POV: Kael Lanpar
The sound of each step echoed in my head like a cruel reminder: I didn't have time.
I could feel the faint tremors —the echo of explosions from the capital— growing stronger; massive debris fell from the sky everywhere.
Even from a distance, I had to start dodging the giant stones that descended like meteors at full speed.
My eyes, alert, watched in panic as the flying objects slammed into the ground with beastly force, uprooting trees and destroying everything in their path.
A cloud of dust rose and blurred my vision for a few seconds. That moment was enough for my guard to drop.
When my sight cleared again, a flaming rock was heading straight for me. It would have been too late to react if my sister hadn't leapt and saved me.
The boulder froze mid-descent and shattered into millions of flakes that the breeze carried away in a sigh.
Frost rained down onto my body; the cold left me stunned as my breathing fought to steady. I saw Mayrei climb down from the tree where she had been, landing beside me with a frown.
"Kael, you have to be more careful," she said, hugging me with the urgency of someone terrified of losing you. "I'd tell you to hide in the woods, but I know you won't."
Her arms released me with determination; at the same time, I noticed a crack of doubt in her eyes.
Still in shock, I saw her flick her wrist to undo the frost that covered her. That's when I realized: I couldn't move. I was trapped.
I tried to move my arms and legs; they were frozen, rigid, unable to respond.
"What are you doing, Mayrei?" I shouted, confusion and anger rising in my throat.
"I'm protecting you," she replied, turning her back on me. "Just because you feel your mana flow now doesn't mean you can fight."
"You're too young and inexperienced to play hero," she added, her voice as cold as the ice she had conjured.
I ground my teeth bitterly and watched her figure blur into the density of the forest, camouflaged among leaves and shadows.
"Damn it," I growled.
With a violent motion I forced the ice, and the crust cracked like old wood splitting. The sound crawled through my ears.
Clenching my teeth, I let my fury drive my mana and began to move again; the heat of my will vaporized the frost that bound me.
"Maybe I'm young," I whispered to myself, "but don't underestimate me on the battlefield."
I dug my feet into the ground, felt mana surge through me like a waking river, and with a burst of speed shot off toward the village, each stride tearing up the topsoil.
I knew miracles wouldn't come from this child's body, but I was certain my actions would change the course of the fight.
Perhaps I no longer had the physical strength I once did, but the strategic and military experience inside me remained intact.
The wind lashed my face; in the distance I made out the enemy troop. A tangle of hooded figures, armed to the teeth, poured through the capital's gates.
At helmet level and at the pace of their horses, I launched myself and positioned myself alongside two riders, literally placing myself between my enemies, who didn't understand what they were seeing.
"What the—?" one of them stammered.
I pushed off with the wind and made a great leap over them. From my fingers sprang multiple wind daggers that flew straight into their bodies.
One of my blades cut with precision: a rider was knocked off, rolled across the ground kicking up dust; his horse, still moving, lost its rider and changed hands in the confusion, grabbing the reins that guided and toppled the other.
"You damn brat, where did you come from?" snarled the one left standing, raising his weapon. "I'm going to—"
He didn't finish the sentence: blood began to gush from his throat and he fell to the ground lifeless.
I froze for a second, reining in my steed as I watched his head slide from his neck to the earth.
"Curious," I said, making the wind sword vanish. "Apparently the headless rider was real."
I lashed the reins hard and accelerated. We plunged deeper into the throng fighting both inside and outside the city
As I crossed the gates, something chilled my blood: a horrific scene unfolded before me. Innocent corpses lay everywhere, victims of the crossfire between both sides.
People ran through flaming streets, searching for refuge where there was none. Chaos devoured everything in its path.
I pushed myself up in the saddle, leapt backward, and let the steed continue on. In the fall I used an enemy's distraction to fire a wind arrow, condensing the air around me.
I drew the string; the arrow cut through the sky and buried itself in the aggressor's calf.
"Arghaaa!" he screamed, clutching his leg and staring at me with fury.
"You damned brat…!" he roared. "Who do you think you are, some kind of hero?"
