The wind was wrong.
Seraphina felt it in her bones — not just cold, but hollow.
A silence had settled over the sanctuary, not the peaceful kind… the kind that comes before blood is spilled.
And then the bells stopped.
> "Ravon," she whispered, eyes narrowing. "They're here."
---
At the Gates of the Sanctuary
The mist peeled back.
Figures emerged — cloaked, armored, in robes of cracked bone and with weapons not forged but grown.
The Cradleless had returned.
Thousands marched in silence, their eyes glowing faintly with the fire of unfulfilled prophecy.
At their center stood the Hooded Woman, her staff made from the spine of a fallen god, her voice trembling with command.
> "The Ashborne shall not rise.
The Cradle shall not awaken again.
And the child will not breathe."
She raised her hand — and behind her, the sky itself seemed to shatter.
Dark rifts opened. Creatures not born of this world slithered through.
Warriors without names. Beasts without mercy.
> "Burn it all," she said.
---
Inside the Sanctuary
Ravon stood, sword drawn, eyes shadowed with something old.
The flames around the sanctuary flickered — sensing what was coming.
> "They won't stop," he said, voice low. "They've waited centuries for this."
Seraphina's hands trembled, not in fear, but in knowing.
> "Then we give them something to remember," she whispered.
She stepped forward.
The sanctuary responded — light bloomed from the stones, gold and violet.
The Ashborne's mark pulsed.
Her child stirred.
---
Battle Unleashed
The Cradleless clashed against the Sanctuary's old wards — symbols flared, then cracked.
And then they were inside.
Fire met void.
Ashborne flame met ancient shadow.
The Sanctuary became a storm.
Seraphina raised her hand and cast a wall of burning symbols.
Ravon cleaved through shadows with every step, his sword humming with the echo of who he once was — though he still did not remember.
> "They want the child," Seraphina shouted over the chaos.
> "Then they'll die with empty hands," Ravon growled.
But the Hooded Woman only smiled from the shadows.
> "You are not ready.
You are not complete.
The veil is breaking.
And your flame… is already fading."
---
Final Scene
A scream tore through the battlefield — not human, not beast.
A shadowed creature — part prophecy, part nightmare — lunged at Seraphina.
And just before it could strike—
A burst of crimson light shattered it.
From above, a figure landed in smoke and gold.
A woman with burning wings.
Eyes full of fury.
> "The Ashborne rise together," she said.
Seraphina's voice broke:
> "Liora?"