[VOLUME 14: THE SHATTERED HEAVENS][ARC 2: THE QUEEN'S RETALIATION]
The ash settling over the ruined courtyard looked entirely too much like snow.
Elara stood in the epicenter of the destruction, the phantom hum of her Twilight Resonance still vibrating in her teeth. Around her, the terrifying silence of the aftermath was broken only by the shifting of rubble and the crackle of dying, golden holy fire.
Aldren was still a few paces away, his abyssal shadows slowly retracting into his skin as he forced his monstrous form back down into something resembling a man.
But it wasn't Aldren that the surviving mortals were staring at.
It was her.
From the broken archways of the cathedral, from the shattered trenches, the soldiers of Aethelgard began to emerge. They were battered, covered in soot, and bleeding. Yet, as they limped forward, their eyes weren't filled with the hollow despair of the defeated.
They were looking at Elara with absolute, terrifying reverence.
