I remembered reading a section about a Holy Treaty in The History of Lysoria.

“It’s a double-edged sword. The Holy Kingdom agreed to never intervene in secular issues so long as wars were not initiated for heretical reasons,” I answered absently as Boyl pointed out our destination—a series of black towers that loomed ominously, casting shadows over adjacent buildings that added to the menacing aura under the stars’ dim light.

Unlike the other estates I’d come to expect in this world, the central towers were not mansions or even reminiscent of a castle structure. They were prismatic, enormous at the base but narrowing as they shot upward toward a pointed roof. Shorter, more rectangular structures connected each tower at their base like roofed walkways. As we walked closer, I spotted a few small windows indicating some light existed within.

“Here we are,” Lord Damos said with a sort of jovial sarcasm. “Home sweet home.”

“This is the Duke's inner city estate?” Nida scoffed. “It’s more like a prison.”

“It looks like the Death Spires,” agreed Nasq, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

“They’re only,” she stopped to count, “five stories tall,” Nida said, lightly shoving him. “The Death Spires are over a hundred levels. Maybe more.”

“I know,” he said, rubbing his shoulder with a wince. “It has the same feel though.”

“The Death Spires?” I said, curiosity piqued.

Nasq nodded seriously then paused and gave a sheepish smile. “Ah, apologies Lady Lilliana. I…Sometimes I forget how young you are. The Death Spires are massive towers spread throughout Pularea. I believe there are five of them? I’m unsure since I’ve been away from the Academy for so long. It’s said that the Spires are connected and that the one who conquers them all will acquire some otherworldly power.” He shrugged. “No one’s ever done it though, so…” Nasq trailed off, his eyes once again growing distant at some old memory.

More often than not, I had trouble deciding whether Nasq was young or old. He seemed to be both sometimes, and neither at other times.

Not that I was one to complain about that particular oddity.

No gate blocked our entry; instead, dozens of golden knights stalked the perimeter like predators in the night. I felt a chill run up my spine. Nearly all were bronze cores, with some, like Lord Boyle, containing silver-tiered cores.

The knights protected the perimeter in groups of three or four, always led by a silver-tier Awakened.

But that wasn’t the cause of my caution. No. It was the way all their eyes glowed golden with that same unnerving energy. It simply wasn’t natural.

Part of me wanted to interrogate Boyl or Daryl about it, but I held back. While the Duke seemed trustworthy enough, I couldn’t be sure yet. For all I knew, the golden glow originated from him. He was, after all, the sole gold core I’d heard about to date.

We were let through the perimeter without so much as a search, the guardian knights nodding in respect to Boyl as we passed. He occasionally returned the nods, though he remained on edge until we had entered the cold black structures.

We entered through the ground floor, which seemed to house the barracks and various armories, from swords and shields to bows to the large sticks that wielded magic. Despite the grime of the surroundings, the weapons themselves were immaculate and meticulously maintained. We first walked through a set of barracks, all spartan in their simplicity, with bunk beds and storage chests for the soldiers’ belongings. The floor was mostly open with very few walls and hundreds of bunk beds lining the walls—morbidly reminiscent of the slave dungeon.

Boyl led us through the barracks toward a set of winding stairs, his eyes constantly swiveling to peer at the slightest hint of movement in the shadows. “Private chambers are located on the fourth floor. The Duke has instructed you and your unexpected retinue to remain there until the assembly tomorrow morning.”

“Are you expecting some sort of trouble?” I asked, venturing a guess at his caution.

Boyl shook his head, still maintaining his frown. “No, not exactly. The ambassadors from Cael have arrived and are demanding an immediate audience with Duke Alistar.”

“Will His Grace entertain the command?”

Boyl reached over to pat my shoulder. “That is beyond our stations. The Duke will decide what is be—”

BOOM!

All our heads snapped instantly toward the source of the thunderous sound, but we were too late. The ceiling above us exploded with such force the strength of our cores was rendered irrelevant, smashing us all off the stairs and burying us on the floor below.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The detonated blast was a swirling maelstrom of colors, rich with the aura of wild, chaotic magic. Tendrils of that arcane energy lashed out like a pack of rampaging serpents as flashes of blue, green, and violet intermingled, each pulse of light accompanied by frantic sparks and shards of magic residue that shimmered like a rain of broken glass.

Then, another deafening roar followed, and another wave of power rolled through me despite there being no more space to push me down. I raged against the sudden impact, muscles building as my core screamed to life and my heart energy spurred into action, flooding my system with as much power as I could muster.

Still, I couldn’t move, pinned to the ground under the gravity of the explosion and the debris.

In the pollution of sounds and lights, my senses latched onto the crackling noise of raw magical energy tearing through stone and metal. It was as if the fabric of reality itself was coming undone in a shriek of agony.

The only thing I could hear through the explosion and collapse of the towers were the panicked screams of knights and civilians desperate to escape the destruction.

