Demonic Corps

Beradin summons the Four Imperial Guardians and launches a full-scale assault on Silver Arrow, ordering the capture of Pandragon, Cutis, Astania, and Dagal all at once. Watching from hiding, Crow and Riona see the Demon Corps march on Pandragon.

Paltamilla, hoping to prove his worth, borrows the Demon Corps' power to move on Fort Thunderdoom — the Pandragon soldiers stunned to see monsters obeying an Imperial commander's orders outright. Landam Kelvins and Siren Woodvile hold the line as long as they can, and the advance stalls — until the Four Imperial Guardians finally reveal themselves in person, and the exhausted Pandragon defenders have nothing left to answer them with. Rather than lose everything, they abandon the fort and retreat in full.

Retreating from the Demon Corps, Ende and Ennil's party is run down and surrounded — until Crow and Riona intervene. Overwhelmed by Crow's strength, Paltamilla falls to his knees, still unable to hide his resentment as he meets his end. Crow turns immediately back to his hunt for the Black Prince without a word, leaving Ende and Ennil to thank him for a rescue he barely acknowledges.

Pushed out of Thunderdoom, the Pandragon forces fall back to Castle Pandragon itself, pursued by Karls's troops and cornered into a last stand. Believing they've thrown back the Demon Corps, the Imperial Army, and Asura with everything they have left, they're caught completely off guard when Karls reveals he'd held the Asura Drop Units in reserve the whole time — dropped directly onto the castle by the airship Kelberos. Karls himself boards the new Asura as the castle's defenders lose what little morale they had left, and the Pandragon army has no choice but to retreat and live to fight another day. Karls lets them go, weighed down by his own dread about what Beradin is really planning.

At Castle Cutis, Diablo's Demon Corps meets fierce resistance from Cecily Narejuno and Jeyhan Muller, who refuse to surrender even as Diablo throws wave after wave of demon soldiers at them. It takes an endless onslaught to finally break the defenders' will — and just as they prepare to make their own last stand, "Kleiner" appears and talks them out of it, guiding them to safety the same way he once helped G.S and Landam escape Cutis Castle back in Chapter 9. Wary of his motives but out of options, Cecily and Jeyhan follow him out as the castle falls.

In a parallel cutaway, Crow hires the underworld contact Shuan to help rescue a prisoner held in Trisis. Shuan doubts Crow can afford a job this difficult — until she learns it's for someone Crow cares about, and sets her doubts aside.

This is the low point of the counter-campaign — both of Silver Arrow's hard-won capitals lost in one stroke. Pandragon falls first, worn down by the Demon Corps and then broken outright by Karls's hidden Asura Drop Units; Cutis holds out longer before Diablo's reinforcements finally crack it. Word of both cities falling reaches Beradin, who's already looking ahead to Astania.

Landam and Siren's joint defense of Thunderdoom pays off Siren's decision, back around Chapter 18, to stay behind and guard the fort — and Kevin Hastings's quiet crush on her. Kelberos, the Empire's airship from the Chapter 19–20 diversion operation, resurfaces here as Karls's delivery method for the Asura Drop Units. And Kleiner's return is the same alias, the same quiet rescue-from-the-shadows role, as his Chapter 9 appearance — Vincent Bernstein still working undercover, still unable to reveal himself even to the people he's saving.