The second shot claims far fewer lives than the first, but not everybody was able to react to the suddenness of the situation and duck behind the battlements. I hear the sound of ladders hitting the walls again, but the moment they do, human soldiers clad in robes already hop over onto the ramparts.

They are hooded like the musketeers but are a different breed of warriors that instantly get to work cutting down the defenders in their vicinity. It seems that they intentionally avoided landing near Petsobek, as the crocodilians have to push their way through injured and panicking demons to get to these new enemies.

Everything descends into chaos around us, and I look down to see that troops are storming the gateway again. If they wield guns as well, Kamii is in grave danger.

"What was that?" Hestia lands next to me, and I pull her away from the battlements as quickly as possible. "Wha-"

"Stay low. The enemy has a new weapon that will change war forever." I speak in a grim tone. While the guns they wield aren't as advanced as Zenlith could have easily made them, this battle has already become separated by hundreds of years in technological level. "We need to pull back."

The silver lining is that the muskets are long, so if we employ guerilla tactics in the buildings and streets during our retreat, they won't be able to utilize the full potential of this new weapon. But right now, I still have no idea what to do against that considerable number of guns with what we have here. I could try to create a shield as Exla has, but Zenlith has made it clear that he won't let it slide anymore.

"Sound the retreat, Rhosk." I turn to the commander, only to see that he was shot in the abdomen and is now bleeding profusely. He was miraculously spared in the first volley because of luck, but it didn't hold up for the second.

Holding a hand in his direction, I heal him without hesitation, Zenlith be damned. The demons would descend into disarray if their commander were to fall here. Even my presence won't be able to alleviate the hit to their morale when the only experienced leader currently present is out of the picture.

I'll have to believe in Chandra figuring things out herself. Gesturing at the lamia archer to fire the signal arrow, I pull Rhosk toward the stairs leading down from the ramparts. But he shakes off my grasp and stops on his own, giving me a determined look.

"I will hold this position until everybody has retreated." Like a captain being the last to leave - or go down with the ship if others don't make it - he refuses to abandon his post.

"We can't lose you here." I know that it's pointless to argue against his will, but I still try. He shakes his head with a toothy grin.

"No, You are the one we cannot lose here, Your Majesty." With a nod toward the stairs, Rhosk gestures for me to go on. "Take command of Erbilan's defenses until I arrive."

Something tells me he won't be joining me. If I could exert my full power here, I wouldn't have to let him sacrifice himself here for the sake of a retreat. In fact, there wouldn't even have been a battle with so many lives lost. I press my eyes shut in impotence, then open them again to look up at the black lizard commander, forcing a smile onto my lips.

"I'll be waiting for you." That's all I say before turning around and pulling Hestia with me.

"What happened to Dregana?" The fallen angel suddenly asks, and I nearly stumble down the stairs. Over everything happening, I completely forgot to see how Morelit and his band did on their end. If they were defeated, she would be dead by now.

"I'll go check. You tell Kamii and the others to retreat." Pointing at the gate below us, I give Hestia this task before growing tentacles to swing myself to the section of the wall where Dregana turned back into her human form.

When I reach the place and jump onto the ramparts, all I see are the corpses of about two dozen Petsobek and a similar number of the humans that got on top of the wall by clinging to her dragon form. No sign of the red-head, but Morelit is leaning against the battlements while coughing up blood.

This entire section is completely abandoned, but the human troops outside don't seem to try and climb it. In fact, they're leaving a huge gap, as if they think that this place is dangerous. Something doesn't feel right.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty." The Petsobek division commander apologizes while trying to get up in spite of his wounds.

"Don't move." I physically hold him down and heal him as I have Rhosk earlier. "What happened? Where's Dregana?"

Morelit lowers his head, and I immediately know the answer; she was taken by the humans. Hestia won't like this piece of news at all, but we can't do anything about it right now. If she's still alive, she'll be used as a bargaining chip or in some insidious machinations later. If not, there's even less we can do then.

"Come, we're abandoning-"

Suddenly, my vision is filled with fire and blood. The feeling of being flung through the air registers on the side, as my surface is scorched by immense heat and pummeled by scattering debris. I cover myself in dragon armor, unsure where I am right now before I see the sky above me. Then gravity begins to pull me down again, and I activate the Imagination Engine to stay in midair.

Looking down, I find that the entire section of the wall where Morelit and I stood only moments ago has been blown up from below. Chunks of stones fall on the fortress city behind it, crushing escaping demons and shattering buildings in its range.

That's why the humans were staying so far away from that position. Whoever set this up left the Petsobek division commander there as bait so that if somebody came to check on him, they would get blown up alongside him. He's definitely dead now; the blood that covered my vision belonged to him - and is now ingested alongside his genetic template.

Before all of this is over, I'll find and bite to death whoever did this while transforming into him, as a courtesy to Morelit.

