The silence after the retreat was heavier than the battle's din, thick with the smells of smoke, spilled fuel, and blood. The cost of victory was laid bare in the courtyard. Elara and her teams, now a blended unit of Avalon and Vanguard healers, worked tirelessly. The moans of the wounded were a grim counterpoint to the relieved sobs of those who had survived unscathed.
Rex descended from the wall, his body thrumming with spent adrenaline. He moved through the defenders, clasping shoulders, nodding to those who met his eye—a silent communication of shared ordeal. He found Kaelen, her face smudged with soot, overseeing the safe cooling of the remaining oil cauldrons.
"They broke," she said, her voice hoarse but vibrating with fierce pride.
"On our walls," Rex replied. It was a statement of fact, a foundational truth for their new, combined people.
His path inevitably led him to Marius. The Vanguard leader was standing over the body of one of his fallen soldiers, his expression unreadable. He looked up as Rex approached.
"Your plan worked," Marius said, his tone flat. "Your walls held."
"Our walls," Rex corrected quietly. "They held because your people fought beside mine."
Marius absorbed this. The simple pronoun shift was more binding than any treaty. He gestured to the body at his feet. "His name was Alain. He was a carpenter. He hated fighting." He looked around the courtyard, at the intermingled groups helping the wounded, sharing water. "We would all be dead or captured if not for your... gambit."
"The Remnant will be back," Rex stated. "They are not the Brutes. They are an organization. They have more trucks, more drones, more soldiers. This was a probe. The next attack will be planned."
Marius nodded grimly. "I know. So, what now, Lord Rex? Do we have an alliance? Or are we just temporary guests in your fortress?"
Rex met his gaze. The time for posturing was over. "The world that was is gone. The Remnant is a ghost, trying to resurrect a corpse. We are the future. Avalon and the Vanguard are now one. You will have a seat on my council. Your people will have all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. We share our resources, our skills, and our intelligence. We build this nation together, or we will all be conquered separately."
It was a complete and unconditional integration. A leap of faith.
Marius was silent for a long moment, weighing the corpse of his old command against the potential of a new future. He looked at the determined face of the young lord before him, at the strength of the walls, at the spirit of the defenders.
He extended his hand. "Then we are one."
Rex took it. The grip was firm, the alliance sealed not with a document, but with shared blood and the memory of a boiling oil slick.
That evening, a joint council meeting was held in the great hall. Rex, Elara, Kaelen, and Jean sat with Marius, Lena, and the Vanguard engineer, Henrik. They were no longer two groups. They were the leadership of a single, embattled nation.
The first order of business was not celebration, but grim preparation. The Remnant had shown their hand. The war had changed. It was no longer a battle for regional dominance, but a fight for survival against a technologically superior foe that wanted to erase their new world and rebuild the old.
As they began to plan, Rex realized the true meaning of their victory that day. They hadn't just defended a castle. They had forged a nation in the fires of a common enemy. The Kingdom of Avalon was no longer just a dream. It was a reality, born in blood and sealed by an alliance of necessity that was quickly becoming one of shared purpose.