On the eastern front, Zephyr raised his hand high. "Today, we show them what the desert's strength truly is. Don't let them think their machines can tame our land. Attack!"
As sunlight spilled over the dunes, the desert warriors surged forward like a living sandstorm. Their swift, hand‑crafted vehicles skimmed across the battlefield, engines growling, leaving spirals of dust in their wake.
Arrows arced through the air, piercing Edenan soldiers before they could even raise their weapons.
An Edenan officer stumbled back in panic. "Arm yourselves! We're under attack! Move!"
It was already too late. The sudden strike tore through their ranks. Tents collapsed, crates burst open, and explosions rippled across the encampment.
From the north, Kirana watched the chaos unfold through narrowed eyes. She spotted Edenan troops hauling crates of heavy artillery.
"Now," she whispered. "Al‑Sarab, move."
Her elite unit swept over the dunes, swift and silent, like shadows given form. Kirana led the charge, Nythra Valkeer in hand.
As they closed in, she drew the bowstring. The laser sight locked onto a massive supply crate.
"Locked," she murmured.
The arrow streaked out and detonated, blasting the crate apart. Guards were thrown to the ground; some fled outright. Kirana and Al‑Sarab descended, dismantling what remained.
Meanwhile, Zephyr's forces pressed harder from the east. But an Edenan officer managed to slam a communicator to life.
"Command! Under attack! We need immediate reinforcements!"
Zephyr heard the shout and roared, "Take out their comms! Cut the signal before they regroup!"
Back on the northern front, one of Kirana's scouts rushed to her side. "We've secured part of the supplies, but they got a distress call out. Reinforcements will trap us here."
Kirana nodded. "Then we move fast. Take everything useful. Use Edenan tech to fortify the camp. Spread the word. We don't get a second chance."
Kael jogged up beside her. "Your call, Kirana—what's next?"
She met his eyes. "We make their weapons our armor. Ready everyone for a siege. They'll throw everything they have at us, but this desert doesn't kneel."
Hours later, the desert had transformed into a hellscape of fire and dust. Zephyr's warriors hammered the enemy from the east while Kirana and Al‑Sarab slashed in from the north.
Explosions thundered. Vehicles overturned. Sandstorms of smoke and grit swallowed the battlefield.
Kirana fired arrow after arrow with deadly precision. Each shot struck true.
Zephyr, in contrast, tore through enemy lines with brute force, his desert vehicles smashing Edenan barricades like brittle wood.
The battle raged without pause.
Then the ground trembled.
A massive column of Edenan reinforcements appeared on the western horizon—armored vehicles, heavy artillery, infantry by the hundreds.
An Edenan officer shouted triumphantly, "Reinforcements inbound! End them!"
Zephyr's jaw tightened. "A full battalion..." He raised his spear high and yelled, "All units, prepare! Hold the line!"
Kirana stood atop a captured Edenan vehicle, watching the surge of enemies. Her breath hitched.
The dunes blurred into memory.
Flames. Screams. Arbora burning.
Her family's voices. Children crying.
"No…" she whispered. Her hands trembled; her vision shook.
Kael stepped close, voice low. "I know what you're remembering. But we're not helpless anymore. And you're not alone."
Kirana met his gaze, agony and fire merging in her eyes. "I know. But there are too many..."
The air tightened with dread. The desert warriors' momentum faltered.
Zephyr climbed atop a vehicle, spear raised to the merciless sun.
"Brace yourselves! This will be our greatest test!"
Chapter 17 – Part 2 (Royal Road Standard Revision)
A trumpet blast ripped through the desert air.
Moments later, war cries erupted—raw, ferocious, rolling across the dunes like a breaking storm.
The desert fighters spun toward the sound.
"Who is that?!"
From the shimmering southern horizon, silhouettes emerged—hundreds of them. Warriors bearing wooden and metal weapons, bodies painted with symbols of the wild.
The Sylvalith. The fabled tribe of the forbidden forest.
"They're coming… They're here!" Kael shouted.
Kirana's breath hitched. Tears welled in her eyes as hope—real hope—returned to her chest.
"Reinforcements… real ones," she whispered.
Kael's gaze softened. "They came for us. For this desert. Don't lose hope now."
The Sylvalith slammed into the Edena flank with brutal precision. Fast, unpredictable, relentless—their assault carved chaos into enemy lines.
Desert warriors roared and surged forward, strength renewed.
Zephyr launched an attack from the east, a sweeping arc of steel and wind. Kirana repositioned, drawing her bow with steady determination.
She pointed west. "Flank them! Use the Sylvalith chaos—push through now!"
Her voice rang above the clash. "Prove this land will never kneel!"
The battle stretched through the burning afternoon. With Sylvalith fury added to the fray, Edena's superior numbers faltered.
Kirana stood in the storm—dust, fire, steel—watching warriors of desert and forest fight as one.
She touched the scorpion emblem on her chest. A vow tightened in her heart.
"Arbora… I won't let it happen again."
She loosed an arrow. It struck an Edenan commander, detonating in a sharp burst.
The battlefield roared.
The desert forces surged, driving the enemy westward. Kirana moved like lightning—each shot swift, deadly, unerring.
Soldiers behind her cheered, lifted by her presence.
From afar, Zephyr watched, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "She's the one the elders spoke of—the Desert Goddess. The one who'll lead us to victory."
But even amidst triumph, it came—the shadow.
It struck without warning, a crushing weight smothering her spirit. Her vision flickered. The world's sound dimmed.
She knew this feeling.
Arbora.
The same dread. The same drowning terror.
Her breath shortened. Knees buckled. Memories—trees collapsing, flames rising, screams echoing—flashed in merciless clarity.
