The celebration had scarcely ended when grim new tidings forced Ethan to action. That evening, he gathered his closest allies and the elven envoys in the war room. Under guard stood General Cassaran—one of the captured conspirators—sweating and shaking under their stares.“Tell us everything,” Ethan demanded, his tone brooking no disobedience.Cassaran’s resolve crumbled instantly. “It… it was all planned by that monster,” he blurted, eyes darting around as if Theros might somehow hear him. “Theros orchestrated everything from the start!”At the mention of that name, Celestia’s expression turned icy. “Monster? What is he?” she asked sharply.Cassaran trembled. “He’s not human&helli

Ethan gently laid Seraphina against a smooth section of the cavern wall. Her breathing was shallow, but steady; Eileen’s swift healing ministrations had halted the worst of the curse. Though Seraphina remained pale and weak, she forced her eyes open. “I’m alright,” she insisted softly, even as Celestia and Nina knelt beside her in concern. The saint was determined not to become a burden—not when so many others still needed saving.Further down the tunnel, a massive wooden gate reinforced with iron vines barred the way forward—Theros’s doing, no doubt, to seal off his retreat. Beyond that gate likely lay the heart of his operation. Ethan approached the obstacle, sword in hand, and saw strange symbols carved into the wood—runes glimmering with residual magic. It was a lock, and a formidable one at that.“Stand

The Shadow Beast's fist came down like a falling tower, and Ethan threw himself sideways an instant before it cratered the stone where he had stood. Dust geysered upward. Somewhere behind him an elf girl screamed—too close, far too close—and Ethan twisted in the air to see a freed captive sprawled at the edge of the impact, half-buried under a slab that had sheared loose from the ceiling."Get her clear!" he shouted.Nina was already moving, hauling the girl out by the collar of her ragged dress as a second tremor walked up the cavern wall. Cracks spread across the vaulted ceiling like black lightning, raining grit onto the huddle of liberated elves Eileen's barrier strained to protect. Every blow the monster landed was loosening the roof. Every blow brought the mountain a fraction closer to burying all of them alive.Last Updated : 2026-07-01

Celestia had carried fallen comrades out of a hundred battlefields, and she had learned long ago that the worst moment was never the fighting. It was the silence after—when there was no enemy left to hate, and nothing to do but count what the victory had cost.Dawn came grey and reluctant over Shadow Peak. The roots that had borne them up from the deep had withered the instant their feet touched open ground, curling back into the broken earth like fingers drawing away from heat. Where Theros's lair had been, there was now only a collapsed scar in the mountainside, a throat of rubble exhaling thin violet vapor into the cold air. Celestia stood at its edge with Seraphina cradled against her chest, and she did not trust the silence at all."Lay her here." Eileen's voice was a rasp. The mage had a strip of cloth pressed to her nose, dark with dried blood, and she m