The battlefield was silent after the fight ended.
None of us spoke. Our eyes stayed fixed on the place where Hazel had disappeared completely.
Her brother, the Emperor, stood motionless, his head bowed, his eyes closed. Edgar only let out a long sigh, while North placed a hand on my shoulder. We all understood then, the weight of her choice, the determination she carried to the very end.
The silence was disturbed when a low chuckle spread through the air, sharp enough to make my skin prickle. All of us snapped our heads toward the source.
Saturn.
Or what was left of him. His body lay split in two, sliced clean down the middle, but the sight was worse than death. His flesh was gone, withered to skin and bone. His blood had already lost its form, turning into a dark slurry that seeped into the ruined earth. He looked like a nightmare yet somehow, he still wasn’t dead.
"Enjoy my gift."
His voice echoed through Essence itself, reaching all of us at once. And then the last of his body dispersed, swallowed by the hungry death laws. A blink later, he was gone from the world.
Dante appeared beside the Emperor, his face grim. The world shifted around me without warning, shadows tugging at my body, and in the next instant Edgar had pulled me and North down to the ground as well.
"Something isn’t right," Dante muttered, his eyes scanning the area.
I glanced around. Every face I saw carried the same tension.
"Your Majesty?" General Cassian’s voice was low, almost careful.
At last, the Emperor moved. Slowly, he opened his eyes. They were calm, but cold. His voice carried no hesitation when he spoke.
"Yes. It looks like he was a traitor."
He lifted his hand, and with that simple motion, an orb appeared. It floated above his palm, glowing faintly. Inside it, I saw Essence swirling, bright green.
I didn’t know what it was, not fully, but the air around me told me it was important. Everyone else had their eyes fixed on it—Dante, Edgar, even the usually unshaken generals. Their silence pulled me in, and I found myself staring as well.
For a few moments, the orb seemed almost harmless. Then, the Essence inside churned, as though something was trying to push its way out.
A black dot suddenly appeared at the center of the green, then another, and another. They stretched, merged, and twisted until a black strand was floating within the orb, writhing like it had a life of its own.
The Emperor’s voice broke the tension.
"Prepare yourselves."
The orb vanished in a flick of his wrist, tucked away, and in its place came his weapon. His awakened weapon materialized in his hand, a massive axe glowing faintly with Essence.
Then Dante moved. I had never seen him summon his awakened weapon before. A long sword took shape in his hand.
One by one, the others followed. All around me, awakened weapons filled the air with their power.
That was when it struck me. The reason why awakened weapons existed, why they were different. They weren’t just symbols of power. They were necessities for what was about to come.
I looked down at the sword in my hand, its surface gleaming faintly. My grip tightened.
’They are coming,’ I thought.
Dante’s voice cut through the tension, sharp and disdainful.
"He was a fool."
The Emperor shook his head. His tone was steady, final.
"No. He was a traitor. That is all."
His gaze swept over us. Then he raised his axe, and his voice carried the authority of command.
"Give it your all, everyone. Whether this ends in our victory or our defeat will depend on how many of us return alive."
He turned to Dante, his tone shifting.
"Find Billion. We will need him."
Edgar stepped closer to me and North. He pulled out two tokens, both carved from a strange brown stone. Each one was engraved with runes that glowed faintly.
He pressed one into my palm and the other into North’s.
"Keep these on you at all times," he said. "No matter what happens, do not engage in the fight."
The words left no room for argument. Before either of us could respond, he lifted his hand. Shadows surged outward, wrapping around us like living smoke.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield shifted beneath my feet, and North and I were pushed back, moved away from the center where the Emperor and the others stood.
North’s gaze snapped immediately to the front lines. Her lips trembled as she whispered, almost too softly to hear, "Grandfather."
My eyes followed hers. Arkas stood just behind the Emperor, his presence as unshakable as a mountain. And then, as if he had heard her whisper across the distance, he turned his head. His eyes met North’s, and he gave the smallest of nods.
I leaned closer to her, my hand brushing her arm, and whispered, "It’s going to be all right."
I saw every grandmaster stood ready, their weapons steady, their auras locked down and controlled to the smallest detail. The silence wasn’t empty, it was sharp, like the calm before a storm too massive to outrun.
I steadied myself, heart pounding. I could feel it, the shadow of what was coming, pressing closer.
Just then, the ground where Saturn’s body had vanished stirred again. Three massive runes, each as large as a human head, floated upward from the dirt.
They were pitch black, the kind of darkness that seemed to drink in the light around them. Up close, I realized they weren’t ordinary markings at all, they looked as if they had been carved out of blood, solidified into shape.
A shiver ran down my spine.
Without warning, all three runes pulsed at once, flaring with a sickening glow. From them spilled a thick black mist that rolled outward like smoke from a fire. My heart clenched the moment I saw it.
Deathmist.
I knew that color, that suffocating presence, even before my mind put a name to it. The same corrupt force I had suffered from once. The same thing that devoured everything it touched.
My grip on the sword tightened as I stared at the spreading haze.