We thought we could stop it. We thought we could fix it. But even as the ritual came to a screeching halt, I knew the price was going to be far worse than any of us had prepared for.
The air around us crackled with the aftermath of Necro's magic, now fading, leaving behind nothing but ruin. The neighborhood was a shell of itself—buildings crumbled, streets scarred with blood and fire. The Blackthorn and Vortex estates were half-destroyed, shattered remnants of power that could never be reclaimed.
I stood in the middle of it all, the ground still warm from the blood spilled, the echoes of Necro's ritual reverberating in my head. The ritual was over. But the cost had been so high that I could hardly breathe through the weight of it all.
Sable was gone. It happened in a flash. One moment, he was there, offering the last shred of redemption by throwing himself into the heart of the ritual to contain the magic, to make sure Necro didn't escape. The next, he was nothing but a faded memory—his body consumed by the very magic he had tried to stop. His sacrifice had been the final thread holding everything together, and now that it was gone... so was he.
I looked down at my hands, stained with his blood. His life force had been the final catalyst. The moment the magic shifted, I felt it—a violent jolt through my veins that made me stagger. I wanted to scream, but the words didn't come. Sable had given up everything to make sure we didn't lose it all.
I had never thought I'd feel anything like this for him—not after everything he had done. Betraying us, playing both sides, tearing apart the family that had once trusted him. But now, with him gone, I realized just how far he had gone to make things right. And I hated myself for not seeing it sooner.
"He's gone," Emberfang's voice broke through my thoughts, rough and strained. "He really did it, didn't he?"
I turned to her, nodding, but I could barely speak. How could I? How could I explain what had happened? What we had lost?
And yet, I felt the oddest sensation, something like relief, flickering deep inside me. We had stopped Necro, yes, but at what cost?
The two families were broken—scattered and stripped of their former power. There was nothing left of the empire we had built. The alliances, once so unshakable, had been shattered like glass underfoot. The Blackthorns and Vortexes—our families—had lost everything, including their pride.
And the worst part? We didn't know if we could rebuild it.
I found myself standing face-to-face with Noctis. We hadn't spoken much since the ritual. The tension between us was palpable. Neither of us wanted to acknowledge how the other felt. But in the silence, something shifted. A new understanding, perhaps. Or the painful acknowledgment that there was nothing left to fight for.
"Well," Noctis said, his voice bitter but strangely calm. "That's it, then. The empire is finished." His eyes were distant, staring at the wreckage of the city, and for the first time, I saw something like regret in them. "We were never meant to hold power this way. Maybe it was always going to end like this."
His words stung more than I expected. But I couldn't argue with them. We had been too obsessed with control, with domination, and now there was nothing left. Nothing to show for all the bloodshed, all the sacrifices, all the betrayals.
"I don't know what to do now," I admitted, my voice a little hoarse. "But we have to move forward. Somehow."
Noctis shot me a sharp look, his brow furrowing as he processed my words. "You're right. We have to rebuild. But it won't be the same. There's no going back."
I nodded slowly. He was right. The families were fractured. The alliances broken. And Sable's sacrifice... it felt like the final nail in the coffin.
But despite everything, there was a part of me that still saw a way forward. Not the way we had imagined it, not the way we had once dreamed, but something else. Something different. Maybe it was the price of power—the cost of everything we had done—that finally opened our eyes to what was really important.
It wasn't about control anymore. Not about bloodlines, not about dominance. It was about surviving the mess we'd made. It was about learning from the mistakes that had led us here.
I looked over at Empress, who had been quiet since the ritual ended. She was standing alone, her face unreadable, her posture stiff. She looked like someone who had lost everything, but I knew her better than that. She hadn't given up yet. Neither had I.
"We need to rebuild," I said again, more firmly this time. "And we do it differently. We do it right. But we do it together."
Noctis glanced at Empress and then back at me. His expression was unreadable, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes—perhaps the first glimmer of a plan. Or maybe just the realization that we were all in this, whether we liked it or not.
He sighed, looking exhausted. "You really think we can make something work after all this?"
"I think we have no choice," I said, my voice quiet but steady. "The world's broken, Noctis. But we still have the pieces. It's up to us to put them together. For whatever comes next."
Empress finally spoke, her voice cold but sure. "If we're going to do this... it has to be on our terms. All of us. No more secrets. No more lies. And no more bloodshed."
Noctis looked at her, and for the first time in a long time, I saw a small nod of agreement.
And just like that, we had a chance. Not a perfect one. Not an easy one. But a chance. We were broken, yes. But we weren't beyond saving.
"We'll rebuild," I said, my resolve hardening. "And we'll do it together."
The world around us was ruined, but the war for power had ended. What came next was anyone's guess.
But I knew this much: We would have to fight for it. All of us. And maybe—just maybe—we could find a way to make something good come out of all the destruction.
A broken world was still a world worth saving. And I wasn't ready to give up just yet.