I arrived in the capital just as the sky began to pale. The city was hushed, almost holding its breath before the storm to come. I descended silently and stepped out of space a short distance from the envoy’s tower.
Knight was already waiting for me, leaning against the base of the tower like he had been there all night. His arms were crossed, tail flicking lazily behind him, but the sharpness in his eyes told me he hadn’t relaxed for a second.
"You’re early," Knight said without turning.
"So are you," I replied as I walked up beside him. "Any movement?"
"None." Knight tilted his head toward the tower. "He’s been meditating for the last hour. Trying to calm himself, probably. He’s more nervous than he’s pretending."
I raised an eyebrow. "Nervous about the war or about Lana?"
"Both," Knight said. "But mostly Lana."
He pushed off the wall and faced me fully.
"He contacted her twice during the night."
I folded my arms. "And?"
Knight gave a small humorless laugh.
"She was furious. Almost screaming. The moment she heard about the war declaration, she lost her composure completely."
I nodded once. "That is good."
Knight continued, voice low.
"The envoy tried explaining that he can’t interfere unless the Bloodreavers do something that violates Demon HQ rules, rebellion or involvement with Eternals. Otherwise he has no authority."
"And she didn’t like that answer."
"That’s an understatement." Knight smirked faintly. "She demanded he ’fix it.’ He told her again that internal wars were allowed unless HQ gave a direct order. She didn’t care."
He paused.
"There was a long silence. Then Lana told him exactly what she wanted."
Knight’s eyes narrowed slightly. "She said: use the reinforcement. Stop the Bloodreavers. Crush them if needed. And then blame everything on them. After all... the Ronic ancestor is already dead. Once the Bloodreavers fall, two of the three families are gone."
I let out a slow breath. "So her plan is still the same. Wipe out two clans in one move."
Knight nodded.
"She even said killing Orobas first would make the rest fall apart. That killing the ancestor is the cleanest solution. Then her family can ’restructure Armus properly’ under demon headquarters."
I clicked my tongue. "Bold for someone who can’t even manage her own mess."
Knight shrugged. "She sounded confident. Too confident. Probably because she thinks the reinforcements from Dragos are guaranteed."
"They won’t be," I said. "Not today."
Knight tilted his head. "Should we kill the envoy?"
"Of course not," I replied. "If we kill him, Lana will get the perfect excuse to come after Primus with full force. The envoy stays alive, just helpless."
"So the only target is the reinforcement," Knight said.
"Yes. Go mess with their teleportation gate. Disable it cleanly. Make sure they can’t trace anything back to us."
Knight’s tail flicked. "They’ll still be suspicious. The same day war is declared, the gate suddenly collapses? They’ll smell something."
I shrugged. "It doesn’t matter. In two or three days we’ll be gone from here anyway. Once the war ends, we take part in the Blood and Flame ritual, then we head to Dragos and begin our direct conflict with the Eternals." My voice grew lighter. "I’m itching to finally meet the real enemies."
Knight chuckled. "Why Dragos? Why not just roam the galaxy?"
"We will," I said. "But first, I want to help Primus deal with his lovely wife. And after that, we need to teach the Ferans a lesson. When we do that, the Nagas will also jump in. They own this galaxy. It will be fun for sure."
Knight shook his head, amused.
"It looks like our internal problems are taking more time than the Eternals themselves."
"Yeah," I admitted. "But at least it makes the journey interesting. I don’t mind becoming the enemy of both universes."
Knight smirked as he began melting into the shadows.
"Just two universes? Sounds too small for us."
I smiled faintly, watching him vanish completely, and wondered if he might actually be right.
*****
It took me only a few seconds of flight to reach the place where the war would unfold.
The Valley of the Warriors.
I personally liked this tradition, keeping battles outside the cities, away from homes, and the weak. It spared civilians, saved infrastructure, and most importantly... it preserved the purity of warfare. No distractions. No excuses. Just strength clashing against strength.
And there was something satisfying about it, a dedicated place meant only for destruction. A place where warriors could unleash everything without restraint.
The Valley wasn’t a valley in the usual sense. Long ago, it might have been a ring of mountains, but many wars had scraped, shattered, and pulverized the landscape until almost nothing recognizable remained.
The ground was flat only because everything that used to rise here had been blasted apart.
Jagged cracks split the earth in long, crooked lines, some so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. Scorched streaks blackened the stone as if lightning storms had been caged here for centuries. Entire craters dotted the land like open wounds, each one large enough to hold a small village. Some were smooth, melted by heat. Others were sharp and torn, ripped open by brute force.
The air itself was thick with the residue of old battles, killing intent soaked so deeply into the soil it refused to fade. Even the wind seemed subdued, as though afraid to make sound in a place where countless warriors had taken their last breath.
Bones littered the field.
Massive, curved, twisted remains of abominations. Spines as long as palace towers lay half-buried in the dust. A skull with six eye sockets rested on its side, split clean down the middle. Ribs thicker than tree trunks jutted out of the earth like broken spears.
Far in the distance, I caught faint traces of lingering elemental scars. Frozen patches where ice had refused to melt for decades. Burnt circles where nothing ever grew again. A cracked ridge that hummed with faint lightning, as if the battle that created it still echoed.
This was the Valley of Warriors, Armus’s eternal witness to strength and death.
A place carved by the generations before us...
And ready to welcome another war.