Only now did Lucas drag his gaze away from Reiner. It landed on Jared like a drawn blade. His spiritual sense slipped inside the broken body.
A heartbeat later, his eyes sharpened to daggers, and a chill, murderous fury detonated around him, cutting the very air.
“Chaotic Origin Flame? Boy, why is that spark inside you? More than that, its taste matches the fragment of source-fire I left inside the Blazefire Secret Realm. Speak. Did you trespass there and steal what is mine?” Lucas’ voice was icy.
The killing intent dropped like a mountain. Bones already splintered within Jared’s chest screeched anew, breath refused to draw, every heartbeat threatened to scatter.
Reiner lurched forward a half step. “Lucas, please… This fault is mine. I sensed his unusual bond with flame and, because he had aided our sect against the demon tide, permitted him a haven inside the Blazefire Secret Realm to heal. I could not have foreseen he would awaken the core fragment itself.”
“Fool!” Lucas’ roar cracked like thunder. “Do you understand? That shard was won with blood and near death. I left it to nourish the land, to anchor the ley lines, to mark my path forward! And you let an outsider in to drain it dry? Reiner, you have disappointed me beyond measure!”
Head bowed, Reiner accepted the verdict, not daring to offer even a whisper of rebuttal.
Lucas’ gaze snapped back to Jared. Murder coalesced behind those crimson irises, so tangible the air seemed to curdle around him.
“A gnat from the Human Immortal Realm dares reach for what is mine? Hand over the source of the Chaotic Origin Flame, and I may leave you a whole corpse. Defy me, and I will tear your soul to rags, scatter the pieces to every horizon, and bar you from rebirth for all eternity.”
He thrust out one clawed hand. Midnight fire—thick, satanic, eager—wreathed his fingers, stretching into a talon big enough to pluck down a star.
The infernal hand slashed toward Jared, ready to carve him open and rip the Chaotic Origin Flame straight from his heart.
“Lucas, enough!” Until that instant, the Fire Spirit Lord, Flegel, had stood silent. Now he stepped forward.
Flegel placed himself between predator and prey. Gentle white fire rose around him, soft as new snow yet boundless as the sea, its purity clashing against Lucas’ black inferno.
“Yes, the stranger absorbed fragments of your source flame, but the fact that he could summon and refine the Chaotic Origin Flame is his destiny as much as yours…”
“The origin flame belongs to no one. You left it in this secret realm without a single ward to forbid succession. That choice, whether spoken or not, amounts to silent consent. To seize it back by brute force, does that befit beings who claim higher wisdom?”
Hearing this, Lucas’ brow tightened; irritation flashed across his blood-red eyes. “Flegel, must you always oppose me? The fragments he took are mine by right. Reclaiming what is mine is righteous, not robbery. Step aside, or do not fault me for forgetting old ties.”
“Old ties?” Flegel shook his head, disappointment flickering through his pale fire. “Lucas, your heart knows only conquest and darkness… Brotherhood was never more than a word to you. The boy and the Chaotic Origin Flame may well touch the Chaotic Law Fire our master sought. Shall I watch you snuff out that chance to satisfy your ego? Never…”
“Then words are useless. Let strength decide.” Lucas’ lips twisted into a murderous smile. “Show me whether your Blazewraith Technique can still withstand my Demonflare Art after all these centuries!”
His rage boiled over. Black demonic fire roared from his body, piling into the sky like a storm made of flame.
Flegel sighed, white embers rippling across his robes. “So be it. Not here… Too many lives would burn in our wake… Lucas, will you follow me to the Endless Fire Domain and settle this there?”
“Lead the way!” Lucas’ answer was a snarl wrapped in a grin.
Their eyes locked once, a pact signed in flame. Space split open with a shriek. One river of onyx fire, one river of ivory fire, both blinding, shot into the rift and vanished.
Only the shredded Heavenly Law, vibrating with savage fire intent, remained to prove that two supreme beings had just stood upon this soil.
People stared at the torn sky in numb disbelief. They really left to fight in another world, leaving this battlefield in ruins behind them.
The abrupt turn left every soul present frozen, minds blank, breaths caught.
First shock, then glee twisted across the face of the Soul Devourer. His grin widened until it threatened to split his skull.
The two greatest variables, his only genuine threats, had just departed this realm. Fortune, it seemed, loved the wicked.
He turned, ever so slowly, toward Jared, who hung half-dead in chains, confusion and pain still etched on his blood-spattered face.
Scarlet light danced in the Soul Devourer’s eyes—playful, cruel, hungry. “Tsk, tsk, tsk… Little one, did you catch all that?”
“Even the mighty Fire Demon Lord had to slice you open just to steal your flame. The Fire Spirit Lord? He never cared about you at all; he only needed an excuse to fight his own senior brother… They have both vanished now. Tell me, little mortal, who is left in this realm bold enough to pull you back from the edge of death?”
Soul Devourer’s gaze drifted toward Reiner, the Flame-Sword Venerable. The look was a serrated blade, cold, deliberate, pressing for blood.
Reiner’s face stiffened under the weight of that silent taunt.
“Flame-Sword Venerable,” the demon crooned, savoring every syllable, “Your senior ordered you to mind your own business, and your second senior brother turned tail and ran. Do you still plan to meddle in matters that will cost you your life?”
The question dripped with challenge, each word a spark striking tinder, daring Reiner to ignite.
Reiner’s knuckles drained of color as he clenched his scarlet sword. Tremors in the blade caught the smoky light, scattering crimson shards across the battlefield.
He stole a glance at Jared—broken, bleeding, barely breathing—then heard Lucas’ cold decree echoing like iron doors slamming shut, and recalled Flegel’s departing eyes urging him to choose for himself.
Bitterness pooled at the base of his tongue.
Under Soul Devourer’s crushing stare, Reiner’s fingers loosened. The sword sank toward the dirt. His internal struggle collapsed into one long, helpless sigh.
He looked at Jared once more and gave the faintest shake of his head, so small it might have been a quiver of wind. Then he turned.
A streak of red sword-light split the heavens, and the man who might have been salvation vanished beyond the clouds.
Reiner was gone, too. Hope shattered, falling like glass into the dust.
