Chapter 38 - Shattered

Renji froze as frost swirled around her. Alina’s body jerked like a puppet, wings of ice snapping out of her back with a sharp crack. Her glowing blue eyes locked on him—empty, unfocused.

“Renji…” Her voice cracked, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I can’t… stop it…”

Her staff snapped upward. A blizzard detonated from her hands, spears of ice screaming across the field. Renji dove and rolled; the shards tore gaps in the earth. Elven wardens cried out as the blast cut through their line, their armour glazing with frost.

“We can’t keep this up!” Sorien shouted, throwing up a barrier to keep a squad of wardens alive.

Celia’s flames surged to meet the next wave; fire collided with frost in a hiss of steam. “Renji, her power is going wild—she’ll kill us all! Herself included!” She conjured a wall of fire to buy some time to regroup. “Her body can’t handle that much power at once!”

“I’m not cutting her down!” he roared, teeth bared, golden aura flaring around him.

Another volley of ice spears shot from her wings like arrows loosed from a giant’s bow. Renji blurred forward, shattering them mid-flight with glowing slashes, but the shards still rained around him like knives.

Neria spun through the storm, her chakrams cleaving the frozen air. “Then what’s the plan?”

“Restrain her if you can!” Sorien barked, his magic shield cracking under the impact of another frost wave.

“No one touches her!” Renji snapped, fury twisting his voice. “We go after the Verdant Orb!”

“What?” Rikka blurted.

“We destroy it,” Renji said flatly.

Celia and Elith exchanged incredulous looks.

“To destroy an artefact of the World Tree?” Neria asked, disbelief cutting through the noise. “Is that even possible?”

Above the chaos, Vaerina’s laughter rang out, cold and triumphant. “Yes, fight her! Drown in the despair of your own precious princess!” She raised the Verdant Sceptre, and Alina’s wings spread wider. The ground beneath them flash-froze in a heartbeat, frost crawling up trees, splitting bark with gunshot cracks.

Renji planted his feet on the ice, sword blazing gold, breath fogging in the gale. Every instinct screamed to strike—but his chest burned hotter than the cold.

“Hold on,” he whispered, steadying his stance as Alina drew another spell to fire. “I’ll get you back… even if I have to shatter the world to do it.”

The blizzard thickened, each breath piercing Renji’s lungs from within. Alina’s wings unfurled, and a volley of frozen lances ripped through the clearing, splintering trees into jagged ruins. An elven warden screamed as his shield arm turned to brittle ice, snapping under the weight of frost.

“Fall back!” Sorien barked, rallying the survivors into a staggered retreat.

Vaerina’s laughter cut through the storm. “Exquisite! Such beauty, such devastation. Undine’s song is sweeter than I ever dreamed.” She swept the Verdant Sceptre forward, and Alina mirrored the gesture like a puppet, loosing another barrage that shattered Sorien’s barrier in a spray of shards.

Renji’s teeth clenched. Every attack is tearing her apart. If this keeps up—

“Renji!” Celia called out sharply. She hurled a wall of fire to blunt the next wave, her flames already guttering from the drain. “She can’t survive this output much longer!”

He knew it. He could see it—Alina’s body trembling violently, lips bloodless, tears freezing on her cheeks even as her power lashed out.

“I’m ending this,” Renji growled, gaze locking onto the sceptre. The gem embedded in its crown pulsed in rhythm with Alina’s flares, each beat feeding the blizzard. “The Orb’s the leash.”

“You’ll never break it!” Elith warned, straining to raise stone into a barrier. “It was carved from the World Tree itself—our ancestors couldn’t shatter such a relic!”

“Then I’ll do what your ancestors couldn’t.” Renji planted his feet, golden aura blazing. “Cover me.”

Without waiting for a reply, he charged.

Ice bolts shrieked toward him—Alina’s cry echoing faintly, “Don’t… come closer! Please!”

Renji slashed them aside, golden arcs scattering fragments into glittering mist. A blast of fire flared from Celia’s hand, carving him a path. Gromul barrelled in beside him, axe cleaving through frozen knights that clawed their way up from the ground.

“Go, lad! I’ll carve you a path!” Gromul roared, blood spraying his beard as he hacked down another puppet-soldier.

Renji sprinted, eyes fixed on Vaerina. She smiled, tilting the sceptre almost lazily. Alina’s wings slammed down, a tidal wave of frost surging toward him.

Too fast to dodge—

The gale struck, ripping the ground apart. For an instant Renji vanished in the storm—then burst free, golden light flaring like a beacon. His sword gleamed, magical aura burning so hot the frost hissed off it.

Vaerina’s smirk faltered. “Impossible—”

Renji leapt. His blade came down in a blazing arc toward the sceptre’s crown. Too fast for Vaerina to dodge.

