And every single settlement defender was exhausted. Wounded. Operating on willpower and desperation.

I should have been here, his mind whispered with cold fury. I should have anticipated they’d attack early. I should have—

No. Guilt was a luxury for after the battle. Right now, his people needed him to do what he did best.

Win impossible fights through overwhelming violence.

Loki walked up to Satou and Said "It isnt your fault , you tried your best to get here faster when you received the letter from seraphina didnt you"

Satou still felt anger within himself , he turned towards Loki and said "Thank you for protecting my settlement "

"You don’t need to thank me , i was just protecting my friends home " Said Loki while smiling .

"Kelvin." His voice hardened with command authority. "Tell everyone to retreat. Pull back to defensive positions. I’ll handle this."

Kelvin opened his mouth, his eyes showing the desire to fight beside Satou like he’d done in countless battles before. "Big brother, I can still—"

Then he stopped.

Because the aura radiating from Satou had shifted. The dragoblin’s flame-like eyes blazed with intensity that made the air shimmer. His draconic scales seemed to darken, taking on a crimson tint as power built within him.

And the bloodlust.

Kelvin had seen him angry, had watched him tear through enemies with brutal efficiency, had witnessed the controlled fury that made their leader so dangerous in combat.

This was different.

This wasn’t controlled. This was raw, primal rage barely restrained by willpower. This was a demon lord who’d run five hundred miles carrying two people, arrived to find his settlement on the brink of destruction, and was about to express his displeasure in the only language that mattered right now.

Overwhelming, brutal, merciless violence.

"Please be careful, big brother," Kelvin said quietly, then raised his voice to the defenders nearby. "ALL DEFENDERS! RETREAT TO SECONDARY POSITIONS! LORD SATOU WILL HANDLE THE FRONTLINE!"

The order rippled outward through the mental network Seraphina had established before leaving to fight Valentine.

Some defenders were too engaged in combat to immediately disengage. They were locked in desperate melees, trading blows with human soldiers, unable to simply walk away without being cut down.

Satou saw them. Marked their positions with his enhanced perception.

Then he took a deep breath, feeling the familiar surge of power that came with abandoning restraint, and spoke words he hadn’t used in months:

"BERSERK MODE: ACTIVATE."

The transformation was immediate and visceral. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Dark red energy erupted from Satou’s body like flames, wreathing him in an aura of pure combat fury. His already impressive physical stats—Strength, Agility, Endurance—all surged upward by massive margins. His dragoblin features became more pronounced, more predatory, his scales taking on a crimson gleam that looked like fresh blood.

His flame-like eyes blazed with intensity that made looking directly at them painful. His draconic presence, usually kept restrained to avoid overwhelming allies, now radiated outward with crushing force.

Every human soldier within a hundred yards felt it. Felt the weight of a predator’s attention settling on them like a physical thing. Felt their instincts screaming at them to run, to flee, to get as far away as possible from the monster that had just appeared on the battlefield.

And Satou smiled. It wasn’t a kind expression. It was the smile of something that had spent thirty hours building up frustrated fury while carrying wounded allies across five hundred miles, only to arrive and find his people dying because he’d been delayed.

The humans were going to pay for that.

Every. Single. One.

—---------------------

[EASTERN SECTOR]

Kael’mor, the senior demon warrior commanding what remained of the eastern defensive line, had been fighting for hours. His twin blades dripped with human blood. His body carried seventeen wounds, each one sealed by his demonic constitution but still painful.

Nine demon warriors fought beside him, down from the thirty-eight who’d started this battle. They were being overwhelmed by three hundred human soldiers pressing from multiple angles, coordinated by officers who’d learned through bloody experience how to counter demon tactics.

A human sergeant charged Kael’mor with blessed sword raised high, the holy magic enhancement making the blade glow with righteous fury.

Kael’mor prepared to block, knowing the impact would hurt even with his supernatural strength—

The human sergeant simply... disappeared.

One moment charging with sword raised, the next moment gone, replaced by a spray of blood that painted the ground red.

Kael’mor blinked, he was struggling to process what had just happened.

Then he saw Satou.

Their leader stood where the sergeant had been, his clawed hand still extended from the strike that had literally torn the human in half at the waist. The two pieces of the sergeant’s body were flying in opposite directions, trailing intestines and blood.

Satou’s crimson aura blazed around him, his flame-like eyes scanning the three hundred human soldiers with cold calculation.

"Lord Satou!" Kael’mor felt hope surge through exhaustion. "You’ve returned!"

"Pull your warriors back fifty yards." Satou’s voice was calm despite the berserk aura surrounding him. "I’m clearing this sector."

Three hundred human soldiers stared at the dragoblin who’d just appeared and killed their sergeant with casual ease.

One officer, braver or more foolish than the others, shouted: "IT’S JUST ONE DEMON! SURROUND HIM! BRING HIM DOWN!"

Satou tilted his head slightly, considering the officer’s tactical assessment.

Just one demon?

Then he moved.

[SHADOW ABSOLUTE MOVEMENT]

His body dissolved into shadows, teleporting across sixty feet of battlefield in an instant, reappearing directly behind the officer who’d given the order.

The man didn’t even have time to turn before Satou’s clawed hand punched through his armored back and out his chest, gripping his still-beating heart.

Satou squeezed.

The heart ruptured. Blood sprayed. The officer’s body went limp.

Satou withdrew his hand and let the corpse fall, then activated another ability before the surrounding soldiers could react:

[TERROR AURA ]

The supernatural fear effect radiated outward in a fifty-yard radius, crashing into human soldiers like a physical wave. It wasn’t just normal battlefield fear—it was primal, instinctive terror that bypassed rational thought and spoke directly to the most primitive parts of the human brain.