The fortress screamed.
Not with stone, not with steel, but with living ash. Towers writhed, chains lashed outward like serpents, and the walls themselves pulsed as if breathing. The ember-heart at its center throbbed like a colossal organ, pumping shadow into the battlefield.
The voidspawn's tide thickened, forming ranks now. Shapes that had once been half-formed began to stabilize, growing armor-like plates of molten bone. Some carried weapons—blades of ember, spears dripping with fire. The dominion itself was forging an army.
Anna's breath scorched her lungs. Her arms trembled from endless swings, but her eyes were steel. She wiped blood from her lips and raised her sword.
"Kael. If we don't stop that heart…"
Kael spat crimson flame into the ground, his wings flaring wide. "The Veil, our world—everything—burns."
Their eyes locked. The decision was wordless.
They charged.
The horde crashed upon them like a tidal wave. Anna spun through it, twilight blade glowing brighter with each strike, tearing rifts of violet light across the battlefield. Kael followed, black fire surging around him in waves, carving molten scars into the obsidian plain.
The fortress fought back. Chains whipped, slamming into the ground with enough force to shatter mountains. One lashed toward Anna—she parried, the impact jolting through her entire body. Kael hurled a firestorm at another, but the chain absorbed his flames, turning them into fuel as it grew hotter, stronger.
He cursed. "It's feeding on me—"
"Then burn harder!" Anna shouted, slicing apart a voidspawn before it could impale him.
Together, they drove forward, step by bloody step, toward the fortress gates.
The gates themselves loomed like jaws—two colossal slabs of blackened bone, carved with runes of fire that dripped embers into the cracks below.
As they neared, the gates opened.
From within stepped a giant.
A warden forged of ash and chain, its body molten iron, its skull crowned with horns of burning stone. It dragged two colossal weapons—an axe of obsidian, a hammer of bone—and its roar split the plain.
The Ash Warden had awoken.
Anna's knees nearly buckled from the pressure. "Kael…"
He grinned, bloody and mad. "Finally. A real fight."
They leapt at the Warden together.
Anna's blade clashed against the axe, sparks of twilight spraying. Kael's fire slammed against the hammer, scorching its surface but not breaking it. The Warden swung both weapons with impossible speed, forcing them back, each strike cracking the ground.
But Anna and Kael didn't falter.
Anna dove low, blade cutting across the Warden's knee. Kael's cursed flames exploded upward, searing its chest. The giant staggered—only for its body to stitch itself back together with molten chains.
Anna's eyes narrowed. "It heals too fast—"
Kael's curse whispered, feeding his fury. Then stop holding back.
He snarled and ignited his wings fully, turning into a storm of black flame. Anna matched him, twilight radiance flaring until she blazed like a star.
Together they unleashed their strikes—"Twilight Sever!" and "Abyss Fang!"—colliding with the Warden's chest in a single, devastating blow.
The fortress shook as the Warden split apart, body crumbling into ash.
The gates lay open.
Anna panted, sweat and blood dripping from her. "Inside. Now."
Kael smirked. "After you, partner."
They stormed the fortress.
Inside was worse.
The walls were flesh, beating like veins of molten ember. Ash dripped from the ceilings, burning like acid when it struck the ground. The air was choking, alive with whispers—voices of the fallen, clawing at their minds.
At the center pulsed the ember-heart.
It was no longer just a fragment. It had grown into a monstrous core, suspended by chains of living ash. Each beat shook the fortress, sending waves of energy through the dominion.
And guarding it…
Three knights of ash, armored in obsidian and flame, stood silent before the core. Their blades dripped shadow, their helms glowing with ember eyes.
Anna raised her sword, chest heaving. "Kael…?"
Kael grinned, his curse blazing like a crown. "We kill the knights. Then we burn the heart."
The first knight moved, faster than wind. Its sword screamed as it came down on Anna—she parried, sparks of twilight exploding across the chamber. Kael clashed with the second, cursed fire tearing into its armor. The third launched chains that snared Kael's wings, dragging him back.
The core pulsed harder, feeding them strength.
Anna's eyes hardened. "Then we cut the heart's lifeline."
She carved upward, severing one of the chains holding the ember-heart. The fortress screamed, the knights faltering for a moment. Kael tore free of the chains, black fire erupting from him like a tidal wave.
"Now!" he shouted.
They struck in unison, blades of light and fire plunging into the ember-heart.
It shrieked.
The fortress convulsed. Cracks spread through the walls, towers outside collapsing into ash. The knights dissolved into cinders, their power unraveling with the heart.
The ember-heart shattered—exploding into fragments of fire and shadow.
The entire fortress began to fall apart.
Anna shielded her face from the blast, Kael's wings wrapping around her as the world collapsed.
And within the explosion, they heard it again.
> "Ashes are eternal. One fortress falls… a hundred rise."
Anna's eyes widened as she saw it—across the horizon, dozens of other fortresses rising from the dominion, each crowned with its own ember-heart.
Kael spat blood and growled, "Then we burn every damn one of them."
Anna's blade flared with twilight fire. "Until nothing's left."
The first fortress crumbled into the abyss, but their war had only begun.