Chapter 32: Wrath Upon the Skies

  The sky above Vellmont burned with the echoes of war. Smoke curled into the heavens, streaked with the glow of molten ruih it, three warriors stood against a legend.

  Soldraknirr hovered in the air like a gilded executioner, its golden armleaming with a cruel radias great wings beat against the wind, sending ripples of force across the battlefield. Opposing it stood Leona’s Direhound-and, its lion-shaped pauldron refleg fire and fury; Lyra, poised atop The Steadfast, magic crag between her fiips; and finally, Sorion-Lupus Revise, the wolf that stood defiant against the dragon.

  Inside his cockpit, Garett’s breath was steady, but his mind ed. A whisper nition tickled at the edge of his thoughts. The Embercd traitor. The letter from Elderwynd. He had seen the signs, and now the truth revealed itself.

  "You," Garett said coldly. "You were the one pulling their strings. The Embercd traitor."

  Lyrius smirked through the s, his voice like silk lined with steel. "A shame it took you this long to realize, Lovernor. I expected more from House Fenralis’ sed heir."

  Garett’s fiightened around his trols. "What became of them? Wulfric? The men who followed him?"

  Lyrius chuckled, but there was no mirth in it. He lifted a gaued hand, summoning the dark sigils of neantivocation. The air trembled, and a rift split open beside Soldraknirr, birthing a beast of iron ah.

  A Drakeguard mech emerged—but this was no ordinary war mae. Its frame was thicker, its armaments crueler, its movements eerily human. It did not lurch like an automaton; it flowed, fluid and calg. And when it turs head tarett, its eyes—if one could call them that—crackled with unnatural light.

  And then, it spoke.

  The voice was ed, distorted, but familiar.

  Garett’s heart stopped.

  "Soul transfer is a branch of neancy our house has only ever touched upon," Lyrius mused, watg with amusement. "Raising corpses get tiresome. So why not take a warrior’s spirit aomb it in steel? A fitting fate, don’t you think?" His lips curled into a grin. "Oh, do ynize him?"

  The Drakeguard mech stepped forward, its bde gleaming in the firelight.

  Garett’s blood ran cold. "Wulfric...?"

  The Drakeguard lunged.

  Garett barely had time to parry, his psma bde log against the jagged jaws of his former brother-in-arms. Sparks danced in the night as the two maes wrestled for dominance, metal shrieking against metal.

  Leona’s rage erupted like a storm. "You bastard!" she spat, ung herself at Soldraknirr, her Direhound-and a blur of motion. "Your house murdered mine! You butchered my family!"

  Lyrius only ughed, weaving through the aerial duel with effortless grace. "Is that what helps you sleep at night, Leonis? That you were victims? That your house had no sins of its own? Pathetic."

  Leona’s sword cshed against Soldraknirr’s pted wing, the impact sending golden sparks casg down like falling stars.

  Meanwhile, Garett struggled against the Drakeguard—against Wulfric. He gritted his teeth, pushing back, but something in the mech’s movements felt wrong. Not like a mere neantic thrall. There was resistance, hesitation. And then—

  A voice, fractured and distant, whispered through the s.

  "Kill me."

  Garett’s breath hitched.

  "Release me from this suffering."

  It was Wulfric.

  Garett’s hands trembled on the trols. His mind screamed for another way, another path—but there was none. Not this time. Not for Wulfric.

  With a roar of anguish, he surged forward, driving Sorion-Lupus Revise’s bde deep into the heart of the Drakeguard mech. The moment the bde pierced through, a terrible, shuddering sigh echoed across the s—a sound like s breaking, like a soul exhaling one final breath.

  The Drakeguard went still.

  Then, slowly, its corrupted core flickered out, and it colpsed into the ruins below.

  Garett sat frozen, his breaths ragged, his vision blurred with grief. His hands ched into fists. And then—

  He lifted his head.

