“Aleksi!” Daxton cried out as the general was sent flying back.

  What happened?! Aria thought as she turned to see who had attacked. Who is-

  An intense, unseen pressure began to press upon her as she saw their new enemy.

  The hume wore all too familiar armor as dark as night, his visage hidden behind a dark helm.

  Fear seized Aria. Another Shadow?! Here?!

  He gazed at her intensely before shifting his focus onto Daxton.

  Thankfully, there seemed to be only one, but how powerful was this one? Could Barus face them alone?

  The Shadow, faster than she could perceive, tried to lunge for Daxton, but Barus reappeared, only barely intercepting the hume and sending him sliding back with a powerful slash that was blocked.

  The general glared at their new foe, pointed his blade at the Shadow, and called to her and Daxton. “I’ll keep THAT one busy. You two, start running! See what has become of Sioux. If they’ve captured him, free him and the tides will turn in our favor. I might not need to help you then.”

  “Got it!” cried Daxton as he unsheathed his Sentient Weapon.

  He hesitated briefly, but then brought out his Ether Intolerance medicine and popped another half pill into his mouth.

  Aria shot him a look of worry.

  “Just in case,” he told her.

  Aria nodded, drawing her own sword. The Ether within her was primed and ready. They both ran in the direction they saw Sioux fly.

  An ear piercing screech sounded in the air mere moments after. It was immediately followed by a burst of flames in the distance.

  Aria enhanced her vision with Ether and saw it was Sioux. The Ether Beast had made it shockingly close to returning before being shot down. It looked a bit scuffed up, though it was hard to tell with the flames cloaking its body. It let out an enraged screech as it looked down. It spread its wings and several balls of fire shot forth from its body towards a group of unseen enemies.

  Zareb did not waste the opening this created.

  He’d disappeared in a burst of speed, and the next thing Aria knew, he and the Shadow were locking blades, with the general’s momentum pushing the dark armored figure back a ways away, heels digging through the ground.

  The two disappeared, and the shockwaves from their repeated clashes could be felt as they battled away.

  “Let’s go!” Aria commanded as she and Daxton ran towards Sioux’s direction.

  ***

  It turned out there had been a rather large number of enemies that had been lying in wait for them, and Aria suspected most if not all were those who’d “fled” from Barus when he’d allowed some to retreat.

  Naive man! Should’ve just slaughtered them all!

  To her relief, most of the group of humes were now busy fighting against Sioux as the Ether Beast hawk fought savagely.

  Voiding bird is stronger than me, and not by a little, Aria sensed.

  The hawk was fighting against the strongest of the group. Sioux screeched in taunting defiance, leading them away to fight with them.

  That left only two, ones that Sioux had sent flying through the air earlier. As they got on shaky feet, Aria charged with a burst of Ether enhanced speed. Galen followed right behind her.

  She chose to engage with the closest one, who’d seen her coming and brandished a battle axe in each hand. They glinted dangerously in the light of day.

  She narrowed her eyes as she began an incantation for Wind Blade as she charged. “Oh winds. Hear my plea and alter your natural flow. Come together and form a blade to cut down my foes. Slice them apart and tear them asunder…”

  She noticed her foe raise his axes into the air, both weapons erupting in flames before he slammed them into the ground with tremendous force. A wave of fire began to erupt from the ground, moving toward her like a tidal wave.

  “Wind Blade!”

  She sent a slash of potent, sharp, green tinged winds forward. The attack created an opening in the flames for her to leap through. Her foe seemed surprised that she’d managed to counter his Art. She gave him no chance to recover as she slashed at him the instant he was within range.

  He managed to parry her blow with one of his axes before swiftly countering with a swing from his other weapon. She managed to duck underneath the attack, sliding as she did so. The axe’s blade gleamed as it passed over her face.

  She slid to a stop and shot to her feet. She regarded her foe warily, and he did the same.

  A cautious one… she noted. I likely won’t be able to provoke him to anger. Very well…

  This time, he was the one to charge for her.

