I. The Kneeling of the Coin
The silence on the battlefield was heavier than the armor Captain Joren wore. He stood in the mud, surrounded by the shattered remnants of the Iron Legion mercenary company. Five minutes ago, he had been fighting for pay. Now, he was fighting for breath.
He looked at the crater where the Malum-Behemoth had stood. He saw the pile of black sand. He saw the man—Corvin Nyx—kneeling in the ruin, bleeding black blood, surrounded by the dissipating violet energy of a power that defied nature.
Joren looked at his sword. It was expensive steel, bought with Union gold. It looked like a toy.
"Drop it," Joren whispered.
It wasn't a surrender; it was a conversion. He dropped his sword. The clang echoed across the field. Around him, thousands of surviving mercenaries—hardened killers who had looted villages for decades—followed suit. They fell to their knees. They didn't kneel to save their lives; they knelt because the worldview of the Trazarch Union—that money equals power—had just been physically disproven. They had seen a man fight a nightmare and win.
Joren looked at the Raven Legionnaires surrounding them. The black-armored soldiers didn't cheer. They stood in silent, terrifying vigilance. Joren realized he wanted that silence. He wanted that certainty. He felt the first stirrings of the Obsidian Ordo taking root in his chest—a desire to serve something that couldn't be bought.
II. The Walk of the Wounded
Obsidian Marshall Garrus Vane reached Corvin first. He saw the damage. Corvin's left side was a ruin, the grey rot of the Malum fighting the obsidian regeneration.
"My Lord," Garrus said, his voice tight. "We must get you to the healers. A litter..."
"No," Corvin rasped. He gripped Garrus's pauldron, pulling himself upright. His legs shook, but he locked his knees. "No litters. I walk. They must see me walk."
Veridian Vex moved to his other side. "The Union has surrendered, Lord. They are broken."
"Process them," Corvin commanded, his voice a dry crackle. "Screen them. The choice remains: Service or Death. But today... mercy for those who kneel."
Corvin began the long march back to the gates of Obsidios Iubeo. It was agony. Every step tore at his wound. But he kept his head high, his Eyes of the Abyss burning.
He walked past the Raven Legion. He saw the gaps in the ranks. Many had fallen holding the line against the Union's mass, yet far less than what would otherwise be without the plate they wore. Corvin paused by a fallen Captain, a man named Hollis who had joined in Lithos. Corvin touched the man's breastplate, leaving a bloody, black handprint.
"Your watch is ended," Corvin whispered.
He turned to Garrus. "The dead are not to be burned with the enemy. They are to be taken back to their homes, to their loved ones, so they may mourn. We shall construct Graveyards of Honor within the Ordo."
He looked up at the towering keep. "And their names," he vowed, "shall be engraved on the very surface of the Observa Tower where they made their home.
The surviving Legionnaires saw the gesture. A ripple of emotion went through the ranks—not sorrow, but a fierce, burning pride. Their Lord bled with them. He mourned them. The Cohesion Collective tightened, becoming unbreakable.
III. The Bread of Innocence
The procession stopped near the supply wagons. Sola, the young refugee girl, watched from where she had been hiding. She saw the giant, black-armored soldiers escorting the freed slaves.
She saw Corvin Nyx. He looked terrifying. He was covered in black ichor, grey ash, and his own blood. But when he passed, he looked up, and his eyes met hers. They weren't the eyes of a monster. They were the eyes of a wall that stood between her and the dark.
Sola moved. She walked through the line of towering Legionnaires, who parted for her. She approached the bleeding warlord.
She reached into her tunic and pulled out a half-eaten loaf of Dark Harvest bread—the sustenance the Imperium had given her. She held it out to him, her small hand shaking slightly, but her eyes filled with absolute trust.
"You look hungry," she whispered.
The battlefield went silent. It was a simple act, yet only a child could do it. She did not see a tyrant; she saw her Dark Hero. She saw the leader this country so very needed.
Corvin looked at the bread. It was the symbol of his pact: I feed you; you serve me. Now, the cycle was returning.
He reached out with his uninjured hand, his gauntlet stained with the death of a nightmare, and gently took the bread.
"Thank you, Sola," Corvin said. His voice was not the thunder of the domain; it was the voice of a man.
He took a bite. The dense, magical grain hit his stomach, and he felt a flicker of warmth. It was acceptance.
This singular act, that no one expected will be a profound start to the very foundations of the Imperium.
IV. The Sanctuary of the Heart
Corvin reached the Hall of Judgment. The adrenaline finally failed. He stumbled.
Kyra was there. She didn't wait for him to fall. She moved with the fluid grace of her restored form, catching him, her small frame straining against his armored weight.
"I have you," she whispered, her voice fierce.
She didn't look at his power; she looked at his wound. She saw the man who had rebuilt her, now unraveling to save strangers.
She helped him past the throne, bypassing the healers. She guided him up the stairs to the private Sanctum.
She sat him on the stone divan. Alcides Ynatos arrived with the purest Obsidian essence, but Kyra took it from him. "I will anchor him."
She cleaned the wound, her touch gentle against the grey rot. Corvin hissed, his head leaning back against the wall.
"You stayed," Corvin murmured, his eyes losing focus.
"I told you," Kyra said, pressing his hand to her cheek, tears finally spilling from her hazel eyes. "I will not leave your side. You are my safety. Now, I am yours."
V. The Horizon
Night fell. The Obsidian Ordo glowed with the violet light of the Void Stones.
In the taverns, in the barracks, and in the homes of the newly freed, the story was already changing. It wasn't a battle anymore; it was a myth. They spoke of the Raven Lord who fell from the sky. They spoke of the monster that ate souls, and how he turned it to dust.
Veridian Vex stood on the wall, looking out at the thousands of Union campfires where surrendered soldiers waited to pledge loyalty. He looked at Captain Sol.
"It begins," Veridian said.
Sol nodded. "The Union will come back. And there will be more monsters."
"Let them," Veridian replied, touching the brand on his neck. "We have the Raven Lord."
High in the Sanctum, Corvin looked out the window at his city. He held Kyra's hand. The pain was there, but so was the power.
"It isn't over," Corvin whispered to the dark. "It is just the beginning."