CRACK.
The Shadow roared.
Across Eldoria, every awakened giant stopped.
Golden and corrupted alike.
For one heartbeat, none moved.
Then the red-eyed giants looked confused.
The black fire inside them dimmed.
Gaelor stared toward the palace.
Aren struck the throne a third time.
The Stone Throne shattered.
The Shadow screamed with a thousand voices.
The abyss began collapsing.
But the ceiling collapsed too.
Oren shouted, “Run!”
They turned.
A slab of stone fell.
Aldric shoved Aren away.
The rock struck the King.
Corvin screamed.
“Father!”
Aldric lay pinned.
Blood at his mouth.
Aren grabbed the stone.
Impossible.
Corvin joined him.
They could not move it.
Aldric looked toward his son.
Then Aren.
“Go.”
Corvin shook his head.
“No.”
“Go.”
“NO.”
Aldric smiled faintly.
“I have ordered you your whole life.”
He coughed.
“Disobey me once.”
Corvin’s face broke.
Aren looked toward the collapsing passage.
Then at the man who killed his father.
The man who hunted him.
The man who had also just saved him.
People were inconvenient that way.
Rarely only one thing.
Aren knelt.
“Did my mother hate you?”
Aldric’s eyes filled.
“She should have.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
The King swallowed.
“At the end…”
Stone fell behind them.
“She told me I could still choose who I became.”
Aren looked at the broken throne.
“Did you?”
Aldric smiled sadly.
“Too late.”
Aren shook his head.
“No.”
He grabbed Corvin.
“Come on.”
Corvin resisted.
Aldric shouted.
“GO!”
They ran.
Oren ahead.
The passage collapsed behind them.
They emerged into the throne hall as the entire palace shook.
Corvin turned.
“Father!”
The floor sealed beneath falling stone.
Silence.
The Prince sank to his knees.
Aren stood beside him.
Did not touch him at first.
Then did.
The giants outside stopped fighting.
The corrupted creatures’ red eyes faded.
Some collapsed into ordinary stone.
Others remained standing, confused.
Gaelor approached the palace.
Aren went outside.
Thousands of people filled the square.
Nobody knew what had happened.
They stared at him.
Then, one by one, people began kneeling.
Nobles first.