Battle at the gate.

Up in the sky, you see Lord Vraelion coming down once again. It's a terrifying sight, like a bird of prey the size of a building clad in golden armour. But suddenly, he pulls up, and turns straight back up into the sky once again. Something pushed him away when he tried to approach--the Shard of Draconax. The two smaller dragons don't even do that much. They screech to a stop a distance away and fly in place. It's hard to tell what they're thinking, but they look confused. For a reason beyond them, they can't bring themselves to get any closer.

Mela, in her ghostly form, hovers overhead. "Those outside will struggle to get near, but it will not keep them away forever. They will eventually be able to push through. And if we cannot safely fight atop the walls, perhaps we should open the gates and catch them by surprise. They will not be able to fight as effectively while pushing through the invisible barrier."

Bek thrusts his maul up into the air by both hands. "Aye, open the doors already!"

"We can take them, Kyle!" Niki slams her mace up against her magic shield.

You turn to the others. "Alice. Mela. Chula. China. Chila. Patricia. All six of you pull back to protect the Shard. If that falls, we're in even more trouble. Snow, Tom, Eva, and Vivi, stay in the backlines. Everybody else maintain the same position as before. We're opening the gates."

Mistress Dajy places a hand on your shoulder. "Those in the front sound like demofiends to me. They're extremely durable and strong, and they can run quite fast as well. They're the ultimate frontline soldiers. Take advantage of their slow minds and lumbering bodies. If anybody can't cause real damage to them, they should switch to another target while somebody who can does so instead. Gremlins... Ah yes, you've definitely faced them before."

You peer back towards her. "Yes. We have."

"Right then. Ready or not, let's open the gates! As soon as they do, I want every archer and mage to fire, and once the smoke clears, run in there, frontliners. Our goal is to take out the mages as quickly as possible, but don't pull out too far or the dragons can get to you."

Though just before anybody can make it to the mechanism in which to do so, two more explosions shake and splinter the wood.

"They're already here!" Patricia shouts from above. A bolt of fire just narrowly misses her head.

"Stay low!" you shout.

Then at last, the gate shatters to bits. While still short a couple due to Snow's intervention earlier, the demofiends march in first swinging their clubs as they go. While only a few gremlins remain, they begin firing off their shoulders like bullets. Behind them march goblins with crossbows as well as rolling spheres of metal, and worst of all, the single glowing cyan iris of each one hums with magic. They're about to unleash a barrage.

"Take cover!" you command as loudly as you can.

While even a few of the demofiends are hit from behind, several of the rolling spheres shoot blasts of magic in a similar, much weaker manner than Alice is able to do. Many miss, though you look around you to see one strike Niki's shield, but two land--Shivra to her stomach, and Taiga to her shoulder. Amara is quick to run over towards them. Not only does she begin to heal them, but she chooses to bestow her Bless spell against both Summer and Fang, as they're the nearest to reach.

With nostrils flared, Fang puffs out her chest and lets out a battle cry. She bolts forwards and pounces. In the air, she draws a dagger in each hand, and she lands with ease onto the shoulders of one of the demofiends. She sinks both blades into its neck and twists, nearly separating its head from its body right then and there. Though she peers up to see a gremlin dash through the air towards her with fingers like the sharpest knives. She maneuvers deftly around the neck of the beast--the slice only grazing her arm, which does little to nothing thanks for Amara's magic. Then with a pivot, she grabs her daggers, retrieves them, and then stabs them in again. The demofiend panics bow. Like riding a bull, Fang steers the creature right back through a couple of the goblins, and then into the wall a moment before she tears the head off the neck. She backflips away and lands on her feet before twirling around to meet the gaze of the others approaching.

Summer begins running into battle, but as she does, her feet lift off the ground while her tiny wings buzz. Behind her comes Taiga, who has quickly recovered from her injury. The two meet with the closest demofiend, and they sing the heads of their spears into its chest one after the other. Summer especially, given the power Amara bestowed upon her.

