Chapter 73: Siege of Solaris
The sky above Solaris died. The toxic black mist rolled across the eastern plains like an unnatural ocean wave. It swallowed the green grass, suffocated the tall trees, and blotted out the afternoon sun. The air instantly turned freezing cold.
Standing on the high stone battlements of the capital, Seyana gripped the hilt of her silver rapier. She wore her dark iron armor. Her amber eyes narrowed as the massive shadow storm crashed against the kingdom’s outer walls. The sound was deafening. It was not the sound of heavy wind. It was the sound of a hundred thousand feral monsters screeching in the dark.
"Archers!" Seyana yelled, her voice cutting clearly through the rising panic. "Draw!"
A thousand Solaris soldiers pulled back their steel bowstrings. Their hands shook rigorously. They were ordinary men, terrified of the nightmares hiding in the mist.
"Fire!"
A massive rain of steel arrows descended into the black fog. There was no magic to guide them. No wind spells to make them fly faster or hit harder. They were just pieces of metal relying on gravity. Dull thuds echoed from the dark, followed by angry, gurgling roars. The arrows had hit their targets, but they were useless against the corrupted muscle of the Mana Aberrations.
The spasming claws suddenly slammed on the top of the pale stone wall. The first wave of beasts began to scale the battlements. They crawled up the sheer stone like giant, mutated spiders. Their jaws dripped with toxic black liquid that sizzled against the rock.
"Spears forward!" Seyana commanded, stepping right to the edge of the wall. She thrust her rapier, lunging the thin silver blade through the blind eye of a climbing beast. The monster shrieked and fell backward into the mist.
To her left, Ignis let out an exhausted yell.
The fiery royal did not have his blue fire. He didn’t even have a normal orange flame. His magical core was starved. He swung a plain, iron broadsword with both of his bare hands.
An Aberration lunged over the wall, snapping its jagged purple teeth at his face. Ignis stepped smoothly to the side, relying on the raw footwork he had practiced for three months in the basement. He brought the iron sword down in a brutal arc, severing the monster’s rigid neck.
SPRAYYY!!
Black blood sprayed across his face, but Ignis didn’t stop. He kicked the headless body off the wall and spun to block another beast.
"I hate fighting in the dark!" Ignis shouted, wiping the toxic blood from his eyes. His arms were burning with fatigue. "I feel blind!"
"Stop complaining and keep swinging!" Terravarous rumbled loudly.
The giant stood like a mountain on the right flank. Five Aberrations threw themselves at him at the same time. Terravarous couldn’t afford to coat his whole body in diamond armor. The ambient mana was far too weak.
Instead, he let the monsters hit his bare iron chest plate. The steel dented under their sharp claws. Terravarous gritted his teeth against the sheer physical pain, grabbed two of the beasts by their thick throats, and crushed their windpipes with muscle.
CRUNCH!
A third beast bit deeply into his left thigh. Terravarous instantly hardened just that single patch of skin into sharp diamond. The monster’s teeth shattered. The giant followed up with a brutal punch that caved the beast’s skull in.
It was a brutal war of attrition, and the humans were slowly losing.
For every single Aberration they killed, three more climbed over the high stone wall. The Solaris soldiers were fighting bravely, thrusting their steel spears and holding their wooden shields, but they were just normal men. The corrupted beasts were tearing through their defensive formations.
Seyana ducked under a claw, slicing her rapier across a monster’s knees. She pushed the crippled beast off the high ledge, breathing vehemently. Her dark iron armor was covered in dark ash and deep scratches.
"Hold the line!" she commanded, trying to keep the soldiers from breaking and running. "Do not let them reach the inner city!"
BOOM!
Suddenly, an echoing boom shook the capital. It came from the bottom. The thick stone beneath Seyana’s boots trembled. Another heavy, booming strike echoed through the cold air, drowning out the screeching of the climbing beasts.
"They are attacking the main gates!" Ignis yelled, looking over the edge.
