The devastating silence following the collapse of the elemental masters was shattered by a low, desperate sound. Winston, the master of Light and Spirit, lay immobilized in the smoking crater, his body seizing, but his mind remained lucid, chained to a nightmare of pain. He forced the last, flickering essence of his Tier 5 Spirit Magic into the communication artifact—a small, highly resilient crystalline disc embedded in the team's wrist guards.
Click. A faint connection established.
"Q-Queen Morlin..." Winston's voice was a ragged whisper, muffled by the blood leaking from his mouth. "V-victory. Cost... catastrophic. Everyone... critical. Z-Zayn... frozen."
Miles away, within the sanctity of the royal palace, Queen Morlin, a formidable diplomat and mage in her own right, listened with dreadful concentration. She absorbed the minimal, broken report, her face hardening with professional resolve masking raw terror.
"Winston, listen to me," Morlin commanded, her voice steady and sharp through the static. "You have bought us time. That is enough. Now, survival is your only duty. Get out of there. Find a safe way back to the palace. We need your report, and your lives."
Winston's eyes, wide and bloodshot, reflected the sky. "Too weak. No energy for dimensional gate. We're exposed."
Morlin understood the gravity immediately. "Understood. The artifact will locate you. Do what you must to hold on, Winston. Help is coming."
Hearing Morlin's voice, and fueled by the raw necessity of saving their young, powerful comrades, Winston and Brokk found a final, agonizing surge of willpower. They were fully injured—Brokk, barely alive with severe burns and internal trauma from the Dominatric power, and Winston, crippled by internal hemorrhaging—but the notion of leaving Jai (Arthur), James (Clement), and Zayn to die was unthinkable. These three young masters, though only in their teens, had been the key to Linston's initial defense and the decisive factor in this final push.
Brokk, despite the paralyzing pain, struggled to his knees. He ignored the fire in his veins and the agony of his cracked bones. He was the only one who could attempt the ultimate dimensional feat. He channeled the last, unstable remnants of his core—not the Divine Power, but his inherent, latent elemental discipline: Void Magic.
With a guttural scream of pure, agonizing effort, Brokk slammed his palms together. A chaotic, sickening vortex of black and purple energy began to swirl between his hands. He was casting a forbidden spell, pushing his body past the point of no return: the Tier 5 Void Magic spell, "Void Travel."
The portal wasn't clean; it was a violent, tearing wound in space, unstable and draining Brokk's life force with every moment it remained open. "Now!" he croaked.
Winston, using his light elemental energy not to heal but to fuse his muscles and bones together for momentary stability, rose, staggering. He slung the semi-conscious Jai over one shoulder and dragged the bleeding James with the other hand. Brokk, trembling and sweating blood, hoisted the immobile Zayn, whose body was chilling rapidly, encased in a palpable block of Tier 6 ice temperature from the backlash of his own Silver Ice Magic.
The five shattered heroes stumbled through the collapsing dimensional .
They reappeared in a flash of harsh, disorienting light at the start of the royal palace grounds. Waiting there was Queen Morlin, flanked by several high-ranking Dwarven Guards. The sight that greeted them was horrifying.
Morlin watched as Brokk and Winston, moving with the unnatural, jerky gait of the critically injured, deposited their burdens. Zayn's body was glazed in frost, his stillness terrifying. Jai, James, Brokk, and Winston were all soaked in their own blood, burned, lacerated, and moving on borrowed time. Morlin, though strong, felt a wave of icy shock.
"Gods above," she whispered, instantly snapping into command. "Guards! Secure the perimeter. Get them to the Medical Care Annex immediately! Alert the High Healers!"
The guards moved quickly, carefully lifting the five heroes. As they were rushed inside, a commotion broke out near the palace gates.
Little Arthur and Morisa, Jai and Zayn's younger siblings, had been drawn by the noise. They saw their heroes, the ones who always protected them, being carried—broken and near death—by solemn guards.
The two little figures rushed forward, ignoring the frantic calls of the servants. They reached the stretchers and grabbed their brothers' hands. Little Arthur clutched Jai's burned, lifeless hand. Morisa, tears streaming down her face, grasped Zayn's icy wrist. The sight of their tears—hot, desperate, and innocent—falling onto the cold, wounded hands of Jai and Zayn was a heartbreaking counterpoint to the brutality of the war they had just escaped.
