The air inside the Sanctuary was heavy with the promise of a coming storm.
Lucius had called for an emergency meeting, his face carved with utter seriousness as the others gathered in the atrium.
"I've received word," he began, his voice low and urgent. "From my last contact in the shadows. Two of Unknown's new servants — young, dangerous, but inexperienced — are ravaging the village of Griemvield. Their names are Ariela and Vexius."
Akero immediately stepped forward. "Then we move."
"Exactly." Lucius nodded. "But we must act subtly. Kaelion and Serin — your energy is far too powerful, too distinct. You'd be like torches in the night, alerting all of Unknown's army to our presence."
He turned to Akero, Nea, Kael, and Alabaster. "I need a fast, capable strike team. Emergency intervention. Save that village, and bring us whatever you can learn about Unknown's new generation of servants."
Kaelion's ancient eyes glinted with worry. "We'll stay to guard the Sanctuary. And your parents," he added, glancing at Akero.
Lucius lowered his gaze, hiding what seemed like concern. "They'll be safe. I promise."
The lie was flawless — cloaked in genuine warmth.
---
As soon as Akero, Nea, Kael, and Alabaster vanished from sight, Lucius moved.
Step by step, silently gliding through the corridors, he extended his power toward the chamber where Kaelion and Serin were setting up their wards.
A thin, almost invisible ripple of violet energy pulsed through the air.
Kaelion blinked, suddenly feeling an unbearable heaviness drag down his eyelids. "Serin…" he murmured, but his words faded as he collapsed to the floor, trapped in an unnatural sleep.
Serin turned her head just in time to see the shadows closing in before she, too, fell — her light smothered by Lucius's darkness.
Now, Maximilian and Lesandra were completely isolated.
Lucius approached them, his face a mask of false urgency.
"We must hide. I heard something."
He led them toward the inner sanctum — supposedly the safest chamber.
The moment they entered, he felt Unknown's attention lock onto them.
It was time for the final act.
---
While some left to save others, those dearest to them were already dying.
---
The journey to Griemvield was swift, driven by urgency.
When they arrived, the village had turned into a landscape torn between two nightmares.
One half was encased in unbreakable ice, the other fractured into jagged towers of twisted stone.
At the heart of the chaos stood Vexius and Ariela.
Vexius, a young man with hardened features, clenched his fists as the ground trembled beneath him.
"Leave us alone!" he shouted, and a wall of stone erupted from the earth to block their path.
Ariela, a timid girl with pale, frost-blue eyes, shivered as she raised a barrier of ice.
"We're just… doing our duty," she whispered — fear lacing her words, but something else too. Doubt.
Akero didn't hesitate. "Stop. Now."
He lifted his hands, and the air around the two young servants shimmered.
Time froze.
The stone wall hung half-formed, the ice crystals suspended in the air.
With unnerving ease, Akero disarmed them both, stripping away their power without leaving a single wound.
When time resumed, Vexius and Ariela lay on the ground, staring upward in shock and fear.
They expected death.
"Get up," Akero said, his voice firm but not cruel.
"You don't have to serve evil. I can see it — you're not monsters. You still have a choice."
Ariela's eyes filled with tears. Vexius looked down, his pride shattered.
"We have nowhere else to go," he muttered.
"There's always another path," said Nea, extending her hand. "Come with us."
Their hands trembled as they reached for hers.
---
Back in the Sanctuary, Lucius stood before Maximilian and Lesandra in the inner chamber.
"Forgive me," his mind whispered — and reached out with his mind.
Unknown appeared without sound, a sudden expansion of darkness that devoured all light.
His presence was so immense that even the air became hard to breathe.
"No!" Maximilian cried, stepping in front of Lesandra.
Unknown said nothing.
He simply raised a hand.
A dark, warped force — sharper than any blade — swept through the room.
It cut through Maximilian as if he were made of paper, then pierced Lesandra, whose scream echoed like the last trace of light.
In her fading eyes, for a heartbeat, flashed the image of the son she'd never see again.
Both bodies fell onto the stone floor, their radiance extinguished in an instant.
Lucius watched, coldly calculating.
Then he acted.
He struck his own chest, shaping an illusion of a grievous wound.
Blood — perfect, convincing — spilled down his mouth and cloak.
He drew the remaining darkness, molding it into a mimicry of Unknown's attack — one that struck him down.
He roared in "pain," collapsing beside the bodies of Akero's parents, rolling just enough to make the blood look real.
He slowed his heartbeat, held his breath — and waited.
---
The team returned to the Sanctuary, hope flickering after their victory with Ariela and Vexius.
That hope froze into horror the moment they saw the shattered doors.
The atrium was in ruins.
In the center, among the rubble, lay the bodies of Maximilian and Lesandra.
Beside them, in a pool of dark "blood," lay Lucius — cloak torn, face pale, body motionless.
"NO!" Kael's scream tore through the hall.
Nea rushed forward, her light flaring as she knelt beside Lucius.
"He's still breathing!" she cried, her gift detecting the faint, false pulse of life.
"He's… barely alive!"
At that moment, Kaelion and Serin awoke from their enchanted sleep, dazed and confused.
"What… what happened?" Kaelion stammered, staring in horror at the scene before him.
Lucius "stirred," opening his eyes.
His head trembled as he looked at Akero.
"Akero…" he rasped, voice weak and trembling with "blood."
"Unknown… came suddenly… Kaelion and Serin… something struck them down… your parents… they tried to fight… I tried to protect them…"
He coughed, another spurt of false blood spilling from his lips.
"I was… too weak…"
Akero didn't respond.
He didn't fall to his knees.
He didn't cry.
He simply stood there, unmoving, staring at the lifeless faces of his parents.
All color drained from his skin, leaving a cold pallor behind.
His eyes — once bright with warmth and doubt — now were two icy gray voids.
Every trace of emotion, every fragment of humanity, vanished in a single heartbeat.
"I see," he said.
One word. Flat. Cold. Dangerous.
In that moment, something inside him died forever.
Nea watched in horror at the change overtaking him.
Kael's fists tightened, fury and sorrow twisting within him.
Alabaster knelt beside the bodies, tears streaming down his face, his grief amplified by Akero's silence.
But Akero didn't see them.
His gaze pierced the Sanctuary's ceiling, fixed upon the dark horizon — toward the Citadel of the End.
Toward Unknown.
From that moment on, Akero was no longer the same.
The crack in his heart had frozen over.
His longing for justice and salvation had turned to ash.
Only one thing remained — **revenge.**