The winds howled like wolves in mourning as the group soared across the skies, guided by Laverna's spellcraft. Her wind disc shimmered beneath their feet, pulsing with magic that kept them afloat. The landscape below blurred—jagged rocks, scattered ruins, and the creeping stain of Falzath corruption spreading like ink spilled on parchment.
Kharzad loomed in the distance, jagged and foreboding, its peaks wreathed in black fog. The Ebon Veil leader was fleeing there, but the darkness moved quicker than any of them expected.
"Something's following us," Tessara said, ears twitching. Her fox instincts bristled with unease.
"I feel it too," Zera muttered, tightening her grip on her blade. "Multiple signatures. Fast."
They emerged from the shadows without warning—Shadow-Foxes, twisted mirror images of Tessara's kin. Their fur rippled like obsidian silk, and their fangs dripped with corruption. Crimson glyphs pulsed along their limbs, Falzath crests burning like brands.
"Brace yourselves!" Shin shouted.
The first fox lunged, only to be intercepted mid-air by Tessara. Her form shimmered, light bending around her as she transformed.
With a burst of silver and violet, her human body melted into a majestic fox-like form—taller, sleeker, more feral. Nine flowing tails surged behind her, each tipped with lunar fire. Her eyes gleamed with ancient magic, and her voice came as both a snarl and a melody.
"You want the moon? Come chase it."
She darted through the sky, each movement a blur of speed and elegance. Every time her tails whipped, they tore crescent-shaped scars into the clouds. With each leap, the very air cracked with shockwaves. When one shadow-fox lunged from below, she somersaulted mid-air, her tails converging like spears—piercing the beast and erupting in a cone of moonfire that vaporized it instantly.
A second fox tried flanking her, but she spun with a flash, hurling one of her tails like a whip. The force cracked the atmosphere, creating a sonic boom that blasted through the sky, tearing the clouds apart and sending shards of shattered wind spiraling like razors.
Laverna launched into action beside her. Her jamadhars ignited with flame as she leapt from the platform, whirling mid-air to slash through the enemy. Every arc of her blades left trails of fire that scorched the sky, igniting vapor trails and collapsing pockets of corrupted mist.
She dove into a cluster of shadow-foxes and exploded into a fiery spiral, tearing a cyclone through the air. The vortex sucked in the beasts, and Laverna twisted through its core, becoming the eye of a burning storm. When she burst out, the creatures were gone—reduced to burning cinders and falling embers.
Zera landed on a jagged cliff that jutted out from a floating ruin. Her boots cracked the stone beneath her, and her blade was drawn in a flash of silver.
Memories came, unbidden.
A castle in a forest of snow. A silver crown was placed gently on her brow. The sacred blade, Clarent, gifted to her by the Moonflower Mask, was chosen to be the bearer of the sapphire moon. They were allies once. She had been a princess, yes—but a knight first.
The Knight Princess of the Dragonheart Kingdom.
The title no longer weighed her down. Now it gave her strength.
"Clarent," she whispered.
Light burst from her crest. Her blade shimmered, morphing into a broadsword of radiant silver. Runes danced along its edge, glowing with the promise of defiance. She thrust it into the ground.
A shockwave burst forth. The ground quaked. Massive stone pillars crumbled, and arcs of divine light erupted from the cracks, lancing up into the air. Entire chunks of the floating cliff broke apart, falling toward the land below, crushing shadow-foxes beneath the weight of righteous fury.
Zera leapt from crumbling stone to stone, slicing through beasts mid-air. Every strike sent ripples of kinetic energy that fractured the sky itself, drawing bolts of lightning from the clouds.
Laverna landed beside her, breathing hard. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
Zera smiled faintly. "Remind me to thank Shin for reminding me who I am."
Above them, Tessara's tails wrapped around the largest shadow-fox. She whispered a word in the old tongue, and her crest flared, unleashing a moonlit explosion that scattered the creature into stardust.
The blast parted the clouds. The entire battlefield lit up like it was noon, casting long shadows across the ruined landscape. The echoes of the blast rolled like thunder across the peaks of Kharzad.
She floated back down, reverting to her human form in a shimmer of silver. Her ears twitched again, this time with satisfaction.
"That should keep them off us for now."
Shin landed last, his eyes glowing faintly from the residue of his crest. The mark burned brighter than before, but his steps were sure.
He looked to each of them.
Tessara, still catching her breath but standing tall. Zera, her sword sheathed but still humming with power. Laverna, hands on her hips and flames flickering from her gauntlets. They had fought as one, fluid and fearless.
"We're not the same people who left the capital," Shin said. "We've all changed. Grown."
Zera stepped forward. "Because of you. You gave us something to believe in."
Tessara nodded. "And something to fight for."
Laverna chuckled. "Don't let it go to your head, fox-boy. But yeah. You lead, we follow."
Their eyes met his, and Shin felt the burden on his shoulders shift. Not vanish, but distribute.
He wasn't alone.
A sound echoed in the distance. A horn—low and guttural, coming from the direction of Kharzad. The winds shifted.
"He's calling for reinforcements," Laverna said. "We need to move."
Zera glanced at the black peaks ahead. "And we need a plan."
Tessara looked to Shin. "What's the play?"
He paused, letting the wind sweep past them. His eyes narrowed.
"We chase the leader. Find out what he knows. And if we have to fight through hell to do it, we do it together."
Zera raised her sword. "For the continent."
Tessara's crest shimmered. "For the moon."
Laverna ignited her blades. "For each other."
Shin clenched his fist. The light of the Soma clan burned bright within him, steady and unyielding.
"For all of us."
They leapt back onto the wind disc, their bond stronger than ever, their crests humming in sync. As they flew toward the dark peaks of Kharzad, their resolve burned hotter than the corruption that awaited them.
In the shadowed mountains, the Ebon Veil prepared. But they were no longer facing a lone warrior.
They were facing the Knight Princess, the Moonlit Fox, the Blazing Blade, and the Light of Soma.
Together, they were unstoppable.
And they were coming.