Damien had never been the sort of person who believed in taking things slow.
He had just awakened a new power.
And in Damien's worldview, new power meant only one thing.
Find something alive.
Test it.
Preferably something that could hit back.
As if the universe had been waiting for this exact thought, chaos arrived on schedule.
They had barely returned to the lobby when a royal magician rushed in from the entrance hall, his robes dusted with ash and his expression tight with exhaustion.
He bowed quickly to the Duke.
"Your Excellency. A report from the perimeter."
Duke Chevon folded his arms. "Speak."
"Several portals have opened in the surrounding district. Not just one. Pandora Corps is deploying responder teams, but they are currently overwhelmed."
Damien's eyes brightened.
The magician continued, "Since Your Excellency and the Royal Magician Tower representatives are already present, Pandora Corps requests that you hold the invasion here until their teams arrive."
Silence followed.
Then Duke Chevon's eyebrow moved.
"Hold them off?" he repeated mildly.
The magician swallowed. "A containment forcefield has been established along the main road. The creatures are currently confined within the barrier."
Damien grinned.
Containment.
Creatures.
Testing ground.
Perfect.
He didn't wait for permission.
"Don't—" Angus started.
Too late.
Damien was already gone.
"—you idiot!" Angus finished, sprinting after him. "Don't do anything rash!"
Outside, the road was a nightmare.
The containment barrier shimmered faintly blue, stretching across the street like the surface of a submerged sky.
Inside it, the asphalt was moving.
Not because of wind.
Not because of magic.
But because something underneath was crawling over something else.
Roaches.
Hundreds.
No.
Not hundreds.
The first wave was already drowning under the second.
Dog-sized black shells pushed and clawed over overturned cars, over broken glass, over each other in a wet, scraping tide.
They did not move like animals.
They moved like machines that had learned hunger.
Their legs made a dry clicking sound — thousands of tiny jointed noises overlapping into a single brittle whisper that made the skin itch beneath the bone.
The portal in the center of the road pulsed slowly.
Each pulse pushed more of them out.
As if something on the other side was breathing.
Damien's wolf form landed inside the barrier.
Perfect.
Claws flashed.
The first roach died with a wet, tearing shriek.
Ichor splattered across the pavement like crushed black oil.
The wolf wrinkled his nose.
Then experimentally—
He bit one.
Instant regret.
The wolf gagged violently and spat the mangled insect out.
That tastes like death that forgot to die.
He tried again just to be certain.
Still terrible.
What kind of wolf was unable to bite enemies?
From outside the barrier, Angus shouted, "IDIOT! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO BITE IT TO FIND OUT!"
The wolf glared at him.
Claws only, then.
Fine.
He ripped another roach apart.
Quintin stepped onto the street behind him.
His hands ignited with unstable flame.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see what this does."
He hurled a streak of fire.
It struck a roach.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the insect exploded inward with a wet, choking screech as flame devoured its body from inside the shell.
Quintin blinked.
"…Huh."
That was disturbingly effective and proof that Quintin must have hated giant cockroaches with an equally burning fury.
Back near the building entrance, Duke Chevon stood calmly while Jennifer stared at the battlefield.
There were too many.
Not just many.
Too many in the way that suggested something deeply wrong with the world itself.
They crawled over each other in a living black sea, legs scraping against asphalt in a relentless, hungry music of clicking chitin.
Every time one died, two more pushed forward over its twitching body.
It was not an invasion.
It was a pressure wave of hunger.
Jennifer felt the urge to scream sitting heavy behind her ribs.
"The boys will be fine," the Duke said.
"These creatures are individually weak. Their strength lies only in numbers."
Jennifer nodded stiffly.
Yes.
Of course the greatest horror of her life was classified as the weakest alien spawn.
Behind them, Bastien stood with his arms crossed, looking personally insulted by existence.
"This is ridiculous."
Jennifer glanced at him. "You're not going to help?"
Bastien snorted.
"Why would I?"
He gestured at the battlefield.