Amara stands back using her staff to keep steady. Even in such a serious situation, it's humiliating to feel such lust flood though her body. Her knees shake, and she takes deep, trembling breaths. While her magic may do this to her, it also means her spells are naturally more potent than any other cleric of her level. She knows that if she can bear with this feeling, she can aid her allies better than anyone else could. One day, even more than her mother. "... Keep fighting!" she suddenly blurts out. "No matter what, I will heal you!"

"Hehe. You'd like that, wouldn't you~?" Delphi teases as she flutters overhead. With a grin, she throws her arms forward, causing purple bands to wrap around the arms of the demofiend fighting the two bumblebees. With the strength of her magic, she's able to aid them in bringing the creature to the ground.

"Out of my way!" Bek shouts. His voice comes out like a snarling animal. Despite his size, he bolts forwards with the presence of a charging wildebeest, which forces both Summer and Taiga to dodge out of the way. He hops slightly off the ground, and then uses the weight of his hefty weapon to crush straight down onto the demofiend's face. There's nothing left beneath it. "That's one."

Taiga clears her throat. "Counting is not--"

"Two!" Bek shouts, catching a scurrying gremlin under the might of his maul. He then pivots, and sprints right past a crossbow bolt coming from a nearby goblin. Unlike Stax and the like, these barely appear sentient. They're like ravenous animals, and he puts it down like one too. "Three!" Then as one of the spheres begins to glow nearby, he delivers upon it the same fate. "Four!"

Snow's arrows come out like a hailstorm. She perches up on a nearby rooftop, and as she hops from one to the other in order to dodge both bolts and gremlins, she takes out many.

"Stay behind me!" Niki does her best to keep any from getting to those in the back less protected by melee combat. Whenever one attempts to do so, she sprints with incredible speed and either rings them with her shield, or crushes them with her mace. A demofiend reaches her, and swings with both its clubs. One would kill an ordinary person, but she takes both strikes without budging an inch. She drives her mace forwards in a counter attack, and the blunt damage forces the wind from the demon's lungs, causing it to stumble backwards.

They're pushing through the barrier much more easily than the dragons are. It deters regular monsters from getting close to the castle, but it does little against a marching army. Thankfully the main purpose of the Shard is functioning. It was meant to keep Lord Vraelion out, and as an added bonus, it's keeping out the two other dragons he brought as well. They must not have known.

Mela comes out of nowhere--a screaming banshee, haunting the battlefield. A few of the goblins and even bugbears behind pass out immediately from her deathly screech.

"Good job, Mela, but I told you to guard the Shard!" you call out.

After calming down, the ghostly elf looks to you with a curtsy. "S-Sorry!" She then takes off into the sky and towards the top of the castle.

The remaining bugbears storm in, however. They're almost like weaker demofiends, but they seem more limber, and their limbs are longer--like furry, tall goblins with brownish yellow flesh. They immediately engage with your frontliners. Shivra catches one, causing its body to freeze over. Nearby, Dajy sings her claws into the heart of another. Then over their leads, Rabbit's Foot flips into battle with her staff extended. Quickly, she breaks the jaw of a bugbear, takes out a goblin, and then moves onto one of the metallic cobras of metal spheres.

Eva surprises the army from the side. While she may be out in the open, she throws her hands out for a Chain Lightning. Her power explodes out to arc between a dozen enemies at once! It fries some of the goblins, automatons, and even finishes off a bugbear previously shot by both Tom and Snow. However, now the enemies turn towards her.

A demofiend charges forwards, but suddenly crashes to the ground as its foot is caught in a root.

Peony walks up behind Eva with her arms extended. Now that the enemy has gotten closer, they've entered her domain--the grass, flowers, trees, and more. Vines snake out from beneath the enemy's feet, and they begin to struggle to maneuver through the sudden difficult terrain. "Stay away from my husband's girlfriends!"

