Chapter 36

K aKos fought like a man possessed.

From Liana’s vantage point on the battlefield, his sword became a blur of death, cutting through Ilkanite and Sāb?r Hawk alike, leaving shattered bodies strewn in his wake. Around him, the battle raged, wild and unrelenting.

The clash of steel, the agonized cries of the fallen, and the rhythmic pounding of hooves against dirt filled the air with a savage symphony.

Liana parsed the tension in every muscle of her body, her fingers tight on the hilt of her blade as she commanded her troops from the front.

Despite KaKos’s barbaric skill, she knew he couldn’t hold the line.

His men wavered, and the Ilkanite forces—strengthened by the arrival of the Sāb?r Hawks—pushed them back with unyielding force.

‘Press forward!’ Liana shouted her yell, carrying over the roar of battle.

The energy of her soldiers had shifted, invigorated by Kaxim and his warriors. Their mighty wings cut through the smoke-filled sky like shadows of death.

They tore into the K?str?l ranks, ripping through them like wolves through a herd, and KaKos’s troops began to falter.

Through the chaos, KaKos dipped, weaving like a madman, bellowing desperate commands.

‘Hold the line!’ His roar was raw, cracking from the strain. ‘Stand firm, men of K?str?l! We will not yield!’

But it was hopeless.

His army was crumbling in front of him.

Kaxim and Liana’s assault was relentless, and his warriors were breaking, throwing down their weapons in surrender.

Some fled, abandoning their posts, fear written on their faces as they tried to escape the inevitable.

At one point, KaKos stumbled and fell, skewered by a dozen spears.

He hit the ground hard, rolling through the dirt before staggering to his feet.

Liana tagged the grimace of pain etched on his face, but still, he held his sword high, defiant in the face of ruin.

She sensed the moment when he drew on his kízakan .

With a roar, his K?str?l body transmuted even further.

With a crackle of dark, nasty energy, he twisted into a malformed winged creature as if resurrected from the depths of the netherworld.

Its enormous, jagged wings dripped with a dark, oozing substance that seemed to rot the air around it. Each feather was sharp as a blade, black as the void, and pulsing with an eerie, evil glow.

When they unfurled, they blocked out the light, casting a shadow so deep it was as though hope had been extinguished.

KaKos’ new eyes burned with molten crimson fire, glowing like twin pits of hell, swirling with malice and ancient hatred.

They gleamed with a predatory hunger, fixing on their prey with a cold, unyielding focus. No mercy lurked within, only the promise of death and destruction.

His long, razor-sharp talons glistened like obsidian in the dim illumination. Every single one was capable of ripping through armor and bone with terrifying ease.

Every movement of its body exuded a sinister energy, a darkness that clung to it like a living shroud.

The air around the creature buzzed with dread. Each beat of its wings sent out a ripple of evil, spreading fear to all who dared to gaze upon it.

The monstrosity hovered above the battlefield, a grotesque, twisted mockery of his past self, an animated nightmare dripping with hatred and malice, a harbinger of death and ruin.

With a screech, he dove for Liana, the expression on his face suicidal, intent on finishing her.

A shadow dropped between her and his wild trajectory, forcing him to shriek and curse as he wheeled to a stop in mid-air.

Kaxim appeared like an avenging angel, a sight of awe and dread, a celestial force molded by the fires of justice and war.

His vast ebony wings stretched behind him, each feather shimmering like dark obsidian, sharp as razors and gleaming with an otherworldly sheen.

The sheer span of those pinions blotted out the sky, casting long shadows over the battlefield as he hovered above, his form a striking silhouette against the storm-wracked heavens.

His face, chiseled from stone by the hands of the divine, bore a cold and resolute expression. The hard lines of his jaw and brow gave him a terrifying beauty.

His eyes burned with the incandescent light of righteous fury, glowing obsidian and silver. It was the gaze of one who had seen too much blood and copious pain and now brought the final, inescapable judgment.

As he descended towards KaKos, the air seemed to quiver around him, charged with the energy of his wrath.

Bristling with Kaldean power, Kaxim embodied war in its most brutal and unyielding form.

Liana stared at her husband in awe as his deep and booming growl thundered in a commanding echo that sent shivers down Liana’s spine.

‘I am vengeance,’ he snarled. ‘I’m also your fokkin’ reckoning because my Hawks and I have had enough of your shit.’

He referred to an old feud between the two warriors. For KaKos had been an adversary when Killen, the Katánian Kíríga , had faced Kassian, the long-dead K?str?l commander, in the skies of Katánē a few spans ago.

‘We defeated you then, you fowl dickcissel, and I’ll do it again, right here, right now,’ Kaxim snarled.

He strode toward KaKos with a deadly calm, his wings unfurling, casting an intimidating shadow across the ground.

His rachís were streaked with blood and dirt, and his sword gleamed, primed for the final strike.

The battle between Kaxim and the K?str?l commander unfolded in a steel storm.

KaKos’ ebony plumage beat the air with vicious ferocity, propelling him forward as his massive falchion cleaved at Kaxim.

