The world ended in light. The secondary charge detonated with a roar that split the heavens. A wall of fire consumed the clearing, ripping trees from their roots and hurling bodies through the air like leaves in a storm.The ground itself convulsed, soil and stone blasting upward in a hellish wave.Fowler was swallowed whole. His arms locked around Elias as the inferno engulfed them, their bodies flung into the torrent of fire and mud. The detonator shattered in their grip, sparks vanishing in the blinding glow.Selene’s scream was lost in the thunder. The scarred man wrapped himself tighter around her, his back taking the brunt of the blast.Heat seared through his uniform, his flesh blistering, but he did not move. He would not. Selene was his charge, his mission his shield.Vivienne was thrown hard into the roots of a tree, her body crumpling, ears ringing with the endless shriek of the blast. She coughed blood, blinking through the haze. Her first thought was not of herself, but o

The battlefield smoldered in silence. Smoke writhed between the skeletons of trees, fire embers snapping like whispers in the dark.Fowler stood frozen above Elias’s limp body. His hand still clutched Vivienne’s gun, but his strength seemed to have drained with the blast.His chest rose and fell in uneven heaves, as though every breath was at war with itself. Selene pressed a bloodied hand against the ground and pulled herself forward until she was at his side.Her voice was hoarse, broken, but steady enough to cut through the silence. “Fowler.”He didn’t look at her. “Fowler, what did he say to you?”Nothing. His eyes stayed locked on the ash-streaked ground, his lips pressed thin. His body once a wall of unshakable resolve trembled beneath invisible weight.The scarred man coughed, shifting painfully to sit upright, his burned flesh a grotesque testament to loyalty. “He’s bleeding poison into you, General. Whatever words he planted, tear them out before they take root.”Vivienne rip

Fowler stumbled, his boots digging trenches in the scorched earth, blood pouring hot from his shoulder. Elias’s hand stayed locked around his throat, a grotesque parody of brotherhood.His grip was weakening. Selene could see it in the twitch of his fingers, the tremor of his arm but his will was iron.Vivienne’s pistol shook in her hand, her face white with shock. “I....Fowler, I didn’t mean”“Drop it!” Selene screamed, her voice raw, her palm slapping the ground as she dragged herself closer. Her body felt like shards of glass, but she couldn’t stop, not when Fowler’s breath came in ragged gasps.Vivienne’s jaw clenched, tears burning her eyes, but she lowered the gun. Her entire frame trembled with rage and guilt, caught between killing Elias and saving Fowler.The scarred man pushed himself up on shaking arms, coughing blood. “General… speak to us. Tell us what he said. Don’t let him choke you with silence.”Fowler’s lips parted. His voice was hoarse, cracked, forced through Elias

The smoke stung Selene’s lungs, but nothing burned as fiercely as the silence. Fowler’s silence.He stood over Elias’s broken body, chest heaving, blood dripping from his shoulder. His fists flexed at his sides, veins bulging in his forearms, but his eyes… his eyes were hollow.Selene’s voice cracked as she tried again, softer this time, as though coaxing a child from the edge of a cliff.“Fowler. Please. Look at me. Tell me he’s lying.”His jaw worked, muscles twitching, but no words came.Vivienne’s hand trembled around her pistol, fury blazing through her grief. “Say something, damn you! You’d rather let his poison rot us from the inside than speak the truth?!”The scarred man braced himself against a charred tree, coughing blood into the dirt. His voice was rough, edged with command. “General. If you can’t cut him down, then cut his words down. Tell us. Silence is surrender.”But Fowler only stared into the fire. A man carved from steel, now rusting from within.Selene’s heart sha

The fire cracked in the silence, flames painting the clearing in shades of hell.Selene’s heart thundered so loudly she could barely hear her own voice when it came. “Fowler… what could you possibly say that would make me never look at you the same?”Her grip on his wrist was tight, desperate, like she could anchor him to her with the strength of her hands alone.Fowler’s eyes shut for a moment, as if the weight of centuries pressed down on him. When they opened again, they glistened not with tears, but with something more frightening: restraint.“I’ve carried it for years,” he said hoarsely. “Buried it so deep I thought I could live without speaking it. But Elias knows. He’s always known.”Elias coughed blood, a grotesque smile stretching his broken face. “Go on, brother. Tell her who you really are. Tell her what you cost her.”Selene’s stomach twisted violently. “What do you mean, cost me?”Vivienne stepped closer, her pistol still raised but her voice cutting in like a blade. “Eno