The smoke hadn't even cleared, and the world was still ringing from the explosion when Khael staggered forward, coughing through the dust. The air tasted like iron and burning stone. Chunks of shattered ground were still falling from the sky like heavy rain.

He wiped the blood from his brow, vision struggling to stabilize. Then he saw the silhouettes broken, trembling, refusing to fall.

"Everyone!!" Khael's voice cracked, raw with fear more than pain.

The debris settled just enough to reveal their shapes.

Ryn and Mari whipped their heads toward the sound, their eyes wide, hands clawing through fallen rubble. The siblings were trembling not from exhaustion, but because the blast had sent them tumbling apart. Mari's fingers were bloody as she pushed off a cracked slab of earth.

"Ryn, there!" she pointed, voice shaking.

Ryn stumbled to his feet, coughing. His skin was burnt, his hair singed, but his eyes were alive. Desperately alive.

They saw Juno first.

He was still standing.

Barely.

But standing.

His body convulsed with the aftershock of the opened Vein Gate, and his clothes were torn apart. His arms were shaking uncontrollably, and blood poured from his nose and ears, running down his chin like red rivers. Every breath he took sounded like a knife scraping across metal.

But his eyes

His eyes were still burning with resolve.

Juno took one step forward and almost collapsed. His foot dragged in the dirt, leaving a smear of blood behind it. His jaw clenched.

"K…hae…l…" he croaked, trying to force strength into letters that wouldn't form.

Ceyla lay several meters away, half-buried under pieces of the collapsed platform. She was barely conscious, one hand gripping the ground as if the earth itself was the only thing anchoring her from drifting away. Her arm was twisted wrong. Blood soaked her shoulder. Her breaths were shallow, wet.

She blinked her tears away, searching and when she found Khael, a broken smile tugged her lips before her face dropped into pain again.

Andromeda Ban was beside her, though he didn't stay down.

He pushed up wobbling, gasping, coughing up blood but still rising.

His shirt was torn open from the force of the blast, his skin charred, his veins still faintly glowing from the feedback of the opened gate. He looked like someone who should've already been unconscious but sheer stubbornness kept him upright.

He wasn't looking at Khael.

He wasn't looking at Ceyla.

He was staring at the figure just in front of him

Matthew Lomwel.

Matthew stood.

Unmoving.

Unconscious.

The faint shimmering outline of Echo Spirit Harmonae hovered behind him, its ethereal wings flickering, almost breaking apart. Matthew's arms hung limp at his sides. His head drooped forward, blood dripping steadily from his chin.

But his feet were planted firmly.

He had not collapsed.

He had taken the entire impact of the final blast and absorbed it into himself letting no one behind him be touched by it.

Andromeda Ban's breath hitched.

"Matthew!!!" His shout cracked mid-word, not with fear

but with heartbreak.

He stumbled, tripping over cracked stone, dragging himself toward the unmoving figure.

"Matthew, HEY!" He grabbed Matthew's shoulders, shaking him.

Matthew didn't respond. His body swayed like a puppet with cut strings.

The only thing keeping him upright was Harmonae's fading wings, propping him like a dying guardian spirit.

Andromeda sobbed through clenched teeth, shaking his head violently.

"Damn it, wake up! Don't you dare, DON'T YOU DARE DO THIS!"

But Matthew's eyes stayed shut.

Far behind them, Arkai the last one standing in the front line was on both knees now, slumped, one eye swollen shut. He'd been the last wall after Matthew. His aura flickered like a candle dying in the wind.

Khael felt something break in his chest.

His team

His friends

The ones who stood for him, again and again

They had thrown everything against that explosion.

And now…

Now they were crumbling.

Khael's breath shook.

"Everyone… please stay with me…"

A faint crunch of gravel.

The hairs on the back of Khael's neck rose.

K stood amid the smoke, untouched, unburned, not even a speck of dust on his coat.

He walked casually, as though he were exploring a garden, not stepping through a field of bleeding bodies.

His eyes lifted to Khael.

"Now, Dragon Knight…" he said softly, almost gently.

The softness made it worse.

He raised a hand, palm open.

"What's your decision?"

Khael's chest tightened so hard he felt like his ribs were bending inward.

Around him, his team fought consciousness, bleeding on the ground.

Juno trying to stand.

Ceyla unable to move.

Ryn and Mari shaking, coughing, terrified.

Andromeda begging Matthew to wake.

Arkai barely breathing.

The battlefield destroyed.

And K

The monster orchestrating everything

K stood like the calm center of a hurricane.

Khael staggered, throat dry.

He felt the Shard of Flesh pulsing inside him, it throbbed like a heartbeat not his own. It burned and whispered, almost alive.

"Give it."

"Give it or they die."

"Give it."

His own heartbeat tangled with it, out of sync, painful.

K's eyes traced Khael's trembling hand as he clutched his chest.

"I have been patient, Khael Corzedar."

His voice remained maddeningly composed.

"I have given you chances. More than you deserved. You forced me to push your friends. You forced my hand."

Khael grit his teeth, emotions ripping inside him.

He saw Juno's legs shaking under the strain of his open gate.

He saw Ceyla trying to lift her head, only to collapse again.

He saw Andromeda holding Matthew as if afraid he would vanish.

He saw Ryn and Mari clinging to each other, terrified but refusing to leave.

"This is my fault…"

The thought stabbed through Khael's mind like a blade.

"If I had just… listened…"

"If I wasn't so stupid…"

He looked at them every bruise, every drop of blood, every trembling breath.

And he felt it.

The crushing truth.

They were hurt because of him.

K stepped closer, boots crunching over the ruined earth.

"Dragon Knight."

His tone softened again, unnervingly tender.

"Do not make them suffer more. Your pride has cost enough."

Khael's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees.

His chest burned the Shard responding, pulsing harder, sensing his turmoil.

"I can't… I can't lose them…"

His vision blurred with tears he refused to let fall.

Ceyla called out, her voice cracked and weak.

"K… Khael… don't… you dare…"

Juno slammed a hand on the ground, trying to pull himself up.

"Khael… don't give…"

He spat blood mid-sentence and collapsed again.

Andromeda squeezed Matthew's shoulder, his voice trembling.

"Don't let it end like this, Khael! Fight just… fight!"

Their voices collided in his mind.

But so did their injuries.

Their pain.

Their fading auras.

K knelt slowly, lowering himself to Khael's eye level.

He didn't look cruel.

He didn't look triumphant.

He looked like someone disappointed in a child.

"You know this is the only path left."

His hand extended, open, waiting.

"Give me the Shard of Flesh. And I will spare them."

Khael's fingers dug into the dirt.

He shook violently.

"Damn it… damn it… DAMN IT!"

He slammed his fist into the ground, voice breaking.

His body trembled.

His breath shattered.

The world waited.

The Shard pulsed harder

hotter

louder

as if urging him…

"Choose."

Khael lifted his head.

His eyes were red, wet, and burning with a mixture of rage and despair.

He stared at K.

At his friends.

At the battlefield.

And he whispered

"I… can't lose them."

K smiled softly.

"Then choose correctly."

The air grew still.

Even the dust stopped moving.

Khael felt the Shard beating inside his chest, matching his pulse.

He slowly lifted his hand.

Toward his heart.

Toward the Shard.

And K's eyes gleamed with victory.

To be continue

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