While the area near the gate has fallen to the musketeers, this part is now being swarmed with troops entering through the newly-created breach in the wall. The forward fortress is falling faster than we anticipated now, and there won't even be time for an orderly retreat.

I fly toward the gate again to see Kamii still defending it while Hestia hovers over them and throws black spirit spears into the gateway. They're trying to keep in the flood so that those on top of the walls can evacuate, but they will soon be attacked in the rear by those coming through the hole that opened a short distance from here.

The explosion didn't go unnoticed, but they haven't found the right moment to disengage yet. Right now, they're too preoccupied with the thought that others on top of the wall haven't escaped yet to think of their own timing. That's why I need to do it for them, even if we have to leave some to die.

"Kamii, Hestia! Time to go!" I call out to them and drop into the mass of humans pushing against the armored demons at the gate. In this chaos, Zenlith shouldn't be able to tell what I'm doing, so I let all hell loose by turning into a dragon-reinforced ball of spikes that skewer all humans in the vicinity. That causes those that follow to stop in their tracks, which gives the demons an opening.

"Retreat!" Kamii raises her cursed arm and directs her troops away from this position, but shoots me a worried glance. Hestia does the same while taking to the air to join the demon air force covering the retreat from the skies while staying low enough so that the musketeer army on the other side of the wall can't shoot them down.

In either case, everything is going to turn into a mess now. The walls are all but overrun, with individual Petsobek warriors being the sole defenders in some sections of the ramparts, still fiercely shredding their way through the humans who made it to the top. But they'll fall eventually, giving their lives so that their allies can retreat.

My heart aches at the thought of how many died today because Zenlith decided so, and how many more have to die until he's satisfied. If only Exla could use her full abilities, he wouldn't be able to walk all over us and do as he pleases.

But then I realize something, and my heart drops. If he can shut Exla out like this for one day, can't he continue to do that tomorrow too? Won't he be able to keep doing this for however long he likes so that she doesn't interfere with him anymore? Doesn't this mean we have no hope to ever turn this around on him?

This means I have to achieve what she wanted to do. As the one person not registered in the system but still able to use it, I'm the only one who can oppose him. Since he can't shut me out, he had to use a deterrent to stop me from interfering, but if I can somehow prevent him from ever activating it, everything will be resolved.

Knowing this and actually doing it are two different things though. I have no idea how to shut out his fantasy on such a grand scale. Even now, I can't do what all the Old Humans seem to be capable of - turn organic matter into inorganic matter and vice-versa. Tahiri figured it out, and I'm sure the same is true for Korenga's black form.

With perfect timing, the Black God is flung across the sky, pushed by a lightning bolt that was doubtlessly shot out by Halthor. She hits the slope that leads toward the next wall a distance away from our position, shortly followed by the Chosen Knight himself traveling in a streak of lightning. It seems he hasn't learned from Zenlith to turn himself into electricity, so he's kind of holding onto it as if it's a living thing.

But before he can reach the place she fell, her form shoots out from within the dust that her impact kicked up and intercepts him in midair. They collide and fall straight down, but lightning strikes coming from above and the earth quaking under our feet tells me that the fight is still going on.

It's good to see that at least one front is holding, but their battle is in the way of our escape. For now, we can only try to avoid them, but it will slow down the retreat.

"Git ay mah way." A girl's voice echoes through the gate tunnel, speaking in a strange accent. I turn my attention back to the stalled enemies to see that they part like the sea to reveal a girl barely taller than Senka. She's clad in heavy black armor that looks strangely blocky and uncomfortable to move in. But she walks forward as if it's not hindering her at all, especially since she also carries a giant mace over her shoulder. Her visor is open to reveal the face of a child, framed by curly red hair spilling out from under the helmet.

"It's Fufia the Tiny!" The humans cheer on what appears to be a Chosen Knight. But with a single glare from her green eyes, they're shut up.

"Somebody caa me 'at again, I'll shove a cane up their crease an' use them as a bludgeon." She shakes her fist at a nearby man, who shrinks under her gaze. That crude way of talking stands in complete contrast to her cute appearance, and I'm completely taken aback by it.

"It's Fufia, the Titan Knight!" The enemy soldiers correct their cheers under threat of being sodomized with a stick and turned into a living mace. That's a name I didn't pay much attention to because of what it is, but to find that it's such a cute little girl is a surprise.

Well, not that cute when considering her delinquent-like facial expressions and way of talking.

"Whit ur ye lookin' at?" She glares up at me and raises her giant mace over her head. "Ur we gonnae barnie ur whit?"

I don't understand what she's saying, but I think she's challenging me. I'm currently not looking like I did when I defended the gate so that Kamii and the others could fight Colart and Folke, so they don't know who I am. Otherwise, her reaction would be entirely different.

I glance behind me and find that Kamii and her company have already covered quite the distance, so it should be okay if I retreat now too. The few remaining defenders on the walls are doomed already, and while I would like to witness their final moments and burn it into my memory, I can't let myself get surrounded and be forced to fight. Zenlith would most likely consider even that a violation at this point.

