Ten Minutes Ago
Smoke bled into the crimson sky, curling like living shadows over Aertherion.
The city burned, its proud spires cracking and toppling, stone and timber littering the streets like jagged teeth.
Every corner of the capital vibrated with destruction screams, clashing steel, elemental fury and at its heart, chaos unfolded like a storm unleashed.
Tovin ran, boots pounding cobblestones slick with ash, dust, and blood.
Each breath tore at his lungs.
Each scream echoed in his chest.
"Martin! Lyssa!"
He shouted, voice raw, desperate.
The reply was only the roar of collapsing stone.
A violent gust knocked him to his knees.
He looked up and froze.
Above the burning skyline, two figures collided.
Kael, radiant in gold and fury, met Charles, wreathed in darkness so thick it seemed to swallow the sun.
Each strike shredded towers, sending clouds of dust and rubble cascading down the streets.
The air itself vibrated with their clash, and Tovin's fear broke into awe.
That was his hero his protector and yet, the power shielding them devoured everything around it.
Far to the east, Darus ran beside the Air Kingdom battalion, their silver wind insignias flickering faintly through the haze.
The district was a ruin: collapsed market stalls, shattered windows, civilians huddling behind debris.
A monstrous roar cut through the air.
Obynix, the stone Calamity, stomped forward, each step cracking the ground into splinters, breath turning stone to frost and dust.
"Shields up!" Darus barked, raising his halberd.
A translucent blue barrier flared, deflecting shards of stone that exploded like fireworks.
"Roder!" he called to his lieutenant, eyes like iron.
"Split the battalion into three groups.
First—breach the church and evacuate civilians.
Second—escort them to the palace.
Third—sweep the eastern side.
Anyone alive, bring them to safety!"
Roder hesitated, glancing at the looming silhouette of Obynix. "And you, Commander?"
Darus's gauntlet tightened. "I'll deal with Obynix myself."
Roder gave a solemn nod, stepping back into the formation. "Then I stay with you."
The ground trembled under Obynix's steps as Darus charged, halberd swinging with precision.
Stones erupted like geysers where they clashed, scattering debris across fleeing civilians.
Tovin's gaze followed them, heart hammering.
He wanted to help, but he couldn't leave the central streets.
Yet in Darus, he saw the courage Kael embodied another protector, another hero in this chaos.
The northern skies churned, emerald currents of wind smashing against jagged ice.
Princess Aelina of the Air Kingdom stood atop a collapsed bell tower, crimson cloak snapping wildly, her silver hair flowing like liquid metal.
Gold-and-verdant armor etched with ancient air runes gleamed with lightning, Windblade humming faintly in her hands.
Cryoveth, a living storm of jagged frost, emerged from the northern district, chest glowing with cursed blue veins.
Each step froze the air, turning wind into shards of lethal ice.
"They're not here to destroy… they're stalling," Aelina whispered.
With a spin of her glaive, a gale erupted, shattering approaching ice.
Wings of wind sprouted from her back, slicing through the storm with flashes of green and gold.
Stones, ice shards, and spinning winds collided with devastating force, sending the northern district into utter chaos.
Tovin glimpsed her from a distance terrifying, beautiful, unstoppable.
He understood, for a fleeting heartbeat, the weight of her responsibility: the survival of this city rested on warriors like her.
In the southern streets, smoke and shadow twisted over rubble-strewn alleys.
Morvane's poison lingered like a curse.
William moved like a wraith, shadow blades flashing, weaving between fallen pillars.
The Crimson Reaver slithered from the haze, whip-like claws writhing, venom dripping with every strike.
The first blow came like lightning; William vanished, reappearing behind the calamity, slashing its leg.
Morvane spun, claws tearing stone and earth, spraying venom across the alley.
William leapt onto a fragment of collapsed wall, striking downward.
Each attack was precise, but the cost was visible—shoulder burning, legs nicked, exhaustion creeping in.
For a heartbeat, predator and hunter circled each other.
Then, as Morvane hissed and retreated into smoke, William's gaze swept the horizon.
