Flame surged.
They moved—six silhouettes splitting across the charred skyline—casting streaks of power across the air as the battlefield stretched beyond the fractured Flare territory. The land could take no more. And so they left it behind, soaring into the northern wilds, toward the edges of the Ember Veil Forest—jagged ridgelines and spirit-thick canyons untouched by cultivation.
The sky shook from the sheer velocity.
Simon shot forward first—his body a comet of compressed flame qi, cracking the air with every pulse. Lightning trailed behind him, chasing his motion as Artinian gave pursuit, arcs lacing the sky like ruptured silk threads. Simar surged alongside him, halberd drawn, flame trailing like twin tails from each blade. Seymour shadowed him, his void steel orbiting in razor crescents, blinking in and out of phase.
Above them, mist spun into ribbons.
Jana wove through the upper altitude, ignition petals spiraling around her like blooming suns. Sabella followed through the frost Jetstream, her venom mist adapting shape to slice through fire with liquid sentience. They ascended higher, until wind flattened, until thunder grew still, until nothing but ambient qi flowed between realms.
Then, they collided.
Simon's Core Ignition Pulse slammed into Artinian's Thunder Tomb Formation mid-air, creating a blast that reversed the sky itself. Clouds inverted. Pressure cracked across the ridge. Below, the mountain snapped in two, sending avalanches of molten stone into the valleys.
Simar's halberd met Seymour's void steel crescents in a clash that fractured the spatial boundary. Rifts opened mid-strike—folds of broken dimension sucking flame and qi into swirling pockets of nothing. Simar didn't falter. He pressed forward, striking faster, harder, each swing a test of physical extremity. Rocks tore free from the mountainside. Spirit trees vaporized. The air became noise.
Jana danced through serpent mist.
Her ignition spirals caught dozens of Sabella's venom threads, setting them ablaze mid-coil—but Sabella's mist shifted, rerouting through resonance pockets and stabbing toward Jana's ribs. Jana spun vertically, ignition petals detonating behind her. The mist recoiled. Jana surged again. Her flames bloomed outward, flooding the sky with radiant spirals.
The six cultivators burned through the region like war made manifest.
Artinian blinked above Simon and hurled a spiraling lightning lance. It ripped across the sky, tearing through three clouds, arcing downward with thunderous force—but Simon braced mid-spin, then caught the edge of the bolt with his bare arm, redirecting it downward. He spun into Ember Spiral Fury, launching flame knives in every direction. Artinian blocked most, absorbed three, and struck back with Lightning Wall Collapse, caging Simon inside a sphere of compressed voltage.
It exploded.
But Simon burst through—his qi flaring in rings of golden-red heat. Below them, a portion of the canyon boiled. Flame veins ruptured. Lava poured into a spirit basin never meant to open.
Simar and Seymour were locked in a rhythmless melee—Simar crashing through spatial locks, ignoring suppression fields, spinning his halberd into flaming crescents. Seymour reconfigured every blade mid-motion, using Void Judgment Echo to fracture Simar's path, forcing him into narrow kill angles. Simar shattered each one. Every clash cracked time. Glimpses of the past flashed inside the rifts.
Two spirit beasts—ancient watchers—fled in panic as the void ignited.
Jana twisted through toxic spirals, her ignition petals dimming slightly, but Sabella's mist grew heavier—not faster, just more commanding. It enveloped the sky like a crown. Jana's flame flickered again, her qi pulled by resonance thorns.
She dropped.
For a moment, she fell through the mist. But then her body flared. Phoenix Bloom Break ignited below her feet, reversing gravity through ignition anchors. She twisted upward, red spirals in her wake. Sabella's mist lunged once more. Jana burned through it, her skin bleeding in streaks, her robe torn, but her fire refusing collapse.
The battle escalated.
Simon and Artinian clashed again—this time near a spirit cliff. Simon's Sunfault Break ruptured the mountain base. Artinian retaliated with Sky Split Pulse, hurling a column of voltage that cracked the ley line network beneath the region. Spirit energy surged upward in rivers. Birds fled. The cliff collapsed.
Simar's Ember Lotus Collapse covered Seymour's crescents in flame, forcing him into full defense posture. Seymour activated Spatial Bind Halo. Simar shattered it. Halberd slammed through three void shields. Seymour gasped—though no one could hear it. Simar vanished, reappeared behind him, and cracked the sky with Thousand Flame Lotus. A volcano erupted three miles west as a byproduct.
Jana stumbled.
Sabella coiled through her spirals, casting Bloom Deathmist in serpentine pulses. Jana staggered, venom catching her flame rhythm. But then her petals broke formation. They spun wildly, chaotically—and then reformed mid-air into Phoenix Spiral Bloom Reversal. Sabella hesitated. Flame engulfed her shoulder. She twisted back, her mist saving her from full ignition. But the tide had turned.
Simon surged into Skyfire Drive, his flame splitting across seven glyph points in the air. Artinian blinked, trying to redirect—but Simon tore through Thunder Glyph Lock and detonated Core Pillar Spear. A direct hit.
Simar cracked the final void chain. Seymour bled. Simar didn't stop. Halberd crashed downward. Seymour shifted dimension mid-hit, escaping barely. But the rift that opened swallowed a section of nearby cliff. Simar followed through.
Jana rose again—mist spiraling around her—but her fire was brighter now. Not faster. Just deeper. She launched ignition petals into Bloom Rain Mirage. Sabella's mist thinned. A ripple spread through the poison field. Sabella dropped back.
The battlefield—now carved from four shattered ridges, six boiling rivers, two cracked ley lines, and a flaming basin—groaned beneath the weight of six titans.
The sky bent.
All six soared back upward, circling. No words. Just power.
Six auras surged across the stratosphere.
And above Emberfall, the clouds parted—revealing flame, venom, lightning, and void weaving a war tapestry no realm had ever seen.