I kept pace with Korin at the front. Behind us, the hunters were whispering. The adrenaline of the previous night had worn off, leaving behind the cold reality of what we were about to do.

"Ren?"

I looked over my shoulder. Jace, the young hunter who had hesitated in the hall before, was gripping his sword tightly.

"What is it, Jace?" I asked, not breaking my stride.

"Are we really going to do this?" Jace asked. "I mean... I want justice for Gael. For all of them. But an entire settlement? The women? The children? Doesn’t that make us exactly like them?"

Korin stopped walking. He turned around, his scarred face hard as stone.

"Do you think they asked themselves that question when they sent the letter for Lyra?" Korin demanded, his deep voice cutting through the freezing air. "Do you think Malakar lost sleep over the thought of feeding Mira to his hounds?"

"No, Uncle Korin, but—"

"But nothing," Korin interrupted. "If we leave the children alive, they grow up with hatred. And in ten years, they march down that mountain and burn Elderglen to the ground. Is your conscience today worth your family’s lives tomorrow?"

Jace looked at the snow, his jaw tight. "It just doesn’t feel right."

I stopped and looked at the boy. "It’s not supposed to feel right, Jace. It’s a slaughter."

Jace looked up at me, surprised by my bluntness.

"Revenge isn’t glorious," I told him, keeping my voice level. "It’s ugly, it’s messy, and it rots you from the inside out. If you’re looking for a heroic justification, you won’t find one here. We are going up this mountain to commit a massacre so that the people sleeping in those cabins don’t have to live in fear. You don’t have to like it. But you do have to swing your sword."

"Have you done this before?" Jace asked quietly. "Wiped out a threat like this?"

"More times than I care to count," I lied.

"Does the guilt ever go away?"

"No," I lied again. "But it’s better to carry guilt than to carry your little wife’s casket. Make your choice now, Jace. If you hesitate in that cavern, you’ll die. If you can’t do it, turn around and go home. No one will judge you."

Jace stared at me for a long moment. He looked at Korin, then at the other hunters. He took a deep, shuddering breath, his grip tightening on his hilt.

"I’m not going home," Jace said.

"Good," Korin grunted. "Then keep moving."

The pass widened into a massive, snow-covered plateau. At the far end stood the Blood-Iron settlement. It was a crude fortress built directly into a massive cavern. Fifty-foot-high black-iron gates sealed the entrance, flanked by stone watchtowers.

"They see us," Korin said, pointing his spear.

A frantic horn blew from the watchtowers. Demons scrambled along the walls. "Korin!" a demonic voice roared from the parapet. "You dare march on our home?!"

"Archers, knock your arrows!" Korin yelled, but I held up a hand.

"Save your poison arrows. You’ll need it for the cavern," I said.

I unclasped my heavy cloak, letting it drop into the snow. I walked forward alone.

"Look at him!" a vanguard demon shouted from the wall, leaning over the stone. "It’s just one man!"

"You idiot, look at his coat! That’s the one from the canyon!" another shrieked, his voice cracking with absolute panic. "That’s the human!" The mockery on the wall instantly evaporated.

"Shoot him!" an elder bellowed from the tower. "Shoot him now!"

A volley of arrows rained down. I projected a thin Qi barrier a few inches above my skin. The arrows sparked and shattered mid-air, falling harmlessly to the snow.

"What are you waiting for?!" the elder screamed at his archers. "Shoot again!"

"It’s not working!" a warrior yelled back, dropping his bow. I stopped twenty paces from the black-iron gate.

"I will give you exactly ten seconds to abandon that wall," I called out, my voice carrying clearly over the plateau. "If you stay, you die with the gate."

"You arrogant piece of meat!" the elder spat over the edge. "This gate was forged by the Old Empire! It is black-iron! You will freeze to death in the snow before you even leave a scratch on it!"

"Ten seconds are up," I said.

I drew Eclipse. The blade hummed, melting the snow around me. I drew my Nascent Soul Qi from my dantian, flooding my meridians.

"Heaven Severing Sword Art," I said and swung the blade down. A blinding, crescent-shaped arc of pure, white-hot Qi tore the air apart. It crossed the distance instantly and slammed directly into the black-iron gates.

BOOOOOOM!

The explosion was deafening. The indestructible gate buckled, groaned, and violently exploded into thousands of molten shrapnel pieces. The demons on the watchtowers were thrown screaming into the air.

The smoke cleared, revealing a massive, gaping hole. The surviving demons were staring at the ruins in paralyzing horror.

I looked back at Korin. "The door is open."

Korin raised his spear. "FOR ELDERGLEN! KILL THEM ALL!"

The hunters unleashed a deafening war cry, surging past me like a tidal wave. The slaughter was methodical.

The Blood-Iron warriors were completely broken. They fought wildly, but the hunters were driven by cold, coordinated rage.

"Hold the line!" a vanguard captain roared, trying to rally his terrified men near the central fire. "Push them back! They are not many of them!"

"This is for Gael!" Korin bellowed, driving his heavy spear straight through the captain’s chest, lifting the massive demon entirely off his feet before slamming him down into the dirt.

Nearby, Jace had cornered a wounded demon against a stone hut. The demon had dropped its sword and was holding its hands up.

"Wait! Wait!" the demon pleaded, coughing up blood. "I surrender! Let me live!"

