The world erupted.
When the first section of the palace wall disintegrated under shadow fire, the battlefield responded like an open wound. Soldiers surged forward. War beasts thundered through the mud. Siege towers groaned under the strain of their enchantments. The sky darkened as spells collided midair in bursts of light and smoke.
The Triarch armies charged.
And Vharon roared back.
***
Kaedan didn’t stay behind the walls.
He leapt from the battlements into the thick of battle, landing with such force the earth cracked beneath him. Enemy soldiers stumbled back in fear as he rose, eyes burning like molten obsidian, cloak whipping behind him.
A Vaelen swordsman lunged.
Kaedan caught the blade — with his bare hand.
Metal screamed.
Kaedan snapped the sword in half and drove the broken end through the man’s chest.
Another shadow mage tried to bind him in black chains, chanting in Rhaelle’s tongue.
Kaedan ripped through the spell like it was made of cobwebs.
He moved like a storm given shape — tearing through enemy ranks, punching holes in battalions, leaving only blood and shattered armor in his wake.
Vharon soldiers cheered wildly.
“The Emperor! The Emperor fights with us!”
***
While Kaedan was chaos incarnate on the battlefield, Ariaxa worked with precision and light in the strategy tower above the palace.
Sun mirrors — polished golden discs — lined the circular room. Each one reflected flashes of the battlefield below. But Ariaxa wasn’t watching them with her eyes.
She was inside them.
Her magic connected to the reflective metal, allowing her voice to whisper directly into the minds of defensible troops.
“Squad Six, pull back — left flank collapsing.”
“Archers, angle up two degrees. Now.”
“Three shadow mages headed for the north tower — intercept.”
Her illusions — blazing silhouettes of false battalions — flickered across the field. Enemies chased them, thinking them real soldiers, only to be ambushed by Vharon’s real troops.
It was working.
For now.
But every Sun illusion pulled more from her magic. Her shoulder wound throbbed. Her vision dimmed at the edges.
Still, she pushed harder.
Vharon needed every trick she had.
***
On the battlefield’s eastern edge, a figure moved with deadly precision.
Riven.
Changed.
Royal blood surged through his veins like liquid fire. The Triarch poison was gone — burned away, replaced by an unnatural strength.
He tore through Brakus’s beast battalions with terrifying speed, slicing through the monstrous creatures with twin blades that gleamed like lightning. He disarmed a Vaelen captain with one strike. He cut down three shadow mages before they even realized he was behind them.
But there was something different — something darker — in the way he fought now.
His eyes glowed faintly red.
And when he roared orders to nearby soldiers, they obeyed almost instinctually.
As though his voice carried Kaedan’s authority.
Ariaxa pressed her palms to the largest Sun-mirror, breathing hard as she strengthened an illusion battalion marching toward the enemy flank.
For a moment, it worked beautifully — the Triarch soldiers fell into disarray, chasing images that were never truly there.
But then—
The sky cracked with golden light.
A massive beam of sunfire ripped through one of Ariaxa’s illusions, scattering it like glowing dust.
Ariaxa gasped. “No—no, that wasn’t me—”
A voice echoed across the battlefield.
“Solar Convergence: DIVIDE.”
Another beam.
Another illusion shattered.
Ariaxa’s heart thundered.
She spun toward the balcony, eyes widening as she saw—
A mage.
Wrapped in chains of shadow and gold.
Dragged forward by Triarch guards.
Eyes glowing pure sunlight.
The Solar mage lifted his hands, creating a ring of blinding light that burned through Ariaxa’s spells.
He wasn’t resisting.
He was being forced.
Kaedan saw him too — and his eyes darkened with something murderous.
“Ariaxa!” Riven shouted from below. “Your illusions are breaking!”
She pressed her hands harder against the mirror, trying to stabilize the fading troops.
The Solar mage raised his voice again — cracked, pained, but magically amplified to reach her.
“Princess Ariaxa!”
Her blood froze.
He knew her name.
“They will burn the city to find you!”
Kaedan looked up at the tower, horror and fury mixing like a storm.
Ariaxa staggered back from the mirror.
The Solar mage shouted again, voice breaking—
“You must RUN—before—”
The shadows around him tightened like a noose, choking off his words.