He trained tirelessly for two weeks. He'd already thrown the blade twice today. It only radiated with Light, but nothing came out. Later Radion called the entire unit. “We’re marching back to the Ice Spire Fortress!” Everyone lined up on the citadel roof and set out through the Light Door into the snow. The moment they emerged, a gust hit them. The last patrol’s tracks were already vanishing under fresh drifts. In the distance, the citadel they had recently inhabited loomed.

  The unit was weakened; most of the recruits were still regenerating on the Tree where they were heading. Only a partial squad remained. Their task was not just to return, but also to search for possible rifts or demons who might have escaped after the battle. That’s why they chose a much longer route, which would take them four days. Rendil hadn’t mastered the Light Beam technique, but he was progressing quickly.

  Every milestone he achieved brought him closer to his goal: to help the angels. It was hard work, but he was determined to train, no matter how long it took. During breaks, he talked with members of his squads, checked on the leaders, and maintained morale in this land of eternal snow.

  They had been marching for three days and couldn’t wait to return. At night, they rested in tents; Rendil took the long watch. The captain observed the situation from the air, allowing the others to get some well-deserved sleep. But Rendil couldn’t find peace, so he walked along the edge of the camp. Do those tree branches move against the wind? I have a strange feeling that something might be watching. Snow crunched behind him; brown hair and hazel eyes met his through the helmet. It was Mona.

  “Can’t sleep?” he asked.

  She smiled. “You know, Lieutenant, a woman prefers a bed to these tent adventures. Even lieutenants still need sleep too. Why are you still on watch?”

  “I’m keeping watch a bit longer, want to make sure everything’s all right before the changeover,” he replied, gazing into the darkness among the trees.

  Mona sat on a stump beside him and exhaled deeply; only the campfire’s light lit the area. She rubbed her hands, held them over the fire, then broke the silence. “I’ve been fighting here for eight hundred years; would you believe it? It’s hard to guess how long anyone’s been here, since we don’t age. You easily fall into routine here and lose track of time. I thought my life flew by, but here... days blur together. Training, fighting, then more training...” Her voice was thoughtful; it was clear something was weighing on her.

  Rendil sat next to her but kept his gaze on the woods. Only a wash of moonlight made the trees visible.

  “I hoped I’d be further along after all this time...” She broke the silence.

  “Your time will come before you know it. I see great strength in you,” he said, nudging her in the side.

  She laughed. “I’m not so sure about that, since I don’t even know who I’m fighting for. For myself? Unlike you, there’s no one waiting for me in Heaven, and I don’t have anyone trapped down there, like you do.”

  “I don’t believe you’re completely alone. Maybe there’s someone you’ve already forgotten. And if not, let’s make a pact: if I make it there, I’ll wait for you. Deal?”

  She smiled and shook his hand. “Deal!”

  Their gloved hands closed. Breath plumed in the cold air.

  But Rendil still watched the tree line. Now he was sure he’d seen a yellow eye. He didn’t want to reveal anything. “And otherwise? How are you holding up? Everything all right?” he asked awkwardly, so much so that Mona didn’t understand what he meant; she didn’t expect such questions from him. With a small tilt, he signaled trouble.

  “I’m fine,” Mona continued, trying to read from his expression what was going on. “You know how it is, we defend, we fight every day.”

  “Wake Elion and Lorian,” he whispered.

  “You know what, I’m pretty tired,” she started yawning, and her acting would have deserved a Golden Raspberry for worst performance.

  “All right, go, I’ll go too,” he said aloud.

  Mona left inconspicuously.

  Rendil acted casual, walked past the tents, then dropped behind canvas where the forest could not see him. After a while, Elion and Lorian crawled up to him.

  “What’s going on?” Elion whispered.

  “Something’s in there; I didn’t see anything specific, just a yellow eye,” Rendil replied.

  “An eye? A yellow eye could be anything. We have to alert the captain!” Elion was already getting up, but Rendil pulled him back by the hand.

  “No, if the captain swoops down, it could alert the enemy. He is already in the air and ready. We need to wake everyone and prepare for battle, but only let them change into armor when we give the signal,” he said, looking at Lorian.

  Lorian agreed with a glance. “The two of us will try to get closer.”

  “Isn’t that too risky?” Elion objected.

  “The two of us? Please,” Rendil said, waving his hand.

  Elion smirked.

  “We have to go around,” Elion whispered.