Standing at the bottom of the wall, hidden in the black mist, were the Black Mist Knights. They were not mindless beasts. They were the elite executioners of the Fallen Monarch.
A dozen Knights stood in a tight circle in front of the iron gates of Solaris. They were channeling their corrupted dark magic, creating a dense battering ram of void energy.
BOOM!
They slammed the dark battering ram into the iron gates again. The metal buckled sharply inward. The massive iron hinges groaned loudly, tearing out of the stone frame.
"The gates cannot hold that kind of magic!" Terravarous shouted, throwing a dead Aberration off the wall. "If they breach the courtyard, the city falls in an hour!"
"Ignis! Terra!" Seyana commanded fiercely. "With me! We have to hold the breach!"
The three Vanguard Generals abandoned the top of the wall. They sprinted down the narrow stone stairs, rushing toward the massive courtyard just inside the main gates.
Hundreds of terrified city guards were already forming a tight shield wall in the cobblestone courtyard. They pointed their long steel spears forward, their hands shaking wildly in fear.
BOOM!
The dark battering ram hit the gates for a third time. The massive iron doors gave way. They were ripped off their hinges and sent flying backward, crashing loudly into the stone courtyard.
The toxic black mist poured through the open archway like a broken dam. Walking slowly through the swirling dark fog, there were the Black Mist Knights. They wore ancient, rusted armor. They held jagged greatswords. They did not run or screech. They moved with terrifying silence. Behind them, a horde of Aberrations waited patiently to flood the city.
Seyana stepped to the front of the shield wall. She stood in the path of the ancient shadows, pointing her thin silver rapier forward.
"For Solaris!" Seyana shouted, her voice steady despite the terror in her chest.
The Black Mist Knights slowly raised their greatswords. They prepared to shift into the shadows, ready to teleport into the human ranks and begin the slaughter.
Then, the black mist in the archway suddenly split apart. It shattered, pushed aside by an invisible pressure. A lone figure walked slowly through the broken gates, stepping right into the middle of the dark shadow army.
He wore a simple dark tunic and heavy travel boots. His clothes were covered in gray dust. He didn’t have a horse. He didn’t have a royal army backing him up.
Ignis’s tired eyes widened in undeniable shock. "No way."
Terravarous let out a breath of relief. Seyana felt her heart stop, then beat heavily against her ribs.
It was Kairos. He walked calmly through the thick horde of Aberrations and ancient Knights. The monsters immediately turned their attention to him. The closest Black Mist Knight raised its greatsword and brought it slicing down toward Kairos’s unprotected neck.
Three weeks ago, Kairos would have panicked. He would have clicked the blue screen in his head to freeze the entire world and drain his life force.
Today, Kairos didn’t even blink. He didn’t need the system interface. He was the law. He simply looked at the attacking Knight.
His dark eyes were gone. They burned with a solid, shimmering silver light.
Kairos just had a single, quiet thought. A perfect 30 foot bubble of frozen gray space erupted around him. He didn’t stop time for the world. He didn’t drain his mortal heart. He just effortlessly commanded the space around his body to halt.
The Black Mist Knight froze mid swing. The greatsword stopped just an inch away from Kairos’ shoulder. Ten other Knights and a dozen Aberrations caught inside the 30 foot bubble, turning into rigid statues.
The Solaris guards in the courtyard gasped loudly. They were untouched. Time was flowing normally for them. They watched in awe as Kairos casually walked through the frozen gray bubble.
Kairos reached over his shoulder. He drew Asteria. The holy silver sword was blackened and dull. It looked like a dead piece of iron. But Kairos didn’t need the sword to glow anymore. The holy light was permanently running through his own veins.
He walked past the frozen Knight. He casually swung the dull sword, slicing cleanly through the rusted armor and severing the monster’s helmet from its shoulders.
He kept walking. He moved with brutal precision. He didn’t run. He just walked through the frozen space, effortlessly cutting down every single shadow caught in his domain.
Slash! Thrust! Thud!
