Worse, the Soul Devouring Threads unraveled, fading like smoke before sunlight. “W-What power is this?” Soul Devourer whispered, his bravado collapsing.
Dread poured through him. Only now did grasp the abyss between them-an insurmountable gulf that crushed whatever hope had left.
“Do you finally understand?” the Fire Spirit Lord asked, voice calm as falling ash. “Before me, you’re nothing more than a clown leaping on a tiny stage.”
With a motion as effortless as closing a book, the Fire Spirit Lord curled his right hand.
Bang! The air cracked. The Soul Devouring Demon Sword, once the pride of the Soul Devourer, disintegrated on the spot. Ragged strands of midnight vapors spiraled upward, then vanished like smoke in a draft.
A furious backlash punched through the void. The Soul Devourer staggered, boots skidding across stone. A scarlet geyser burst from his lips, another sharp report, wet and brutal, as though his very core had been ruptured.
His knees nearly buckled. Ash-gray drained every trace of color from his face, leaving only the wide-eyed shimmer of terror and disbelief.
H-How could this be?
A lord of souls reduced to such ruin, so quickly, so completely.
“No… Impossible! I am the Soul Devourer-how could I lose? How could I ever lose?!” He shrieked, the words raw with panic, as if screaming them loud enough might conjure a different reality.
Yet beneath that ragged howl lay the brittle knowledge that the fight was already over, and that knowledge gnawed at worse than the wound.
“Blind stubbornness,” the Fire Spirit Lord murmured, a sigh slipping between the words like tired wind through old pines.
He lifted his hand again. A ribbon of gold-white flame, a living comet, surged from his palm, caught the fleeing Soul Devourer, and wrapped in a blazing cocoon.
“Argh!” The scream curdled in the heat. Black miasma boiled off his flesh. His once-towering frame shrank by the heartbeat, shrinking, crumbling, burning away until even the shadows abandoned him.
“No! l refuse to accept this! Do you hear me?! I refuse!” His roar fractured, thinning into a helpless rattle no power could reverse.
At last, the golden inferno collapsed into a single ink-black orb. With casual indifference, the Fire Spirit Lord flicked his wrist, and the orb slipped into an emerald vial that appeared between his fingers, sealing shut with a muted chime.
Across the clearing, Jared, Yuliana, Aurelius, Artemis, and Flaxseed stood frozen, minds blank. The invincible Soul Devourer had been unmade as easily as dust brushed from an elder’s sleeve.
“T-That… That was unreal…” Yuliana whispered, voice trembling so badly nearly bit tongue. Aurelius gave a stiff nod, still staring at the empty air where the battle had ended. “We never witnessed power like this. In his presence, the Soul Devourer was an ant, nothing more.”
Artemis swallowed hard, awe bright in eyes. “Who is this elder? His strength feels limitless, terrifying, even…”
Flaxseed only shook his head, mustache quivering. “No idea… But judging by that display, we’re looking at a figure out of legend itself.”
Silence settled over the group, heavy and reverent. Each tried, and failed, to imagine a horizon that could still contain a power of this magnitude.
Jared’s own heart hammered against his ribs.
I knew was formidable, but this?
This is a height I never even dreamed existed… So… I really did underestimate the old master after all. His reach is miles deeper than I imagined…
The Fire Spirit Lord capped the emerald vial with one careless flick, tucked it into his sleeve, then pivoted, robes whispering like living flame, until his gaze settled on the small crowd.
He stopped directly before Jared, heat shimmering around as though the air itself dared not misbehave. He asked, “How far along are you with Blazing Stride? Can you cross a hundred kilometers in a single step yet?”
Jared’s smile faltered. A faint blush worked up his neck. His Blazing Stride was still crude, nowhere near the legendary hundred-mile stride.
The Fire Spirit Lord read the truth in that one awkward grin, yet the faintest twitch of amusement replaced any hint of anger in his eyes.
“Enough…” murmured, voice low and even. “Our crisis is over. My place is elsewhere, I must go.”
Onneas was first to dip low, palms crossed over chest in solemn salute. “We escort you in spirit, Fire Spirit Lord…”
The rest followed at once, knees striking dirt, foreheads lowered, as gratitude spilled from trembling lips. Without the Fire Spirit Lord, they would already be corpses claimed by the Soul Devourer.
Jared bowed from the waist. “You saved us all, sir. Words are useless beside a debt that large…”
