The air tasted of smoke and metal.
Screams bled into the wind. The once-golden capital now flickered beneath devil-fire and fading hope.
The city of Valoria was dying.
Lucius ran through crumbled streets, Michael close behind.
Lucius (yelping over fire): Where's the evacuation path!? Michael : "South gate—if it hasn't fallen yet!"
A massive beast slammed onto the road, cutting them off.
Its roar blew dust and stone into the air.
Lucius stepped forward out of instinct.
Lucius: "Run. I'll hold it—!"
Michael (grabbing him):"Don't be stupid, you'll die!"
The beast lunged, jaws open——then a flash of mauve light pierced its body.
Standing atop the corpse was George Aetheron, calm even in hell.
George: "You two attract trouble like magnets."
Behind him came Michael's older brother, General George Aetheron Sr., armor dented but standing firm.
General: "Both of you to the citadel. NOW!"
The sky still bled red.
The breach had closed, but the damage was done—
Valoria smoldered beneath it like a dying star.Children cried for lost parents. Soldiers dragged broken comrades across blood-slick stone.
A while later, the doors thundered open.
A troop marched in—battered, bruised, burnt—led by Nero Halbrecht, the silver-cloak archmage.
He was a storm barely holding itself together.
Half his armor was melted.
Blood ran from a cut across his eye.
And yet his presence bent the air.
Whispers rippled through the Citadel. "Nero survived " " The army survived?" " Is this is the end?" But Lucius stepped forward—
eyes hollow, voice trembling not with fear...
...but RAGE.
Lucius pointed at Nero with a shaking hand.
Lucius (broken scream):
"YOU PROMISED VALORIA WOULD HOLD!" Lucius pushed past a soldier, staggering toward Nero.
Lucius:
"My mother was there—my father—everyone—!"
"You said we were safe! That the ward would protect us!"
Guards rushed to restrain him, holding his arms tight as he shook and fought to break free. Nero did not move.
He stared with eyes that carried a thousand funerals behind them.
Lucius (voice cracking apart):
"You KNEW! You knew it would fall!
YOU LET THEM DIE!"
Michael tried to reach him but froze—Lucius's sobs cut something inside him too deep to touch. Nero finally spoke—voice deep, hoarse, ancient with regret.
"Boy...
If you seek someone to blame—look at me." "I held the breach until my magic bled dry.
I watched legions burn. I watched men turn to ash while screaming my name."
(his voice wavers—just slightly)
"But I could not stop the sky from opening."
"Even I... am not a god."
"The cruel truth is— you lived because someone else died in your place."
"Hate me if it keeps you alive."
"Hate the devils, hate the breach, hate the sky itself."
"But do not waste your life trying to kill me."
"You still have a future—your parents died believing that."
Lucius bends on his knees and sobs but determined . He cries and and he let his rage out by screaming " I will kill all of them " I WILL FUCKING KILL HIM" .