What Alaric was doing was not merely a magical incantation; it was an "existential suicide." The moment he began to summon the maximum energy of the "Void Core," an abyss without end opened within his chest. It started to suck in the golden radiance emanating from the minarets of "Aucasia" like a hurricane swallowing stars. The sky, which had been cracking open to descend the "Light of Lights," began to waver; the light that had been cascading like a waterfall found itself being drawn with immense force towards Alaric's body, which had transformed into a black hole at the city's center.
The pain was beyond any description. Alaric felt every atom of his being disintegrate and then reassemble as dark matter. His shiny black armor began to melt and fuse with his skin, and his crown sank deeper into his skull, exuding a bubbling purple liquid. Alaric screamed a silent scream, but its effect was tangible; the glass windows of the surrounding palaces exploded, and nearby golden statues turned into fine, grey dust.
Behind him, the "Army of the Forgotten" trembled. These men, who had lost everything, had never seen their leader turn into pure "nothingness." Many fell to their knees, not out of fear, but because Alaric's spiritual gravity began to pull even their shadows from beneath their feet.
Elinor shouted, trying to stand firm amidst the violent winds caused by the Void's energy:
"Alaric! Stop! Your human body will disintegrate! You cannot contain 'eternity' in a mortal vessel!"
But Alaric could no longer hear human voices. He heard the thunder of colliding universes. In his vision, "Aucasia" was not a city, but a sick organism needing the wound to be cauterized with darkness. He raised his hand toward the sky, and from his palm shot chains of thick, grey smoke that wrapped around the necks of the pulsing minarets and began to forcibly extract their energy.
At that moment, a terrifying entity manifested in the sky. The "Light of Lights" had no body, only a vast cosmic eye of cold, golden flame, surrounded by six wings of light that stretched to embrace the horizon. This was the supreme manifestation of the "Guardians of the Covenant," the entity that sees nothing in existence but filth or absolute purity.
The entity spoke, and the walls of the world trembled:
"You embodied dust... Do you think your paltry darkness will extinguish the sun of truth? You are trying to drink the ocean with a clay spoon. Then let the vessel that burns with my sanctity be!"
A beam of pure, white light shot from the "Light of Lights" directly towards Alaric's crown. The moment the light touched the "Void Core," what is called the "Great Twilight" occurred. The place did not explode, but rather "extinguished." Colors vanished from the capital; the streets, the houses, the sky, even the soldiers, all turned into shades of grey, white, and black.
Alaric absorbed the celestial beam, converting it within his body into a grey matter that fell from him like burning snow. Each particle of light he absorbed turned a part of his humanity into stone. His feet stiffened and turned into a base of black marble, and his hand holding the sword faded, becoming part of the blade itself.
"Elinor..." Alaric whispered, his voice echoing only in her mind, delicate as if coming from behind the veil of death. "The cloak... keep it away from me... I do not want the light to find a path to my heart through its blue color."
Elinor wept as she saw the man she loved turn into a cosmic "dam." She realized that Alaric was no longer fighting for military victory; he was sacrificing himself to be a "filter," absorbing the sky's poisons so that the rest might live.
In a desperate move, Elinor raised her hand, gathered what remained of the "Waters of Truth" magic in her veins, and released a wave of emerald energy to envelop Alaric's heart, besieged by darkness. She was trying to "isolate" his humanity from his "nothingness," so the core would not consume it entirely.
The square exploded with a tremendous purple glow, and when the dust cleared, the "Light of Lights" had retreated into the sky, and the golden crack had begun to heal, but the price was devastating.
Alaric stood in the center of the square, a towering statue of black metal and frozen smoke. He no longer moved, he no longer breathed, but the "crown" above his head still pulsed slowly, absorbing the remnants of golden light from the air like a cosmic lung purifying the city. The capital, "Aucasia," was now a city of perpetual shadow, protected by the petrified body of its king, who had become an isthmus between earth and sky.
Elinor approached the statue and tied the blue cloak around its petrified arm. In that moment, the statue trembled slightly, and a single tear of black stone fell, turning into a small crystal at her feet.
The harvest had stopped, but the king was imprisoned within his own "reign of dust," waiting for the time when he would awaken again to face the six guardians who had fled toward the "Strongholds of Eternity" to renew their assault.
The battle for the capital was over, but the grand saga had just begun; for now, Elinor and the Army of the Forgotten must protect the "Petrified King" from the machinations of Merlock, who had begun to feel his power returning in the absence of light.