The room erupted into chaos.
Tables flipped. Chairs crashed and lay strewn about. Plates, silverware, and equipment clattered to the floor as a powerful gust of wind tore through the dining hall.
The remains of broken windows lay scattered across the ground, jagged shards glittering beneath the flickering lights.
Nozomu, moving like a shadow in a storm, conjured a wind wall to dampen the blow—just enough to prevent casualties.
Even then, it was overwhelming.
The scent of dread hung heavy in the space where calm had existed only moments ago. The blast had struck with no warning, leaving behind a trail of debris and confusion.
A loud ringing thundered in Theo's ears. The air still howled with residual pressure, but it was quiet compared to the pounding in his skull.
"Aida! Are you okay!?" Aeda shouted, throwing her arms around her sister.
Aida clung tightly. "Yeah... I think so. Thanks, Aeda."
Curtis staggered over, already scanning the group. "How are you two holding up? You good?"
"We're good. I think," Arthur replied as he and Bryce pulled themselves upright from where they'd landed, bruised but intact.
"Speak for yourself, Pentadraig," Bryce said, rubbing his head.
Curtis helped Clarissa to her feet as she shielded Mimi with her arms.
Turning to the trio huddled near an overturned bench, he called out, "And you three?"
"We're alright," Dawn said, brushing dust from her clothes. Theo and David helped her steady herself, glancing around at the wreckage.
"But what was that?" Theo asked, looking at the shattered windows. "What just hit the building?"
Before anyone could answer, Nozomu's voice boomed over the disarray. He stood tall in the broken frame of the window, backlit by moonlight.
"Listen carefully. We are under attack."
Everyone froze.
"There's no time to explain. As of now, you are all recruits, which means you follow orders. I expect you to follow Isabella's orders while I'm gone. Is that clear?"
His voice didn't rise in panic. It rang with the seriousness of someone who'd been in war zones before.
Someone who knew what came next.
Even Benny fell silent.
Theo's thoughts blurred. They hadn't been ready for this. Not mentally. Not physically. Not for the kind of threat that could shatter glass from afar.
Nozomu strode to the broken window and flung it open.
"Isabella, I'm going to check on Pop. You're in command here. I'll update you when I can."
"Yes, sir!" Isabella saluted with practiced confidence.
Benny stepped forward, concern in his troubled eyes. "I don't know what's going on, but… please be careful out there."
"Don't worry. I always minimize my risks, Benny. You should know that by now."
Nozomu's gaze swept across the recruits. His eyes locked onto theirs.
"I want you all to treat this as your first unofficial mission. Your only job is simple: survive. None of you dies tonight. That's a direct order."
Then, with a surge of wind, he launched through the window and vanished into the night sky.
Benny stood frozen, watching the sky.
Who could've done this?
The silence that followed was heavy. No one dared move.
Except Isabella.
She took a step forward. Her voice was calm but loud—louder than it had ever been. Her demeanor hardened. The warmth was gone—replaced with something raw and commanding.
"Recruits!" she barked, her voice like a drumbeat over a battlefield.
Everyone snapped to attention.
"Fall in. We have a mission. Move!"
Meanwhile, far from the Iron Fortress, Pop stood beneath a sky streaked with moonlight. The forest around him was nearly leveled—reduced to cracked roots and stumps.
The forest floor was scorched, and the once-towering trees lay flattened in twisted heaps of ash and splinters.
A massive smoking crater had formed in the ground where the blast had erupted, and from its edges, glowing faintly with residual heat, monsters crept.
Pop's eyes narrowed as he examined the incoming figures. Dozens of them emerged from the smoke.
Hulking monsters whose spines were arched like feral beasts. Their skin was the color of scorched coal. Eyes glowing red through the mist. Limbs ending in talons.
Foam dripped from their mouths like venom, snarling and twitching like rabid animals.
They growled as they approached, moving like a single hungry organism.
And they were not alone.
A voice, too smooth, too cruel, slithered out from the darkness behind them.
"They won't miss next time."
Sedgwick emerged from the shadows. His elite guards flanked him. His ever-present subordinate, second-in-command, Branch, stood at his side, eyes gleaming with disdain.
