They burned together, twisting and merging without consuming one another. One carried the deep crimson of blood and war. One burned with a sharp, controlled violet. The last glowed a calm, heavy blue. I shaped them using my understanding of the three families, their strengths, their flaws, their nature.
Below the surface, I worked even faster.
Caverns opened silently beneath the fortress. Long tunnels curved and folded into hidden chambers. Some were sealed tight, others linked by paths only I could sense. Emergency routes, hidden halls, and a deep, buried pocket-space portal took form, concealed so well that even the world itself barely noticed.
As I built, I wove the Fire Law into the stone.
The walls breathed heat. The stairs remembered flame. Any demon who stood still long enough could feel it. A place to meditate. A place to be refined.
The structure reached outward, linking naturally to the Bloodreaver headquarters and swallowing the Del Rey grounds into its foundation. I left the Ronics untouched, standing apart, watching.
When it was done, the capital was unrecognizable.
Demons far beyond the city stared in silence at the new skyline. A mountain had risen in seconds. A fortress of fire now crowned their world.
I reached out once more and linked myself to the world core. With a simple shift of intent, space folded in on itself. In the next instant, Primus, Dorian, and Orobas were no longer in their meeting hall. They appeared beside me, suspended high above the capital.
For a brief moment, none of them reacted. The sudden change in position stole their breath, and instinct made them tense as the wind rushed past. Then their eyes adjusted, and all three of them looked down.
The capital stretched beneath us, vast and reshaped. The volcano-fortress dominated the city’s heart, its spiraling stairways glowing faintly with heat, its summit crowned by three distinct flames. Even from this height, the structure felt heavy with authority.
"You can think of this as another favor I’m doing for Armus," I said quietly.
Primus swallowed.
"What did you do?" he asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper.
"I gave Armus a new identity," I replied. "One that reflects where it stands now, not where it was trapped before." I paused, letting the sight speak for itself. "From this point onward, your family will rule this place."
I raised my hand and pointed toward the summit.
"The three fires you see at the top are my gift," I continued. "They are not decorations. They are opportunities. Anyone willing to climb that far and meditate there can push past the limits of their bloodline." I glanced at them. "Those fires carry different aspects. A demon who listens carefully may gain insight into paths that were never meant to be theirs."
"And if someone truly exceptional appears," I added, "they may even integrate those aspects into their own comprehension. Not borrow them. Make them theirs."
Dorian tried to speak, then stopped. His throat tightened, and he had to look away from the city below before trying again.
"This... this changes everything," he finally said.
Orobas stepped forward, his gaze steady despite the shock written on his face.
"For countless years, we have tried to overcome the limits of blood," he said. "Every attempt was slow, dangerous, or required terrible sacrifices." He turned toward me fully. "What you’ve done here removes those chains. This is not just a gift. It is a blessing that will echo through generations."
I shook my head lightly.
"Don’t make more of it than necessary," I said. "I wanted Primus to leave Armus without doubt. Now he knows his world will not weaken while he’s gone." I let my hand fall. "That is enough for me."
I looked at all three of them one last time.
"Begin preparing for the fire and blood ritual," I said.
Before any of them could respond, I lifted my hand again.
Space rippled and I teleported all the demons back to the capital. Shouts echoed upward. Confusion spread. Awe followed close behind.
"Come with me," I said to the trio.
Space rippled once more, and we vanished from the open sky. A heartbeat later, we reappeared deep underground, inside the most secret chamber of the fortress.
The room was small, barely large enough to deserve the name. Plain stone walls pressed in from all sides, giving it a heavy, sealed feeling. There were no windows, no decorations, no markings. Only a single door existed, serving as both entrance and exit. Yet despite its size, I made sure without doubt that this was the strongest place in the entire fort. Layers of stone, space, and reinforcement overlapped here.
At the center of the chamber stood three stone podiums, arranged in a triangular formation. They were empty. The trio slowly turned in place, taking in the room.
I stepped forward. With a simple wave of my hand, three objects appeared in midair. They were glowing brown orbs, each surrounded by a thin, silver, translucent film. They floated silently, radiating compressed power.
With another small motion of my hand, I guided them forward. Each orb drifted down and came to a gentle stop above one of the podiums, hovering there as if waiting.
"These are for you, Orobas," I said calmly.
"They are specially created weapons," I continued. "Formed through one of my skills. Each one is wrapped in a sealed space and placed under an extremely slow flow of time."
I looked at him directly.
"At their current rate, they can remain stable for over a hundred years. If they are ever forcefully unsealed," I added, "they will detonate and they carry enough strength to wipe out a Level 350 Transcendent and all of them together can even seriously injure a level 400."
I didn’t need to explain further. Each of those orbs carried enough contained destruction to erase the capital itself. They were not gifts meant for use. They were guarantees, in the time of need for Primus family.