The first rays of sunlight bled across the valley like a wounded sky. Crimson and gold streaked the heavens, as if the gods themselves had wept through the night and bled their sorrow into the dawn. Mist curled low over the earth, thick as smoke, cloaking the land in a shroud of uncertainty. It clung to boots and hooves, to blade and breath. The kind of fog that swallowed both memory and future.
Lucian rode at the front of the column, his silver armor dulled from battle, the once-proud sigil of the kingdom marred by ash and dried blood. Each dent was a memory, each scar on the steel a whisper of comrades lost. The holy sword, Radiance, rested at his side, its hilt worn smooth from his grip. Once, it had shone like the sun itself, a beacon of faith. Now, it flickered with reluctant fire, like a dying star in the hands of a man slipping into shadow.
The soldiers behind him rode in grim silence. Weary. Wounded. But still with him. Not for glory. Not even for duty.
For him.
For Lucian.
The hero.
And yet, even heroes break.
A soft wind stirred the mist. Trees rustled like restless spirits, and crows circled overhead—silent witnesses to what was to come.
Lucian's hand tightened around the reins as he whispered, "Selene will return."
He did not speak to the gods. They had stopped listening.
He spoke to memory.
To guilt.
To a ghost that still wore her name.
He remembered her laughter. The way she once touched his shoulder to calm the storms within him. The nights they had lain together beneath constellations, whispering of peace, of love, of a future neither of them truly believed in.
And yet…
He had believed in her.
So why had she not believed in him?
As the fog thinned, a fortress emerged in the distance—Kael's citadel. Black stone rising like a monolith against the bleeding sky. Silent. Watching. Daring. No banners flew. No patrols roamed the ramparts. No warning horns. Just that haunting, perfect silence.
Lucian felt his stomach twist. He had faced demons. Monsters. Armies of the damned.
But never this.
This… stillness.
"Form ranks!" he shouted, his voice slicing through the morning haze like steel. Radiance lifted high, catching the first glint of light.
Armor clattered. Shields locked. Rows upon rows of tired, battered men fell into formation. The sound echoed like a prayer over a tomb.
Then—
The gates opened.
Not with thunder. Not with fury.
But with a soft groan. As if the fortress exhaled.
A single figure emerged.
Lucian's heart stopped.
The world tilted.
Selene.
Her cloak rippled in the morning breeze—black and crimson, the colors of the enemy. Upon her chest, Kael's sigil shimmered like a brand. Her hair was bound tightly, her face expressionless. Not chained. Not cowed.
Free.
But not his.
"Selene…" His voice cracked as he stepped forward, Radiance trembling in his hand.
She halted. Her gaze found his—not with pain or apology.
But with silence.
Cold. Steady. Detached.
"What has he done to you?" Lucian asked, his voice barely a whisper. The world around them blurred.
She tilted her head, studying him as if he were a stranger from a forgotten dream. "He freed me."
"You loved me," Lucian said, desperation curling around his words like frost. "You swore…"
"I did." Her voice was soft. Almost kind. But devoid of warmth. "And then I saw what love truly was."
She raised her hand.
The battlements screamed with life.
A thousand arrows took flight.
The sky darkened with steel.
Lucian didn't move.
Couldn't.
From above, Kael watched. Cloaked in black, his silhouette like a sovereign shadow. Eyes gleaming with something far colder than hatred.
Triumph.
"Do you see it now?" Kael murmured, his voice only for Selene. "He doesn't fall because you betrayed him… He falls because you chose me."
Selene didn't answer. She didn't need to.
The silence was the answer.
Kael smiled, slow and cruel. Then he raised his hand.
The gates belched forth his army—black-armored, disciplined, monstrous. An ocean of shadows. Trained in silence. Born in cruelty.
And Lucian's line broke.
The screams came in waves. Steel clashed. Blood painted the earth.
Lucian roared. "Hold the line! For the kingdom!"
But his own voice betrayed him. Weak. Unsure.
What kingdom?
What cause?
When the woman who carried your heart turned her back on it?
Lucian surged forward, blade flashing. Radiance ignited in a storm of holy fire. He carved through Kael's soldiers like a tempest. For every man who fell, he felled three more. The sword sang. But each strike carried more than fury.
Each was a question.
Each cut a plea.
Where is she?
Why?
He turned—and there she was.
Selene. Standing between him and Kael's inner sanctum.
Her sword drawn.
Her face unreadable.
His breath caught. He staggered to a halt.
"Move," he said.
She didn't.
In her eyes, a war raged. Doubt. Pain. Memories she had tried to bury.
Lucian dropped his sword.
"Please," he said. Not as a general. Not as a hero.
As a man. As the man who once whispered her name in the dark.
Her hand trembled.
He stepped closer.
But then—
Kael's voice cut through the battle like a whip.
"Selene."
She froze.
And Lucian knew.
He had lost her.
Not to chains.
Not to death.
But to Kael.
He lunged for his blade—
Too slow.
Steel flashed.
She moved with the precision of someone who had rehearsed this moment a thousand times in her mind.
The dagger slipped beneath his armor. Between his ribs. Into the space where love once lived.
Lucian gasped, breath catching. Eyes wide. Pain blooming like fire in his lungs.
"You…" he choked, blood trailing from his lips. "You were my heart."
She looked down at him. Not with hatred. Not with triumph.
With regret.
"I was."
And she turned.
Lucian fell to his knees.
The battlefield blurred.
Footsteps approached.
Kael crouched beside him, shadows dancing around his form.
"You were never a hero," he whispered. "You were a placeholder. A myth waiting to be corrected."
Lucian tried to speak. To curse. To plead.
But Kael's laughter drowned it all.
Dark.
Triumphant.
Inevitable.
Lucian collapsed, Radiance slipping from his fingers. The divine fire extinguished. The light within fading like the sun behind stormclouds.
The screams of his men faded.
The mist swallowed the field again.
And somewhere, far away…
The kingdom wept.
To be continued...