“H-Him? How… How can he be here? No… Impossible!” Despair quaked through the Soul Devourer’s voice, as though he had glimpsed a fate crueler than death itself.
Jared stood slack-jawed, blood dripping from rents in his armor as the impossible turnaround hit him. One heartbeat ago, he had braced for oblivion; now the shock of survival turned his legs to water, and he swayed in the sulfur-tinged gloom.
Gritting his teeth, he forced ruined muscles to obey, then lifted his chin toward the jagged tear still hanging in the sky. Beyond that ragged wound stretched a boundless sweep of night, an ocean of constellations so bright they seemed close enough to pluck from the dark.
Within that cosmic surf, a shape began to gather—hulking, indistinct, yet unmistakably regal. It was wrought entirely of cold starlight, and currents of ancient Heavenly Law streamed around it like luminous rivers, veiling every feature but hinting at power older than mountains.
The moment that figure solidified, a hush rippled through Soulgrave Abyss. Even the frenzied wraiths shrank back, clawing at the air as if to hide from something that weighed directly on the marrow of existence.
*That aura… Fire Spirit Lord!*
The recognition struck Jared like a thunderclap. Relief and wonder tangled with raw exhaustion; he had never imagined the celestial sovereign would intervene twice on his behalf.
A voice followed, mild yet carrying absolute sovereignty, drifting down from that star-forged colossus and thundering across the abyss until every cliff wall rang like a gong.
“Soul Devourer, you have defied the Heavenly Law, stealing souls, shattering mortal order, and daring to consume the child of destiny. Your crimes demand eradication.”
The judgment sounded calm, but each word was formed of pure law.
They hammered into the ragged remnant of the Soul Devourer’s spirit, making that once-towering tyrant convulse as though chained to an invisible rack.
“No, mercy, my lord! I repent! I will endure any punishment, only spare me!” The Soul Devourer’s shriek cracked into pitiful sobs, pride gone, dignity discarded.
He prostrated himself, a ruined shade pounding its forehead against the spectral floor, looking less like a monarch of terror and more like a stray cur smitten by lightning.
Starfire warped around the cringing spirit, stretching him into grotesque shapes before snapping back, as if the cosmos itself mocked his abasement.
The creature knew the truth every onlooker now breathed: he could no more resist the Fire Spirit Lord than a candle can outshine the sun.
Watching the once-invincible Soul Devourer grovel, Jared felt the pressure of helpless rage he had swallowed moments earlier ignite into savage delight.
He straightened, ignoring torn sinews and the blood soaking his robes.
A familiar crooked grin, equal parts pain and defiance, spread across his face, and he let his words fly like barbed arrows.
“Well, well, look who’s whining now! Weren’t you the almighty Soul Devourer, barking about ripping my spirit out and roasting it for ten thousand years? Where’s all that bravado? What happened to calling us worms and maggots? Why are you shaking so hard?”
“Careful, or that sorry excuse for a soul will flutter apart like a shredded rag the moment a breeze rolls through. Come on, show the Fire Spirit Lord that big bad temper of yours! Oh, right, you only puff up when the targets are ants, but the second a real power arrives, you fold faster than a lame shrimp. Begging for mercy now? Too late!”
“A scum-stacked fiend like you deserves a soul-lantern, not a second chance—let the Fire Spirit Lord hang you up and keep the flame on for a full millennium!”
The tirade poured from Jared in a torrent, each insult fueled by the pain of shattered bones, the sight of fallen comrades, and the wild gratitude of still being alive.
Every syllable hit its target. Soul Devourer’s incorporeal form quivered, the sickly green ghostfire of his essence sputtering like a torch in a hurricane.
One heartbeat more, and that fury would surely explode, but trapped beneath the judgment of the heavens, there was nowhere left for his rage to go.
Blanketed by the blinding column of starlit purification, and by the boundless majesty of the Fire Spirit Lord towering overhead, Soul Devourer could only press his spectral forehead against the dust.
Not a single whimper, let alone a protest, dared slip from that quivering phantom throat. Deep inside, however, his hatred for Jared swelled like a poisoned tide.
*Even if every drop from the Netherworld Abyss were mine to wield, it still would not scour this humiliation from my soul!*
Down in the blasted pit, Coall raised his battered head.
Blood streamed between his fangs while a crooked grin tugged at the torn edges of his lips. He meant to laugh, but the sound snagged on pain; only a rasping “huh-huh” leaked out.
All around him, other injured Draconians managed weary nods of vindication. Jared’s tongue, they decided, was sharper than any blade; each word had sliced straight through the Soul Devourer’s pride.
High above, the blurred silhouette of the Fire Spirit Lord showed no sign of meddling in Jared’s gutter-born tirade. Instead, the cosmic figure spoke again, voice calm as eternal flame, delivering final judgment upon the trembling Soul Devourer.
“Incorrigible and unforgiven. In the name of the stars, be purified!”
At that decree, the pillar of stellar fire flared white-hot, its core tightening until it looked forged of diamond light.
Purifying power swelled tenfold, maybe more, an avalanche of holiness crashing downward. Soul Devourer released one last scream so drenched in despair it curdled the air. His shadowy body shrank like ice hurled into molten steel, thinning, paling, about to dissolve into nothing at all.
Across the battlefield, every chest loosened at once. The long, brutal struggle was at last sliding toward an unexpected yet welcome close.
Yet just as relief began to bloom, there was a boom! Beside the first tear in the sky above Soulgrave Abyss, a second rift ripped open without warning.
From its jagged mouth spewed roaring black-fire, hotter than volcanic glass and wilder than a storm at sea. Tsunami-like pressure erupted outward, its violent heat smothering the sanctity of the starlight in a heartbeat, replacing holiness with raw, ruinous chaos.
