"What the hell was that?" Nox asked, still seated on the ground.Shuri finally dropped her guard and sank down beside him. "Yeah… what the hell was that?""Couldn't you tell? It was a fight!" Ren grinned and pumped his fist like a child.Nox shook his head. "When Raizen trained us, every strike that mattered, we fueled it with iora. But just now?" His voice cracked with dread. "There was nothing."Shuri perked up, curiosity shining through her exhaustion, forgetting entirely she had been trying to kill Nox not long ago."We were just testing each other," Ren said, his tone briefly serious."Testing?" Shuri and Nox echoed, then both turned away, cheeks red with embarrassment."Calm down," Ren waved his hands casually."Raizen told me the demon saved you once in the forest," Ren said, glancing at Nox. "Back when you fought that horned Dreknar. He figured the demon lord might return, and he was right. That thing was watching from the start."Nox's stomach turned. "He was here the whole t

Ren sat on the remains of a porch, burnt to a crisp but still standing against all odds. Around him stretched nothing but pitch black ruin, the silence heavy as ash. The only contrast was his hair, streaked with white, catching faint glimmers of the fading sun.He sat cross legged, hands clasped and resting on his knees, chin balanced upon them. His face was the very image of a storm, rage restrained and grief simmering, yet his voice remained silent.Nox staggered back from the two corpses, horror painted across his young face. His body trembled as he collapsed onto the ashen ground, curling into himself and clutching his knees as though he could hide from the world.Soren stood motionless, a statue in the midst of ruin, the only proof he still lived the shallow rise and fall of his chest and the occasional blink of his hollow eyes."I'm tired." The words slipped out of Nox in a whisper so faint it was almost lost to the dead air.He was tired, not merely in body though hunger gnawed

Darkness.No sound. No body. No breath.Solar's mind spun.Am I not dead? …Why do I still feel? Why is it so cold?He tried to move, but his arms weren't his. His legs weren't his. He could sense himself and yet… not touch, not see, not even be.Is this death? he whispered into the void. Will this be my eternity?Memories poured in, his daughter's laugh, the villagers sweating under the sun, rainsoaked nights, their smiles, their pain. Everything was too fast. Too sharp. Every joy, every loss, everything he had ever felt, pressing down on him at once.Are these here to comfort me? Or to break me forever?The emotions tore at him. Fear. Anger. Joy. Disgust. Hope. All at once. Caged. Freed. Empty. Full.Then.Voom.A flicker of blue light sparked before him. A flame. Small at first. Then swelling, burning until it painted the endless dark in blue fire.Solar staggered upright, or at least thought he did. For the first time since he died, he could move.From the flame came a voice. Low.

Ren bolted forward and snatched up one of the spears from one of the two headless corpse.Soren picked up the other.Nox blinked, trying to guess what either of them planned to do with it.Ren adjusted his stance mid sprint. As he neared the formation line, he gripped the spear by one end and slammed it forward with monstrous force.Bang!Soldiers were flung into the air like rag dolls, some falling helplessly onto the upright spears of their own allies, others crashing into comrades and tearing the formation apart down the center.Soren and Nox darted into the opening Ren had carved.Nox threw a fierce punch into the next line of soldiers, the shockwave sending men flying, but he held back, careful not to kill.The soldiers staggered to their feet almost instantly, the glow from their Iora rings fueling their bodies.Getting to the children at the rear wasn't going to be easy.Not in this sea of armored flesh."Launch me forward!" Soren commanded."Understood, Your Majesty!" Nox shou

(This event unfolded simultaneously as Ren, Soren, and Nox charged into the crowd.)The grey-haired commander sneered. "Aren't you going to draw even one of those swords?"Kirian smirked. "Nah. If I did, this would be over too quickly. I want you all to die really slowly. Besides… you're weaklings."The grey haired man snickered, while the one with the murderous eyes smiled like a predator that had finally cornered its prey.Then, like a spark before a firestorm, they ignited. Ren, Soren, and Nox launched themselves into the tide of soldiers, tearing through the ranks like a living storm."Hmph. So this is how you choose to die, by diving headfirst into inevitable death?" the old man scoffed, casting Kirian a scornful glance."Five minutes." Kirian raised his fingers."Huh?""It'll only take five minutes to put you and your army on the ground. The only hard part about this fight will be clearing out your corpses."The grey haired man laughed. "Your arrogance will be your undoing."The