The dominion shook.
From the endless wasteland of ember and shadow, the second fortress moved.
Unlike the first citadel, which stood chained to the Veil like a skeletal crown, this one lurched forward across the cracked obsidian plains on titanic, spined limbs. Each step made the ground split wider, vomiting rivers of molten ash. Its towers jutted like horns from its back, and from those towers poured fire — not upward, but outward, like the breath of a crawling beast.
Anna's eyes narrowed, twilight blade pulsing in her grip. A fortress that walks… like a predator.
Kael stood beside her, cloak torn and burned from the last siege, cursed flame coiling around his arm. His smirk was strained, but unbroken.
"Guess it wasn't enough to fight a castle. Now they want us to wrestle a damn monster."
The fortress raised one limb and slammed it into the plain. The shockwave leveled the first ridge around them, swallowing entire canyons of ash. Out of the rubble, winged Ashborn burst free — dozens, then hundreds. Some were ember-wraiths with skeletal wings dripping cinders. Others were scaled drakes, their hollow chests burning like furnaces. Their screeches stitched the sky into a storm.
The swarm blotted out the stars.
"Flying now," Anna muttered, jaw tight. "They adapt faster every time."
Kael cracked his knuckles, cursed aura flaring into black wings behind him. "Let them. I've been itching to burn the skies."
The first wave dove.
Anna slashed upward, her twilight blade becoming a crescent of silver fire that carved through three Ashborn at once. Kael's wings beat once, launching him skyward, flames twisting into a tornado that ripped apart a cluster of drakes.
But for every one they destroyed, two more shrieked into being, crawling from the fortress's spines.
The sky became a warzone.
Ashborn drakes spat molten bolts; Anna deflected them mid-air, her blade ringing like a bell with each clash. Kael tore through the storm, his flames scorching entire flocks, but their ashes only reformed, pulling themselves back into the swarm.
On the ground, the fortress moved again. Its limbs dragged across the obsidian, carving trenches of magma. Then — impossibly — it rose higher, pulling its front towers free of the ground until the fortress hunched like a titan preparing to pounce.
A sound tore from its core, deeper than thunder.
The fortress roared.
From its shadow, a shape uncurled — a guardian born of both architecture and flesh. A Colossus fused with the fortress itself. Its arms were towers, jagged and burning, swinging like hammers. Its face was a melted mask with rivers of fire pouring from its eyes.
It struck.
The first blow hit the plain like a meteor, scattering Kael mid-flight and forcing Anna to brace, blade crossed against the impact wave. Chunks of obsidian launched skyward like arrows.
"Anna!" Kael's voice was ragged above the flames. "That thing's part of the fortress!"
She gritted her teeth, driving her blade into the ground to anchor herself. "Then we bring it down first."
The Colossus raised both arms and brought them crashing down in an arc meant to flatten the world. Anna dashed forward, twilight flaring with each step. Kael dove from the sky, flame trailing behind him like a meteor of his own.
Together they met the blow head-on.
Anna's blade rang against the left tower-arm, silver twilight slicing cracks into its obsidian. Kael struck the right arm, cursed fire exploding into molten rivers that ate through the stone. For a moment, the Colossus staggered, its roar shaking the battlefield.
But then the wounds sealed, ash knitting the cracks like flesh.
Anna's eyes widened. "It regenerates from the fortress!"
Kael spat blood into the ash. "Then we cut the fortress itself."
The sky screamed again — another wave of flying Ashborn descending, diving with suicidal speed.
Anna and Kael looked at each other only once. No words. Only trust.
They leapt together.
Anna's blade split into dual arcs of light and shadow, carving a spiral through the swarm. Kael followed in her wake, his flames igniting into a black sun that consumed the drakes mid-flight. For an instant, the sky itself looked torn apart — twilight and cursed fire crossing in a pattern of destruction.
But the fortress shifted again. From its spine, chains ripped free and lashed toward them like serpents, glowing red-hot, aiming to snare them mid-air.
Anna cut one chain, Kael blasted another, but more kept striking, each as fast as lightning.
The Colossus roared again, lifting both arms for a strike that would smash them into the ash plains.
Anna's twilight pulsed violently.
Kael's curse seared hotter, burning into his veins.
They had one chance — one strike to break through before the fortress sealed itself completely.
Anna shouted, her voice cutting through the storm:
"Kael — with me!"
He answered with a feral grin, flames already spiraling around him.
They launched together.
Anna's blade condensed into a narrow shard of starlight, pulsing with shadow. Kael's flames twisted tighter, forming a spear of cursed fire. Their powers resonated mid-air, twilight and flame spiraling into a single storm.
They aimed straight for the Colossus's chest — where its molten mask bled fire.
And struck.
The impact shook the dominion. A roar of both fortress and guardian split the void. The Colossus staggered backward, its molten mask shattering into streams of fire.
For the first time — the fortress reeled.
Anna and Kael landed, both gasping, their weapons shaking in their hands. The Colossus stumbled, but already ash was crawling across its chest, trying to seal the wound.
Anna raised her blade again, grim determination in her eyes.
Kael spat out smoke and flame, grin still burning despite the blood.
