KABOOOOOOOM!
The deafening sound of shattering obsidian and detonating flesh ripped through the night.
A massive, concussive explosion erupted from the base of the Whispering Hollows, sending a violent shockwave traveling for miles across the blood-soaked plains of Athervale.
Miles away, on the battered frontlines, the sky was violently tearing apart.
An Elven mage floated just behind the vanguard, her staff raised high as she rained merciless, blinding bolts of lightning down upon the exhausted Tamaskrit forces.
"Prince Ignis! We cannot hold on!" a soot-covered soldier screamed over the roaring thunder.
He desperately raised his shield, deflecting a stray bolt of lightning that shattered the ground beside him.
"We need to back out! This unit is completely exhausted!"
Bright, volatile flames sparked violently as Ignis moved as a blur across the battlefield.
He sliced cleanly through the Elven vanguard, desperately keeping himself positioned between the lethal magic and the unconscious bodies of Valerius and Malakor.
"Yes, I know!" Ignis spat back, his breath ragged as he deflected a thrusting spear and kicked an Elf into the mud.
He raised the smoldering hilt of the Crimson Blade high.
"Command everyone to move back to the flanks! I will handle that wretched bitch myself!"
"As you command, Your Highness!" the soldier replied with a hasty, desperate bow.
He turned to the surviving troops.
"Everyone back out!
It's a direct order from Prince Ignis!
Engage the flanks!
His Highness will slay that mage!"
The battered Tamaskrit Army let out a guttural roar of compliance.
They broke their defensive formation, retreating heavily toward the relatively safer flanks to fend off the archers and swordsmen, leaving the center open.
Ignis did not hesitate.
He lunged forward, a crimson comet burning through the dark.
SLASH!
The Crimson Blade flew in a flawless, devastating arc, leaving a blinding, superheated trail of raw plasma lingering in the air behind it.
"Ughh..."
A massive Elven heavy-infantryman gurgled as the blade phased right through him.
The terrifying heat of the legendary katana literally melted the vanguard's thick steel armor and flesh simultaneously.
The horrifying stench of searing meat and ozone filled the air as the Elf's upper torso slid sickeningly off his lower half, hitting the wet mud with a wet thud.
"Damn him," the floating Elven mage cursed under her breath as Ignis rapidly closed the distance.
She was a master of the skies, but entirely ineffective in close-quarters combat against a monster like the fiery prince.
The crimson eyes of Ignis flashed with lethal intent.
He carved a bloody, burning path straight toward her, his katana glistening with bubbling, boiling Elven blood.
He closed the final gap.
He turned his wrists in a graceful, fluid motion, fully prepared to execute a perfect diagonal slash, just as he had done a million times since the day the Crimson Blade chose him.
But at the absolute last microsecond... he froze.
A small, pathetic figure stood directly between him and the mage.
It was a cowering, violently trembling Half-Elf child.
The boy stood no higher than Ignis's waist, holding a standard-issue Elven dagger loosely in his shaking, dirt-stained hands, pointing it directly at the Prince of Tamaskrit.
Tears streamed down the child's terrified face as he faced certain death.
The eyes of Ignis blew wide open.
I cannot do it. I just can't.
Ignis threw his entire body weight backward, falling hard onto his knees and sliding aggressively through the slick mud.
He violently wrenched his wrists, using every single ounce of physical strength he could muster to break the lethal arc of the Crimson Blade.
Stop it! he screamed in his own mind.
The glowing blade shuddered to a halt mere inches from the trembling Half-Elf's face.
But it wasn't enough.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The Half-Elf wailed in unbearable, high-pitched agony.
The residual ambient heat radiating off the superheated plasma was too close.
The skin on the left side of the boy's face instantly blistered and melted, his left eyeball boiling in its socket from the sheer proximity to the legendary weapon.
"Shit!" Ignis cursed, panic seizing his chest.
The dagger fell from the boy's melting hands, landing in the mud as the child collapsed, screaming hysterically, clawing at his ruined face.
Ignis violently pulled his katana back, slamming the glowing blade deep into the wet earth to let the lethal heat rapidly dissipate into the mud.
He threw his bare hands forward, his face twisting in genuine, desperate worry for the enemy child.
"It's bad," Ignis whispered to himself, his hands hovering over the thrashing boy.
"But he will survive..."
He reached out, grabbing the boy's convulsing shoulders to stabilize him.
BZZZZZZZZZT!
A sickening sound of a high-voltage electrical surge ripped through the air.
"GAAAAAH!"
The Half-Elf boy convulsed with terrifying, unnatural violence.
A dangerously high voltage of blue electricity ripped out from the mage's staff, traveling straight through the boy's body, instantly boiling his insides and spreading directly into Ignis's gripping hands.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Ignis shrieked in pure agony.
He collapsed sideways into the mud, his hand desperately gripping the hilt of his grounded sword to channel some of the lethal current directly into the earth.
That Bitch!
Ignis cursed, violently gritting his teeth.
