The Empress stood there before the sealed gates, her silvery veil trembling slightly in the wind that barely moved.
She wasn’t afraid of blades or beasts, what she felt now, deep in her bones, was dread.
Lucas noticed it. Her posture stiffened, her gaze shifting past the guards on the wall as if she were seeing through the stone and into the heart of the capital itself. The others exchanged uneasy glances. Lira and Selene looked confused, Nyx frowned and whispered sothing to Mirielle, but Lucas could tell...the Empress had realized sothing far worse than what they all imagined.
"What is it, Your Majesty?" Lucas asked softly, his voice steady though he already feared the answer.
The Empress didn’t speak right away. She stepped closer to the gates, her eyes darting to every visible sign...the wall banners still hanging perfectly, the guards’ armor unscathed, the towers unburnt, the stillness of the city beyond. Then she turned back to Lucas and the group, her voice low but clear.
"This... this isn’t a siege," she said. "No battle took place here."
Lira blinked. "What do you an? The guards..."
"Look around," the Empress interrupted, gesturing toward the walls. "There are no marks of struggle. No scorch, no damage, no repairs. If the city had been attacked, there would be signs. Blood on the stones, broken gates, shattered towers. But there’s nothing. It’s perfect."
Selene’s brow furrowed. "Then how could this happen? How could the guards..."
"They were infiltrated," the Empress said coldly, her voice tightening with each word. "Forced and compelled to obey the council."
Lucas took a step closer to her. "You an Lechia was infiltrated from within? Without anyone noticing?"
The Empress nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing as her thoughts raced. "To take a fortress like Lechia without violence... it ans the rot has evolved. Or worse...it ans betrayal. Soone from the inner court has betrayed ."
The words struck hard. The girls exchanged frightened looks.
Nyx’s voice trembled as she asked, "But... how could they reach this deep? Without alerting your warding seals?"
The Empress clenched her fists. "They couldn’t have... unless soone disabled them. Soone who knew the patterns, the runes, the pulse of Lechia’s divine barrier. Only the royal house and the council have that knowledge."
Lucas’s eyes darkened. "Then whoever did this was close to you."
For a brief second, her composure cracked. Her jaw tightened, her breath caught, and a fleeting shadow passed over her eyes. "Khan..." she whispered under her breath.
Selene frowned. "Your son? The prince?"
The Empress nodded, though her tone now carried the weight of both authority and anguish. "If the capital has been overtaken from within, then he’s already in danger. My son would never yield. They will have imprisoned him... or worse."
She turned toward the gates again, the full might of her aura beginning to stir beneath her calm exterior. The guards above flinched as the ground trembled faintly beneath her feet. Frost ford along the stones, thin and sharp as glass.
Lucas could feel her anger boiling beneath the surface, but there was fear too...a kind of fear only a mother could know. He stepped beside her quietly. "We’ll find him," he said in a steady voice. "We’ll free him."
She looked at him then, the faintest trace of emotion softening her sharp expression. "You don’t understand, Lucas," she murmured. "If they have him, then they already have the heart of Lechia."
Behind them, Mirielle clutched the tiny Ice Belle closer, the creature trembling faintly as if sensing the tension. The others stood in silence, the gravity of the Empress’s words sinking deep into their bones.
The capital of Lechia hadn’t fallen...it had been taken from within.
And now, with her son’s fate uncertain, the Empress of Lechia stood before her own gates, a ruler locked out of her own kingdom.
Seraphine’s voice broke the heavy silence first, trembling but resolute. "We must get inside and find the prince," she said, her eyes fixed on the gates ahead. Her tone carried urgency, fear and dread for what might already have happened.
The Empress didn’t answer imdiately. Her gaze was fixed on the gate, the great steel-bound entrance that once bowed to her command, now standing obstinately sealed before her. Lucas could see her jaw tighten, her eyes narrowing as a dangerous flicker of celestial energy began to ripple faintly around her form.
"She’s worried," Nyx whispered to Selene. "It’s her son."
Selene nodded slightly. "I can feel her fear from here."
Without another word, the Empress raised her hand, her aura igniting like a frozen storm. Blue-white light surged from her palm and crashed against the mighty gate. The impact roared like thunder, shaking the ground, but when the frost cleared, the gate still stood...untouched.
Lucas’s eyes widened. "That barrier..."
The Empress stared at the gate, disbelief flickering across her face for a single heartbeat before it was swallowed by fury. "A celestial defence," she hissed, her voice sharp as breaking ice. "Who dares use divine fortification against ?"
Even the guards on the wall faltered, their elental spears trembling. They didn’t understand the magnitude of what they faced. The Empress’s power surged once again, a violent storm of celestial Qi now swirling around her body like a blizzard unbound.
"Move back!" Lucas shouted, grabbing Mirielle by the arm and pulling her behind. The others followed, shielding themselves as the Empress raised both hands this ti, her divine sigils burning across the air.
The sky darkened in an instant. The ground quaked beneath their feet. Then, with a deafening sound that split the air like a mountain cracking apart, the Empress unleashed her might.
A burst of divine frost and molten light erupted from her, colliding against the gate and wall with cataclysmic force. For a heartbeat, there was only white...a blinding storm of destruction...and then the sound of the world breaking.
The celestial barrier shattered with a scream like glass. The massive gates were obliterated, ripped from their hinges and scattered as fragnts of silver ice. The wall behind them exploded outward, sending shards of stone and frost flying in every direction. The guards caught in the blast were vaporized instantly, their existence erased by divine fury.
Everywhere fell silent again, save for the echo of power lingering in the wind. The Empress rose above the ruined entrance, her veil fluttering like a banner of vengeance. Her eyes glowed with the fury of a thousand storms.
Seraphine leaped into the air beside her, her aura flaring in a brilliant cascade of light. "Your Majesty, wait!" she called, though she didn’t hold her back. Her loyalty demanded that she follow, not restrain. Together, the two soared into the sky, streaking toward the palace like twin cots.
Below them, Lucas and the girls stood among the shattered ruins of the gate, their cloaks fluttering in the chilling aftermath. None of them spoke for several monts. The air still humd with divine power, enough to make their skin prickle.
"Did you feel that?" Selene murmured.
Lucas nodded grimly. "That wasn’t just power," he said. "That was wrath."
Lira looked toward the direction of the palace, her voice faint. "If she’s this angry... then whoever’s behind this has no idea what they’ve unleashed."
The Ice Belle perched on Nyx’s shoulder let out a soft cry, sensing the tension that gripped them all.
High above, the Empress and Seraphine soared through the gray sky, the ruins of Lechia’s gate glinting below them like shattered mirrors. Every beat of their power rippled through the air, a warning to whatever dark force had dared to claim Lechia.
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