The blackened blade tore through the corrupted flesh and ancient metal like a hot knife through soft butter. Because the holy light was pulsing in his own blood, every single strike carried the purifying weight of the gods.
Kairos reached the edge of his frozen bubble. He sheathed the dull sword. He smoothly released the time lock. The gray bubble vanished. Time snapped back into normal place.
The eleven Black Mist Knights and the dozen Aberrations behind him instantly shattered into an explosion of gray ash. They didn’t even fall over. They just exploded into dust, eradicated in the blink of an eye.
The rest of the shadow army outside the gates stopped. The mindless beasts whined loudly, shrinking back from the silver eyes of the boy standing in the archway.
Kairos didn’t look at the beasts. He looked at the largest Black Mist Knight standing just outside the breach. The Knight stared back at him. The dark magic leaking from its armor flickered wildly. It recognized the divine authority radiating from the human boy. It recognized the shattered law.
"The splinter is awake," the ancient knight hissed, its voice echoing with the Fallen Monarch’s hive mind. "You broke the chains. You gained the law entirely."
"Tell your god to stay inside his mountain," Kairos said. His voice carried that strange, dual resonance. It commanded the air. "If he sends his shadows to my city again, I will not just kill them. I will erase them from existence."
The Knight slowly lowered its greatsword. It knew it could not fight a mortal who had absorbed a Primordial Law.
"You think you have entirely won, little god?" the Knight mocked, its raspy voice dripping with toxic venom. "You focus on the dark sky. You watch the mountains for the eclipse. But the Fallen Monarch is not the only ancient king who felt the magical rivers run dry."
Kairos frowned slightly. The silver light in his eyes didn’t dim, but he listened.
"The underworld is empty," the Knight hissed, taking a slow step backward into the fog. "The cosmic seals are broken everywhere. While you stand here guarding a broken gate, Malgreth is already marching from the south. The King of Demons does not want to rule your tiny world. He only wants to devour it."
The Knight vanished into the black mist, retreating. The large horde of Aberrations turned and fled wildly into the dark plains, following their commander back into the shadows.
Within minutes, the terrifying siege was over. The shadow army vanished, leaving nothing but broken iron gates and piles of gray ash on the stones.
The thick black mist slowly lifted, allowing the pale light of the evening moon to shine down on the ruined courtyard. Kairos stood alone in the archway for a long moment. The silver glow in his eyes slowly faded back to his normal, dark brown irises. He took a steady breath. His chest didn’t ache, his heart beat was perfectly fine.
He slowly turned around. The courtyard was silent. The city guards stared at him like he was a ghost.
Ignis slowly lowered his iron sword. He let out a breathless, exhausted laugh. "You took your sweet time, village boy."
Terravarous crossed his arms, a rare, proud smile touching his tired face. "Your sword is perfectly dull, Kairos."
"I don’t need it to shine anymore," Kairos replied.
Seyana simply dropped her silver rapier onto the cobblestones. She ran across the courtyard, ignoring her iron armor, and threw her arms tightly around Kairos’ neck.
Kairos caught her smoothly, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her close. He buried his face in her dark hair, ignoring the grime and ash covering both of them.
"You came back," Seyana whispered against his shoulder, her voice shaking with undeniable relief.
"I promised you I would," Kairos murmured.
He held her tightly, feeling a tiny space of peace. They had held the city. He had mastered the law perfectly. But as he looked over Seyana’s shoulder, staring out at the empty, dark plains stretching to the south, the Black Mist Knight’s final warning echoed coldly in his mind.
Malgreth. The King of Demons.
The Fallen Monarch was a god of shadows, aiming to conquer and rule the world in eternal darkness. But demons did not care about ruling completely. Demons only cared about total consumption.
The Dawn Era was shattered. The world was now an open battlefield, and the nightmares were fighting over the scraps.
Kairos tightened his grip on Seyana. He had become the system to protect his home, but as the dark winds howling harshly from the south, he firmly realized he was going to need an army of his own to stop what was coming.