"Kill me."
King Edric's voice echoes through the chamber.
Golden chains stretch from his body in every direction. Some disappear into the ceiling toward the soldiers above. Others enter the stone walls and travel far beyond Blackridge Fortress.
The thickest chain descends into the pit beneath his chair.
Something black moves inside it.
Elara steps toward her father.
"No."
The king's golden eyes flicker.
For a moment, recognition returns.
"Elara, listen to me."
The chains around his throat tighten.
His back arches against the stone chair.
When he speaks again, the second voice is beneath his own.
Deep.
Empty.
Amused.
"She never listened well."
Elara's silver mana erupts.
The nearest chains turn white and crack.
Every golden connection attached to the king pulls tight at once.
The soldiers above us scream through the crucible.
The sound does not reach my ears.
It enters through the Mark.
Two hundred voices.
Two hundred people trapped behind obedience seals while Halvek burns their fear and calls it loyalty.
"Elara, stop!" I shout.
She releases the chain.
The white cracks disappear.
Her father collapses against the chair.
"What happens if I free him?" she asks.
"The garrison dies," I say.
The system's warning remains in front of me.
Central oath source identified.
King Edric Asteria
Status: Living authority core
Warning: Severing the wrong connection will kill the king and every oath bound to him.
Dalia turns toward the sealed chamber doors.
Her miners gather around her with hammers, short blades, and bags of stone powder.
"What exactly are we supposed to fight?" she asks.
The answer comes from the walls.
Golden chains slide free of the stone.
Their ends sharpen into blades.
"Those," I say.
The first chain attacks.
Malrec pushes Elara aside and blocks it with Nightfall.
The broken sword cuts halfway through the golden link before stopping.
The chain wraps around the blade.
Malrec twists his wrist.
Black mana erupts from Nightfall and splits the connection.
Three more chains strike from behind him.
I summon Oathbreaker.
The scythe forms instantly.
Its smaller edge catches one chain while the main blade cuts through another.
The third passes between us and pierces a miner's shoulder.
He screams as golden symbols spread across his body.
His eyes turn empty.
Dalia grabs him before he falls.
"Roth!"
The chain begins pulling him toward the king's chair.
I activate Dread Severance.
Oathbreaker's purple edge cuts the connection between the chain and the miner's soul.
The gold disappears from his eyes.
The physical chain remains inside his shoulder.
Dalia breaks it with her hammer and drags him back.
More chains descend from the ceiling.
The chamber fills with moving gold.
"Protect the wounded!" Dalia shouts.
Her miners form a circle around Roth.
They use their tools to block the chains, but every impact sends them sliding across the floor.
These people came prepared to break through stone.
Not fight a living throne.
Elara creates a silver barrier around them.
The chains strike it repeatedly.
Cracks appear almost immediately.
"Shin," she says. "Tell me what to do."
I look toward the king.
Fear Sense barely works inside the chamber.
There is too much emotion.
The soldiers' terror flows through every golden connection. King Edric's pain lies beneath it. Elara's fear reaches me through our Warden bond.
The black presence inside the pit feels none of those things.
It consumes them.
I focus on the king's chains.
At first, they appear to be one network.
Then Oathbreaker's new understanding separates them.
White-gold lines connect Edric to Asteria itself.
His voluntary oath.
Protect the kingdom.
Preserve its people.
Carry the authority of the throne.
Black-gold connections have been forced over them.
Obedience means loyalty.
Resistance means treason.
Sacrifice preserves order.
Lucien did not replace the king's authority.
He changed what the authority means.
The lesson from Seraphine's oath returns to me.
A voluntary bond can be preserved while the corruption attached to it is removed.
But this is larger than one Royal Blade.
The royal network covers an entire kingdom.
"I can see the corruption," I say.
Elara looks toward me.
"Can you cut it?"
"Not all of it."
"What can you cut?"
"I don't know yet."
"That answer is getting worse."
The king raises his head.
His golden eyes turn black.
"You cut bonds without understanding what remains afterward."
The empty voice speaks through him.
"Eventually, you will sever something that cannot be restored."
Oathbreaker's Mark burns in my palm.
"You seem worried."
"I have watched worlds destroy themselves in pursuit of freedom."
Black chains rise from the pit.
They are different from the golden ones.
The moment they enter the chamber, the temperature drops.
