Keiser's throat burned as he forced out a shout, though his body knew before his mind that the mage had to be stopped. He couldn't reach him in time, but there was one person who could.
"Yona!"
The princess was already moving. Even without his cry she had seen it, the danger scribbled into those glowing runes.
Her second short blade was already in the air, hurled with every ounce of fury in her trembling body. The steel hissed, but before it reached, a mercenary's blade intercepted it mid-flight. Sparks scattered as the weapon clattered to the dirt, its faint fire enchantment sputtering out, dying with a weak hiss.
"You bastards!" Yona screamed, her voice raw with fury.
The mercenary slid his claymore back into its sheath as if her rage meant nothing, dismissing her like a child's tantrum.
Keiser's jaw clenched as he caught the flicker of movement above... black wings and a curved beak. A Corvus dove, talons outstretched straight for the princess's exposed back.
"Behind---!"
But McKenzy was faster. The stallion reared, hooves lashing out with explosive force. The impact cracked like thunder as it smashed the beast out of the air, sending it shrieking into the dirt. Yona froze, eyes wide, staring at the sight of a horse kicking a diving monster from the sky.
She had no time to recover. Hands clamped around her, dragging her back... one of the men they've fought with, risking himself to shove her through the gate. She fought, flaring with fire in panic, but the man didn't let go. Flames bit into his skin, blistering his arms, yet he hurled her inside anyway.
At that moment, the mage laughed----a high, triumphant cry.
"Done!"
The runes along the gate blazed to life. The ward shimmered into place, sealing the entrance in an instant. Keiser barely realized he'd also been shoved through as well, stumbling inside with the princess at his side. The barrier solidified behind them, cutting off the world outside like a slammed door.
And outside… the others were left.
The old man with the bandaged head, the one who'd shoved him inside the gate, the one Keiser had sworn to prove himself to----stood just beyond the threshold.
He'd been the first to point a finger at Keiser, calling him out for stating the obvious, 'open the gate or die under the surge of beasts'. He was the man Keiser had told, 'live long enough to see it happen.'
Now, through the glow of the barrier, their eyes met. The beasts closed in. And the old man… smiled.
"I guess," the old man said softly, almost proudly, "I lived long enough to see it."
A Corvus tore through him before the words finished leaving his lips.
Keiser's scream never left his throat.
The old man was gone in an instant, swallowed by the tide of wings and claws. The others who hadn't made it inside were overwhelmed the same way... some burned, some ripped apart, some dragged into the black swarm. Their cries bled through the barrier until even that was smothered.
McKenzy reared and tried to follow, but the ward flared, shoving him back with brutal force. The stallion let out a desperate, furious neigh that echoed against the walls before the beasts swarmed him too.
Keiser could only watch.
The princess lay beside him, her flames guttering out, her whole body trembling. The fire was gone from her, leaving only the shock. Together, the two of them sat on the dirt just past the ward, staring out at the obliterated gate.
The new runes glowed like a cruel mockery... strong enough to keep every beast at bay, strong enough to protect what was within. But it was no longer a sanctuary.
It was a prison.
Not a gate to welcome humans and animals seeking refuge.
Not a barrier to defend life.
It was a wall raised to shut out the world.
To shut out outsiders.
And beyond it, Keiser could still hear the fading screams of those they had abandoned.
"Look what you've done!" the old mage's voice cracked like a whip, trembling with fury as his finger stabbed the air at them. His robes fluttered with the force of his own outrage.
"Those monsters could've breached the gate... Hinnom would have fallen! You outsiders brought the curse back inside!"
His words struck like arrows. Lenko stood frozen, his arms wrapped around two children, pressing their tear-streaked faces into his chest so they wouldn't see what was happening at the gate. His own face was pale, twisted with disbelief. The children's muffled sobs clawed at his heart, but louder still were the cries of the women nearby.
One of them broke down screaming for her husband, her voice raw and frantic. Her hands clutched at the gate, reaching for someone who was no longer there.
The mercenaries of Hinnom kept their silence.
Their broad shoulders shifted uneasily, but none raised a voice against the mage. They simply turned their eyes away, steel-faced and unyielding. The villagers, however, did not hesitate. Their fear spilled into rage, and their rage found its target.
"...You shouldn't be here!" someone shouted.
"...You brought this curse!" another spat.
"...Get out! OUT!"
