Damien stood tall beneath the vast expanse of a sky smeared with the colors of dusk, the horizon ablaze with brilliant strokes of deep crimson and molten gold, colors that seemed to echo the tumultuous emotions swirling within him, the chaos, grief, and power now tempered by new clarity, yet never entirely stilled.
Behind him loomed Vel'kharn, the beast whose presence had become more than just his weapon, more than his protector, having evolved into a living symbol of Damien's growing mastery and the bitter cost he had paid along the arduous path he had tread.
Around Vel'kharn, arrayed like silent sentinels of fate, knelt the four prodigious souls Damien had bound beneath its dominion: Wu Jinhai, Jin Tu, Lu Shenyi, and Yan Qinglan.
