Location: Ashenreach Borderlands
POV: Caelis Thorne
The land was dying.
Caelis rode at the front of a column of thousands—wolves, witches, cursed knights, and mortals bearing weapons older than empires. Behind him flew the torn banners of a hundred fractured kingdoms. Once enemies. Now desperate.
Ashenreach burned in the distance.
Not with fire, but with void.
Each village they passed lay hollowed, not destroyed—but emptied. As if every soul had been swallowed by something unseen. And above it all, the eclipse still bled red.
> We are too late, whispered the voice he hadn't heard in years—his brother's ghost.
"No," Caelis murmured. "Not yet."
---
The General's Doubt
Captain Enrys approached on horseback, her armor scorched from the last skirmish with Thamaris's hounds.
"We've lost contact with the Vensari flank," she said. "And half the Ironhowl scouts haven't returned."
"They won't," Caelis said grimly. "This is what war with a god looks like."
"And you still believe we can win?"
He turned, gaze sharp. "No. But I believe we can make it bleed."
That was enough.
---
A Gift from the Dead
That night, a lone figure approached the camp.
Tattered robe. Eyes stitched shut. One of the Crimson Seers.
She carried a relic wrapped in chains—the Heart of Rilithar, an artifact said to sever fate itself.
"I dreamed of you, Caelis Thorne," she rasped, holding it out. "In your hands, this will burn the blood from the stars."
Caelis took it.
The weight was unreal.
The power—terrifying.
"Tell me what I must do."
"Lead the broken. And become the monster they fear… before Thamaris does."
---
Final Scene – The Eclipse Widens
Caelis stood on the ridge, looking toward Ravenspire Vale.
He saw it—columns of black flame, skies torn open, and the flash of blades. Ashren was there.
So was she.
He turned to his army.
"Tonight, we reclaim the world from the god who tried to break it."
And with that, the March of the Broken Crown began.