Chapter 3 – Hellfire and Frost
The forest was gone.
Where trees once whispered, now only flame and ruin remained. Crimson fire rained from the cracked sky, bathing the shattered ground in unholy light. Abyrus stood at the center of the inferno, a towering shape of molten shadow, his seven sigils burning like suns.
Kael and Liora faced him—two figures of light amid the ashes.
Liora's eyes glowed emerald and frost-blue at once, the duality of her aura rippling through the smoke. Her breath came steady, sharp. Vines of crystalized earth began to coil around her feet, spreading outward in spiraling waves.
Abyrus tilted his head, amused.
"So you can wield two elements—ice and life. Dual affinity, is it?"
Liora's lips curved, faint and cold. "Not dual."
Her foot pressed into the scorched soil, and the ground moved.
Roots tore upward from beneath the ash, wrapped in stone and ice. The vines shimmered, half green, half silver, as they lashed forward like living blades.
"Triple. Earth. Ice. And nature."
Abyrus's grin faltered for the first time. "What—"
The vines struck.
They burst through the flames,and whipping around his limbs with the force of a iron chains. The ground trembled under the spell's weight. Each tendril pulsed with layered power—root, frost, and rock intertwining as one. Abyrus's infernal fire roared in protest, burning away sections, but new vines grew instantly from the ground, reforging themselves through sheer elemental resonance.
Liora's voice rang through the smoke, steady and commanding.
"Verdalis—bind him now!"
Her spirit guardian, the great green bird, screeched and dove from the sky. A storm of emerald feathers fell like rain, each one glowing with the essence of the earth. When they touched the vines, the entire forest floor came alive—a living field of radiant green pulsing beneath the fire's glare.
Abyrus snarled, the first hints of strain on his face. "You dare bind me, mortal?"
His flames erupted outward, a hellstorm of black and red. The ground boiled; the vines hissed, shriveled—but did not die.
Liora's eyes hardened. "Kael, now!"
The words were barely out when the air behind Abyrus split open.
A ripple of dark energy, silent and swift as death, flashed across the inferno.
Kael appeared—his body wrapped in dark wind, twin swords Tenebris glowing in streaks of black and silver light. His presence was a storm contained within skin, every strand of hair lifted by the surge of power.
"Dark Strike!"
He vanished from sight, reappearing directly behind Abyrus, both blades crossing in a deadly arc. A shockwave burst outward. The wind bent trees that no longer existed. Abyrus staggered forward, a deep gash torn across his back, hellfire spilling out like liquid blood.
Liora's vines tightened at once, seizing the moment.
Verdalis soared overhead, wings glowing emerald. "Bind him to the earth!"
The vines responded instantly—spears of stone, ice, and green fury shot from the ground, impaling Abyrus through both legs, pinning him to the shattered soil.
Abyrus roared, his voice echoing across miles.
"Enough!"
The seven sigils along his body ignited again, flaring like molten suns.
Flames burst outward, burning through the vines, searing through Liora's spell until the entire forest floor glowed crimson. The shockwave threw Kael backward; Liora was forced to raise her arm, coating herself in layers of stone and frost to survive the blast.
When the fire cleared, Abyrus stood unharmed, smoke curling from his shoulders.
The wound on his back was already closing, black veins knitting over molten flesh.
Kael landed beside Liora, coughing, his blade still gleaming faintly. "He's regenerating faster than before."
Liora's brows furrowed. "He's absorbing the earth's life. The fire's feeding him."
Abyrus stepped forward, each footfall cracking the scorched soil. His smile returned—slow, cruel, deliberate.
"You've grown since that day. Killed my lesser kin. I see why Balgeor screamed your names as he died."
He raised his clawed hand, hellfire swirling into a crimson sphere the size of a mountain boulder.
"But the game ends here."
The orb pulsed, its light swallowing everything.
Kael and Liora braced themselves—Kael's dark wind forming a barrier around them, Liora's vines and ice reinforcing it. Still, the heat pressed against them like a living inferno.
Kael shouted over the roar of fire, "If we don't strike now, we'll lose the chance!"
Liora nodded, closing her eyes for a heartbeat. "Then we combine—one last time."
She slammed her hands together, and the ground beneath them glowed emerald-white. Verdalis cried from above, folding its wings and diving straight into Liora's aura. The fusion was instant—her eyes glowed brighter than ever, and wings of translucent green light unfurled from her back.
Kael looked at her, half-smiling through the chaos. "Always showing off."
She returned it faintly. "Then keep up, partner."
Together they leapt—Liora soaring through the air, Kael surging beside her with a spiral of black wind.
The sky above them glowed crimson from Abyrus's charged hellfire; below, their combined aura painted the world in green and silver.
Abyrus roared and threw the infernal sphere forward.
Liora raised both hands, summoning a wall of crystal and roots; Kael followed, slicing through the air with Tenebris Stormbreak, his twin blades spiraling wind and darkness into a counter vortex.
The two forces collided.
The explosion ripped the heavens apart.
Crimson, black, and green lights engulfed the forest, blinding and beautiful—life and death entwined. The shockwave reached beyond the treetops, shaking the very barrier between realms.
Anay shielded his face from afar, watching in awe. He could feel their spirits clashing with the same intensity as when gods once fought. His heart pounded—but his feet stayed still. They're fighting for their past… for their lost friends. This is their battle.
As the light faded, the silhouettes of three figures emerged from the haze—Kael, Liora, and Abyrus, still standing, breathing heavily.
The fight was far from over.
Abyrus grinned, blood dripping from his lip. "Impressive. Then let's see if you can stand against my true form."
The sigils across his chest flared—seven blazing marks now merging into one burning core.
The air cracked, and the world turned crimson once more.
Kael gripped his blades tighter. Liora took a deep breath, frost spiraling from her mouth. Their auras pulsed in harmony.
And Anay whispered under his breath, a chill crawling down his spine—
"It's starting."