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Elegy assists as engineers mount a salvaged Beaconite gun on Union’s rim for the Cinder King. After a test blast proves it can threaten Zellion’s approaching ship, Elegy triggers her plan: using a sunheart fragment and Zellion’s incantation, she disrupts several Charred, sowing chaos. The Cinder King’s delayed shot misses the Dawnchaser, and he orders lockdown, seizing Rebeke and departing with officials while Charred swarm Elegy.

Elegy escapes across rooftops, retrieves her sunheart fragment, and lures pursuers to an open deck. Zellion vaults up from below in smoldering Shardplate, announcing he will make a path. He demolishes waves of Charred, but their blows crack the Plate like glass. Elegy frees wounded Charred as she can, redirecting their fury to worsen the confusion.

Under sustained assault, Zellion’s armor catastrophically vents and finally dissipates to smoke, leaving him exhausted but alive. Armed only with a scavenged machete, he and Elegy advance through a city gone quiet. Elegy identifies the Reliquary and adjacent Hall of Burning—the place she was made Charred—as the likeliest destination for Rebeke.

In the open ground by those buildings, the Cinder King waits, signaling a trap. Zellion urges Elegy to forgo the duel and prioritize rescuing Rebeke, arguing need over want. He tasks her to spread the truth: sunhearts can be recharged by adding heat to an empty one and leaving it in sunlight. Parting, Zellion strides to confront the Cinder King while Elegy races to save her sister.