The night was only just beginning. Twin-moon light poured down on Bjorn, bright enough to silver the snow around him as he sat not far from the fortress, cleaning his battle hammer with a worn rag. He rested the massive steel head across one knee and wiped it with surprising gentleness, working mud from the metal. Beside him, a dozen unconscious guards lay side by side, covered in pelts and wool blankets, lined up like felled logs waiting for dawn.
Inside the courtyard, the fight hadn't slowed.
Peter sprinted straight at Marcus as the knight commander charged to meet him, shield raised. Peter drew a dagger and flicked it up into the air. Marcus' eyes followed the spinning blade as it climbed—and then, halfway up, it began to fade, vanishing into nothing. Confused, he looked back at Peter just in time to realize the throw had already happened. Pain lanced through his hand as the dagger buried itself in his sword grip, forcing his fingers open. The weapon clattered to the ground.
Peter reached him a heartbeat later, twisting into a spinning kick that smashed into Marcus' shield. The blow tore the commander off his feet, sent him flipping in the air, and dumped him in a rough roll across the stone. The shield's strap snapped; it skidded away across the courtyard.
Peter strolled toward him with a smug grin. "I knew you weren't a real knight commander."
Marcus tried to push himself up.
The knights behind him surged forward to cover him—but a wall of fire erupted between them and Peter, a ring of flame sealing the two men off from the rest.
"Your opponents are me," Lili said, stepping into the glow.
All five knights gripped their swords in both hands, channeling Akrion until orange light coated their blades in a flickering aura.
Lili laughed. "Really? Ember rank? That's all you bastards can manage?"
"Shut up, you little—" one knight snapped.
Lili's head snapped toward him, eyes going cold. "What do you mean, little?"
Jonathan, who knew that tone far too well, winced. "Ah, Lili, you might want to—"
The ring of flame around Marcus and Peter swelled, stretching higher, climbing until it licked at the height of the walls. At the same time, Lili's tied hair burst upward into fire, flaring like a torch. Her pupils glowed a deep, molten red. She raised one arm and extended her index finger and thumb toward the knights. The Akrion along their blades flickered and withered. Hands began to shake.
A tiny ball of fire formed at the tip of her finger, spinning in place. It pulled heat from the air, drawing threads of flame into itself, burning hotter and whiter with each turn.
"Get what you deserve, you monsters… for what you've done here," she whispered.
Jonathan turned his face away, throwing an arm up against the glare. A thread of light shot from his other hand into the curtain of fire. He grabbed it with all his strength and yanked. "Lili, no!"
The line hooked through the wall of flame, and Peter was ripped backward, dragged through the fire with Marcus still tangled with him. Both of them tumbled out at Jonathan's feet, Jonathan dropping over them, cloak flaring as he tried to cover their bodies.
The spinning orb of white-hot flame screamed forward.
The knights cried out, some begging, some cursing, but the blast hit before any of them could move. The impact tore through them, blew apart the wall and the stairs behind, and sent a column of fire roaring back and up. Flame surged through the gate and spilled outward, a tidal wave of heat and light.
Outside, Bjorn heard the explosion. He turned—and saw fire billowing out of the gate, painting the night in violent orange. He dropped the rag, grabbed his hammer, and started running.
Moments before this was happening .
Ren realized he swung at Shin, not Lucius. He staggered back as Shin released his hand.
Lucius watched from the steps, smiling.
"I shouldn't have spared you that day," Shin said, anger tight in his voice. The jade hilt of his sword trembled at his side. His hand closed over it as if to draw, and even Ren's body reacted with a faint, instinctive shiver. Lucius' smile thinned. "Well, I guess everyone has something to regret," he murmured, spinning the red apple back into the shape of his dagger.
Ren wiped his mouth, set his stance, and tightened his fists, ready to attack.
The explosion cut all of them off.
Stone blew outward as part of the wall behind Shin and Ren fell . They turned just in time to see another section of wall further back collapse, the outside world suddenly visible through ragged holes. Smoke began to pour into the great hall, thick and dark, as the rooms behind caught fire. Lucius' laughter echoed through the rising haze.
The smoke thickened until it cloaked the hall. Lucius' figure blurred, swallowed by grey.
They charged—but he was gone. In seconds, smoke swallowed everything. Lucius' laugh moved through it, sliding from one direction to another, a taunting echo that wouldn't hold still.
Ren found himself alone, turning in place, squinting through the gloom as that laugh passed close, then far.
Out of the smoke, a sword flashed toward him.
Shin appeared, cutting in a clean, lethal arc. Ren dropped his arm and swung for Shin's stomach, but Shin's hand snapped out and caught his fist. At the same time, steel rang behind him—another Shin blocked the first Shin's blade from the rear.
Ren froze, head bowed, realizing he was standing between two Shins, each intercepting the other's attack. The one behind him smiled.
