I waited, watched, and prayed she would stay down. But she moved.
Hazel crawled from the shattered earth like a shadow pulling itself free. Each breath came out ragged and dark; she coughed and black blood spilled from her lips, staining the ground. Smoke rose from her clothes and skin in thin, angry tendrils. She looked broken, smaller than I’d ever seen her.
The emperor landed beside her immediately. He reached out as if to lift her, to steady her the way a brother would. For a beat, I thought maybe this madness would end, maybe he could take her away from this edge.
But her voice stopped him. Low at first, then steady as a blade.
"Stay out of this, Lucien." His hand froze in the air.
She didn’t look at him. She didn’t admit to weakness. Her eyes were fixed somewhere beyond us, on a memory only she could see.
Then she pushed herself up slowly. She stood shakily, legs trembling, smoke drifting from her like a sad cloud. Black blood marked her mouth and chin.
Right then she spoke, and her voice was not the wild roar from earlier. It was soft, but it carried everything, anger, grief, and a kind of weary acceptance.
"Right this moment you are not a brother but an emperor. Remember Father’s teaching."
She paused then took a shaky step forward.
"I just have one request as your subject and your sister: will you allow me to avenge my son and husband myself? I am dead anyway."
I clenched my teeth. The plea was not proud; it was bone-deep and honest. There was no theatrics now, only a raw, human ache.
Lucien’s face changed. For the first time I saw something like regret in his eyes, a crack in the hard ruler he wore. He swallowed, silent. Around us, the battlefield had gone still, as if every breath waited for his answer.
I felt numb and sick at the same time. My hands curled into fists so tight my knuckles turned white.
Instinct pushed me to move, to do something, anything. I stepped forward on Edgar’s shadowy platform, but his hand landed firmly on my shoulder.
"Don’t make things harder for her, kid," he said quietly.
His words hit me harder than I expected. I stopped, shut my eyes, and drew in a deep breath that shook inside my chest. I forced myself still. I had to watch this to the end, no matter how much it tore at me.
The emperor finally spoke, his voice calm but heavy, like he was already mourning her. "Maybe in the next lifetime I will be a good brother."
Hazel’s reply came soft and it carried warmth. "You were."
Then she rose into the air again, floating upward with slow, shaky grace.
Her body leaked black smoke, and every step she took against the sky seemed like it cost her life itself.
She moved toward Saturn, who was down on one knee, holding himself up with his greatsword. I saw the black smoke Hazel had unleashed crawling across his body, eating into his skin like poison.
Saturn lifted his head to glare at her. He spat blood on the ground and growled, "I should have killed you that day itself. But it doesn’t matter. I can do it today."
His mouth opened, and a rune emerged, dark brown, pulsing with oppressive might. Even from where I stood, I felt its pressure. He clenched the rune tightly in his single hand and smashed it into the ground.
"Moon Palace—Burial Ground."
A white ripple burst outward from him, expanding in all directions. The air twisted as a massive glowing circle spread from Saturn’s body, wide and merciless.
My throat went dry.
"Now what?" I asked.
Before Edgar could answer, Dante suddenly appeared in front of the kneeling Saturn. His hand shot straight for Saturn’s head, but a glowing shield materialized instantly, blocking the strike.
Saturn grinned, his teeth bloody. "Do you think I would forget about you, thief?"
Dante didn’t answer. His old face was cold. Instead, he moved his hands into sharp signs, and a shining silver rune formed in front of him. He slammed it against the shield, the impact crackling like lightning across its surface.
Saturn chuckled under his breath and whispered one word. "Come."
The moment he spoke, we heard screams from all over the capital as white light rushed into his body and the three grandmasters from his side screamed as well. White fire engulfed them, devouring their bodies in seconds.
I watched, horrified, as their forms shattered into pure particles of light. Two streams shot into Saturn himself, merging with his wounded body, while the last merged into the shield, making it thicken, harden, and glow brighter.
Saturn’s body pulsed with new strength. He rose to his feet, blood still dripping from his severed arm, but his aura now far heavier than before. With one hand, he lifted his greatsword and began floating upward again.
Seeing this, Dante’s voice ripped across the battlefield like a war horn. "KILL THEM!"
And the world descended into madness.
The grandmasters of Vaythos, all except Hazel and Dante, launched themselves at the remaining grandmasters of Peanu. Skills exploded everywhere—beams of fire, torrents of lightning, blades of water, and storms of light. The sky lit up like a rainbow of destruction.
BOOM!
Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over.
The noise faded, the storm of power cleared, and Saturn hovered in front of all of us. My breath caught when I saw him, he looked almost like a transparent spirit, his entire form glowing white.
From his hair to the greatsword in his hand, everything shimmered with that strange, ghostly radiance.
He looked down at Dante with eyes full of hatred. His voice carried across the battlefield.
"You have taken my things. I will come to take them."
Dante turned his back on him, walking away as if Saturn’s words were nothing. His reply was sharp, dismissive, and cutting. "I don’t think you will survive, kid."
Saturn’s mouth opened, ready to retort, but before he could speak Hazel’s voice sliced through the air.
She hovered a short distance away, her body wreathed in black smoke, a living contrast to Saturn’s pale white glow.
"Is this your trump card?" she asked.
Saturn turned his head toward her. His lips curved into a mocking grin.
"One slash is enough for a half-dead woman like you."
"Is that so?" Hazel whispered.
My chest tightened as I watched. Right before our eyes, her body shifted again.
Black blood welled up at the corners of her eyes and streamed down her face, leaving dark stains on her pale skin. Her aura shivered, and the smoke thickened.
She raised her sword slowly, her arms trembling but unyielding. Her lips moved.
"One slash."