The Verdant Orb shrieked as steel and essence met. Renji’s blade shattered, shards spinning away as the force hurled both him and Vaerina to the ground.

Vaerina’s laughter rang out, cold and mocking. “Nice try, otherworlder!”

Then a voice echoed in Renji’s mind—the Great Spirit itself. Use the power within you.

What? Renji thought, forcing himself to an elbow, staring down at his trembling hand.

Across the frost, Vaerina dragged herself to a knee. Between them lay the sceptre, its crown Orb pulsing faintly. Above, Alina hung suspended in mid-air, unable to move now that no one was in control of the Orb.

Both lunged at once.

At the final heartbeat, Renji swerved. Instead of reaching for the Orb, he snapped a roundhouse kick across Vaerina’s jaw. Bone cracked; she spun, skidding across the ice, dazed.

Renji ignored her. He seized the Orb in both hands.

He inhaled deeply and channelled magic essence through his hands.

Agony ripped through him at once. The Orb flared green, magic burning along his veins. Blood streamed from his nose and the corner of his mouth as he roared, forcing every last drop of essence into the relic.

“Renji—no!” Alina’s cry rang down from above, her eyes wide with helpless terror. She wanted to go to him, but her body wouldn’t move.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the Orb’s surface, light bursting out in violent pulses.

“No—stop!” Vaerina shrieked, dragging herself forward.

Renji bellowed, pouring himself into the relic—and the Orb burst apart in a blinding flare. The shockwave ripped through the clearing, flinging soldiers and elves alike to the ground. Fragments of emerald essence rained down like meteors, hissing as they burned into the ice. The sceptre’s wooden shaft splintered and fell away.

Alina collapsed, wings dissolving into mist. She hit the ground hard, her eyes wide with terror—then dimmed to their natural blue, breath ragged but alive.

Renji staggered on his knees, barely conscious. The golden aura flickered out. A searing pain raked his chest where the blast had struck. His breath came in short, shallow gasps.

“Renji!” Alina crawled toward him, tears streaking her face.

He coughed, blood flecking his lips. The wound wasn’t visible, but his veins burned as if molten lead coursed through them. Essence backlash. The Orb’s destruction had driven its raw power straight into his body.

“I told you…” he rasped, forcing a weak smile. “…I’d get you back.”

Her hands trembled as she grasped the front of his tunic. “Stay with me, please! Don’t you dare leave me now!”

Around them, their allies regrouped, wardens dragging away the wounded. Celia’s fire dimmed, her eyes fixed on Renji with rare seriousness. Elith’s face had gone pale.

“That backlash should have killed him outright,” she whispered. “He’s holding on through sheer will…”

Renji’s vision blurred, the battlefield swaying. “Not… finished yet…”

Then raw power surged through his veins. His body convulsed, golden aura sparking violently around him before collapsing in on itself.

The last thing he felt was Alina’s arms catching him as he fell, her voice calling out his name the only sound louder than the ringing silence left by the shattered Orb.

A low hum rippled through the battlefield as the shattered Orb’s fragments bled their last light into the frost. The gale died. Snowflakes hung in the air like dust before drifting silently to the ground.

Vaerina staggered, her face bloodied and bruised. Her eyes burned with fury, but her voice was silk. “Enjoy your moment, insects. It will not last.”

Vines erupted from the frozen earth, wrapping her in a cocoon of thorns. In an instant she was gone, swallowed by the writhing mass as it sank beneath the soil.

“Wardens, secure the field!” Elith commanded, her voice cutting through the silence. Wardens scrambled to drag the wounded clear, though many stood stunned, staring at the icy carnage left in Alina’s wake.

Alina herself knelt on the ice, clutching Renji to her chest. His skin was pale, his breath shallow, each exhale a faint wisp of steam. “Don’t leave me, Renji,” she whispered, tears dripping onto his cloak. “Not after everything… please.”

Celia crouched beside them, wearing a rare solemn expression. She pressed a hand to Renji’s chest, pulling back almost immediately. “His circuits are burning out,” she muttered. “The Orb’s power, it’s eating him alive.”

“Then fix it!” Alina begged, her grip tightening. “Miss Celia, please!”

Elith’s expression was grave as she laid a hand on Alina’s shoulder. “There is no easy remedy. If he survives, it will be because his will is stronger than the wound itself.”

Alina bowed her head, shoulders trembling. “Then he will. He has to.”

Renji stirred faintly, lips moving without sound.

The battlefield had fallen silent. No steel clashed, no magic roared—only the harsh breaths of the wounded, the fading crackle of fire, and Alina’s quiet sobs as she held him close.