Ren dropped flat and spun, sweeping a low kick at the one at his back. That Shin sprang away, smoke peeling off his body as he retreated—the fake, revealed for an instant before dissolving into the fog. The real Shin slid his sword into its sheath as the illusion vanished.
Ren and Shin shifted to stand back-to-back, each staring into the smoke, waiting for the next trick.
"Enough playing," Shin said.
He grabbed Ren's collar, yanked him close, and drew his sword. He drove the blade point-first into the stone.
Wind howled.
Air blasted outward from the weapon, a focused gale that shoved smoke, debris, and even Ren himself away from the center. Ren almost went airborne, eyes squeezed shut against the force. The storm stripped the hall, blowing the smoke out through the broken walls and slamming into Lucius, hurling him bodily through the next room and smashing what remained of the stone.
The wind died. Ren dropped hard, gasping. What was that?
Shin pulled the sword from the floor, sheathed it, and walked toward Lucius, who was struggling to his feet amid scattered stones. "I hate that sword," Lucius muttered.
With every step Shin took, the hall changed. Clean stone walls and cut carpet warped into a butcher's chamber—torn rugs with clawed rips, dried blood smeared and spattered over the floor, the scent of old iron and rot creeping in. Ren followed, eyes widening as his surroundings revealed their true looks .
Lucius straightened, still smiling. "There's no point in holding back now."
He spread his hands against each other, fingertips touching, and closed his eyes, standing in the middle of that flaming room . Shin saw the stance, tightened his grip on the hilt, ready to draw at any moment.
"Hall of Nightmares," Lucius whispered.
Ren watched Shin brace and mirrored him, clenching his fists. He had no idea what was coming, but braced anyway.
Nothing happened.
…Nothing? Ren thought.
Then the floor shook.
Flames surged up from under Lucius' feet, washing along the edges of the hall. The walls began to crumble, chunks tearing away and falling into a roaring inferno below. The floor split and shrank until only a narrow strip remained beneath Shin, Ren, and Lucius, the world below nothing but flame and smoke. Heat blasted up through the cracks.
Ren forced himself to whisper in his head: It's an illusion. It's not real. It's not real…
Bodies began to pull themselves out of Lucius' silhouette—dead, disfigured people peeling away from him like shadows turned solid. They ripped free and ran at Shin, mouths open in soundless screams.
Shin drew his sword and moved, cutting them down one by one as they reached him, their bodies tumbling off the strip of floor into the fire. Ren stood frozen. If Shin's blade cut them, if they fell, if they burned—how could that be illusion?
"There's no way…" Ren whispered to himself.
More and more figures poured toward Shin. He dropped to one knee under the press, still swinging, still carving them apart as they tried to drag him over the edge.
A burst of air blasted out from him, pushing the mass of dead away and over. The wave ended as suddenly as it had begun. Lucius remained where he stood, eyes still closed.
Shin stayed on one knee, chest heaving, sweat mixing with soot. Ren hadn't moved at all.
Three chimeras tore themselves free of Lucius' shadow.
Two bolted down the thin strip toward Shin. The third leapt, crossing the gap in a bound, claws outstretched for Ren.
Shin blocked the first two sets of claws with his sword and forearm, teeth gritted.
Ren watched the airborne chimera all the way in. "It's just illusion," he told himself.
The impact crushed him onto his back and ripped the breath from his lungs. Pain flared across his ribs. Very real teeth opened above his face.
Ren snapped his fist up into the chimera's jaw, stopping the bite an inch from his throat. He twisted, drove his heel into its chest, and kicked it off the ledge. It fell, vanishing into the fire below.
Heat licked at his skin. The flames were real. All of it was real enough to kill.
He looked back at Shin just in time to see the first chimera's head roll, cut clean through.
"Ren, it's not real!" Shin shouted, blocking the second chimera's bite with his sheathed sword and bracing as it tried to force him down.
"It feels real," Ren shot back, arm bleeding where claws had raked him.
"As long as he stays in that stance, his illusions are real," Shin yelled, strain in his voice. "We disrupt his focus, or he does something worse!"
The chimera drove Shin to one knee, jaw grinding against the scabbard. Shin didn't kill it—he held it there, keeping the illusion anchored, refusing to let Lucius shift to something even harder to handle.
Ren pushed himself up, blood running down his arm. He sprinted along the narrowing strip, then stepped onto the chimera's skull, using it as a springboard. He vaulted high, drawing his arm back.
He came down on Lucius with everything he had, all his momentum focused into a single punch.
His fist smashed into Lucius' cheek. The impact cracked the air , Lucius' face skipped along the floor, teeth and blood spraying as he was thrown across the hall.
On Shin's back, the chimera he'd been holding simply disintegrated into nothing. walls ,floor , ceiling charred and cracked.
He rolled to his feet and saw Lucius' body sprawled unconscious at the far end of the room. Flames still gnawed at broken beams and curtains. Ren stood shaking, staring at his own bruised knuckles.
"I don't understand what's happening anymore," Ren said, turning to Shin.
