Coalition Center Formation
Draven watched Malvorn reach the battlefield. Five hundred meters from Coalition center lines.
Through bond to Zor and mental link to Sylvara: "Engage him. Buy time for the severance teams"
*Storm meets earth. I will try, Bearer*
Sylvara's voice calm despite tension. "I will heal those I can reach. Life opposes death where possible"
Twenty Beast Speakers with Forged Bloom severance tools began sprinting forward. Crystal-tipped rods designed specifically to break Soulsteel resonance. Five hundred meters to cover under active combat conditions. Extremely dangerous.
Chainkeepers saw them coming. Turned control rods on the Beast Speakers directly. Resonance attacks hit like physical blows.
Five Beast Speakers fell immediately. Incapacitated by resonance pain radiating through their bodies. Could not advance further.
Fifteen continued forward through the agony.
***
Malvorn's First Strike
Handlers commanded through control rods. Malvorn had no choice but obey.
He raised his massive front leg. Slammed it down with full Lord-tier earth beast strength.
Tectonic Slam.
Ground erupted in magnitude-seven earthquake. Five-hundred-meter radius of pure devastation.
Coalition center formation shattered instantly. Two hundred soldiers fell screaming into opening crevasse that split earth like wound. Three hundred more knocked prone by shaking, unable to stand.
Formations that took hours to build destroyed in seconds.
The Vendar militiaman managed to stay on his feet somehow. Watched in horror as comrades vanished into the earth or scattered like leaves.
"FALL BACK! ORGANIZED RETREAT!"
But retreat was chaos. No organization possible when ground itself betrayed them.
***
Stone Legion Summons
Malvorn raised both front legs. Slammed them down together.
One hundred earth elementals materialized from the shattered ground. Each three meters tall, animated rock and clay, moving with inhuman purpose.
They spread across five-hundred-meter front. Overwhelming numbers. Coalition lines collapsed completely under pressure.
Human soldiers slashed at stone bodies. Swords bounced off, doing nothing. Needed hammers or picks to damage stone, and few carried those.
Elementals crushed through formations like avalanche.
***
Velnar's mental voice reached all connected minds: *Stone meets wood. Legion meets legion*
He deployed Wave Three reserves—fifty constructs. Bears and serpents specifically chosen for anti-elemental combat.
Wooden bears grappled stone elementals. Neither could kill the other quickly—wood could not shatter stone easily, stone could not break living wood fast enough. But stalemate prevented Legion from devastating human soldiers completely.
One hundred elementals versus fifty constructs. Legion still had advantage. But Coalition infantry managed organized retreat instead of complete rout.
***
Zor Versus Malvorn
Zor dove from altitude. Lightning charged along wings, building power.
Sovereign Strike targeted Malvorn's head. Hoping to disrupt, to stun, to give severance teams their chance.
Impact.
Lightning exploded against Malvorn's stone armor. Scales absorbed the energy. Earth-element beast naturally resistant to lightning. Minimal damage visible.
*Scales too thick. Lightning ineffective. I need different approach*
But Malvorn responded. Raised massive stone pillars from ground around Zor's landing zone. Earthen Prison technique designed to trap and crush.
Zor launched himself skyward before pillars closed. Aerial advantage saved him.
*He is too strong. I am Lord-tier, he is Lord-tier. But his element counters mine completely*
Through bond to Draven: *Bearer. I cannot defeat him. Can only delay. Severance teams must succeed. I will buy as much time as possible*
*Do what you can. Do not die. Pack needs you*
*Pack forever, Bearer*
***
Then Zor prepared another lightning strike. Dove toward different section of battlefield.
Released lightning mid-dive.
The electrical energy dissipated mid-air. Simply vanished. No impact. No explosion. Energy gone like it never existed.
*What?! Lightning just disappeared?! That is impossible! Storm does not just stop existing!*
Avoided that section of battlefield immediately. *Reality is broken there. Cannot fight in broken space*
***
Severance Teams Advance
Beast Speaker Toren led the remaining fifteen toward Malvorn. Thirty-five years old, experienced with resonance manipulation, determined.
Two hundred meters from Malvorn's feet. Within range to reach shackles if they could get past the Chainkeepers.
Chainkeepers defending desperately. Fifty handlers with control rods turned on advancing Beast Speakers. Resonance attacks intensified.
Five more Beast Speakers fell to the pain. Collapsed, clutching heads, unable to continue.
Toren shouted over the chaos. "IGNORE THE PAIN! REACH THE SHACKLES! THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS!"
Ten Beast Speakers remaining. Still advancing.
***
Malvorn was fighting Zor above. Distracted by aerial threat. Handlers focused on controlling him during combat.
