Chapter Fifty (Finale)– The Choice of Shadows and the brutal truth.
The burned sky above the Free City was choked with smoke, the cries of the fallen fading into eerie silence. Broken towers leaned against one another like wounded beasts, and the scent of ash and steel hung heavy in the air. The once-thriving bastion of resistance now lay in ruins.
Andrew arrived atop a midnight-black wyvern, cloaked in the tendrils of his growing shadow power. The moment his boots touched the scorched earth, shadows slithered around him like obedient hounds. His eyes—glowing like twin eclipses—scanned the battlefield, unmoved by the carnage.
Mihai approached, his black armor slick with blood. He knelt respectfully before his ruler.
"We've subdued the last of the resistance. Most of the volunteer forces have fled or been killed. But…"
Andrew raised an eyebrow. "But?"
Mihai bowed his head. "We didn't capture Natalia. She escaped with Kael and the others."
Andrew's gaze darkened, and the wind around him stirred violently.
"I gave specific orders." His voice was quiet, but the power within it cracked the ground beneath his feet. "No one touches my sister. And no one lets her escape."
Mihai flinched slightly but stood firm. "I will take full responsibility. The battalion wasn't fast enough—Greenwolf(The spy) intervened."
Andrew turned away, inhaling the air heavy with loss and war. "Then prepare the next battalion. Tonight, I pay the Sultan a visit. His audacity must be… corrected."
Mihai nodded and disappeared into the shadows.
Interrogation and Judgment
Andrew descended into the rubble-strewn center of the city where two figures lay tied and unconscious.
David, slumped against a stone column, his once-brilliant armor tarnished by fire and blood. A faint dark glow lingered around his temples—Mihai's mind-control spell, cast at the battle's start, had finally taken effect and silenced him mid-combat.
Beside him, Alex laid still—his body badly wounded, his left arm wrapped tightly from the near-fatal strike by Sultan Mohamed. The shadow ropes binding him pulsed with dark energy, ensuring neither escape nor rebellion.
With a motion of his hand, Andrew released a wave of shadow. Both men gasped as they awakened, coughing and struggling.
"Welcome back," Andrew said. "I imagine you're wondering how things ended."
Alex blinked, his wounds aching, eyes trying to focus on the silhouette before him. David groaned, half-conscious, trying to raise his head.
"Where is Natalia?" Andrew asked.
David's eyes ignited with fury. "You possessed bastard… Is that all you care about? After everything, after burning cities, killing innocents… all for your sister?"
Andrew didn't flinch. "She is family. Something you wouldn't understand anymore."
He turned to Mihai again. "Did the generals respond to the call?"
Mihai gestured to a line of surviving generals—once proud soldiers of the Old Order. All of them battered, broken, brought forth from the rubble.
Andrew walked before them, one by one.
"You know the question," he said calmly. "Serve me… or die by my hand."
Silence followed. Then, slowly, one after another, they knelt. "We serve," they said, one by one.
The shadows wrapped around them, fusing into their very bones. They screamed, but none resisted. Their eyes turned black. Their spirits claimed.
Not all agreed.
One brave woman, once a general under Andreas, spit blood on the ground. "You'll never be my king."
She was dead before her sentence ended. Andrew's blade of shadow ripped her chest apart in one smooth gesture. Her body fell, and the others said no more.
A Monarch Reborn
Finally, Andrew turned back to the two men who meant the most to him once—David and Alex.
"You've seen what I offer," he said. "Power. Survival. Legacy."
He looked to Alex.
"Join me. Become one of my high-ranking shadows. Like Mihai. Like Andrei."
Alex looked up slowly. His body trembled, not from pain… but thought.
"I'm not ready to die," he said finally. "And honestly? I'm tired of being the one always fighting for the losing side. All my life I followed someone's orders, only to watch everything fall apart."
He looked over at David.
"I'm not like you. I'm not one of those who dies for pride. I'd rather live… and maybe win for once."
David's jaw clenched. "You traitor," he hissed. "Is that how you replace all the good we fought for? All the people who died for what we believed in?"
Alex turned his head away. "Maybe it's time to believe in something that wins."
Andrew smiled.
Shadows surged around Alex's body, wrapping him in dark flame. His wounds vanished. His arm returned, reforged in shadow. His heart no longer beat as it had before—it pulsed with the power of a Monarch of Shadow.
From that moment on, Alex was reborn as the ruler of the lands claimed by Andrew's army. The monarch of the Shadowlands.
David's Last Stand
Andrew turned to David.
"You, old friend. Will you stand beside me again… or fall like the rest?"
David spat blood. "I'd rather rot in the lowest pit of this earth than fight under your cursed flag."
Andrew narrowed his eyes, his hand flexing in silent thought. The shadows tightened around David's throat… but didn't kill.
Instead, he raised his hand and motioned.
"Lock him in the palace prison. Let him think about his answer. I'll ask him again soon."
As David was dragged away, Andrew looked across the ruined city—his shadow empire rising from fire and ashes. The next phase had begun.
And nothing would stop it.