Outside the stone gates of the Dragon Temple, the sounds of battle shook the heavens.
Ella was covered in blood, and the longsword in her hand was already chipped and notched.
She commanded the equally battered Dragon-Slaying Knights, struggling to maintain a crumbling defensive line amidst the surging tide of the Imperial Guard.
The captain of the Imperial Guard looked at Ella and the knights behind her, who were still putting up a desperate resistance. A cruel sneer appeared on his face as he announced loudly, “By order of His Majesty! The Dragon-Slaying Knights have conspired with rebels and intend to commit treason! Kill them all! Leave no one alive!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the Dragon-Slaying Knights, who had been hesitating and only defending passively, turned deathly pale.
They looked at Ella, then at the murderous Imperial Guard closing in step by step. Their last shred of hope vanished.
A knight with a face covered in blood let out a roar and swung his sword at a guardsman. “Brothers! Fight them! The Princess has always treated us well! We’re dead either way, so we might as well follow her and carve out a path of blood!”
In that moment, the desire for survival overwhelmed their fear of imperial authority. The remaining Dragon-Slaying Knights no longer just defended; they launched a proactive charge against the enemy who far outnumbered them!
*Squelch!*
Another loyal knight was pierced by a spear and collapsed into a pool of blood.
The defensive line was about to collapse.
Just as a flash of determination crossed Ella’s eyes and she prepared to perish with the enemy —
*Rumble…*
The incredibly heavy stone doors of the Dragon Temple behind them slowly ground open with a grating sound.
The sounds of slaughter froze for a strange instant.
Everyone on the battlefield, whether from the Imperial Guard or the Dragon-Slaying Knights, instinctively turned their gaze toward the darkness spilling from within the gates.
A slender figure with silver hair reaching the ground walked out against the light.
Behind Moyin, a pair of huge, magnificent silver wings flowed with a holy radiance, forming a stark contrast with the shocking blood and filth covering the ground.
The active battlefield fell into an eerie silence.
Ella’s gaze bypassed Moyin, frantically searching the bottomless darkness behind her.
Her logic told her that, given Shen Luolin’s plan, the probability of him walking out alive was minuscule. But her heart stubbornly clung to a miracle that she didn’t even believe in herself.
However, there was no one there.
That familiar, upright figure was gone. Those eyes that were always detached and calm were nowhere to be found.
There was nothing.
The remaining color on her face drained away in an instant.
The hand tightly gripping her longsword began to tremble violently and uncontrollably. The last flickering flame in her heart was completely extinguished.
“The Emperor has not returned; it must be the sorceress’s work!”
The captain of the Imperial Guard was the first to recover from the shock.
He didn’t understand what those holy wings represented; he only knew that the Emperor had not returned, while this “sorceress” was still alive.
This was his only chance to redeem himself, and his last!
“She is exhausted! Kill her and avenge His Majesty!”
He let out a howl, forcibly suppressing the fear growing in the hearts of his soldiers. He was the first to raise his longsword, leading his personal guards in a reckless charge toward Moyin.
He wanted to use this woman’s head to restore the morale of his wavering army.
Facing this suicidal charge, Moyin didn’t even move.
She simply lifted her eyelids slowly.
Those eyes, which had returned to their silver color but were as cold as the eternal permafrost of the Northlands, looked at him quietly.
An invisible, unimaginably heavy pressure descended instantly.
The captain of the Imperial Guard charging at the front, along with the personal guards behind him, had their expressions frozen in time.
The heavy, finely crafted armor on their bodies turned into dust without warning.
Then, their flesh and blood followed.
Under that extreme pressure, they didn’t even let out a scream before completely disintegrating into a cloud of drifting blood mist.
They died quietly and thoroughly.
The dense blood mist slowly dispersed in the cold wind, and the charge of all the Imperial Guard soldiers came to a grinding halt.
They stared in horror at this scene that completely transcended their understanding. When they met Moyin’s eyes — eyes that lacked any human emotion — the weapons in their hands suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
It was a majesty that came from the very apex of life, easily crushing the final fighting spirit they had built through loyalty and training.
*Clang — *
Someone was the first to let go. A longsword dropped into the snow, letting out a crisp sound.
Soon, the sound echoed everywhere.
Ranks upon ranks of the Imperial Guard discarded their armor and weapons. Their knees buckled as they knelt in the pools of blood, trembling incessantly.
A crisis of certain death was resolved in an instant.
“Where is he?”
Ella stumbled, rushing toward Moyin like she was possessed, but she stopped abruptly three steps away.
To some extent, she had already sensed the fact that her fiancé was no longer there.
But she didn’t cry; she only asked the question she feared most in a voice that was raspy to the extreme.
Moyin didn’t answer.
She only lowered her head, her right hand pressing tightly — very tightly — against her chest.
There, a translucent dragon crystal beat steadily and powerfully in sync with her heartbeat.
It contained his warmth.
This silent gesture answered everything.
Ella’s body swayed violently, nearly losing her footing.
She instinctively raised her hand to wipe the blood from her face, but her fingertips touched a cold dampness.
Tears.
She didn’t even know when she had started crying.
The remaining Dragon-Slaying Knights gathered around. They looked at the despondent Ella and then at the surrendering Imperial Guard in the distance, their eyes filled with confusion and uncertainty.
They were now rebels.
Where could they go from here?
Ella looked at the expressions of blood and confusion on their faces, then glanced at her own hands.
The rationality and sense of responsibility belonging to an imperial princess returned by force amidst the agonizing pain of her heart being torn apart.
She couldn’t fall.
She looked at her own face reflected in the blade of her sword — a face woven with tear streaks and bloodstains — and suddenly forced a smile that looked more painful than crying.
She took a deep breath, freezing all her sorrow and heartbreak, pressing them back into the deepest depths of her heart.
When she looked up again, her dark eyes held only the bone-chilling clarity of the Dragon-Slaying Knights’ Chief of Staff.
She turned toward Moyin, who was equally lost, as if her soul had been snatched away. Ella’s voice had returned to its former coldness.
“He paved the way for you. He didn’t do it so you could stand here dazed.”
Ella raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the Imperial Capital.
“Do you want to know if there are other dragon-bloods like you surviving within the empire?”
“Do you want the people who forced him onto this path of no return to pay the price they deserve?!”
Moyin’s empty eyes finally showed a microscopic ripple at the word “price.”
Revenge.
This was the meaning “Master” had left for her, and the only thing that could make her continue walking upon these ruins.
She looked at Ella.
She looked at this woman who, like her, had lost everything.
After a long time, a raspy word squeezed out from her frozen lips.
“…Fine.”
This wasn’t a reconciliation, nor was it forgiveness.
It was just two people drowning in the deep sea of despair who happened to grab onto the same piece of driftwood.
A flash of uncontrollable pain crossed Ella’s eyes, but what followed was a resolve like steel.
She walked to Moyin’s side.
The two women who were once at odds, once love rivals, stood side by side for the first time.
She didn’t look at Moyin. Instead, she also gazed toward the Imperial Capital and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear — as if speaking to Moyin, but also to herself, and swearing an oath to that dissipated soul.
“He wanted to create a world where you could live.”
“I… will help you finish it.”
Immediately, Ella turned around abruptly to face all the confused knights.
At this moment, her voice regained the majesty of the Commander of the Dragon-Slaying Knights, echoing across the snowy plains.
“The old Emperor is dead! The Empire shall crumble!”
“All troops, hear my command — “
“Our war begins now!”