The Battle for Cyndarel was the siege and fighting around Cyndarel between Garrik's allied army and Raphael's faction. Raphael was defeated, but both sides suffered heavy losses, and Azarion's uncontrolled hurricane devastated much of central Valrindor.
Background
Garrik mobilized his forces after finding Raphael at Cyndarel with a foreign vessel resembling the one used in the Attack on Kaldaryn. Immense shield generators protected the city, and fractures in its barriers repaired almost instantly under bombardment. Garrik allowed civilians to leave and limited his bombardment rather than destroy the city. Most of his army eventually withdrew, leaving the strongest mages and those who chose to stay.
Raphael planned to use Eliona's concealment to send Zorath against Garrik and his commanders. He also ordered his forces to attack if the allied army retreated. Aldar reached the front after discovering and killing the enemies who had intercepted messages along the railway to Xalmyrra.
Course of Events
The darkness trap
Aldar used the spiral shard to surround Cyndarel with dense darkness, storms, and a veil modeled on the one that had enclosed Xalmyrra. Raphael feared that passing through it would erase his memories. He and Azarion kept reinforcing the city's barriers as its stores of Essence cores, water, and food dwindled.
Gabriel repeatedly descended outside the city and attacked the mages protecting Aldar while he maintained the trap. Garrik, Virel, Astheron, Khoradyn, and Zhang destroyed Gabriel's descended bodies, but the god kept returning. Their fighting drained the surrounding land, providing more darkness for Aldar's storm.
The breakout
Garrik's side allowed Ravira through the veil, intending to attack their opponents as they emerged. She used an enclosing glasslike shield to guide the defenders through the darkness. Virel's meteor parted the darkness, and the fighting spread across the surrounding country. Eliona concealed Zorath's approach, but Garrik intercepted him. Their final collision hurled both men far from the battlefield; Splin and Astrid later rescued Garrik.
On another part of the front, Remus died when Kjeldan detonated a bomb near him. Zayren's ensuing singularity killed Kjeldan and Boss. Meanwhile, Azarion fought Maric and Virel while building a hurricane with Gabriel's shard.
Raphael's defeat
Aldar pursued Raphael west toward Cyndarel Lake, where Khoradyn and Zhang had been posted to catch stragglers. Raphael froze the lake and surrounding country with golden ice. Aldar answered with fire, melting half the frozen lake; the rising steam opened fissures across it. He then alternated searing heat and cutting air against the guardian, continuing the assault while Raphael's Malverand heart healed his wounds.
Gabriel intervened, but Khoradyn and Zhang engaged him. Virel redirected one of Azarion's air blasts into the god, allowing the two mages to drive him off. Aldar resumed burning Raphael and reduced him to the brink of death. He intended to have Cassian unmake the surviving heart.
Alistair approached under concealment, blinked a small device onto Raphael, and detonated it with a cosmic ray. The device resembled a rock with glowing blue lines and gave off no Essence signature. Its explosion killed Khoradyn and Zhang, destroyed Raphael's body, and left Aldar dying beside a river. Alistair recovered Raphael's heart from a fissure, embedded it in his own body, and took Aldar's spiral shard. Aldar's remains crumbled into dust as Alistair accepted the shard. He then killed the injured Zorath and disguised himself as Aldar.
Aftermath
Azarion lost control of his hurricane. It drew in the darkness over Cyndarel and swept across central Valrindor, forcing both sides to flee. Melandor was ravaged, while people in Therendros sheltered in caverns beneath the city. Garrik and the surviving allies returned to Kaldaryn, where earth mages lowered the entire city underground and reinforced it against the storm.
Impersonating Aldar, Alistair claimed to have killed Raphael and lost his heart to the hurricane. Garrik sent Kren to search Cyndarel, but the heart could not be found. The allies prepared further action against Azarion and Zain, while Raphael's surviving faction regrouped under Gabriel, Eliona, and Ravira.