Nexus jolted awake, his crystalline form trembling as an overwhelming sense of dread clawed at his chest. For a moment, his mind remained trapped in the lingering echoes of his nightmare, his heart hammering so violently that it threatened to fracture his very core.

  Taking deep calming breath “Breath, Nexus calm down.”

  He forced himself to remember that. But the memory was so vivid, so raw, that the screams still rang in his mind. The cries of his people, the clash of shattered defenses, the sickening finality of it all.

  He had been there, standing on the front lines as the tide of destruction bore down upon them. He had fought. They all had fought. But the Razian Emperor had torn through their ranks with the ease of a child toppling a fragile tower of cards.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The battle was never fair. Never meant to be.

  The only force that had ever truly defied the Emperor—their last, desperate hope—had been those born of the Unchained. The ones who had stood unshackled, wielding a power that defied control. The last protectors of their people.

  And yet, even they had fallen.

  Nexus had slept just long enough to relive the moment again—the Emperor of Raz, his merciless spear piercing the heart of the last of the Unchained.

  The light in their eyes had faded, and with it, so had the last remnants of their people’s freedom.

  Nexus clenched his fists, his crystalline fingers grinding together with a sharp, grating sound. His body ached from the phantom weight of a war long lost, but he had no time for grief. The past was etched into his being, but the future?

  That… could still be changed..