The iron door still echoed through the small cell. Marcus stood there, broad and unyielding, staring at Lucius with pure hatred. Derek stood at his side, his hand still resting on the hilt of his sword, while Selma remained like a shadow in the darkness of the doorway.

  “You thought you could shake the very foundations of Brittania with your lies, Lucius?” Marcus sneered. “But look at you now. Chained in the mud of my district.”

  Lucius lifted his head, a calm smile on his lips. “The mud isn’t on my feet, Marcus. The mud is in the walls of this palace.”

  Marcus twisted his face into a grimace and nodded toward Rico. “Vice-captain, unchain them. Take them to the execution grounds. I want the people to see what happens to traitors.”

  Rico stepped forward. His hand went to the keys at his belt, but instead of leading the prisoners outside, he walked with icy calm toward Lucius. With a swift motion, he unlocked the shackles. Celia rose immediately, her expression tight and determined; she knew exactly what was about to happen. Together with Rico, she helped free Eli and the wounded Kevin from their chains.

  “What are you doing, Rico?” Derek asked in confusion, already half drawing his sword.

  Rico didn’t even glance back. He turned to face Marcus and drew his own weapon.

  “My apologies for the inconvenience,” Rico said in his characteristic soft voice. “But the king I serve does not sit upon a throne of lies.”

  Marcus’s eyes widened with fury. “Rico… you filthy spy! How dare you!”

  “Now!” Rico shouted.

  Eli jumped to his feet, his exhaustion gone in a surge of adrenaline. He looked at the line that had formed.

  Five against three.

  But with Selma and the savage strength of Marcus, Eli knew this would be the fight of their lives.

  Outside, far above the dungeons of District Water, the first explosions rang out. The gates of Brittania had been breached. Natasha, Gina, Benny, and the warriors of Norvella had stormed into the city.

  The coup Lucius had anticipated had finally begun.

  The air in the narrow dungeon thickened with tension and the scent of cold steel. As the first echoes of explosions reverberated above them, hell broke loose below.

  Derek drew his sword fully, the metal singing as it slid from its sheath.

  “Celia, what are you doing?!” he shouted, his voice cracking with disbelief. “This is high treason!”

  Celia did not answer with words.

  She drew a hidden dagger Rico had slipped into her hand and stepped directly toward her brother. The pain in her eyes was visible, but her hand did not tremble.

  “The only traitor here is the lie we believe in, Derek,” she said coldly.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Sparks flew as their weapons collided—brother and sister locked in a deadly dance within the confined space of the cell.

  On the other side of the room, Selma moved with unnatural speed. Before Eli had even fully risen to his feet, she was already upon him. Her movements were mechanical, almost soulless, but the force behind her strikes was overwhelming.

  Eli reacted faster than she expected.

  With brutal explosiveness, he blocked her fist with his forearm; the impact rang out like a hammer striking an anvil. Eli did not retreat even a single step. His eyes were focused, a raw, almost animalistic strength pulsing through his muscles as he deflected her attack and drove her toward the stone wall with a powerful kick.

  For the briefest moment, surprise flashed across Selma’s emotionless face.

  She had not expected anyone to match her raw violence so effortlessly.

  Marcus ignored the others entirely. His eyes were fixed only on Lucius.

  “You’re not going anywhere, rat!” he roared, raising his heavy weapon.

  But before he could reach Lucius, Rico—and a staggering but determined Kevin—threw themselves into his path.

  Rico fought with controlled precision, his sword forming a barrier between the furious leader of the Royal Guard and his target. Kevin, fighting through pain, seized every opportunity to distract Marcus and break his rhythm.

  Lucius observed the scene with chilling calm.

  He did not draw his sword.

  While Rico and Kevin struggled to keep Marcus at bay, Lucius used the chaos. With a smooth movement, he slipped past the fighting bodies toward the open door. He cast one meaningful glance at the group before disappearing into the shadows of the corridor and leaving the cell behind.

