“If the Dragon Bell weren’t shielding us, we’d already be smoke on the wind.” Artemis murmured, gripping staff hard enough to whiten knuckles.
Flaxseed shook his head, the usual mischief gone from his eyes. “Power like that can drown the entire level six in one tide.”
“We can’t let this continue,” Onneas said, worry carving deep lines beside eyes. “Their clash will pull level six apart.”
No one answered; silence was the only admission of their helplessness.
Boom!
Another detonation rolled through the air like a cannon volley from angry gods. The Fire Spirit Lord’s golden blaze met the Fire Demon Lord’s crimson inferno once more. impact birthed a swelling orb of mixed flame, a miniature sun raging between them.
Cracks spidered through the surrounding sky, black fissures that threatened to peel reality open. Above, the dark-red vortex twisted tighter, and the distant black hole yawned wider, hungrier.
A thousand screams rose together and ended together, cut short by heat no throat could survive. For dozens of kilometers in every direction, every soul, spirit, beast, or blade of grass, vaporized, leaving only drifting motes of ash that glowed, then died.
The valley became a wasteland in the time it takes a heartbeat to stutter.
Through narrow gaps in the Dragon Bell, Jared saw a hellscape, earth split into bottomless chasms, mountains toppled, rivers boiled dry.
The stench of scorched stone and cinder-soaked wind seeped through the cracks, promising nothing alive beyond their fragile shell.
In that instant, Jared understood what the chronicles meant by the might of ancient champions. Their very presence bent the fabric of the sky. Even the stray ripples of power could level kingdoms, tear rivers from their beds, and write new coastlines in fire.
Boom, boom, boom!
The air itself split open, thunder following every heartbeat.
The duel raged on. High above, the Fire Spirit Lord and the Fire Demon Lord flickered through the heavens like twin comets locked on a collision course.
Golden fire and wine-dark flame braided together, streaming behind each combatant in luminous ribbons that were as beautiful as they were lethal.
With every stroke of his blade, the Fire Spirit Lord sculpted the gold flames into living shapes, now a dragon, now a phoenix, now a mountain tiger springing from the peaks-each form carrying the weight of a cataclysm.
“Blazing Dragon Roar!” the Fire Spirit Lord shouted. He slashed downward, and a colossal golden flame dragon burst from the sword, its jaws open wide, the promise of annihilation glinting in every molten scale.
Where the dragon passed, the very air ignited, shrieking as it was consumed. A flicker of alarm crossed the Fire Demon Lord’s face, yet excitement kindled just as quickly.
“Good!” bellowed, laughter rolling out like falling rocks. “Let me show you what these centuries have given me.”
His hands knotted into seals. Dusk-red fire blew outward, whirling into a vast blazing phoenix, feathers crackling with a darkness deeper than midnight.
“Blazing Phoenix!” roared.
The phoenix screamed-high, mournful, eternal-and dived straight toward the onrushing dragon. The dragon met the phoenix head-on. A single detonation shattered the clouds, the land, the silence.
A storm of energy rolled across the horizon. Peaks crumbled like sandcastles, whole mountain chains flattened in a heartbeat. Screams rose from every direction as distant onlookers were tossed to the ground, their cries drowned beneath the roaring wind.
Jared and the others watched, hearts thundering as they felt the two titans grow still more powerful with every exchange.
“H-How is that even possible?” Jared whispered, his voice ragged, lungs burning with scorched air.
“Their strength is still climbing,” Aurelius said, awe and terror mingling in each syllable.
“Don’t tell me they haven’t yet gone all out,” Artemis muttered, face pale beneath the wash of crimson light.
