The alarm tore through the night sky.
It was no ordinary star demon screech, but hundreds upon thousands of voices piled into one howl, like nails scraping an iron plate, drilling straight into the brain.
White Snow's feathers bristled all at once, her golden eyes terrifyingly bright in the darkness.
"Everyone, prepare for battle!" Old Ironhead slammed his iron hand against the bronze bell, its peals mingling with the howls. "Southeast corner! Seal off the southeast corner first!"
White Snow burst out of the cavern. Across the dark red earth, a black mass of star demons poured from a fissure. They resembled starving wolves, yet stood taller than oxen, their purple-black skin split with cracks that oozed sticky black mist. They had no eyes, only two rows of honeycomb-like holes spewing foul-smelling gas.
Thirty-seven. No, more. The fissure was still spitting them out.
"Fucking hell, it's a demon tide!" The old woman with the missing leg struck a mine cart with her iron hook hand, her voice twisting out of pitch. "A once-in-a-century demon tide!"
White Snow clenched her claws. The sickly-sweet stench of rot hung so thick in the air that it choked her throat, exactly like what she had smelled at the edge of the wasteland. The heavenly demon aura on the star demons made her bloodline surge instinctively.
A star demon lunged toward the mine entrance. White Snow opened her beak, and golden flames erupted.
Boom!
The star demon never even screamed. Its entire body became a ball of fire, its purple-black flesh twisting and shriveling in the phoenix fire until only a fist-sized crystal core remained, dropping to the ground with a clatter.
"Phoenix fire counters demons!" Old Ironhead's lone eye lit up. "Fat bird, hold the front! Everyone else, follow me into the mine! Lead