The Phantom’s laugh echoed across the whole city, and one by one the demons snapped out of their shock. Their faces shifted from surprise to disbelief, none of them understood how the Phantom had appeared here. That disbelief quickly turned into anger. They raised their weapons and roared back, trying to drown out his laugh.
"Get those fuckers!" someone shouted.
"Kill those disgusting creatures!" another voice joined.
"How dare you intrude on our city!." a grandmaster demon yelled before flames burst around his body and he shot into the sky, heading straight toward the Phantom and the 25 abominations with him.
I almost laughed. The grandmaster was flying straight toward his death. He was only level 230. No matter how brave he acted, he wouldn’t even slow the Phantom down.
But he wasn’t the only one. The entire city erupted with screams of fury. Demons and demonesses, every grandmaster inside the capital, shot up into the air. The master-ranked ones remained on the ground, banging their weapons against the streets and shouting challenges at the Phantom, screaming at him to come down and fight.
The night before, when I talked about all this with Primus, he had told me exactly how it would play out. I didn’t fully believe him then. But watching it happen in front of me now... I couldn’t stop a smile from forming.
My eyes stayed on the grandmaster blazing toward his doom. I started counting in my head. One... two... three... and just as I reached the edge of four, a roar burst through the air, the signal that our plan had begun.
Primus, his siblings, his father and mother, Steve, and North and the other Bloodreavers shot out of the fort and appeared in front of the low-level grandmaster.
Primus’s father, Dorian Bloodreaver, lifted his hand. The grandmaster demon froze mid-flight.
"Don’t throw your life away. Get down and help defend the city," Dorian said. The demon clenched his jaw but obeyed, turning and flying back toward the streets.
Then Dorian faced the Phantom, who stood lazily with his sword resting on his shoulder, watching Dorian as if he were bored.
The demons only had three grandmasters in the 290s. Primus was close: level 288. The others standing behind Dorian ranged from level 250 to 290. Not nearly enough.
"Someone go and summon the ancestor," Dorian whispered. One grandmaster broke formation and rushed downward to carry the message.
"So... are you done with all your preparations? It has been quite some time since I had my last meal," the Phantom finally said.
Dorian’s jaw tightened. He didn’t answer. I glanced at Primus standing beside him. He held a heated, slightly glowing red sword in his hand. His face was calm, but I could feel the rage locked inside him.
Everything that happened today, everything the Phantom was doing, it would all prove that Lana was behind this. And Primus knew it. I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind, but I could feel the pressure rolling off him, like he was forcing every bit of anger to stay inside.
"Well? You got nothing to say?" the Phantom asked again.
The Phantom waited, almost amused, while Dorian’s aura burned brighter. For a moment, the sky felt heavy, like everyone knew a command was coming.
"Attack," Dorian said.
That single word was quiet, but every demon around him moved like an arrow released from a bow.
They all shot forward at once, red flames exploding around their bodies, blood swirling like mist around their arms, and weapons lighting up with fire. They flew straight toward the Phantom with killing intent thick enough to taste.
The Phantom only tilted his head and lifted his sword a little higher on his shoulder.
"Go. Enjoy yourselves. Eat to your content," he said.
ROARRRRR!!!
The twenty-five abominations with him roared in hunger, their bodies twisting with black muscle and cracked red skin. They launched themselves forward, meeting the Bloodreavers mid-sky. The Phantom stayed where he was, watching with the eyes of someone staring at a game board.
The sky turned into a battlefield of fire and shadows. Explosions of red flames burst across the air as Bloodreaver demons threw fire punches, swung burning blades, or shaped liquid blood into sharp whips and spears. The abominations answered with brute strength, dark claws, and monstrous speed.
I watched from the back, staying exactly where I needed to be.
Primus was already moving.
Flames burst across his entire body, bright, wild, hotter than anything I had seen from him before. He became a streak of red, shooting forward with insane speed. Even the abomination he targeted, a level 294 monster, didn’t react in time.
Primus appeared above its head in an instant.
His hand came down like a falling star. The moment his palm touched the abomination’s skull, a red glow erupted.
BOOM!!!
The monster’s head exploded.
It wasn’t a slow burn or a struggle. It was instant. One touch. One burst. One kill.
Every demon nearby paused. Even Dorian froze for a heartbeat, staring at his son as the headless corpse fell toward the city below.
For a moment, I could feel their shock, their confusion. Primus had always been strong but this was something different. Something far above normal.
And Steve followed right after.
A flash of blue and black, the shine of his sword and the wild swing of his blond hair cut through the battlefield. Lightning crackled behind him, mixing with small streaks of darkness that twisted around his blade.
One moment he stood still. The next he was in front of a level 290 abomination.
A thin line of lightning sliced through the air.
The abomination’s head separated cleanly from its neck before the monster even realized he had moved.
The body fell. The head followed. Steve didn’t even stop; he dashed toward the next enemy with sparks snapping around his feet.
Watching both of them fight, I smiled.
I remembered our journey here. Every night, after we trained, I infused Essence into their attributes. Strength, constitution, dexterity... night after night I fed each attribute, polishing their foundations.
They were still grandmasters in rank.
But their raw physical stats... those were something else entirely now.
Even though they had not yet reached Transcendent rank, their bodies could rival beginner Transcendent. Their speed, their strength, the sharpness of their senses, everything had quietly risen to a level that no demon here expected.
Primus with his explosive fire. Steve with his lightning-dark sword.
Even North, who still stood in her original place.
They were all monsters in their own way.