Boom! The cavern convulsed, stone shards rained down while waves surged across the magma pool. The shockwave drove everyone, save Ignatius and Jared, reeling backward.
Ignatius’ beard flared with embers as he roared, “Malcolm Vayne! You dare project yourself into Earthfire Pavilion’s forbidden ground?!”
“Why not?” Malcolm’s projection scoffed. “Listen up, Ignatius. Hand Jared Chance over, kneel, and swear fealty to Malevolent Path Hall, or Earthfire Pavilion will be erased from level eleven today!”
“How arrogant!” Ignatius spat. “You think a single projection of yours frightens me?!”
“Oh? Well, if one isn’t enough, how about adding a few more?”
With that, three additional pillars of blood light speared through the ceiling, slamming into the cavern floor. When the glow faded, three projections of Malevolent Path Hall elders stood, phantoms brimming with murderous intent. Stifling nether aura flooded the chamber, grappling Ignatius’ crimson flames in a clash of swirling atmospheres.
Malcolm’s lips curled into a jagged smirk, the way molten metal cooled into cruel edges under moonlight. “Well, Ignatius… How do things look now? The four of us may be mere projections, yet together, we can stall you long enough. Outside, Malevolent Path Hall’s army has already surrounded Earthfire Pavilion, waiting to smash your defense formation at my word.”
Ignatius’ face blanched to the color of ash beneath old embers. Sweat hissed where it touched the cavern‘s heat. He never imagined that Malevolent Path Hall would act so boldly. Malcolm had come himself and even brought an army. They had, without a doubt, planned every step.
Earthfire Pavilion was strong, but against the Malevolent Path Hall, which had come fully prepared, victory seemed nearly impossible.
“Father…” Lindsay’s voice quivered like a match about to gutter out. She clung to Ignatius’ sleeve, knuckles white against the crimson fabric.
Around them, several Earthfire Pavilion elders raised their magical items—glimmering spears, blazing mirrors, rune-etched shields—forming a tense, flickering barricade of resolve.
Buoyed by Malcolm’s threat, Elliot puffed out his chest. “Ignatius, surrender while you still can. Hand Jared over and every treasure in Earthfire Pavilion, and perhaps Malevolent Path Hall will spare you your pathetic life!”
“You’re courting death!” Ignatius’ reply rumbled low, as though magma spoke through him. Scarlet fury flashed in his eyes; he stepped forward, palm lifting to hurl a searing strike, then a new voice sliced through the cavern.
“Enough…”
The single word echoed with quiet authority, neither loud nor hurried, yet it stilled every heartbeat. No living throat in the chamber had spoken. The sound rose instead from the magma pool itself.
Bubbles burst. A fountain of lava roared heavenward, folding and folding until it shaped a towering figure of fire. It was Gerald Earthfire, Earthfire Pavilion’s myth, their long-departed founder, now reborn in living flame.
“Great Elder Earthfire?” Ignatius and the elders gasped, disbelief turning instantly to savage joy. “Great Elder Earthfire, you’re still alive!”
Earthfire Pavilion had kept paintings of Gerald so that the leaders and elders throughout the years could easily recognize their founder. Although he was currently just a humanoid formed of flames, that aura, pressure, and unique fluctuation of the Law of Fire were unmistakable.
“I’m just a soul remnant,” Gerald answered, golden-bright eyes sweeping the cavern until they pinned the four projections. “Yet even a remnant is more than enough to handle these projections. How dare these insolent ones run wild in my territory?”
The next second, he lifted one blazing hand. A thunderous boom followed. The Law of Fire awakened, weaving itself into four crimson-gold chains that lashed outward, coiling around each projection before resistance could form.
“What the hell is this?” one of the projections shouted.
“Chains of Law? What? How is this possible?” another wailed as the bindings tightened.
Malcolm and the others thrashed, but every struggle only made their images flicker, paling from bright specters to useless wisps.
“Perish…”
With that single verdict from Gerald, the four chains of living fire coiled inward. Links flared white-hot, tightened, and hissed around their struggling prey with the finality of a hangman’s knot.
“N-No…” the four looming projections shrieked in imperfect unison.
Alas, their voices were ripped apart mid-cry. Each projection imploded, dissolving into sparks that fluttered away like popped soap bubbles. The accompanying crimson pillars fractured from base to crown, shattering into a blizzard of ember-red shards before vanishing altogether. All of it transpired between one heartbeat and the next, as fleeting as lightning glancing off a blade.
Only moments ago, those same projections had threatened to erase the entire Earthfire Pavilion, yet now, as though a bad dream dismissed at dawn, they were simply gone.
Elliot stood rooted to the floor. Color drained from his face until it matched the pale ash drifting at his feet. Ignatius and the assembled elders stared wide-eyed, tongues stilled, their collective awe too large for speech. They had known their ancestor’s might, of course, but never imagined that a single surviving wisp of Gerald’s soul could snuff out four formidable projections so effortlessly. It felt less like power than pure miracle.
A roar finally broke the silence. “All hail Great Elder Earthfire!”
Ignatius was the first to kneel. His voice trembled with emotion. “I, Ignatius Flameheart, pay my greetings to our ancestor, Great Elder Earthfire!”
“Greetings, Great Elder Earthfire!” the elders chorused, dropping to their knees in a thunderous wave of reverence.
