The battlefield smelled of blood, ash, and moonlight.
Kael stood atop the smoking ruin of what used to be a temple, sacred stone now cracked under his feet, the silver crest of the Moon Court scorched into blackened dust. His armor glinted faintly under the blood-red sky, runes pulsing like a heartbeat across his gauntlets.
Still, the elven bastard had not died.
Kael's eyes swept the chaos below, soldiers screaming and clashing, demons roaring, flames leaping across crumbled walls. And there cutting through the carnage with that damned silver sword, bathed in moonlight..
Eirian.
"Commander," said Sythra, the demoness crouched beside him, blood smeared down her neck. "He's breaching the line again. Should I end him?"
Kael didn't answer. His gaze stayed fixed on the elven prince, hair streaming like starlight, cloak torn, face smeared with ash but his movements were still infuriatingly graceful. Efficient. Too beautiful to belong to war. Yet here he was, slicing through Kael's army like a song with a blade.
"No," Kael said at last, his voice low and sharp as a dagger's edge. "Let him come."
Sythra's eyes gleamed, cruel and amused. "You enjoy pain far too much, my king."
Kael did not smile.
Eirian reached the steps of the ruined temple, breath ragged, eyes burning with something between fury and righteousness. His soldiers were dying. And Kael stood above it all like death incarnate, wrapped in flame and shadow, watching.
"Coward," Eirian shouted up to him. "Hiding behind your beasts and fire, as always."
Kael stepped forward, letting his aura bleed out slowly, hot, suffocating, intoxicating. The wind twisted with dark energy. "You call it cowardice, moon prince. I call it using brains."
Eirian's grip on his sword tightened. "I'm going to kill you."
Kael descended the first step, then the second. "Then stop talking too much and try."
Lightning cracked. Magic sparked between them like something alive.
They met halfway blade to claw, fire to starlight. The temple shook from the force of their clash, stone splitting beneath their feet. Kael pushed forward, strength like a mountain behind him. Eirian ducked, pivoted, and slashed his blade across Kael's side, his armor cracked, just barely.
Kael laughed loudly at him.
"You bleed," Eirian said, surprised.
"I enjoy it when it's you," Kael replied, his voice dragged through smoke.
Their battle raged for minutes or hours...it no longer mattered. They knew each other's rhythm too well. Eirian was fast. Kael was brutal. One fought like a dance, the other like a storm. And still, neither yielded.
Until the sky above them tore open.
A pulse of raw energy rippled across the battlefield. Every creature, demon, elf, froze, staring upward.
A black scar split the sky from horizon to horizon, leaking something ancient, hungry, wrong. The stars blinked out.
Kael stepped back. Eirian's sword lowered slightly. They both turned their eyes to the rift above.
"What did you do?" Eirian asked hoarsely.
Kael's voice was eerily calm. "That wasn't me."
Then the ground shook again, deeper this time.
From the tear in the sky, something began to emerge.
"Retreat," Kael commanded his generals.
"You want to run now?" Eirian snapped.
"Don't be an idiot." Kael's eyes never left the sky. "Whatever that is… it'll kill us both."
Eirian hesitated.
A massive tendril of smoke and bone crashed into the temple below them. Screams echoed.
Kael cursed, grabbed Eirian by the arm, and yanked him backwards just before the stone where he'd stood collapsed into a chasm.
Eirian stared at him, stunned. "You saved me."
Kael didn't let go. "Don't read too much into it."