The Reaper's realm flashes through my thoughts.
Endless darkness.
A skeletal hand.
Something waiting behind him.
The black chains rush toward me.
I use Dread Step.
Compressed fear explodes beneath my feet.
I appear beside the king's chair.
A chain changes direction in the air and follows.
I duck beneath it.
Oathbreaker cuts upward.
The main blade passes through the black connection.
Nothing happens.
The chain strikes my chest.
My body leaves the ground.
I crash into a stone pillar.
Pain spreads through my ribs.
The chain wraps around my waist and begins pulling me toward the pit.
"Shin!" Elara shouts.
She directs silver mana toward me.
The magic surrounds my body and slows the pull.
Malrec cuts through two golden chains and runs toward the black one.
Nightfall strikes it.
The damaged blade shatters.
The remaining half spins across the floor.
Malrec stares at the empty hilt.
The black chain continues pulling me.
"You have become increasingly useless," I tell him.
He grabs the chain with both hands.
Black energy burns through his gloves.
"I am reconsidering saving you."
Elara strengthens her magic.
The chain stops moving.
I place my marked hand against its surface.
The connection does not lead to King Edric.
It passes through him.
Beyond the pit.
Beyond Asteria.
Toward the same absence I sensed behind Lucien's throne.
A vast eye begins opening at the other end.
I immediately look away from the entire connection.
Not its origin.
Its point of entry.
The chain passes through a black symbol carved beneath the king's chair.
A doorway.
I do not need to cut the being outside the world.
Only the opening allowing it inside.
"Sever."
Oathbreaker's smaller edge glows.
A purple line appears across the symbol.
The doorway closes.
The black chain becomes ordinary smoke.
Malrec and I fall backward.
The empty presence releases a sound through the chamber.
Not pain.
Surprise.
External authority connection interrupted.
Dread Severance proficiency increased.
Warning: Source remains aware of your location.
"I assumed that already," I say.
Malrec stands and looks at Nightfall's broken hilt.
His fear is faint.
Grief is stronger.
"That sword has served my family for five generations."
"It tried to kill me."
"That does not improve this moment."
A deep impact shakes the ceiling.
Dust falls across the chamber.
Seraphine and Halvek are still fighting above us.
The communication tower pulses.
Golden fire travels through every chain attached to King Edric.
The soldiers' internal screams become louder.
Elara grabs the sides of her head.
"They're burning."
Dread Refuge activates through our bond.
Part of the pain transfers from her to me.
My vision turns gold.
Royal sacrifice process initiated: 8%
Halvek is activating the Oath Crucible.
Slowly.
He may be trying to use the soldiers' deaths to overpower Seraphine.
Or he knows we reached the king and is destroying the network before we can take it.
Dalia points toward the ceiling.
"How long do we have?"
"Not long."
"That is not a time."
"Several minutes."
"Better."
She turns toward her miners.
"Set the powder around the doors."
Elara looks at her.
"Why?"
"If the commander sends soldiers below, I want the entrance closed behind them."
"We may need to escape through it."
Dalia removes a bag from her belt.
"Then we make another entrance."
Her miners begin placing powder around the chamber's sealed doors.
I return my attention to the throne.
King Edric's body is not physically restrained by every chain.
The connections pass through him because he is their authority core.
Halvek said they took the part of the king that gave orders.
This may not be Edric's complete soul.
Only a piece shaped around command.
"Elara," I say. "Ask him where the rest of him is."
She approaches the chair again.
"Father."
The king's black eyes move toward her.
The empty presence still controls most of him.
Elara reaches toward his hand.
The chains react.
She stops before touching him.
"Where is your body?"
The black presence smiles through Edric's face.
"Everywhere."
"Father, answer me."
"Beneath every promise. Behind every command. Inside every person who kneels."
Elara's silver mana brightens.
"I did not ask you."
Royal authority enters her voice.
The white-gold chains respond.
For one second, the blackness disappears from the king's eyes.
Edric gasps.
"Seven."
The word is weak.
Elara moves closer.
"Seven what?"
"They divided the throne."
The black chains around the chair begin moving.
I cut them before they reach him.
King Edric continues.
"Seven authority anchors. Crown. Blood. Voice. Memory. Judgment. Sword."
He struggles to breathe.
"And the Gate."
The final word causes Oathbreaker to vibrate.
