Chapter 323: The New Order

For several seconds, nobody moved.

The streets of Vrethka had fallen into an unnatural, suffocating silence. It was the kind of quiet that only followed absolute, overwhelming violence. The crackle of distant fires and the soft shifting of rubble were the only sounds that dared to interrupt it.

Hundreds of warriors remained on their knees, their weapons scattered across the blood-soaked ground. Some kept their heads lowered, their foreheads nearly touching the dirt in complete submission.

Others dared to look up at the man standing before them, the man who had marched into their settlement alone, fought their entire force, killed their chief, and forced the survivors to surrender.

The moonlight caught the blood on their faces, on their armor, on the broken cobblestones. It painted a grim picture of a battle that had turned into a slaughter.

Darion stood at the center of it all. His breathing was slowly returning to normal, though his chest still felt tight.

His sword was still in his hand, the golden light now completely extinguished. Blood stained the blade, thick and dark, a visceral reminder of the lives he had taken.

The undead surrounded him like an army that had never known defeat: silent, unbreathing, and terrifyingly loyal.

The adrenaline was gone, leaving behind a heavy, bone-deep exhaustion. He was tired. His arms ached, his legs felt heavy, and his mind was spinning with the sheer scale of what he had just done. He had walked into a fortified settlement and taken it by force.

He let out a slow breath.

And then.

Darion suddenly looked toward Seren.

She was standing a short distance away, her bow still in her hand. Her eyes were moving between him and the kneeling warriors, her expression a mix of adrenaline, disbelief, and exhaustion. She was still processing it all.

Their eyes met.

Darion smiled. It was a tired smile, but there was a spark of genuine, reckless relief in it. They were alive. They had won.

Seren raised an eyebrow, her posture stiffening slightly. "What?"

Darion didn’t answer. Instead, he walked toward her, his boots crunching softly against the debris.

"Darion?" she asked, her voice laced with a sudden, cautious suspicion.

He stopped directly in front of her. Then, without a single word of warning, he grabbed her. One arm wrapped around her waist, the other went beneath her legs.

Seren’s eyes widened in absolute shock. "W-Wait—"

Darion jumped.

"WHAT?!" Seren’s stomach dropped instantly.

For one horrifying second, she thought he had completely lost his mind. They were standing in the middle of a conquered settlement surrounded by hundreds of enemy warriors. The battle had just ended. Everyone was watching them. And now this idiot had decided to jump off—Is he seriously about to ruin this moment and get us killed?!

The ground dropped beneath them.

Wind rushed violently against Seren’s face, whipping her hair back. She instinctively tightened her arms around Darion’s neck, her heart leaping into her throat. "DARION!"

But Darion wasn’t falling. He had already given the command.

Green light flashed around them, illuminating the dark street. A massive swarm of undead bats burst into the air. It wasn’t just a few, it was a cloud. One after another, they flew beneath Darion and Seren, their leathery wings beating furiously against the night air.

More appeared, filling the space around them. Some caught Darion’s shoulders, their claws hooking into his tunic. Others wrapped around his arms. Several gripped his clothing, while more surrounded his legs and back. The swarm moved as one unified entity.

Instead of allowing them to plummet to their deaths, the bats slowed their descent. Their combined strength pulled against Darion’s weight, catching them in mid-air. The sudden, terrifying drop became a controlled, floating descent.

The wind continued roaring around them, but the fall had stopped. Seren stared, her eyes wide, her breath caught in her throat. For a moment, she couldn’t even speak. Many bats surrounded them beneath the moonlight, their dark wings moving in perfect, eerie coordination. They looked almost like a living cloud, a mass of death and shadow that obeyed the man holding her.

Darion remained completely calm, his heartbeat steady against her chest. He adjusted his grip around her, securing her safely against him. "Got you."

Seren looked at him. Then down at the swarm. Then back at him.

The bats continued carrying them downward, their wings beating harder as they approached the ground. The descent slowed even further, becoming as gentle as a feather falling.

And finally, their feet touched the street.

The bats released Darion one by one, scattering into the air before circling above them like a dark halo. Darion landed perfectly, his knees bending slightly to absorb the impact. Not even a stumble.

Seren remained frozen in his arms. She hadn’t realized she was still holding onto him. Her fingers were tightly gripping his clothes, her knuckles white. Darion looked down at her. She looked up at him.

Neither said anything.

The noise of the crowd seemed to disappear entirely. For several seconds, the world shrank down to just the two of them standing in the ruins.

Seren’s heart was beating faster than it should have been. She had fought beside him. She had watched him command hundreds of undead. She had seen him charge into an entire army without a shred of hesitation. But somehow, this ridiculous, theatrical little stunt had left her more stunned than any of it.

"You..." she finally muttered, her voice barely a whisper.

Darion smiled, a flicker of the man he was before the bloodshed returning to his eyes. "You’re insane," she finished.

Seren couldn’t help herself. The shock broke, and she smiled. A genuine, bright smile. She stayed there for another moment, still clinging to him, before reality slowly began to creep back in.

Hundreds of Vrethka warriors were watching.

Seren’s eyes slowly moved past Darion’s shoulder. She noticed the kneeling crowd. The hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at them in the dead silence. Her face immediately warmed, a deep blush creeping up her neck. ’Oh.’