Raul felt a hot blade pierce his shoulder from behind—and that made him furious. He didn’t know what type of spell the Keetas used to trick his divination magic, and he didn't care. Eline’s blood was on Halkon’s Executioner, sizzling hot, burning through his veins, adding to Lord Res and Emma’s, pushing the magical pressure to a breaking point. So when he was stabbed, he didn’t think about the pain—he just acted.

Raul turned and cut through the air in a 180-degree arc, shooting a scythe of aura out at the Keetas. Then he looked for them. Through his divination lens, he couldn’t see them—just clouds of mana. Suddenly, two divination signatures attacked from behind. Yet he didn’t attack—instead, he released an intense mana pulse to relieve some of his internal pressure, figuring it would stop them—only for them to disappear.

Illusions…. he thought.

Two daggers shot at him from the front, and he jumped backward, blocking one of them with his axe’s blade. He didn’t see anyone ahead of him… but he felt something. No, someone. Eline’s mana was burning through his veins, and he could feel her presence, as if there was a rope tied around her waist and it was attached to his axe. Without overthinking it, he shot forward with such force that the ground buckled as he jumped forward. He lifted his axe and thrust down.

Raul’s axe hit something hard—it wasn’t a person—likely a weapon. Yet the resistance was futile. Halkon’s Executioner cut right through it and then hit the ground, leaving a shockwave as the ground buckled and cratered underneath him. He still couldn’t hear anything but the haunting ring of tinnitus in his ears, but he knew by the new blood sizzling on the axe that he had hit someone—and there were only two people there. It was Grent—

—he could now feel them both.

Raul chuckled as he walked out of the crater he made in the prison’s courtyard. He kept his eyes closed. He didn’t need them.

Grent jumped backward, hoping to heal. Eline ran to the side, flanking Raul to get him away from her brother. Neither got their wish. Raul rushed Grent while Eline shot spells from his side. He dodged all her attacks, reached Grent, lifted his axe—and swung down.

2

Lemora was a cloud of black and white and orange when Sara arrived. The area smelled of sulfur and burning corpses, and soldiers screamed in a brutal cacophony that blocked out any other noise. It was a scene of hell—one that she had seen more than she wished she’d ever have to see.

Suddenly, memories of the Crimson Siege flashed across her mind and she found herself in Dantal, the demon capital—at a different place at a different time—unable to differentiate between the two. Sara felt something was strange, but she didn’t question it. She gripped her silver glider’s reins, dodging massive meteors and blue fireballs as the war and fires raged below. Colossal creatures that looked like orca whale-sized mole rats with rhino hides rushed through the battlefield, destroying human siege equipment as her army fought against black humanoid creatures in a flurry of steel and magic. More spells abruptly shot at her, and she weaved through the air over the battlefield to dodge them. She did—

—but a javelin abruptly shot across the skies like a bullet, piercing her silver glider’s wings. It screeched as it flew downward in a spiral like a helicopter spinning out of control. As she spun, her world slowed, and she saw her attacker—

—Trana: the Demon General. She—if you could call it a “she” just because it could bear children—was eight feet tall and walked around without clothing, tattooed with red arrays painted on her obsidian black skin. Dead human soldiers were piled up around her, and once Sara made eye contact, Trana picked up Andy Trent—the same one she had been bonding with over the last week—and sunk her teeth into his neck, ripping off his head.

Overflowing emotions welled within Sara as the past and present collided, and she found herself unsheathing Qualth and jumping off her silver glider. Sara snapped back into the real world as she plunged five hundred feet to the ground below, realizing what she had done. Yet there were five seconds for her to comprehend before she hit the ground, and she realized at that moment—

—that it didn’t matter. Sara released a wind spell a hundred feet up to break her fall. Then, she charged Qualth with the collective mana output of over fifty thousand people and aimed the blast into a mass of Quell soldiers.

3

Just before Sara took her plunge, Rimn flew through the battlefield, searching for a large group of Escaran troops to use as shields against the summonees. Their mana was limitless, and their casting time was shocking, preventing him from firing anything but a two-line incantation back as they flew through the battlefield. He had barely succeeded in finding a platoon of Escaran troops when he saw a bright white light streak across the sky like a falling star. He felt the pressure right before it struck down—then the world turned white as a wall of bright white aura cut the battlefield in half. It was as if someone had cut the ocean, sending water spraying fifty feet up—yet it was raw mana, and a tidal wave of energy followed in a shockwave, making his bones vibrate as the white light burned through the land. Everyone on the battlefield—friend and foe—dropped onto their knees from the pressure, wheezing as if someone had hit their diaphragm.

4

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Sara stood up and stared down the path of destruction in front of her. There was a crevasse cutting the battlefield apart for over two hundred meters—cauterized by the heat. The area glistened with transparent glass in pockets of high silica and obsidian glass in others—five feet across. Sara surveyed it, straightening her back and cracking her neck. She had been deathly anxious about being away for a week—it felt damn good to release that pent-up pressure.

The battlefield hushed save for the sound of the wounded screaming—

—but that made it even more eerie. It felt as if the battle was over, and both sides had deserted the soldiers despite tens of thousands lining the battlefield.

