Jax pushes off the wall and moves.
They fall into rhythm quickly—Ronyn at range, picking targets before they can close; Jax slipping in and out of the fray, blade and borrowed magic working in tandem as she presses forward.
Bloodbonds and Aetherstrides surge forward for Dravara, weapons raised, eyes sharpened in focus.
And then, the air shifts again. Heat builds. Not from a single point this time. From everywhere.
“Down!” someone shouts.
Jax doesn’t think. She moves.
Skyfire detonates further down the street, the blast tearing through another row of structures in a violent surge of light and force. The shockwave hits a moment later, ripping through what remains of the battlefield and sending debris flying in all directions.
The ground shudders beneath her.
More screams.
More collapse.
They’re not targeting.They’re leveling.Or at the very least, clearing a path.
Jax’s chest tightens as she forces herself back up, scanning through the chaos.
This isn’t controlled anymore. This is survival. But horror is not done with her yet. It takes root in her bones as something else enters the fight.
At first, it doesn’t register as a person. It feels like pressure. Like something bending the air around it, drawing everything inward in a way that has nothing to do with gravity.
Jax stills. Even Ronyn pauses beside her, bow half-drawn.
“What in the fucking Stars is that?” he mutters.
The smoke shifts. Parts. And through it, something moves. And darkness moves with him. It doesn’t trail. It doesn’t follow. Itobeys.
Jax’s stomach drops. She doesn’t need to see his face to know.
“Kael…” she breathes.
The name feels wrong in her mouth now. Because whatever is stepping out of the smoke is not the man she knew.
Across the battlefield, light ignites.
Elyssara.
Jax turns toward it instinctively, her breath catching as she sees her stepping forward into the devastation, power rising around her in a surge that pushes back against the creeping dark.
For a moment, the world seems to hold between them.
Light.
Shadow.
Rise.
Ruin.
And everything caught in-between.
Jax doesn’t move.
