In the late hours of predawn, the gentle silence was disturbed by a low but prominent crack. The sound was heard across the streets of the Oldguard district, but only those closest could discern its proper origin. They were the fortunate ones to have a brief opportunity to seek shelter.

Seconds later, the tension was shattered by a mighty roar, reverberating like the chorus of a hundred screams. The resulting panic was akin to a physical wave as it swept across all the tiered districts of Va’Ingris. The second jolt that followed was a clap of thunder, before the roof of a sizable manor exploded with another triumphant screech. 

Mighty granite foundations and shrapnel glass were flung into the skies, falling like rain upon the parched streets and denizens, abruptly cutting many of their cries short. 

At the initial roar, Haron Kalil’s head whipped around so quickly that he pulled a muscle in his neck, but the pain was swiftly forgotten as he raised his shield to narrowly escape the falling debris. Although the temple district’s tier was higher than the Oldguard by several meters, the wreckage had been scattered high enough to fall upon all with deadly force. 

Despite his giantblood strength and size, Haron was forced to one knee by the weight of the stones that struck his towershield, using both hands to brace beneath it. Haron attempted to channel the energy from the core of his body into the shield, strengthening its protection. However, he could feel the metal bend severely under each heavy impact, as well as his fingers and hooves growing numb from the resulting chills of effort.

The giant lord tried, in vain, to not think of how many would have not been so fortunate.

As the brief rain of carnage dissipated, Haron peered over the top of his severely damaged shield, eyes fixing upon the demon heaving itself from the wreckage of the manor house. Covered in blackened feathers, the creature shook its bird-like head from side to side, making horrid, guttural sounds.

Haron knew many would be rushing into their armor at that moment, woken by the chaos, but that required time. He, and the others on night patrol, would have to distract the creature till then. 

Demons were incapable of showing mercy to anything they perceived to have life, but fortunately also did not have the patience to search for unknown targets. Haron could only hope and trust that those closest to the demon’s perch would remain hidden until it was safe.

“Lord Commander!”

Haron turned his head slightly toward the call, but did not remove his eyes from the monster. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw five guards rushing to his side.

“Are you injured, Commander?” the guard in front asked, her tone harsh from concealed alarm. Haron could see the plumage of ivory colored feathers over the guard’s right shoulder, denoting her rank as captain.

“Nothing of concern,” Haron said, forcing his voice to be loud and confident.

The air crackled with lightning and the scent of ozone grew stronger as the fiend finished freeing itself from the confines of the manor. A chill ran up Haron’s spine as the demon tore their wings free, knowing that the ability to fly made the already dangerous creature more deadly.

Haron spared a glance down at his shield, his scowl deepening as he noticed the metal was nearly folded double lengthwise from the severity of the damage. 

He felt more than heard a low booming through his hooves, the sound echoing from the demon, and noticed it had perched on another home, like a titanic vulture. For a moment, it swayed and shook with small spasms, appearing disoriented and confused.

“H-how did that get here?” Another guard asked, voice trembling nearly as much as his hands gripping his spear. “How is it still here?”

Lord Haron frowned and could see on the captain’s face that the woman shared his suspicions. The brightroads only warded against demons who naturally materialized from darkness; they did not affect those summoned by rituals. 

Haron hoped that the summoner had been killed in the chaos of the demon’s initial emergence, which would explain the creature’s apparent confusion. Without a master, demons were little more than feral, rabid beasts.

Like a rabid beast, it must be slain before it causes untold levels of carnage.

Seemingly recovering from its momentary incoherence, the demon gave its humanoid body a final shake before flapping its massive wings.

Haron turned to the guards and swiftly pulled one of their longspears from them. The spear seemed significantly smaller in his hand, but he drew his arm back and aimed for the central pair of wings, which were the largest. Pouring all his strength behind the throw, he sent the longspear flying toward his target, however a slight shift in posture caused the spear to strike deep into the bird’s side instead. 

Emboldened by the demon’s cry of pain, the guards pulled out their bows to rain down arrows upon the creature. Though the arrows primarily bounced off the feathered demon, a few managed to stick under the wings and in the face, where the hide was thinner.

While the guards distracted the demon, Haron raced for the Giant Road, turning his head to keep his eyes on the demon while he ran to confront it. Other guards fell into formation behind him, but their smaller gait, and struggle with the massive stone steps, quickly left them lagging behind.

Unfortunately, the demon did not seem to notice his approach enough to meet him. Instead the fiend wrapped its many wings about itself like a cloak, while slinking down from the rooftops, using its arms like forelegs and giving it the deceptive appearance of a feline. 

