The fortress was gone.
Where once towers scraped the burning clouds, there was now only ruin — a blackened plain, cracked and molten, still trembling from the echo of their strike. The air was thick with cinders that fell like dying snow.
Anna lay half-buried in the ash, her lungs straining for air. Each breath tasted of smoke and blood. Her vision swam, but she could still see the light fading above — the beacon's afterglow dimming into a distant, smoldering scar in the sky.
A soft sound pulled her back — a groan, rough and familiar.
"Kael…" she whispered.
She forced her body to move, crawling through the debris. Every inch hurt — ribs fractured, limbs heavy, her blade still pulsing weakly beside her. She found him a few meters away, sprawled on the cracked stone, smoke rising from the wounds that refused to close.
He was alive. Barely.
"Kael!" she gasped, falling to her knees beside him.
His eyes fluttered open — gold and shadow flickering faintly within them. "You look… worse than me."
Despite everything, she almost laughed. "You're insufferable."
He smirked faintly. "And you're glowing. Either that's the dawn… or we really broke something."
Anna followed his gaze.
The horizon burned. Dozens — no, hundreds — of pillars of light pierced the sky in every direction. Each one twisted with a different hue — crimson flame, obsidian shadow, silver frost, emerald storms. Ancient fortresses that had once slumbered beneath the dominion's crust were awakening.
Their lights pulsed like heartbeats.
The ground shuddered with each one.
"They're alive," Anna breathed, horrified. "The other Citadels."
Kael forced himself upright, groaning as the cursed flames along his arm flickered and died. "We didn't destroy the core. We triggered the chain."
A low rumble spread through the plains — distant, endless. The sky began to crack open, red lightning tearing across the clouds.
The Dominion was awakening.
Kael looked at her, eyes steady despite the pain. "We can't stay here. The surge will draw them — sentinels, remnants, and worse."
Anna nodded weakly, gripping his arm. Together, they stumbled to their feet, leaning on each other. The world quaked beneath them.
Behind them, the ashes of the fortress twisted into strange shapes — statues of molten glass and black stone, like ghosts frozen mid-scream. From within their cracks, faint motes of blue and violet light shimmered, whispering in languages long dead.
Anna frowned. "What are they?"
Kael's jaw tightened. "The remnants of souls bound to the Dominion. When the cores shattered, it freed them… or cursed them."
A shadow stirred nearby — tall, armored, its form flickering like a broken reflection.
Anna's instincts screamed. She raised her blade, but Kael caught her wrist. "Not now. It's feeding on the beacon. It won't see us yet."
He was right. The wraith's hollow helm turned toward the distant lights, ignoring them entirely.
"We leave," Kael said.
Anna hesitated, glancing once more at the horizon. "We started something we can't undo."
"Then we finish it," he growled softly. "On our terms."
Together, they turned away from the ruin and began their descent from the shattered plain.
Each step was agony, but neither slowed.
As they moved, the wind shifted — carrying whispers from the direction of the other awakening fortresses. A deep, resonant hum filled the air, like the sound of titans calling to one another across worlds.
Anna shivered. "Kael… if all of them wake, what happens to the Dominion?"
He glanced back at the burning sky, his expression grim. "Then the Dominion won't be the only realm that burns."
And as the first of the storm-beacons converged into a single spiral of light in the heavens, Anna realized something that made her blood run cold.
The beacon wasn't just a signal.
It was a summons.
Someone — or something — was answering.
The sky cracked open.
A rift like a bleeding wound split the heavens, spilling crimson fire and molten clouds. Lightning coiled through the break, forming vast serpents of energy that screamed across the dark.
Anna and Kael stood at the edge of the plain, staring up as the storm-beacons spiraled together.
From the center of that light, something vast began to descend.
A shape — no, a being — wrought of molten glass and void-steel, its wings stretching miles wide. Chains of broken runes clung to its body, and every beat of its wings tore thunder from the air.
Kael's voice was grim. "A Herald."
Anna's eyes widened. "Of what?"
