His Bride, Her Revenge
Chapter 109: The Price of Loyalty

Chapter 109: The Price of Loyalty

The dawn that broke across the battlefield was a fragile golden light struggling to push back the storm. Lucien’s army surged forward, their banners of flame and sun unfurling like hope reborn. But Seraphine did not retreat. She stood tall, her silver hair whipping in the wind, her eyes locked on Lucien as if she saw through the years, through flesh, into the very soul that defied her.

Cambria’s heart thundered. Her father was alive. And not just alive leading. A force of exiles, of warriors once thought lost to Seraphine’s purge. Knights who had vanished in the night. Soldiers who had vanished into the earth. The forgotten, returned.

But Lucien’s gaze was not on Seraphine first. It found Cambria, and in his eyes was sorrow. Regret. Love. Pride.

"My daughter," he called across the distance, voice steady as stone. "I was a fool to leave you alone in this war. But no more."

Cambria almost dropped her sword. She wanted to run to him, to throw down the weight she’d carried for so long. But there was no time. The storm still gathered above. The god of Judgment still loomed.

And Seraphine’s voice was ice. "You’re too late, Lucien. The world has already chosen. And it chose me."

Lucien smiled, but it was a sad, tired smile. "No, Seraphine. It chose hope. And hope always costs loyalty its price."

With that, the battle erupted anew.

The ground became fire and fury. Lucien’s army clashed with the perfected soldiers, steel against steel, magic against the machine. The forgotten fought like men with nothing left to lose and that made them unstoppable.

Cambria and Knox fought back to back. Flame and blade, love and hate.

Maddox led the charge of the true crown’s guard, his banner high, his blade red with the blood of those who sought to take what was never theirs.

Everywhere, the price of loyalty was paid in blood.

Seraphine moved through the battle like a storm-given form. Every swing of her hand brought death. Every word from her lips was a curse.

And the god that had come with her? Judgment it towered above the battlefield, a shape of black and silver, faceless, formless except for eyes that burned with endless condemnation. Its voice rolled like thunder:

"All who defy the final queen shall be erased."

The heavens cracked open further. The storm became a hurricane of dark stars and white fire.

Lucien rode straight at Judgment, his light blade clashing with the god’s shadowed hand. The clash shook the world. Mountains trembled. The sea rose in the distance.

And Seraphine laughed.

"You think loyalty can save you?" she shouted, voice ringing over the storm. "You think love will spare you? Look at the cost!"

And the cost was high.

Everywhere Cambria looked, men she had known fell. Knights who had sworn to her family. Soldiers who had once played at her feet when she was a child. Friends. Faces she would never see smile again.

Maddox was wounded a gash across his shoulder, blood soaking his armor. But he did not fall. His loyalty was too deep for that.

Knox’s power flickered the god inside him, tearing at the man, trying to consume him, but he held on. For her. Always for her.

And Cambria?

Cambria became the storm.

Her blade became light itself, her magic a tide none could stand against. She carved a path through the perfected soldiers, through Seraphine’s spells, through the doubt that clawed at her heart.

But every victory cost her more. Every life lost was another weight on her soul.

This was the price of loyalty: to give everything, even when hope seemed gone.

Lucien’s cry of pain shattered her focus.

She turned in time to see Judgment’s shadowy hand strike him down, sending him crashing to the earth. The light of his blade flickered out.

"Father!" Cambria screamed.

Seraphine moved, fast as lightning, reaching Lucien before Cambria could. She knelt beside him, and for a moment, there was something like sadness in her eyes.

"I loved you once," Seraphine whispered to the fallen king. "But you chose her. And now you’ll lose everything."

Cambria raced forward, but the storm caught her and threw her back.

Knox caught her before she hit the ground. His arms were strong, but his eyes were haunted. "You can’t reach him," he said. "Not yet."

"We have to try!" she cried, struggling against his hold.

"I know," he said softly. "But if we fall now... who will be left to stand?"

The storm raged on.

At the heart of the battlefield, Seraphine rose over Lucien’s broken body.

"End this," Judgment said. "Take the crown. Take the world."

Seraphine raised her hand to deliver the final blow

And then a single arrow flew.

It struck her hand, piercing through flesh, embedding deep.

Seraphine screamed not in pain, but in fury.

And from the smoke stepped Evelyn, bow in hand, face streaked with blood and ash but unbowed.

"You’ll have to kill us all," Evelyn said, voice shaking with rage. "Because none of us will kneel."

The tide turned again.

Lucien struggled to his feet. Cambria, Maddox, Knox, and Evelyn all stood together.

Judgment stared at them all, and for the first time, it seemed to hesitate.

"Loyalty," it rumbled. "Such a fragile thing."

Cambria lifted her blade high. "Fragile, yes. But stronger than you."

Seraphine’s eyes blazed with fury. "So be it. Let the world burn for your defiance."

And the god Judgment raised its hand to end everything.

But before the blow could fall

A second god’s voice cut through the storm.

Gentle. Ancient. Unseen.

"Enough."

Light like the first dawn filled the world, and a figure of pure radiance stepped from the breach in the sky neither man nor woman, neither past nor future, but something beyond.

The god of Mercy had come.

And Judgment froze.

Seraphine stared, her power faltering.

And Cambria felt the weight of destiny settle on her shoulders.

"Choose now, Queen of Fire," the god of Mercy said. "Loyalty has bought you this moment. What will you pay for peace?"

And the storm held its breath.

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