[POV Liselotte]
The circle of black lightning was not a simple barrier; it was an open wound in the fabric of reality. Every time one of the dark bolts struck the ground, the air vibrated with a sound like crystal shattering a thousand times per second. At the center, King William remained standing through sheer will, even as chains of dark energy pulled at his shoulders with the force of ten titans.
“Chloé, left flank! I’ll go through the center!” I shouted, drawing my dark crystal sword. “Heroes, hold back the shadows rising from the ground! Don’t let them get near Leah!”
“Understood!” Chloé roared, transforming into a blur of gray fur and razor claws.
I lunged at the first cultist. The man—if he still was one—didn’t even interrupt his chant. He raised a hand, and a barrier of impossible geometry materialized before him. I struck it with my sword, but instead of breaking, the impact absorbed the cold of my blade and sent back a vibration that numbed my arms.
“Your efforts are but the echo of a world already dead,” the cultist whispered, his voice multiplied by the valley’s distortion.
“Then prepare for eternal winter,” I replied, channeling absolute zero directly through the ground.
To my right, Leah was doing something incredible. Despite the Shadow’s mana trying to suffocate her, she had closed her eyes and extended her hands toward her father. A warm, persistent white light began to seep through the cracks of the dome, connecting with the King’s core.
“Hold on, Father!” Leah’s voice rang out with an authority I had never heard before. “Don’t let the crystal consume you!”
King William opened his eyes. For a brief moment, the violet haze threatening to invade his pupils receded, revealing the deep blue of his lineage. His muscles tensed, and the chains of dark energy began to creak under his brute strength.
“Leah… Elliot…!” the King’s voice was a weary thunder. “The crystal… is an anchor! If you don’t destroy it, my soul will become the beacon of their invasion!”
Elliot, moving with a strategist’s precision, hurled a series of runic daggers at the second cultist. The weapons exploded in bursts of silver light, disrupting the flow of energy toward the crystal. The lightning circle faltered, losing its steady rhythm.
“Now, Lotte!” Elliot shouted.
I seized the opening. I leapt over the first cultist’s barrier using a burst of frozen air and landed directly on him. My blade pierced his shoulder, but there was no blood. Instead, thick black smoke poured from the wound, trying to wrap around my arm. With a swift motion, I released a burst of ice that sealed the wound and froze the cultist from within. The man became a statue of dark frost before crumbling into ash.
However, the Soul Corruption Crystal reacted to the loss of one of its channelers. It began spinning at a terrifying speed, emitting a sharp hum that made our ears bleed. The black lightning, instead of striking the ground, converged into a single point: my father’s chest.
“NO!” Leah screamed, unleashing all her protective mana to intercept the bolts.
The clash between Leah’s light and the crystal’s darkness created a shockwave that hurled us all backward. Chloé was slammed against a stone pillar, and Elliot had to drive his sword into the ground to keep from being thrown off the ruins.
I got back on my feet quickly, wiping the blood from my lip. The crystal was winning. It fed on conflict, on Leah’s magic, and on the King’s suffering. With each passing second, the darkness grew denser.
“Lotte…” Leah’s voice was barely a whisper. She was on her knees, her hands trembling. “I can’t… hold it much longer.”
I looked around. The other two cultists were intensifying the ritual, and the labyrinth’s shadows were beginning to enter the circle to attack us. We were losing momentum.
“Chloé, help Leah,” I ordered, my voice falling into that absolute calm that precedes the deadliest ice storms. “Elliot, keep the shadows away from them.”
“What are you going to do?” Elliot asked, watching me walk straight toward the still-active lightning circle.
“I’m going in,” I replied.
I didn’t wait for them to stop me. The Eternal Guardian’s Seal on my chest shone with emerald light, acknowledging my resolve. I summoned all the cold my soul could bear, forming an armor of ice so dense it was nearly black. Every step toward the crystal felt like fighting against a crushing gravity.
As I crossed the boundary of the circle, the black lightning struck my armor. The sound was deafening, but the ice did not break. It cracked and instantly regenerated, fueled by my own essence. I was only two meters away from my father and the crystal.
King William looked at me, and in his eyes I saw a plea. He knew that if I failed, he would become the end of Whirikal.
“Liselotte…” the King gasped. “Do it.”
I stood before the Soul Corruption Crystal. I didn’t attack it with physical force. Instead, I placed both hands on its rough, dark surface. The cold emanating from me clashed with the corruption trying to seep into me. It was a battle of pure will—my absolute ice against the Shadow’s darkness.
“You do not belong here,” I said, my voice echoing not only through the valley, but within the very dimension the crystal was trying to open.
I began absorbing the crystal’s energy—not to use it, but to freeze it within my own core. I felt the pain tearing through me, the darkness probing for cracks in my memories—my life as Edward, my feelings for Leah. But the ice was stronger. Ice was both oblivion and preservation.
The crystal began to frost over. The hum diminished. The black lightning faded, unable to flow through a surface frozen down to the atomic level.
“Lotte, stop! It’s going to consume you!” Leah cried, trying to run toward me, but Elliot held her back.
The crystal released one last desperate pulse—a burst of negative energy that threw me backward. But this time, it shattered. A thousand shards of solid darkness scattered through the air, disintegrating before they touched the ground.
The chains binding King William dissolved instantly. The Lion of Whirikal fell to his knees, finally free, but utterly exhausted. The remaining two cultists let out agonized screams and turned to dust as their power source was destroyed.
I lay on the ground, staring at the violet sky that was beginning to clear. My body felt heavy, as if made of lead. I had won—but the cold I had summoned to destroy the crystal still pulsed within me, threatening to extinguish my own flame.
“Lotte!” Leah reached my side, pulling me into her arms. Her warmth was the most wonderful thing I had ever felt.
“The King…” was all I managed to say.
“He’s safe, Lotte. Thanks to you,” Leah whispered, crying with relief as Elliot helped his father to his feet.
The Valley of Laments fell silent once more—but this time, it was a silence of peace, not death. The Shadow had lost its anchor, yet as I looked toward the horizon, I knew this was only the first blow in a war that had only just begun to reveal its true face.
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