The sky above the Emberforge turned crimson as the Queen's forces descended through the broken ceiling of the Echo Gate. Obsidian-clad soldiers rode wyverns, their blades gleaming with violet enchantments. Shadow casters floated between them, hurling spells that cracked the forge's outer walls.
Liora stood at the edge of the great anvil, the reborn flame pulsing at her back. Her body ached from the forging ritual, but her resolve burned stronger than ever. "No one touches this city," she whispered.
Kael, his sword newly imbued with elemental fire, joined her. "Let's make sure they don't."
Ashara formed a warding circle with glowing blue runes. "I'll hold the barrier as long as I can."
Thalen and Elestria took to the eastern wall, where the first wave landed. Thalen raised his frost-flame and cast it into the stone, forming a barricade of freezing mist that crystallized on contact. The first attacker shattered against it with a scream.
Elestria sang an invocation of wind, her voice summoning slicing currents that tore through enemy lines.
Below, in the forgehall, constructs stirred—giant golems shaped from molten metal and stone. The First Ember had awakened them as the pact was reborn.
"They answer to the pactbearers," she said, her voice echoing in Liora's mind. "Command them."
Liora closed her eyes and reached for the forge's power.
The floor beneath her feet glowed. The nearest construct—a massive figure shaped like a lion of fire and steel—turned to her and bowed.
"Protect the eastern gate," she ordered.
It leapt forward, smashing a wyvern mid-flight.
From the shadows, Queen Iridell emerged atop a chariot of bone and cinders, her form wreathed in corrupt flame.
"You think this forge will save you?" she shouted. "It was ours before it was yours!"
Kael leapt to Liora's side. "She's here."
"I see her," Liora said. "And she's wrong."
Ashara raised her staff and sent a bolt of lightning into Iridell's path. The Queen deflected it with a flick of her fingers.
"You've meddled with powers you don't understand," Iridell hissed. "This pact is a chain, not a gift. And you've shackled yourselves willingly."
Liora stepped forward. "It's not a chain. It's a promise—to protect what the gods abandoned."
The Queen descended, landing with the force of a meteor at the forge's core. Energy flared as the platform cracked. The reborn flame dimmed briefly.
Thalen screamed as shadows tried to wrap around him. Elestria dove in, pulling him free with a gust of wind. "She's unraveling the pact!"
"We need to re-bind it," Ashara said. "We need to anchor it in the heart of the forge."
"But it'll cost us," Kael said. "Power, maybe more."
Liora looked at her friends. "Then we decide together."
The group formed a ring around the flame, placing their hands in unison on the burning sigil. Their embers flared.
Iridell laughed. "You think unity is enough?"
The forge answered her.
A wave of light burst outward, catching the Queen mid-cast. She screamed, staggered, and fell back as her shadows burned.
Liora stepped into the flame. It didn't consume her.
It welcomed her.
Her body lifted, wreathed in fire and frost, wind and spark. "You cannot break what was reforged by choice."
She raised her hand—and the flame poured into her, then out again, forming a dome of pure elemental energy.
The Queen hissed, retreating. "This isn't over!"
She vanished in a flash of corrupted light.
The forge dimmed.
Ashara collapsed to her knees, breathing hard. "We held them… for now."
Kael caught Liora as she fell back to the ground. "You did it."
"No," she murmured. "We did."
Thalen walked to the edge of the forge, where the battle's aftermath left charred stone and broken shadows. "They'll come again."
Elestria placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then let them. We'll be ready."
And beneath their feet, the forge pulsed—quiet now, but watching. Waiting for the next flame to rise.