  ***

  Galen felt nervous as he charged toward one of the two remaining foes. Redian was quick to assure him, “You got this, boss! One enemy. Against the two of us!”

  He nodded, though that wasn’t what he was worried about. Not entirely.

  I might have to kill again… he thought nervously to the sword.

  Redian didn’t try to refute the point. Instead, he gave feelings of encouragement, trying to give him strength.

  It was inevitable, he knew, that he’d have to fight again and likely take more lives.

  He hadn’t wanted that time to come again so soon.

  Tufani’s foe dual wielded battle axes.

  His own drew a two handed sword.

  Redian began to flood him with instincts. The Sentient Weapon’s previous Wielders had all fought a plethora of enemies that had fought with this type of weapon, and their experience guided Galen’s movements.

  The soldier charged for him as he drew near, meeting him halfway.

  The foe met his eyes, challenging him to come right at him.

  “He’s charging an Art, boss!” Redian warned.

  He faintly sensed a build up of Ether after the sword’s warning.

  Let’s match it with our own!

  Redian followed his command, beginning to cast Flame Slash. The sword’s blade began to emit flames, right as his foe’s did as well. Before they could close the last of the distance, the soldier slashed first, sending a slice of hot fire his way.

  His Sentient Weapon’s instincts guided his counter. Galen slashed his flame coated sword at the fire sent his way, his own flames allowing him to somewhat parry the Art. Moving gracefully into his counter, he slashed towards his foe, sending his own Art at the man.

  The soldier, shockingly, had somehow retained some of his Art, and had used what he had left to shield himself from Galen’s attack.

  His foe was sent sliding back, his armor and body steaming, though looking relatively unharmed.

  “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy,” Galen muttered as he and the soldier charged at one another.

  ***

  Aria ducked and weaved in between her foe’s axe swings. The brute was faster than she’d initially expected, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Dodging her mother’s attacks in their many training sessions together had been far more difficult.

  Against Anila, even when you dodged her attacks you were slowly led to exactly where she wanted you to be. Aria’s foe possessed nowhere near that level of precision and foresight.

  She parried one of the axe swings, allowing her to get in close and slash at a weak point in her enemy’s armor. The man grunted as she felt her sword cut through and hit flesh. It was light cut, however, as the armor had proved to be tougher than expected, even at a weak point.

  “Bother,” she huffed as her foe charged for her.

  She parried, dodged, and weaved her enemy’s attacks. As she did, she began to cast her Wind BladeArt once again, “Oh winds. Hear my plea and alter your natural flow…”

  She noted alarm from the soldier’s face through is helm. His attacks became wild, and grew increasingly desperate.

  “Come together and form a blade to cut down my foes,” she continued both in the Invocation and in avoiding every single attack as she eventually reached the last of her Invocation. “Slice them apart and tear them asunder…”

  The man roared as he brought an axe down hard at her. She sidestepped easily, a savage grin on her face as she slashed with her now wind coated sword, “Wind Blade!”

  Her foe tried to meet her attack with his other axe. However, he moved too slowly, and had opened himself up for Aria to slash underneath his arm at the armpit. Her blade, now having his sharpness enhanced with her Art, cut through easily, and she managed to cut off his arm at the shoulder.

  A fountain of blood erupted, and her foe let out a scream of agony at the loss of his limb. His severed arm hit the ground, and the man himself took several steps back, regarding her with a mixture of fear and anger.

  Images of the corpses of the elves she’d seen at the town Norman had been in came to her mind. Many burnt beyond recognition, bodies and severed heads impaled on spears, with some hanging by their necks at the entrance.

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  All this she remembered, rage filling her as she eyed her enemy, who clutched at the spot where his arm had been, blooding gushing out like a river. In spite of the wrath she felt, or perhaps because of it, she smiled.

  To her delight, her foe looked unnerved as she charged him.