  It was not an escape—but a calculated step in a plan the others could not yet fully see.

  The walls now trembled constantly from Natasha’s invasion and the Norvella warriors as the battle deep within District Water raged on.

  While personal betrayal was being fought in the depths of the dungeon, the rest of Brittania was turning into a slaughterhouse. For the first time in centuries, the unshakable fortress felt like a battlefield.

  The invasion began in District Fire, the outer ring of the city. Here, where poverty reigned and the walls had been crumbling for years, resistance was nonexistent. The residents watched with wide eyes as Natasha’s alliance—the WDF and the Norvella warriors—marched through the streets.

  There was no opposition. The guards of this district had long since fled or joined the chaos.

  The alliance thundered through District Fire like an unstoppable wave, only finally crashing into a wall when they reached the border of District Earth.

  In District Earth, the true power of Brittania awaited them.

  Here, the Royal Guard had deployed in full force—a shining wall of steel and discipline blocking the wide avenues. But they did not stand alone.

  The elite forces of the four great houses had raised their own banners.

  The golden armor of the Ashfords mixed with the dark, heavy equipment of the Thorne units, while the Darwyn marksmen occupied the rooftops and the warriors of Bellgrave guarded the flanks.

  Against this overwhelming force stood the unlikely alliance.

  Natasha led the Research Team with razor-sharp focus. At her side, the WDF charged forward under William’s command, with Vice-Captain Gina holding the lines together with an iron grip.

  The air was torn apart by the roars of the Norvella warriors.

  Bj?rn and Jakob fought in the front lines like possessed giants, their axes and swords cutting through Brittania’s superior technology with nothing but raw, brutal strength.

  Chaos consumed District Earth.

  For the ordinary citizens watching from their windows, there was no clear “right side.” Everywhere there was fire, the sound of shattering glass, and the screams of soldiers.

  The district’s grand architecture crumbled beneath the violence of battle.

  This was not an orderly coup.

  It was an eruption of long-suppressed fury that shook Brittania to its core.

  The city was no longer a sanctuary—but an arena where the future was being decided in a choking cloud of smoke and dust.

  The battle in the dungeon could no longer be contained within its walls.

  With a deafening explosion, the ceiling of the cell burst apart as Eli and Selma—locked in a clash of pure strength—crashed through the layers of stone into the floor above.

  Debris and dust rained down as they landed on the roof of the complex, in the midst of the raging civil war.

  Selma now moved with a speed that defied human perception.

  She was not merely strong—she was a force of nature.

  Every strike she delivered cracked the concrete beneath their feet.

  Eli absorbed a kick that would have split an ordinary man in two, yet he recovered with terrifying speed.

  He was no longer fighting like an ordinary warrior.

  His movements were instinctive, raw, and possessed a dark fluidity unlike anything human.

  “Need a hand, mate?”

  A rough voice cut through the chaos.

  Benny landed beside them, his face smeared with soot, his gaze sharper than ever.

  Without hesitation, he tore the cloth from his eye.

  The air around him began to warp, and the temperature seemed to drop as his hidden eye fixed on Selma.

  Where he looked, reality itself appeared to bend.

  Projectiles were pulled off course, and gravity around Selma became erratic and unpredictable.

  Even against the combined force of Eli and the destructive power of Benny’s eye, Selma barely faltered.

  She fought them both with chilling efficiency—like a machine programmed never to yield.

  Below, among the rubble of the shattered cell, Celia looked up through the hole in the ceiling.

  She saw Eli standing above, his silhouette outlined against the smoke-filled sky.

  For a brief moment, he turned his head.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  In the shadow beneath his brow, she saw a flash—an unnatural, deep violet glow overtaking his pupils.

  It was a look she recognized from the forbidden books.

  A light that did not belong in this world.

  A chill ran down her spine.

  The boy she thought she knew was beginning, somewhere deep inside, to change into something else.