Herman laughed loudly, finding the spectacle in front of him ridiculous. He walked to the edge of the floor, savouring his triumph. 'At least you made me laugh before your death. What the hell thought he was doing, that idiot?'

He was about to throw Carolina off, but a slight resistance prevented him from moving forward. Intrigued, he turned his head over his shoulder.

Bojan, though pierced by the chain, was still standing. His bloodied hands clutched the chain with his remaining strength, holding the warden back despite his gaping wounds.

'I won't let you do anything...' he whispered, his voice trembling with pain. His mouth was dripping blood.

Herman stared at him, surprised. 'You really think that's going to stop me?'

Just as he was about to finish him off, a strange sensation emanated from the ground - a powerful energy. It couldn't be, given how little magic was left in the fortress after so much abuse. He looked away, searching for the source of this sensation, but was taken by surprise. A dark mass was rushing towards him at high speed.

Bojan, despite his condition, infused a slight spark of magic into the chain, disorientating Herman enough to throw him off balance.

'What the...?'

Herman didn't have time to understand. The shapeless mass of magic hit him square in the face, throwing him backwards enough for him to let go of Carolina. The young girl, who still hadn't let go of the sword, finally realised as she fell that she had split the chains because of her weight on the sword, which was caught between them.

The chains shattered and fell to the ground with a thunderous crash before dissipating once they were no longer in contact with their creator. He had finally lost the source of his strength. His muscles shrank until his body was frailer than before the fight. The change in size was so sudden that he vomited, screaming in pain and frustration.

The chain in Bojan's body also disappeared and his strength left him as he fell onto his back, groaning in pain. As for the young woman, she fell from the floor while the sword evaporated, but the dark mass caught her in extremis before disappearing smoothly once on the ground.

'This colour... is it...?' she murmured, looking around.

As for the warden, he was still standing despite his weakened condition, trying to catch his breath. His hands covered his bloodied face.

'Who... Who did this?!' He moved towards the edge, looking for the source of the attack. His eyes widened as he discovered Armand standing there.

It was him, he had miraculously risen to his feet and the last vial of healing he had left was at his feet, drained of its contents. His aura was thick and both his eyes and this one were a colour he had never worn before, an intense purple.

He didn't seem to understand himself what was going on, and even less how to use this new ability. His eyes bled again, as they had the first time he had tried it, but were immediately healed by the healing liquid.

However, all this novelty was short-lived. His aura gradually returned to a neutral colour and his eyes went back to grey.

'I don't really know what happened... it's as if it activated itself,' he murmured, his eyes fixed on his hands. 'But at least I finally feel alive again.'

Something slipped from his neck, and he barely caught it in his hand. It was a piece of his magic gourd, which he had hidden in his hood all this time. When he fell, it exploded, cushioning the impact on his head. The piece then vanished like the rest of the gourd still in his hood.

'Maybe I hadn't designed it so well after all,' he murmured with a smile. 'With all that I've taken on the head tonight, it only broke now. I'd almost forgotten about it.' His expression became serious again as he looked up at Herman, who was still up high.

'He had a hidden reserve of energy? Where did he learn such a technique? A spell of that magnitude can only be passed on to a high ranking member of the guard... or even a nobleman.'

Once the gourd had been destroyed, the magic contained within remained suspended around the living being who had broken it, making Armand's aura exceptionally dense.

The first light of dawn was now fully illuminating the sky and he was now fully reinvigorated. He positioned himself from where he was to face the weakened but increasingly angry warden one last time.

'Herman! Let's finish this now!' he shouted to make himself heard by his opponent.

From the top of the floor, the latter felt for the first time in a position of weakness. There was no magic left in the fortress and he knew enough about the properties of the magic gourd to know that he was in real danger.

Desperate for a plan, he took a step backwards, but was startled by a sound from the south of the city. A strident scream, despite the distance, set off a domino effect, followed by several less intense echoes, which began to echo throughout Auroria.

'Huh? An alert?!'

It was the cyanocrius alarmists posted at the four corners of the city who had woken up at the first shout and started chirping in chorus, covering all of Auroria, except around the fortress. Those around the fortress had either fled or were still asleep. He then realised what was happening and started shouting, hoping to be heard.

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'Stop squawking, you damn birds! This is where you should have sounded the alarm!' he shouted in vain. 'How the hell is it that no reinforcements from that damned guard have come yet ?'

Armand, whose aura suddenly turned blue, took advantage of this distraction to leap towards him at high speed. He kicked him in the abdomen, sending Herman flying further along the floor. The weakened warden hadn't seen it coming and spat out his saliva before straightening up.

'You dirty...' he growled, holding his stomach before drawing a forced smile on his face, which this time was devoid of all confidence.

'You make me laugh, kid. Earlier, you were telling me off about strength and now here you are, in perfect shape and you're the only one who can use magic thanks to some cowardly trick!'

'Shut up,' he replied, calmly advancing towards him.

Herman stepped back but soon found his back against the wall. In a desperate move, he tried as best he could to gather some magic in his hand, even if only for a punch, but nothing came to him.

'You said it yourself, didn't you? You seemed so sure of yourself. The end justifies the means, right? And now, here you are, hoping for help from those you despised a moment ago. Without the strength of others you are nothing but a loser without honour.'