An Edena soldier saw her falter.
He charged.
The impact slammed her to the ground. Her bow clattered from her grasp.
Kael spotted her and sprinted forward. A single thrust of his spear dropped the attacker. He shielded her with his body.
"Kirana! What's happening?!"
She shook her head weakly. "I… I don't know. Something dark. It's crushing me."
Concern burned in Kael's eyes, but the battle raged. With one last look, he returned to the fight.
A low roar rolled from the western sky.
The battlefield paused.
A massive warship descended—silent, predatory—its metal hull gleaming like a blade. Engines hummed with deadly intent.
Kirana's gaze locked onto the cockpit.
Her blood froze.
Valarion.
The face from her nightmares. The architect of Arbora's destruction. His cold smile gleamed through the glass.
"Valarion…" Her whisper dripped with hatred.
Rage erupted inside her. Memories of her mother's final scream ripped through her.
She lunged for her bow and sprinted toward the ruins.
"Kirana, stop! Don't let anger control you!" Kael shouted.
She didn't listen.
She scaled a collapsed radio tower, planting her feet high above the chaos. The wind howled, but her aim was steady.
She drew the arrow.
Valarion fired first.
The blast obliterated the tower's base.
Kirana fell.
Zephyr screamed her name and tore across the battlefield, abandoning the front lines. Warriors and enemies blurred past as he threw himself at the fallen wreckage.
Kael saw him go and immediately took command. "Desert fighters! Hold your ground! Support the Sylvalith! Push them back!"
Zephyr ripped through metal and stone. At last, he found her.
"Kirana! Stay with me!"
He pulled her free, her body battered and shaking.
She gasped—not from pain, but fury. "He's a monster… I have to stop him. I have to."
Zephyr gripped her shoulders. "I know that fire. But this isn't the moment. That rage will consume you—and all of us."
Tears streaked her dusty cheeks.
Zephyr carried her to the safety of a collapsed outpost, setting her against a stone wall.
"Rest. I'll return soon."
He brushed her hair aside and vanished into the war.
Kirana stared at the smoke-choked sky.
"Please… make it stop."
War answered with screams.
Valarion disembarked, cold and calculating. Edena troops formed ranks beneath him. Smaller ships strafed the battlefield, pinning defenders with precision fire.
Kael saw the enemy pushing east. He mounted a desert rover, retrieved Kirana, and relocated her to a northern ridge shielded by stone.
Meanwhile, Zephyr led the desert fighters and Sylvalith in a desperate stand. Their shield wall held, blades flashing.
But Edena's airships rained fire.
The ground burned.
The sky burned.
And the defenders' line strained beneath the storm.
the northern ridge, Kirana crouched behind the boulders, bruised and shaking. Her body hurt, but her spirit felt worse—cracked open, leaking memories she never wanted back.
She slapped her cheek. Hard.
A desperate reminder to stay here. To stay now.
But the screams didn't let her.
Arbora. Burning. Falling. Dying.
Tears broke free. She bit her lip until she tasted blood, but nothing stopped the flood. The battlefield's chaos warped into old echoes—her home collapsing, her people lost.
Then—
A tremor.
From the north rose a thunderous chant.
"Thal'vorn!"
It rolled across the battlefield like an ancient hymn. The ground shuddered under three distinct shockwaves, each stronger than the last.
Kirana looked up.
The clouds split.
White phoenixes—massive, radiant—burst through the sky, scattering smoke with the beat of their wings. Their feathers shimmered like living light, and their cries pierced the battlefield sharper than any horn.
Behind them came thunder.
The earth cracked. Towering figures emerged—golemic giants of stone and crystal, eyes burning like molten cores.
The Guardians of the North.
Ancient sentinels who only rose when the world itself called for aid.
A wave of energy washed over Kirana. Strength filled her bones, her lungs, her heart. One phoenix descended, landing with a gust of wind that sent sand spiraling.
It bowed.
Inviting her.
"What… what is this?" she whispered.
Her body answered for her. She climbed onto its back, pain falling from her limbs as if shed like old skin. A new power pulsed through her.
The monks' chant echoed again, resonating in her bones.
"Thal'vorn!"
She understood.
Her plea had been heard.
Kirana stood tall on the phoenix's back. She drew her bow. Her voice rang across the battlefield, strong and steady:
"Attack!"
The phoenixes surged skyward.
Kirana led the charge from above, her arrows piercing Edena warships with explosive precision. Each shot carried her fury, her grief, her justice.
Below, the Guardians crashed through enemy lines like living avalanches. Machines shattered. Soldiers scattered. The desert warriors and Sylvalith rallied, reinvigorated by the arrival of legends.
Zephyr carved a path through the chaos. "Now! Don't let them regroup!"
Kael closed in on Valarion, spear blazing like a streak of starlight. "With me! Push them back!"
Valarion remained calm, unfazed. He activated a glowing core of red energy—the ultimate weapon of Edena.
Kirana saw it.
She dove.
Her arrow struck the core dead center.
The explosion tore open the sky.
Light erupted, rippling through the air in colossal waves. Valarion's warship spiraled downward, consumed by fire, crashing into the sand in a burning wreck.
Leaderless, Edena's ranks shattered.
Victory.
From above, Kirana surveyed the battlefield. Cheers rose from every side—desert warriors, Sylvalith, and even the ancient Guardians.
As the sun melted into the horizon, she held her bow close, eyes shining.
"For Arbora. For the fallen. And for the world we will rebuild."
The phoenix ascended again, carrying her toward the horizon—toward whatever waited after the fire.
For now, the war was over.