The crescendo of war roared through the gloom that had swallowed the human army only moments before.
Emperor Melvin's blazing resolve, his fearless defiance in the very face of death, straightened every spine along those walls. Where soldiers had stood bent and hollow, they now stood tall.
The last shadows of doubt washed away as they finally, truly embraced the reality they had been circling since dawn.
Death was inevitable.
It always had been. And so, with that one great weakness stripped from their minds, they smiled. They looked out at the immense demon army spread across the plains, and they smiled, because there was nothing left to fear from what was already certain.
Roars tore through their ranks, raw and violent and human, inviting the treacherous and ugly demon horde to come at them with everything they had.
Promises of drowning that baleful force within its own blood rang upward through the clear skies above Nova, loud enough to shake the heavens.