I didn't answer. With a gesture of my hand I summoned a spike of earth that sprang from the ground and pierced his chest, lifting him as blood poured from the rocky stake.
I know I said killing isn't the solution —I thought, my inner words burning me—, but he tried to harm an innocent family. That I cannot forgive. I hope he finds redemption… somehow.
"Are you all right?" I asked, moving closer to a woman clutching her two children.
She trembled; the children's desperate crying stabbed my chest. I pressed my hand to the place where my heart hurt, as if that could soothe the anguish.
"I will protect you," I said, my voice breaking, "but I need you to stay with me."
She nodded, tightened her children to her body, and her eyes suddenly widened. In her pupil I saw the reflection of an arrow hurtling toward us.
I leapt, twisting in the air to catch the arrow with my hand before it could reach the family, keeping my gaze fixed on the bastard who had shot it.
"Take refuge in the Swordsmanship Academy," I ordered, hearing the wood of the arrow creak.
I had promised to protect them, but options were few. I scanned the battlefield with clinical focus, noting every detail.
The clang of blades and the soldiers' screams echoed across the area. I felt the heat of flames devouring houses brush my skin; the metallic scent of blood mixed with choking smoke.
I covered my nose with my arm and breathed deeply, trying to regain composure as I watched my enemy with hatred.
"Gale Step," I whispered. Wind magic coiled at my feet, lifting stones and debris into a whirl beneath me. I saw the family flee and turned to face my new opponent.
"I will kill him, I promise," I murmured, cracking my knuckles before dashing off.
With every stride I felt arrows whistle past; I dodged them as if time slowed, watching them embed in the earth without reaching their target.
Along the way I aided kingdom soldiers and mages: I channeled electricity into my hands, shaping electric claws that sliced several rebels who couldn't react. The last thing they did was scream before their vision blurred from the cut of my claws.
Boom…!
A brutal explosion hurled me through the air before I could reach the archer. I slammed into a wall; dust battered my face.
Pain struck my back like a hammer driven into bone. I bit my lower lip to keep from crying out, pretending I could bear the lash that ran along my spine.
When I blinked and brushed the earth from me, I perceived at the center of the conflict something that froze my blood again: three riders had appeared, their crystal armor reflecting the sun in a blinding shine.
It was my mother, and beside her her two sisters — the riders of the apocalypse had arrived.
They rode pure-glass steeds, imposing figures that with every stride plowed through enemy ranks and impaled foes with their lances.
I stood still for a few moments, watching the revolutionaries fall back and the kingdom regain ground in the capital.
The shouts came. The cheers. Hope began to beat again in the square like a flame rekindled.
.My eyes went to the sky as dark clouds formed, and from them, like lightning, bolts began to fall upon our enemies; the ground trembled under the impact and the chaos shifted sides.
A blinding light momentarily stunned me. When my vision returned, the figure of Striker Boro had appeared like a flash, and the ground at his feet evaporated into smoke and dust.
"Your Majesty," Boro said, approaching with measured steps. "You shouldn't be here… least of all at the epicenter of the attack."
"Wait… how did you know I—?" I panted, surprised. "Who told you I was here?"
He didn't answer with words. He stepped forward and stood before me with the cold calm of someone who tames a storm. Without hesitation he took my hand and squeezed, helping me to my feet.
"Find a safe place," he ordered firmly. "You are not an adult to be exposed like this. I will cover your back… but not for long."
I nodded, feeling fatigue strike my body like a maul.
As I prepared to run, I saw with a subtle motion of his wrist a sword form, wrapped in dark lightning: dense, heavy, unlike any common bolt. It wasn't merely elemental magic; it was a subelement.
It was the first time I'd seen one in action: its power condensed the air until it became visible, as if it burned the particles around it with every discharge.
At Boro's silent signal I ran. This time without magic: my mana had been completely exhausted.
I tried to invoke a spell, but it was impossible. I couldn't sense my core; not even the fuel that powered my conjurations flowed through me. Quite simply, I had no mana.
I sighed, knowing that was not a good sign. The premonition fulfilled itself within seconds.
