Dusk slid over Suisei like a conspirator. Katsuragi, King of Yōkawa, let his ships idle off the Majokawa coast, sails furled and oars muffled. Beyond the twilight, the fortress Kasei brooded inland—dark walls rumored to bristle with hidden powers. It was the third evening since they’d left the Takuma Isles, and they wanted no word reaching King Goritsu XII too soon. Their plan was straightforward: slip ashore two leagues north of Tenmyō, then cross the fen on foot and strike Kasei under cover of night.

So it was that Katsuragi (Lv 47 Storm King) commanded his forces: five hundred Yōkawa warriors, plus a smaller contingent of Oni from Onikawa. He gave charge to leave fifty sailors behind to guard the ships. The rest of them—nearly two hundred Oni under Lord Jūsō (Lv 55 Oni Warlord) and Lord Daigo (Lv 53 Sword Dancer), plus Katsuragi’s own main body of Yōkawa—took up arms. Among them marched Haruto Watanabe, a figure half-lost in the hush of preparations, glimpsed only when a torch flame outlined his still form. The [System] readout over Haruto’s head flickered uncertainly, as though this world were poised to assign him a role he had yet to comprehend.

Because most of the force was Katsuragi’s men, the three lords—Jūsō, Daigo, and Katsuragi—agreed that Katsuragi would lead the vanguard. They advanced across barren dunes into the marsh, a bleak stretch that turned treacherous under the drizzle that began soon after nightfall. The fen was passable so long as they trod carefully, skirting moss-hags and murky pools. Though the damp stung their pride, Lord Jūsō counted it a boon that the weather might cloak them from watchful eyes atop Kasei’s ramparts.

Yet as midnight fell, their first glimpse of Kasei—its black towers looming in silhouettes—brought a chill that cut deeper than the drizzle. The fortress rose huge and silent, as though it slept or lay abandoned altogether. Katsuragi’s eyes gleamed in the torchlight, for in his mind’s eye he pictured Kasei’s defenders nodding off over half-emptied wine cups, celebrating Majokawa’s rumored victory against the Oni. “We strike now,” he insisted, voice low. “A direct rush around those walls. Catch them dreaming, cut them down before they can rouse.”

Lord Jūsō exchanged a worried glance with Daigo. “Katsuragi,” he said, “my gut says we scout first. If Kasei’s garrison is smaller than we fear, we still want the advantage of surprise. Let’s not trip the alarm with a reckless push.” But Katsuragi—fired with the memory of the Yōkawa capital nearly falling to Yurei years before—spurned caution. “There’s no time for that. We do this the same way Yurei once took my palace in Zae Zakuro, with speed and nerve.”

Jūsō sighed. Nerves still raw from losing Lord Kinryu, he chose not to battle Katsuragi’s eagerness. So they pressed forward, splitting into three columns that curved around the fen, drawing nearer to Kasei’s north side. The Yōkawa vanguard outpaced the Oni behind them, and Teshimaru (Lv 31 Sea Skipper)—Katsuragi’s second—led a rowdy band that rushed perilously close to the fortress walls. Jūsō and Daigo hissed warnings, but Teshimaru’s men ignored them, surging along the high ground.

Without warning, torches blazed atop Kasei’s battlements, the sudden glare revealing the intruders like deer in a lantern’s beam. A hail of arrows, stones, and spears rained down. Amid the confusion, a postern door crashed open. Koren (Lv 43 Blade Captain) burst forth at the head of one hundred fifty Majokawa warriors. “Let’s crack these nuts open,” he roared, hefting a two-handed axe. “He who dares to sup of Majokawa’s Higan Kani must deal with the nippers first!”