"Of the Dominion's will." He raised his sword, shadow flames roaring to life along its edge. "And we just woke its master."
The Herald screamed — a sound that shook mountains. Its voice echoed across the fractured world, summoning twisted figures from the ash.
Thousands.
Legions of molten soldiers rose from the ruin, eyes burning like dying stars. The ground shook beneath their march.
Anna gritted her teeth, summoning her light. The gold fire surged along her arms, flaring through the marks that still scarred her skin. She turned to Kael.
"We can't outrun it."
"No," he said, spreading his wings, "but we can buy time."
Then he launched himself upward.
Shadow burst from him like a storm. He met the first wave of molten soldiers head-on, his blade cutting arcs of black flame through their ranks. Every impact sent explosions rippling across the plain.
Anna followed, wings igniting in blinding light. She rose into the air beside him, their magic clashing — light and shadow swirling together.
The soldiers screamed as they burned.
But the Herald barely noticed.
Its massive hand reached forward, grasping for the beacon — the same light Anna had unleashed hours before.
Kael shouted, "It's trying to seal the realms again!"
Anna's pulse thundered. "Then we stop it!"
She lifted both hands, channeling everything left inside her. A ring of golden sigils spun into existence around her, pulsing faster with every heartbeat.
The light spread outward, forming a vast sphere of energy that encased the Herald's hand mid-motion.
It roared, wrenching against the barrier, molten shards raining down.
Anna screamed, forcing more power into the seal. "Kael—now!"
Kael understood. He shot upward, slicing through the air, his blade trailing dark lightning. He landed on the Herald's arm, carving through its runic chains. The moment his sword hit the last sigil, the entire construct shuddered.
"Now, Anna!"
She clenched her fists — and detonated the seal.
The explosion split the storm in half.
Flames and shadow erupted together, swallowing everything in white fire. The shockwave flattened what remained of the plain, silencing the Herald's scream.
For a long moment, there was only wind.
Then — silence.
Kael dropped to the ground, coughing blood. His armor was cracked, and the veins of shadow along his arm glowed painfully bright.
Anna landed beside him, trembling. "Did we—"
Her words cut short as the light above began to twist.
From the rift, new shapes emerged — smaller, faster, crawling through the torn sky like insects of flame. Hundreds. No — thousands.
Each bore the mark of the Herald — its shards reborn as independent sentinels.
Kael cursed under his breath. "We didn't kill it. We multiplied it."
Anna clenched her jaw, fury blazing in her eyes. "Then we burn them all."
She raised her blade again, fire roaring to life.
The first wave struck.
Kael met them head-on, his sword leaving streaks of darkness that swallowed light. Anna's power flared behind him, each burst of gold disintegrating a swarm before it could strike.
But for every fallen creature, ten more replaced it.
The plain became a hurricane of fire and blood.
Kael's breath came ragged, but he refused to slow. "We can't win like this!"
Anna's gaze flicked skyward — toward the still-open rift, where the last trace of the Herald's body glowed.
Her mind raced. There was one way. One terrible, final way.
She pressed her palm to the ground. Golden runes spread outward like wildfire. "Kael. Get back."
He turned sharply. "What are you doing?"
Her voice was calm, steady, and filled with a power that shook the earth.
"Ending this before it spreads."
He realized it too late.
The ground beneath her began to glow — not with mere light, but with the same celestial flame that had once shattered the Dominion's gate.
Kael lunged forward, grabbing her shoulders. "You'll die if you release that!"
She met his eyes. "So will everyone else if I don't."
The power surged — a star igniting within her.
Kael's grip tightened. "Then let me burn with you."
Anna's heart broke. "No. You already gave enough."
The world exploded in light.
For an instant, all existence was silent — every storm, every scream, every curse frozen in white.
Then the plains collapsed into fire.
When the light faded, there was nothing left but drifting ash.
And from that silence, a single sound broke through — the slow, echoing heartbeat of something ancient awakening beyond the rift.
The war wasn't over.
It had just begun.