The reversal came suddenly and without warning. One moment, the funnel of sand was about to demolish our defenses. The next, the world was on fire.

Hidden within the ranks of advancing demons, mages had lurked, waiting for the most optimal moment. As soon as they got close enough to enemy lines, their rituals fired off. Summoning arrays and matrices lit up one after the other, spewing blue-white flames.

From each set of flames emerged a hulking monstrosity.

The creatures could be vaguely described as spindly humanoids swaddled in ashen cloth. Their limbs were bony and impractically long. The legs, in particular, looked barely functional, forcing the monsters to shuffle awkwardly forward in odd, loping lurches.

Looking up at one of the things, I caught a glimpse of what was supposed to be its face. All I saw were the burned remnants of features hovering around a gaping maw. The horrible mouth flickered and glowed with the same blue-white flames that had brought the monster into existence on this material plane.

My stomach was already churning, but then I looked down at the thing’s body.

That was worse.

Every patch of burned skin depicted a different face twisted in burning agony. It was like the monster’s very existence was a collage of suffering caused by fire. Even its arms, the most functional part of its body, crackled and snapped like bones made brittle by heat. Not that this stopped any of the creatures, of course. Their arms simply regenerated between one lurching step and the next.

Then all the monsters opened their mouths, and the world turned into one continuous stream of flames.

There were few creatures I had seen since my revival into Hayden’s body that well and truly terrified me. Not even demons, as a general rule, inspired mind-numbing terror.

But these creatures, twisting the air with their heat and making the whole world wail?

Yeah. They terrified me, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

The sand around them stood no chance. The air immediately started to shimmer in the haze of heat, and the sand became cherry red before suddenly reaching the melting point. It turned briefly into runoff, then solidified into glass with horrifying speed.

Such was the force of the creatures’ magic that it consumed the entire funnel of sand. But the jinn’s giant weapon didn’t harden into glass, though. Crewe’s monstrosities ignited the sand-funnel, transforming it into a twister of flames.

Then the new fiery funnel started growing.

Mortals, constructs, and even jinn tried to get away from the flame-twister’s rapidly expanding size. All were consumed with equal ease, going up like funeral fires made of the driest timber. The only defenders in its path who survived were the fire-attuned jinn. Even they stumbled around like they were drunk, their bodies flickering between their natural states and the blue-white color of the creatures’ flames.

That still didn’t beat the horror of what happened next.

Like they were sensing a feast, all the creatures surged forward. They rushed the defenders like a pack of hungry wild animals. The locals actually broke ranks to get as far away from the fire hazards as they could.

The creatures didn’t even chase them.

Instead, each one snatched up a burning corpse, holding it in one hand as the other reached for the corpse’s face. With a single, unnatural motion, the creature tore the burning face away, perfectly preserving its expression of anguish.

As I watched, transfixed, the monstrosities slapped the torn faces down on their own bodies. The faces sank instantly into the creatures’ skin, becoming a perfect piece of the already horrific skin.

Then all the faces started to scream and moan, and I had to fight down an overwhelming wave of revulsion.

If I felt like throwing up, then the locals and the jinn were far worse off. They had gone into combat feeling confident and relaxed. Now they were fleeing in terror, sobbing and rocking in place, or just entirely insensate.

I didn’t know what to think. On the one hand, they were definitely my enemies. On the other, the sheer vileness of Crewe’s creatures was pretty much a step too far.

Good thing the golems didn’t care, then.

The automated defenders reoriented on the new targets, then began raining down blows with even more enthusiasm than before. If their attacks on the mobile ward were slow and methodical, they seemed to be in a frenzy to kill off the shambling creatures as quickly as possible. Each strike took chunks out of the monsters’ face-ridden hide.

As summoned creatures, the monsters were highly magical to begin with. I doubted that they were particularly ‘natural’ even in their original plane of existence. So, the golems’ anti-magic sand sheared through their bodies with unnatural ease, splashing bits of white-hot magma and other weird fluids all over the place.

The creatures would not go quietly, though. They rounded on the golems, their flames still as much of a threat as ever.

It was almost funny to watch. When the creatures struck, the stream of fire they released did almost nothing. The flames just washed over the magic-resistant bodies of the golems, leaving nary a mark.

It was the heat of the flames that did the trick. The more flames the creatures spewed, the hotter the area around them became. Soon the air was practically imploding, and not even the best of golems could withstand those temperatures.

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Enchanted bodies cracked and faltered. Sand evaporated into melted glass. Runes fizzled out, igniting into pure fire mana that, while it didn’t do much to the golems directly, severely hindered their functionality.

To my surprise, the horrid monstrosities weren’t even the core of Crewe’s plans.

While everyone was busy tracking the damage the creatures could do, he was already moving.

He had stepped out a little ways ahead of the first rows of advancing soldiers. Mana that was more black than red poured off his body, forming into ropes and chains. They snaked out to either side, then sank into the gliding worm monstrosities the lieutenant general had summoned in my presence back in the city.

The effect was as immediate as it was obvious. Each of the worms swelled, grew, and gained far more exaggerated characteristics.

I would almost call the transformation draconic, if it weren’t a blatant insult to dragons everywhere. The beasts gained longer, more permanent wings that seemed capable of actual flight. Limbs sprouted, strong enough to support the critters’ weight and send them careening over the land at terrifying speed. Dozens of new grotesque mouths, with some truly deadly fangs, opened along the length of the creatures’ bodies.