Armed soldiers started to rush from their homes to confront the monstrous creature, but the demon batted the first line away like a cat would a toy. Sword-length talons sliced through leather armor with ease, while the force behind its attack winded those protected by metal plate.

The demon’s casual slaughter and disregard more than unsettled the soldiers. Until it abruptly stopped, a massive shudder ruffled its feathers. For a moment, its gaze lifted from those heroes swarmed around it, past Haron and beyond. 

Haron paused, turned his head to follow the demon’s eyes, and his blood ran cold.

The bright temple, true to its name, was gleaming radiantly in the first light of dawn. 

The demon stood fully, towering over even the giants like Haron. It started to unfurl its wings from around its body, hesitated, then wrapping itself up tighter instead.

Others had also noticed the demon’s focus shift, and a few ran to get rope while others attempted to wound the demon’s legs. As Haron reached the demon’s side, he lashed out with his sword in a fluid arc toward its leg. The blade cut through the demon’s feathers, but he felt the solid resistance just beneath. Against mortal flesh, he may have cleaved a target in two, but to this demon, it was hardly a superficial wound.

This infuriating demonic resilience persisted until Haron caught sight of a glint of enchanted light coming their way.

A paladin wielding a wardglass spear charged in, the blade glowing brightly with divine light. Willing the blade to strike with a keener edge, the human threw their weight fully behind one thrust. The spear pierced completely through the demon’s leg, forcing them to fall back into a quadrupedal posture with a shriek of pain.

Haron held up his badly damaged shield against a blow from the fiend’s scorpion tail, which hit with enough force to punch a hole through the already dented metal. Haron’s shoulder was nearly pulled from its socket as the serrated edge caught on the pinch of folded metal and yanked it off his arm.

The demon snarled menacingly, twisting its form to position as many in front of it as possible, before craning its head back with a deep, audible inhale. Flickers of bright, sharp symbols appear hovering around the base of the beast’s neck, trailing up the length before a crackling bolt of lightning sprung forth. Haron and others wearing metal could not even cry out as the electricity bounced between them, seizing their muscles in pain. Only a handful were still standing once the electricity released its grip.

Through the seizing, Haron was only distantly aware of the fiend taking a moment to pull out the spear, snapping it into splinters, and pointedly tossing the spearhead away. A volley of arrows trailing rope nets were launched over the demon, swiftly secured at the other side. 

As ropes tightened, the demon yanked one entangled wing, pulling soldiers entirely off the ground, and snapping at them like snacks attached to the end of the lines. Haron’s eyes squinted as a flash of orange was briefly visible amongst the black and red feathers. In that same moment, the demon spat the soldier they just killed across the street, turned and fled through the city streets in quadrupedal leaps and bounds, dragging those who did not release their ropes behind them.

Lord Haron, still recovering slowly from the electric shock, spotted a fellow lord and lady emerge onto the Giant Road, dressed in gleaming armor and clutching their own weapons.

“It’s going after the wardtree!” Haron called, staggering his first steps before forcing himself into a run to chase the demon, who kept bounding up the gigantic steps with ease.

The demon reached the temple district, encountering the two giants in its path, but instead of engaging, it leapt high over their heads, using its smaller wing pairs to stabilize the landing. Those dragged behind lost their grip on the ropes as their bodies collided with each other and the colossal steps.

As the trailing lines rushed past, the two giants swiftly grabbed a rope each, digging their hooves into the stone below with all their might. Haron caught a glimpse of light encasing their hooves as they strained from the effort, grateful that the demon’s pace was momentarily halted, giving him the chance to catch up.

As Haron reached the fiend, he attempted to bring his sword down onto its neck, but even entangled, it managed to pull sharply to the side to avoid the blade.

So close to the monster’s head, Haron could see the four red eyes momentarily fixed on him, feel their feral malice like a physical force but for a fleeting second there seemed to be something else. Fear? If it existed at all, it was not fear of him or his companions, he was certain.

If a city of demon killers did not inspire fear in such a creature, what possibly could?

Instead of attacking, the demon twisted its head around and grabbed a mouthful of tangled ropes that bound its wings, severing them with a decisive snap of its beak. Alrynne and Lorrik were sent staggering as the resistance was cut, while the creature’s wing snapped out suddenly with alarming force, swatting Haron into a nearby wall.

Haron slumped to the floor, stunned for a brief second, not even able to properly focus on his aching body. He barely registered the demon’s push toward War’s temple until the fuzziness faded, and he heard the shouts and cries of those who attempted to stop it from reaching the wardtree.

