The air over the fortress of the Battered Coast was heavy and charged with a silence more terrifying than the roar of battle.

  Ten thousand soldiers stood in formation on the black iron parade grounds. They were the vanguard of the North. The largest standing army that the North had. The iron wall against the demonic tide. They stood shoulder to shoulder and were waiting.

  To them, this was a briefing on a "new strategic development."

  To Li Yu, standing on the high balcony of the command tower, it was a surgery. And he was holding the knife.

  "Are they ready?" Li Yu asked in a low voice.

  Beside him Grand Marshall Signe nodded. She had donned a set of crimson plate armor. Even this armor did little to hide her figure. It would seem this was just her preferred style. "They are assembled, Young Master. The entire garrison."

  "Don't call me that," Li Yu muttered automatically.

  He closed his eyes and looked inward.

  Inside his Spirit Sea, the isolated island had been transformed. Vespera’s black marble villa was buzzing with activity. In the gardens the forty demons stood in a circle. They were holding hands and chanting in a low dissonant tongue. Vespera stood in the center with her arms raised. She was weaving their collective mental energy into a web.

  'We are ready, Li Yu,' Vespera’s voice echoed in his mind. 'The web is spun. We have targeted every signature that resonates with the demons that we know.'

  'Do it,' Li Yu ordered. 'Clean them out.'

  In the physical world, Li Yu opened his eyes. They flashed with a blinding golden light. He exerted his will. The demons within him casted their web across the army to further reveal the hidden demons. Li Yu had already locked onto many of them. Their combined soul attack began.

  An invisible ripple expanded from the tower. It washed over the parade grounds like a gust of wind. To the uninfected human soldiers, it felt like a warm breeze. A sudden lifting of a weight they didn't know they were carrying.

  But to the demons hiding within the ranks it was the sound of a bell tolling their death.

  SCREECH.

  The sound from the demon's attack wasn't audible to the ear but every cultivator felt it vibrate in their teeth. Li Yu’s attack made no sound at all but was just as deadly if not more.

  Across the formation hundreds of soldiers suddenly stiffened. Their eyes rolled back. Black smoke poured from their mouths, ears and noses as the parasitic souls inside them were crushed by the combined might of Li Yu’s soul and Vespera’s demons.

  “There are demons among us. We are purging them now. Move away from all those affected and be on guard!” Signe roared to let her troops know what was happening now.

  The attack was working. Bodies collapsed as the demons died and left the hosts unconscious but alive. Then, the chaos started.

  "They found us!" A voice roared from the heavy infantry lines.

  A Rage Demon, buried deep within a centurion, resisted the initial wave due to a treasure he had or something else. His host’s body swelled, muscles tearing as red energy exploded outward. He didn't try to flee. He pulled the figural pin to the grenade that was the host’s soul.

  "GLORY TO THE ABYSS!"

  BOOM.

  A cloud of fire and bits blossomed in the middle of the formation.

  "Hold the line!" Signe roared again and was vaulting over the balcony railing.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  A Shadow Walker in the scout regiment realized the truth. Instead of dying quietly, he drew his twin daggers and spun. The dagger slashed the throats of the two human soldiers standing next to him before Li Yu’s pressure crushed his skull.

  In the logistics corps, a Gluttony Fiend vomited a stream of acidic bile. The bile melted the soldiers in the front row before succumbing to the purge.

  "Suppress them!" Li Yu roared.

  He increased the pressure of his attack. Trying to quickly find and destroy any of the beasts that had gotten past their initial wave of targeting. In the meantime, the Fisherman Soul appeared behind him. The pressure intensified instantly and slammed everyone into the dirt to prevent further movement. ‘Damn it! I made a mistake!’ Li Yu thought.

  The chaos lasted only ten seconds. But when the smoke cleared, the silence returned.

  Li Yu leaped down from the tower and landed softly on the cracked pavement. He walked through the rows of groaning, unconscious soldiers. He stepped past the black stains where demons had evaporated.

