The air hung still, thick with the stench of scorched earth and iron blood. The last of the flames hissed and died in the wind, leaving behind a broken battlefield bathed in pale blue light. The ashes of John’s body drifted through the air like snow, scattering across the ruins of the graveyard.Varkos stood at the center of it all; a towering figure of cold power, his armor humming with energy, the runes along his gauntlets pulsing with faint azure light. His sword, still wet with John’s blood, was buried halfway into the ground, blue mist curling from its edges.Vera knelt a few paces away, trembling, her breath shallow. The sigil Varkos had branded on her forehead still glowed faintly, throbbing with every heartbeat. She could feel it deep in her skull, a burning mark that tied her to him, a constant whisper of obedience.Varkos turned slowly, the metal of his armor shifting like a groan of thunder. His cold gaze swept across the battlefield until it landed on her.“Get up,” he sai

John’s eyelids fluttered open, and the world came back to him in a haze of pain and confusion. Every nerve in his body throbbed with the memory of the battle that should have ended him. His muscles burned as if still caught in the clash, and even breathing felt like dragging air through fire. He lay sprawled across the wreckage of what had once been a living world—now nothing more than a graveyard of shattered earth, uprooted trees, and smoking craters. The ground beneath him was split in spiderweb cracks, the very soil fractured by the force of his fight with Varkos. Dust hung heavy in the air, carrying the sharp tang of scorched stone and spent magic. Above him, the sky smoldered with bruised shades of red and gray.With a low groan, John forced himself to move. His arms trembled as he pushed up from the ground, every motion deliberate and heavy. Inch by inch, he rose; first to one knee, then to his feet. His armor was battered, dented, and streaked with soot, but it held together,

Varkos snarled, rage boiling through his voice. He launched into a relentless assault, his strikes faster than thought, each one a blur of motion that left trails of shimmering void energy in its wake. The afterimages slashed through the air, deadly enough to cut even without contact. John met him strike for strike, sparks flying in every direction. Their blades clashed in bursts of sound and light, the shockwaves flattening what remained of the battlements.Sparks scattered like stars between them. Every impact echoed like a bell struck by thunder. Behind them, the castle lay in ruin; towers collapsing, walls burning, the air alive with the metallic tang of ozone and ash.John ducked under a swing and countered, the Soulrender carving a vicious arc across Varkos’s side. The blade bit deep, void essence spilling out like black fire. Varkos howled, eyes blazing, and retaliated with a brutal headbutt that cracked John’s visor in half. Pain flashed white across his vision. A knee followe

The dark essence that had once been Varkos dissolved into the dawn’s first light, fading like whispers of forgotten nightmares. His final implosion left behind a heavy silence broken only by the distant calls of waking birds and the faint crackle of dying embers. As the last trace of the dark knight vanished, the Castle of Death began to tremble. The ground shook beneath John’s boots, a deep rumble echoing like the growl of some ancient beast roused from slumber.Thin cracks spread across the obsidian walls, at first delicate as spiderwebs, then widening fast, devouring the stone with violent hunger. Towers groaned as their foundations split apart, sending cascades of shattered rock tumbling down. Huge chunks of masonry crashed to the ground, each impact booming through the courtyard and stirring clouds of dust that swallowed the dawn light. The central keep: the heart of the fortress where the throne room had stood, buckled inward. Its tall, arched windows exploded outward in a glitt

The sun hung low in the sky like a bloodied eye, casting long, jagged shadows over the skeletal remains of what had once been a thriving metropolis. The air was thick with the metallic tang of spilled alien blood and the acrid bite of scorched earth, a grim perfume that clung to everything. Bodies of the Zorvathian soldiers lay scattered across the cracked pavement, their obsidian skins paling in death, bioluminescent veins dimming to nothingness. Limbs twisted at unnatural angles, weapons discarded like broken toys, black ichor pooling in viscous puddles that reflected the carnage like dark mirrors. John stood amid the slaughter, his chest heaving not from exhaustion but from the simmering rage that fueled him. The Soulrender, now sated with the essence it had absorbed, hummed faintly in his grip, its blade clean and gleaming as if it had never tasted blood.Vera emerged from behind the barrier, her eyes scanning the devastation with a mix of awe and unease. She had seen battles in h