  ***

  Galen grit his teeth as he was sent sliding back several feet, his arms shaking from blocking the heavy slash from his enemy.

  He took a deep breath, regarding the soldier warily.

  The man twirled his greatsword around as though it weighed nothing, and pointed the blade at him.

  “Don’t be afraid, Champion,” the soldier suddenly spoke. “I won’t kill you, but I can’t guarantee you won’t get hurt. Surrender and return to us, already. I don’t know what lies those heretical rebels filled your mind with, but you are destined for greater things. End this farce already. Lord Athanasius will forgive you if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

  “Have you ever considered that maybe YOU’RE the bad guys here?”

  “Why would we?” the soldier responded. “What Lord Athanasius wills cannot be evil. For he is our god! He is the living incarnation of Ether itself! He is what give us Ethereans our power! No, to merely entertain the notion that his majesty is in the wrong is a sin worthy of death!”

  “Seriously? You can’t even question him or test him in any way? That doesn’t strike you as odd or suspicious?!” Galen demanded.

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish by asking such silly questions, Champion. Ah, perhaps you’re trying to buy time? I wouldn’t hold my breath. That scum, Zareb Barus, is fighting a Shadow. He’ll be kept busy for a while yet, if not outright killed. And that knife-eared abomination will be dealt with short-”

  A scream of agony resonated in the air.

  Both Galen and his foe turned to the source of the scream, and he saw that Tufani had just severed the arm of her enemy right off.

  He was shocked, of course, but the instincts provided by Redian forced him to act, recognizing the opening that had just been given to him.

  Before he had even turned his head back to look at his enemy, his body was already charging forward. Flames began to emit from Redian as he drew close. His foe began to turn his attention back to him, but it was too late.

  He took a final step forward and unleashed the Flame Slash.

  A blast of flames enveloped his enemy, burning him as he began to step back from the flames eating away at him. He screamed as the fire fully engulfed him.

  He could see the man’s silhouette through the flames as he flailed and screamed. His cries tapered off as he fell to his knees and hit the floor just as the fire ceased.

  Galen felt sick as he stared at his enemy’s unmoving form, the smell of burnt flesh making the nausea worse.

  Is he… he wondered briefly.

  “He’s still alive, boss,” Redian informed him. “Actually… he seems to be doing better than he should by all accounts. You might want to finish him off before he gets back up.”

  He hesitated, the memory of his first kill flashing in his mind. I… I don’t…

  That hesitation cost him.

  Faster than could be expressed in mental words, Redian suddenly flooded his body with the instinct to move. As though something had alarmed the Sentient Weapon. Galen began to move, not knowing why. He blinked.

  And his foe was right before him with a savage grin and wild look in his eyes.

  Before he could even register what happened next, a powerful and heavy blow stuck him in the gut, knocking all the wind out of him. Everything went black a second after.

  ***

  With Aria’s enemy now missing an arm, it became even easier to dodge his blows.

  The amputated soldier didn’t even have time to cast a healing Art, which Aria assumed he could use given how he kept trying to get some space.

  She didn’t let him.

  Blood loss would no doubt take the man’s life shortly, but that wasn’t how she wanted him to die. No, she wanted to land a killing blow herself. Her smile widened at the thought. The fury she’d felt at seeing the effects of the elf purge, as well as this most recent attack against her people in the Rebellion’s hideout, had come back to her full force, now raging more powerfully than ever.

  Aria landed a powerful slash at the man’s head, knocking his helm off, though he seemed to be mostly unaffected. No doubt the armor had absorbed most of the force of the attack, though he was knocked a bit off balance.

  That allowed her to dodge her foe’s next swing, spin on her heel, and land another slash right at the man’s neck. His eyes bulged as her blade cut halfway through, only stopping after hitting the spinal cord.

  Her enemy fell to his knees, blood gushing and squirting out like a fountain. The light in his eyes faded seconds after, having already lost much of the precious life essence from his severed arm.

