## đ CHAPTER 76: _"The Battle Beneath Bloodlight"_
**I. The First Arrow Falls**
At the stroke of midnight, the war began not with a scream, but a whisperâan arrow slicing through fog, striking the heart of a scout beneath the Cursed Banner. Blood bloomed on his chest like a rose. Then, silence shattered.
The monarchs had kept their word. Every kingdom sent its worst. Assassins. Battlemancers. Nightbeasts bred in the Labyrinth Isles.
Lysia saw the arrow and closed her eyes.
"They've come," she said. "Let them meet what we've become."
**II. The Curse Awakens**
The battlefield at Blackreach glowed crimson under the twin moons. Arien rode to the front, his sword etched in old runes, each line a promise, each glyph a death.
But the curse that had once been a burden⌠now pulsed like a second heart.
Every soldier near him felt their wounds slow. Their bones harden. Their eyes burn.
"Do you feel that?" one whispered.
"It's him," another said. "He's changing."
**III. Lysia's Fire**
Lysia stood atop a ruined watchtower, arms raised. Magic poured from her palmsâno longer wild, no longer painful. It obeyed her now.
She summoned walls of flame to divide the armies. Vines of shadow to pull traitors from the flanks. When they came for herâthirty armored knights of Westmoorâshe didn't flee.
She spoke three words: "Flame, remember me."
The fire bent. The knights did not scream long.
**IV. The Child Prophet's Mark**
Among the chaos stood the girl with silver hairâthe one who bore the third mark. She was just a child, but when she touched the ground, it split.
Dead warriors roseânot as ghouls, but as memories. They fought beside the cursed, not against.
"They fight for what they loved," she said. "That's stronger than fear."
**V. The Death of Kings**
One by one, monarchs fell.
The King of Thorns was impaled on his own black iron vines. The Queen of Frost shattered when Arien whispered her true name. The Warlord of Dusk was burned alive by his own blood.
By dawn, five crowns lay broken.
But one remained.
**VI. The Betrayal of Flamehold**
From within their own ranks came the final betrayal.
A general once loyal to Arien turned. Poisoned water. False signals. Surrendered gates.
Arien fought through a hundred men to reach him. "You were my brother," he said.
"And you were never meant to win," the traitor answered.
Their duel shook the northern ridge. When it ended, the traitor fellânot by blade, but from the weight of his shame. Arien refused to kill him.
"Live with it," Arien said. "That's your punishment."
**VII. The Sky Cracks Open**
As the last charge began, the sky splitânot with lightning, but with prophecy.
A voice older than language echoed:
_"The curse is no longer bound to blood. It lives in the choices made when the world burns."_
And from the light came a figure draped in stars.
The First Mage.
"You've broken the rules," he said.
Lysia stepped forward. "No. We rewrote them."
**VIII. Victory Without Peace**
They won. Blackreach fell. The kingdoms surrendered.
But peace did not come.
Too many graves. Too many scars. Children who had watched their parents die. Survivors who would always remember the screams.
Lysia stood before the campfire of the last night of war and said:
"We didn't win to forget. We won to rebuild. And that will be the harder fight."
**IX. The Phoenix Pact**
In the ashes, a new pact was formed. All those who bore the curse would form a council. Not of rulersâbut of witnesses. Guardians of truth. Of memory.
Lysia's crown was placed into flame.
"I don't need it," she said. "Let the people decide what we become."
The flame did not burn it. It turned it to crystal.
A symbol of what was brokenâand reborn.
**X. The Final Line**
Arien and Lysia stood beneath the cursed tree.
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Do you still think love is a curse?"
He smiled, eyes closed.
"No," he whispered. "But it was the only thing powerful enough to break one."
And from the tree, a single petal fell.
The curse was over.