The battlefield still smoked, a graveyard of steel and ash. Where the Shadowlord had fallen, the ground itself seemed scorched beyond recognition, as though the earth had tried to reject his existence. His flames no longer roared, yet the air remained heavy, clinging with the scent of burning flesh and charred stone.Elias stood among the ruins, his sword lowered, the faint glow finally fading from its edge. Around him, silence hung—a silence too vast, too heavy—until the cries of the living broke it apart.The freed soldiers staggered, blinking as though waking from a nightmare. Some collapsed to their knees, clutching their heads. Others screamed in anguish as memories returned: the battles they had fought, the innocents they had slain, all under the Shadowlord’s binding will. The chains of the Crown were gone, but what remained was worse—freedom without forgiveness.Helena leaned against a broken pillar, her armor scorched, one side of her face streaked with soot. “We won,” she sai