In the Chronohelix hideout, a beautiful, sprawling garden-like place nestled close to the ancient graveyard, Valerus was engaged in fierce combat training. He moved with a focused intensity, wielding both the golden Apex and the black Valor. His fiancée, Athena, trained alongside him, her movements fluid and deadly. It was at this exact moment that, miles away, Caius had unleashed the deadly command of the Curse of Zaa upon Tetrarch Xevez in the province of Flux.
"Master," a soft, beautiful voice rang clearly in Valerus's mind, cutting through the intensity of his focus.
"Yes, Valor, is that you?" Valerus questioned, lowering his blades immediately.
Athena, who was winding down from a complex drill, frowned. "Babe, who are you talking to?" she whispered, walking up to him.
"Shhh," Valerus gestured quickly for Athena to be quiet, his concentration fixed on the mental connection.
"Yes, Master, it's me, Valor," the voice replied, tinged with urgency.
"What is it, Valor?" Valerus asked, his gaze distant.
"It's Caius."
"Caius?" Valerus snapped into eager attention, hope surging through him. "What happened? Did he report in?"
"He took down the Tetrarch of Flux," Valor stated plainly.
"Really?" Valerus's face brightened with a brilliant, hopeful smile. This was the first major strike against the Tetrarchs.
"Yes, and he's on his way to Cinder as we speak. He's trying to kill Arthur Delacronix," Valor revealed, the mental tone now sharp with alarm.
The smile instantly vanished from Valerus's face. "What? That's reckless!" he exclaimed, suddenly frantic. "Where is he now? We need to extract him, immediately!"
There was only silence. Valerus tried desperately to call her back, reaching out to the sword's consciousness, but she didn't reply. The link was gone.
"Babe, what is it?" Athena pressed, worried by the shift in his demeanor.
"It's Caius. He took down the Tetrarch of Flux," Valerus replied, still reeling from the sudden news.
"Really?" Athena's expression softened into a smile of relief. "He did it! I knew he could—"
"Yes. But he's on his way to Cinder," Valerus interrupted, the gravity of the situation etched on his features. "He is trying to kill Arthur—by himself."
"What? That's too dangerous!" Athena gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "He should wait for us! He needs backup!"
"Unfortunately, there is no way to contact him right now," Valerus said, frustration tightening his jaw.
"Wait," Athena said, her curiosity piqued. "How did you know where he is right now and that he defeated the Tetrarch of Flux? He's been incommunicado."
"Valor told me," Valerus said, raising the black blade, the Oathkeeper's Shadows, which now felt far more significant than a mere weapon.
"Who is Valor?" Athena asked, confused.
"She is the black sword that you know as the Oathkeeper's Shadows," Valerus explained. "Her real name is Valor. She is sentient."
Athena stared at the ancient black blade in his hand, then back at Valerus, astonished by the magnitude of the secret he had just shared. "Oh. So how did she know?"
"One of her many abilities, I guess. Perhaps she could pinpoint the location and condition of our allies, especially those of the old bloodlines. Just speculating, though," Valerus admitted, his mind racing.
"I see," Athena murmured, the shock of the news giving way to grim resolve.
Valerus grabbed her shoulders, his gaze burning with urgency. "Babe, gather everyone now. Tell them to prepare for battle. We're matching into Aethelgard now! Caius has just forced our hand. We follow his attack, reclaim our home!"
"Right!" Athena replied, her expression hardening with the full weight of the sudden order.
Athena and Valerus sprang into action, the hidden Chronohelixians preparing for the war to reclaim their homeland.
Meanwhile, in the devastated province of Flux, after launching the Tetrarch toward the capital, Caius immediately collapsed onto the ravaged ground, his body covered in smoking wounds and streaked with blood.
Gwen, the citizen of Blight he had saved, knelt beside him, hands hovering uncertainly over his chest. She knew of only one way to counter such grievous wounds—a method learned in her starving homeland. She began to chant softly, her hands glowing with a soft, vibrant green light. This was Dex, a powerful healing magic known only to the resourceful citizens of Blight and a very select few outside their borders. The light seeped into Caius's charred skin, knitting and soothing the electrical burns and closing the wounds caused by the internal bleed from the Zaa Curse.
