CHAPTER 64.

Chapter 64: Fire Beneath Heaven

The heavens screamed.

Antares descended like a dying sun, wings blotting out the sky, his roar a cataclysmic wave that cracked open the ground and sent lesser dragons fleeing. The sheer pressure of his aura—the malice of a thousand years festering in silence—brought the battlefield to its knees.

Even Grand Masters staggered.

Even Emissaries gasped.

But Jean Luther stood tall.

Her white hair whipped in the storm. Her sword—a blade of divine steel—glowed brighter than the fires of war. Whitney bared his fangs, his fur bristling with the goddess Celeste's light.

Around them, the Vanguard of Light regrouped—broken lines pulled tight by will alone.

> "We face death," Jean shouted, her voice cutting through the roar like a trumpet blast.

"Not as fragments. Not as factions.

But as one flame!"

The soldiers rallied.

From the high towers, Valeria Durnstahl, bloodied but unbowed, raised her hammer again.

Silvia Luther rejoined Jean's side, her aura surging crimson like a phoenix reborn.

Erin Magus cast a great ward across the broken walls, shielding the final line from Antares's gaze.

Karen soared down beside Jean, her armor cracked, her lightning dimmed—but her resolve unshaken.

> "It has to be you," she said. "The Light. The one who ends this."

> "No," Jean said softly. "Us."

She looked around at the warriors, mages, assassins, emissaries, and beasts of the world.

> "We all end it. Together."

---

Antares opened his jaws—and unleashed his first breath in a thousand years.

It was not fire.

It was annihilation.

A beam of dragonflame that turned magic to ash, aura to dust, and hope to memory.

Jean raised her sword, shouted a word in Celeste's tongue—and Whitney howled.

The flame struck a barrier of pure divine radiance.

Jean was driven to one knee. The world screamed. Her body shook.

But the light held.

Behind her, Raven Luther stabbed her blade into the ground, pouring her own aura into the barrier.

Then Ryan Magus stepped forward, his hands aglow with counter-runes, weaving reinforcement spells into the light.

Vaelros appeared beside them, casting a shadow veil to reduce the fire's intensity.

One by one, they joined her—every faction, every race, every power.

And together, they held.

---

Antares paused.

For the first time, his burning eyes narrowed—not in rage, but in curiosity.

> "You think this unity will save you?"

"You think light can conquer flame?"

"You are still human."

Jean rose, sword leveled.

> "No," she said. "We are more."

> "We are the storm you feared."

"We are the light you buried."

"And now..."

She pointed her sword at the Dragon Lord.

> "We are the end of your war."

Whitney's roar became a pillar of radiance that tore into the skies.

The final battle had begun.

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