Chapter 8 - FIRE AND SILVER
The Sunken Vaults were an ancient labyrinth of carved stone and glowing runes, buried deep beneath the foundations of Solaris. The air was thick with the ozone smell of ancient magic and the distant roar of underground magma rivers.
Madeline and Lucius burst into the central vault just as Chancellor Vane was driving a massive iron crowbar into the central crystal core of the citadel's power grid.
"Stop right there, Vane!" Lucius commanded, his voice echoing off the cavern walls, his hand resting on the hilt of his broadsword.
Chancellor Vane spun around, panting heavily, a manic grin stretching across his wrinkled face. He held a glowing crimson detonator in his right hand, its digital timer ticking down rapidly.
"It's over, Lucius!" Vane shrieked, spittle flying from his lips. "If I press this button, the entire mountain collapses. The Crimson Empire falls, and the council takes its rightful place over the ashes!"
"You're insane," Madeline growled in her human form, stepping out of the shadows, her hands crackling with silver energy. "You killed my family for power, and now you're going to destroy thousands of innocent lives just to satisfy your greed."
Vane sneered at her. "The Aethelgard bloodline was a plague upon the north. Your mother understood that, and so do I. Too bad you didn't die in that freezing mud five years ago!"
With a mad laugh, Vane's thumb pressed down toward the detonator trigger.
Move!
In a blur of motion, Madeline didn't hesitate. She threw her hands forward, unleashing a concentrated beam of blinding silver magic straight across the vault. At the exact same second, Lucius hurled his heavy broadsword through the air like a javelin.
The silver beam struck Vane's hand a fraction of a second before his thumb completed the circuit.
CRACK!
The detonator exploded into harmless sparks as Vane screamed, clutching his mangled, silver-burned hand. Lucius’s broadsword pinned his shoulder securely to the stone wall behind him, lifting him two feet off the ground.
Vane choked, blood bubbling from his lips as he hung pinned against the granite, his eyes wide with sudden, paralyzing terror.
May you like
Lucius walked forward slowly, his boots crunching on the stone floor, his face devoid of all mercy. He pulled the sword free, letting Vane drop like a stone onto the floor.
"You wanted the throne, Uncle," Lucius said softly, looking down at the dying traitor. "Now you have the earth."