A few minutes later, Caius's eyes fluttered open. He sat up, pushing himself off the cool, wet ground, and immediately discovered that his injuries felt strangely distant.
His right hand instinctively moved to his head, tracing the point where the lightning had struck. His eyes widened in shock. "My injuries! What happened?" he mused aloud, feeling almost whole.
"You're up, huh?" Gwen said, sitting close beside him, her magic depleted but her gaze watchful.
"You… did you…?" Caius stammered, looking from his unscarred skin to the young woman.
"Yes. It's the least I could do after you saved my life from that monster," Gwen said simply.
"How?" Caius questioned, standing up on his feet. "I mean, all of my major injuries have been healed, and it's not even dusk yet."
"Oh, it's Dex. A powerful magical healing technique," Gwen explained, rising as well. "Only citizens of Blight know this magic, and a very few others. We had to learn it, given the conditions of our home."
"I see," Caius said, steadying himself. "Well, thank you very much for healing me, whoever you are."
"I'm Gwen," she replied with a grateful smile.
"Gwen, thank you for healing me. I'm Caius, by the way," he returned, feeling a profound sense of indebtedness to the woman he had risked his life for.
"I should be thanking you instead for saving my life. Thank you, Caius."
"Well, let's just call it even then," Caius said, turning away briskly. "I have to get going. My mission is urgent."
"Please, can I tag along?" Gwen requested, her face earnest.
"No, you can't," Caius said, not stopping.
"Please," Gwen pleaded, moving quickly to keep up with him.
"I said no," Caius refused firmly. His journey was one of espionage, danger, and self-sacrifice; he could not involve an innocent citizen.
Caius began his journey toward Cinder, moving with the focused speed of a man trying to outrun his destiny. But unbeknownst to him, Gwen was silently following, keeping a careful distance behind.
When they finally arrived in the heavily guarded capital of Cinder, it was late in the night. The ash and ice were falling as always, making the eternal cold bite deep. It was only when Caius paused to check his route in a shadowed alley that he realized he was not alone.
"Hey," Gwen called out from behind, shivering violently, her meager clothing offering little protection against the cold of the capital.
"Huh?" Caius turned, and to his astonishment, he saw Gwen, whom he had assumed he'd lost miles back in Flux. He snapped, his anger fueled by worry for her safety. "What are you doing here? I told you not to follow me!"
"Well, since we're both here and you're clearly on an important mission that involves saving Aethelgardians," Gwen said, trying to contain her shivering, "why don't we stay together?"
Caius sighed, running a hand through his damp hair. "Suit yourself," he mumbled, already turning away. But he noticed how violently Gwen was shaking. He unclasped his own cape, which had dried in the travel, and handed it to her.
She wore the thick fabric immediately. "Thank you, Caius," Gwen appreciated, hugging the warmth to her.
Together, they found a small, discreet café still open late at night for weary guards, and ate quickly. After eating, they continued their journey, needing to find a place to pass the night before he located the Emperor's castle. They found a secluded, abandoned corner outside, but the persistent cold of Cinder immediately began to seep into their bones.
"You know, we could cuddle, right?" Gwen suddenly suggested, her voice soft but direct.
"What?" Caius blushed furiously, his face turning bright red despite the cold. "Don't be ridiculous!"
"Don't be shy," Gwen insisted, meeting his flustered gaze. "You're a man, and I'm a woman, but we're both freezing. Cuddling is the quickest, most efficient way to keep warm, isn't it?"
"No!" Caius stammered, his face practically glowing red.
"Why are you so embarrassed?" Gwen questioned, amused by his reaction.
"No means no!" Caius insisted, turning his back to her and pulling his knees to his chest.
