Shay continued standing there at the center of the chaos, the cold wind drifting through the ruined streets while distant explosions and screaming echoed across the capital behind him, his dark green and crimson aura flickering faintly around his body as pieces of confetti still scattered slowly through the air.
For a moment, he had completely zoned out.
The battlefield around him almost sounded distant now, muffled beneath the lingering silence left behind by his illusion domain.
Then he snapped out of it.
Nearby, Alaric was moving quickly through the destroyed streets with his cane in hand while three massive rock golems rampaged beside him, smashing through Pandemonium Legion soldiers with heavy swings powerful enough to crack stone apart on impact.
"Left side!" Alaric commanded sharply while pointing his cane forward, one of the rock golems immediately turned and intercepted a group of enemy soldiers attempting to push deeper into the capital streets.
Then Alaric noticed Shay standing there doing absolutely nothing.
"Hey, Shay!" Alaric shouted while narrowly avoiding a blade strike from a Pandemonium soldier before countering with a burst of magic. "Need a hand here!"
Shay blinked once beneath the mask before turning toward him.
"Oh… yeah, right."
He immediately started running forward through the battlefield, steel balls already spinning between his fingers while his dark green and crimson aura surged outward once more.
Without slowing down, Shay flicked his wrist and launched one of the steel spheres directly toward the side of a nearby building.
The sphere struck the wall with a sharp metallic crack before ricocheting violently off the surface, changing direction instantly and shooting upward across the battlefield at high speed.
A Pandemonium ranged attacker standing atop one of the rooftops barely had time to react before the infused steel ball smashed directly into his head, the impact throwing him backward off the building while blood sprayed across the rooftop tiles.
Shay stopped at the center of the battlefield while chaos continued erupting around him, flames spreading across broken buildings as distant clashes of steel echoed throughout the capital streets.
Four steel balls rested within his hands, two held between the fingers of each hand while dark green and crimson spite flowed slowly around them, the infused magic causing the metal spheres to vibrate faintly beneath the pressure building inside them.
Then Shay moved.
With a sharp flick of both wrists, he launched the steel balls outward toward different buildings surrounding the battlefield, each sphere striking walls, rooftops, shattered debris, and broken stone before ricocheting violently into new directions at impossible angles.
The infused spheres curved unpredictably through the air.
One slammed directly into the jaw of a Pandemonium ranged soldier positioned atop a rooftop, knocking him backward instantly before another sphere ricocheted off a broken chimney and crashed into the chest of an archer attempting to fire into the streets below.
More impacts followed almost immediately.
Steel spheres continued bouncing through the battlefield like controlled bullets, striking Pandemonium soldiers hiding across rooftops and elevated positions while Shay stood calmly at the center directing the chaos through pure calculation and timing.
Several ranged attackers collapsed one after another before they could even understand where the attacks were coming from.
Alaric glanced toward Shay briefly while directing one of the rock golems to intercept another wave of Pandemonium soldiers, the massive construct smashing through enemy forces with enough strength to shatter the stone beneath its feet.
Honestly, even he looked slightly surprised.
Out of the Four Pillars, Shay was considered the weakest in direct combat.
But becoming one of the Four Pillars had never been easy in the first place, titles like that were earned through ability, not reputation alone.
And Shay had earned his position.
The calculations behind his attacks were absurd.
Every ricochet angle.
Every rebound, every impact point.
The way the steel spheres curved through the battlefield almost looked random at first glance, but Alaric could already tell Shay was calculating every trajectory perfectly inside his head before throwing them.
One steel ball bounced off three separate surfaces before crashing directly into a Pandemonium sniper hiding several rooftops away.
Another sphere ricocheted downward through a broken alleyway before striking a ranged attacker directly in the throat.
Shay wasn't fighting through brute force.
He was controlling the battlefield itself through precision.
Meanwhile, the two continued doing everything they could to protect civilians across the capital, Alaric commanding his rock golems to clear paths through collapsed streets while Shay eliminated enemy ranged units attempting to target evacuation routes from above.
But despite their efforts...
The Pandemonium Legion had already reached the royal palace.
And at the center of the advancing forces—
Was Marshal.
Archon's division.
