The gates fell at noon.
Not because the defenders were weak because Malachar cheated. He sent a demon through the ground, burrowing under the walls, emerging inside the fortress. By the time the defenders realized what was happening, the demon had already opened the gates from within.
"Fall back!" Ren shouted. "Fall back to the inner keep!"
The defenders retreated fighting every step of the way, leaving a trail of demon corpses behind them. But the tide of darkness followed, flooding through the breached gates, spreading through the fortress like poison through a wound.
Lee stood at the entrance to the inner keep, holding the line alone.
"Go!" he shouted to his friends. "Get everyone inside! I'll hold them!"
"Lee, you can't " Kira started.
"GO!"
Kira hesitated. Then she ran, pulling Taro and Inyocha with her.
Ren stayed.
"You can't hold them alone," Ren said calmly. "Even you."
"Then help me."
Ren smiled. His eyes turned black. His skin turned grey. Shadows poured from his body not like Inyocha's shadows, hungry and desperate, but controlled. Ancient. The shadows of a Sun King who had ruled when the world was young.
"I've been waiting a long time to fight like this," Ren said.
Together, they held the line.