5

Raul cleaved through Grent’s body, splitting him from his right shoulder to his left thigh. It wasn’t from the first strike Raul made after realizing he could feel Grent’s presence. Grent dodged the first attack and released a massive fireball that shot past him and hit the prison, setting it on fire. Then, the battle raged for another three minutes, preventing Raul from remedying the dire situation behind him. That ate at him—but that was the point. Psychological torment. Breaking down his ability to think. Yet he didn’t give in—because he wasn’t thinking much under Halkon’s Executioner’s power. That was a blessing because the Keetas were freakishly strong, and even with being able to feel them at every moment and having overwhelming mana and energy from Halkon’s Executioner, it took over fifty strikes to finally kill Grent. Along the way, Eline stabbed him and hit him with ice spells—things that should’ve killed a normal person. Yet his body tempering held as he swung and charged and struck, never letting up until he killed Grent.

Then Raul turned and looked at Eline, who had dropped the invisibility and diversion tactics, and just stared at him. His hearing was returning, and he could make out the sound of crackling flames and a distant hum beyond his ringing ears. Yet, it wasn’t perfect. He couldn’t hear the clash and roar of soldiers in the distance, and the rumble of booms had disappeared. That was a mistaken assumption. A moment later, Eline jumped back as an amplification circle activated over the horizon.

“This battle is over!”

Raul felt icy chills when he heard Sara’s voice—distant and broken as it was. It was here. That meant that the brief white flash he saw over the top of the wall… was Qualth.

Suddenly, all the smoke and steam from the city sucked away in torrents, and dirt whipped into a tornado.

6

Sara lifted her hand high as a tornado of blood and rock and steel formed above her. Soldiers fell to the ground, finding themselves moving a few inches a second toward the vortex from the intense winds. They screamed but soon found themselves speechless as a meteor formed, creating a miniature asteroid in the sky.

“Quell and Markon forces—line up on the west side of this line.” She pointed at the west of the gash she left on the battlefield. “Escaran troops—stand on the east. Follow these instructions, and you’ll be next to our people. Deny them—and face my wrath.” The meteor developed an icy frost over the top—and then burst into flames. “You have five minutes.

Soldiers screamed and trampled over each other as they moved to the line.

7

“You are strong,” Eline yelled.

Raul chuckled bitterly and shook his head. He had spent the last ten minutes thinking the same thing about the Keetas. Yet, unlike him, they didn’t have a weapon that made the battle manageable. They didn’t have a pure core. If he wasn’t given so many advantages—he’d have died long ago. “No… I’m lucky,” he said.

“Spare me,” Eline said. “We were born into wealth. All mages are—some more than others. Yet we do not accept advantage as an excuse for loss.” She pointed at her body. “Not for them—not for you.”

8

As soldiers lined up on either side of the battlefield, Sara realized something incredible. Despite being outnumbered, there were significantly fewer Quell and Markon soldiers than Escaran troops. She looked at the wall maze and found it burning and charred. They did it…. Sara looked up and saw Raul’s entire strike team—except two—flying above her. They won. They actually won. Not in a day—but in hours.

Sara’s excitement turned to anxiety when the people who mattered most hung in the balance. She turned to Lemora and spoke into her amplification circle: “If Emma’s alive, send me a sign!”

9

Emma tried to get off the healing table, but Emily rushed up, saying, “Don’t get up, idiot!” at the top of her lungs while crying and smiling. Then, she rushed out of the tent and put up her hands, chanting a blue fireball—and releasing it like a firework. Emma burst into laughter and tears just watching her.

10

Sara’s eyes welled with tears when she saw the blue fireball in the sky. That was a solid signal—as few people could use blue fire magic. She swallowed and nodded. “Raul!“ she yelled. It took twenty seconds, but a massive fireball joined the other in the sky.

Sara took a sharp breath, feeling overwhelmed. “Edico,” she said, voice cracking. A third fireball shot up from Lemora’s embattlements. “Everyone…” she said. Blue fireballs shot into the skies above her, and Edico released multiple smaller fireballs for the non-military mages.

No one had died.

Sara almost broke down, said fuck it, cried on the battlefield—and then killed anyone who judged her. She had honestly only trained the heroes (aside from Emma and Raul) because she had to. Not just for stability but for her army. Subconsciously, she didn’t want to get close to any of them because most of them died in her last life—and it was bad enough watching Will, Emily, and Andy die when they weren’t even close. Yet, seeing them succeed… seeing everyone alive under harsh circumstances… she couldn’t help but wonder if that’s all it would’ve taken to keep everyone alive in her last life… uniting them. Yet… that didn’t matter. Not in this life. All that mattered was that everyone was alive…..

“Good work,” Sara said, eliciting cheers above her. Then she swept her gaze to her troops, shining brightly under the artificial sun burning above them. “Escaran troops…. you’ve won!”

Her soldiers’ battle cries were so sharp they cut the heavens, attempting to carve their sound into history. It was their victory—

—they deserved it.

13

Raul looked at Eline and lifted his axe. His energy was drying up, and the prison was burning. He wasn’t certain why the Keetas went to the prison, but he imagined it was because they were looking to capture the king—someone who would burn if he didn’t put out the flames. Raul had to finish the battle quickly. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Eline smiled and nodded, putting up her hand. Then, Sara’s meteor launched into the distance, creating a distant explosion that marked the beginning of his and Eline’s fight.

The battle only lasted five minutes—but it was close. Once it was over, Raul smiled at the hardest-won victory of his life, thanking the Keetas for the wonderful battle. Then, he let go of his axe—and blacked out, leaving the prison burning behind him.