The sky in the portal turned black the night of the invasion.
Scouts reported back within minutes, their shouting echoing throughout the walls of the keep.
August stirred.
The noises from outside of his room boded poorly.
His head lifted from the pillow, and he stared into the darkness of his room while he waited for his eyes to adjust.
Sen moaned below him.
She turned in her sleep and rubbed against his naked chest.
The door nearly blew open when Fei knocked on it.
August saw its hinges visibly move.
"August!" Fei shouted.
"Wake up, something’s wrong with the portal."
She pushed the door open and August received a reminder of why locking his door was pointless.
Fei’s inhuman strength didn’t give a damn about how good the steel was or how complex a lock the door had.
She pushed the door and it opened.
A shame about the frame.
"August!" she shouted again.
Then she pouted when she saw him in bed with Sen.
"I’m awake," August said.
"So am I," Sen said.
"Goddess, Fei, are you trying to wake the dead?"
Fei didn’t say anything, instead choosing to glare at Sen.
The beastkin took several seconds to regain her composure and flick on the lights.
By which point, both Sen and August were up and getting changed.
"The sky in the portal went dark," Fei explained.
August clicked his tongue.
"That means the demons are about to invade through the portal.
Gather all the soldiers and officers, Fei.
And tell Kuda to send a message to Vera.
Maybe she’s set up her gateway and can bring reinforcements from Leopold."
Fei obediently ducked off.
Sen returned to her room to finish getting ready once she slipped some clothes on.
Unwilling to waste time freshening up, August threw on his uniform and rushed to the portal.
The doors were wide open.
A dozen soldiers guarded them on this side.
They saluted August when he approached and allowed him in.
Returning the salute, he entered the portal.
August had been busy preparing for the invasion since Leopold’s visit.
The portal was no longer a barren wasteland.
Immediately on the other side, a half-dozen automaton hoplites reacted to August’s entry.
They recognized their creator and deactivated again, lowering their spears.
A palisade wall surrounded this side of the gate.
Bulky machines sat atop the wall, pointing outward.
Small ballista bolts—each about the length of August’s leg—bristled from the machines.
Dozens more bolts hid within the machines.
These were repeater ballistae powered by the binding stone, each capable of firing a bolt every few seconds.
They operated automatically.
Even their ammunition was replenished by the binding stone.
The interior gate opened, and August walked through.
Over a hundred soldiers milled about here.
Another palisade lay farther down the valley and blocked off further descent toward the portal itself.
More automaton hoplites stood guard near the wall, and more ballistae defended the wall.
Soldiers attended to a few catapults, each of which had automatically refilling ammunition stockpiles.
Looking up, August confirmed that the sky was now pitch black.
Below him, the light creeping out from the cracks in the ground had turned a bright white.
Portals didn’t always show physical changes such as this before an invasion, but they were a clear sign of overflowing demonic energy.
This world was being changed by the energy building up within it.
Once they suppressed the invasion, the sky would become red again and the light from the cracks would return to normal.
August considered himself lucky that his first invasion came with such obvious warning signs.
While he could read the level of demonic energy flowing from the portal, at best he could only guesstimate when the invasion would happen.
The monitoring devices that made accurate observation possible were yet to be invented and August didn’t understand them well enough to recreate them.
He was a Bastion, not a magical scientist or inventor.
Nobody stood atop the outer palisade.
August looked down the valley from the central gatehouse, which was the highest point of the wall.
Behind him were his soldiers and summons.
Ditches, low-standing wooden barricades, and barbed stakes lined the descent to the bottom of the clearing.
Down there was the beginning of the demonic invasion.
Dozens of demons crowded around the craggy rocks near the portal.
Every minute or so, another would slowly fade into existence.
At first each demon appeared colorless and fuzzy, but they regained their form over the course of ten seconds or so.
They would look at their bestial hands and arms, feel their face and body.
Then they would pull a weapon of some form out of thin air and join their brethren.
"Shouldn’t we be clearing them out?" Sen asked.
She wandered up next to him.
"Ordinarily, yes.
But I don’t know when the portal will tear itself open.