They laid side by side without saying anything for some time, shivering and fighting the cold. After several minutes of silence, they both turned and faced each other at the exact same moment, looking into each other's eyes in the ash-dimmed darkness. The proximity, the shared danger, and the raw vulnerability of their situation were a powerful cocktail. They lost control of their inhibitions. Slowly, their faces closed the short distance between them, and their lips met. They began to kiss, a kiss of shared relief, gratitude, and desperate intimacy, never stopping, fighting the Cinder cold with the only warmth they had left.
That same night, in the austere and enormous Emperor's castle in Cinder, a tragedy of imperial pride was unfolding. Tetrarch Xevez of Flux, stripped of the chaotic elemental power that defined him, lay lifeless on the cold, polished floor in a rapidly spreading pool of blood. Emperor Arthur Delacronix stood over the corpse, his legendary sword dripping dark crimson onto the marble.
"Damn it!" Emperor Arthur fumed, his anger boiling over with frightening intensity. "That puppet master, whoever he is, I'm going to kill him! He's made me kill three allies now!"
"He's been trying to kill you by controlling people from the shadows, Arthur. He's smart," Lysandra said, stepping carefully around the Tetrarch's body. "But thanks to the fact that we can't die, his efforts are rendered useless, no matter how hard he tries."
Just as she finished the sentence, Lysandra's ancient Roogan amulet suddenly began to glow with a sickly, insistent light. She immediately found herself trapped in a disturbing, continuously changing vision.
The first scene was a sweeping view of the Chronohelix people—thousands of warriors, banners waving—marching out of the mountains and into Aethelgard. The scene abruptly changed to a fierce, bloody battleground, illuminated by elemental fire and lightning. Then, the scene changed one last time, freezing on a woman sitting on the imperial throne: Queen Alexandra El Drodragon, wearing the crown she wears.
Lysandra couldn't bear the sight of the final, prophetic humiliation. She screamed, a terrible, guttural cry that echoed through the hall, as if she were trapped in a waking nightmare. "Nooooo!"
Arthur rushed instantly to her aid, dropping his bloody sword and gathering her into his arms. "What is it? Is something wrong?" he asked, his rage forgotten as he focused on his wife.
The terrifying vision ceased as soon as Arthur's arms closed around her. When she realized the images were gone, Lysandra hugged her husband tightly, trembling with residual fear.
"Don't worry, my Queen. It's alright now," Arthur said, holding her close and consoling her, unaware that her vision was already becoming reality.
Meanwhile, exactly as Lysandra had witnessed in her terrifying glimpse of the future, the people of Chronohelix marched through the mountains, finally approaching the giant, heavily fortified gate of Aethelgard. As soon as the main force reached the perimeter, Banabas El Zoranda, a muscular member of the El Zoranda clan, struck the two imperial guards stationed at the gate with two perfectly timed, lightning hera-imbued blows. The guards collapsed, and the vast army of rebels poured through the breach without resistance.
At the front of the column, Valerus and Athena shared one last, passionate kiss—a silent promise to survive the war ahead—before Valerus took the lead, his blackblade, Valor, raised high.
Valerus screamed at the top of his voice, his voice echoing off the mountain peaks: "Now, listen up! We all are to go to the province we've each been assigned to! It's time to reclaim our home! For the love of Chronohelix!"
With that, the thousands of people of Chronohelix roared their battle cry, breaking off into specialized battalions and taking different routes according to the strategic plan they had finalized in their camp. The full-scale invasion of Aethelgard had begun.
Meanwhile, the next morning in Cinder, the first pale light of the new day filtered into the quiet, abandoned corner where they had slept. Caius's eyes fluttered open, his body stiff but fully recovered thanks to the power of Dex. Gwen was still soundly asleep, curled up with the comforting warmth of his cape.
Caius gently kissed her forehead—a silent thank you for the healing, the warmth, and the brief, shared intimacy—and then quietly got up, adjusting his clothes. He did not wake her. He knew the danger ahead and could not allow her to follow him any further.
"It's time to reclaim our home," Caius mused, a grim determination settling on his features as he made his way toward the center of the province where the Emperor's castle loomed. He was going to launch an assault on the Emperor's castle and assassinate the Emperor himself.