The group emerged from the Sepulcher into a world transformed. The sickly orange storms had vanished, replaced by the first true rays of dawn breaking over the capital.
The oppressive magical pressure was gone, leaving the air clean and strangely light.
But the city below was in chaos. The light-artillery, now useless, stood silent. The anti-shadow wards had faded from the streets.
The citizens, who had been prepared for a holy war, were now leaderless and confused. Fires burned in some districts, and the sound of looting and panic echoed through the streets.
Haruto, Lyra, Kaito, and a wounded but stable Kenji stood at the entrance to the palace, looking down at the bedlam.
The battle for the soul of the kingdom was won, but the battle for its body had just begun
"We have to stop them," Kaito said, his voice hoarse.
"They'll destroy the city themselves." "How?" Kenji asked, gesturing to his injuries. "We're in no shape to fight a riot." Haruto closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses.
His shadow magic, though depleted, was still a part of him.
He could feel the fear, the anger, the confusion radiating from the city like a fever.
"Not by fighting," Haruto said, opening his eyes with a new determination. "By leading." He walked to the edge of the palace balcony, high above the main square where Valerius had given his speeches.
Lyra and Kaito flanked him. Below, a mob was gathering, its anger looking for a target. Haruto took a deep breath and cast his voice out, not with a shout, but with a subtle application of shadow magic, making it carry to every corner of the square, clear and calm. "People of Esteria!" he began.
The crowd stilled, looking up at the three figures silhouetted against the dawn sky. "The war is over. The lies are over."
He didn't give a grand speech. He gave them the truth, plain and simple. He spoke of the King's corruption, the Duke's ambition, and the true nature of the Core.
He spoke of Vorlak's sacrifice. He held up the small, black, inert sphere—the corpse of the abyss that had haunted their kingdom for generations.
"And now," Haruto said, his voice gaining strength, "we have a choice. We can tear each other apart in fear and anger.
Or we can finally begin to build the kingdom we were promised.
A kingdom not of one magic, or one race, or one ruler, but of all of us.
Humans, elves, and even those who were once our enemies, if they choose peace."
He gestured to Lyra, then to Kaito. "We will help you restore order. We will help you rebuild.
But the future of Esteria... it must belong to you." It was not an instant solution.
But the raw, honest power of his words, delivered by the boy who had been branded a monster and the hero who had been revealed as a pawn, began to quell the riot.
The healing of Esteria, long and painful, had finally begun.