Chapter 107: The Promise of Vengeance
She inhaled, but the air stank of ash and death. It filled her lungs, bitter and unyielding.
Her gaze swept across the remains of her kingdom. What had she fought so hard to protect? What had it all been for?
Beside her, Knox stood silent, his once-proud posture sagging beneath invisible chains of guilt. The embers that threaded his veins flickered weakly, casting ghostly light upon his weary face. His eyes, one gold, one black, reflected both divinity and damnation. He had become what he thought would save them. Instead, he had helped bring this ruin.
Behind them, Maddox staggered over the rubble, blood staining his torn tunic. His sword was nick-edged and heavy with the memory of too many battles dragged behind him, a grim reminder of what they had lost.
"We failed," Knox said at last, voice hollow. His words vanished into the smoke.
Cambria’s eyes narrowed. Her fingers flexed at her sides, itching for a weapon, for something to strike, to fight, to destroy. Anything but stand here amid the ashes.
"No," she said quietly, her voice sharp as steel. "We survived. And that means the war isn’t over."
Maddox gave a broken laugh, bitter and raw. "War? Against what? Against whom? There’s nothing left to fight for, Cambria. The world is already in pieces."
Cambria turned to him, her face shadowed, but her eyes burning with a fire that even ruin could not quench. "We fight for what remains. For what we can still save. We fight for vengeance."
Gathering the Broken
Hours later, as the black sun hung low in the ashen sky, Cambria, Knox, and Maddox roamed the outskirts of the destroyed city. They found survivors few, broken, afraid. Some were soldiers, faces smeared with soot and blood, eyes hollow. Others were townsfolk mothers clutching children, old men leaning on broken staffs, and young girls with hardened stares beyond their years.