Chapter Fifty-Six– Shadows of Dominion
The battlefield that once roared with fire, steel, and screams now lay utterly silent—a graveyard beneath a sunless sky.
The Sultan's once-mighty force of five hundred thousand soldiers was gone.
Not defeated. Obliterated.
The moment GreenWolf led Andrew's 1st through 12th Shadow Divisions into the heart of the battlefield, the war turned from a siege to a massacre. The Sultan's generals were vaporized in waves of black mist, their bodies twisted into nothingness. Spells that once shattered mountains were swallowed in silence by shadow-drenched shields. Cannons melted like wax. War cries turned to death rattles. Ten thousand, fifty thousand—two hundred thousand—there was no resistance.
There was only annihilation.
By nightfall, what remained of the grand army was a whisper in the dust.
The Sultan, breathless and bloodied, stood among the only ten survivors, surrounded by the corpses of those who had marched under his banner. With desperation carved into his face, he turned from the slaughter and retreated. His only goal now: reach his continent alive. There, perhaps, he could rebuild—if Andrew didn't come for him first.
And yet, Andrew hadn't pursued.
Not yet.
Within the fortress walls of Fort Riven, a different kind of silence lingered. Not the silence of death, but of resignation.
Natalia had kept her word.
She walked out of the gates under the eyes of a thousand stunned survivors and gave herself to the shadows. The gates remained open as she crossed the battlefield alone, head high. And when she vanished into the mist, no one dared follow. Her surrender was not one of defeat—it was a shield for those who remained behind.
Andrew's shadows had halted their advance immediately after. The fortress was left untouched, and the people within spared. It was as if the shadow king had claimed his prize, and saw no more need for blood—for now.
Deep within Andrew's fortress—carved into obsidian cliffs surrounded by eternal twilight—Kael and Lira sat within one of the highest-security prison chambers ever built.
But this was no dungeon.
The room was clean, furnished, and guarded only by silent shadow knights who bowed at the presence of either prisoner. Their chains were not steel, but magic—binding their strength, not their bodies.
Kael sat near the wall, staring at the magical barrier across the doorway.
He hadn't spoken in hours.
Lira sat beside him, bruised and weary. "He's not torturing us. He's not starving us. Why?"
Kael's eyes didn't move. "Because Andrew never hated us."
"Then why keep us here?"
Kael finally turned to her, his voice low and bitter. "Because now, we're leverage. We're his symbols. Proof that even the strongest resistors can be broken. He's saving us to make the others lose hope."
Lira swallowed hard. "Natalia?"
"She's with him now," Kael said darkly. "That was always the plan."
High above the shadow fortress, Andrew stood before a large window overlooking his growing empire. Beside him, Natalia stood silently, dressed in silver robes, untouched and unharmed.
"I kept my word," he said. "No one was harmed after your surrender."
Natalia didn't speak.
"You saved thousands," Andrew continued, glancing at her. "And now you're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you again. Not like last time."
She finally turned her eyes to him. "And what about Kael and Lira?"
"They're alive," Andrew said calmly. "And treated as my guests. Until I decide if they can be useful to this world's new age."
Natalia's voice was sharp now. "You're not saving the world. You're controlling it."
Andrew's smile was faint. "Sometimes… to save something, you have to control what destroys it."
Meanwhile, far away in the newly reclaimed cities that once bowed to the Sultan, Tudor had risen as the unexpected leader of the resistance. With GreenWolf gone and Kael captured, it had fallen on his shoulders to command the surviving Free Forces.
One city at a time, he led defensive squads, reclaimed strongholds, and secured the lives of civilians. His tactics were precise, relentless, and brilliant.
Vareth, Nihari, Bramon's Pass—all under Free control once more.
He knew, though, that this peace was temporary.
With Natalia gone, Kael imprisoned, and the shadow army expanding, it was only a matter of time before Andrew returned to finish what he started.
But Tudor had hope.
Because if Kael could rise once… he could do it again.
And perhaps, just perhaps, someone would find a way to stop the Shadow King—before the world was drowned in silence.