As Caine pulled the final lever at the control center, every Isfellan transmission tower across Aethelgard released a blinding white frequency. At the heart of the battlefield, Anne stood as the center of the storm. She reached out, touching William's scaled forehead just as Harold locked his brother's body with the remaining strength of his armor.
"Release him, Bael!" Anne screamed. The golden light from her body crawled into the black gashes on William's face, searching for the rift between the human soul and the ancient entity.
Inside the Frequency Dimension
For several seconds, Anne's consciousness was sucked into a void filled with thousands of whispers. There, she saw the real William—not the arrogant crown prince, but a terrified young man, huddling beneath imaginary ruins.
"William, take my hand!" Anne called out within the mental space.
"I can't, Anne," William whispered, his voice overlapping with the giant growls of Bael. "I promised him. He gave me breath when the stones crushed my chest. I owe my existence to him."
"You owe nothing to the darkness!" Anne forcibly pulled at William's shadow. "Isfellan broke you, but Isfellan is also what will pull you home. Not as a prince, but as a man!"
A Clash of Three Powers
In the physical world, an energy explosion erupted. Anne's golden frequency, Bael's purple fire, and the blue steam pressure from Harold's armor created a vortex that obliterated everything in its vicinity.
Cardinal Malachi, attempting to strike again, was thrown back by the shockwave. "This is no longer magic... this is an apocalypse of their own making!" he cried out, shielding his stinging eyes.
Suddenly, the ear-piercing shrieks of Bael's three heads rang out. The entity was forced out through the pores of William's skin by the pressure of ionized steam. A thick black mist spewed out, forming a whirlpool that tried to force its way back in, but Anne used all her golden energy to construct a temporary frequency "wall."
The Price of Freedom
With one final boom, William was torn from Bael's grip. He fell limp into Harold's arms. Harold's armor was completely shattered, leaving behind scorched metal that burned the General's skin, yet he did not care.
"William? Can you hear me?" Harold asked, his voice hoarse.
William opened his eyes. They had returned to normal, but he looked deathly weak. "Anne... I'm sorry... I just didn't want... to feel alone in that darkness anymore."
However, their victory came at a heavy cost. Anne fell to her knees, gasping for air. The golden light in her circuits dimmed drastically, and her hair—once brown—now held permanent streaks of silver from the extreme resonance stress.
"It's not over," Anne whispered, staring toward the sky.
Bael had been exorcised from William's body, but the entity now hovered above the palace in its true form—a massive mass of darkness no longer tethered by physical constraints. Behind it, the other doors of The Lesser Key began to vibrate violently, preparing to burst open simultaneously because Anne's seal had been drained to save William.