The frantic, hopeless screams of the dying ceased long before the explosion’s rumbles.

When the outburst of magic finally stopped, an eerie silence consumed my world. Only my ragged breathing and the pounding of my heart broke that bleak pause in time.

It had all been so fast, so sudden and unexpected, that I hadn’t managed to so much as raise a defensive shield of energy to diminish the impact. Warm liquid dripped down the sides of my face as I struggled to rise, pushing through the layers of rubble and steel burying me alive.

Searing pain erupted from my left arm, spiking from my wrist to my shoulder. I bit back a cry of pain, scowling at my weakness. Pain was in the mind. Push through it.

This would not be my end. I had dealt with much worse than being buried under a crumbling building.

I didn’t know how long it took to climb out of the pit of steel and stone. Little by little, I snapped steel beams and crushed blocks of stone, heading toward the small spot of light that snuck through the layers of destruction.

I finally broke through to the surface, clawing myself past the last length of stone and steel. When I glanced up, I gasped half in surprise and half at the burst of pain called on by the sudden drop in adrenaline from successfully escaping. I gritted my teeth and looked down at my leg where the pain came from.

Small, thin lengths of steel stuck out the back of my thigh like spikes. They resisted my heart energy as I circulated it to the area, pushing back with some remnants of that maelstrom’s magic.

“Ashwash’s fucking balls,” I swore, rolling over to my side and struggling to a sitting position. What in the hells had happened?

My head pounded, and all I could remember was a loud sound, then everything had gone to shit and chaos.

I had half a mind to glance around for Nida, Nasq, and Ethan, but there wasn’t anything I could do until my leg healed, so I went to work pulling out the steel spikes.

Oddly enough, there were no fires or even smoke. Only ruins and clouds of dust, the occasional discharge of magic sparking in the air.

The ceiling to the second floor was completely gone, as was the floor above that. I couldn’t see the sky, though, which meant the explosion had not completely decimated the entire tower. Even with my strength, I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to live through having the entire tower collapse on me.

The destruction, at least on the first floor, was absolute. I could no longer see the first floor as it was now buried deep under the rubble of the second and third floors. The walls, only a second ago menacing and seemingly impenetrable, were now barely hanging on. They were in ragged shreds, more hole than wall from my vantage.

The silence didn’t last long. Someone shouted in the far distance, quickly joined by other voices. They were too far to hear, though the urgency was clear. More sounds and calls for help filtered through the silence, but those were swiftly drowned by magic and energy-fueled roars of fury. These were even further, reaching me mainly in waves of heart energy. I didn't need to understand what was being said. It was war. Whatever had happened, the possibility of peace had been blown out the window with it.

I grinned despite myself.

The duke’s familiar golden core blazed to life in the distance, followed by a series of silver and bronze cores. And, in the mix, were a few irregular cores I had trouble deciphering at first. It took me a second, but then I placed it. Those were the advanced magic cores Nasq had explained earlier. I tried to remember if he’d mentioned any scale for magic cores, but whether he had simply omitted that information or I was too dazed to recall, I didn’t know.

“I guess it was a trap,” I muttered to myself as I ripped out one of the small steel shards and my self-healing swelled into the open area, staunching the sudden outpour of blood. Not only had it quite obviously been a trap and the duke had fallen for it, but he had quite literally shoved me into the trap as well. “Fool.”

When I yanked the final shard and the wound was instantly healed, I groaned with relief. Although my healing was not perfect, it sufficed in staunching blood and diminishing any pain. It’d likely continue to irritate me until it was healed by either time or a healer. No time for that now.

It was more than likely the three Paragons who’d come with me were dead, and that was a shame. Great potential had rested in each of them.

I surprised myself by extending my senses down into the stack of steel and stone for signs of life. Nothing. For a few precious minutes, I continued to search. Still no signs of life. Everywhere I observed, there was only death.

What was odd, however, was that I sensed no death from where I had been blown. The Paragons, and even the duke’s knights, should have been lying deceased around there. Nothing.

A spark of hope came to life in my chest. I shut it down instantly. Whether they lived or died, while unfortunate, could not be labored on. A Queen moved forward, never backward.

I allowed a moment more to search the area underneath me before sighing and increasing energy circulation through each of my opened meridian passages. Then I walked cautiously toward a pile of stones that seemed relatively solid, making sure to avoid any areas still crackling with remnant magics of the explosion. I stomped once on the stone platform to make sure it was stable.

It wasn’t. The flat top trembled, barely maintaining its form atop Ashwash knew what. Then I kicked off and through one of the openings in the wall.

I was greeted by the brilliance of a full moon, and my energy screamed with excitement as lunar rays washed over me, expanding my energy capacity well beyond the rank of my core.

Flight wasn’t an option for me yet, so I dropped to the ground after exiting the building, landing with a soft thud as the ground impacted beneath me.