Deviating from the original plot

Chapter ninety-four

Damien exhaled, his expression softening slightly. "I understand your anger. But believe me... I want to help."

With a swift gesture, the cell bars swung open.

"This is a trap," Celeste warned, her eyes narrowing.

"It's not," Damien said evenly. "Here-your weapons." Their blades and bows materialised in their hands, gleaming faintly in the dungeon's dim light.

He stepped back from the open cell, voice steady. "Victoria needs your help. I can take you to her."

The three exchanged wary glances before fixing their eyes on him again.

"If you betray us," Evelyn warned, pointing her weapon at his chest, "I will make you regret it."

"I'm not going to," Damien replied. "I give you my word. Now come with me-there's no time."

He led them out of the dungeon and into a corridor that wound upward. The deeper they moved into the castle, the louder the distant clang of metal.

He pushed it open, and the roar of battle hit them instantly.

They sprinted into the vast chamber-just in time to see Victoria, bloodstained and breathing hard, driving her blade through another black mage as two more closed in behind her.

"Victoria!" Evelyn shouted.

Victoria's head jerked toward the familiar voices-just in time for a black mage to swing at her blind side. She dropped into a quick crouch, avoiding the blow, but the opening it created was dangerous.

Celeste reacted instantly. With fluid precision, she drew an arrow, pulled back, and released. The shot struck the mage cleanly in the head, dropping him before he could land a second strike.

Cassius surged forward right after, cutting through the circle of attackers with sweeping, furious strikes-each swing carving down another black mage that pressed too close.

Evelyn reached Victoria's side, breath sharp. "We've got you-are you hurt?"

Victoria shook her head, though her clothes were torn and stained with blood. "Nothing I can't handle."

But before any of them could regroup, the temperature in the chamber plummeted.

A slow, thunderous clap echoed from the far end.

The emperor stepped forward, shadows coiling at his heels like serpents. His gaze swept over them-annoyance flickering, then amusement.

"So the rats escaped my dungeon," he drawled. "How persistent."

Black energy rippled outward from the emperor, twisting and condensing until dozens of shadow creatures clawed their way out of the darkness. Their bodies flickered like smoke given form as their glowing eyes locked onto the group.

Celeste's breath hitched. "Shadowborns..." she muttered, as the creatures lunged.

Victoria moved first-her blade sweeping in a sharp arc that sliced clean through a shadowborn. Its body split and dissolved instantly into drifting black dust.

Celeste shifted back, loosing arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Each shot struck with unerring precision, puncturing shadowy forms and dispersing them into smoke. She pivoted smoothly, firing again before her previous target had even finished fading.

Cassius pushed forward, his sword flashing as he cut down two creatures at once. Their clawed limbs scraped against his blade, but he forced through their resistance, shattering them with sheer momentum.

Evelyn, with her dagger, drove her weapon upward through the creature's skull. The creature disappeared into black dust.

More emerged from the emperor's swirling shadows, crawling across the floor, dropping from the ceiling, their forms flickering erratically. The group moved as one-dodging, striking, and shifting positions without speaking, each instinctively covering the other's blind spots.