  His gaze turo Soldraknirr, to Lyrius, and all the rage, all the hatred, all the anguish that burned in his heart exploded into a single, murderous i.

  The Sorion-Lupus Revise turned, psma bde still dripping with molteal.

  Garett’s voice, when it came, was like a bde uhed.

  "You’re dead."

  The Battle for the Skies

  The heavens bore wito a battle of titans.

  Garett and Leona struck as oheir mechs fnking Soldraknirr in perfect synicity. Direhound-and surged forward, its golden aura fring as Leona unleashed a devastating overhead ssh. Sorion-Lupus Revise followed suit, its psma bde shifting mid-strike—first to Bze, molten energy lig across its surface, then to Gale, accelerating the swing with terrifying speed.

  Soldraknirr met their assault with fluid, almost mog ease. Lyrius spun the dragon-me the air, its pted tail shing out, catg Direhound-and in the midse and sending it spiraling. He ughed through the s.

  "e now, is that all? I expected Fenralis dogs to bite harder than this."

  Garett snarled, his Azeroth Drive humming with power. Ice spread across Sorion-Lupus Revise’s bde as he parried a terattack, freezing Soldraknirr’s outstretched cw just long enough for Leona to strike. Her mech crashed forward like a goldeeor, her shield glowing with amplified fortifiagic as it smmed into Soldraknirr’s exposed wing.

  The crapact echoed through the battlefield.

  Lyrius growled, his instincts sharp enough to shift Soldraknirr’s stance before disaster struck. His SES fred, golden energy casg across the mech’s frame as he twisted the dragon into a brutal terstrike.

  The fight raged on, each csh of steel shaking the very air. Elemental magic exploded between them—Garett’s ever-ging psma bde g against Lyrius’ masterful terattacks. Leona fought like a lioness, her golden battle aura surging, every strike calcuted to push Lyrius into a er.

  But Soldraknirr was a god among mechs. And Lyrius ilot without equal.

  He adapted.

  He twisted their rage against them, each feint and ter exploiting their aggression. When Garett lunged with a Bze-infused psma strike, Soldraknirr rolled mid-air, using its massive wings to fuhe fmes harmlessly aside before tering with a searing golden beam from its mouth. Leona intercepted, her Direhound-and’s shield abs the bst before she retaliated with a devastating greatsword strike—only for Lyrius to flicker away in a burst of Gale energy, Soldraknirr now above them, cws poised for a killing blow.

  Leona barely mao twist her mech aside as Soldraknirr’s talons raked across Direhound-and’s shoulder pting, sending golden sparks casg like molten rain. Garett surged forward, his bde shifting to Earth element at the st sed, turning a thrust into a brutal impact that cracked Soldraknirr’s wing armor. But Lyrius was already adapting—the moment his mech reeled, its golden SES fred, mending the fractures with terrifying speed.

  Lyrius ughed through the s, voice cold, mog. "Predictable. Anger blinds you. And blinded warriors die."

  He pivoted mid-air, Soldraknirr twisting with unnatural agility, its tail whipping out in a deadly arc. Sorion-Lupus Revise barely evaded, using an Ifused boost to slow its dest just before impact. Garett exhaled sharply, f himself to remain focused. Every sed, Lyrius was learning. Adapting. Anticipating. And if they didn’t find a way to break through his defenses—

  —this battle would be their st.

  From the deck of The Steadfast, Lyra watched in silence, gripping the railing as battle unfolded in a storm of fury and fire.

  Lyra turo Nyx, desperation in her voice. "You have to intervene!"

  Nyx shook her head, her ear-wings filing. "Not yet."

  Lyra looked at her pleadingly, her hands ched oaff. "Nyx—please!"

  The familiar sighed, her sharp eyes locked onto the battlefield. "You know what happens when we use that power. They still win. We must have faith in them."

  Lyra swallowed hard, f herself to look back at the fight, her hands trembling as she gripped the railing.