The stars bent to make way.
Aure and Lian stood on sacred ground now a forgotten mesa once lost to time, where gods were crowned and exiled in the same breath. Wind circled them, whispering truths no scroll had dared record.
Aure lifted his hand, and the Ash Sigils spiraled from his skin into the air, drawing a radiant map across the sky. Lian watched in awe, every line a memory, every pulse a decision that refused to be erased.
"They're watching," he said.
Aure didn't look away. "Let them."
Below the cliffs, armies gathered.
Not just mortals, but spirits, old world tribes, flame-bound wolves, and even skyborn constructs once thought extinct. All called by the bond. All awakened by the song of rebellion.
Aure turned to Lian. "We don't need thrones made of gold or marble. We sit on memory, fire, and blood. This is ours now."
Lian smiled, sword resting on his back. "We are not rulers. We're a storm."
Just then, a familiar voice rang out from the edge of the sky.
It was Fen the trickster, the watcher, now cloaked in crimson and shadows. "Took you long enough," he said, leaping effortlessly between time fractures. "Thought you might stay dead."
Lian raised an eyebrow. "You're late."
"I'm fashionable," Fen winked, then held up a scroll bound in red string. "The High Court just declared you illegitimate rulers. Said you're a danger to 'world stability.'He snorted. "Which, to be fair… is true."
Aure took the scroll and burned it without reading.
"We're not asking for permission. We're not kneeling."
Fen grinned wide. "Good. Because the Court just sent their heralds."
From the clouds, metal-winged creatures descended silver-armored, faceless, divine executioners. Each bore a single word etched into their chests:
OBEY.
Aure's eyes narrowed. "Guess it's time to show them why we don't."
His body lit up with flame-bound sigils.
Lian stepped beside him, sword unsheathed, no hesitation.
And as the enemies charged hundreds, maybe thousands , the Ash Bond surged, wrapping their souls in power ancient and new.
They ran forward, into legend.
Not to defend a throne.
To become the fire that burns them all down.