  They circled the camp and approached the trees from the other side. Two shadowy figures moved through the deep snow from camp to the edge of the woods. The captain noticed movement, but Rendil and Elion just signaled him to keep his patrol. The trees were dense, and with their Lumions hidden their night vision was poor, so they inched forward. They got behind the enemy’s position, lay low in the brush, and listened.

  Suddenly, they heard high-pitched, squeaky voices trying to speak quietly: “They’re all surely asleep! Let’s kill them, and their captain too!”

  “Quiet! The element of surprise is on our side! It’s best to let them pass and find a good place to open a rift to Hell,” another voice joined in.

  “Then we’ll clean this place up. The cooperation is working so far, we have to delay them as much as possible.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Yes, but we can handle such a small group with one captain and move on, they won’t know where! Let’s go kill!”

  The smell of sulfur hung heavy; malevolence sent a shiver down their spines.

  Rendil and Elion couldn’t tell exactly what they were. They had to decide whether to risk being discovered.

  “We go closer,” Rendil whispered.

  Elion shook his head no and gestured back that they should alert the others.

  Rendil shot him a look that said they could handle it.

  Elion shook his head in disagreement. “Revenants,” he whispered.

  Rendil fell silent in surprise; he'd heard that revenants were evil spirits who could possess trees, demons close to the level of captains. Just floating spheres with a yellow eye staring out through a wooden mask. It wasn't the weak spot though. The sphere was.

  “How many?” he whispered to Elion.

  “Four,” Elion mouthed, holding up four fingers.

  “Let’s go back,” Elion gestured.

  “No,” Rendil shook his head in disagreement. “They’ll go after us anyway; the element of surprise is on our side now!”

  Elion struggled with himself for a moment, the conflict visible on his face, but finally nodded in agreement.

  The demons decided to attack the camp. As they approached the edge of the forest, Rendil and Elion stayed on their heels. They rose as one, broke into a run, and thrust, spearpoints finding the yellow core. An unearthly scream tore through the woods. The tree it inhabited went still, and vines and branches sloughed off, ordinary again. The yellow orb shattered, and a wooden mask with a twisted maw sank into the snow.

  Now they were surrounded by three revenants. Rendil reached for his sword, Elion pulled out his ax. Vines whipped and crawled. One grabbed Rendil by the thigh, lifted him into the air; another slammed his chest against a tree. Elion locked with another revenant. Radion's crescent of Light cut the branches from above. Evil eyes turned skyward, fixed on the captain. Rendil hit the snow, then scrambled up. He searched for the weak points, but orbs sank into trunks and were moving within bodies. They were weak against sneak attacks, but now that they were on guard their true strength manifested Radion was flying above them, striking where he could. Elion defended himself, but was surrounded.

  At that moment, the whole group arrived at the forest’s edge, supported from behind by archers. Their arrows rattled off bark and fell in snow. Radion swooped down and pierced one of the spheres, eliminating another revenant. One of them screeched, grabbed the captain by the ankle, and slammed him into a tree. Radion cried out. His leg buckled. Lorian ran at the revenant Elion was fighting.

  “This one’s probably mine,” Rendil sighed.

  He slashed at the branches around him; the group tried, but couldn’t find the enemies’ weakness. The situation was bad. Elion tried to fire a Light Beam, but missed and was left defenseless. Lorian moved to cover him, and branches caught him too.

  The only one who could help was the captain.

  He lay unconscious in the snow at the base of a tree, his breath smoking.

  Rendil rushed to him and turned him over. Radion, exhausted, muttered, “How are we doing so far?”

  “Meh,” he said, shaking his head from side to side.

  “That bad?” The captain rolled his eyes and, leaning on his sword, pushed himself upright on one leg. “I’ll draw it to me. Aim for the core,” Radion ordered.

  White bone showed through his shin, blood streaming down through his ankle plate into the snow. He didn’t have the strength to lift off and managed only a few feet; the revenant grabbed his ruined leg and yanked him down. The captain screamed in pain, flapped his wings, and tried to bend the tree as much as possible to force the demon to reveal its vulnerable spot.

  There it is!

  He threw his spear. He missed. Rendil's bow and arrows weren’t enough; he had to try something else. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and focused. His sword glowed in his hand, pulsing with Light. He breathed in again, exhaled, and swung hard. Light flashed from the sword, hitting the revenant. The sphere split; vines and branches fell away. The captain tried to land, but crashed hard. The sound of steel hitting against wood continued from behind him.

