Smoke crawled through the Stonefang Quarter like a living thing.

It clung to broken roofs and blackened walls. It slid over the snow and made the morning light look... dirty.

The smell was worse, burnt hide, scorched wood, and... blood.

Blood so fresh it still steamed when it hit the cold ground.

And yet...

People moved.

They moved together.

For the first time in the long history, Velmourn hands and Stonefang hands grabbed the same rubble without flinching.

A Velmourn soldier lifted a heavy stone slab while a Stonefang warrior shoved his shoulder under it. Their eyes met once, they nodded at each other, then they looked away and lifted again.

There were no insults, no pride, no useless hate.

A Stonefang youth carried an elder with trembling arms, and a Velmourn archer walked beside him, holding the elder’s head steady so his neck wouldn’t bend wrong.

A Velmourn healer pressed cloth against a burn while a Stonefang mother screamed through clenched teeth, refusing to let go of her child’s hand. The healer didn’t speak and the mother didn’t push him away either.

The ropes that once separated them felt like a joke now.

And still... it wasn’t enough.

The Velmourn healers worked until their hands went numb. They used old salves, heated water, torn cloth, splints made from broken boards.

They had methods that worked for normal wounds, cuts, bruises, broken bones from hunting accidents.

But this was not normal.

This was shards that ripped flesh, burns that left muscles exposed, shock so deep it made children stop breathing.

A Velmourn healer knelt beside a boy whose belly was torn open by a dark fragment, the healer tried to press the wound closed, but it didn’t matter.

Blood slipped through his fingers no matter how hard he pressed.

Nearby, a Stonefang elder shook on the snow, lips blue, eyes wide and glassy. His leg had been crushed under stone.

The patrol warriors tried to hold him down, tried to keep him awake, but the elder’s breath came out in thin, weak puffs.

Then... it stopped.

"GROTH’RAAAAAAAK!!!!!"

{FATHER!!!!}

A Stonefang woman screamed, her eyes red when she saw her father taking his last breath.

But...

No one cared.

No, more accurately, no one had the leisure to stop and listen to her, there... were still the living.

"MOVE! MOVE THIS BOULDER!!"

Someone shouted, his voice overshadowing the woman’s.

It was cruel but...

Nothing else could be done.

The situation was just that desperate.

And in this desperate situation—

Kael arrived in the sky.

And then—

He froze.

Unable to move as his eyes registered everything at once.

The smoke.

The shattered houses.

The black shards stuck in the snow.

The bodies.

The... children.

A child with half his face burned, crying without stopping.

A mother rocking a bundle in her arms, whispering the same word again and again with tears even though the bundle didn’t move.

A Stonefang warrior holding his own sister’s hand while she bled, begging her to stay awake, his voice broken and furious, like he wanted to fight the very world.

And Kael...

His throat tightened until it hurt.

Yes, Imperia had given him a report, she had told him that the situation was desperate.

But hearing and seeing were different things.

And while hearing everything did shake him, seeing it with his own eyes... had a worse effect.

His chest felt... hollow, his fingers trembled and... he couldn’t breathe.

What he was seeing wasn’t just people who were hurt.

He saw... his promise.

He promised that he would protect these people, he stepped up, he made them believe he was a God, he made them follow him, and promised protection and growth in return.

And today...

That promise... failed.

These deaths, these injuries...

In one way or another—

It was all his fault.

Behind him, the sound of wings and hooves filled the air.

Eight Sky Kingdom soldiers appeared in a tight formation.

Their Bonds were fast and fierce, far better and stronger than Bonds people of Heights had. Their armor looked clean even in this ash-filled place and—

And together with them was... Aurelia.

The Sky Serpent General.

The moment the Velmourn soldiers saw her, they stiffened.

A prisoner.

Freed.

In the middle of their settlement.

It felt... wrong.

Morvain saw it too.

The moment the Velmourn Matriarch spotted the Sky soldiers, her body went still. Her gaze snapped to Kael, the question in them was clear.

Why?

Why did you bring them?

Why did you free them?

That too at a time like this. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

But Kael... he was in no condition to answer that question even if he understood what Morvain’s face was saying.

