The sky over the Ashlands turned black before noon.
Not with storm clouds.
With smoke.
Scouts came running from the outer ridges, faces streaked with dust and fear.
"They're coming," one gasped. "Full legions. Siege weapons. Shadow Guard."
Lira slammed her hand onto the map.
"So they finally stopped pretending."
I stepped forward.
"How many?"
"More than we can count," the scout said. "They're not here to chase. They're here to erase."
A full invasion.
Not for land.
Not for resources.
For us.
Seraphine stood silently beside me.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were sharp.
"This is what they did to my family's lands," she said. "They don't conquer. They burn."
I turned to the others.
"Get everyone underground," I said. "Civilians first. Fighters to the outer defenses."
Joren hesitated.
"If we face them head-on… we'll be crushed."
I knew.
We didn't have numbers.
We didn't have walls.
We didn't have mercy.
But we had something they didn't.
A cause.
And a choice.
As the horns of the imperial legions echoed through the Ashlands, Seraphine pulled me aside.
"There's something you need to know," she said.
Her voice was steady, but I could hear the weight behind it.
"They're not just coming for you," she said. "They brought prisoners."
My blood ran cold.
"Who?"
"My family," she whispered. "What's left of them."
I stared at her.
"They took my younger brother. My aunt. The last of my house."
Her hands trembled.
"They'll parade them in front of the battlefield. To force me to kneel… or watch them die."
The empire had always been cruel.
But this…
This was personal.
"They're using you," I said.
"They always were."
She looked at me.
"If I surrender… they might spare them."
I stepped closer.
"They won't," I said quietly. "You know that."
Her jaw tightened.
"I know," she said. "But knowing doesn't make it hurt less."
I placed my hands on her shoulders.
"They want to break you," I said. "Because you chose me."
Her eyes burned.
"And if I choose you again… they die."
The battlefield roared in the distance.
Imperial banners rose over the broken hills.
A sea of red and gold.
An empire come to crush a rebellion before it could breathe.
I looked into her eyes.
"This is where I stop being the man who only reacts," I said.
"This is where I become the one they fear."
I turned away from her.
From everyone.
Toward the open ground.
"Kael," she said behind me.
I didn't stop.
The battlefield stretched before me.
Imperial lines advancing.
Siege engines rolling forward.
And in the center…
Cages.
Steel.
Bound figures.
I could see Seraphine's brother.
Bruised.
Barely standing.
Waiting to be used.
The empire wanted me to hesitate.
To bargain.
To beg.
Instead…
I raised my sword.
And the Ashlands fell silent.
Every rebel.
Every survivor.
Every soul who had been hunted, burned, and erased…
looked to me.
"I was born to a throne that fed on blood," I said, my voice carrying across the broken land. "They taught me obedience. They taught me silence. They taught me that power belongs only to those who sit above us."
Imperial commanders shouted orders.
Arrows were nocked.
I didn't stop.
"But today," I continued, "they march here to make an example of us. To prove that defiance ends in ashes."
I lifted my blade higher.
"They brought our families to break us."
Seraphine's breath caught behind me.
"They think we will kneel."
I met the eyes of the imperial front line.
"They are wrong."
A tremor passed through the rebels.
"They burned our cities. They hunted our children. They named us traitors because we refused to disappear."
My voice hardened.
"Today… we stop running."
The first imperial horn sounded.
Charge.
I turned to my forces.
"To fight like them… is to die like them," I said. "So we do something they will never understand."
I pointed toward the cages.
"We take back what is ours."
Lira's eyes widened.
"That's suicide."
"No," I said. "That's war."
I looked at Seraphine one last time.
"I will not let them decide who lives in this world," I said. "Not anymore."
Her eyes filled with fire.
"Then neither will I."
The horns sounded again.
The empire surged forward.
I raised my sword.
"Rebels," I shouted.
"This is the moment they will remember."
And I charged.
The battlefield exploded.
Steel.
Fire.
Blood.
I cut through the first line like a storm.
Not careful.
Not restrained.
Every strike was final.
Not for the throne.
Not for revenge.
For her.
For them.
For everyone who had been told they were meant to disappear.
Seraphine fought beside me, her blade blazing despite the pain.
We reached the cages.
Imperial soldiers swarmed.
Too many.
I didn't slow.
I shattered the lock with one strike.
Her brother collapsed forward.
She caught him.
Alive.
Shaking.
But alive.
A scream tore from the imperial ranks.
"Kill him! That's the Rebel King!"
Arrows flew.
Blades surged.
I stood in front of the cage.
In front of Seraphine.
In front of every life they wanted to erase.
And for the first time…
I did not fight like a prince.
I fought like a symbol.
A warning.
A storm.
By the time the empire fell back, the Ashlands was burning.
Not with fear.
With defiance.
Imperial bodies littered the ground.
Their perfect formation broken.
Their certainty shattered.
From the ridge, I saw it in their eyes.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Fear.
They had not crushed a rebellion.
They had created one.
Seraphine knelt beside her brother, tears streaking her face as she held him.
I knelt beside her.
"He's alive," I said.
She looked at me.
Alive.
But changed.
"You crossed a line today," she said softly.
"I know."
"And you cannot go back."
I met her gaze.
"I don't want to."
She took my hand.
And squeezed.
Above us, smoke rose into the sky.
Not as a signal of defeat…
…but as the first mark of a war the empire could no longer control.
They had come to erase me.
Instead…
They had shown the world who the Rebel King truly was.