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The throne hall of Calasthea's palace was silent, lit only by flickering braziers. Rich red carpets ran across polished marble, though now they were stained by fleeing priests and crushed guards.
At its far end, atop the imperial dais, stood **Grand Inquisitor Morval**. His skeletal form was draped in black and gold robes lined with spiritsteel sigils. His eyes burned with feverish hatred.
"So," he rasped, extending his staff as a black miasma oozed around him. "The rebels bring a *pet dragon* to bark for them. Pathetic."
Yuki tilted his head, unimpressed. "Bark? Do you even know what sound a dragon makes?"
Morval snarled. "I will bind your soul in chains and make you watch as I butcher your whores one by one."
The hall fell silent at his words.
Selene's aura darkened like a solar eclipse. Sylvaeria's staff pulsed dangerously. Even Lumi, usually irreverent, gripped her swords so hard her knuckles whitened.
Yuki, however, blinked slowly. "…Wow. You really woke up and chose *generic villain monologue* today, didn't you?"
Elira snorted despite herself. "Yuki, focus."
"I *am* focused," Yuki said casually, stretching his wings. "I'm focusing on how underwhelming this is. Honestly, I expected tentacles or demon horns or something. But it's just… bald grandpa with smoky staff."
Irkalla coughed, half-laughing despite her disgust. "Don't make me laugh when I want to incinerate him."
Morval's face twisted in rage. He raised his staff, chanting a curse that made the braziers flicker and crack. The marble beneath him blackened as necrotic energy gathered.
"BE SILENT, BEAST!" he roared. "IN THE NAME OF THE ABYSS, I—"
"—You know," Yuki interrupted conversationally, flicking dust off his claw, "if you finish that spell, I'll have to yawn you to death. Is that really how you want to go out?"
Sylvaeria choked back a laugh. Lumi whispered to Elira, "How is he more savage than me when joking?"
Elira just shrugged, eyes glowing as she began preparing her own spell.
Morval's chant reached its crescendo. Darkness burst forth, forming a massive, gaping maw of skeletal jaws and shadowy teeth that lunged at the group.
Kael raised his sword, bracing for impact. "Incoming—"
But before the monstrous magic reached them, Yuki simply *exhaled*.
A faint pulse of silver flame flickered from his nostrils. It hit the shadow beast like a tidal wave of cleansing fire, and the entire spell shattered in an instant, leaving only falling sparks of dying curses.
Morval staggered, eyes wide with disbelief. "Impossible… that was an abyssal-class death invocation…!"
Yuki lazily scratched his neck with a claw. "I sneezed once during an ancient void eruption that could have erased continents. You think this little shadow burp is impressive?"
Morval screamed in rage and desperation, summoning black serpents of corruption. But before they could slither forward, Irkalla and Selene stepped in tandem. Their blades flashed once—pure solar and voidsteel arcs—and the serpents were severed into harmless ribbons of smoke.
"Enough," Selene said coldly. "Your reign ends here."
"And your suffering begins—" Morval started to hiss, but was silenced when Yuki's tail flicked out casually, *smacking* him with enough force to launch him across the dais. He slammed into the far wall with a crunch, slumping limp to the ground.
"Oops," Yuki said mildly. "Was that too hard?"
Lumi snorted so hard she almost dropped her swords. "That was beautiful."
Elira wiped tears from her eyes as her giggles turned to melodic laughter. Even Aeiris hid a quiet smile behind her sleeve.
Irkalla strode to Morval's broken form and pressed her boot against his chest. "Your abyss won't have you," she said softly, summoning voidflame to her hand.
Yuki tilted his head. "Hey, leave something for the temple rats to clean."
Irkalla's voidflame roared to life. "No promises."
With a final flick of her wrist, the Grand Inquisitor's corpse turned to black ash, scattered by Sylvaeria's gentle wind.
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### **Aftermath**
The hall settled into stunned silence. Rebel commanders filtered in behind them, eyes wide at what they had just witnessed.
Yuki looked around, seeing everyone's awed expressions, and sighed heavily.
"Can we eat now?" he asked, rubbing his stomach. "I burned a lot of calories with all that sarcasm."
Sylvaeria giggled and kissed his cheek. "Of course, my love."
Irkalla rolled her eyes with affection. "Let's get this coronation over with before he starts raiding the royal kitchens."
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