Inside the Medical Care Annex, specialized doctors, masters of Healing Magic, were already prepared. Among them was the same lead physician who had desperately worked to save them after Abinay had detonated himself within the palace walls weeks prior.
The doctors immediately began the strenuous and delicate procedure. Healing Magic flowed, trying to knit shattered bones, close gaping elemental wounds, and combat the systemic collapse from magical exhaustion. The clock was ticking not just against death, but against the irreversible damage caused by Tier 5 and Tier 6 backlash.
As life and death played out in the palace below, high above the Dwarf Kingdom, in the storm-swept air, the true, final confrontation had been initialized.
King Borin (Tier 2) stood alone in the air, radiating an authority that belied his Tier classification. Across from him, trapped within a barrier of his own making, stood the three conspirators: Zeron (Tier 3, Dark/Space), Zevan (Tier 4, Water), and Leora (Tier 4, Light/Fire/Wind).
Borin created an impervious barrier, a cage of pure elemental energy, securing the battle space.
"Hey guys, this is the last warning that I am going to give to you," Borin's voice echoed, cold and absolute. "Just hand over my daughter, and get out of the kingdom. I will spare your lives. Zeron, just come to my side. Even if you are using another human body, I don't care—you are going to be the new king."
Zeron refused, his face twisting with arrogant resentment. "Father! Your time is over! The throne belongs to the strong, not the relic!"
Borin did not move, his face a study in sorrowful resignation. "Child, you mistake knowledge for strength. You mistake three meager elemental disciplines for power."
The conspirators launched their assault. Zeron initiated "Darkness Rupture" and Dark Magic bolts. Zevan unleashed the "Tidal Scourge." Leora executed the destructive trinity: "Tier 4: Cyclone of Annihilation."
Borin, through his mastery of all 18 Elemental Powers, nullified the entire coordinated attack in less than one second, remaining untouched. He used Light and Earth to neutralize Zeron's Dark and Space; Fire and Wind to vaporize Zevan's Water; and perfectly balanced Ice, Wind, and Dark/Shadow to cancel Leora's Fire, Wind, and Light.
The three conspirators stared, their confidence draining into utter disbelief.
"Foolish children," Borin stated. "I use the antithesis to negate and the balance to cancel. You brought three meager disciplines against the complexity of the universe."
Zeron, ambitious and fueled by resentment, was the first to strike. His voice crackled with the energy of his Tier 3 Dark and Space Magic.
King Borin did not move. His battle-scarred armor gleamed, and his face was impassive, reflecting the sorrow of a king betrayed. He did not even bother to draw a weapon, his hands remaining empty at his sides.
The three conspirators, confident in their combined tier advantage, launched their coordinated offensive.
Zeron initiated his attack with "Darkness Rupture," attempting to tear a localized spatial rift directly behind Borin. Simultaneously, he hurled bolts of concentrated Dark Magic, aiming to bind the King in shadow.
followed up instantly. He condensed the residual moisture in the air from the previous elemental clashes and unleashed "Tidal Scourge," a massive, pressurized wall of water designed to crush Borin and negate the fire damage he might attempt.
The deadliest of the three, Leora, created an immediate, destructive trinity: "Tier 4: Cyclone of Annihilation." She unleashed searing Fire Magic mixed with blinding Light Magic, all carried on a compressed, razor-sharp Wind current, designed to overwhelm Borin's senses and defenses.
The combined attack—a spatial rift, a wave of crushing water, and a cyclone of fire, light, and wind—converged on King Borin simultaneously.
The sheer magnitude of the incoming assault caused the air to shudder, yet King Borin remained motionless. He did not attempt to dodge, nor did he raise a shield of any single element.
Instead, his body subtly resonated, and the full spectrum of his power—all 18 Elemental Powers—activated simultaneously, but not outwardly. It was an act of pure, internal elemental negation and redirection.
As the Dark Magic bolts and the spatial rupture approached, Borin's internal balance shifted. Without a visible spell, he manifested a thin layer of Light Magic (to negate the Dark) and an immediate, infinitesimal Earth Magic field (to stabilize the Space).
The spatial rupture instantly sealed itself, closing with a soft pop, and the Dark Magic bolts simply dissipated into harmless gray smoke as they touched the Light field. Borin did not move an inch.