They didn’t seem capable of differentiating between living and constructed enemies. Whatever moved and wasn’t explicitly allowed to survive by their master, they devoured. Swaths of constructs, locals, and even jinn were snatched up and ground to little more than a mass of meat in the creatures’ maws.

That was about when the rest of the demonic army caught up.

I was several layers deep in the right flank’s wing, but that didn’t matter at the moment. So many locals were trying to flee, and so many constructs were forced to scatter, that we all saw plenty of action.

They were tricky things, the local mortals. Once I found a way past their armor, I usually won, but they seemed strangely aware that exposing even a small part of their bodies to me would result in tragedy. As a result, instead of sweeping attacks and charges, I was forced to fight methodically.

I went for their arms and legs first. These were often unprotected, and my upgraded sword was more than capable of slashing straight through mundane clothing. Then it was just a matter of putting them out of their misery.

After all, the pain they were flailing in didn’t come from the flesh, but from the soul itself. They could brace themselves for the former. The latter? Unless they had some very specific and very scary training, they were all sitting ducks.

Besides, soul-pain transcends physical limitations. There’s only so much suffering a body can experience before it crumbles. The soul has no such boundary.

At that point, ending their life was truly the most compassionate thing to do. Right?

Right?

An interesting side-effect of my strategy was that the demon soldiers were giving me nearly as wide a berth as they gave Crewe’s monstrous abominations. No one seemed eager to fight alongside the insane new mortal who fought with a grin on his face while inflicting complete agony on everything within reach.

No one except for Mia, of course.

For the first time in a long time, the cat girl could fight without any hindrance from the sand. She moved like a wraith through the battle, switching among multiple copies of herself to feint and deal attacks with chilling precision. Her mage shield was up, which meant she was managing to run two advanced techniques at once.

She was a right menace in combat. And if the glow in her eyes was any indication, she was loving every minute of it.

Then we arrived at the area where, without other orders, the constructs still milled about. I sighed. If the point of my previous fights was to show off, get souls, and establish myself as someone important in the eyes of my commander and fellow soldiers, then this was about pure survival.

These constructs were tough and generally on the smaller side. I couldn’t tear them apart with casual ease, no more than I could tear apart sheets of magically reinforced metal.

No soul for me to target, after all.

In this stage of the battle, I couldn’t advance too far past the nearest member of my unit without getting accused of rushing ahead. I had already earned several warning glances from Glaustro. While he seemed to support my bloodthirsty attitude, and downright smirked at the number of solo-kills I managed, he did not support my more reckless moves.

Like when I pushed forward and encountered two dog constructs and one flying-type construct all at once.

That one was… close.

The trio moved in perfect harmony. The left mutt barked, hissed, and generally made itself a major nuisance. This was such a blatant attempt to draw my attention that I wanted to laugh. However, the other canine construct was a decent distance away. I knew from experience that I could get to and cut up the noisy beast before the second one could catch up.

So, I tried to do just that.

I surged forward, stuck my sword inside the dog’s messy, blood-stained mouth, and shoved the construct onto its back as I used my sword for leverage. The trick worked, and I was hacking away at the thing’s throat in no time.

Unfortunately, that was when the insect decided to teach me a few things.

First, that the dogs weren’t alone. Second, that the constructs’ distraction action was not limited to pairs of similar-looking creatures. Last, that none of the constructs were as slow and clumsy as they first appeared.

The lesson almost culminated in a stinger burying itself straight through my eye and into my brain.

Faster than I could react, earth flashed in front of my face, turning into a solid wall a millisecond later. The wall formed just in time to stop the stinger from busting all the way through. Then it collapsed backwards on top of the constructs that had tried so hard to kill me.

Standing on the other side was an absolutely livid Glaustro.

He didn’t shout me down then and there, but after that, there were no heroics to be had by anyone. He kept us in a tight cluster, fighting side by side and taking minimal risks as we advanced. Mia pouted, and I wasn’t too thrilled myself, but the sergeant’s order was final.

So, while the surrounding units were losing members to the desperation of the locals, my unit stayed almost entirely intact. Several of our demons were severely wounded, sure, but none had outright died. Even the injured would be just fine. We could shuffle them to the back for treatment so fast, they wouldn’t even have any lingering drawbacks.

And our side was winning.

The shambling fire-monstrosities were mostly gone, but they had taken out massive swaths of the defenders’ golems. The worm-things were somehow multiplying every time I looked at them. I couldn’t help but shudder, even if the abominations were responsible for sweeping away incredible numbers of ‘low-quality’ enemy combatants.

Finally, the lieutenant general himself led the battle from the front, slicing through any serious opposition with such ruthless efficiency that it bordered on artistry.

The battle was going so well, I really shouldn’t have been surprised when it all suddenly went wrong.

The first sign was a thrum from deep within the city shrouded in the crystalline tree’s bark. The sound echoed over the battlefield, making both defenders and attackers freeze in place for a few seconds.

The second sign was the cracking of the earth beneath our feet, massive fissures opening up seemingly of their own accord.

The third was the low chanting that pulsed through the air.

I whipped my head around to spot several jinn hovering just above the massive palatial complex at the top of the bark-encased city. The jinn had their arms raised far above their heads in supplication, sweat beading their brows as they focused on channeling insane amounts of mana.

They were calling out to something.

And, with an eruption of sand and earth elemental mana from within the palatial complex, something answered.