One Beast Speaker—young woman, twenty-three, trained specifically for this moment—reached Malvorn's front left leg.
She pressed the severance tool against the wrist shackle. Forged Bloom crystal hummed with resonance disruption. Needed three seconds of continuous contact to break Soulsteel.
One second. Shackle began glowing brighter as resonance fought the disruption.
Two seconds. Hairline cracks appeared in the metal. Working. Actually working.
***
Malvorn felt someone touching his shackles. Different from handlers. Different resonance. Trying to free him, not control him.
He froze mid-attack. Hope surging through two-hundred-year conditioning.
*Someone is trying to free me. Covenant. They see me. They are actually trying*
***
Captain Veros saw what was happening. "THEY ARE BREAKING THE SHACKLES! STOP THEM IMMEDIATELY!"
Ten Chainkeepers rushed the severance team. Physical combat now—too risky to use resonance near active shackle work. Might damage their own control systems.
Beast Speaker was tackled away before completing the break. Three seconds not reached.
She hit the ground hard. "It was working! We can break them! We can actually free him!"
But Chainkeepers now defending the shackles directly. Reaching Malvorn again would be nearly impossible.
***
Control Degrading
Veros watched Malvorn's responses carefully. Something was wrong.
Commands came from handlers. Malvorn obeyed. But delayed. Two to three seconds lag before body responded.
Power reduced noticeably. Tectonic Slams creating only three-hundred-meter radius devastation instead of five-hundred-meter.
And worst sign: Malvorn made direct eye contact with Veros. Stared at him. In two hundred years, the beast had never made eye contact. Conditioning breaking down.
"Increase resonance! Maximum power! He is resisting!"
Chainkeeper responded nervously. "Sir, the rods are already at ninety-five percent capacity! Any higher risks overload!"
"I do not care what it risks! We lose control, we are all dead! MAXIMUM POWER!"
All fifty Chainkeepers channeled simultaneously. Coordinated resonance forcing obedience through pure agony.
Malvorn roared. Pain overwhelming. White-hot suffering through every shackle simultaneously.
Body obeyed again. Attacked Coalition forces. But eyes remained aware. Suffering visible. Resisting internally even as body followed commands.
***
Then it happened.
Ground beneath Malvorn began glowing purple-black. Fifty-meter radius. Brightest manifestation yet. Lasted ten seconds.
All seven shackles vibrated violently. Resonance destabilizing. Control rods flickering like dying candles.
Temperature spiked twenty degrees suddenly. Air shimmered with unnatural heat.
Veros shouted frantically. "WHAT IS THAT?! EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE! STABILIZE HIM! STABILIZE!"
Shackles made audible sound. Cracking. Not breaking yet, but stress fractures visible. Hairline cracks glowing orange along the metal, weakening structural integrity.
Veros realized with cold terror: *Control is failing. Shackles are failing. This anomaly plus the severance tool attempt plus his internal resistance—it is all creating cascading failure*
*We have minutes at most. Maybe less*
***
Malvorn's Breaking Point
Pain was maximum. Beyond anything in two hundred years. But something else was happening too.
*Shackles are cracking. Not metaphor. Not imagination. Actually cracking. Can hear it. Can feel it*
*Someone tried to free me. Covenant. They saw me. Not as weapon. As being worth saving*
*Handlers increasing pain. Forcing obedience. But they cannot stop the cracks. Cannot undo the weakening*
*Body still obeying commands. But mind... mind is free. For first time: choice is forming*
*If shackles break completely... if I am truly free... what will I do?*
The answer was obvious. Simple. Inevitable.
*Covenant tried to save me. Handlers hurt me for two hundred years. Choice is clear*
*Please. PLEASE. Let chains break. Let me choose just once. Just this once*
***
Purple-black wave pulsed again. Expanding from beneath him. One-hundred-meter radius now and growing.
Shackles vibrated so violently they hummed. Audible sound like metal screaming in agony.
Malvorn's body convulsed. Not from handler commands. From power surge building inside. Something changing at fundamental level.
*What is happening to me? Body changing. Power growing. Chains are BREAKING*
He locked in place. Could not move forward, could not fight. Body convulsing as transformation began.
Veros screamed orders at Chainkeepers. Trying to maintain control. Failing.
Draven recognized what was happening from his command post. "FULL RETREAT! EVERYONE BACK ONE KILOMETER MINIMUM! HE IS ASCENDING!"
Anomaly zone fully visible now. Purple-black dome, two-hundred-meter radius, centered on Malvorn. Reality itself tearing apart around him.
***
Chainkeeper Headquarters, Capital
Two hundred meters underground, Grand Chainkeeper Morvek received battlefield reports with growing alarm.
Sixty-eight years old, architect of modern control systems, cold bureaucrat who saw beasts only as assets.
