The world ended in the space between one breath and the next. The sky did not fall; it was devoured, swallowed by a creeping darkness that snuffed out the sun. My eyes shot to Cassius, his face a chiseled mask of grim understanding against the unnatural twilight.

He moved toward me, his usual grace replaced by a taut urgency. “They’ve begun,” he said, his voice a low tremor that betrayed his attempt at calm.

Panic, cold and sharp, tried to rise in my throat. I crushed it down. My own voice emerged, hard as whetstone. “Our next move?” I pivoted to face the others, letting them see the iron in my gaze. “There is no time to falter. Listen to me!”

My hand swept over a third of our force. “You—evacuate Tirilla. Get the citizens to the eastern gate. Keep them safe, or die trying.” They snapped a salute, a single, sharp sound, and broke into a run as Cassius tore a shimmering, violent rift in the very air beside them—a portal of swirling white and gold.

My gaze fell on the next group. “You are the first wave. Through that gate. You will be their shield and their sword. Slay every creature you see.” Without a word, they started charging through the gateway into the unknown.

I addressed the small number that remained, our most elite. “The rest of you are with Cassius and me. Our only priority is the coin holders. We get them to the castle.” I met Cassius’s eyes, a silent question passing between us.

He gave a sharp, definitive nod. “Always.”

“Move out!”

We plunged through the portal, and the world dissolved into a nightmare. The air crackled as the portal snapped shut behind us, the sound like the breaking of a bone. My heart sank with it. This was worse than I could have ever imagined. The skeletons of buildings clawed at the blackened sky, wreathed in roaring flames. The air was thick with the stench of ash and ozone, punctuated by screams that were horribly, abruptly cut short. Tirilla wasn’t just under attack; it was being unmade.

A cold resolve settled deep in my bones, a core of ice in the inferno. It doesn’t matter. We’re here now.

“Alright,” I said, the rasp of my blade leaving its sheath a counterpoint to the chaos. “Let’s move.”

A blur of motion—a Shadowviel came barreling toward us, a chaotic mass of writhing tendrils and impossible speed. Before one of the whip-like appendages could find purchase, an elf from our guard shot forward, a silver streak against the burning city. His twin swords sang, a high, clear note in the cacophony. One shimmering arc severed a tendril, the next another. He moved with a dancer’s deadly grace, reaching the creature’s core and, with a final, fluid motion, cleaving it in two.

We picked up our pace, a tight formation pushing through the pandemonium. The air was a physical weight, thick with the clash of steel, the guttural shrieks of monsters, and the wet tearing of flesh.

“This way!” I yelled over the din, pointing down a narrow side street.

That’s when it found us. A Scourge. It bled from the shadows, a thing of absolute silence, its two red eyes locking onto us with a predator’s chilling stillness. This one was ours. Cassius and I moved forward as the others formed a protective circle around the coin holders.

Mana flooded my senses, a familiar, electric hum as I imbued my sword. The blade thrummed, glowing with a soft, amethyst light. I threw up a shimmering shield just as the creature’s piercing gaze fixed on me. Here it comes.

I fired a blast of raw mana. The Scourge sidestepped it with an unnatural, gliding grace, but its eyes never left me as it drifted closer to Cassius. It was utterly focused on my light. Perfect. A grim smile touched my lips.

Cassius was already a ghost, circling behind the creature as I made my shield flare with blinding light, a false sun in the gloom. The Scourge’s eyes remained locked on the decoy. It never saw Cassius leap, his own blade a descending arc of darkness that took its head clean off. The monster dissipated into motes of dying light, its glow snuffed out in an instant.

The shrieks of the horde were a relentless hammer against my skull. Through the chaos, I spotted Noctis’s house. We charged, blasts of protective mana erupting around us. I burst through the doorway and stopped short. A gaping, raw hole had been torn through the back wall. They were gone. Of course they were.

“They’re not here!” I yelled, spinning on my heel and dashing toward the castle. The horde was thinner here; they must have already fought their way through. But the creatures were relentless, pouring from the shadows. The darkness deepened with every step, and their screeches grew more violent, more hungry. Then I saw it—a frantic, desperate flashing of mana in the distance, flickering like a dying candle in a gale.

It was their group, completely surrounded by a swarming, chittering sea of monsters.

“Help them!” I roared, my voice raw. “Clear a path so they can move!”

Without a word, our elves surged forward like a silver tide. In the strobing light of battle, I saw the strained faces of the trapped defenders, their expressions shifting from grim despair to fierce, shining hope.

I turned to Cassius. “We’ll make a hole through their front. The elves can cover their backs.”

“Right behind you!” he yelled.

We sprinted ahead, and a wall of creatures instantly converged on us. I unleashed my mana in searing, fiery tendrils that incinerated the first wave. Their agonizing screeches tore through the air as they turned to ash. Before the next could crash down, Cassius thrust his hands forward. Spears of pure, golden and white light materialized and shot forward, impaling a half-dozen creatures with silent, lethal force.

“Keep pushing!” I shouted, my sword already glowing for the next strike.

We fought for an eternity, every inch of ground paid for in blood and mana. My breath came in ragged, burning gasps, but we were finally there, standing before the castle gates.

The heavy doors groaned open at my push and slammed shut behind us, plunging the hall into a deeper, more profound gloom. A deathly chill seeped into my bones, a cold that had nothing to do with the night. The castle was a tomb. Tattered tapestries hung like flayed skin from walls scarred with deep claw marks. In places, entire sections of stone had been torn away. Lifeless bodies of the Royal Guard were strewn across the marble floor like broken dolls. My heart clenched.

A piercing scream from deeper within cut through the silence. I didn’t think. I ran.

