"What the f*ck?!" I only went to the camp for a while—how the hell did Lucien end up like this? Did being sent back home drive him insane? His sharp gaze swept across the chaos: the golden phoenix thrashing wildly above, and below, Drake and Marcus desperately reinforcing the failing ice walls. "What are you two doing, building him an ice palace?!" he shouted. "What's next—turning this into some kind of fire-and-ice show for entertainment?" His voice carried clearly through the roaring wind, straight to the wolf and dragon below. Marcus froze mid-attack, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?" Drake tilted his enormous dragon head as well, equally lost. "It means he's about to explode from his own power, you idiots!" Calum barked, his voice cutting through the sky like a blade. Before either of them could respond, his body blurred into a streak of brilliant silver light and shot toward the blazing phoenix above.He moved like lightning—fast, clean, and merciless. Boom! A deafening blast shook the sky as silver met gold. The two forces collided head-on, bursting into a storm of radiant energy. The phoenix's furious cry tore through the clouds. Enraged, it turned its wrath fully on the lone figure that had dared to challenge it, hurling an avalanche of golden fireballs toward Calum like a torrential rain of destruction. He weaved through the barrage with impossible agility, his silver aura flashing in and out of sight. Despite the chaos, he looked almost relaxed—so much so that he even found time to yell back down at the wolf and dragon. "You just gonna stand there and watch? When he burns a hole clean through Central Planet, you can both find yourselves a nice corner in interstellar prison!" Each dodge, each flicker of silver light wasn't random at all. Calum was steering the phoenix's rage, subtly guiding its attacks away from the city below. "What do we do then?" Drake asked, at a loss for a moment. They couldn't hurt Lucien or contain him either."You stop wasting your power on those d*mn ice walls—they're useless! They won't hold him!" Calum called back as he twisted midair, narrowly evading a fireball the size of a millstone. The flames grazed his sleeve, leaving it singed. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You two—left and right—drive him toward the Pantheon Battlefield!" Pantheon Battlefield? Marcus and Drake exchanged a glance, understanding dawning instantly. Calum opened a line to Silas. "Evacuate the area and clear a route. I'm taking him off Central Planet—straight to the Pantheon Battlefield." "Already in progress," Silas replied through the comms, his voice steady despite the tension. "Civilians will be cleared in five minutes. Hold him until then, Marshal." "Five minutes?" Calum risked a glance at the phoenix, now burning hotter than ever, and grimaced. If he stayed up there five more minutes, his cool marshal uniform would turn into rags. "Copy that," he said curtly, then surged forward. The silver light around him flared brighter, carving erratic, dazzling arcs across the sky as he harried the phoenix, keeping its focus locked on him. Minute by minute, they held the line. Then Silas' voice came again. "Marshal, route's clear. You're good to go!" At once, Calum's aura blazed like molten silver. "You two—on my flank! Drive him up, don't let him double back!" he shouted. Marcus and Drake responded instantly. Calum dove low, then shot upward in a violent arc. The silver beam that was his body slammed square into the phoenix's left wing joint. Boom! The resulting explosion leveled the entire manor below. The phoenix screamed in fury, abandoning its attack on the ground and turning its full wrath on the silver figure taunting it from above. "Roar!" "Hraaah!" The wolf and dragon roared together, launching into the sky on either side of the golden blaze. Their massive bodies formed two living barriers, cutting off every route back toward Central Planet. Gold, silver, white, and black—four streams of light streaked through the heavens, piercing the atmosphere as they hurtled toward the depths of space. Aboard the warship, Emma watched the feed in tense silence, her chest tight. The four lights grew smaller and smaller until they were just specks against the black. "Silas, follow them—the Pantheon Battlefield." She couldn't bring herself to rest easy, not while Lucien was out there. "Mm." Silas nodded, then joined Edric and Kieran at the controls. Together, they steered the ship in pursuit of the four blazing figures streaking across the void. … At the Pantheon Battlefield, the golden phoenix hovered in the storm-dark sky, wings spread wide enough to blot out the stars. No longer hurling random fireballs, it now wielded its divine flames with terrifying precision—forming them into countless golden spears that rained down upon the three figures encircling it.