The Hollow burned.
From the rooftops, Alex watched the fire devour the slums — smoke rose like a funeral pyre, casting a sick orange glow across the sky. Screams echoed in the streets below. Soldiers in crimson cloaks swept through homes, dragging out anyone who looked sideways, anyone who might've whispered his name.
And it was all because of him.
He clenched his fists. The shadows rippled beneath his feet.
"Don't," Liora said behind him. "Not like this."
"They're slaughtering children," Alex hissed.
"I know," she said quietly. "But if you step into that fire now — rage blind — you'll burn everything. Even what's left of you."
Alex's eyes didn't move from the chaos. "Maybe that's all that's left of me."
Then he leapt.
He hit the ground with a pulse of magic, cracking the stone. Soldiers turned — too slow.
He moved like a storm: shadows twisting from his limbs, blades of dusk slicing through the air. He caught the first soldier with a tendril through the throat. The second, he pulled into the flames with a gesture. The third screamed as the cobblestone beneath him split and swallowed him whole.
"It's him!" one guard shouted. "The Shadowed One!"
The name felt like a curse. Or maybe a prophecy.
A bolt of holy fire exploded near him — a paladin, cloaked in gold, sigil of the Radiant Order on his chest. He raised a warhammer, glowing with sanctified light.
"You walk in darkness, sorcerer!" the man shouted.
"I was born in it," Alex replied, raising both hands.
Magic collided. Light and shadow. Pain and power. The hammer met a barrier of twisting dark force, crackling violently.
The paladin was strong.
But Alex was furious.
He drove his hand forward — the barrier shattered and slammed into the paladin's chest, launching him through a burning wall. Alex walked through the smoke after him, face unreadable.
"You fight for kings who torture children," Alex said.
"I fight for the realm!"
"You serve its rot."
He lifted the paladin off the ground, shadows wrapped around the man's neck.
"Tell your masters," Alex said, voice like steel cracking. "Tell them I'm coming. Not to hide. Not to run."
He dropped the man.
"They lit the fire. I'll be the blaze."
Back on the rooftop, Liora watched in silence as the flames swallowed Greystone.
Alex returned, cloak scorched, eyes burning.
She didn't say anything.
Because he was no longer just fighting back.
He was declaring war.