The streets around them were already devastated beyond recognition, shattered buildings burning violently beneath the night sky while black-armored Pandemonium soldiers stormed through the capital behind her like a moving tide of destruction.
"Kill everyone, with take no prisoners." Said by one commander
Then another explosion erupted.
A massive spell blasted through an entire section of the street, fire and debris launching upward into the air as royal guards were thrown backward from the impact.
Archon walked calmly through the destruction.
Her overwhelming magical power distorted the atmosphere around her while spells continued firing almost unconsciously from her position, violent bursts of energy striking buildings, soldiers, and defensive lines without pause as chaos spread deeper into the capital with every step she took.
Archon raised one hand toward the massive front gate of the royal palace while violent orange flames gathered rapidly above her palm, the heat alone causing the surrounding air to distort unnaturally as nearby royal guards instinctively stepped backward from the pressure radiating off the growing fireball.
Then she fired it.
The massive sphere of flames tore across the courtyard before colliding directly against the palace gate, the explosion erupting violently outward in a storm of fire, shattered steel, and broken stone as the entire entrance detonated apart from the impact.
Debris blasted through the air in every direction.
The shockwave alone knocked nearby soldiers off their feet while burning fragments of the destroyed gate crashed across the palace courtyard beneath raining sparks and smoke.
Then through the burning wreckage—
Archon stepped inside.
Her overwhelming Spite aura spread heavily across the palace entrance while black-armored Pandemonium soldiers rushed in alongside her, weapons drawn as they immediately began securing the perimeter with disciplined movements.
"Clear the left side!"
"Move!"
"Secure every hallway!"
Pandemonium troops flooded through the destroyed entrance while royal knights scrambled to form defensive lines deeper inside the palace grounds.
Then Archon saw him.
Standing directly ahead at the center of the formation—
Alexander.
The elite knight guarding the palace.
More royal knights came running in from nearby corridors with swords already drawn while armored footsteps echoed across the marble floors, forming around Alexander almost instinctively as tension consumed the atmosphere inside the ruined entrance hall.
Alexander slowly tightened his grip around the hilt of his longsword before stepping forward toward Archon, the polished blade reflecting the flames burning behind her while his expression remained firm despite the destruction surrounding them.
Somewhere deeper inside the palace, the king and queen remained hidden beneath heavy protection.
Alexander already knew that.
And he also knew nobody standing behind him could afford to fall here.
The cold air shifted between them while fire crackled around the destroyed entrance.
Then Alexander spoke.
"You're stepping into the wrong territory, Archon," he said calmly while lowering his stance slightly, the tip of his sword angling toward her as royal knights positioned themselves behind him.
"This ground is sacred, sworn under the crown's seal, and every blade here answers to the throne before it answers to blood."
Archon didn't flinch.
She stood there with her weight shifted to one side, fingers loose around her own weapon, eyes moving slowly across the line of royal knights behind Alexander before settling back onto him with something that almost looked like amusement.
"Sacred ground," she repeated quietly, letting the words sit in the air between them. "Funny thing to say while your palace is already burning."
Alexander didn't respond to that.
He kept his footing steady and his breathing controlled, eyes locked onto hers while the fire behind her stretched higher against the stone walls, heat pressing against the corridor from both directions now as smoke began curling upward toward the vaulted ceiling above them.
The knights behind him held their formation without a single word spoken.
They didn't need one.
Alexander had trained every one of them personally.
"You came here alone," he said after a moment, his voice carrying that same unmoved calm. "No siege formation. No reinforcements positioned at the outer wall."
He paused.
"That tells me everything."
Archon tilted her head slightly, the corner of her mouth pulling just barely before her expression hardened back into something unreadable. Her Spite aura continued bleeding outward across the marble floor beneath her boots, the dark energy pressing visibly against the surrounding atmosphere like pressure building before a storm.
Pandemonium soldiers continued spreading through the outer corridors behind her.
Alexander could hear them.
He didn't move.
One of the younger knights shifted his footing behind him.
"Hold," Alexander said flatly without turning around.
The movement stopped immediately.
His eyes never left Archon.
Burning debris continued collapsing somewhere behind her through the destroyed entrance while embers drifted slowly downward between them both, and Alexander remained completely still at the center of it all.
Sword raised.
Formation steady.
Waiting.