Chaos ignited in the dark. Koren’s men struck Teshimaru’s Yōkawa from the flank, splitting them in two. Teshimaru lunged for Koren, missing narrowly. Koren’s axe came around in a brutal arc, decapitating Teshimaru. The Yōkawa lines faltered. Katsuragi, leading the main group beyond the postern, turned back upon hearing the clash, calling his men to rally. But Koren barreled onward, unstoppable, though wounded. More Witches poured from the gates, led by Korudo (Lv 50 Iron Bulwark). The newly combined Majokawa force hammered the Yōkawa from the rear.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Seeing half his company melt into panicked rout, Katsuragi cursed the night. He was battered by a blow that might have killed him had it not glanced off a helm gifted by Lord Jūsō. Dizzy, he collapsed, unconscious. Word spread: “Katsuragi is down!”—sapping Yōkawa’s morale even further. Soon it became a massacre, the would-be ambush turned slaughter. Barely three-score Yōkawa escaped back to the ships to set them aflame, retreating with only one vessel spared to ferry them home.

Meanwhile, the Oni—Lord Jūsō and Lord Daigo at their head—managed a measure of composure. They refused to break, meeting every Majokawa charge with disciplined ferocity. Daigo’s dancing blade flickered like silver lightning. Witches fell by the dozen. Koren or Korudo would move in, only to reel back each time Daigo’s sword found a gap in their guard. Jūsō, eyes cold with fury, swung a massive spear that beheaded soldiers in a single blow. The [System] flickered for them, awarding incremental XP for each kill, but the numbers hardly mattered with the avalanche of Majokawa that poured onto the field.

From above, King Goritsu XII himself (Lv ? Warlock King) watched from Kasei’s ramparts, clad in black armor inlaid with gold. Next to him stood Gurou (Lv 42 Arcane Tactician), eyes reflecting the torchlight. The King’s lip curled in scorn. “Are we witnessing my men cower before two Oni? Goritsu XI fought these same lords—did we learn nothing from his mistakes?”

Koren, nursing a wound, forced a laugh. “Majesty, no mortal steel bites them. They fight like devils in mortal shape. We’ve got them outnumbered, but they’re—monsters.”

“Hah.” Goritsu dismissed the protest with a sneer. “So you’ve turned squeamish. Fine. This bores me. I’ll end it.”

He barked orders to Kosu - who dispatched a squad armed with weighted nets. By sheer numbers and cunning, they cornered the Oni lords, tangling them as they pivoted to fend off new attackers. Jūsō and Daigo fought like enraged boars, but their swords found no purchase through layers of ropes and netting. At last, Majokawa dragged them inside Kasei’s walls, battered yet still defiant.

In the courtyard, they flung the Oni—still swaddled in nets—down like crates of unwanted cargo. Guards ringed them with spears. Freed at last from the press of battle, Korudo half-limped, half-stumbled up to the King. “We have them, my lord. I trust that’s a consolation for the casualties.”

King Goritsu cocked an eyebrow. “It’s something.” He gazed with cold satisfaction at Jūsō and Daigo, pinned under knots of rope. “Throw them in the corner—make sure they wait for morning. Then we’ll see how proud Onikawa stands.”

Meanwhile, from the battlements, Koren glimpsed a glow along the coast. “They’re burning their ships, must be. So the pitiful survivors can’t be followed by sea.”

His voice carried down to the courtyard, where Daigo, bound and helpless, still managed a snarl. Koren strode over and gave him a spiteful kick in the ribs, safe now from that lethal blade. “Next time, demon,” Koren muttered, “don’t come skulking in the night if you can’t seal the deal.”

At the fortress’s edge, torchlight glinted off Haruto Watanabe’s eyes. He had slipped inside unseen, drawn by the tumult, a silent witness to how quickly an invasion can become a disaster in this dark land. The [System] offered him no guidance, only a dim reflection of stats and statuses for those locked in the dreadful corners of Kasei. And so ended the night’s doomed assault, with Majokawa triumphant, the Yōkawa undone, and two of Onikawa’s mightiest lords in chains, left to greet the cruel dawn of Kasei.