Jace froze. His sword trembled in his hands. He looked at the pleading monster, the moral debate from the mountain pass flashing in his eyes.

"Jace!" Korin yelled from across the cavern. "Finish it!"

"He dropped his weapon!" Jace yelled back, his voice cracking. "He’s surrendering!"

The demon’s eyes flashed with cruel opportunism. Seeing the boy’s hesitation, it suddenly lunged forward, drawing a hidden dagger from its boot. It never reached him.

I crossed the distance in a blur. Eclipse flashed, and the demon’s head separated cleanly from its shoulders, tumbling to the stone floor.

Jace stumbled backward, breathing heavily.

"I told you on the trail," I said, my voice completely devoid of sympathy. "If you hesitate, you die. They don’t want your mercy, Jace. They want your life. Remember where you are."

Jace stared at the headless body, then slowly nodded. The hesitation in his eyes vanished, replaced by a cold, hollow acceptance. "I understand."

"Then keep moving."

As the hunters pushed deeper into the cavern, the ambient mana suddenly died.

"Ren!" Korin shouted, pointing toward the back of the cavern. On a raised stone platform, the surviving elders were gathered around a twisted, obsidian altar.

"The human is inside! They are slaughtering our men!" an elder screamed, his voice thick with panic. "We must summon the Emissary!"

"The price is too high!" a female elder cried out, holding a bloody ceremonial dagger. "It requires royal blood! It will take our own families!"

"If we don’t do it, the humans will take our heads anyway!" the oldest demon roared, grabbing a bound, terrified younger demon from the floor. "Blood for blood! The King demands it!"

Without hesitation, the elder drove the dagger into the young demon’s throat.

"Stop them!" Korin yelled, sprinting toward the platform.

The elders moved in a frenzy, slitting the throats of their own kind, bleeding them over the obsidian stone. The blood didn’t pool; it flowed upward, defying gravity, drawing a glowing red doorway in thin air.

"Korin, get back!" I yelled.

I dashed forward, grabbing Korin by his armor and violently throwing him backward just as a wave of dark, concussive energy exploded from the altar. The shockwave knocked the hunters off their feet. The demonic elders were thrown to their knees.

The red doorway stabilized and a figure stepped through. It wasn’t a hulking brute. It was impossibly slender, draped in elegant, flowing shadows that actively swallowed the green light of the torches. Its face was hidden behind a smooth, featureless white porcelain mask.

The surviving Blood-Iron elders scrambled forward on their knees, weeping.

"Emissary!" the oldest demon begged, pressing his face to the bloody stone. "Save us! We offer this royal blood to the Fallen King! Destroy the human!"

The Emissary slowly tilted its masked face down.

"Such a foul stench in this cavern," a voice echoed. It didn’t come from the mask; it echoed directly in our minds. The voice was smooth, aristocratic, and completely terrifying. "The smell of fear... and profound failure."

"Emissary, please!" the elder cried. "He killed Chief Malakar!"

"You drag me across the veil," the Emissary spoke, raising a single, pale finger, "because you could not handle a local dispute? Malakar was a blunt instrument. And clearly, so are you."

The Emissary flicked its finger. The oldest elder’s head violently snapped backward, twisting a full one-hundred-and-eighty degrees with a sickening crunch. The other elders shrieked in terror, scrambling backward.

"No! Wait!"

The Emissary waved its hand dismissively. Invisible blades of dark magic sheared through the air. The remaining demonic elders were cleanly decapitated in a single heartbeat.

The cavern fell terrifyingly silent. The hunters froze. They slowly climbed to their feet, staring in sheer horror at the creature that had just casually butchered its own worshippers. The vengeance they had felt moments ago was entirely replaced by cold, paralyzing dread.

The Emissary slowly turned its featureless porcelain mask toward me.

A translucent blue screen violently flickered to life in my vision. [Analyzing Target...]

[Name: Unknown (Emissary of the Fallen)]

[Rank: S-Rank Corrupted Entity]

[Threat Assessment: FATAL]

The casual boredom I had felt since arriving on this mountain vanished entirely. I tightened my grip on the hilt of Eclipse, stepping in front of Korin.

"Korin," I said, my voice completely deadpan. "Take your men and get out of this cavern. Now."

"Ren..." Korin choked out, his hands trembling on his spear. "What is that thing?"

"It’s something you can’t fight," I replied coldly.

"We fight together!" Korin argued, taking a step forward. "We didn’t come here to run!"

"You came here to wipe out the Blood-Iron Tribe!" I snapped, not taking my eyes off the masked creature. "Look at the altar! They are dead! You won! Now get out!"

"But you—"

"If you stay here, you die!" I roared, unleashing a fraction of my own Nascent Soul aura to break the paralyzing fear gripping him. "I can’t protect you and fight that thing at the same time. You are in my way. Turn around, walk out of those shattered gates, and do not look back!"

Korin stared at my back, his jaw clenched tight. He looked at Jace, then at the other terrified hunters.

"Fall back!" Korin bellowed, his voice filled with bitter reluctance. "Everyone, out of the cavern! Move!"

The hunters didn’t hesitate. They turned and sprinted toward the gates, leaving me alone in the center of the cavern.

The Emissary watched them run. It didn’t make a move to stop them. It simply tilted its porcelain mask, observing me.

"You have drawn the King’s eye," the Emissary whispered. "Let us see if you are worthy of his attention."