Chapter 61 Declared Enemy
Chapter 61 Declared Enemy
The proclamation hit like a divine hammer.
It began at dawn. A single line of golden light burned across the sky above every major city, every border post, every village and fortress. The message was simple, cold, and absolute:
\[THE FOURTH MARRIAGE WILL NOT BE PERMITTED.\]
No explanation. No mercy. No negotiation. Just the order.
Ports closed within hours. Borders were sealed. Armies mobilized on every frontier. Religious leaders declared Darius an existential threat to the gods themselves. Assassins were pulled from hiding and given unlimited bounty. Mercenaries, divine operatives, political agents, everyone who had ever hunted the Calamities now moved with new purpose.
The continent panicked.
Emperors held emergency councils. Kings fled their capitals. Citizens tore down statues and burned the names of the Calamities in the streets. Fear spread like wildfire, faster than any plague.
Darius felt it the moment the light faded from the sky.
He stopped walking. The black veins beneath his skin pulsed faster.
“We keep moving,” he said quietly. “No delays. No hesitation. The Pantheon just declared the fourth bond a capital crime.”
Veth grinned, but it looked forced. “Good. I was getting bored again. Nations fighting over us? This will be entertaining.”
Mara stayed glued to his side, one hand on his back, the other scanning for threats. “You are not allowed to die now. Not after everything you’ve already survived.”
Solis walked with quiet sorrow, her presence leaving faint trails of emptiness that kept the few people who still traveled with them from completely losing their minds.
Pell looked at Darius differently now. The old exile companion had changed. He no longer saw the weak prince who once fixed his ledgers. He saw a man carrying gods inside his skin who was calmly calculating escape routes while the entire continent declared him an enemy of existence.
“Three Calamities,” Pell muttered. “And the world is burning because of you. Only you could make apocalypse feel like a practical inconvenience.”
Kael walked beside them, silent and ancient, her presence already making reality feel unstable around them. Buildings cracked near the trail. Conversations died mid-sentence. People suddenly forgot their own names for a few terrifying seconds. She watched the continent react with tired, familiar exhaustion.
Veth laughed. “I like this. Nations are panicking because of us. This is exactly what my war was supposed to be.”
Mara did not laugh. She kept Darius close, her focus entirely on keeping him functional, functional, functional.
Darius rerouted the group without hesitation. “We avoid every major road. We use only the old forest trails. We move faster. The bounty just became effectively unlimited. Kings. Mercenaries. Divine agents. Everyone who ever wanted us dead now wants us dead more.”
Pell shook his head. “You’re already half-broken and you’re still thinking like a damn merchant. I don’t know whether to be proud or terrified.”
The next morning they reached the edge of a city they had planned to pass through.
It was burning.
Not from attack. Not from the Pantheon. From its own citizens.
The city had turned on itself. People rushed through the streets trying to purge “Calamity influence.” Temples were smashed. Statues torn down. Anyone who looked even slightly different was attacked. The fire spread because the people believed they were purifying the land.
Darius stopped at the edge of the burning city and looked at it for a long moment.
Then he turned and kept walking in the opposite direction.
Mara stayed pressed to his side. Veth cracked her knuckles. Solis walked quietly, already trying to ease the emotional emptiness around them. Pell muttered complaints.
Darius’s voice was calm.
“Four bonds are now officially a death sentence. That changes the game.”
He kept moving.
Because even in the middle of burning cities and divine rage, he was still calculating.
Still planning.
Still refusing to stop.