Chapter 83: Returning with Triumph [BONUS]
A gentle breeze stirred the dry earth. Dust lifted into the air, and the once-still stream now trickled faintly, its sound slicing through the silence like a quiet melody of relief amidst lingering tension. A small group of soldiers stood motionless, eyes locked on the slowly fading gray smoke.
After witnessing the kind of explosives Adyr had shown them earlier, the fact that he could now create such dense smoke with a much smaller item didn’t surprise them. He was a practitioner—one who wielded powers born of the Unknown. What they did never required a logical explanation.
"Lady Vesha... do you think...?" Siris spoke hesitantly, her eyes never leaving the thinning veil of smoke.
The battle had started loud, chaotic. But for some time now, that noise had been swallowed by this shifting gray curtain. And the silence within had grown more unsettling with each passing second.
"He’ll win," Vesha said firmly. She had been traveling beside Adyr for days, sharing his path, witnessing his encounters. And she had no doubt—he would come out victorious again.
The smoke thinned, carried away on the wind, until two figures slowly took shape.
One was the massive, dark-blue Spark, its body collapsed like a broken statue, covered in deep, bleeding wounds. And in front of it stood Adyr, calm, expression unreadable, hair tousled and drifting in the wind.
"He won," said a soldier, breaking the silence. It was the first reaction, and the others could no longer hold back their emotions.
"Lord Adyr slayed the Spark!" Shouted another, and soon more voices joined in, rising together in triumph.
They had held their breath for so long, forced their excitement down for too many minutes, and now released it all at once, shaking the silent wasteland with their cheers.
Siris didn’t stop them. She was just as thrilled as the rest. And she didn’t doubt that soon, this story would be told across the lands by wandering bards. What she did feel was pity for those who would hear the tale but never see it with their own eyes. She and a handful of knights had witnessed something no story could truly capture.