Eva looks back at her, perplexed. "... Huh?"

Meanwhile, you've been dancing through the battlefield, though with your attention on monitoring the battle from the position of a strategist and a leader. Thankfully, you're also incredibly quick, and you haven't grown this much just to shy away from a fight. With a hand down the blade of your glowing pink sword, you speak the words, "Flare Blade!" and strike out with a blazing slash. First, a bugbear falls, and then another. Two goblins. Three rolling spheres. Then your combo is halted by two ALICEs forming a small shield wall with their swords ready to strike. Your Kitty Sense pulls you back. They would have parried if you kept the momentum you had going.

Your eyes flicker around the battlefield. Both of Sen-nu's bodies tackle the final bugbear remaining. Mipa is fighting alongside Fang with the final few demofiends. Thankfully, their backup arrives in the shape of Lalarin and Delphi, as well as Snow still perched above.

The third ALICE comes at you from behind. Quickly, you pivot to block her sword with your own, though now the other two are able to move in.

Suddenly, that ALICE takes a thrown dagger to the back. She disengages temporarily from the fight, revealing Yin standing a distance behind her.

"Are you all right, Master?" she asks.

"Yes! Yin, I think some of the enemies are spreading out through the village. There's no telling how many have made their way in. Even if it's the smaller ones, those damned robots can form together. Pull back to the Throne Room, and report to me if there's trouble!"

"Yes, Master!" After bowing politely, she runs off, and then disappears into a plume of black smoke.

Speaking of which...

Down the road behind you, another plume appears, though it isn't Yin who appears in its wake. A different devil stands. By garb, it appears to be one of the mages that previously marched in the back, though this one feels even more dangerous than the rest. He clutches his staff in one hand, and stretches out his hand of gnarled claw-like fingernails as mana flows up his body.

"An enemy mage!" Vivi calls out, suddenly from above. She's flying. With two hands up, she calls upon a spell, though just as her mouth opens, the devil shouts.

"Counterspell!" the other mage casts.

Then the two mages at the gate take the opportunity to strike. The first fires a Magic Bolt, but Vivi thankfully dodges to the side. The second, however, takes the wind out of her lungs as it slams into her stomach. She loses control in the air, and crashes to the ground behind Laira's shop.

"Amara--!" you call out.

"On it!" the elf says before you can finish. She hurries as best she can towards the crash site.

We're winning. It's not going as smoothly as I hoped, but they hardly have any forces left. All three mages, a couple demofiends, a couple goblins, three ALICEs, and some of the other automatons, and then that's it besides the three dragons constantly watching from above. Lord Vraelion seems powerful enough to have been able to break through by now, though. He must be waiting for the right moment.

Suddenly, you see a blast of magic coming from the castle roof. It looks like one from Alice's arm cannon. A moment later, Yin appears nearby in another plume of smoke.

"Some of the golems have gotten inside, Master." Yin looks panicked. "They're fighting as best they can, but--"

"Two of the ALICEs are gone," you mutter. "Yin, get back there quickly. I'll send reinforcements."

To aid against the stealth **** of the castle, you decide to send some of your fighters away from the frontlines. "Summer, Taiga, Lala, Shivra, head back to the Throne Room immediately!"

Instead of teleporting, Yin follows along with said group, and they quickly disappear back into the village. Meanwhile, you throw the Arcane Eye up into the air. With a deep breath, you focus as the view through one of your own eyes suddenly shifts and distorts, and just before the Arcane Eye hits the ground, it sprouts wings and takes off like a bat. It's always incredibly difficult to focus on two places at once, but you have to see what's happening back at the castle. "Keep fighting, everyone!"

You then feel a sudden chill. The barrier formed by the Shard of Draconax isn't visible, and since you're not a dragon, you can't really know it's even there. That's what you thought, however. Despite seeing nothing, you immediately sense it--the barrier disappearing. The Shard of Draconax has been disabled.