected]

"Huh," the blonde hero said, sounding almost disappointed. "I thought the Primordial Demon would be more durable. The priests said he killed Grand Commanders."

"Maybe he got lucky," the sword-wielder suggested, moving closer to where Liam was struggling to stand. "Or maybe the reports were exaggerated."

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