Sedgwick's long cape dragged along the scorched ground, his boots crunching over the remains of burnt branches. His expression was amused—like a man watching a dying animal twitch.
"Surrender," he said. "I have a hundred of these delightful, bloodthirsty Devils and not an ounce of mercy in me tonight."
He smirked. "But if you hand over the Iritheum Core, maybe, just maybe, I'll let you beg me for your life."
Pop didn't even flinch. He drew his sword smoothly, letting its edge catch the moonlight.
"You talk too much."
"So be it. You die tonight," Sedgwick muttered before the Devils lunged.
Back inside the fortress, Isabella stood at the head of the room with Benny, and the recruits circled around a table with a blueprint of the fortress's layout.
"Right now, our priority is the safety of Benny's people living here," Isabella explained to the group.
David leaned forward, his finger tapping a specific section. "Bella, I've been thinking. What about the main hall?"
Isabella tilted her head. "Why there?"
"It's the safest bet. It's central. One entrance, one exit. It's not perfect, but it gives us control. Big enough to hold everyone and easy to defend if things go wrong."
Benny nodded. "The lad's not wrong. He has a good head on his shoulders."
"Agreed. Good thinking," Isabella said. "Alright, we'll evacuate the workers to the main hall and hold out there until Commander Nozomu contacts us."
Benny drew quick marks over key points. "Avoid these hallways and side paths. They're weak points in the structure. Possible breach points."
He rolled up the map, and Isabella took back control of the conversation.
"Once inside the main hall, we'll seal the doors. We move in teams—five pairs of two. Stick together and avoid conflict. We're dealing with unknown threats. Do not fight. If you see something, you run. Got it?"
Everyone nodded. Isabella paused, scanning their nervous faces.
"I know this is sudden. But remember the Commander's words. Your lives matter. Don't throw them away. We'll get through this together."
They nodded, tension still riding their shoulders—but something else too.
Resolve.
"Alright," Isabella said. "Let's move out."
And they disappeared into the corridors of the Iron Fortress.
Outside, flames raged, and the forest burned. Pop raced through the trees and wreckage, slashing down Devils that got too close.
Acidic saliva hissed on his cloak, eating through the fabric. Flames climbed the trunks of the trees like a predator.
Each time he cut one down, another three rose from the shadows.
They were endless.
"Dammit," he muttered, clenching his teeth. "I can't let the fire spread..."
But the enemy was relentless.
Devils leaped through fire. One lunged into the air, claws aimed at Pop's throat. He blocked just in time—then another flanked him from behind.
"What the hell are these things?"
He didn't get an answer.
They moved with terrifying intent, wielding elemental Dyna—fire, wind, earth, and water. One hurled a spike of stone. Another summoned blades of wind.
The coordination. The precision. It wasn't random.
They were trained.
Explosions shook the ground. Trees exploded into embers.
Pop deflected, countered, slashed—still, he was outnumbered and forced higher into the sky.
A Devil caught him mid-air, squeezing his ribs with bone-cracking force. More surged upward, combining their elemental Dyna into a monstrous inferno.
It burst like a star.
Pop vanished into the center of the blast.
Sedgwick watched, arms folded. "Guess that takes care of him."
But the sky split again.
Pop erupted from the flames, breaking free just in time. His cloak smoldering, face carved with fury.
The Devil behind him was vaporized by the incoming shot. A barrage of stone pillars erupted like spears from the ground, trying to crush him.
Pop spun mid-air and dodged left, then right, the wind around him bending to his will. He landed in a field—a clear patch of land surrounded by the blood-eyed swarm.
Panting, cloak in tatters, surrounded on all sides—
Pop stood his ground.
Then, another wind descended.
Nozomu dropped from the sky, standing beside him like a drawn blade.
Pop turned, exasperated. "What took you so long? I sent a Whisper ages ago."
Nozomu didn't answer at first. He stared ahead, thoughtful, unreadable.
"Hey! Anyone home!? I could've died, you know!"
"But you didn't," Nozomu said.
Pop growled. "Unbelievable."
Nozomu's gaze fell on the glowing red eyes in the dark. "So, tell me, what exactly are we dealing with?"
The Devils snarled, their fangs glistening.
Pop raised his sword again.
"Trouble. Lots of it."