His blow was quick and brutal, but Kaxim’s blade was ready to meet it, their weapons crashing with thunder.

Kaxim grimaced every fiber of his being focused on the conflict.

He had the power to end the conflict in an instant, tear the fabric of time and space itself, and crush his enemy.

Yet he refused, repressing all urges to unleash his full Kaldean magus powers. They hummed beneath his skin, waiting, begging to be unbridled, but with a hiss, Kaxim kept them locked away.

There was no honor in winning a battle with a flick of his wrist and a burst of magic. A struggle of integrity was fought with sweat, blood, and steel.

The K?str?l general, sensing Kaxim’s restraint, sneered.

He unleashed dark energy from his wings, the air crackling with malevolent force. Kaxim dodged, but the edge of the blast scorching his arm.

Still, he raised his sword, refusing to be baited into using his full power.

The commander pressed the advantage, his falchion swinging, pushing Kaxim back with each strike.

‘Is this all you have, Kaxim?’ KaKos growled, his voice a guttural rasp. ‘A warrior of your reputation, fighting like a little bush wren?’

Kaxim’s muscles burned with effort as he parried blow after blow. His men fought in desperation around him, and he sensed their struggle. If he didn’t end this soon, they would all be overwhelmed.

KaKos’ wings flared as he gathered another energy surge and unleashed the dark force over the square, fueling the K?str?ls.

Kaxim roared, knowing he had no choice. The level of malevolent sorcery emitting from KaKos would eviscerate Kaswa and even his woman. Which he fokkin’ would not stand for.

He breathed, unleashing the tight mass of k?tu within him. Time slowed, the world around him shifting into an eerie stillness.

In seconds, he tapped into his ability to dilate time.

He perceived KaKos’s next move before it happened, and every detail of the battlefield crystallized in perfect clarity.

For a moment, Kaxim hovered at the edge of godlike control, able to shape reality to his will. His Kaldean powers whispered to him, urging him to collapse dimensions onto the K?str?l general, to end it with a mere thought.

But even now, he resisted tapping into the full strength of his power. He only needed enough—to finish this.

Kaxim sent a ripple through the air with a single shift, bending time around his sword. The general swung his falchion, but his attack met nothing but space as Kaxim moved impossibly fast, stepping past him in a blur.

The world snapped back into motion, and before KaKos could react, Kaxim’s blade was at his throat.

The K?str?l commander’s eyes widened in shock. ‘What—what did you—?’

Kaxim looked into his enemy’s eyes, his chest heaving with exertion. ‘I’m giving you a chance to surrender,’ he rasped. ‘Yield, and this battle ends.’

KaKos snarled, his pride refusing to bend. He called on more of his malodorous kízakan , waging it against Kaxim’s Kaldean íkantations in a clash of two titanic forces.

‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you,’ Kaxim growled.

A massive wave of energy rippled from the Katánian Commander, and the K?str?l’s falchion shattered, his wings falling limp at his sides as Kaxim’s dominance overtook him.

The Kaldean k?tu hung like a cloud over the defeated K?str?l leader. It sucked the sinister maleficence into itself until, with a burst of golden shards, it exploded, nullifying the dark power in its entirety.

As ashes and cinder from the explosion rained, Kaxim strode to KaKos.

The fallen man was heaving on the ground, powerless, stripped of his netherworld magic, back to his cowering weak humaniform.

‘Surrender, KaKos,’ Kaxim demanded, his rumble unwavering, heavy with authority. ‘Your army is broken. Your cause is lost.’

Liana marched to Kaxim’s side and repeated the order. ‘Give it up, K?str?l . No more blood, no more loss.’

Kaxim lowered his sword, the thrill of victory tainted by the bitterness of the clash. He had won, but not in the way he wanted.

The air still hummed with the lingering traces of his power, a reminder of the path he chose to avoid whenever he could.

Turning to study the battlefield and his men—worn but victorious—Kaxim sheathed his blade and, in silence, drew back his k?tu into himself.

Awe and pride tightened Liana’s chest as her man finished the fight.

While the pair fought, she’d stood in the shadows, her breath barely controlled, as she watched Kaxim use his Kaldean magic in a way she had never seen before. His power was raw and wild, bending the world around him.

She’d felt every plume on her body rise as his Energy crackled in the air, bending time and space, warping reality as he quelled the threat before them.

Even though their clash was over, she held her breath, heart pounding, eyes locked on her man.

KaKos spat blood to the ground, his hand trembling on the hilt of his weapon. He raised it one last time, defiance blazing in his eyes.

‘I will never surrender to the likes of you,’ he snarled, the words fierce but hollow.

But it was over.

The K?str?l warriors were routed, and their morale was shattered. His diabolical army lay in ruins around him.

Kaxim took a menacing step forward, and the once dominant K?str?l commander glared at him, his chest rising and falling in heavy, ragged breaths.

With one final curse, he flung his sword to the ground.

‘Fokk you, Ilki, and fokk you in particular, Sky Ash. I yield,’ he growled, the articulation caustic as though it burned his tongue.

Kaxim was too jaded, fledged, and fokkin’ too tired to gloat.

