The battlefield was chaos incarnate.
Crimson flames surged like an unchained wildfire, golden embers scattering through the storm-darkened sky. Silver threads sliced through the air, glinting like a thousand blades suspended in motion. The ground trembled, cracked, and crumbled under the sheer force of the battle.
At the heart of it all two war queens and a monster that should never have awakened.
The creature, a writhing mass of darkness and jagged limbs, lurched forward with an unnatural, bone-grinding movement. Each step splintered the earth, the sheer weight of its presence distorting the space around it.
Its eyes voids within voids snapped toward Verania.
She grinned.
"Come on, then," she taunted, rolling her shoulders, golden fire crackling along her arms. "Let's see what you're made of."
The creature lunged.
Its massive, clawed limb longer than three war horses stacked together descended like a guillotine.
Verania didn't move.
Not until the last second.
Then an explosion of motion.
She twisted, dodging the strike with the effortless grace of a battle-forged predator. The wind pressure alone from the impact split the ground, sending debris flying in every direction.
Before the dust could settle, Verania closed the distance.
Her fist, wreathed in golden flame, slammed into the monster's core.
A shockwave rippled outward.
The creature howled a guttural, otherworldly sound that shattered the nearest palace windows. Its form buckled, dark energy flickering violently as if struggling to hold itself together.
Verania didn't give it the chance.
She pivoted, grabbing one of its thrashing limbs with a single hand. Her grip tightened.
A moment later, she ripped it off.
The severed limb disintegrated into black smoke, the wound already regenerating, but Verania's laughter rang through the battlefield.
"That all?" she mused, spinning the dissipating limb in her grip before tossing it aside.
The creature recoiled, shifting its focus straight to Sylvithra.
A mistake.
Sylvithra lifted a single hand.
No wasted movement. No flourish.
Just one motion.
A flick of her fingers and the world responded.
Silver threads, finer than the edge of a master-forged blade, materialized from thin air.
Hundreds of them.
They surged forward, moving with impossible speed, wrapping around the creature's regenerating wounds like a net of death.
The threads tightened.
A faint hum reverberated through the air—the sound of the fabric of reality bending under the force of Sylvithra's magic.
The monster struggled, limbs thrashing violently.
Useless.
Sylvithra's violet eyes remained calm. "Still resisting?"
She snapped her fingers.
The threads contracted not just cutting through the monster, but erasing entire sections of its form.
No blood. No wounds.
Just nothingness where something should have been.
The creature screeched, its form glitching, shuddering, desperately trying to reform.
Sylvithra tilted her head slightly, as if considering.
"Perhaps I should unravel you entirely," she mused.
The creature panicked.
It lashed out with a new limb twisting, jagged, reforged in desperation.
This time, Verania caught it.
With one hand.
The moment her fingers closed around the limb, golden fire erupted consuming the shadowed flesh like dry parchment.
The monster screamed.
Verania grinned wider, her grip tightening.
"Not so fun when it's you, huh?" she mused.
She wrenched the creature forward with terrifying strength, dragging it closer as if it weighed nothing.
Sylvithra sighed. "You're going to be insufferable after this."
Verania smirked. "As if I wasn't already."
The creature now half its original size, barely holding itself together let out a final, desperate shriek.
It wasn't attacking anymore.
It was trying to flee.
Not that it had anywhere to go.
Verania cracked her neck. "Let's finish this."
Sylvithra nodded.
They moved at the same time.
Verania launched herself forward, golden flames roaring to life around her like a solar inferno. She moved too fast for the eye to track, her entire body becoming a streak of fire as she collided with the creature's core.
A direct hit.
The impact sent another shockwave through the battlefield, the sheer force of it splitting the palace courtyard apart.
At the same time, Sylvithra raised both hands, and every silver thread in the air surged forward.
They wrapped around the monster's form, sinking into its very existence.
She exhaled.
And then she pulled.
The creature began unraveling.
Not just its body, but its presence.
As if Sylvithra had decided it no longer belonged in this world.
It let out one final, garbled scream then it was gone.
Completely.
Not even ashes remained.
The battlefield fell silent.
Smoke drifted through the air. The ground, scorched and ruined, still crackled with residual magic.
Verania stretched. "Well, that was fun."
Sylvithra adjusted her sleeves. "Rebuilding this mess will not be."
Verania snorted. "That's why we have architects."
A few nobles peeked out from behind the rubble.
One of them shaking, wide-eyed, clearly questioning every decision that led him here whispered, "They… weren't even trying."
Another noble, still clutching what remained of his burnt wig, nodded weakly. "We should probably… never question military funding again."
The rest of them nodded solemnly.
Verania turned to Sylvithra. "You think Elyzara saw that?"
Sylvithra exhaled. "Undoubtedly."
Somewhere, in the supposedly safe room, I leaned back against the viewing crystal, grinning like an idiot.
That had been the coolest thing I had ever seen.
The battlefield had fallen silent.
The nobles, still in varying states of horrified awe, remained frozen behind the wreckage, their mouths agape. Some were clutching their chests, as if unsure whether they had survived the encounter or simply witnessed gods at war.
Verania stretched, rolling her shoulders as if she hadn't just annihilated an entity that should have been impossible to kill.
Sylvithra adjusted her sleeves, eyes scanning the battlefield with calm precision. "We should reinforce the seals beneath the palace. There may be others."
Verania smirked. "Good. I was getting bored."
A nervous noble whimpered.
I sighed from my supposedly safe hiding place. Of course, she wanted more fights.
Something shifted.
It was subtle.
Barely noticeable.
A flicker a distortion in the air.
A shadow, thin as a whisper, coiled behind the dissipating embers, slipping through the burnt cracks of reality.
No sound.
No presence.
Just an absence where something shouldn't be.
I felt it before I saw it.
A flicker of danger. A twist of magic so unnatural it made my skin crawl.
My mouth opened but the attack had already struck.
A blade black as the void, humming with something ancient and vile pierced through flesh.
A sharp gasp.
Blood.
The nobles screamed.
I froze.
One of my mothers had just been wounded.
I couldn't see who.
The dust and lingering embers obscured their figures one of them still standing, the other slightly hunched.
For the first time, I saw something I had never imagined possible.
One of them bleeding.
The image blurred as my heart pounded.
Who ?
Which one of them?
The air tensed, thick with magic and something else.
I pressed a hand against the crystal, my breath catching in my throat.