"Two hundred of my corruption specialists died. Today, I make the humans pay for every single one."

Her hands raised, corruption magic gathering.

"Let’s begin."

—-----------------

The Battle Begins

The human army advanced to within two hundred yards of the settlement’s outer defensive ring.

Close enough for artillery bombardment. Close enough for archer fire. Close enough for—

Seraphina released her spell.

Corruption Plague - Mass Casualty Curse

She’d spent all night preparing this spell. Charging it with hours of focused demonic power. Building it to maximum lethality.

Now she unleashed it.

Purple-black energy erupted from her hands in expanding wave—not a targeted attack but an area-effect curse that spread like toxic fog across the advancing army’s front ranks.

The curse struck one hundred soldiers simultaneously.

It wasn’t instant death like Pattern Seven’s detonation. It was worse.

The curse attacked living flesh specifically—causing rapid cellular decay, organ failure, immune system collapse. Soldiers felt their bodies breaking down from the inside.

Skin began rotting. Eyes clouded with corruption. Lungs filled with necrotic fluid. Hearts struggled to pump blood that was turning toxic.

Screaming began.

One hundred soldiers collapsed, their bodies decaying while they still lived, dying in agony over fifteen seconds as the corruption curse consumed them.

Fifty died in the first wave—those with weak or no holy protection, their bodies unable to resist demonic magic.

Another thirty died in the second wave—those with moderate protection that delayed but couldn’t prevent the curse.

Twenty survived—those with strong holy protection blessed by battlefield priests, their divine wards burning through the corruption before it killed them.

Fifty soldiers dead in fifteen seconds.

The human advance faltered as soldiers watched their companions literally rotting alive.

Commander Elric saw the devastation and made instant tactical decision.

"HEROES! ENGAGE THE DEMON LORD NOW!"

He’d planned to wait—let the main assault develop, then deploy heroes strategically.

But Seraphina just killed fifty soldiers with single spell. If she cast again, another fifty would die. And again. And again.

She had to be contained immediately.

Mikazelle’s spatial perception locked onto Seraphina’s demonic presence.

"I have her position! Teleporting her to isolation zone NOW!"

Her spatial magic activated—not teleporting herself and her companions to Seraphina, but teleporting Seraphina to them.

Space folded.

Seraphina felt dimensional magic grasping her, trying to relocate her across the battlefield

She tried to resist with demon lord power, tried to anchor herself with corruption magic

Too late.

Space twisted violently.

Seraphina vanished from the settlement’s outer defensive ring and reappeared half a mile away in open field.

Where the Four Heroes and sixteen Fallen Heroes waited.

Gattychan stood ready, his blessed sword in hand—a new weapon provided by battlefield priests after his previous sword shattered. His wounds from yesterday were healed enough for combat, though his left arm was still weak. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Seraphelle positioned herself for healing support, her divine magic recovered enough for sustained casting.

Mikazelle had just used enormous magical energy for that forced teleportation, but she still had reserves for defensive barriers.

Rindelle stood with bow drawn, arrows ready for catastrophic amplification.

And sixteen Fallen Heroes—mindless failed experiments with glowing yellow-white eyes—surrounded the area, creating perimeter that would prevent Seraphina from easily returning to the main battle.

Seraphina looked at the trap she’d been teleported into and laughed—not with fear, but with dark recognition.

"Clever! Isolate me from the main battle! Force me to fight heroes and abominations while your soldiers slaughter my defenders!"

"That’s the plan," Gattychan replied. "You’re too dangerous to allow near our troops. So we contain you here."

"You think you CAN contain me?" Seraphina’s corruption energy intensified. "Yesterday I nearly killed all four of you! I had my blade at your throat, Gattychan! You’d be dead if those Fallen Heroes hadn’t interrupted!"

"Yesterday you fought us when we were wounded from Pattern Seven," Gattychan countered. "Today we’re healed, prepared, and we have specific orders: Don’t try to kill you. Just keep you busy."

Understanding dawned on Seraphina’s face.

"You’re stalling. You’re not trying to win this fight. You’re just trying to keep me here while the main battle unfolds."

"Exactly." Gattychan activated Villain’s Bane.

Divine aura exploded outward, holy power washing across the battlefield, suppressing anything demonic.

Seraphina felt her power drain—demon lord strength dropping to one-tenth, corruption magic weakening, supernatural speed reducing.

But even at one-tenth power, she was formidable.

And she understood the tactical situation perfectly.

"Fine. You want to stall me? Let’s see how long you can survive while your soldiers die."

She charged.

========

While Seraphina fought the heroes half a mile away, the main battle erupted with brutal intensity.

The settlement’s outer defensive ring was hastily constructed—barricades made from rubble, fortified positions in buildings, choke points created by debris placement.

One hundred eighty-three defenders held this ring against nineteen hundred soldiers.

Ten-to-one odds.

The human army hit the defensive ring like hammer blow.

The sixteen Fallen Heroes had been teleported away with Seraphina—Mikazelle had grabbed them in the same spatial manipulation that relocated the demon lord. So the main assault was regular soldiers only.

But nineteen hundred regular soldiers was overwhelming force.

A goblin defensive position held by twelve fighters faced assault from one hundred twenty human soldiers—ten-to-one local superiority.

The goblins fought desperately.

Kress, a goblin commanded this position. His spear struck a human soldier in the throat, killing instantly. His companions fought with suicidal courage, their small size allowing them to dodge and weave through larger human fighters.

But numbers told.

For every human they killed, ten more came. For every wound they inflicted, overwhelming return fire cut them down.

Kress watched six of his twelve companions die in the first three minutes of fighting—speared, slashed, crushed by sheer numerical advantage.

"FALL BACK!" he ordered the remaining five. "RETREAT TO MIDDLE RING!"

The six surviving goblins (including Kress) abandoned their position, conducting fighting withdrawal toward the settlement’s middle defensive ring.

They’d held for three minutes. Killed eighteen human soldiers. Lost six defenders.

The odds were actually favorable—three-to-one casualty ratio in the settlement’s favor.

But they couldn’t sustain it. Three-to-one meant the settlement would run out of fighters long before the humans did.