The colossal Tidal Scourge slammed into the King. However, before the water could touch him, Borin exerted two opposing forces: Tier 2 Fire Magic (to vaporize the water) and Tier 2 Wind Magic (to disperse the vapor).
In the blink of an eye, the entire Tier 4 tidal wave vanished. It did not splash; it became a rapidly expanding, harmless cloud of steam that was immediately blown away by a soft, warm breeze. Borin remained perfectly dry.
This was the most complex assault, but Borin met it with cold, layered precision.
Wind: He instantly conjured an opposite Wind Magic current of equal force, causing Leora's cyclone to violently shred itself apart just feet from his armor.
Fire: The searing Fire Magic was met and instantly quenched by a counter-field of Ice Magic.
Light: The blinding Light Magic was neutralized by an equal and opposite charge of Shadow/Darkness Magic, causing the light to simply cancel out into a moment of pure, temporary darkness around him.
The entire, coordinated attack, which should have annihilated a Tier 5 Master, was completely nullified in less than one second. Borin stood exactly where he was, his armor unscratched, his expression unchanging.
Zeron refused the final offer of the throne. Borin moved.
He suddenly teleported—not through conventional Space Magic, but through a terrifying blend of Wind, Time, and Spirit Magic—vanishing and reappearing behind them in an undetectable instant.
Borin grabbed Zevan's neck and hurled him into the invisible barrier, stunning the Tier 4 master. Before Zeron and Leora could register the attack, Borin struck Leora. He grabbed her left arm and, with a terrifying surge of Tier 1 brute strength amplified by Earth Magic, ripped off her hand. Blood poured from her shoulder socket like a geyser.
Leora screamed, the agonizing, primal pain suddenly overriding her consciousness.
Zevan, recovering at the barrier's edge, saw the horrific scene and instantly channeled his remaining Tier 4 Water Power into a massive, desperate "Water Lance" toward Borin. The King simply teleported away, reappearing next to the stunned Zeron. Before Zevan could process the failure, Borin was back in front of him, and with two impossibly fast, clean cuts, took off Zevan's both hands.
Borin then displayed the dripping, severed hands to the horrified traitors. "Zevan, my little brother, see what happened to you? Your hands are in my hands. The blood pouring from them is hot enough to kill me, perhaps. But it is no use. I am not going to be defeated by you guys."
Zeron, realizing their fate, activated his communication artifact: "Guys, we are going to die anyways. Before we die, we have to defeat and kill him!"
Zevan, his stumps pouring blood, nodded to Leora. Leora suggested they use a defense artifact to cover Zeron while she and Zevan attacked directly. Zevan volunteered the ultimate sacrifice: "I am going to directly travel in front of him and use my last power and detonate myself to damage him. Then, Leora attacks, and Zeron finishes him."
Zevan, with his final surge of power, launched himself toward Borin. Borin caught Zevan's neck and held him captive. Zevan gave a creepy, triumphant smile to his sister and adopted son, and then smiled at Borin, detonating his entire Tier 4 Water Core.
A massive, violent explosion of superheated steam and pressurized water erupted. Leora, thinking the plan succeeded, rushed in. But out of the clearing steam, Borin stood fully healed, completely untouched. He had used his Earth, Void, and Fire Magic to instantly create a localized absorption field and vaporize the blast harmlessly.
Borin drew his ancestral sword, "The Ruler." He took Leora's head with a single, indifferent sweep.
Zeron, paralyzed by terror and disbelief, tried to flee, but Borin was upon him. The King used "The Ruler" to methodically dismember Zeron, limb by limb, until only the torso remained.
As Zeron lay dying, a vortex of raw, chaotic Tier 2 Dark/Space energy spread from his dying body. Zeron smiled, his face smeared with blood. "You think you won? You are the king, but the true king is my grandfather, Gronak Stone Head!"
Borin looked up. The thundering clouds above the ridge violently broke apart. A colossal black figure slowly coalesced, shaping into the form of a giant, ancient dwarf.
"The true ritual was not for me, Father," Zeron gasped his final words. "It was to summon Gronak! The Tier 2 vortex was just practice!"
Borin saw his father slowly emerge from the black, thundering clouds. "You think that this old man is going to defeat me?" Borin roared, channeling all 18 elements into a defensive aura.
Borin severed Zeron's head, extinguishing the traitor. The true battle was about to begin. The clash of the Old King (Gronak) versus the New King (Borin) was now poised to tear Khazad-Dar apart.