Here is the expanded text at 1,400 words:

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"Nibbleskin!!"

Victoria barked the name without breaking stride and the feline appeared on her shoulder instantly, expression tight, already reading the situation before she said a word.

"What’s the situation?"

She moved through the front yard of the dark emperor’s castle at a pace just below a run, eyes forward, taking in what she could see while waiting for what she couldn’t.

"Around 30 minutes after we erased battlebeast, a flash of deadly light shone in the space above the planet."

Nibbleskin’s voice was flat and efficient.

"We assume it was a signal. The rest of the army east of here suddenly began moving shortly after."

He paused for exactly one beat.

"Right now we are surrounded from all sides. The corrupt beasts of the planet are pouring toward this location."

The war had gone from zero to a hundred in the span of minutes, and all of it traced back to one thing.

Permanently killing battlebeast.

This was a good thing.

It was also bad.

Both of those things were equally true right now and there was no time to sit with either of them.

"Tell Kig to push ion cannon 4 to the front lines." Victoria’s voice didn’t rise. It sharpened. "Create squads of six divines each, led by at least one high god. We have the target plan so move."

The last word landed and Nibbleskin was already gone.

No sound. No motion she could track. He disappeared from her shoulder with a speed that left nothing behind, not even the sense of departure.

Victoria didn’t slow down.

She stopped in front of a truck near the castle’s outer wall and turned to Enzo.

"You’re with me."

She said it clean, no preamble.

"We are going to kill as many of these bastards as we can!!"

She walked to the side of the truck and stepped into a coffin-shaped structure attached to its frame, the door closing behind her with a solid sound.

Enzo waited.

A few seconds passed.

When she came back she was fully armored.

Red God Battle Angel.

The last time he had seen this set, Victoria had killed hundreds of demigod creatures without slowing down. He remembered the color of it, deep and deliberate, built for war in a way that made everything around it look temporary.

She looked at him once.

Then started moving toward the front.

....

,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"This is not normal."

Atop a giant contraption hovering at the edge of the battlefield, two Daemons stood in the space above the chaos below. One of them was pacing, the motion tight and agitated, looping back and forth across the platform with nowhere to put the feeling.

"What do you mean battlebeast was erased? If he could die why are we being sent here?"

The frustration in his voice had an edge of something underneath it. Something closer to fear wearing the costume of anger.

True death.

That was not something they had ever factored in. Not seriously. Not as a real variable in any equation they had ever run. Because of how fast corruption spread they would return within a thousand years even if they fell, and a thousand years was nothing. A pause. A breath between one version of existence and the next.

But with true death in the equation....

Everything changed.

The math was different now.

They were truly in danger.

"You’re so pathetic."

The second Daemon didn’t pace. He stood still, watching the first with an expression that had settled somewhere between contempt and boredom.

"Death is supposed to be forever. You’ve been dependent on this thing for far too long."

He said it with the ease of someone who had never leaned on the return as a comfort, never used it as the reason to step into something he otherwise wouldn’t have.

Not every Daemon threw themselves into harm’s way because of that guarantee.

After all, returning meant starting from scratch. And not everyone found that acceptable.

"It’s not fair."

The first Daemon stopped pacing for a moment.

"It’s not fair. I don’t want to die."

He said it plainly.

No shame in it. No attempt to dress it as anything else. The concept of losing his life permanently was unthinkable in a way that bypassed pride entirely. What was pride against the end of existing?

He didn’t care about being called a coward.

The second Daemon looked at him with something close to disgust and said nothing else.

Below them the sounds of the battlefield shifted and rolled. Corruption’s forces moved in waves, pouring toward the castle from every direction, the ground itself carrying the vibration of how many things were moving at once.

The first Daemon had started pacing again.

The second stood with his arms crossed, eyes forward, jaw set.

Neither of them noticed what was coming.

Somewhere in the distance, two figures cut through the air at full speed, low enough to stay out of immediate sight lines, fast enough that the gap between them and the contraption was closing in seconds.

"Target locked."

The words were quiet.

Flat.

Professional.

"Hm?"

The second Daemon caught something. A shift in the air. A pressure arriving from the wrong direction.

He turned his head.

That was all he had time for.

Boom!!!!

Something hit the contraption like a thrown star, not from outside, from within, crashing through the structure and breaking it apart from the inside out. Metal and material exploded outward in every direction. The platform that had been solid ground beneath their feet became nothing in an instant, just fragments spinning away into open air.

The sound rolled out across the battlefield below.

Everything in its radius flinched.

The first Daemon’s pacing stopped immediately, fear stricken as his eyes danced around to catch a glimpse of what had just attacked them.

"You..." he recognized the amour, the blade shining with blood light.

It had cut through his neck before

This person was Victoria draken, the red of war and the daughter of life.

"Fuck no!!" He turned around and blinked moving away as fast as he could.

He could only imagine what permanent death looked like in that hands of lady Victoria.