The western sky had turned the color of rust long before the Kingdom of Vastrael finally understood it was dying.
By then, it was already too late.
Kingdom of Vastrael had once been proud—too proud. A kingdom of stone keeps and gilded banners, of knights who believed steel alone could answer the abyss. When the Red Flags emissaries arrived months earlier, bearing calm warnings and carefully worded offers of aid, King Rhaevor II dismissed them without ceremony.
"We do not borrow strength," he had said."We prove our own."
The court applauded.
The army marched.
And the demons came anyway.
They came in waves that did not retreat. They came at night, and then in daylight, and then without pattern at all. The western legions fought bravely—no one could deny that—but bravery did not replace coordination, and courage did not mend shattered formations.
By the sixtieth day, Vastrael's army was no longer an army.
By the sixty-eighth, it was a memory.
Cities burned. Farmlands turned black under corrupted mana. The screams of civilians echoed longer than the clang of swords ever had. Still, the king refused to send a request east.
Pride, after all, had already cost him too much to abandon.
When the capital finally fell, the palace gates shattered from the inside as much as from the outside. Orders contradicted one another. Knights died protecting corridors that led nowhere.
And in the chaos, two children were pushed onto horses.
"Ride to the Red flags and ask for allience," the captain told them, shoving ceremonial banners into the hands of his remaining men."Ride east. Don't look back."
Princess Kkaii was thirteen. Prince Ssaii was eleven.
They rode until their legs bled and their throats burned. They rode past villages that no longer had names, past roads choked with ash. Behind them, Vastrael collapsed in silence.
They rode through narrow paths bushes and thickets for miles, and finally they saw it. their only hope.
A banner snapped in the wind.
Red. Black. Stark against the sky.
City Red Flags.
Where Fort Knightfall is located.
They reached the gates at dusk.
The city did not panic when it saw them. That alone told Kkaii everything she needed to know. Patrols shifted smoothly. Gates did not open, but neither did weapons rise.
Two knights rode forward, banners held high.
"We request audience," Kkaii said, her voice steady despite the dust on her face. "With War General Daniel."
The guards exchanged glances.
"You may dismount," one said carefully. "We'll process you as—"
Kkaii shook her head. "If we dismount, we beg. We didn't come to beg."
And so they stayed.
Hours passed.
The city continued functioning behind the walls. Lanterns lit. Shifts changed. No one hurried them away, but no one gave them what they wanted either.
It was Beth who noticed first.
"Those banners," she murmured from the ramparts. "They're not replicas."
Miimi followed her gaze, eyes narrowing. "And those kids haven't moved." for hours.
That alone was unusual.
By the time Daniel was informed, he was standing inside Domain, watching mana seals dissolve.
The cocoon cracked with a sound like breaking crystal.
Light spilled out.
Eeseren stepped forward, bare feet touching the floor, silver-white mana settling around her like mist. Her hair shimmered, her presence sharper—cleaner—than before. For half a breath, Daniel simply stared.
She was dazzling.
Then his mind corrected itself.
despite this charming new look she is my little sister and that's Family.
He exhaled slowly. "welcome back young sis, i hope you have fully recovered."
Eeseren smiled faintly. "You sound excited." she teased.
"I'm relieved," Daniel replied, to see you and zenn come back to me in one piece.
He then told her get ready you might be getting a new mission very soon. he then told her to meditate in the domain in order to strengthen her body and absorb mana, while waiting for zenn to hatch,. at this point small cracks had started appearing on the cacoon egg.
Miimi sent a telepathic voice to Daniel. "We have a situation at the gate."
Daniel listened. Western royals. standing outside the gate , now its been four hours. Refusing to leave unless they meet you in person.
He didn't hesitate.
"I'll meet them there."
When Daniel reached the gates, the children were still mounted on their horses and looked pale due to sun burns.
Princess Kkaii met his gaze without flinching.
"My father refused your help,. Great War general," she said immediately. "He refused until the army our is almost wiped out. He refused until the capital burned."
Prince Ssaii swallowed, then forced the words out. "We're not asking for mercy." Great war general.
Daniel studied them. The dirt on their boots. The way the escorts held the banners like their life depended on it..
"What are you asking for?" he said.
"Intervention," Princess Kkaii answered. "Not for a king but For the people he failed."
The silence that followed felt heavy.
Behind Daniel, fort knightfall stood—orderly, unmoved, alive.
"At dawn," Daniel said , "you'll be given shelter. Food and Care."
Kkaii's grip tightened. "And Vastrael?"
Daniel's eyes shifted.
"That," he said, "will be decided by proper negotiations not pride."
High above the city, the Red Flags Banner unfurled in the wind.
Far to the west, a kingdom smoldered.
And somewhere between them, history quietly shifted course.