Shax rose slowly from the crater carved into the heart of the city.
Concrete slid from his armor in chunks. Purple blood streaked down his side, steaming where it hit the ruined street below. Buildings leaned at impossible angles around him, windows shattered for blocks.
He laughed—low, rough, furious.
"So," he muttered, straightening despite the pain. "You still have teeth, Demon Queen."
The air shifted.
Shax's violet eyes narrowed as a familiar pressure returned—heavy, suffocating, unmistakable.
Levi.
High above the city, black wings cut through the smoke-choked sky. Levi descended like a falling omen, her presence bending the air itself. Her hair burned crimson, eyes blazing red as she hovered just beyond reach.
"This ends tonight," Levi said, her voice echoing unnaturally.
"I will not let you touch her again."
Shax raised his blade, lightning crawling along its edge. "You should have stayed hidden. You're bleeding out."
Levi didn't deny it.
She attacked.
The clash split the street open, demonic energy and dragon power colliding in a violent eruption. Shax blocked, countered, drove his blade toward her wounded side—but Levi twisted, slamming a shield into him and hurling him through the remains of a tower.
Miles away—
Jane screamed.
The barrier shuddered violently as a surge of power ripped through her body. The purple shimmer beneath her skin flared blindingly bright, veins burning like molten metal. She dropped to her knees, gasping, claws tearing briefly through her fingers before retracting again.
"No—no—no—stop—" Jane sobbed, clutching her head as heat flooded her spine.
Her friends backed away in horror.
"Jane," Mira whispered. "Your eyes—"
Gold. Violet. Something else entirely.
A shockwave burst outward.
The barrier cracked.
Jane screamed as scales briefly rippled across her shoulders, wings phantom-burning against her back as if trying to exist. Her magic and dragon blood collided violently, tearing at her from the inside.
And then—
She felt Levi.
Not just pain. Not fear.
Resolve.
Jane slammed her metal arm into the barrier one last time.
It shattered.
Back in the city—
Levi staggered midair as something snapped.
"Jane—" she gasped, her shield flickering dangerously.
Shax saw it instantly.
His smile was slow and cruel. "Ah. There it is. Your weakness."
He struck.
The blade tore through Levi's guard, driving her into the street below with bone-shaking force. Black wings slammed into stone, feathers scattering like ash.
Shax descended, standing over her.
"You should have let her break," he said coldly. "Now she'll burn you both alive."
Levi coughed, blood darkening the ground beneath her—but her eyes never left him.
"I would rather die," she said hoarsely, "than live without her."
The sky cracked.
A roar—raw, furious, not fully human nor dragon—split the night.
Shax looked up.
From the horizon, something was coming.
And for the first time since the war began—
General Shax hesitated.
---
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