The garden? Gone. Just scorched earth, shattered glass, and powdered stone. Captain Valerius stood smack-dab in the middle of it, gasping for air like a fish out of water. His breath rattled in his chest, a horrible sound against his wrecked armor. The Berserker State he'd tapped into? It was fading fast, the red glow sputtering like a candle in a hurricane, bleeding out into the dusk. He was spent. Completely, utterly, dead on his feet. Yet, even now, with exhaustion crushing him from the inside, Valerius's pride flared one last time.
