The battlefield was a nightmare of steel and flame.
Explosions ripped across the plain as Veyric's forces clashed with the Harbinger's, while Azhira's strange, luminous drones glided above, bending reality itself—turning bullets to ash mid-air, folding space so soldiers fell into pits of nothingness.
"Stay low!" Kaelen shouted, dragging Lyra behind the shattered hull of a downed fighter. Rhyss crawled up beside them, blood trickling from his temple.
"We can't outrun this," he panted. "We need a way out."
"There!" Ceyra pointed toward a ridge where a shimmering portal blinked in and out of existence. "One of Azhira's gateways. It's unstable, but it might take us off-world."
They bolted.
But they weren't alone. A squad of the Harbinger's soldiers spotted them and opened fire. Plasma bolts scorched the ground inches from Lyra's feet.
Kaelen spun, phaseblade igniting in a blaze of blue light. "Go! I'll hold them!"
"Not leaving you!" Lyra cried, hurling out her hand. The Seed's power surged through her like lightning, and a wave of golden energy erupted, slamming into the attackers and sending them flying.
For a heartbeat, everything stopped.
Kaelen stared at her, wide-eyed. "Lyra… what did you just—"
A shadow loomed over them.
The Harbinger himself landed, his armored boots crushing the soil. Up close, he was monstrous—taller than any human, his mask shifting like liquid metal.
"Little spark," he rumbled, his voice vibrating in their bones. "The Seed answers you. That makes you mine."
He raised a gauntleted hand—and the earth beneath them began to crack open, molten light spilling upward.
Before he could strike, a beam of white light slammed into him, sending him skidding backward.
Azhira descended in a cascade of starlight, her eyes blazing. "She is not yours, warlord."
The ground itself seemed to freeze as the two titans faced each other.
"Run," Azhira whispered in their minds.
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He grabbed Lyra's hand, and together they sprinted for the portal as the Harbinger and Azhira clashed behind them—each blow shaking the world.
They leapt into the flickering gateway just as it collapsed—swallowed by a blinding surge of light.
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