Civilians huddled behind debris, the army stretched thin, Kael and Charles shaking the city itself from above.
This duel was merely a prelude; the real battle had yet to begin.
Four minutes ago-
Inside the Royal Palace, marble halls thundered under panic.
Dust fell from the ceiling, cracks veined the walls.
Beyond shattered windows, Aertherion burned. In the war room, a long crystal table projected mana-maps, each district flashing red.
The King of Aertherion, crown dulled by soot, stood at the edge, voice heavy with despair and authority.
"Status of the relic vault!"
A mage bowed shakily.
"Your Majesty… The Prime Relic of Air—the Bow of Zephyros—is gone."
Silence fell.
Even the echoes of battle outside seemed to pause.
"Gone?" snarled General Rourdan, armor scorched.
"Impossible! The relic's roots are bound to the Tree's heart—"
"The Tree was alive, General," High Scholar Maeron interrupted.
"If the relic was drawn forcibly… the mana equilibrium of the capital itself will collapse."
Lady Vess slammed her fist against the table.
"This is what happens when relics are kept together!
Their power attracts chaos!"
The King's eyes blazed.
"Relics keep the world from breaking, Lady Vess.
Each house guards one not for power, but for balance."
Archmage Lioren whispered,
"They are remnants of the Fallen Gods.
When the gods perished in the Sundering, their cores became the Prime Relics.
Five were found.
Five claimed."
Rourdan's voice darkened.
"Then whoever steals them seeks the power of the Fallen Gods themselves."
"And if they succeed…" the king murmured.
"The world's elements will bow to a single will," Maeron finished.
A tremor shook the chamber.
Flames surged higher outside.
A swirl of wind cut through a broken window as though the city itself reacted to the revelation.
"Send word to the remaining Houses.
The theft of the Air Relic changes everything.
The Calamities are not mere disasters… they are heralds."
Tovin stumbled through the streets, passing wounded civilians and soldiers alike.
Darus's troops guided survivors from the eastern district, halberds cutting down debris, Obynix looming behind like an unstoppable force.
Tovin's feet carried him northward, heart racing, eyes fixed on Aelina.
Above, Kael and Charles continued their godlike duel. Lightning and shadow clashed, illuminating the skyline like a celestial storm.
Buildings crumbled beneath each strike; the city itself seemed to shudder under their power.
From the south, William's shadowed strikes echoed the rhythm of the chaos above: predator and calamity locked in a deadly, measured dance.
Aelina's winds in the north carved deadly paths through frost and rubble, scattering debris like lethal confetti.
Amidst the inferno, citizens fled into pockets of relative safety, guided by soldiers and elemental warriors alike.
Though fractured, the city moved as one, a fragile heartbeat of resistance.
And at its core, the revelation of the Air Relic's theft hung over every action, casting a shadow on every clash, every life, every desperate decision.
The balance had been broken.
The world's fate trembled on the edge of a knife.
The duel above escalated into a storm that threatened to swallow the city entirely.
Kael, blazing gold, met Charles's darkness in midair, wings of light and shadow tearing the clouds apart.
Explosions of mana rippled outward, shaking the streets, rattling survivors, bending stone and steel.
Below, Darus's halberd met Obynix's crushing fists, sparks flying with every strike.
Civilians ran, guided by soldiers, as collapsing buildings and elemental energy reshaped the cityscape with deadly precision.
Aelina's windstorms cut through the northern district, frost and debris swirling together, while her gaze never wavered from Cryoveth's advancing blizzard.
In the southern alleys, William's shadows leapt, danced, struck. Morvane hissed, retreating, only to re-emerge with venom and fury.
Every street had its storm, every district its war, yet all were threads of a single tapestry of destruction.
Tovin moved through the chaos like a heartbeat threading through a hurricane.
Each clash, each elemental upheaval, reminded him of the truth: the world had shifted.
Present-
The Air Relic was gone.
And with it, the fragile balance that kept chaos at bay.
The city burned.
Heroes rose.
Monsters prowled.
To be continued.....