The battlefield had become a grave.
Smoke choked the air, fires burned in the ruins of Heliana's once-sacred walls, and screams cut short echoed like broken bells.
Khael and Serin stood back, forced to watch, breathless at the horror unfolding before them.
The Temple Guardians, clad in radiant armor, their halberds etched with holy seals, had been the first to charge. Veymorr tore through them like parchment, their sacred wards shattering under a single sweep of his claws. Warriors of the great Orders, knights bound by oaths of sun and steel, followed ranks upon ranks. They were crushed beneath a storm of black voidfire, their formations ripped apart as easily as cobwebs in a gale.
