The ruins of New Avalon still smoldered. Ash drifted like snow through the windless air, and survivors picked their way through debris and memories. The boys stood at the edge of the city, bloodied and burned, but alive.
Ren's eyes were fixed on the horizon. "That demon… it felt different."
Kaelen nodded solemnly. "It was. That wasn't just a breach. It was a message."
Haru tightened the straps on his pistol holsters. "A message from who?"
Kaelen's gaze darkened. "The Dominion."
In the Heart of the Ministry
The Ministry's main citadel towered in silent vigilance, constructed from obsidian and steel, pulsing with magic. High Chancellor Elira paced before the Grand Council, draped in robes of white and crimson.
"The Vatican moves faster than expected," she said. "Their influence has begun spreading into neutral zones. And now… the Dominion."
Whispers ran through the chamber. The Dominion had always been a myth, an undercurrent of fear used in bedtime stories and political threats. But Elira had seen the truth.
"They're not a myth," she continued. "They're remnants of the old world. Scientists, sorcerers, heretics—people who refused to bow to the gods or the Church. They took what was forbidden and made it their scripture."
"And now," she said gravely, "they're aligning with the Vatican."
The Boys' First Casualty
In the outskirts of New Avalon, the group buried the fallen.
One of the Ministry's young clerics—just a girl, barely older than Icarus—had leapt in front of him when a demon lunged. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She just… fell.
Icarus hadn't spoken since.
Daiki placed a hand on his shoulder. "We survive by remembering, not forgetting."
Tears didn't fall from Icarus's eyes. Instead, the earth around his feet cracked gently, a sign of grief only a Walker of Stone could show.
The First Strike
At midnight, alarms rang out across the Ministry Citadel. A breach—no, an invasion.
Ren, Haru, Daiki, and Icarus were barely rested when they sprinted toward the southern wall. Flames had erupted, and emerging from the smoke were black-clad assassins—not demons, but humans. Masked. Armored. Armed with relic weapons.
"The Dominion," Kaelen growled as he drew twin sickle-blades from his back.
"No mercy."
Ren spun into the fray like a storm, his wind blades shrieking through the air.
Haru fired from a rooftop, bullets laced with white flame.
Daiki's foresight danced through chaos, calculating, predicting, executing.
And Icarus—silent, grieving—Icarus fought like a man possessed, stone fists pounding and walls rising in violent defense.
The Demon Within
As they fought, Ren caught sight of one of the masked invaders. Not because of their weapon, but because of what pulsed beneath their armor: a glowing, inhuman sigil carved into their chest.
"That's not a man," Ren shouted. "That's a demon-host!"
The invader screamed—no, howled—as black veins burst across his skin. Bones cracked and reshaped. A twisted creature emerged mid-battle, transforming into something that fused metal and malice.
The boys had seen demons.
But they'd never seen a Dominion-born hybrid.
Kaelen leapt onto its back, severing a limb in one swift cut. "They're merging with them!" he shouted. "This is how they'll conquer—not with armies, but with nightmares in human skin!"
Political Repercussions
At dawn, as the fires were extinguished, Seraphiel stood in the war chamber, staring at a map now marked with three empires: Ministry, Vatican… and Dominion.
"We've been too quiet," Elira said beside him. "Too hesitant."
"And yet," Seraphiel replied, "every step we take forward pushes us closer to becoming the very thing we swore to fight."
"Then what would you suggest?"
Seraphiel's eyes hardened. "It's time we remind the world why the Ministry was once feared."
A New Mission
Kaelen summoned the four boys into the sanctum beneath the Citadel.
Torches flickered along ancient runes, casting blue light over the obsidian walls.
"There's a place," he said. "Far to the west. Beyond the Ashlands. A ruin buried in the bones of a dead god."
Ren blinked. "A… dead god?"
Kaelen nodded. "That ruin holds something the Dominion fears. Something they'll kill to keep hidden. You four are going to find it."
Haru gave a low whistle. "Let me guess. It's cursed. Guarded by monsters. Likely to kill us all."
Kaelen cracked a rare smile. "Exactly."