  The world tilted as the group fought the last revenant. Elion and Lorian were still trapped; he tried to get to them, when suddenly everything went black and he lost consciousness. When he woke, piles of wood and branches lay everywhere. Lorian’s face above him, helmet off, blond hair and brown eyes. After a good slap, he tried to sit up.

  “Did we win?” he asked, still dazed.

  Lorian slid down by a tree next to him, leaning against the trunk. Exhausted, he put down his helmet with a muffled thud in the snow, revealing his olive-toned skin, dark brown eyes, and matching hair. “Yes, somehow. But the captain and Elion need immediate help.”

  “What’s wrong with Elion?” Rendil asked.

  “His skull is fractured. It will heal, but he can’t help us. He’s completely out. We have two options: wait here for a while, or make sleds and move them to the fortress.”

  Rendil straightened up. “How are the squads?”

  “We lost more than half. If not for Mona...” Lorian paused for a moment.

  Rendil looked at him.

  “She managed to destroy the last sphere. If not for her, we’d all be back at the Tree,” Lorian said.

  Rendil smiled proudly.

  “With losses like this, we can’t stay here. We’re done with recon. We will be going straight home. We’re half a day out; staying here is too risky. It seems the chance of encountering the enemy is higher than we expected, and so is their strength,” Lorian continued while brushing snow off his shoulders.

  “You're right. These weren’t just hellhounds or barons. They were revenants. Is a high demon roaming here too? If so, he’s surely not far. What we managed is a small miracle,” Rendil said, slowly getting up. “Our forces are already scattered across the territory. Trying to call for help with a Light Beam might actually attract the enemy,” Rendil added.

  Lorian looked at Rendil in agreement. “We have to hope we don’t meet anyone else, but if we do, I’ll be ready to call for reinforcements. I think you could do it too, but it’s better to test it at the fortress.”

  Rendil silently accepted his words. They quickly treated the wounded and prepared Light sleds. They laid a dazed Elion on one.

  “Careful,” Lorian said, easing Radion on other. A high, pinched “Argh” escaped the captain as they strapped him down. Then they began to pull them back to the fortress. When they gathered, Rendil counted heads: twenty-five, plus the two lieutenants. Of the fourth squad, only Mona and Artur were left. They set out that evening and traveled all night. The next day, they had only a short break. In the distance, the Ice Spire Fortress appeared.

  “Come on, the gates are less than fifteen minutes away,” Lorian said.

  They trudged through the snow when trees shattered in the forest. Two great trunks exploded aside, like curtains parting, and a giant loomed on the horizon, bearing a huge shield and, in the other hand, a scythe?like black sword.

  “I think we’ve found the answer to the higher demon: run!” Lorian shouted, immediately firing a Light Beam into the sky. Then he fell to his knees.

  “Mona, Vasil, help him; everyone to the fortress!” Rendil shouted.

  The beast charged at them on all fours. I have two options, flashed through his mind. Either we try to escape and risk losing three lieutenants and the captain, or I hold him off and we’ll only definitely lose one.

  Lorian was already loaded up and they were pulling him to the door.

  “Rendil, come on!” Mona shouted.

  He looked at the sky and took a deep breath. He knew there was nothing left to consider. The giant rushed at him. Rendil ran down the hill in the opposite direction. I have to lure him as far away as possible! The beast drew closer. When he couldn’t run any farther, he turned, ready to face the enemy. The giant slowed and started laughing.

  “Mwahaha! The giant laughed. Why aren’t you running, little man? Let me play with you a bit! Your group left you here! You’re alone!”

  He towered over Rendil, larger than any foe he’d ever seen. On his head sat a massive black helmet, where eyes full of hatred gleamed. Huge ram horns twisted from its openings. His whole body was covered in dark armor, radiating a purple aura.

  “You didn’t run far enough; I’ll still catch up to them! We are the legion! All will fall before us!” he roared, and swung at him.

  His attack was unbelievably fast for his size. Rendil managed to dodge, he evaded another blow somehow. Now’s my chance! Focus! His sword glowed; he sent all his energy toward the giant’s face.

  There was an explosion. Exhausted, he fell to his knees, leaning on his sword. He looked ahead, but couldn’t believe it: not a mark! He started to black out, but still saw the demon swing the scythe and hit him. Oh no. Rendil saw his own legs fall forward and his chest to the side: the demon split him in two, and everything was swallowed by darkness.