If one of us is down there when it happens, we’d be overwhelmed in seconds."
August shook his head.
"A hundred demons or so is nothing compared to what will come."
"You’re really boosting my morale," Sen remarked.
She had adjusted her uniform since joining him.
In place of the cloak and rough bandit armor was a black and silver Champion’s uniform and a red coat that fell to her thighs.
Her breastplate gleamed and stuck out noticeably less than Fei’s.
A thin strip of tanned skin peeked out at him between her leather skirt and armored greaves.
When he didn’t respond to her, Sen made another remark, "I expected there to be bigger walls here.
And more summons.
Kind of surprised how lightly you’re taking this."
"I’m not taking it lightly."
August pointed to the sky.
"In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t our world.
Building anything in here requires a lot more power from the binding stone.
Given I don’t know how big the invasion will be, I need to keep a stock of power in reserve for my sorcery."
He shrugged.
"Besides, unless I build the walls large enough, the demons will jump right over them."
"Oh.
So how do we fight them?"
"To make it clear, we fight them."
August gestured to the two of them and grimaced at the soldiers massing below them.
"... they’ll die if they fight the demons, won’t they?" Sen asked, staring out at Anna’s soldiers.
"In droves.
They don’t have the training or equipment.
With enough time I’ll turn them into knights capable of going toe-to-toe with demons, but for the most part it’s smarter to use summons," August explained.
Sen watched the soldiers prepare the catapults and ballistae for the coming invasion, while August remained silent.
Those soldiers who weren’t manning siege weapons carried halberds.
Not a single bow was in sight.
"What if they break through?" Sen asked.
"The soldiers pull back, and we fight the demons where they are," August said.
Sen gave him a look of disbelief.
"That’s why I have power in reserve.
I can create more summons if necessary."
They watched for several long minutes.
Demons continued to mass below them.
Preparations continued.
Fei joined them.
Kuda was trying to contact Vera, but having little success.
The sapphire in Fei’s collarbone glimmered in the soft light of the world around them.
August tapped into the leylines and confirmed that they were not disrupted anymore.
"That doesn’t bode well," he muttered.
"Do we need to do anything?" Fei asked.
August called up a soldier and gave them an order, "Tell Kuda that the leylines aren’t disrupted.
He’ll know what to do."
"Sir," the soldier snapped out, then ducked out of the portal.
"You have a plan for this?" Sen asked.
"Precautions, mostly.
Kuda’s fairly sharp."
"Sharp doesn’t begin to cut it," Sen muttered.
"The man doesn’t need a knife to cut steak.
He can use his mind."
By the time two hundred demons had gathered in the clearing, something began to happen.
The air above the mound of rocks seemed to distort.
August saw black cracks form in mid-air, and strange gases appeared.
"Don’t look directly at it," August muttered.
"You’ve told us a thousand times," Fei said.
The world roared, and a ten-meter-high hole in the world snapped open.
August shifted his gaze slightly to the right.
Despite this, a sharp pain built up behind his eyes and he was forced to look away completely.
He grabbed Fei and physically turned her head away.
She whined, but he had seen her ears flatten and knew she had ignored him.
The portal had opened.
A tear in space that slowly oscillated between black and white, shaped like a tear drop.
Bestial yelling resounded across the valley, bouncing off the cliffs.
The demonic horde poured in.
"I didn’t think it would hurt this much," Sen said, covering her eyes.
"It shouldn’t normally."
August bit his lip and glanced back, covering one eye.
The horde wasn’t that large.
Maybe five or six hundred at most.
More would arrive in time, but this was in line with expectations.
But a portal that caused this harsh of a migraine usually came with a larger horde.
In fact, they usually came with a Messenger.
August grimaced.
Surely one wouldn’t arrive this early.
Kadria had dismissed his concerns, stating that no Messenger would waste their time on such a small feast.
He didn’t point out the fact she seemed pretty focused on feasting on a particular part of him.
August raised an arm.
A hush fell over the soldiers behind him.
They could see the portal and hear the demons, but not see them.
They waited for August’s order.
"All forces, fire at will!"