I looked at these ten beings of light. They were magnificent, perfect, and yet at that moment I found them uglier than the most hideous demons of the abyss. They spoke of balance and protection, but they only sought to keep their slaves on a leash.

But I knew Alexander. I knew that if I warned him now, he would trigger an immediate war he could not win. Heaven would crush him before he could land a single blow. My mind calculated at a frantic speed, seeking an exit, a flaw in their plans.

’If I accept... I can perhaps influence the course of the raid. I can perhaps save him at the last moment...’ it was a tiny hope, a suicidal madness.

Michael took a step forward, his aura of divine fire almost licking my wings. "Loriel. Do you accept this mission for the glory of the Seraphs and the survival of the celestial order?"

The silence grew heavy. In my head, I saw Alexander’s face again in the half-light of our tent, his hands tracing the lines of my body with infinite tenderness. I saw his steel-gray eyes again, so full of determination and fatigue.

Forgive me, my love.

I raised my head, my face becoming that mask of ice again.

"I accept," I declared, my voice of a frightening stability. "Alexander Sulyvhan will be trapped during the raid. I will make sure of it personally."

Jophiel sketched a satisfied smile. "A wise decision, Loriel. Wisdom always ends up prevailing over fleeting emotions."

I bowed one last time and left the room.

*End of POV*

***

The dawn over the Tenebris plateau never looked like an ordinary sunrise; it was simply a transition from ink black to ashen gray, a dull glow that revealed the immensity of the carnage to come.

Alexander Sulyvhan, standing on a rocky promontory, observed the preparations for the raid. Before him stretched a sea of steel: nearly a hundred thousand human soldiers, their faces marked by three centuries of war, and above them, thousands of angels whose immaculate wings cast a cold light on the plain.

At his sides, his seven generals stood straight. Sulyvhan frowned as he cast a sideways glance at General Draken.

"Something has changed in you this morning, Draken," noted Sulyvhan, his deep voice resonating under his black helmet. "Your mana... it has a golden resonance I did not know you had. It looks like you have finally found the secret of internal circulation."

Draken tightened his grip on the handle of his axe, carefully avoiding the Sovereign’s piercing gaze. "We train relentlessly, Lord Sulyvhan. The prospect of ending Lucifer gives us wings."

Sulyvhan noted the same thing with Stavenger and Pendragon. They seemed to vibrate with a new power, a strength that did not come from their own vitality but seemed infused by an external source. Yet the warrior’s pragmatism prevailed over his doubts. If his men were stronger for the final raid, it was an asset he could not ignore.

A graceful silhouette then approached. Loriel, the Archangel with whom he shared secret nights, wore her sparkling silver armor. She placed a white-gloved hand on Sulyvhan’s pauldron, a gesture that, to the army’s eyes, seemed protocol, but burned with the betrayal she was about to commit.

"Alexander," she murmured. "Our scouts have spotted a flaw in the defensive structure of Lucifer’s bastion, toward the northern ridges. It is a direct access point, but it is narrow. If we send the main army head-on, the demons will regroup."

Sulyvhan unfolded a mana map in front of him. "You propose an infiltration?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I propose that you lead the vanguard through the heights," replied Loriel, her steel-gray eyes remaining fixed on the map to hide her trouble. "While the generals lead the frontal charge to attract the bulk of the monstrous troops, you could decapitate the enemy command. I will accompany you with a squad of elite angels."

Sulyvhan nodded, convinced by the tactical logic. "It is a risky plan, but if we isolate Lucifer, the tide of monsters will collapse. Very well. Draken, Stavenger, lead the main assault. Do not retreat, no matter the numbers."

The generals bowed with an unsettling synchronicity. Loriel looked away, knowing that this plan had no other purpose than to isolate Sulyvhan, to distance him from his most loyal soldiers so that the Seraphs’ "Judgment" could fall without witnesses.

The signal was given. The ground of Tenebris trembled under the steps of a hundred thousand men. Opposite, the horizon was covered by a black tide: hundreds of millions of monsters, from flesh goblins to mountain trolls, howled their thirst for blood. The collision was apocalyptic. Metal screamed against scales, and blood, red or black, began to soak the arid earth.

Sulyvhan did not stay on the ground.

With a brutal impulse, he used < Aura Repulsion > under his feet, propelling himself into the air with the force of a cannonball. He flew over the melee, his silver hair floating like a war banner. A squad of Wyverns, epic-rank creatures with green scales and jaws dripping with acid, dove toward him.

"Wyverns?" shouted Sulyvhan with a wild laugh. "You will have to do better than that to stop the first Sovereign!"

In mid-flight, he drew his two twin swords. The chains fixed to the pommels wrapped around his forearms, biting his flesh to synchronize his vital flow with the steel. His aura, usually gray and calm, became a storm of invisible blades.

< Art: Sundering Eclipse >

< Fourth Movement: Full Moon >

While the first three techniques focused on linear cuts or reflections, the fourth movement transformed Sulyvhan into a cutting center of gravity. He did not strike once, nor twice. His body seemed to divide into a dozen afterimages, creating a sphere of destruction around him.

Every Wyvern that entered his ten-meter perimeter was instantly butchered. It was not magic, it was such perfect mastery of space that the air itself became a razor. The monsters’ limbs fell like rain on the battlefield: heads cleanly severed, wings sectioned at the root, steaming entrails evaporating under the heat of his aura.

"Look, Loriel!" he shouted as he slashed the throat of an epic Wyvern with a simple backhand, without even looking at it. "They thought the sky belonged to them!"