Shin tore a strip of cloth and dropped to one knee beside him, wrapping Ren's bleeding arm. "It's all right. I understand your confusion."
A crumble of stone made him look up. Behind Ren's right shoulder, Lucius' body lay where it had fallen, still unconscious. Behind Shin's left, another Lucius sprinted through the broken wall, fleeing toward the courtyard.
Shin moved on instinct. He shoved Ren aside, drew his blade, and poured Akrion through it. The metal drank the energy, its color darkening to a deep, wet crimson, as if filling with blood. A red aura flared along the edge.
When the blade was fully stained, Shin swung twice in the same breath, both cuts aimed at the fleeing figure.
Scarlet slashes tore free from the sword, traveling across the room and out through the gap, carving through stone and timber in their path. Lucius dove into the courtyard; the slashes screamed over his head, close enough to cut a strand of hair, then continued on, slicing through everything beyond as he changed midair—his shape twisting into Ren's.
A moment earlier, in the courtyard—
As the explosion's smoke dispersed, Jonathan lifted his head, Peter groaning beside him. "Lili, are you crazy? You almost killed us all," he said.
Lili walked toward the knights' charred bodies. They lay blackened, cracked, frozen in their last screaming poses. Her flaming hair lit their ruined faces. She just stared.
Bjorn reached the entrance, hammer in hand, and saw his sister standing there wreathed in fire, eyes empty. His jaw clenched.
Crimson Akrion slashes ripped through the wall near them and bit into the courtyard masonry. Everyone at the gate followed the lines with their eyes as they carved glowing scars into stone.
Ren—Lucius wearing Ren's face—dropped from above, landing beside Lili. She glanced at him as he touched her shoulder… and vanished into thin air.
When she turned back to her companions at the entrance, they were gone. In their place stood burned people, skin split and dripping, hands outstretched. They staggered toward her, wailing.
"Why?"
"It hurts."
"Please…"
Terror hit her like a wave. The flames in her hair flared higher to match.
She stumbled back and fell onto the heap of charred knights. They jerked under her, suddenly alive, grabbing at her, their blackened mouths opening in soundless shrieks. Every nightmare she could imagine rushed her at once.
She started to sob.
Bjorn saw her state, saw the panic, and dropped his hammer where he stood. He ran.
Ren shot past them, sprinting out of the fortress. Jonathan and Peter stared after him, confused, then looked back at Lili and were even more lost.
Lili's panic spiked into hysteria. Flames erupted all around her, lashing out in every direction. The more the wailing figures closed in, the hotter the fire burned. Streams of flame swung toward her allies at the gate.
Peter and Jonathan grabbed the unconscious, half-burned Marcus and dragged him away as fast as they could.
Shin and Ren peered through a hole in the hall's wall and saw a sea of fire filling the courtyard, Bjorn pushing slowly through it, his whole body wrapped in Akrion like a second skin.
"Let's get to the wall. I've got an idea," Shin said.
Ren followed.
Down below, Lili saw burned faces pressing close, their mouths moving against her face and hands. She sobbed harder, one arm up as if to shove them away, flames streaming from her palms. The heat ratcheted up with every second.
Shin and Ren reached the top of the wall. Ren spotted himself—Lucius in his shape—running below toward the forest. "There!" he shouted.
Shin grabbed his sword and, without a word, hurled Ren up into the air. Ren's eyes went wide; he twisted midair and looked back to see Shin grabbing the blade with both hands and swinging up at him. Understanding hit in the same instant. Ren angled his feet toward the flat of the blade.
His ragged boots never touched steel.
The pressure of compressed air above the sword built to a peak—and detonated.
The blast destroyed his boots and launched Ren like a cannon shot, hurling him after Lucius, who was gaining distance with every heartbeat. Shin smiled as he watched Ren soar, the boy's own grin breaking through the shock.
He turned back toward the courtyard. Bjorn trudged through the fire, each step slower than the last as the temperature spiked. Lili stood at the center of her own inferno, hands raised, burning the wailing dead that wouldn't burn, their screams drowning everything else. She squeezed her eyes shut.
Something warm wrapped around her shoulders.
She opened her eyes and saw her brother, shirt aflame, arms around her.
She stopped.
The flames died down all at once, collapsing inward. She clutched Bjorn and broke, sobbing into his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
On the wall, Shin let out a breath and smiled at them.
Lucius, still wearing Ren's face, ran grinning toward the forest edge, every stride taking him closer to the trees.
Behind him, the real Ren fell from the sky, spinning, building momentum for a kick.
He drove his foot down toward the back of Lucius' head—toward his own head, seeing the back of it for the first time in his life—at full speed. The illusion shredded mid‑fall, Lucius' real body snapping back into its true, taller shape, and Ren's foot landed lower than he aimed for, slamming into what's now his back . The impact broke Lucius' back and punched a crater into the earth beneath them. Lucius took almost all of the force, blood spraying from his mouth as he dropped full force , Ren stood on top of him barefoot looking back at the fortress .