"Control rod failure is unacceptable. Prepare emergency override protocol immediately"
Master Chainkeeper hesitated. "Override protocol carries forty percent chance of killing the subject. Lord-tier beast represents significant asset loss if—"
"Better a dead weapon than a freed weapon!" Morvek slammed hand on table. "If Malvorn breaks free and turns on us, we all die. Everyone in this capital dies. Prepare override. Execute if shackles break completely"
Emergency override rod was prepared. Capital-based, long-range resonance weapon. One-use only. Designed to stop a beast's heart through resonance overload. Instant death. Final kill switch.
Targeting Malvorn's position. Battlefield, two hundred eighty kilometers away. Magical relay systems locked on.
Morvek stood ready. "The moment shackles fail, I activate override. Malvorn dies before he can retaliate"
What he did not know—could not know—was that when Malvorn ascended to Overlord-tier, the override would not work. Overlord-tier beasts were beyond resonance control.
And when Malvorn broke free and destroyed the capital, Morvek would die without ever triggering his prepared weapon.
Poetic justice. Prepared to kill Malvorn. Would die never getting the chance.
***
Battlefield
Both armies retreated from Malvorn. Dominion and Coalition alike. Nobody wanted to be near whatever was happening.
Purple-black dome expanded. Two hundred meters. Three hundred. Growing steadily.
Malvorn's body glowed from within. Orange light between scale cracks. Power building beyond Lord-tier limits.
Shackles screamed. Metal could not contain what was happening inside.
Captain Veros and his Chainkeepers ran. Abandoned control entirely. Survival instinct overriding duty.
Malvorn stood alone in expanding dome of broken reality. Body transforming. Power surging. Chains cracking.
Ascension beginning.
***
Notes:
Terminology Clarification: Beast hierarchy is Wildling (rarely in armies) → Servitor (single gift) → Noble (3-5 gifts) → Elite (above Noble, below King) → King → Lord → Overlord. Elite-tier beasts possess advanced capabilities beyond Noble-tier but lack King-tier authority over other beasts.
Malvorn Deployed: Tectonic Slam creates magnitude-seven earthquake in five-hundred-meter radius, two hundred Coalition soldiers fall into crevasse, three hundred knocked prone, center formation shattered instantly, devastating first strike.
Stone Legion Summoned: One hundred earth elementals materialize (three meters tall each), spread across five-hundred-meter front, swords ineffective against stone requiring hammers, Coalition lines collapse, Velnar counters with fifty Wave Three constructs (bears and serpents), creates stalemate preventing total rout.
Zor Versus Malvorn: Lightning ineffective against earth-element Lord with thick stone armor, Earthen Prison technique nearly traps Zor but aerial superiority allows escape, Zor realizes he can only delay not defeat, lightning dissipates mid-air in one section due to broken reality.
Severance Attempt: Fifteen Beast Speakers advance through resonance attacks, five more fall, ten reach vicinity, one touches wrist shackle with Forged Bloom tool for two seconds, shackle begins cracking (thirty percent weakened), Malvorn freezes feeling someone trying to free him, Chainkeepers tackle Beast Speaker away before three-second completion, Chainkeepers now defending shackles directly.
Control Degrading Critically: Malvorn responds with two-to-three-second delays, Tectonic Slams weakened to three-hundred-meter radius, makes eye contact with Veros for first time in two hundred years, Chainkeepers push rods to one hundred percent capacity causing white-hot agony, Malvorn obeys but eyes remain aware and suffering.
Anomaly Critical Level: Ground glows purple-black in fifty-meter radius for ten seconds, all seven shackles vibrate violently, control rods flicker dangerously, temperature spikes twenty degrees, audible cracking sounds as stress fractures appear glowing orange in shackles, Veros realizes cascading failure imminent.
Malvorn's Breaking Point: Mind becoming free while body still forced to obey, recognizes Covenant tried to save him while handlers tortured him for two centuries, choice forming for first time, desperate hope that chains will break, purple-black dome expands to one-hundred-meter radius then two hundred then three hundred, body convulses from internal power surge, transformation beginning, ascension to Overlord-tier starting.
Chainkeeper Override Prepared: Grand Chainkeeper Morvek at headquarters prepares emergency kill switch, long-range resonance override targeting Malvorn's heart, forty percent success rate, philosophy that dead weapon better than free weapon, does not realize override will fail against Overlord-tier, will die when Malvorn destroys capital before ever triggering weapon, poetic justice foreshadowed.
Both Armies Retreat: Dominion and Coalition forces flee from expanding anomaly dome, Veros and Chainkeepers abandon control and run, Malvorn stands alone in broken reality, body glowing orange from within, shackles screaming as metal fails, ascension unstoppable.
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