(Caelum Thorne's POV)
They call me righteous. They think the silver crescent on my banner glows with virtue, that I am a symbol of hope in this doomed campaign. But I know better.
Hope is a delicate thing. And I've watched too many men die choking on it.
I stood at the ridge overlooking the scorched valley, once green, now turned to ash and bone. Smoke rose in jagged spires from the remnants of the forward encampment, where thirty of our best scouts had gone missing last night. No bodies. Just their sigils, nailed to trees with bone daggers.
"Another message", murmured Commander Halbrecht beside me, grimacing under his steel helm. "From her".
Her.
Ayaka Rin.
I knew the name before I took this post. Everyone in the Holy Alliance whispered it like a curse. But I didn't believe in curses. Just in clever monsters, and foolish kings who think righteousness is enough to tame them.
"Pull the second phalanx back to the third trench. Tell the archmages to charge the veil runes again. I want no gaps this time."
"Yes, General."
Halbrecht bowed and turned swiftly, leaving me with only the wind and the smoke for company.
I adjusted the clasp of my silver wolf cloak. The crescent curled across my back, emblazoned in silver thread, shining even through the soot. A symbol of noble heritage. Of unyielding virtue.
But symbols didn't win wars.
Steel did.
And I could already feel how badly this war wanted to devour us.
I descended into the trenchworks where the soldiers awaited orders, their faces half-hidden under ash-smeared helms. Eyes looked to me, some desperate, others determined.
"We move at dawn", I announced, loud enough for the nearest squads to hear. "The terrain ahead is mined with sigil glyphs. Do not deviate from your positions unless you want your lungs turned inside out."
A few chuckled nervously. A good sign. Morale wasn't dead yet.
A younger knight, barely old enough to shave, raised a trembling hand.
"Sir... why dawn?"
I paused. "Because demons don't expect piety to strike while it still smells like blood."
That got a few actual laughs. Even from me.
Humor. Useful. Keeps men from breaking.
I pulled a scroll from my satchel, a blood-inked map drawn from a scout's last report. Rin had reshaped the terrain with unnatural precision. Barricades had moved. Dead trees now pointed in patterns. Even the wind smelled staged, like she was choreographing the war itself.
Clever monster, indeed.
Suddenly, a cry from the southern ramparts.
"Incoming!"
We all turned as a flash of violet light exploded along the southern ridge. Screams followed, then the guttural roar of one of their infernal beasts, part bear, part something worse.
My boots were moving before I gave the command. My sword, Judicium, gleamed as I raised it over my shoulder.
"FORM RANKS!"
By the time I reached the wall, chaos had already bloomed. The beast charged through the outer defenses, crushing stone and bone alike, and behind it, draped in black and stitched crimson, stood a warlock. Not Rin. One of her puppets.
"Hold the line!" I shouted. "Halbrecht, on me!"
He joined at my right, spear in hand. We clashed with the creature as mages fired wards and elemental bolts. I moved like a blade myself, precise, clean, relentless. Its blood scorched my cloak, but I didn't falter.
I saw fear in the eyes of the soldiers, but I also saw something else, resolve.
Even when the beast roared in its final breath and collapsed, taking three men down with it, no one ran.
When the smoke cleared, the warlock was already gone, dissolved into violet mist.
Rin was testing us.
Again.
Back in the war room, I sat at the center table, helm discarded, hair damp with sweat. Halbrecht, bruised but breathing, poured over the newest scout report.
"She's bleeding us slowly, Caelum", he muttered. "Like a wolf with a sheep's throat in its jaws."
"Then it's time we bite back", I said. "I want her tactics mirrored. Send illusions of our own. Rotate guard patterns hourly. And have someone intercept her sigil glyphs, not destroy them. Recast them in our favor."
"You want to fight her... with her own strategy?"
"Yes. I want her to look into our next move and see herself staring back."
He stared at me for a moment, then nodded with a smirk. "Righteous virtue, my ass."
"I never said it had to be clean."
Outside the tent, I could hear laughter. Soldiers recounting how one of the beast's heads bit its own tail during the fray. I didn't smile, but I let the warmth of the moment settle in my chest.
They still had fight left in them.
So did I.
The silver crescent might've once stood for something pure. But tonight, it would stand for something more dangerous.
Endurance.
And as long as I stood, so would the last wall between Rin and victory.