“DIE!”Erebus channelled a massive amount of void energy into the blade.He prepared to unleash a Void Slash, a wave of energy that would cut Pyralis and the water in half.Pyralis grabbed the copper wires with his metal hand."Hey, Erebus!" Pyralis shouted. "Did you know that Obsidian becomes brittle when it vibrates?""What?"Pyralis channelled his own mana—Seraph's mana, bright and fiery—into the wires.He didn't cast a spell. He just dumped raw power into the copper.The electricity arc travelled down the wire, hit the water, and raced across the conductive film of Slimey's body.It hit the pillar Erebus was standing on.It hit his wet, mana-charged Obsidian Armour.ZAAAAAAP.It wasn't a lightning bolt. It was a feedback loop.The electricity interacted with the stored void energy in the armour. The obsidian plates began to vibrate.They hummed. They shriek

King Brigdonis looked at her with a serious expression."I found comfort in the arms of another. Someone who understood what it was like to be in the shadow of the King. Someone who was wild, and kind, and far too good for either of us.""Who?" Isolde asked." Princess Valora," Brigdonis said.Isolde gasped.The cup rattled against the table. "Aunt Valora? But... the histories say she died of a plague. She vanished years ago.""She didn't die… Well, not at the time," Brigdonis said, his voice hardening into stone. "She got pregnant."The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the rustle of leaves overhead."A foreign King…," Brigdonis continued, "…impregnating a Royal Sister of Veridia out of wedlock. It was high treason. It was a diplomatic nightmare. Gayus... he was proud. He felt betrayed by his friend and his sister. He saw it as an insult to Lyanna, an insult to his crown."Brigdonis grip

One Hour Ago. The Skies above the Common Lands.The wind roared in Kaelen Yunis’s ears, a deafening, physical assault that felt less like air and more like a solid wall he was trying to punch through.He was crouched low over the scaled neck of his wyvern, Aethon, his hands white-knuckled on the leather reins."Faster!" Kaelen screamed, though the wind snatched the word away before it could leave his lips. "Push, you overgrown lizard! Push!"Behind him, strapped into the saddle with heavy industrial webbing, was Bo Ironside. The giant was a mountain of tension, her massive arms acting as a cage around Lady Aelindis and her daughter.The elf child had her face buried in Bo’s chest plate, sobbing silently, while Aelindis stared back at the horizon with eyes wide in elven terror.Below them, the Yunis Estate was no longer a home. It was a shrinking square of green being devoured by a ring of apocalyptic fire."She’s gaining!" Bo shouted over the wind, her voice a deep rumble that vibrate

The First Knight’s Citadel did not smell like a barracks but rather, a mausoleum for living gods.While the Common Lands choked on the sulphur of the Eclipse Battery and the Middle Kingdom reeked of nervous sweat and lavender, the seat of Theron’s power smelled of cold, polished marble, expensive beeswax, and the sterile, metallic scent of absolute authority.The air here was still, filtered through high arched windows of stained glass that cast long, colourful shadows across floors so clean they reflected the grim, scarred faces of the intruders.Jinto Kyoran walked through the massive double doors of the main atrium, his muddy boots leaving deliberate, brown smears on the pristine white stone.He wasn't alone.Flanking him were five men who looked less like knights and more like walking natural disasters—veterans who had survived the slums not by polish, but by grit.To his right walked Godric, the Earth-

The air in the atrium had grown heavy, saturated with a mana pressure that tasted of ozone and old dust.The five defeated lieutenants lay groaning on the cracked marble, their bodies serving as a grisly perimeter for the duel that was about to unfold.Jinto Kyoran stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, his posture loose and deceptively sloppy. He held his chipped, rusted blade loosely at his side, the tip hovering just inches above the floor, swaying slightly as if moved by a breeze only he could feel.Opposite him, Vice-Commander Aelia Solara was a statue of golden steel. Her Shield of Faith had faded, but the holy light clinging to her armour remained, casting long, sharp shadows against the pillars.She held her arming sword in a high guard, the blade perfectly still, pointing directly at Jinto’s throat.Lord Commander Theron watched from the top of the stairs, his hands clasped behind his back.His expression was one of mild