His entire muscular system locked up, effectively paralyzing him on the ground.
The mage had purposefully used the child as a living, conductive lightning rod to channel her spell past Ignis's guard, entirely roasting the Half-Elf alive in the process.
"Oh, my goodness..."
The mage floated down, her boots touching the mud.
"I have finally brought a Prince to his knees in front of me," she said, her voice giddy and disturbingly excited.
She stepped over the smoking, blackened corpse of the child.
"Too bad it's not a proposal.
I always dreamed of a charming prince like you offering me a ring...
But how unfortunate.
I suppose I will just have to electrocute you instead," she purred, taking another step closer, holding her glowing staff steady to maintain the paralyzing current locking Ignis to the ground.
Fuck... Ignis thought, his vision vibrating.
Now I know what the opponents fighting Valerius must feel like...
He stared up at the mage standing right in front of his kneeling, twitching form.
The magical currents from her spell made her skirt flare up elegantly in the wind.
She truly looked gorgeous, like an angel of the storm—if not for the fact that she was actively torturing him to death.
Ignis forced a deliberate, blood-stained smirk onto his lips, deciding to violently pull her nerves.
"Well..." Ignis choked out, "I thought you wanted a prince to propose to you... but unfortunately for you, my lady... I am already taken."
The mage abruptly stopped.
Her mouth fell open in absolute, dramatic shock.
She actually lifted her free hand to clutch her chest, her eyes wide.
"No..." she whispered in utter disbelief.
"It can't be..."
Her grip on the staff tightened.
"I finally... finally brought a prince to his knees in front of me... just to hear that he belongs to someone else?!"
Her beautiful face instantly contorted into a mask of hideous, unhinged jealousy.
She slammed her staff aggressively into the mud.
The air crackled furiously as a dangerously high-voltage orb of pure, crackling blue thunder began to materialize on the ground right in front of Ignis's face.
"I will torture you to death for breaking my fantasy!" she screamed, acting entirely like a fierce, spoiled girl whose favorite toy had just been ruined.
Oh no... I am actually done for, Ignis gulped.
He watched helplessly as the thunder orb expanded rapidly, growing denser and brighter, seemingly fueling itself directly off her manic, psychotic jealousy.
She walked closer, a wicked, vindictive smile spreading across her face.
"DIE!"
She screamed, raising her staff with both hands to deliver the killing blow.
Fuck no! Ignis braced for the end.
Then, it hit them.
FWOOOOOOOSH!
The shockwave from the exploded Titan finally reached their sector of the battlefield.
The earth violently bucked upward.
The sheer kinetic force rattled the battleground like a massive earthquake.
Elven soldiers and Tamaskritians alike were violently thrown off their feet, unable to stand their ground.
Ignis, driven by pure survival instinct, gripped the hilt of the Crimson Blade with every ounce of strength he had left.
The legendary sword remained firmly embedded in the earth, anchoring him against the devastating wind.
But the mage, mid-swing and entirely off-balance, wasn't so fortunate.
The shockwave hit her back, throwing her forward.
She stumbled.
And fell face-first directly onto her own hyper-charged thunder orb.
ZAAAP-CRACKLE!
"SCREEEEEEEEE!"
Screams of sheer, unfathomable agony echoed across the muddy plains.
Her melodic, arrogant voice instantly warped into something completely inhumane as thousands of volts of electricity violently surged through her own nervous system.
Ignis watched grimly from the mud.
The comedic arrogance of the moment was instantly erased by the horrific, visceral reality of the magic.
The orb dissipated, dropping her to the ground.
She lay over the roasted corpse of the Half-Elf, her own flesh blackened and smoking.
She was somehow still alive, her body twitching uncontrollably, her charred lips moving soundlessly.
Her ruined eyes met Ignis's, desperately begging him for the mercy of death.
Ignis slowly pushed himself up.
His face was completely devoid of emotion.
He pulled the Crimson Blade from the mud, stepped over to her twitching form, and cleanly slit her throat, granting her the final mercy she begged for.
He sheathed his sword.
He slowly turned his head, looking past the carnage, staring off into the distance toward the towering canopy of the Whispering Hollows.
"Big brother..." he murmured into the wind.
Miles away, at the base of the Whispering Hollows.
The air was thick with falling debris.
Melodius stood before the completely shattered Obsidian Gates, using his bloody, dirt-caked fingers to shield his eyes from the violent rain of pulverized stone, shredded Titan flesh, and jagged, twisted steel flying in all directions.
The dust slowly began to settle.
Clank.
A heavy, metallic footstep echoed from the center of the massive crater where the Titan had just been standing.
Melodius winced his pitch-black eyes against the settling smoke.
Slowly, his lips curled upward into a wide, unnatural smile.
Clank.
There stood Aurelius.
He was completely, flawlessly unscathed.
But the Crown Prince's armor was no longer pitch black.
The steel was radiating a blinding, terrifying heat.
It was glowing a brilliant, blinding gold.
Like the core of the sun.