The fortress roared once more, louder, angrier — and the battlefield shook as a new core awakened inside it.
The Colossus staggered, but did not fall. Its molten chest cracked wide, glowing like a wound in the world. Through the fissures, Anna and Kael glimpsed what lay deeper: not one ember-heart, but two, chained together, pulsing in opposite rhythm — flame and shadow, light and void.
Each beat made the fortress convulse like a living beast.
Anna's breath hitched. "Two cores… one can't exist without the other."
Kael wiped blood from his lip, cursed flame writhing across his body like serpents. "Then we tear out both. Together."
The Colossus roared and dropped to its knees. As it crumbled, the fortress's spine split apart, revealing a gaping passage into its chest. Chains unraveled, forming a staircase into the beast's heart.
Anna and Kael exchanged a glance — then sprinted forward.
Inside, the fortress was a furnace. The walls pulsed like veins, ash dripping from the ceiling like burning tar. The dual cores pulsed at the center of a vast chamber, suspended by chains thicker than towers. They beat in unison now, each echo making the air tremble.
Guarding them was a figure wrought from both ember and shadow — a commander knight. It stood twice Kael's height, its body plated with molten steel, and in its hands burned two blades: one of searing fire, the other of void-ash that devoured the light around it.
Its eyes flared as Anna and Kael entered. The fortress shook as the knight raised both swords in silent challenge.
Kael muttered, "I was hoping for a quiet stroll."
Anna lifted her blade, twilight gleaming brighter than ever. "Focus. This is the true guardian."
The knight moved first.
Its fire-blade swept down in an arc that turned the air molten. Anna met it head-on, twilight blade sparking as steel clashed with starfire. At the same moment, the void-blade stabbed for Kael's heart. He twisted aside, cursed flame catching the edge, but the blade still carved his shoulder open, black blood spattering the chamber.
Kael snarled, flames bursting hotter. "You'll regret that."
The battle exploded.
Anna slashed in rapid arcs, her twilight cutting through the knight's fire swings. Kael's cursed flame lashed like a serpent, forcing the void-blade back. But the knight fought like both halves of an army — fire and shadow alternating with perfect rhythm, no pause, no weakness.
It was like fighting two masters at once.
The cores pulsed faster. With each heartbeat, the knight grew stronger. Its blades grew longer, heavier, faster — as if the fortress itself was pouring power into it.
Anna parried a fire strike, only for the void-blade to slam into her side. She gasped, blood spilling, before Kael grabbed her wrist and pulled her back just in time for both swords to smash the ground where she stood.
"Anna!" he barked.
She coughed, shaking her head, eyes blazing. "I'm not stopping. Not here."
Kael grinned, even through the pain, and his flames roared higher. "Then burn with me."
They surged together.
Anna's twilight blade split into two, silver and shadow, her strikes weaving into a storm of crescents. Kael's cursed flame coiled into claws, each swipe shaking the chamber with heat. The knight blocked, sparks showering with every clash, but for the first time it staggered back.
The dual cores flared. The chains around them cracked, pouring power into the knight. Its molten armor split, revealing veins of fire and void entwined. With a roar, it unleashed both blades at once — one vertical, one horizontal — meant to cleave them both.
Anna and Kael leapt, crossing paths mid-air.
Her twilight slash split the fire-blade's arc.
His cursed flame punch shattered the void-blade's strike.
The knight howled, arms reeling back.
"Now!" Anna shouted.
Kael's grin widened, savage and brilliant.
They struck as one.
Anna's twilight condensed into a beam of starlight, piercing the knight's chest. Kael's cursed flame erupted into a spear of black sunfire, drilling through its back. Together, the strikes crossed in its core, shattering its body from within.
The knight roared — then crumbled, its molten armor collapsing into rivers of ash.
Silence fell.
The dual cores pulsed violently, chains snapping one by one. The fortress trembled like it was about to collapse.
Anna staggered, clutching her side, blood soaking her armor. Kael dropped to one knee, flames guttering around him.
"If we take one… the other will rage."
Anna's blade trembled in her grip. "Then we strike both. Together. One breath. One cut."
The cores screamed. Their light merged, fire and shadow twisting into a storm that tore the chamber apart.
Anna and Kael leapt.
Twilight and curse resonated, not colliding — but merging. Her blade burned with silver shadowfire, his flame spiraled with fragments of light. For one heartbeat, their powers were not separate. They were one.
They struck both cores at once.
The explosion consumed everything. Fire and void shattered outward, ripping through the fortress walls, collapsing towers, splitting the plain for miles. Anna and Kael were thrown into the storm, their bodies broken, yet their hands still reached toward each other.
The cores shattered.
The fortress screamed its last, collapsing into a sea of ash.
But instead of fading, the shards of the dual cores lifted into the sky, swirling together, forming a blazing beacon. Its light pierced the dominion, reaching out far, far beyond.
Anna gasped, barely conscious, as the sky lit up with answering roars. Across the horizon, other fortresses stirred, their towers blazing awake like a field of titans.
Kael forced one eye open, his voice rough. "We didn't kill it. We just… woke the others."
The beacon burned higher. The war had only begun.