Stonefangs were even worse.

They had heard there were outsider prisoners in the city, but seeing the prisoners appearing out in the open in such a manner—

They instantly glared at the newcomers, like wolves seeing a new animal enter their den.

A few patrol warriors took out their weapons without thinking.

The situation was already grim.

And outsiders only made it worse.

The logic was simple—

More outsiders.

More risk.

More hurt.

And right now, their hearts couldn’t take another surprise.

Therefore, the Stonefangs were prepared to move and Velmourns were no different.

And the worst part?

The one who could stop this from becoming an even bigger mess, he was frozen. His mind was so overwhelmed by the sight in front of him that his mind didn’t even register that something worse was happening right in front of him.

Kael...

He seemed completely helpless today.

And Aurelia saw that—

So she stepped forward on her own.

She did not ask permission.

She did not wait for Morvain.

She did not wait for Kael.

She looked at the quarter with a single scan, and her expression hardened into something cold and useful.

"Move,"

She commanded her men and with that—

The Sky Kingdom Soldiers moved.

They spread around the place, moving to open spaces almost as if they were setting up temporary stalls, and that was exactly what they were doing.

Aurelia was no different.

"You."

She pointed at a Velmourn soldier,

"Make a clear path through the center lane, move the injured to the nearest Sky Kingdom Soldier.

They will heal the injured.

Move quick, the more you delay, the worse the damage will become."

She ordered a Velmourn man like she was used to leading them and the Velmourn Soldier in question...

His mouth opened and then closed on its own and he...

He moved.

"Yes."

Following the orders.

"Two lines."

Aurelia continued, already pointing at the others.

"One for the walking wounded.

One for the dying.

Separate them."

The Velmourn soldiers nodded.

Korvath, who saw that, felt his jaw tighten. The Velmourn Commander obviously did not like seeing his men being ordered around by a prisoner.

But...

Korvath saw it too.

He had seen what his own men looked like five minutes ago, they were moving desperately, but they were... confused.

The language barrier did not make it any easier, plus, the situation was so serious with the angry Stonefangs involved that it seemed like they were walking on eggshells.

But the moment Aurelia arrived—

The moment she began giving orders, it changed.

It was almost as if, unlike the Velmourns, who were busy worrying about the possible mistakes they would make, she was worried about the time she would lose.

And...

As small as he felt, Korvath had to admit that she was correct.

So he...

He swallowed his pride and raised his voice.

"Do it! Follow her orders!"

That single command made the rest of the army move as well.

Aurelia momentarily looked at Korvath, the two Army Generals stared at each other for a good second, then, they nodded at each other and Aurelia began giving bigger commands.

The Velmourn soldiers moved according to the commands, they shoved the debris aside, formed lanes, moved people in a fixed structure.

Stonefangs watched with distrust, then with sudden understanding when they saw the wounded being moved faster.

Aurelia turned her head toward the Stonefangs.

She didn’t speak their language.

She didn’t even try.

She pointed to a group of Stonefang patrol warriors, then to a collapsed roof, then to a crying cluster of children behind smoke.

And the Stonefang understood what she wanted.

Get them out.

Now.

The Stonefangs hesitated for half a second—

Then a Stonefang from Dawn of the Dragon shouted in his tongue.

"She say save! Move children!"

Those words snapped other Stonefangs out of their reverie and they moved.

They tore open a broken door, lifted stones with bare hands and dragged children out, coughing, crying, faces black with soot.

Aurelia kept going.

"Bring water. Cold water, to cool the burns. Pick the snow—works if you have nothing else. Use cloth between snow and skin or you will freeze the flesh."

A Velmourn healer blinked at that, then nodded quickly.

They had never been taught that.

They only knew "heat for cold."

But burns were different.

"The ones with grave injuries need to be moved toward my men, quick."

She didn’t have to repeat twice. The soldiers were already moving.

The three healers were the busiest. People already knew them because they had been healing Velmourns and even Stonefang injuries for the past few days, so they were flooded with a long line.

The rest of the soldiers also took out their healing Bonds and set their temporary ’healing stalls’.

And with that—

The progress was now much more visible.