  He stopped at the crater where the Rage Demon had detonated. Medics were already rushing in to help the wounded but some were already dead.

  "Report," Signe said while landing beside him.

  Captain Kara, leading the now-cleansed Valkyries, did a quick sweep. She returned a moment later and her expression was grim but also relieved.

  "Most of the possessed are alive, Lord," Kara said while bowing to Li Yu. "The demons are gone. But the backlash from the suicides and the panic just now..."

  She looked at the bodies being brought away.

  "Thirty dead," Kara whispered. "About fifty wounded."

  Li Yu stared at those being carried away. Thirty men and women had died. They hadn't died fighting a glorious battle against the enemies of these lands. They had died because he couldn't kill the parasites fast enough. Some had hidden better, some had treasures and some had other means that delayed him.

  "I missed them," Li Yu said quietly. "I should have locked them down harder. I’m sorry my mistake costs the lives of so many, Grand Marshall."

  "You saved ten thousand," Signe said firmly. She placed a hand on his shoulder. Her touch was warm and grounding. "If you hadn't come, Young Master, this entire fortress would have fallen eventually. Thirty lives is a tragedy. Ten thousand lives is a victory."

  Li Yu looked at her. The charm was still affecting her. The adoration in her eyes was undeniable but the steel of the Grand Marshall was there too.

  "It feels like a mistake," Li Yu said quietly. He was thinking back to how it could have gone differently.

  "It is war," Signe corrected. "And in war, you take the win you can get."

  The aftermath was a blur of activity. The wounded were moved to the infirmary. The unconscious hosts were shackled and placed in quarantine until their souls could be verified as clean.

  Everyone was on edge with each other even though the command from the Grand Marshall was that should be all of them. However, to be on guard. If anyone seems different from normal, better to be safe than sorry.

  Reports were sent to Central Command via high-priority channels. The response was immediate and terrified.

  The idea that a Grand Marshall and her entire elite guard could be subverted without a single alarm being raised shook the Council to its core.

  Twelve hours later, the sky above the Battered Coast tore open. Not a rift. A teleportation array to be used in emergencies.

  A massive flagship, flanked by two dozen interceptors, thundered out of the clouds. It bore the crest of the Central Command.

  Grand Marshall Thyra had come herself to oversee this.

  She didn't wait for the ship to dock. She stepped off the deck and walked down the air, her white dragon-scale armor gleaming in the sickly purple light of the coast. She was followed by a team of high-ranking inquisitors and medics.

  Li Yu and Signe met her at the gate.

  Thyra looked at the fortress. She looked at the piles of demon ash being swept away. Finally, she looked at Signe. She grabbed Signe by the shoulders, her icy blue eyes searching her friend’s face.

  "Signe," Thyra whispered. "Are you... you?"

  "I am me, Thyra," Signe smiled. It was a tired smile. "Li Yu burned it out."

  Thyra let out a breath she seemed to have been holding for days. Even though the reports had said she was now fine. She was possessed for months now after all. She pulled Signe into a hug. A rare display of emotion from the Ice Dragon openly for all to see.

  Then she pulled back and looked at Li Yu.

  "We owe you again," Thyra said. "If this infection had spread to the other fronts without us knowing... the Dominion would have collapsed from the inside. We are sending teams to check all the biggest gathering of forces. With artifacts to help detect issues with the soul."

  "We caught it," Li Yu said. "Mostly."

  Thyra nodded. She turned to her inquisitors. "Set up a perimeter. No one leaves this fortress without a violent soul-search. I want every officer, every cook and every stable boy checked. If there is even a whisper of demonic Qi, isolate them. No one gets to go anywhere until they are monitored and checked again for a month."

  "Yes, Grand Marshall!"

  The team scattered to work. Thyra gestured for Li Yu and Signe to follow her. "Walk with me. We need to discuss the future."