What followed was not conquest — but capitulation.
The Silent Ember dissolved within days of Ashvara's public test. Monarchs fled or swore allegiance. Whole kingdoms sent tribute. Treaties were signed on a table that had once borne maps of war.
The world now bent not to a sword... but to strategy backed by thunder.
And yet, Sharath was not jubilant.
He stood alone in the ruins of the burned village of Brela, the site of one of the first attacks.
He held a child's toy, half-charred, in his hands.
"I won," he whispered to the dusk, "but I wonder if we've all lost something sacred."
Elina found him hours later. He did not speak. He only wept.
In the halls of history, this era would be etched as:
"The Thunder Revolution."
But in Sharath's own memoir, one phrase would repeat over and over:
"The gun is not power. Compassion wielded with strength is."
And thus, as war faded into diplomacy, the man who built cities turned to rebuilding hearts.
Peace had come.
But its cost would echo in thunder for generations.