'I... I forbid you to teach me a lesson, you vermin!' cried the warden, throwing himself at Armand to attack him unarmed.

The young man stopped and grabbed his fist in a quick, effortless movement.

'You should change your record, it's getting tiresome,' he replied, clenching his fist firmly in his hand.

Herman saw the young man's gaze change: his eyes, which had previously been navy blue, turned to a bright red, and his aura began to heat up, the heat rising as his anger grew. He struggled in vain, unable to free himself from his grip, he was completely at his mercy.

'This time, I'm going to make you pay, for Bojan, for Carolina, and for all the people you've tormented all these years!' he shouted, swivelling his body ready to throw him into the air.

He lifted him with disconcerting ease and created an orb of reddish magic in his free hand, which he crushed against his abdomen. He then let go and the orb sent Herman hurtling into the sky. He screamed as he was thrown and, before he realised it, the orb changed its colour.

It exploded into an indigo smoke that didn't hurt him, but nothing propelled him anymore and he began to fall helplessly.

The smoke dissipated, revealing a rift through which Armand appeared, determined to finish him off. His eyes were now orange and his hands were clasped together, his body held up by a rope, also glowing orange, coming from the other side of the rift and preventing him from falling. The rope was attached to a pillar of the fortress. He knew he had to hurry before the indigo rift disappeared as he had just changed colour.

'HERMAN! Here's one last present for you!' he cried, separating his hands.

A long orange chain sprang from his palm, while his other hand firmly held the end of the chain, which was adorned with a sharp point. He then concentrated to infuse it with a blue aura and threw it at lightning speed to catch Herman in his fall.

Herman saw the chain, similar to the one he had used to pierce Bojan, hurtling towards him. It caught him in an instant and impaled him in the chest. He groaned intensely in pain, he'd never felt anything like it before.

Armand stopped stretching the chain that was still building in his palm and grabbed him with both hands, pulling him along like a fisherman pulling in a big catch. He enveloped himself again in his red aura and pulled the bruised warden with all his strength. Raising him high into the sky, right above him.

Herman opened his eyes as his body seemed to float in the air and he was about to fall again. His gaze wandered over the landscape of Auroria, which he had never seen from such a dizzying height. He seemed to accept his fate, remembering what he had said earlier when he promised a magnificent panorama before his death. Now, it all seemed to be working against him. He closed his eyes again as he felt his body fall.

Armand was waiting for him, his fist enveloped in a fiery red aura so intense that his mitt burned, revealing the mark of the legends on the back of his hand, which glowed. Just as he was within range, the young hero struck him in the jaw with all his might. It was so violent that he was thrown to the ground at full speed.

The angle of the attack was not randomly chosen, as he crashed into the base of the central tower of his fortress, smashing through several walls under the force of the impact.

The young man gasped, looking down at the result of his plan, which had finally worked. Herman seemed to be out of harm's way at last. He let himself fall backwards into the breach that was about to close and fell to the floor. Looking up at the cloudy sky with satisfaction. But this was no time for rest.

'Bojan!' he cried, jumping up and looking at the spot where he had last seen him. But Bojan had disappeared.

He saw a trail of blood leading up to the stairs, he approached the edge of the floor and saw Bojan lying on the ground outside the fortress, surrounded by a few prisoners and Carolina, who had helped him down while he was still fighting.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived. A shiver ran through his body as he heard a crash behind him, where Herman had fallen. He turned around and stood on guard, his eyes widening as he saw him.

He emerged from the ruins, his body completely disjointed and his jaw on the verge of unhinging. He screamed in a broken voice as his body resembled that of a living dead man.

'This can't be true...,' Carolina murmured as she heard the warden's monstrous screams.

He walked painfully through the rubble, dragging one leg along the ground. The walls of the tower were crumbling more and more and pieces of the ceiling were crashing down around him.

Armand watched the scene and sat up, realising that it was no longer worth it. He was finished. This man was on the verge of death, in his final state of craziness. A fool who was following the instinct he had followed all his life: the instinct to fight to prove that he was above them all.

The tower continued to deteriorate and was about to give way. With a final roar, he seemed to shout: 'No-one will... No one will... defeat me...' before disappearing beneath the stones of the central tower, which collapsed with a crash so violent that the whole city shook. The remains of the fortress were shrouded in dusty smoke. Armand managed to get away just in time, taking refuge on a roof further away.

The prisoners outside erupted in joy as the fortress was destroyed. Bojan, unconscious and in a bad state, was unable to witness the scene, but Carolina saw it all. The tower where she had spent so many years locked up, the place where her hopes and dreams had been extinguished, was crumbling before her eyes.

She couldn't see it from this distance, but the book she had drawn as a child, the last symbol of her dreams, was also falling among the rubble. It was lost in the ruins, drowned amongst all the other memories. She couldn't contain her tears, she was now free.

The smoke cleared and she and the prisoners could clearly see the ruins of the fortress. Bojan finally opened his eyes and saw a triumphant figure on a rooftop facing the sun. It was Armand, who turned towards them and waved with a smile.

It was definitely the end of the Silver Fortress.

End of chapter 22.