The Syndicate didn't wait.
They came with beasts and men alike — cloaked in shadows, riding monstrous creatures with eyes like burning coals. The wind howled in warning as drums echoed through the valleys.
Atop the highest hill, the Syndicate's leader raised a silver spear — forged from bone, etched with the names of all seven cities they had burned.
Behind him stood Jeff, bruised, chained… but still grinning.
> "He's not ready," Jeff whispered.
The leader nodded.
> "Then we strike before he believes he is."
---
Jayden stood atop the outer wall, staring at the endless black mass crawling toward them.
> "How long?"
> "Hours, maybe," Mira said.
Callum returned from the eastern watchtower, blood on his blade.
> "They've sent scouts. I've taken care of them."
Maggy was still at the Vault, securing the scroll Jayden had opened.
> "If they take this place," she warned, "they won't just kill us. They'll inherit us."
Jayden turned.
> "Then we don't give them anything to inherit."
He faced the soldiers, the rebels, the farmers with pitchforks who had followed him into this madness.
> "You are not cannon fodder. You are not pawns in a dead man's game. You are legends waiting to be carved into stone."
And they roared.
---
The Hollow shook.
Walls cracked.
Creatures with skin like smoke and claws like iron tore through the gates.
Jayden was the first to strike — sword in hand, fire in his eyes.
Beside him, Mira rained down blue fire. Callum moved like water, killing without sound. Linet led the second battalion, fierce and commanding.
But they were too many.
Too fast.
Too hungry.
---
Maggy fought like a tempest — her twin blades dancing in rhythm, slicing Syndicate assassins apart. She was bleeding. Barely standing. But still laughing.
> "You'll have to do better than that, you cowards!"
One of the assassins lunged — she met him midair, driving a blade through his chest, then spinning and catching the next with a boot to the throat.
Behind her, Aria collapsed — struck by a poisoned arrow.
Maggy dragged her behind the fallen statue of a forgotten saint and screamed for help.
> "Someone get me fireleaf! She's not dying tonight!"
---
Jeff watched it all unfold.
Still chained. Still smirking.
Until a guard guarding him was torn apart by a creature with a mouth on its stomach.
Jeff looked at the keys on the corpse's belt.
He hesitated.
> "Don't do it," whispered a voice in his mind.
> "You left me no choice," he replied.
He took the keys.
And vanished into the tunnels.
---
Steel rang.
Jayden met the Syndicate leader in the courtyard of the dying Hollow.
The man was tall — taller than any human should be. His skin glowed faintly red. His teeth were filed to a point.
> "So you're the boy," he said, circling Jayden like a predator.
> "And you're the end of this story," Jayden replied.
They fought.
Hard.
Jayden's sword met the spear, sparks flying. Blades sang. The earth cracked. The sky wept.
Jayden was fast — but the leader was cruel.
Every move was designed to not just wound — but scar.
And then, Jayden stumbled.
The spear pierced his side.
He fell.
The leader raised the weapon.
> "Any last words?"
Jayden coughed blood.
> "Yeah... duck."
The leader frowned — too late.
Maggy's dagger flew through the air and sliced through his cheek, forcing him back.
Jayden rose.
Together, they fought.
Not as lovers.
Not as rebels.
But as the storm and the fire it carries.
---
At dawn, the snow was red.
Bodies frozen in the positions they died in.
Jayden limped through the wreckage, holding Maggy's hand.
Aria was alive. Barely.
Mira had lost an eye.
Callum… was missing.
Jeff was nowhere to be found.
The Hollow had held.
But at a cost.
A terrible cost.
Jayden climbed the broken tower and looked out over the mountains.
He didn't speak.
He didn't cry.
He just stood there — king of nothing, yet burdened with everything.
---
That night, a raven arrived.
Not black — but golden.
Its message was short.
Six words.
Written in blood.
> "The crown waits in the ashes."
Jayden folded it.
Looked at the stars.
> "Then we head to Solmar."
Maggy stepped beside him.
> "Endgame?"
He nodded.
> "Endgame."
---