"Why would I want the adoration of oversized roaches?"
As if to prove his awakened powers, a flock of pigeons fluttered down.
Jennifer ducked and stepped behind Frank, but the pigeons had no interest in her.
They landed around Bastien.
Then immediately began pooping with terrifying enthusiasm.
One splattered the floor.
Another hit his shoe.
And one particularly daring bird landed directly on his shoulder.
Splat.
Bastien froze.
"…."
He slowly turned his head toward the bird. It fluttered in his face.
"Fuck," he whispered.
The pigeon cooed with unbearable satisfaction.
Bastien yanked off his jacket. Yelling, he used it to shoo the pigeons away.
Frank chuckled from next to Jennifer at the sight, "I see my grandson is quite lovable."
Out on the battlefield, things were deteriorating into controlled insanity.
Damien had shifted back into human form after someone tossed him a dagger and a short sword.
Which meant he was now running naked through a battlefield of oversized hissing cockroaches.
And he was completely unconcerned.
Angus pointed furiously. "IDIOT! PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!"
Damien stabbed a roach through the head. "Not everyone is magical transformation boy!"
Another roach lunged.
Damien twisted and drove the short sword twice into its thorax.
Angus kept pace beside him, healing magic trailing behind them like an exhausted babysitter. "Stop charging into everything!"
Damien shoved him sideways. "You're in the way."
Angus stumbled straight through the barrier.
Damien smirked. "You just stand here and heal, princess."
Angus' face went crimson. "I'M NOT HEALING YOU ANYMORE!"
They were arguing so loudly that neither noticed three roaches lunging until Quintin burned them to ash.
Which immediately created another problem.
Damien spun. "HEY!"
Quintin blinked. "What?"
"Stop kill stealing!"
"…What?"
"Those were my lifesteal targets!"
Quintin stared at him. "I thought the point of fighting was to kill them."
"How am I supposed to lifesteal if you keep killing my targets?!"
Quintin sighed.
Then burned another one anyway.
Damien howled. "STOP KILL STEALING!"
From outside the barrier, Angus screamed, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE, IDIOT!"
At that point, Duke Chevon finally stepped forward.
"Quintin."
"Yes, Your uh… your Duke?"
Duke Chevon graciously overlooked the failure in royal etiquette. "You should distribute your attacks across the battlefield. Leave the creatures Damien has already wounded alive. It will allow him to extract life energy."
Quintin nodded. "Uh, okay."
Angus shouted, "Tell the idiot to PUT ON SOME CLOTHES TOO, UNCLE!"
The Duke ignored him.
Instead he lifted his hand.
White flame streaked into the night sky.
The streaks burst like silent fireworks above the swarm.
Then the fire began to fall.
Not in chaotic blasts.
But in measured, descending streams of white destruction.
The roaches screamed when the light touched them.
They did not burn instantly.
The flame ate inward, crawling through chitin, forcing the creatures to writhe as their legs spasmed and their bodies collapsed in slow, dreadful combustion.
Jennifer watched.
Her stomach tightened.
The battlefield was not loud.
The roaches were dying too quickly to make long sounds.
Only short, tearing shrieks.
Like something being torn apart and forced to stay alive while it was torn.
Maybe Bastien's ability could do something like that too?
She lifted a hand and pointed. "See?"
Bastien followed her gaze.
"Maybe your magical glitter could do that."
Bastien snorted. "No, woman."
He gestured toward the sky where white fire continued to rain down in patient, merciless waves. "That is nitromethane."
Another explosion bloomed overhead.
The swarm screamed as bodies disintegrated in burning light.
"On fire." He looked at her flatly. "Not glitter."
More explosions bloomed across the sky as the magicians maintained their relentless barrage, thinning the writhing black tide below.
The portal at the center of the road pulsed once.
Slowly.
Like something exhaling.
Jennifer watched it for a long moment.
It didn't look like the portal was done breathing giant cockroaches into her world.
If anything, it looked like it had only just begun.