My Mark opens.
A system message appears.
Unknown royal structure detected.
Sevenfold Throne Network
Current anchor: Voice
World Gate resonance detected within unavailable anchor.
The World Gate.
The ability the Reaper keeps locked.
One of Asteria's royal anchors is connected to it.
Elara grips the side of the chair.
"Where are the other anchors?"
"I don't know."
The king's eyes flicker.
"They hid them from each part of me."
"So you could not reunite yourself," Malrec says.
Edric looks toward him.
Recognition appears.
"Malrec."
The former Royal Blade lowers his head.
"My king."
"I ordered you away."
"I failed to stay away."
"You always did."
A weak smile appears on Edric's face.
Then the black presence pulls against him.
His fingers dig into the chair.
"Elara, you must destroy this fragment."
She shakes her head.
"No."
"If the Voice remains in their control, every royal oath can be turned against its owner."
"We can free you."
"You can free the command."
"That is part of you."
"It is not enough of me to be your father."
The words hurt her more than any chain.
Fear flows through our bond.
I feel it before she hides it.
Elara looks toward the thin body in the chair.
"You recognized me."
"Because loving you is written deeper than the throne."
The blackness returns to one of his eyes.
King Edric forces it away.
"But this fragment exists to command. If it survives, they will use it again."
The sacrifice percentage increases.
Royal sacrifice process: 17%
Above us, soldiers begin dying.
Not physically yet.
Their identities are being burned first.
Memories.
Names.
Promises.
Everything connected to their oaths.
"We don't have to preserve the fragment here," I say.
Elara looks toward me.
"What do you mean?"
"The crucible holds his Voice. That doesn't mean the Voice needs this chair."
Aldric is not here to confirm whether the idea is possible.
That may be why I like it.
I examine the white-gold chains attached to Elara.
Her royal claim is connected to the same inheritance network.
Weaker than Edric's authority.
Freer.
The throne recognizes her as a possible successor.
"What are you planning?" she asks.
"Transfer the Voice."
"To where?"
"You."
"No."
The answer comes from both Elara and the king.
Edric looks toward me.
"The burden would destroy her."
"She carried a royal binding seal for months."
"That seal restrained her. The Voice would connect her to every oath in Asteria."
Elara studies the chains.
"Could it give me control over them?"
"Yes," the king says.
The answer frightens her.
Not because she wants the control.
Because she understands how useful it would be.
With the Voice, she could order armies to turn against Lucien.
She could command the Royal Blades.
She could force every village in Asteria to recognize her.
The easiest path to victory is sitting in front of her.
It is also the same path Lucien chose.
"I don't want it," she says.
The king's human eye softens.
"That is why you might be worthy of it."
Elara looks toward me.
"I said no."
"I heard you."
"You're still thinking."
"Yes."
"You cannot transfer something into my soul without permission."
"I know."
The Mark responds to the words.
Choice matters.
The entire Dread Warden evolution was built around accepting people beneath a claim rather than forcing them into it.
Transferring the Voice to Elara against her will would turn me into the exact thing we are fighting.
The sacrifice continues.
Royal sacrifice process: 23%
Dalia finishes placing the powder.
"The doors are ready."
A heavy impact strikes the other side.
Soldiers have entered the lower tunnel.
Another impact follows.
Cracks spread across the sealed stone.
Dalia grips the activation cord.
"We have less than a minute before they break through."
Malrec picks up Nightfall's shattered blade.
Only a short black fragment remains.
He holds it like a dagger.
"Elara, decide quickly."
She stares at her father.
"If we destroy the Voice, what happens?"
Edric answers.
"The garrison's oaths collapse."
"They survive?"
"If Shin separates their souls from the crucible first."
Two hundred individual connections.
I cannot sever them all normally.
But they all pass through one command.
Obey the Voice.
The command is the central interpretation holding the network together.
King Edric sees my attention shift.
"Do not cut the oath to Asteria."
"I know."
"Do not cut their memories of service."
"I know."
"Do not cut the part of them that chose to become soldiers."
"That seems obvious."
His expression becomes more serious.
"You carry a weapon that rewards confidence. Confidence without understanding will turn every mistake into a permanent absence."
Oathbreaker becomes heavier in my hand.
"Then tell me what to cut."
Edric closes his eyes.
The white-gold chains brighten.
