The night was quiet. The sky was starless, only thick clouds hiding the moon.
The soldiers were sleeping, the guards were tired, the campfire was smoldering.
Arden sat outside his tent, maskless, with a cigar in his hand.
The smoke was rising slowly, and his unwavering gaze was restless.
Rin was walking among the tents, writing something down in a small notebook—codes, reports, details of patrols.
Taro in armor, patrolling the perimeter, and in the distance—Lyra in a makeshift hospital, with doctors, washing bloody bandages and talking quietly to the medics.
Everything seemed peaceful.
But the wind was changing.
The smell of smoke—not theirs—came from the east.
The ground trembled. The horses became restless.
Rin looked up and froze.
On the horizon—hundreds of small lights. Torches.
A sea of torches.
________________________________________
(Attack begins)
Rin (to herself, whispering):
"No... it can't be..."
In an instant — the sky explodes.
The first wave of blue lightning strikes the center of the camp.
The sound of thunder tears through the night.
The tents are burning, the earth is cracking.
Screams, smoke, ash.
Dominion Voltaris has started.
Thirty thousand warriors.
________________________________________
Vex leaps from his seat, fire igniting around his arm—katana flashing.
Without a mask, but with eyes that burn red like red-hot steel.
In a second, jump between the first enemies.
Its blade moves like a flame—quick, deadly, without an iota of hesitation.
Dominion soldiers scream:
"It's him! It's Heartless Blade!"
But as they look at him, their heads fall into the mud.
Every swing — precise. Every stroke — without emotion.
Taro breaks ranks with Arden.
His huge saber cuts through enemies like waves.
He guards Arden's back, and every spark from their weapons lights up the sky with a red glow.
Rin uses shadows — moving through smoke, disappearing and appearing behind enemies.
Silence, then a cut.
His weapon is precision — no sound, no light, only death.
________________________________________
(Lyra — in the hospital)
In a makeshift hospital, Lyra and the doctors struggle to save the wounded.
Tents are burning, the wounded are screaming, blood is flowing everywhere.
Lyra presses her hands on the wound of a soldier and shouts:
"Don't calm down! Hold him! Just a little longer! Just a little longer!"
Little does she know that there is a battle going on outside that will change everything.
Tears, smoke, and the red light of the fire illuminate her face.
________________________________________
The fight lasts for hours. Fire and lightning collide.
Arden, Rin and Taro try to hold the line as the army retreats.
Smoke covers everything — nothing can be seen anymore.
In that hell — a cry.
Tall, broken, full of pain.
Nia (in the distance):
"MINATOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The sound echoes throughout the battlefield.
Everyone pauses for a moment. Even Arden.
Through the smoke and fire, the silhouette of Nije can be seen — kneeling, bloody, holding something in her arms.
The camera lingers on her face — eyes full of tears, hands shaking.
Lightning flashes and illuminates a scene that no one should have seen.
________________________________________
(End of scene)
The wind is blowing, the rain is starting to fall.
The fire extinguishes the ground, the smoke disperses.
Silence.
Just Lyra's sobs and Nia's echoing screams.
Narrator (deep, quiet voice):
"That night, peace died in flames.
And the name Minato, remembered in tears and blood, became a fire that would change the world."
The cry echoed through the field—shattering the night, piercing the smoke, tearing the souls of those who heard it.
It was the cry that ended the war, the cry that marked the end of everything known.
Nia knelt in the mud, her tears mixing with the rain as her hands shook.
In arms — Minato, captain of the Northern Front, hero of Pyr Solinaris.
He lay still, his body cold, blood pouring down his uniform, mixing with water and ash.
General Munje killed him personally—revenge for two years of humiliation, for defeats, for lost sons and the lost honor of their clan.
The news of the captain's death spread like the wind.
From the trenches to the command tents, from the battlefield to the hospital — everyone whispered the same name.
Minato.
He's gone.
________________________________________
Crossing — Ardennes)
The scene is slowly changing.
Smoke, fire, ash — and through that chaos, Arden.
He stands stiffly, as his gaze wanders to where he sees Nia, and Minato's body in her arms.
Blood drips from her hands and Arden just stands there…
His eyes are cold as ice, unblinking, breathless.
His whole body trembles, his hands shake, and only one thing in his head:
Minato fell…
His heart is pounding. Getting stronger.
It hits the ribs as if it wants to pop out of the ribcage.
The fire that has always burned in him — now it is changing.
Color fades.
The flame becomes dark, heavy, thick as smoke.
The fire turns black.
________________________________________
(Vex's transformation)
The rain doesn't put out the fire around him — it just feeds it.
The footsteps of the enemy can be heard in the distance, but Arden cannot see them.
His vision is blurring.
All he feels is hatred, darkness, pain.
Those three words merge into one being, into himself.
Through thick smoke, black clouds descend over the battlefield.
Thunder rending the sky, but this time it's not enemy lightning —
it is the energy that radiates from it.
The scar on his face, that cut over his left eye, is starting to burn.
But not red — black, blue and dark red at the same time.
The pain emanating from that cut becomes unbearable, as if someone is cutting his soul from the inside.
On the scar, the flame of an ancient language, a symbol appears — one word.
Cracked, as if carved into the flesh, it says:
"RA."
Nobody knows the meaning.
No one can even ask.
But Arden knows that from that moment on — nothing is the same.
His fire burns but does not warm.
His gaze is blank but cutting.
And as he stands in the middle of the battlefield, black flames envelop his body.
The wind blows around him, and the ash and smoke turn him into a soulless force.
Black clouds covered the battlefield.
The fire mingled with the rain, and the earth smelled of blood.
There was no longer a man in his gaze.
Just emptiness.
Just fire — fire without a heart.
And so, that night, a legend was born.
The Legend of Vex — Heartless Blades.
The sky was still burning with torches, and the camp was melting in the chaotic light of war.
At the head of the advancing Dominion Voltaris army stood General Kael Voltaris—tall, armored, his eyes blazing like lightning. His entry into the battlefield was like death walking: stern, calculated and merciless. Kael personally looked for Minato—and found him.
Minato fell first.
The moment Kael raised his sword and struck, the world seemed to shatter.
His strike was swift, deadly—and Minato lay in Nia's arms, the breath of war held.
The cry of Ni that echoed — "MINATOOOOOOOO!!!" — was the tyranny of pain that raged through the field.
But their revenge did not go unnoticed.
Out of the darkness stepped Arden — Vex. His eyes are icy, his heart is charged like a storm. Pain, hatred and loss all came together in one point; a flame emerged from it that wasn't just light—it was an impact. The black flames, the burning scar, the RA symbol flickering on his face—and then he started.
Vex changed the tide of battle.
He strode through the lines of Dominion soldiers like an unshakable force; his katana slashed, flames devoured ice and armor, and every swing was fate. Without hesitation, without repentance — he stood like a tempest that seeks no escape.
As scores of soldiers fell, one after another, blood mingled with snow and ash, and the sounds of shouting and forging gradually died down before his blade.
Dominion Voltaris — for the first time — felt the wrath of the Fire Nation.