With a piercing cry, the golden flame phoenix unfurled its wings, then streaked into the horizon as a blinding ribbon of light, leaving only shimmering heat-waves in its wake.
Fire Demon Lord and Fire Spirit Lord were left staring blankly at each other, faces awash with shock, and, worse, with shame.
“W-Who in the realm was that?” Fire Demon Lord whispered, his voice nothing but ash-thin disbelief.
Terror shimmered in his eyes; whatever had spoken could have snuffed out as easily as extinguishing a candle. He knew, felt it in his marrow, that the mysterious voice could have ended his existence with a lazy flick of thought.
The Fire Spirit Lord drew a long, steadying breath, then spoke, every word grave and measured. “I do not know… Yet I am certain that we just met an elder who has survived countless ages. His command of flame stands at a height our imaginations have yet to glimpse.”
Another tremor of fear crossed Fire Demon Lord‘s gaze. He looked from the grim Soul Devourer at his side to the distant Fire Spirit Lord, and made a decision in the space of a heartbeat.
“Soul Devourer, we leave now,” said, voice stripped clean of its earlier swagger. Soul Devourer blinked. “My Lord, do we depart… Just like that?”
“Would you rather stay?” Fire Demon Lord’s reply was cold iron. “Did you not hear that elder? Before him, we are mere kindling. If his mood changes, we would be ashes before we could raise a hand.”
He spun without another word, cloak snapping through scorched air, and Soul Devourer hurried after him.
Two streaks of crimson radiance tore skyward, vanished beyond the cloud-line in a single breath.
Fire Spirit Lord watched those scarlet trails fade and made no move to follow. He understood all too well that, as was now, could not hope to pin them down.
More pressing was the lesson seared into by that unfathomable visitor, a reminder of how small still was beneath the heavens. He needed solitude, time to digest the revelations that still smoldered in his spirit and to rebuild his understanding of the way of flame.
Drawing one last deep breath, the Fire Spirit Lord closed his weary eyes, sparks of fatigue glittering within.
Not far away, Jared’s brow furrowed. Something about that dazzling blaze had felt hauntingly familiar, as though an old memory had flared to life within the heat.
A sudden jolt shot through him.
That was the inferno Devil‘s internal flame! Yes, it’s him!
At that realization, Jared slid the Dragon Bell back into his robes, launched himself skyward, and raced after the fading light, determined to glimpse the stranger’s true identity.
But the heavens ahead lay empty, silent, and bare. All that remained were three faint, intertwining threads of residual aura, drifting like ghost-flames across the endless sky.
The instant Jared sensed three distinct auras weaving through the charred air, his whole body shook harder, as though every tendon were plucked at once. Then dread washed over him, two of those auras belonged to Josephine and Skylar.
“Josephine. Josephine!” Jared cried, the name ripping out of in a raw, helpless roar that echoed against the ruined stone. Confusion rippled through the survivors. One by one they closed in around Jared, searching his taut face for answers.
Flaxseed alone understood the name had shouted. Blinking, ventured, “Jared, did you actually see Josephine just now?”
Jared shook his head. “No… I only caught aura, faint, but unmistakable…”
The Fire Spirit Lord’s ember-bright eyes widened. “You recognize the master of that flame?”
Jared nodded once. “If I’m right, that wildfire Is none otherthan the internal flame of the Inferno Devil…”
“The Inferno Devil?!” A wary crease formed between the Fire Spirit Lord’s brows. The name rang somewhere in his memory, like an ember refusing to die.
Jared added, “I told you before, the demonic fire sealed inside me already contains a sliver of the inferno Devil’s internal flame.”
A shiver crawled over the Fire Spirit Lord’s shoulders. He remembered boasting long ago that the Fire Demon Lord’s demonic fire outclassed that so-called Inferno Devil‘s internal flame. Now, witnessing its true power, realized the Inferno Devil’s internal flame dwarfed them all.
He swallowed hard. Thank the heavens the inferno Devil had not been present when mouthed off, or his own ashes would be drifting on the wind.