For a moment, the entire network becomes visible.
Every oath is unique.
Some soldiers joined to protect their homes.
Some wanted money.
Some wanted honor.
Others followed family traditions.
Lucien's corruption did not erase those reasons.
It placed one statement over all of them.
The throne's command is the soldier's choice.
That is the lie.
It transforms obedience into consent.
It allows Halvek to claim the soldiers chose their sacrifice because they once chose to serve.
"I see it," I say.
The king opens his eyes.
"Name it."
"The command is pretending to be their choice."
Edric nods.
"Then sever the lie."
The chamber doors break inward.
Dozens of soldiers stand beyond them.
Black crowns cover their foreheads.
Their weapons rise.
Dalia pulls the cord.
The stone powder explodes.
The doorway disappears beneath fire and collapsing rock.
The shock wave throws several miners to the floor.
Dust fills the chamber.
The entrance is sealed.
For now.
I approach the throne.
Golden chains move around my body but do not attack immediately.
King Edric is restraining them.
His human eye remains focused on me.
"Once the lie is removed, Halvek will activate the full crucible."
"How long will we have?"
"Seconds."
"And then?"
"Destroy the Voice."
Elara steps beside me.
"No."
Her father looks toward her.
"You must."
"We came here to free you."
"You came here to protect the soldiers."
"I can do both."
"Elara."
She takes his hand.
The chains burn her skin.
Dread Refuge activates.
The pain enters me.
I do not release the connection.
Elara grips her father's fingers harder.
"I spent three months believing I abandoned you."
"You escaped."
"I left you beneath the palace."
"You survived."
"I challenged Lucien because I thought it might lead me back to you."
"And it did."
"Then I am not killing the first part of you I find."
The king studies her.
The empty presence pushes against his face again.
His mouth twists into a smile that is not his.
"She will preserve one fragment and lose the kingdom."
I raise Oathbreaker.
"No one asked you."
The black presence looks through both of the king's eyes.
"You believe yourself separate from me."
"I am."
"You carry fear."
"I use it."
"You open doors."
"I close them too."
"You were sent into this world because the Gate remembers what you are."
The Mark burns.
The contained fragment of Kael's memory reacts.
An image flashes through my mind.
Kael standing inside this chamber three hundred years ago.
The chair is empty.
The black crown is unbroken.
Saint Orin stands beside him.
Behind the throne is a doorway filled with stars.
Then the image locks again.
I nearly lose focus.
The presence noticed the memory.
The king's black eyes widen.
"Kael."
Oathbreaker vibrates.
The sacrifice percentage jumps.
Royal sacrifice process: 39%
Halvek is forcing more power into the crucible.
There is no time to question the memory.
I place Oathbreaker's smaller edge against the white-gold network.
Every oath in the fortress enters my awareness.
The soldiers above us.
Soren fighting people he once commanded.
Seraphine pursuing Halvek.
Dalia's miners trapped inside the chamber.
Malrec standing beside Elara.
The king holding back the corruption.
I search for the single lie touching all of them.
The throne's command is the soldier's choice.
Dread Severance gathers along the blade.
The network resists.
Not because the lie is strong.
Because it is woven through two hundred identities.
I cannot cut it from outside.
I need access through someone accepted by the soldiers.
Commander Soren.
His fear is somewhere above us.
Warden's Claim does not exist here, but the temporary connection to the resisting soldiers remains.
I follow it.
Soren is bleeding.
Surrounded.
Still calling his men by name.
The connection is weak.
Enough.
I send my voice through it.
"Soren."
His fear reacts.
I feel his answer without hearing it.
"Give them a choice."
The connection strengthens.
Above us, Commander Soren shouts.
"I release every soldier who swore an oath under my command!"
The crucible shakes.
Halvek's voice answers through the tower.
"You do not possess that authority."
Soren shouts louder.
"I possess their trust!"
More soldiers hesitate.
The black crowns flicker.
The system responds.
Collective resistance detected.
Temporary Warden authority established within Blackridge Fortress.
Accepted population: 31
Thirty-one soldiers are consciously resisting.
That is enough to create a boundary.
Not around the fortress.
Around the choice itself.
Silver-black lines appear within the golden network.
They surround the lie.
I pull Oathbreaker through it.
"Sever."
The command breaks.
No explosion follows.
No flash of light.
