The gates of Ravenhold groaned under the weight of the world.
Nightborn war cries battered the walls, drowning out the dying wind. Fires burned across the battlements, lighting faces that had long forgotten the comfort of sleep.
Seraphina and Valen stood shoulder to shoulder before the breach, watching the Dread King approach like the harbinger of a world already lost.
Every footstep he took made the earth tremble. His crown of black sunfire burned with an unholy glow, and the sword in his clawed hand dripped with a darkness so deep it swallowed light itself.
Valen exhaled, steadying himself.
"Stay with me," he told Seraphina.
"Always," she answered.
The Nightborn around their king surged forward, crashing against Ravenhold's ragged defenders like a wave of night.
Steel shrieked on steel.
Valen met them with a roar, swinging his blade in a wide arc that severed limbs and shattered helms. Blood, dark as midnight, sprayed the stones.
Seraphina stepped into the fray, her magic exploding outward in a column of golden brilliance, incinerating anything that dared come close. The heat was so fierce the air warped around her.
"Push them back!" she shouted, voice blazing with raw command.
Soldiers rallied at the sound, surging behind her with newfound courage.
---
The Dread King advanced slowly, as if relishing every moment. When his gaze fell on Seraphina, she felt her soul recoil — as if he could peel away her every memory with nothing more than a thought.
He lifted his dark sword, pointing it at her.
"Witch of the Vale," he rasped, his voice like a thousand graves speaking at once. "You cannot hold what is broken."
Seraphina clenched her fists, golden light sparking at her fingertips.
"Try me," she spat.
He lunged, impossibly fast for a creature so huge, his blade coming down like a thunderclap.
Valen blocked it, his arms shuddering under the force. Sparks flew as steel met darkness.
"Go!" Valen grunted, shoving back against the blade. "He's mine!"
Seraphina hesitated, torn between her power and her heart. But she saw the unbreakable will in Valen's eyes, and nodded.
She turned her fury on the Nightborn soldiers instead, blazing through them with golden fire that carved a path of searing vengeance across the courtyard.
Valen and the Dread King were locked together, two titans colliding. Every swing of the Dread King's sword sent shockwaves through the stone.
Valen dodged, parried, ducked low, striking for the joints in the monstrous armor. But the Dread King moved with impossible grace, countering every blow.
"You cannot kill me," the Dread King hissed, knocking Valen back with a monstrous kick. "I was born in the dark. I am the dark."
Valen spat blood and rose again. "Then I'll rip out your heart and burn it, demon."
The Dread King laughed, a sound so cold the air seemed to die.
---
Above them, Seraphina reached the tower parapet, flames leaping from her hands.
She called upon everything — every ounce of grief, love, hope, and rage — and poured it into one last spell. The air around her shook, charged with divine power.
She could see Valen faltering below, the Dread King bearing down on him, and her heart nearly broke.
"No," she whispered, voice shaking. "Not today."
She hurled the spell downward.
A beam of golden fire, so bright it hurt to look at, slammed into the Dread King, staggering him just as he prepared to deliver a killing blow to Valen.
Valen seized the opening.
With a primal yell, he drove his blade deep into the blackened armor, straight through the monster's ribs.
The Dread King roared, a sound of unimaginable agony, his black crown shattering into a thousand shards of night.
He fell, shaking the ground, a final curse dying on his inhuman lips.
---
Silence crashed over Ravenhold.
Then a single cheer rose. Another. Then hundreds.
Seraphina stumbled down from the parapet, collapsing into Valen's arms. He was shaking, his armor rent and bloodied, but alive.
They held each other there among the dying embers, the survivors gathering around them, disbelief in their tear-streaked faces.
Ravenhold still stood.
For now.
---