The void-citadels cracked open like blooming iron flowers, each one revealing colossal cannons and legions of shadow-forged warriors. Their eyes burned red, their bodies tethered to the Black Sun by chains of lightless energy.
The ground quaked as the first salvo fired—beams of voidfire streaking toward Kaelen and the others.
"MOVE!" Rhyss bellowed, tackling Ceyra aside as the blast obliterated a swath of glassy terrain. The shockwave rattled their bones, leaving a canyon of molten black in its wake.
Kaelen surged forward, phaseblade alive with furious light. He carved through the onrushing knights, each strike scattering them into fragments of dark smoke. But for every one destroyed, two more rose from the ground, their forms drawn back together by the Black Sun's gravity.
"Endless," he spat, teeth clenched.
"No," Lyra said, her aura burning brighter. She raised her hands, golden light spiraling outward. "Not endless… bound."
Her pulse of energy revealed the truth: the knights weren't independent—they were extensions of the Echo-Lord, puppets bound to its will.
The Echo-Lord's voice shook the battlefield.
"Do you see, child? They are me. Strike them, and you strike at my eternity."
Lyra's power flared hotter, her voice defiant. "Then we'll cut eternity down."
The next wave came. Ceyra activated her gauntlet, crystalline constructs erupting from the ground to shield them. Rhyss roared as his cannons tore into the ranks, explosions lighting up the black glass like falling stars.
And then Kaelen saw it—a weakness. When the citadel cannons fired, the chains linking them to the Sun flickered. The Echo-Lord had stretched himself too thin.
"Lyra! Can you sever the chains?"
She nodded, though sweat poured down her face from the strain. "Hold them off!"
Kaelen leapt into the fray again, his blade a burning comet. Each swing was fueled not just by rage but by resolve—every knight shattered was one heartbeat longer for Lyra to act.
Her light gathered into a spear of radiance. With a scream that shook her core, she hurled it at the nearest chain.
The chain shattered. The citadel it bound trembled, its weapons faltering.
The Echo-Lord roared in fury, and for the first time… Kaelen thought he heard fear in its voice.
"Break them all!" Kaelen shouted.
The war of shadows had truly begun.
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