Dusk painted the sky blood red as the army reached the new rift.

This one was narrower than the last, a jagged vertical tear hanging thirty feet above broken ground. It pulsed like a living wound, faint threads of stolen power flickering inside it.

Already small packs of monsters spilled out—sleek, four-legged things with too many joints and long tendrils that whipped through the air.

Aiden stood on a makeshift platform of crates and shields, white hair catching the last light. Golden eyes burned as he channeled power into the sealing formation.

The Empress stood right beside him, body pressed close enough that her hip brushed his. Every time a surge hit him, she steadied him with a hand on his waist, fingers slipping under the edge of his armor again.

"Left flank, reinforce!" she called out, voice carrying over the chaos. "Archers, focus the tendrils!"

Aiden felt the power rip through him. The new rift fought back smarter, siphoning energy straight from his surges and feeding it into the monsters.

Pain lanced across his chest as fresh fractures opened. He staggered. The Empress caught him, her arm sliding around his back, holding him upright in full view of everyone.

"I can feel it moving through you," she murmured near his ear, voice low under the noise of battle. "All that power. Let me help carry it."

Her hand pressed firmer against his skin. The contact sent heat through the exhaustion. Aiden didn’t push her away.

Across the field, the harem fought in their new pairs.

Catherine and Flora moved as one unit. Catherine’s blade flashed, cutting through a monster’s leg. Flora covered her back, shield raised.

A long tendril lashed out from the rift, aiming straight for the glowing fracture on Flora’s shoulder. Catherine saw it and shoved her daughter aside, taking the hit across her own ribs. The impact drove her to one knee.

"This is what your power does to her now!" Catherine shouted toward the platform, voice raw over the din. "While you let the Empress hold you up there!"

Flora blocked another strike and snapped back, "You’re tearing the whole group apart with this! We’re still bound to him whether you like it or not!"

Twenty yards away, Sabrina and Luna held their sector. Sabrina overextended, charging into a pack of three monsters to keep them off her daughter.

Her sword carved through two, but the third’s tendril wrapped around Luna’s arm, squeezing the fracture there. Luna cried out as pain echoed back through the bond.

Sabrina roared and hacked the tendril off. "We should have left sooner!" she yelled across the battlefield toward Catherine. "Before it got this bad!"

Luna’s face was pale, but she kept fighting, swinging harder even as her steps faltered from the shared pain.

Isolde moved through the chaos like she belonged there. She spotted a noble observer— one of Lord Kael’s men—watching from the rear lines.

Isolde made sure he had a clear view of the harem’s shouted arguments and the Empress’s constant contact with Aiden.

Then she "helped" by stepping back just enough to let a disloyal guard get overrun by monsters. The man’s screams cut short quickly. The story would spread.

Mid-battle, horns sounded from the west. A larger force marched in under Lord Kael’s banners. They positioned themselves on the flank, not attacking the rift but clearly ready to.

A rider galloped up to the platform. "Lord Kael demands concessions! Remove the cursed harem women from command or his troops withdraw support right now!"

The Empress’s red eyes narrowed. She stepped forward, still keeping one hand on Aiden. "Loyal companies, block them. Anyone who tries to abandon the line during battle is a traitor."

She drew her own blade and leaped down from the platform. In three strides she reached the loudest dissenter among Kael’s men. Her sword flashed once. The man’s head rolled. The rest of the arriving force hesitated.

The harem saw it all. The Empress walked back to Aiden, blood on her blade, and took her place beside him again like nothing had happened.

On the field, Aiden pushed harder. The rift core flared. He drove power into the seal. The surge hit like a hammer. New fractures split open across his torso and arms.

Pain exploded through the bond. Catherine dropped to a knee. Sabrina clutched her side. Flora and Luna both staggered, faces twisted.

Aiden went down hard, knees hitting the platform. The Empress caught him immediately, pulling his body against hers.

One arm around his shoulders, the other under his armor again, holding him steady. Their faces were close. Her amber hair fell across his white strands.

A massive monster broke through the front line and charged straight for the platform. Catherine and Sabrina moved together without a word.

They hit it from two sides, blades carving deep. The thing screamed and collapsed, but both women were bleeding from new wounds when it fell.

The rift sealed with a violent snap. Not clean. A small fragment of it remained, flickering like an open wound, promising worse breaches soon.

Aiden stayed on his knees, breathing hard. The Empress kept supporting him, her body pressed to his side in full view of the army.

Catherine stepped forward, sword still dripping. Her voice came out raw but steady. "Next time we fight for ourselves first."

Sabrina stood beside her, silent but solid.

Flora and Luna looked between their mothers and Aiden, faces torn.

The Empress’s red eyes met Aiden’s golden ones. Quiet triumph sat in her gaze.

In the distance, more rifts flickered on the horizon.

A breathless messenger pushed through the lines and dropped to one knee. "Lord Commander... Lord Varen has declared open rebellion in the western provinces.

He’s calling for all loyal houses to join him against the cursed bond and the foreign Empress."

The wind picked up, carrying the smell of blood and coming rain. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Aiden didn’t answer right away. He just kept looking at the Empress while the fractures across his body continued to glow.