The voices rose together like a tide crashing against rocks. Fingers pointed, hands shoved, curses hissed through trembling lips. Some of the villagers pushed at the mercenaries, demanding they finish the task and drive Lenko and the others back outside.
And through it all, the mage's glare burned hotter than the ward still glowing on the gate. His voice rang again, sharp and merciless.
"Outsiders have no place here. Not in Hinnom. Not ever."
Keiser's gaze lingered on the mage, and now that he had the chance to truly see him, the details stood out in sharper relief.
The man wore the kingdom's standard mage garb... formal, embellished, the kind meant to remind people of authority rather than service. A memory surfaced unbidden.
Aisha's mocking laughter whenever she spoke of these so-called protectors. "Glorified cultists," she had once called them, disgust twisting her lips. "They're given villages, made into little kings, and the people worship them because they're terrified of what would happen without their wards."
And Keiser had seen it himself, hadn't he? This very man was proof enough... clutching his authority like a weapon, his scribbles on the gate dictating who deserved life and who would be thrown to slaughter.
Keiser's jaw tightened.
This was one of the corruptions he had sworn to rip out of the court once he wore the crown, back when he still had comrades who believed in him. Back when Aisha had followed him, laughing at those same 'cultist mages' and swearing they'd burn the rot together.
Now all that loyalty was ash.
His faction betrayed him, siding with Gideon instead, but even betrayal could not erase the truth he knew in his bones.
It wasn't Muzio's fault.
It wasn't the so-called 'curse'.
The villagers had been taught to fear the changes that Muzio unknowingly brought, told that survival required blood payment, that other human lives had to be sacrificed to keep beasts at bay.
But Keiser knew the truth, with proper guidance, with real leadership, they could have adapted. They could have survived without turning their fear into cruelty.
It wasn't a curse.
It was a choice.
A choice planted by men like this mage... men who thrived on worship, fear, and obedience.
And as Keiser stood trembling before the glowing ward that now barred out innocents as easily as it did beasts, he understood with cold clarity.
This wasn't divine judgment, and it wasn't fate.
It was corruption given a sigil and called protection.
Keiser forced himself upright, every motion dragging agony through his body. His feet scraped the dirt as though his legs had forgotten how to carry him, and the weight of his wounds burned with each staggered step.
The old injuries beneath his bandages screamed raw, the fresh cuts and burns only piling on... but none of it compared to the hollow, stabbing ache in his chest. That wound wasn't carved by steel. It was betrayal itself, sharp as the very sword of the hand he once trusted.
A hollowing pain that could only be silenced in one way.
His gaze locked on the mercenary.
The man stepped forward, looming over the old mage who still spat venom at them.
"THEM!" the mage shrieked, wild eyes bulging as he jabbed a finger at Keiser and Yona.
"They should be thrown out too! They brought this curse! The girl... look at her! She wields a beast! A core beast! She's no different from the monsters! She's already one of them... "
The crowd rippled with unease.
Keiser's teeth ground together, his muscles tensing as the mercenary shoved the mage aside mid-rant. The old man stumbled, but his hate-filled cries carried on.
Keiser didn't wait.
He launched himself forward, mana blazing through the runes etched into his calves and thighs. The glyphs ignited under his skin, searing him alive as if he wore chains of fire... but he drove on, burning himself again if it meant closing the distance.
The mercenary turned to meet him, the torchlight by the gate illuminating his face.
Now, Keiser saw him clearly. He was no reckless brute... an older man, streaks of white threading through his beard and hair. His armor was worn but kept, the kind that spoke of countless battles survived. And in his hands was a claymore... broad, gleaming, far too large from Keiser's diminished perspective.
Muzio's body was slight, too small to face such weight of steel head-on.
The mercenary's blade came fast, cutting the air in a wide, lethal arc. A horizontal sweep meant to cleave him in two.
Keiser dropped low, skidding against dirt and stone. Sparks of pain shot through his legs as he slid, but his hand shot out and closed around the hilt of the princess's short blade... the very one she had hurled in fury earlier, only to have it swatted aside. Its faint fire was almost extinguished, but the steel still sang with her resolve.
As Keiser slid past, time seemed to slow. His eyes locked with the mercenary's, who adjusted his stance, already preparing the next strike. But Keiser's lips curled into a fierce, grim smile.
"Got you."