The sky above the walls of "Aucasia" was a battlefield governed by no known laws of mortality; the rigid golden threads of light intermingled with the purple fumes spewed by Alaric's Crown, making the clouds appear as a torn fabric bleeding both light and darkness at once. Below, the "Army of the Forgotten" crashed against the city's fluid wall, like waves of black stone trying to shatter a dam of molten glass.
Alaric flew at the heart of the storm, surrounded by an eclipse-like aura that devoured the lightning spears before they could touch his armor. The three commanders encircled him from different directions, their lightning steeds leaving cracks in space behind them, and their "certainty weapons" emitted waves of purification that nearly dissolved the mind before the body. One of them, Commander Elythius, shouted:
"O defilement! Do you think the Crown of Void will forever obscure our sun? You are nothing but a small hole in the garment of perfection, and we shall sew your wound with the fire of eternity!"
Alaric replied, swooping down with his "Soul-Gloom" sword, creating a black rift in the air that nearly swallowed Elythius's steed:
"Your perfection is the silence of graves, and your light is absolute blindness! I am the wound that refuses to heal. I am the voice of everyone you have turned into silent salt!"
Meanwhile, on the scorched ground, General Kalgar led a wedge of forgotten knights to breach the weak point in the fluid wall. The golden light burned their armor, slowly turning their flesh into brittle crystals, but they did not retreat; their purple eyes were fixed on the target. Beside him, Elianor raised her hands, the blue shroud wrapping around her arms like a living creature, as she screamed incantations of "Bitter Truth" to shatter the cohesion of the luminous wall.
Suddenly, the earth shook with a seismic tremor. A portal opened within the golden wall, and from it emerged a beam of "Central Light" aimed directly at Elianor. In a fraction of a second, Kalgar knew this light would turn her into golden dust, leaving no trace. Without thinking, driven by the instinct of a commander who had lost everything and had nothing left but loyalty, Kalgar threw himself before the beam.
The light struck Kalgar's chest; his silver armor exploded, its shards flying like shattered diamonds. The general fell to his knees, and his body began to stiffen with terrifying speed. The creeping gold started turning his joints into solid metal, and his eyes began to lose their purple gleam, taking on a pale yellow hue.
"Kalgar!" Elianor screamed, throwing herself beside him, trying with trembling hands to wipe the gold from his face, but the light was stronger than her magic.
Kalgar looked at her, his final breaths escaping like the rustle of burning paper. He said in a faltering voice:
"Do not stop... Tell him... Tell the king... that the ashes... have kept their oath."
In the sky, Alaric felt a "tear" in the spirit-thread that bound him to Kalgar. His heart froze for a second, then a wrath never witnessed by the Whispering Mountains exploded from the "Core of Emptiness" in his forehead. His grey smoke turned into raging black flames, and from his back spread wings of torn shadow, painting the battlefield in complete darkness in broad daylight.
"You have taken... my heart!" Alaric roared with a voice that shook the walls of "Aucasia" until they cracked.
Alaric plunged like a dark thunderbolt upon Commander Elythius, and with a single strike charged with the full weight of Kalgar's sacrifice, he shattered his crystalline armor and scattered his light into nothingness. He did not stop there; he aimed his blade's edge toward the city's fluid wall, summoning all the "nothingness" stored in his crown.
"Open your gates, O golden necropolis! Today... the ashes demand their due!"
From the sword burst a beam of absolute darkness, slicing the fluid wall from top to bottom, creating a permanent breach that light could not mend. The city's walls began to groan and collapse into massive chunks of shattered gold.
Alaric entered the breach, his body exuding blackness, his eyes seeing nothing but vengeance. Behind him, the "Army of the Forgotten" crawled over the body of their fallen leader, encased in gold, carrying Kalgar's silence as a banner of war. The breach had been opened, the first toll was paid, and the King of Fumes entered the heart of light to extinguish it with his own hand.
"Aucasia" trembled, and for the first time in centuries, shadow prevailed in its streets, announcing that the reckoning had begun, and that every golden grain of salt would be met with a merciless thunderbolt of ash. With the fall of the first wall, the bloodiest chapter in humanity's history began, where there was no turning back, and no escape from the confrontation with the remaining six "Guardians of the Covenant" in their glowing den.