Haron groaned and pushed himself to his hooves, using the wall for support. Though his vision and thoughts were still swimming, he knew he had to help his soldiers. Muscles cramping from exhaustion, the giant lord hastened to the temple entrance.

As he arrived, he found a scene of utter chaos. Alrynne had grabbed the demon’s tail, Lorrik was striking at the demon’s joints with his warhammer, and the temple’s paladin guards were stabbing at the creature’s face and body. A line of priests formed at the entrance to the temple, each wielding a weapon forged from light.

Without warning, the demon surged toward the priests, pushing past the aura of the wardtree that lashed its flesh with divine fire and forcing it lower to the ground. The fiend snapped its jaws onto the high priest’s leg, and promptly began dragging him out of the temple, undeterred by his hammer strikes.

The priest gripped firmly in its teeth, the demon turned to run away with its prize, but before it reached a second stride, a spear caught one of its eyes. The demon’s shriek was muffled and its jaws bit down harder in pain. The priest fell with a cry, clutching the stump of his severed leg. 

The demon hissed and yanked out the spear quickly, turning to their attackers. The beast’s jaws open with a shrill screech of defiance that threatens to deafen all nearby. So close, Haron saw within its beak was a secondary set of jaws that held an unsettling resemblance to the lower half of a human face. 

One of the demon’s massive claws grabbed at the fallen priest, who was attempting to heal his wound, dragging him beneath its body as Haron noticed the electric runes appearing once again. 

“Watch out!” he roared, jumping to the side to dodge the coming storm.

Before the bolt came, however, Lord Lorrik rushed forward, slamming his hammer into the side of the demon’s blood covered face. The blow knocked the demon’s head sideways with a sickening crunch, lightning arcing wildly from its maw, striking a handful but significantly less than a second direct hit would have.

The demon recoiled with a gurgling hiss, its lower jaw hanging limp.

“Try takin’ a bite of us now!” Lorrik laughed. 

As Haron struck at the demon with his sword, he noticed that the feeling of impact became less and less solid, his sword cut deep in the beast’s feathers but came free with less ichor or resistance.

By Alrynne’s reaction, having abandoned holding the demon by the tail to instead attack with her flail, he knew it was not only his blows that were connecting with little substance.

Confused but focused, Haron caught sight of movement and barely had time to call out to Lorrik before a smaller, three fingered hand emerged from beneath the demon’s wings. In a swift motion, the demon yanked out the initial spear Haron had thrown, and drove it into the other lord, aiming for the space just beneath his breastplate as he raised his hammer high to land another blow.

The head of the longspear protruded out the back of Lorrik’s neck at a steep angle. Even with its jaw broken, Haron could see the corners of its double mouths turning upward in sinister delight. The next instant, Alrynne cried as the demon lashed a claw across her face, catching her eyes.

Then its remaining, hateful eyes turned toward Haron, all but ignoring the smaller paladins that swarmed around with their spears and blades. 

However, seeing one friend die, another blinded, was not as chilling as the words that followed, from the paladins who were attempting to stab the demon’s wing-girded underbelly.

“It has a child in its hand!” the man got out before the demon suddenly turned its undivided attention to him, as though wounded by the accusation. The demon lifted a taloned foot, only to bring it and its full weight down upon the soldier. 

The paladins scattered from the demon at that, not wishing to be the next close enough to be crushed. They pulled out their bows and started to fire, aiming for its back and eyes, to not hit the hostages.

The demon stooped to wrap its talons around the high priest, all six wings unfurling in preparation for flight.

Haron, acting on well trained instinct, took advantage of its distraction to jump upon the demon’s back. He was quickly thrown off balance by the beast’s unstable form and quick movements, but he used his falling momentum and weight to drive the point of his sword deep into the demon’s neck, just behind the base of the skull.

The demon let out one final gurgling growl, its body slumped forward, shuddering with effort before turning to instead land on its side, where it finally laid still. Beneath Lord Haron’s hooves, its mass began to dissolve and fall to pieces, a gentle breeze sending the feathers flying down the streets. In moments, there was nothing left, except a small child where its hand had been.

Haron stepped forward to inspect the child, while others moved to check on the priest and the other wounded.

Lord Haron felt his jaw tighten as he saw the child’s night blue skin and long ears beneath her startlingly flame colored hair. A dark elf. More shocking was that she was staring with one red eye toward him, though the lack of focus spoke to her lack of awareness. Half her face bore deep wounds from the demon’s talons,

With the demon defeated, priests and acolytes poured from the temple to heal the injured. Lord Haron rushed the little girl inside, but in his mind he could not help but wonder.

Could a child summon a demon that size?