Here is the next chapter:
Chapter —
The valley was still.
King stood at the ruined gate and let the silence settle around him. The smoke was thinning, pulling apart in slow threads as the wind moved through the mountain pass. The digital kill counters had stopped rolling. The enemy markers on his interface had gone dark one by one until there were none left, and now the map overlay showed only green.
His mana pool was at thirty-one percent. His stamina bar had climbed back to forty-seven after Vi's last restoration pulse. The gauntlet of ruin was warm against his knuckles from sustained use.
He closed the interface with a single swipe and looked around at what remained.
