The horn faded across the ocean, and the battlefield went quiet.
Not entirely. Wreckage still drifted on the surface, smoke still curled from broken hulls, debris bobbed in currents that hadn't decided which direction to settle into. But active engagement had ended. The enemy fleets pulled back along their entire line in coordinated formation, leaving behind only the husks of what they had committed and could not save.
The Suryax-Ananta Allied Force did not pursue.
Rudra made the call before anyone could ask. "Let them go."
Almond agreed without argument. So did Lily. The fleets that had withdrawn had been bent, not broken, and chasing a bent enemy across unfamiliar waters into terrain they had prepared for weeks was the kind of decision that turned a clean victory into an expensive mess.
