Chapter 8 – Echoes of the Fire

The fortress at Dravahn's Edge had always been known for its silence—strategic, cold, and lifeless. But tonight, it burned.

Smoke curled upward like black silk, and the stone walls crackled beneath the fury of rebel flames. Alarms rang through the air. Screams pierced the night.

And Alex ran through the chaos, blade in hand, cloak whipping behind him like the wings of a shadow.

He wasn't alone.

"Alex, the eastern gate is collapsing!" Kieran's voice shouted through the com-link. "We've got two squads pinned down. They need cover fire—now!"

Alex leapt over a fallen beam and ducked beneath a rain of shrapnel. "Send Asher and Delta team to flank from the north. I'm going in solo."

"Solo?! Are you out of your—"

"Just do it."

He cut the channel and sprinted forward, heart pounding—not just from exertion, but from something else. A fire inside him, different from the one around him. Since last night beneath the willow tree, something had changed.

He wasn't just fighting to end a war anymore. He was fighting to protect a future.

Her future.

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A battered steel door stood before him, red-hot at the hinges. He kicked it open.

Inside, a handful of Sovereign loyalists scrambled with weapons, their commander barking orders. They hadn't seen him yet.

Alex crouched behind cover. He could hear Liana's voice in his head—not pleading, not panicked, just... steady. Grounding him.

"You don't have to be a weapon tonight."

But tonight wasn't over yet.

He tossed a flash grenade, counted to two, then burst through the haze like a demon from smoke. In under ten seconds, the skirmish was over. Only groans and the clatter of weapons hitting the floor remained.

Too easy, he thought grimly, wiping blood from his blade. This wasn't the main command center.

Then the ground shuddered.

A low rumble, like something ancient had just awoken beneath the earth.

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Back at the rebel command post, Liana stared at the seismic monitors. "What was that?"

"It's coming from below the fortress," murmured Sera, her brow furrowed. "The Sovereigns built something down there. It just powered up."

"Oh god..."

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Alex felt the tremor beneath his boots as he stepped into the next corridor. Lights flickered. Static buzzed in his ear.

"Kieran, report," he hissed into the com. No response.

Suddenly, the air chilled. A door creaked open on its own at the far end of the corridor.

"Come on then," he muttered, adjusting his grip on his blade. "Let's finish this."

But instead of soldiers, a single figure stepped out.

Black uniform. Silver crest. Eyes like frozen lakes.

"General Varos," Alex growled.

The Sovereign commander tilted his head. "Shadowborn Alex. The traitor prince."

Alex's lip curled. "You look shorter than I imagined."

"And you look weaker. What changed you, boy? A woman's touch?" Varos chuckled coldly. "Love is such a fleeting shield."

That did it.

Alex lunged, swords clashing in a shower of sparks. They fought like echoes of one another—precise, brutal, unrelenting. Blade met blade. Step for step. Neither gave ground.

But Alex was faster.

And this time, he had something to lose.

With a final twist, he disarmed Varos and slammed him to the wall, blade to throat.

"This war ends now," he hissed.

Varos smiled.

Then detonated the hidden device on his chest.

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The explosion blew the corridor apart.

Alex was flung backward, vision swimming, ears ringing.

Everything was fire.

But one thing cut through the chaos—

"Alex, do you read me?! Please, answer me!"

Liana's voice.

He coughed, blood on his lips. Crawled toward the shattered comm on the floor.

Fingers trembling, he pressed it.

"Still here," he rasped.

Relief broke through her sob. "You idiot... I thought..."

"I'm not dying today," he whispered. "Not before I see you again."

Silence. Then: "Then hurry home."

Alex looked up, through the smoke, at the faint shape of the exit—beyond rubble, beyond pain.

He smiled, faint and bloody.

"I will."