For one heartbeat, the fortress becomes silent.
Then two hundred soldiers feel everything the crucible stole from them.
Fear.
Pain.
Anger.
Memories.
Their voices erupt above us.
Halvek screams through the network.
"Obey!"
Some soldiers continue fighting.
Others drop their weapons.
Many collapse.
The black crowns crack.
Hostile interpretation severed.
Two hundred voluntary oaths preserved.
Dread Severance has reached Level 3.
New application discovered: Conceptual Severance.
The black presence inside King Edric recoils.
His eyes return to gold.
"Now," he says.
The Oath Crucible activates fully.
Royal sacrifice process: 100%
Central command compromised.
Emergency destruction initiated.
Golden fire races through every chain.
The fortress begins to shake.
Above us, stone walls crack.
The communication tower is preparing to destroy itself.
Elara grips her father's hand.
"I will not kill him."
I look at the king.
Then the white-gold chains.
The Voice does not have to be destroyed.
It only has to leave the crucible.
Elara refused to carry it.
There may be another place.
Oathbreaker.
My soul weapon was named for breaking forced oaths.
It already contains the principle of Severance.
A weapon cannot command a kingdom.
It can contain a severed command.
Possibly.
The idea is reckless.
Unproven.
Exactly the kind of plan Aldric would hate.
"I'm moving the Voice," I say.
Elara looks toward me.
"Into what?"
I raise Oathbreaker.
King Edric immediately understands.
"No."
"That is everyone's favorite response."
"Your soul weapon is connected to your identity."
"So is the Mark."
"You may bind my authority to the World Raider system."
"That sounds bad."
"It may allow the Reaper to reach the throne."
That sounds much worse.
The Reaper wants access to Kael's fragment.
The royal Gate resonates with my locked World Gate.
Placing the king's Voice inside Oathbreaker could create a bridge between Asteria and the Reaper.
I look toward the broken royal crown around Edric's chair.
A physical container.
Created to hold authority.
Corrupted, but still royal.
"We use the crown."
Elara follows my gaze.
The massive black structure surrounds the throne like a cage.
Seven golden points rise behind the king's head.
One is glowing.
The Voice anchor.
"Can it be removed?" she asks.
King Edric looks toward the crown.
"Not without severing it from the crucible."
"That is what I do."
"And where will you place it afterward?"
Elara touches the bare skin around her neck.
The binding seal is gone, but a faint silver mark remains around her wrist.
The symbol created when she accepted me as her Warden.
She looks toward her father.
"Not inside me."
"No," I say.
"Inside the claim."
I feel Wren's Hollow far to the north.
The Banner of the Broken Chain.
The territory recognized by its people.
Warden's Claim is not a person.
It is a boundary created through mutual acceptance.
The Voice could belong to Elara's faction without controlling Elara herself.
It would become authority held by the claim rather than one ruler.
King Edric stares at me.
"No Asterian throne has ever separated authority from blood."
"That may be why your family keeps having this problem."
Elara almost laughs despite everything.
The king's expression becomes thoughtful.
The chamber shakes again.
Stone falls from the ceiling.
Golden fire reaches the lower chains.
We have seconds.
"Do it," Elara says.
Her father looks toward her.
"You understand what this means?"
"The Voice will belong to everyone who accepts the claim."
"And if they reject you?"
"Then I should not command them."
King Edric closes his eyes.
Pride and grief cross his face at the same time.
"Your mother would have agreed."
Elara's fear changes.
The words strengthen her.
The king turns toward me.
"Warden."
It is the first time he calls me that.
"Cut the Voice from me."
I raise Oathbreaker.
The seven-pointed crown becomes visible through the throne.
Six points remain dark.
One burns gold.
I place the blade between the Voice anchor and the chains connected to Edric's soul.
The black corruption tries to return.
I direct the territorial fear stored inside the temporary claim against it.
Thirty-one soldiers resist Halvek above.
Elara stands beside me.
Dalia's miners hold the chamber.
Malrec protects the sealed door with the remains of his sword.
Not enough to claim the entire fortress.
Enough to hold one decision.
"Sever."
Oathbreaker cuts downward.
The golden point breaks free.
King Edric screams.
Every chain in the chamber explodes outward.
Elara is thrown across the floor.
Malrec catches her.
Dalia shields her wounded miner from falling stone.
