I began to order the troops to advance, slowly at first.
We gathered stragglers and tended to the wounded where they stumbled across the churned earth.
We had lost around ten percent of our force, and that weight pressed against the back of my mind like the aftershocks of a blow.
Yet in the same split second, in the same sliver of stillness after the chaos, I made my choice.
I had to trust that Nicole would make up for her failure.
I had to trust that Malachi had a plan.
Trust was not comfort for me. It was a decision I revisited every time the world burned.
But Nicholas had taught us that ideals were worth following even when the ground beneath us vanished.
I did not share all his visions, and I could see where they frayed.
But the conviction he carried, the way it shaped others, was enough for me to carry forward.
As the army advanced, a black bird descended with a silent sweep of wings and landed on my shoulder. Its feathers were sharpened ink. In its beak, it carried a letter.
I took it, keeping the creature perched at my side in case a response was needed.
The moment my eyes ran across the page, the situation became clear.
Fertical had a weapon up north. A massive cannon, large enough to wipe out a mountain.
If I could see something of that scale even from here, then it stood far ahead, yet still uncomfortably close.
I pushed aside the unease and wrote my response, stating that I would personally move to destroy it.
The black bird vanished into drifting motes of shadow, and I raised my voice over the marching soldiers.
"Advance forward. There is a weapon they wish to use. We shall break it down!"
The shout lifted those who lagged behind.
The ground beneath us remained razed and cracked, scarred by my battle and the countless others fought today.
I wiped the drying blood from my eyes and dropped to one knee.
Even a moment of rest felt extravagant, but I could not delay long.
Using so much power had hollowed me out, thinning my vision and dimming the edges of the world.
Perhaps my earlier revelation had been wrong. Perhaps I had pushed too far.
Yet hesitation served no one.
I drew in the magicae around me, letting it seep into the cracks and fractures within my being, mending what it could.
It settled like molten gold behind my ribs, rebuilding me piece by fragile piece.
When I rose again, I saw the army climbing the distant slopes ahead.
I took one step, folding the distance beneath my feet, and appeared before them.
Then I broke into a run.
"Come on," I called out, my stride lengthening. "I bet I am one of the oldest. How can I outpace you?"
Behind me, the footsteps surged, determined and rising like a tide across the torn plains.
We would not lose this.
That was my promise.
And even if my body failed, even if doubt chewed at the edges of my certainty, the army would see only the fire still burning in my wake.
***
{Nicole Anstalionah.}
It was hard making our way north toward the capital.
We had taken this route to meet the reinforcements, but the journey strained us more than expected.
Jennifer was in no condition to walk; she had spent most of her strength healing my wounds, and I carried her because she could barely stand.
She still complained. "I do not see why you have to carry me this way."
I held her in my arms, carrying her as one would a princess. How could I not? It was the most proper way to carry a woman.
I would know, being one myself.
My judgment on the matter was naturally superior.
"Trust me," I said. "Any other way and I would die."
She scowled. "You are a liar."
I shifted her slightly, pretending the strain on my arms was unbearable.
"My heart is aching, and my authority as a princess is wavering."
"We do not have time for this," she murmured. "Can you speed up? It seems Rosen has begun his great plans."
I could only agree. Anything Rosen set his hands on was a labyrinth waiting to consume us.
His power alone was enough to break me once, and if I was not careful, it would break me again.
The application of my Regalia would have to change.
Using the stealing ability was too costly now.
I needed to rely on its foundation. The core of envy.
The ability to feel envy so sharply, so violently, that it stripped others down to the soul.
A power that could bypass all their protections, all their royal rites, all the walls they built.
A direct severing.
I looked down at Jennifer and smiled. "Do you have a plan?"
She nodded, wrapping her arms around my neck to steady herself.
"I need to get close to him. I think I can plant something… in his heart."
She stared forward, her voice steady even through fatigue.
"It will not kill him. But it will cause something. I do not know what, but it will change him."
I smiled too, facing forward as the distant army came into view.
Our reinforcements were already locked in battle, a clash of blades and banners.
Ours was larger, but numbers alone never guaranteed victory.
I saw no nobles among the officers. No high-ranking faces. That meant they expected me to handle this.
Good. I preferred it that way.
I set Jennifer down gently.
Now that my body had recovered enough, I could use my Regalia more deliberately.
In an instant, I stole her pain and the strain in her limbs, erasing it from her body.
She gasped, coughing once as relief washed over her, and her natural healing began to stabilize her strength.
I drew my sword and pointed it toward the heaviest cluster of power on the battlefield.
The air warped.
A compressed beam of wind ripped forward.
It slaughtered many and halted at one figure as the shock wave blasted soldiers from both sides off their feet.
Most survived the force, but the chaos was undeniable.
Rosen stood revealed in the dispersing dust, shoulder-deep in bodies and smoke.
His silhouette cut clean lines through the ruin, as if the battlefield itself bowed away from him.
When his eyes met mine, his expression flickered, annoyance first, then amusement, and then something colder beneath both.
Before even half a second passed, he crossed the distance in a single step and loomed above me.
"I was certain you would be broken," he said. "Same for her. But you both seem well."
I smiled brightly and raised my blade.
"Well, it is all thanks to something I call envy. With a mix of pride."
He lifted his sword in answer, the steel humming with lethal finality.
"I will just kill you this time."
I whisked my blade forward, letting it sway like a breeze.
His strike met mine, and for an instant it felt effortless, almost graceful.
Then the world buckled.
I dropped to one knee and coughed violently.
Blood spattered from my pores, dotting the ground and my fingers.
My power shuddered beneath his blow; he had not struck flesh or bone. He had struck a law.
The third motion. The recoil of that principle returned to my body a thousandfold.
The force shattered the bones in my arms, snapping through me like glass under a hammer.
Before the agony could root me to the ground, Jennifer broke into the fray.
She ran up with reckless, impossible courage and slammed both her palms into Rosen's chest.
The impact threw her back instantly; she tumbled across the dirt, rolling through blood and broken stone.
I was blasted away as well, crashing onto my side as the world rang and spun.
When I forced my head up, Rosen was no longer standing tall. He was different.
His eyes, those sharp, arrogant, unshakable eyes, widened. Not in rage. Not in pain.
Fear.
But not fear of death, nor fear of us.
It was deeper, nameless, a horror so vast it stripped the confidence from his posture and left him staring at nothing.
In that moment, Rosen feared the unknown that had taken root inside him.
He collapsed to the ground, his blade slipping from his fingers.
Jennifer collapsed as well. Her breathing was ragged, her body limp, as though she had emptied herself into that single touch.
It took me a moment to understand what she had done.
Using her command over life, its threads, its roots, its infinite branching, she had shown him something no mind should ever confront.
She had shown him the totality of her existence.
Her beginning. Her end.
And every future in between.
The air around us grew thick with a faint stench, something metallic, ancient, and wrong. The scent of time itself.
I staggered forward, my arms broken, my blood still dripping from ruptured pores, and looked at her lying there.
What kind of future did she carry within her?
What path was so unfathomable that even Rosen fell to his knees before it?
I did not know. But the world suddenly felt heavier for it.