Almost at the entrance to a shelter, I heard trumpets. They weren't coming from inside the city… they came from beyond the walls.
The first lines of defense had fallen. The echoes were followed by war cries. Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of enemy soldiers advanced.
The tremor climbed up from my feet; the thunder of shields taking blows lodged itself in my chest. A message vibrated beneath the earth: the true assault was only beginning.
The cheers in the capital died immediately. Screams returned: terror and despair. People ran aimlessly, as if hope had never existed. There were too many rebels… too many.
"Auroria's soldiers!" Boro roared from the epicenter of the chaos. "Do not let fear rob you of courage! Defend your kingdom, your legacy! Raise your heads… and crush these traitors!"
"For Auroria! For our families!" the soldiers answered in unison, a cry that set the air alight like a spark in dry grass.
Mages, warriors, and riders raised their weapons; the collective roar rekindled the courage of those around them.
A brief smile escaped me—good news, at last. But the joy lasted only a second. My body collapsed. My vision blurred and dizziness overwhelmed me.
Stability left me; I fell onto the ground dampened by my own blood, spat from my mouth. My senses betrayed me; I couldn't even support my arms: my hands trembled in agony.
Pain unfolded like a moving X-ray: broken bones, torn flesh. I clenched my teeth with all my might to keep from screaming.
Through the fog in my mind I felt hands lift me. Then the firmness of legs that supported me.
I knew I was on horseback by the animal's sighs and the sway of its gait. With the little strength I had left I made out a figure and recognized them before I could say their name.
"Mother?" I whispered.
"Kal, damn it!" she said, her voice breaking. "I told you not to come… but you disobeyed me."
After that, memory splintered into fragments: loose images like poorly stitched pieces of a dream. The journey led by my mother became a blur.
The great capital, Luzarion, shrank on the horizon as my barely open eyes caught three figures streaking through the sky toward the battlefield.
A cape billowed and an immense power evaporated the air around it: I knew it was my father.
With breath barely enough to keep consciousness, I let myself fall into a heavy sleep. My blurred eyes managed one last glimpse of my sister—her hair streaming—riding beside my mother toward a fate I could not yet comprehend.
POV: Mayrei Lanpar
Saying I wasn't worried about my brother would be a lie. I loved him. Deeply. He was my little brother… and more than that: my best friend.
He had been with me through the worst times, when the kings — our parents — were absent. It was a simple boy who, with more backbone than many adults, taught me not to give up even when everything urged surrender.
I sighed and looked back. Kael slept against our mother's chest; she held him tight, cradling him like a small, fragile bundle of life.
The capital lay in ruins: ash, columns of smoke, and bodies forming a fog of fear and confusion that cut through the crowds.
All because of those damned revolutionaries and their thirst for vengeance. They couldn't forget what had happened years ago, nor accept that the killers had been pardoned.
What mattered most now was saving my family, the only people I had in this life.
"Mother, which route are we taking?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"The rebel armies are moving toward the north of the capital… and they're spreading to other cities," she replied without looking at me. "There is no safe place in the human realm today."
"Then… where will we go?" I said, a knot tightening my chest.
"Home," she answered. "To the clan grounds. Straight to the Crystal Plains."
My mother slammed the horse to a stop, dismounted with agility, and without hesitation scooped Kael into her arms; the movement was quick, precise, filled with urgency.
I gathered my brother to me, holding him tight as confusion closed in.
"What's happening? Why are we stopping?" I asked, sharpening my senses.
"They're following us," she murmured. "I need you to go ahead. Don't look back."
Her voice hardened into an order that couldn't be contradicted. I didn't like leaving her alone, but I knew her power and what she was capable of.
Of the three riders who had appeared on the battlefield, my mother was the most feared: almost a legend, able to crush entire armies when war demanded it.
The only rider of the apocalypse who could be compared to Mayora's mightiest beings — the Brokers.
"Go on, Scorpion!" I shouted, whipping the reins. "The kingdom has broken; right now… no one is trustworthy."
This was never a golden age, only a façade: my father knew it, and yet he tried to offer peace when that peace had never truly existed.