The golden point floats above Oathbreaker's blade.
A symbol appears inside it.
An open mouth surrounded by a broken chain.
Royal authority anchor acquired: Voice
Current owner: Unassigned
Compatible destination detected: The Free Asterian Claim
Transfer authority?
"Yes."
The Voice anchor turns silver.
A line travels north.
Beyond the fortress.
Beyond the road.
Toward Wren's Hollow.
The Banner of the Broken Chain appears inside my mind.
The golden point enters its symbol.
Across the region, every person accepted beneath Elara's claim hears King Edric's voice.
Not an order.
A declaration.
"I live."
The words travel through Wren's Hollow.
Through the soldiers resisting inside Blackridge.
Through the villages waiting for proof.
The royal communication network tries to block him.
The Voice anchor breaks through.
"I, Edric Asteria, recognize Elara Selene Asteria as protector of my people and rightful challenger to the throne."
Elara stares upward.
Tears run across her face.
Her father continues.
"Lucien Asteria does not rule with my consent."
The declaration spreads farther.
Into Millford.
Greybank.
Eastmere.
Royal outposts hear it.
Noble houses hear it.
Soldiers carrying throne seals hear it.
Fear erupts across Asteria.
The Mark reacts, but Warden's Claim directs most of the emotion into the growing boundary rather than my soul.
The system fills my vision.
Royal authority transferred successfully.
The Free Asterian Claim has acquired the Voice of Asteria.
Regional legitimacy increased dramatically.
Blackridge garrison allegiance changing.
Warden's Claim expansion available.
The emergency destruction does not stop.
Without the Voice anchor, the crucible begins collapsing faster.
Golden fire covers the walls.
King Edric remains in the chair.
The chains connected to him are disappearing.
His body is fading with them.
Elara runs toward him.
"Father!"
She reaches the throne.
This time, no chain stops her.
She embraces him.
Her arms pass partly through his body.
He is becoming light.
"I told you this fragment was not enough of me," he says.
"Where will you go?"
"Back to the network."
"Will I be able to find you?"
"If you recover the other anchors."
The king looks toward me.
"Especially the Gate."
My Mark opens.
"Why?"
"Because Kael did not arrive in Asteria through the Reaper's gate."
The memory fragment burns.
The hidden image tries to unlock.
King Edric continues.
"He came through ours."
A massive explosion shakes the chamber.
The ceiling splits.
Seraphine falls through the opening.
She lands on one knee.
Blood covers her white armor.
Commander Halvek follows.
Golden chains have replaced both of his arms.
The metal crown has opened into a burning halo around his head.
His body is breaking apart.
The crucible's fire pours through him.
"You stole the Voice," he says.
His fixed smile is gone.
Only rage remains.
Elara steps between him and her father.
Halvek looks toward the fading king.
"If I cannot preserve the command, I will preserve the sacrifice."
Seraphine forces herself upright.
"He is no longer human."
Halvek laughs.
"I am finally loyal."
The empty presence enters him completely.
His skin turns black.
A red eye opens inside the metal crown.
The fortress shakes as every remaining golden chain tears free from the walls and connects to his body.
A system warning appears.
Blackridge Oath Crucible has selected an emergency authority core.
New core: Commander Halvek
Transformation detected: Crown-Bound Abomination
Estimated rank: Catastrophe
Halvek raises one burning hand.
The entire chamber fills with golden fire.
King Edric's fragment looks toward Elara.
"Go."
She grips him tighter.
"I just found you."
"And you will find the rest."
The king places one fading hand against her cheek.
Then he looks toward me.
"Warden."
"What?"
"Keep your promise."
"I don't remember making one."
His weak smile returns.
"You stood between her and the fire."
The king dissolves into golden light.
The remaining chains release Elara.
His final words enter the Voice of Asteria.
"That is promise enough."
The throne collapses.
Halvek's fire surges toward us.
I step in front of Elara and raise Oathbreaker.
The temporary Warden boundary forms around everyone in the chamber.
Thirty-one soldiers resist above.
Dalia's miners stand behind me.
Malrec lifts the broken remains of Nightfall.
Seraphine raises her judgment sword.
The Free Asterian Claim now carries the king's Voice.
But Blackridge has chosen a new monster.
Halvek smiles through the burning crown.
"Let us see which authority survives."
END OF CHAPTER 19