  Aria tried to pull her sword free, though it took a second, fiercer tug to do so. The hume’s body hit the floor in a satisfying heap.

  She smiled at having slain another hume. She turned to check on Daxton. Surely he’d bested his foe by now-

  Her eyes widened as she saw the hume he’d been fighting move so fast she couldn’t keep track. She was watching one moment as Daxton’s enemy lay on the floor, body steaming. The next, Daxton was suddenly doubling over as his foe had his fist buried in his gut.

  Her mouth fell open as she saw Daxton go limp.

  “GALEN!” she yelled.

  The hume he’d been fighting hoisted his unconscious form over his shoulder, flames sprouting from his body and rapidly healing the injuries that had been inflicted. He turned to regard her lazily after she’d screamed.

  “Ah, right. You,” the hume sneered.

  Aria tensed as her instincts screamed at her of an incoming attack.

  The man began to take a step forward.

  Then, suddenly, Galen’s sword, which the man had grabbed after knocking out Galen, erupted with spikes at the handle.

  The spikes penetrated and stabbed through the hume’s hand, just as what had happened to Aria’s mother when she’d tried to pick up a Shadow’s weapon.

  “ARGH!!!” the hume roared in pain.

  Aria charged.

  Anger, fear, desperation, and Ether fueled her body as she sprinted towards the hume that threatened to take Galen away, simultaneously beginning to cast another Wind Blade Art.

  The man shook the hand that had been impaled by Galen’s sword, yelling, “DAMN IT! You traitorous hunk of junk! Do you have ANY idea what you-”

  He noticed her coming his way just then. He had the nerve to scoff at her as he painfully clenched his hand around the spiked handle of Galen’s sword, ready to use it against her.

  Only for the sword to then erupt in a pillar of flames.

  The hume screamed as he tossed Galen away. Whether it was to protect him from the fire, or just a result of his jerking motions, Aria didn’t know or care.

  All that mattered to her was that an opening for her Art had been created.

  She remembered how her mother had used her winds to enhance a Shadow’s fire Art as it accidentally hit an ally. She brought back her sword, winds swirling around it as she finished the incantation, and slashed, “Wind Blade!”

  The moment her winds reached the pillar of fire burning the hume, they erupted with heat and force an order of magnitude greater than before. Aria was forced to cover her face to shield herself from the blistering heat. The hume’s screams were drowned out by the roar of the fire.

  The flames immediately died down merely a moment after her winds strengthened them. The hume’s body was smoking, steaming, and burnt.

  But he was STILL standing.

  “You… voiding… elf-spawn!!!” he wheezed, body clearly wracking with pain.

  He huffed out, flames erupting from his body. Only these didn’t burn him. No, they HEALED him.

  “An Invocation-less Art?!” she gasped. “Who ARE you?!”

  The hume looked down at the hand still impaled by spikes. He used his other hand to slowly and painfully remove the sword.

  The weapon did nothing more to hinder the monster.

  The hume tossed the weapon aside with disgust, spitting out, “Traitorous scrap!”

  He regarded her then with abject hatred in his healing eyes. “I… am a member of the greatest order of the Dominion. I… am a Shadow of Athanasius!”

  Aria began to shake. Void, she hated that she did, but she couldn’t help it. “A… a Shadow?! But you don’t have the armor!”

  “I was undercover,” the Shadow hissed, his burns now mostly healed. “Morpheus figured having some of us hidden among regular soldiers might give us the chance to take back our Champion should he manage to evade him and Venus. Looks like he was right.”

  He raised a finger at her as he began to chuckle, “Before I take our Champion back. You will die for daring to cause me, a Shadow, pain…”

  He began to step towards her. Aria began backing away, her body shaking and trembling with fright. The Shadow made no attempt to charge at her. They both knew running was pointless.

  The hume froze suddenly, then spun, swinging a fist backhanded.

