Chronicle of Sumeru's Burning Heaven
The Tyrant Ministers Hold the God Hostage to Command All Nations
The moment thirty thousand iron hooves crashed into the Gandharva Ville, Zang Ba sneered and hurled burning oil canisters.
Alhaitham, the scholar of the Akademiya, threw his body against the flames—only to be run through the chest by Li Hei's halberd.
Kaveh screamed and charged the prison cart; before arrows pierced his heart, he stuffed a bloodstained blueprint into Nahida's sleeve.
As Tighnari's charred fox ears were impaled on Chen Wei's spear, Nahida opened her eyes amid billowing smoke.
In the newborn Dendro Archon's pupils burned Collei's half-burned face… and she slowly curled her lips into a twisted smile.
"The throne of Sumeru," she whispered, "shall have a new master."
The peace of Gandharva Ville died with the first leaf crushed beneath iron hooves.
At first, only an ominous writhing black line on the horizon, accompanied by a dull rumble that shook the earth's very chest. Sumeru's guards gripped their weapons, fingers ice-cold. The line spread and swelled, becoming an endless tide of steel. Lü Bu's black war flag snapped in the wind like a banner for the dead. Thirty thousand Bingzhou Wolf Riders, armor glinting coldly, advanced in suffocating silence.
Zang Ba reined in at the front of the formation, his dark face taut with brute muscle, an old scar slicing from brow to jaw, sharpening his cruelty. He squinted at this legendary land of wisdom—pavilions, lush greenery, the faint scent of nilotpala lotus—utterly alien to the stench of iron and sweat behind his army.
"Tch. A place for women," he spat, voice rough. "Li Hei!"
"Your subordinate awaits!" Lieutenant Li Hei rode forth, lean and viper-eyed, his halberd chilling the air.
"Chen Wei!"
"Present!" On the other side, the hulking Chen Wei answered, hefting a massive axe, grinning with yellowed teeth.
Zang Ba's whip pointed at the quiet gardens. "The Prime Minister wants the Dendro Archon alive. The rest? Leave none alive." He paused. "Be quick. Don't delay the Prime Minister's plan: hold the god hostage, command the realms."
Li Hei smiled coldly. "Rest assured, General. We'll burn it all down—leaving only one breathing little god for you."
Chen Wei licked his lips eagerly, swinging his axe at thin air. "I've been itching to split some scholars open!"
The order given, frontline soldiers silently pulled out clay jars, their mouths stuffed with oil-soaked cloth. The sharp stench overwhelmed the flowers.
The first burning oil canister arced through the sky, screaming, and slammed into an elegant pavilion.
BOOM!
Flames, a greedy beast, erupted instantly, devouring wood, silk, books… and lives too slow to flee.
Then the second, third… hundreds more! A rain of fire fell. Gandharva Ville became a living hell in an instant. Roaring flames, black smoke, screams and wails tearing through the old chants. Beautiful buildings collapsed wailing in fire, precious scrolls turned to dancing black butterflies, the stench of charred flesh sickening.
"Defend! Quickly! Evacuate the people!" A clear yet desperate voice cut through chaos. Tighnari, his fennec ears standing rigid with rage and tension, loosed arrow after arrow, pinning Lü Bu's soldiers to the ground. Behind him, scholars and civilians fled in panic.
"Ranger! East! More enemies breaking through!" Collei, a young girl with a soot-streaked face, fought back terror, wielding a Sumeran short blade to protect a fallen elder. Her movements were clumsy, but unyielding.
"Collei! Stay close!" Tighnari shouted, shooting an arrow through a soldier about to hurl a fire pot.
But the fire was merciless. The enemy even more so. Black tide poured in from all sides, cutting, slaughtering. The land of wisdom, before absolute violent steel, was fragile as paper.
"Find the Dendro Archon!" Zang Ba roared outside the fire, voice ice.
Li Hei swung his halberd, leading elites toward the garden's heart. "With me!"
One figure suddenly blocked the way. Alhaitham, the Grand Scribe, his normally neat robes stained with ash and blood, sword humming, eyes still unnervingly calm.
"This road is closed." His tone flat, yet unshakably resolute.
"A scholar playing with swords?" Li Hei sneered, stabbing his halberd like a venomous dragon. "Crush him!"
Steel clashed. Alhaitham's swordplay precise, efficient, no flair—every block, thrust perfect, holding Li Hei and his elites at bay. A stubborn rock against the tide of death.
But he faced battle-hardened warriors and endless soldiers. A stray arrow grazed, piercing his shoulder. A slight delay.
A flaw.
Li Hei's eyes flared with killing light. His halberd seized the moment, tearing through air, slamming forward!
PFFT—
The tip pierced Alhaitham's chest without resistance, a bloody blade emerging from his back.
