The final assault began forty minutes later.
The scrying basin turned completely black. A deep, grinding roar rolled through the stone of the capital, so strong that dust fell in continuous streams from the chamber ceiling. Every crystal lamp in the room flickered. The golden light around Alicia pulsed hard, as if the prayer itself could feel the pressure rising outside.
Prince Will stared into the basin. "They are throwing everything at the eastern barrier at once."
Clau's voice was tight. "If that field breaks, the darkness will reach this chamber in minutes."
Sekai checked the timer.
Two hours and forty-one minutes.
He did not hesitate. "We go to the wall. Leaving the barrier to fail while we hide down here helps no one."
Fury's ears angled sharply. "And if they strike at Alicia again while we are gone?"
"Then we end the fight on the surface fast enough that it does not matter," Sekai answered.
They climbed.
The streets above were already in chaos. Soldiers ran toward the eastern wall. Civilians who had not yet evacuated were being pulled westward by the remaining guards. The sky over the eastern district had turned the color of old bruises. Black clouds pressed against the holy barrier so hard that the golden light itself seemed to bend inward.
The Darkness General they had destroyed earlier had been only a scout. What stood beyond the barrier now was larger, denser, and far more focused. A towering figure of compressed night rose above the mass of darklings, its body studded with dozens of glowing red cores. Behind it, smaller generals and waves of lesser creatures slammed against the holy field without pause.
The barrier cracked.
A long split of pure darkness opened across the golden wall. Shadow poured through like water through a broken dam. Darklings spilled into the eastern streets. The first screams rose from the nearest houses.
Sekai pressed the pause button before the second wave could follow.
The world locked. Falling debris hung in the air. A darkling mid-leap froze with claws extended. The massive general beyond the barrier stood motionless with one arm raised for another blow.
Sekai moved through the frozen streets at a run. He could not close the entire breach alone, but he could reshape the battlefield. He spent a long stretch of stopped time dragging heavy carts, broken wagons, and fallen stone into a rough barricade that funneled the invading darklings into a narrow kill zone. He positioned Leafa, Clau, and Fury at the strongest points of that funnel. He placed Niña on a high rooftop with a clear view of the cores on the nearest generals. Then he walked to the edge of the broken barrier itself and studied the towering figure beyond it.
The cluster of cores on the largest general was protected by layers of swirling shadow thicker than anything he had faced before. Cutting through them would take time he no longer had once the world moved again. He needed a different approach.
He returned to the frozen party, took both Leafa's sword and Clau's Lightning Sword, and spent careful minutes carving a single precise path through the outer defenses of the great general. When the tunnel was open, he set the two swords into position so that the moment time resumed they would already be driving toward the cores. Then he placed himself at the mouth of the tunnel, controller ready, and released the pause.
The eastern district exploded into motion.
Leafa and Clau's blades struck exactly where he had aimed them. Multiple cores shattered in the first second. The great general staggered. Fury's light flared in concentrated bursts that burned through the nearest wave of darklings. Niña dropped from the rooftop onto a second general and drove both daggers into its central core before it could react.
Sekai stepped into the tunnel he had prepared and finished the remaining cores on the largest general with rapid, precise strikes. The towering shape convulsed and began to collapse, pouring rivers of darkness back through the breach.
The remaining darklings faltered. Without the generals to drive them, the assault lost its focus. Soldiers rallied. The holy barrier, freed from the heaviest pressure, began to seal the cracks with slow golden light.
It was not a clean victory. Parts of the eastern district still burned with residual shadow. Several buildings had been half-consumed. But the capital still stood.
Sekai returned the swords to their owners and checked the timer.
One hour and fifty-three minutes.
Fury wiped a smear of darkness from her cheek. "That was the strongest force he has sent since the meteor shower."
Leafa looked at Sekai with an expression that no longer held simple suspicion. "You moved all of us into position before the fight even started."
He did not deny it.
They turned back toward the underground chamber as the last of the darklings retreated beyond the repairing barrier. Alicia still needed protection. The ritual still had most of its hundred days left to run. And the timer that only Sekai could see had almost reached its final hour.
The King of Darkness had committed real strength this time and still failed.
Whatever came next would be worse.