  Aria saw Galen had regained consciousness, and had, at some point, retrieved his sword and snuck up behind the Shadow. Now, having ducked under the Shadow’s swinging fist, he ran the blade right through the hume’s side, underneath his shoulder, with the sword emerging out the other end.

  The blade had stabbed completely through the hume’s chest sideways. The Shadow’s eyes bugged out, blood erupting from his mouth as he let out a sound of choked surprise. Galen twisted the sword around as best he could, glaring at the man and gritting his teeth.

  Aria felt her terror recede as she moved forward to try and finish the Shadow off.

  The Shadow’s pained and shocked expression gave way to rage right before she reached him.

  He roared, his face growing red. His other hand was a blur as it struck Galen faster than either he or Aria could track.

  Galen’s head snapped to the side as the powerful attack sent him aside and falling to the ground in a limp heap.

  The Shadow then quickly turned to Aria, and with sword still stabbed sideways through his chest, he appeared before her faster than she could react and stabbed his hand through her stomach.

  Aria’s eyes widened. Blood began to leak out of her own mouth as the pain hit her. She hunched over, her gut feeling as though it were on fire. She couldn’t even scream.

  The Shadow roughly pulled his hand out of her stomach, allowing her to fall to the ground, hands going to her punctured gut.

  She barely saw the monstrous hume quickly grab Galen’s sword and pull it out from his body, tossing it as he did so that the blade couldn’t impale his hand again.

  Through her blurring vision, Aria saw the hume had grown pale, coughing up blood as flames quickly erupted from where he’d been stabbed. The color came back to his face as he let out a gasp of relief. “Thank Athanasius! That was too close… He just barely missed my heart…”

  He looked to her, utter contempt and a desire for vengeance in his cold eyes.

  The Shadow grabbed her sword and raised it in a reverse grip. The end of the blade was pointed at her, ready to be brought down to end her life.

  Aria glared through the pain, making sure to keep eye contact with the vile hume. She would remain defiant to the end.

  I’m sorry, Mom… I’ve failed you. I’ve failed my people… she thought mournfully.

  The hume stabbed the sword down towards her.

  And stabbed through the chest of Galen Daxton.

  His blood splashed on Aria’s face, and she went numb from both her wound and the shock of what had just happened.

  Both the eyes of Aria and the Shadow widened.

  Galen had, somehow, managed to reach and shield her with his body just before the hume could end her life.

  Crimson blood spewed from his mouth and splattered on the face of the Shadow who looked at him with a mix of bewilderment and horror.

  “You… you fool! Why did you… for a knife-ears?! WHY?!” the hume bellowed.

  “Galen… Galen!” Aria cried out weakly. She reached out to towards his back with a bloodied hand. The point of her blade, covered in his life essence, was right before her eyes.

  “I’m… sorry…” he wheezed out as he turned to her, trying to give her a smile.

  His eyes rolled back, his head fell forward, and his body went limp.

  “Ah… ah… AH!” Aria’s vision began to flicker.

  The image of Galen impaled on her sword kept switching to that of her mother, Anila, impaled by a sword from behind in a similar manner by Arawn.

  Both had done so to protect her.

  To save her.

  And now, just like her mother, Galen would die for it.

  Aria could barely register what the Shadow was saying as he cursed, “Void, no! You CAN’T die, Champion! For Athanasius’s sake! You need healing, NOW!”

  He briefly glanced her way, then growled, “Curses! No time to finish you. You will die soon enough as it is!”

  And just like that, the Shadow grabbed Galen and disappeared in a burst of speed.

  Aria’s vision finally went black as she lost consciousness, tears streaming down her face.

  Next chapter will be released Thursday, January 22nd, 2026 at 3:00 PM PST.

  A huge thank you and special shoutout to my Page Tuner tier Patron, LOOKOUT, Myth Keeper tier Patron, Lukas Votava, and my Lore Master tier Patrons, Mountain Knight, Conman2731, ThoMiCroN, MCE 2 Munchen 2, and Voltrus. Your support is sincerely and greatly appreciated.