Alhaitham's body jolted. His sword clattered to the ground. He stared at the halberd in his chest, then at Li Hei. In his always-emotionless eyes, a faint flicker… mockery? At the enemy? Or at himself?
Li Hei grinned savagely, yanking his halberd free. Blood gushed like a waterfall, staining the ash. The Grand Scribe slowly knelt, then collapsed, a pool of red spreading beneath him.
"Master Alhaitham!!" In the distance, Kaveh—trying to beat back flames and guide survivors—saw it all and screamed in agony. His handsome face streaked with ash and tears, golden hair stuck to his forehead, eyes once burning with artistic mania now filled only with grief and despair.
He saw Zang Ba's center guard pushing a heavy, reinforced prison cart deeper into the garden. He knew what it meant.
"No… no! You can't!" Kaveh snapped, grabbing a charred beam from burning ruins, charging the cart like a madman. "Give her back! You beasts!"
Arrows rained around him, piercing the ground at his feet. He stumbled, dodged, roared—like a moth flying into fire.
"Protect Master Kaveh!" Tighnari shouted, arrows flying at pursuers. But the enemy was too many, too dense.
Collei tried to help, only to be swept away by panicking crowds. "Master Tighnari!" she screamed.
A stray arrow sliced through the air. Tighnari, shielding children, twisted sideways.
SHUNK!
The arrow buried deep in his right shoulder, nearly toppling him. He grunted, kneeling.
In that instant, Chen Wei—hunting for an opening—struck. Laughing wildly, he crashed through burning debris, his axe sweeping with titanic force!
Tighnari endured the pain, lifting his bow to block.
CRACK!
The sturdy bow shattered! The massive force slammed into Tighnari's chest. He spat blood, flying backward, slamming into a burning pillar, collapsing to the ground. Charred dust and blood covered his pale face. His once-twitching fox ears hung limp, edges curled black from embers.
Chen Wei stepped forward, slamming the flat of his axe into Tighnari's back to ensure he could not resist. Then, cruel amusement in his eyes, he kicked Tighnari's face, bent, and roughly grabbed his charred ears.
"This is mine now!" he roared, yanking hard!
An inhuman scream pierced the fire.
Blood splattered. The ears—symbols of the ranger's pride and sharpness—were torn clean off, impaled on Chen Wei's bloodied spear, held high!
"Master—!!!" Collei saw the utter cruelty. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. The world drained of color, leaving only her master's fallen body and the dripping, swaying ears on the spear. Her heart felt squeezed, torn, shattered silently. Grief and despair drained every muscle. She stood frozen, turned to stone.
Meanwhile, Kaveh broke through, bloodied, reaching the prison cart. Inside, the small Dendro Archon Nahida's hands bound, emerald eyes staring at the hell burning for her—empty, heartbreaking.
"Nahida…" Kaveh sobbed, fingers uselessly grabbing the bars. He pulled a blood-soaked blueprint from his robes—unfinished dreams, Sumeru's future hope—and stuffed it desperately into her sleeve. "Survive… please…"
Before he finished, a dozen spears pierced his back!
Kaveh jolted. All movement stopped. He stared at the bloodied spear tips emerging from his chest, then lifted his head with difficulty, looking one last time at Nahida. His lips moved, but no sound came. Blood poured from his mouth. He fell forward, fingers never touching the cage, slamming into the scorched earth. Hands that once drew countless beautiful lines twitched once… then stilled. Arrows kept coming, nailing him to the ruins.
The blueprint in Nahida's sleeve soaked in his warm blood.
Hell burned, screams continued—but the core fell into eerie silence.
Zang Ba, Li Hei, Chen Wei, and their soldiers all stared into the cart.
Nahida slowly, slowly lifted her head.
Her small frame looked fragile in the massive cage, white hair blown by heat, dust-streaked. Her emerald eyes were no longer pure and kind. They reflected fire, corpses, Collei's half-burned, disfigured face frozen in agony…
And Tighnari's bloodied, charred ears on the spear.
Her gaze drifted over Alhaitham's body, Kaveh's arrow-pierced hands clutching dirt…
Then those eyes, reflecting endless tragedy, slowly rose… and locked onto Zang Ba's cruel, faintly startled face.
Silence. Flames crackled.
The young god's face held no expression. No sorrow. No anger. No fear.
All emotion burned away in the ultimate catastrophe.
Then, against a sky of black smoke and blood, deep in those eyes of destruction and death… a bizarre, cold, almost twisted curve slowly, slowly tugged at her childish lips.
Not a child's smile. Not even human.
Something beyond joy and sorrow—chilling, soulless contempt… mockery.
She smiled.
A voice almost swallowed by fire, yet clear as thunder, struck every survivor's ears:
"The throne of Sumeru…"
"…shall have a new master."