Sanctuary: Safe Haven

However, nothing ever goes as smoothly as planned.

Within minutes of the first report, the silent backers of The Black Thorn began to make their move.

Adventurers hidden in the lower clans, allies of the faction, quickly stepped in. Those with military ties sent urgent reports, twisting the situation into a narrative of chaos: "Outsiders attacking the kingdom from the shadows."

That was all it took. A message was sent to every major clan, including the top three: Clan Skarn, Clan Varran, and the strongest clan in the kingdom, Clan Drakengarde. The report was unanimous, adding fuel to the already raging flames—The Black Thorn was embroiled in an internal battle, and now was the perfect time to strike them out once and for all.

But with this wave of misinformation, a greater storm began to brew. The royal guards, along with the forces of the kingdom, their adventurers, and the elite members of various clans, mobilized swiftly. Their mission: crush what they believed was an enemy uprising. The Saints of each clan, alongside the Saints from the royal family, were out for blood.

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Meanwhile, in the smaller outposts, Mira, Dot, and Sera were working furiously to limit the response from the Black Thorn members who were attempting to regroup and answer the call for help from the main base. The battlefield was pure chaos, blood staining the earth as the bodies of Black Thorn operatives fell one after another.

Sera stood a few paces behind, observing the carnage. Dot and Mira—two girls younger than herself—fought with brutal efficiency, decapitating heads and dispatching enemies with swift, calculated moves. They fought as if they had no hesitation, no second thoughts about the lives they were taking.

After a brief moment of respite, Sera, gasping for breath, finally spoke. "You... you've killed so many already. Don't you feel any mercy for them?"

Dot and Mira both turned to face her, their chests rising and falling with exhaustion. Their eyes were hard, unyielding. Despite their youth, they spoke with the conviction of warriors far older than they appeared.

"Mercy?" Dot's voice was cold. "Do you think they would hesitate to cut us down if given the chance? How many people do you think begged to be freed from their grasp? The victims they've tortured and enslaved for years—if they had the power, what do you think they'd do?"

Mira wiped blood from her face and added, "This is our mercy. Killing them quickly and cleanly. We end their cruelty because no one else will."

Sera felt a lump in her throat. The weight of their words hung in the air, and for the first time, she saw the truth in their eyes. These weren't just children. They were soldiers born out of necessity, out of survival. And though they were young, their hearts burned with a resolve that seemed impossible for their age.

Before Sera could respond, the battle resumed. They pressed forward again, chasing down Black Thorn operatives. But this time, they weren't facing enemies in black robes.

A new group emerged from the shadows—men and women in robes emblazoned with the symbol of a coiled dragon around a flaming heart.
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Sera's breath caught in her throat. "Those are from Clan Drakengarde," she whispered, halting Dot and Mira. "The top clan in the kingdom."

But before she could act, Nyx, Canna's shadow bear, leaped from the shadows, striking down one of the Drakengarde members with terrifying precision. Dot and Mira followed immediately, stepping forward to engage.

"Do they look like they intend to save us?" Dot asked coldly.

Sera glanced at the advancing Clan Drakengarde members. Their expressions were hard, unforgiving. One of them, a tall man clad in heavy armor, pointed at them and shouted, "A Clan Varran traitor. Get them!"

The battle erupted. Dot and Mira moved with ferocious speed, clashing with the Drakengarde forces. Sera, though hesitant at first, soon found herself caught in the frenzy, her blade clashing against the armored warriors of the most powerful clan in the kingdom.

Elsewhere, in the various outposts sieged by Canna's forces, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. But it wasn't the Black Thorn causing the chaos.

Reports flooded in from Noctis, and they were all dire. The forces of the kingdom, their adventurers, and their elite warriors had begun striking at Canna's forces, thinking they were part of the Black Thorn insurgency.

In one outpost, four Saints—powerful warriors from the kingdom's elite—had engaged Zephyros and Solara. The two disaster-ranked wolves were battling furiously, but even their immense power was struggling to hold back the onslaught. The Saints, clad in shining armor and wielding weapons blessed with powerful magic, pressed the wolves to their limits.

At another outpost, clans from across the kingdom joined the fray. Their members, each believing they were fighting a rebellion, attacked the sanctuary's forces without hesitation. Small villages erupted into violent clashes, with Canna's warriors fending off attacks from both the Black Thorn and the kingdom's forces.

Noctis, overseeing the battlefield from the shadows, grit his beak as he watched the chaos unfold. This was far worse than they had anticipated. "It's mayhem out there," he muttered. "We need to move quickly before things spiral further out of control."

In the heart of the Black Thorn base, Seraphis stood atop a crumbling structure, surveying the battlefield with a twisted smile on her face. The chaos below was unfolding exactly as she had hoped. The forces of the kingdom, the Black Thorn, and now the sanctuary's army—everyone was fighting each other. And in the midst of it all, she was preparing her next move.

Seconds later, the Saints of Clan Skarn and Clan Drakengarde arrived at the base, their armored forms towering above the battlefield. Both fully equipped and armed to the teeth, their eyes gleamed with the anticipation of battle.

Seraphis' grin widened. "It seems we're going to have quite the party today," she mused, her fingers tightening around her weapon. "Let's see who survives this little game of ours."

As the storm of battle intensified, the battlefield erupted into utter chaos. Canna's group, tasked with stalling for time, fought tooth and nail against the Black Thorn's elite, all while fending off unexpected attacks from the kingdom's forces.

Mortem's undead legions clashed with waves of Black Thorn operatives, their skeletal forms relentless in their assault. Vorgrim, locked in a brutal struggle with Xyler, fought with precision and brutal efficiency, his fists delivering devastating blows to the Black Thorn's shadowy assassin.

Canna, battling Solenne, unleashed his full power, summoning the Bahamuth Bloody Ring's undead army to even the battlefield. The ring glowed with an eerie red light, and skeletal warriors rose from the ground to join the fray. The battlefield turned into a nightmarish scene of carnage, with both sides fighting for dominance.

But as more and more reinforcements from the kingdom's clans and adventurers poured into the fight, it became clear that the battle would not be an easy victory.