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Ki’Remi narrowed his eyes at her as she laid down a perfect five-card succession, securing her third win.

‘This is bullshit,’ he muttered, tossing his losing hand onto the table.

Issa sipped from her glass, eyes twinkling with mischief. ‘Oh? Can’t handle being beaten by a woman?’

He grunted, stretching out his legs and rolling his shoulders with ease. ‘Not the issue. The problem is,’ he leaned forward, pinning her with a slow, smoldering look, ‘you’re hustling me, Elaris.’

She grinned. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it, Sable.’

He smirked for a beat and then shuttered down.

‘Enough of this sitting around. How much longer will Sulfiqar make us wait?’

Just as he spoke, a whistling, hissing sound filled the air.

‘Thefokk?’

Issa knifed up and ran to the terrace.

Ki’Remi followed, his eyes tracking what she was staring at.

From beyond the heights of Sivania’s floating citadel, dark shapes burst from the aether.

‘Hell,’ Issa snarled. ‘Sullied daemons. It appears the warring factions have let go of all restraint.’

Ki’Remi whipped out his meta firearm, ready for action and battle.

Until Issa rounded on him. ‘Nada. The guards can’t know you’re armed.’

With a suck of his teeth, he folded back the meta-enabled weapon into himself just as their Sacran sentinels appeared, rushing through the vast chamber.

‘Get back inside,’ they growled. ‘Now!’

The guards bundled the couple into the suite just as shields flew up, and all hell let loose in the heavens.

The Saatifa raced out the doors, which slammed shut and locked, leaving them alone.

The pair moved to the thick crystalline glass windows, to the gruesome view of the slaughter unfolding beyond. Ki’Remi and Issa gazed silently as creatures of twisted malevolence poured into the sky like a black tide.

They shrieked as they descended in a cyclone of winged horror, their malformed bodies shifting between shadow and flesh.

Their eyes were dead hollows, radiant with the corrupted essence of whatever jinxed existence birthed them.

From the high temple’s eastern gate, a war cry rose.

The guards surged forward, their celestial armor glistening like forged stars, their weapons glowing with the divine light.

The clash erupted across the terrace and the towering structures beyond, the first clash of divine steel against cursed claws sending shockwaves through the ground.

Ki’Remi’s eyes narrowed, his mind parsing the battle in strategic pieces.

The Sullied were fast.

They moved in erratic, blurred streaks, their bodies twisting unnaturally as they struck the gods in vicious, clawed swipes.

The Saatifa were stronger.

Disciplined. Trained for war.