The plaza water boiled where Thorne's curse-flame met Seraphine's violet tendrils. Steam rose in thick curtains, obscuring the battlefield. Elara's golden chains clashed against the staff sparks of light and shadow exploding on impact. Seraphine moved with fluid grace, staff spinning like a living thing, violet energy crackling along its length.
"You fight like an outsider," Seraphine said, voice cutting through the hiss of steam. "You do not understand what it means to be bound to this place."
Elara twisted away from a sweeping strike chains retracting to shield her. "I understand enough. You're letting the fragment use you."
Seraphine laughed sharp, brittle. "Use me? I invited it. My bloodline has waited generations for this power. The queens who drowned here left us scraps. I will take the whole."
Violet veins pulsed brighter under her skin. Her eyes glowed pupils narrowing to slits. The fragment's influence deepened; her movements grew faster, less human.
Thorne broke through the steam wings sweeping low, fire lancing toward Seraphine. She raised her staff; a wall of water rose, freezing instantly into a barrier of black ice. The flames struck and hissed, melting only a thin layer.
"Enough games," Thorne growled. He slammed into the ice wall talons raking, curse-flame burning hotter. Cracks spiderwebbed across it.
Elara seized the opening. She channeled Queen's Chorus golden silhouettes of past queens manifesting around her once more. They moved in perfect synchrony, weaving a net of light that wrapped Seraphine's legs, slowing her.
Seraphine snarled staff slamming into the ground. The plaza rippled again time bending in waves. For a heartbeat, Elara saw the city as it once was: marble gleaming, queens dancing under a clear sky. Then the vision snapped floodwaters rushing back, drowning the light.
The distortion hit Elara like a physical blow dizziness, nausea. She staggered.
Thorne caught her arm steadying her. "Stay with me."
The resonance flared golden warmth pushing back the temporal haze. Elara straightened.
Seraphine advanced violet energy coiling around her like serpents. "You cannot win. The fragment is mine now."
The violet orb in the clock tower pulsed faster feeding her. Her form shifted scales of shadow creeping up her arms, hair whipping like living kelp.
Elara felt the fragment's core through the resonance tied to Seraphine's bloodline, anchored in her heart.
"We don't need to kill you," Elara said. "We need to break the link."
Thorne nodded understanding instantly. "Then we burn the anchor."
They moved together Elara's chains lashing forward, wrapping Seraphine's staff arm. Thorne dove flame roaring along the chains, turning them into molten gold-black fire.
Seraphine screamed violet energy surging to repel them. The clash lit the plaza like lightning gold and violet exploding outward.
Elara poured everything into the link Isolde's wisdom, Sovereign Pyre's endurance, the purified echoes of the first two fragments. The chains tightened around Seraphine's chest seeking the fragment's hold on her blood.
Thorne added his full curse black fire searing through the violet veins, cauterizing the connection.
Seraphine convulsed staff dropping, hands clawing at her chest. "No!"
The violet orb in the tower cracked light bleeding out.
With a final, wrenching pull, the chains tore free.
The fragment's essence ripped from Seraphine violet mist screaming as it coalesced back into the orb. Seraphine collapsed to her knees veins fading to normal, eyes dimming to storm-gray.
The orb shattered violet light winking out.
A fourth dark shard fell smaller, quieter than before.
Elara caught it. The resonance absorbed it.
[Devourer Fragment (Temporal Echo) – Neutralized][Eternal Resonance Upgraded: Temporal Anchor – Brief resistance to time-distortion effects. Current count: 4/7 detected.]
Seraphine knelt in the water breathing hard, hands trembling. The warriors around her had frozen masks cracked, weapons lowered.
Elara approached slowly. "It's over."
Seraphine looked up eyes wet, voice raw. "My queens… they died for nothing."
"They died to give us a chance," Elara said quietly. "Take it. Help us finish what they started."
Seraphine stared at the empty tower then at Elara. Slowly, she bowed her head.
"I… submit. The Drowned Echoes are yours."
Thorne's wings folded. He offered a hand to help Seraphine stand. She took it hesitant, then firm.
The rain eased sunlight piercing the canopy in thin shafts.
Elara looked south toward the next pull. "Three left."
Seraphine rose fully. "Then let me guide you to the next. The fragments are waking faster now. They know you're coming."
Thorne glanced at Elara question in his eyes.
She nodded. "Allies are better than enemies."
The group gathered old rivals turned tentative partners.
The resonance pointed onward toward deserts and ancient sands.
The hunt grew larger.
And the Devourer's silence grew thinner.
[End of Chapter 6 – Volume 2]