Instead, he jerked his chin, and with a brief, satisfied gleam in his eyes, he rotated to face his woman.

Their eyes met, and in that moment, the weight of the battle lifted. The K?str?l campaign had ended.

Kaswa was safe.

The Ilki Kingdom was saved.

Liana flew tirelessly for the rest of the day from Kaswa to the small towns and kíjís in between and oversaw the liberation of her people.

She visited with the Ilkanites and Lower Katánians, whom the K?str?ls had enslaved.

Tears of joy streamed down their faces as they knelt, bowing to her, thanking her for their freedom.

But she took no pleasure in their gratitude. Her heart was heavy with the losses so far and the needless suffering wrought.

She said as much that night to Kaxim in the rudimentary tent they were huddled in.

They spent the night in it before their long flight to the Katánian border city of El-Kamos. They planned to rendezvous with Killen and hand over the K?str?l commander to him.

The cold night air pressed in, blowing over the tattered remnants of Kaswa, a desolate reminder of the fierce battle fought just hours before.

Fires flickered in the distance, where the soldiers of the Ilkanite army and Sāb?r Hawks clustered close for warmth, their breaths visible in the crisp night.

The metropolis, now in ruins, echoed with the quiet sounds of weary victory—men tending to wounds, animals snorting restlessly, the murmur of voices exchanging war stories of the day.

Inside a small, makeshift tent near the heart of the camp, Kaxim and Liana sat side by side, their silence heavy with shared exhaustion.

In Kaswa, they’d none of the luxuries from their k?lajan in KySyene.

So they made do with a bed roll to lie on and rations from the mobile kitchens.

The battle had taken its toll on everyone, and though their forces had secured the city, the cost had been significant.

Liana’s body ached with fatigue, but the relief of their hard-won victory was tempered by the knowledge of those they had lost.

They prepped a rudimentary meal.

They ate, seated on the pallet.

Kaxim’s broad shoulders were slumped, his armor discarded, leaving only the light linen tunic clinging to his skin.

His usually sharp, menacing eyes were soft now, distant as if the weight of the entire campaign bore down on him.

Blood and grime still streaked his hands, his knuckles raw from the fight. His breaths were shallow, almost rhythmic as if each inhale required much effort.

Neither had spoken for long minutes, yet their silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

They both understood the moment’s gravity—nothing was left to say. The battle was behind them, but the aftermath lingered, curling into every corner of the ruined city.

‘Kaxim,’ Liana murmured, breaking the quiet. ‘So much loss, kadari . And all for naught.’

Kaxim took her hand and kissed it. ‘The problem with evil is that it never makes sense. Don’t dwell on it. Instead, focus on healing your land and people. Therein lies the light you seek.’

Liana rested her head on her husband’s shoulder. ‘ Sante , you always speak the words my soul longs to hear.’

Her voice was heavy and tired but soft. ‘You were magnificent out there.’

He shook his head, staring into the dim light of the oil lamp between them. ‘So were you, Kwen? ,’ he muttered.

His utterance was graveled and raw from shouting commands throughout the day.

‘You saved Ilkan even though using your k?tu went against your ethos.’

His lips curled into a faint smile but didn’t reach his eyes. ‘I did what I had to, alongside you, my Kwen? .’

She nodded. ‘For that, I will forever be grateful.’

Silence fell once more, but this time, charged with their profound connection forged in the fires of battle and survival.

It was bitterly cold, and Liana pulled her cloak tighter around her, the chill settling deep into her bones.

Their soul bond flared, and she turned to lock eyes with her man.

Liana tagged the vulnerability, the softness in his eyes, and reached a hand to stroke his jaw.

Let me adore you, kadari.

Only if you let me warm you, sahasí.

She set aside their food tray and shifted closer, her hand grazing his as it rested between them. His calloused fingers brushed hers and encircled her.

She inhaled, trying to steady herself against the rush of feeling that surged through her. He had fought for her, bled for her, and now, in this brief, quiet hush, he was beside her—unarmored and unguarded.

She’d never loved Kaxim more than in this moment.

The wind outside howled again, rattling the tent.

Without a word, Kaxim shrugged off his cloak and wrapped it over her shoulders, enveloping her in his heat.

‘I adore you, my warrior, my enticing commander,’ she whispered.

Lodestone pulsing, he leaned in and kissed her forehead, his warmth radiating through her in the cold night.

Easing her onto the bed roll and throwing a blanket over them, Kaxim slipped under it. With a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes, he made love to her, slow and sweet.

Their moans and sighs blended with the wind howling along the ruins of Kaswa and the faint murmurs of the surviving army outside.

The flame from Liana’s feather on Kaxim’s chest burst into life, covering them in a fire wash.

Mouths melded as their hands glided over each other, stroking and caressing, their rising bliss chasing away the ghosts and terror of the battlefield.

They shook through their orgasms, bodies so close they perceived the other’s blood flow scorching them, heating them, limbs holding on for dear life.

Finally, lassitude and exhaustion overtook them.

Liana closed her eyes, her hand still clutching his bicep, his arms tight around her, and fell into peace.