A maid was scrambling backward, her face a mask of horror as a hulking, broad-shouldered creature stalked toward her. Mana coalesced in my palm, and I unleashed a concussive force that hurled the monster against the far wall. It shook its massive head and rose again, but I was already on it, my sword singing through the air as I cleaved the beast in two.

The maid stared up at me, her eyes wide. “Thank you, Pri— Princess Thalia?” The surprise in her voice was absolute.

“Find somewhere to hide. Stay there,” I commanded, my voice softer than I intended. “This will all be over soon.” I hope.

We pressed on toward the designated hall. Just as we reached the corridor, a booming echo ripped through the castle from the entrance. It was followed by a deafening crash and the thunder of countless advancing feet.

“They’re here,” Cassius said, his voice a low rumble beside me.

“Good,” I replied, my gaze fixed on the oppressive gloom ahead. “Our part in this is almost over. The rest… it falls to them. My father, Blair, K’tthar… all of it.”

The darkness in the hall grew heavier, the air thick and suffocating. A dense, spectral fog coiled around our ankles, muffling all sound. I let a single tendril of my mana, a silver thread in the gloom, snake out into the corridor. A beacon. Lyra will feel it. She has to.

Then, shadows coalesced in a distant archway. “Thalia!” Lyra’s voice, a blade of sound cutting through the fog. They emerged, shapes of grim resolve against the darkness.

A flicker of hope ignited in my chest, only to be battered by another deafening screech from the castle’s heart. As they drew closer, Noctis called out, “Thalia, we made it! We’re here!”

“I knew you would,” I said, my voice steady despite the world crumbling on my shoulders. I drew myself to my full height. “I will lead you to the threshold. Then, we must part. This final trial… only you can face it. I have other battles to fight.”

I led them to a towering, unadorned door. With a flick of my wrist, I unleashed my mana, and it swung inward, revealing not a room, but a void of impenetrable, silent darkness that seemed to drink the very light from the hall.

“Good luck,” I whispered.

With that, I turned to Cassius. That is all I can do. Now, I have to trust them. We didn’t wait. We dashed back through the desecrated halls and burst out into the chaotic city. The symphony of war still raged, but here, away from the suffocating presence behind that door, I could finally breathe again.

We fought through endless hordes. The elves moved like phantoms, tireless and unbroken, but I could feel the fatigue setting in, a deep, grinding ache in my bones. My own limbs had begun to tremble.

“Cassius…” I gasped, my voice thin. “I’m… I’m tiring.”

“Keep going, Thalia,” he urged, his eyes finding mine for a split second before a Shadowviel lunged, its shadowy tendrils wrapping around his leg. He blasted it with a pulse of mana, and it dissipated with a shriek. Another took its place. He raised his sword, but suddenly, the creature froze mid-lunge.

Silence fell. A sudden, impossible silence. All across the battlefield, the creatures stood frozen, grotesque statues in a gallery of war. A collective, questioning breath was drawn by the weary fighters. The sky above began to lighten, shafts of pale moonlight breaking through the oppressive dark.

“They… they did it,” Cassius whispered, his chest heaving, his eyes wide with disbelief and relief. A ragged cheer went up from the elves. Exhausted, triumphant grins were shared all around.

Until I felt it.

The light didn’t fade. It was extinguished. The world went black. Not dark, but a total absence of light. I couldn’t see Cassius, couldn’t see my own hands. But I felt it. A presence I knew too well, a suffocating cold that sank into my soul.

His voice wasn’t a sound. It was a violation, clawing its way into the back of my mind. I collapsed to my knees as the voice snaked through my thoughts, a chilling whisper that paralyzed me from the inside out.

“You all belong to me now.”

My palms hit the stone, breath catching in my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. The voice vibrated through my very being, and I knew, with sickening certainty, that we hadn’t won. The real battle had just begun.

Then, a strange warmth bloomed in my chest. My mana was being drawn from me—not violently, but gently, like a tide answering the pull of a moon. It was Cassius. His familiar white-and-gold energy was calling to mine.

Focusing on that warmth, I fought to push K’tthar’s violating presence from my head. I shakily rose to my feet. My body still trembled, but Cassius’s power wrapped around me like a shield, pulling me closer. My ragged breathing began to even out. Soon, I felt him beside me in the void, his hand fumbling until it found my arm.

“Thalia,” he breathed, a wave of palpable relief in his voice.

“Cassius.”

“It’s okay,” he reassured me, his voice a steady anchor. “I’m right here.”

“What’s happening?” I asked, feeling our energies intertwine, weaving together into something new, something powerful. A shockwave of light erupted from us, not an explosion, but a gentle, unstoppable wave that pushed back the suffocating darkness.

A creature shrieked and charged, but dissolved into nothingness as it touched our aura. The light continued to expand, a silent, cleansing tide that flowed across the battlefield, finding the remaining elves and vaporizing any monster that stood in its path. But it stopped short at the castle walls, a radiant sea breaking against a shore of absolute blight.

My eyes were fixed on that impenetrable darkness. “How…?”

And then I saw it. A single pinprick of warm, golden light piercing the gloom from within the castle. It was Finnian’s mana. It grew rapidly, blossoming into a brilliant sunbeam that tore the darkness asunder. The final, distant screams of the creatures faded into true, final silence.

Above us, the sky cleared completely, revealing the breathtaking colors of a new dawn—soft pinks, vibrant oranges, and deep purples painting the horizon.

A single, joyous thought echoed in my mind. They did it. They really did it.

The immense power that had bound Cassius and me together receded. My strength left with it, and my knees buckled. As Cassius caught me, I watched the elves begin to move towards us, their silhouettes stark against the sunrise. We had truly done it. All of us. The coin holders had defeated K’tthar. And the dawn had come.