But I won't let him have his way unconditionally. I know that the humans won't believe what I have to say, but it's worth a try anyway; there's nothing to lose but a little bit of time.

"Hear me, humans." I change my appearance to the one I'm known for, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing the academy's uniform. Except for Fufia, nobody recognizes me right away though. She immediately lowers her stance and stares up at me with a cautious expression. "I am Chaos, child of Queen Pelomyx."

That's when a murmur runs through the troops before me, and some recognize me. Nobody tries to be brave and rushes forward to kill me, so they must have been told that I'm an existence only the Chosen Knights can oppose. Even that is false, but the Old Humans can't admit that I'm on their level.

"You have been deceived by your so-called gods. They were the ones who created our kind so that they could play war games." I include myself among the demons because one truth is difficult enough to understand. "Lucianus V told me that the gods planned for the demons to fall this time so that they can rise again in the future to continue this eternal war between our people."

It's not the entire truth, but I can't explain that Lucianus V is most likely just an avatar of Zenlith.

"Has it not been enough bloodshed? How many more-"

"Enough of that." A familiar voice suddenly interrupts me from behind, and I step backward just in time to avoid the scythe slicing through where my neck was.

It's Serent, having the courtesy to announce himself before attacking me. The only reason I could react so quickly is that I saw that Fufia, of all people, glanced past me with a hint of surprise in her eyes. She was so fixated on even my smallest movements until then that I knew something was up.

"You again. I have the biggest bone to pick with you." I turn around while swinging my arm, only to achieve the same that Kamii did when she tried to strike his nonexistent legs. The towering floating skeleton in black robes doesn't even move and stares at me with the red dots in his otherwise empty eye sockets.

"Did you just...?" For the first time, he breaks his character to point at me with his jaw open.

"Get out of here! I'm sure you're ruining Zenlith's scenario with your presence!" I swing at his head this time, and he slides backward to avoid the attack while still perplexed by my unabashed pun even in this life and death situation.

"That will not be on me." Gathering his composure, Serent turns his gaze aside and states in his eerie ethereal voice before disappearing in a black mist.

"What did you even come here to do?!" I point at where he vanished and shout, but then a giant iceberg shoots up in the middle of the retreating army of demons out of nowhere. I watch as debris and people get launched into the air before gravity pulls them back down to earth, knowing that they're all going to die on impact.

That's not something a human mage could achieve - not even a Chosen Knight - or it would have happened long ago. I've seen this phenomenon before, but not to this extent.

Then the iceberg shatters into tiny pieces which roll down the slope in an avalanche, burying houses and demons underneath it like a tidal wave. It approaches us, and I look down to see Zancrax and other heavily-armored demons bracing themselves with Kamii hiding behind them.

This is already outside of Zenlith's scenario, so I don't care about his condition anymore. I raise a hand and create a barrier around them just in time before the avalanche made up of sharp ice splinters rather than snow reaches them. The humans behind me start running away, but Fufia is rooted in place, looking at the incoming disaster like a deer would stare into the headlights of an oncoming car.

I'll be damned if I let a cute little girl die, even if she's an enemy. Thus, I create a barrier around us as well, just enough to cover the gateway so that the avalanche doesn't wash right through it. Then it hits, burying us completely before everything goes dark except for the glow of the shield of light.

When the rumbling of the avalanche ends, I extend the barrier upward until it pushes a hole leading up to the sky. Then I turn around to the stunned Fufia.

"Get away from here. Little girls don't belong on the battlefield." I say with a shooing motion in her direction before floating up through the hole to the surface of the newly created glacier. I hear her shout after me that she's not a little girl, but I don't care right now.

"Where are you, monster?!" An angry roar echoes across the ice-covered slope, and I look toward the top of it to see a lone figure with pale blue skin and tattered white clothes - barely distinguishable from the background. When I zoom in on him, I realize that it's Zylos, Winter's Frost. But unlike last time when I saw him, his dark blue hair is disheveled and his sapphire eyes are bloodshot.

I'm surprised that he's alive. Asoko told me that she ate Kanundra and then killed him with a heat beam through the chest. I don't easily believe things unless I see them myself, even if they're said by another me, but I didn't think he had any need to play dead back then. Maybe he really was on the verge of dying. Well, not checking for a pulse is one of the most common mistakes I'd expect myself to make when I don't eat the opponent whole - which I won't do with an Old Human unless they're already dead.

Though having a gaping hole in the chest should kill any human - except for an Old Human, it seems. Whether that or the loss of his sister, whom he was at odds with, is the reason for his unhinged appearance, I don't know. But it's clear that he came here with no regard for keeping to the scenario to seek revenge.

He may be mistaking me for Asoko, or he doesn't care and wants to kill all members of my kind. In either case, he has disrupted Zenlith's game, and the gathering clouds above tell me volumes about what the latter thinks of that.

Things are getting out of hand now.