Lindsay hurried down beside them. As she bowed, her gaze flicked toward Jared, eyes bright with confusion. How did Jared know the ancestor awaited us here? Is there some kind of connection between them?
Gerald’s blazing outline rippled, voice low yet warm. “Rise, everyone… I am but a lingering soul fragment. I don’t deserve such formality.” His attention swung to Elliot, and the heat in his gaze turned glacial. “Now, regarding this traitor…”
Hearing this, all courage fled Elliot. He slammed his forehead to the scorched tiles again and again. “Great Elder Earthfire, spare me! This is all Malevolent Path Hall’s fault. They coerced me! Please give me another chance to make amends!”
Gerald’s laugh was soft and iron-cold. “Make amends? You colluded with Malevolent Path Hall, slaughtered dozens of Earthfire Pavilion disciples, plotted to murder your leader, and to overthrow the Pavilion. With crimes like these, not even killing you ten times over would be enough.”
His fiery eyes shifted to Ignatius. “Ignatius, according to our rules, what fate befalls a traitor?”
Ignatius’ reply rang out like a drawn blade. “By the Pavilion’s rules, all traitors will have their souls pulled, refined, and denied rebirth for eternity.”
“Then let’s do just that,” Gerald said, voice quiet as settling ash.
“No no no!” Elliot screamed, spinning to flee.
Ignatius lifted a single hand. A scarlet flame leapt forth, engulfing the deserter. Elliot had no time to cry out again. He became a silhouette of fire, then a pile of gray dust. Ignatius closed his fist. A pale, quivering soul tore free of the ashes and spiraled into an emerald vial.
“The soul is drawn and scourged; may it warn the next would-be traitor,” he said, voice colder than the bottle in his grasp.
When the duty was finished, Gerald’s glowing regard drifted to Jared, the flames around him softening, almost curious.
Ignatius felt his heart snag. He stepped forward quickly. “Great Elder Earthfire, Jared Chance trespassed only to heal his wounds. More importantly, he exposed Elliot’s treachery. Earthfire Pavilion owes him a debt. I beseech you to temper judgment with mercy.”
His words hung in the heated air, a shield offered on Jared’s behalf. As much as Ignatius hated to admit it, it was impossible to ignore what Jared had done. After all, he had dragged Lindsay and Ferdinand out of the jaws of death, then exposed Elliot’s hidden treachery. Stacked side by side, the scales of justice tipped decisively in Jared’s favor; his merit eclipsed the crime of trespassing.
Gerald turned, his ancient eyes crinkling with a sly glint. “What do you think, young man? What punishment do you deserve?” he asked, his gravel-rich voice echoing off the obsidian walls.
Jared answered with an easy smile that belied the tension in the room. “Whatever you say, Great Elder Earthfire. It’s all up to you,” he replied, the words drifting out as calmly as falling ash.
“Up to me?” Gerald let the phrase hang, roiling it on his tongue like fine wine. “Very well… Suppose I sentence you, quite severely, for barging into forbidden ground no outsider should ever set foot in. How would that suit you?”
Lindsay surged forward, her crimson robes whipping like startled embers. “Great Elder Earthfire, it was me!” she blurted, voice bright with desperation. “I led him in. If punishment is due, let it fall on me alone!”
Ignatius cut through her plea with a single thunder-laden bark. “Lindsay!”
Alas, she refused to shrink. “Father, he only entered because I brought him here. If there must be a reckoning, then I, your daughter, will bear it.”
Her declaration rang across the chamber like iron striking iron.
Gerald’s snow-white brows lifted. “You know as well as I do that outsiders are not allowed to so much as breathe near our forbidden ground.”
Lindsay’s composure wavered. “I know that. B-But…” She glanced at Jared, drew in a trembling breath, and chose a perilous truth. “Great Elder Earthfire, what if I told you Jared isn’t an outsider at all?”
Hearing this, Ignatius’ brows knitted. “Not an outsider? What do you mean, Lindsay?”
Jared, utterly blindsided, felt his thoughts stall in mid-stride. Lindsay steadied herself, eyes soft with apology, fierce with resolve. She understood that one sentence could upend every future she’d imagined, and yet she spoke it anyway.
“Jared… He and I have already shared the bond of husband and wife. H-He is my man…”
Boom!
Like a bolt splitting a clear summer sky, her confession detonated in the grand hall. Gasps burst from every corner; shock rippled through stone and bone alike. Ignatius stood frozen, mouth ajar. Around him, the gathered elders stared, slack-jawed, as though the flames carved into the pillars had come alive and scorched their reason.
Hearing that, Jared’s mind went blank. Since when did that happen? Did I miss the ceremony? Why would she accuse me for no reason?
He blinked, stunned, half-waiting for someone to shout it was a jest. Yet comprehension struck him a heartbeat later: Lindsay was shielding him, throwing her own reputation into the fire to drag him clear of the pyre. And, with those words, she had proclaimed their fate to every witness present.
Ignatius’ expression churned through storms of doubt, pride, and reluctant acceptance. He studied the soft flush on his daughter’s cheeks, then the unwavering calm in Jared’s eyes, and belief began to take root. Objectively, Jared remained an enigma, but an enigma crowned with impossible talent, Golden Dragon Bloodline, devastating power, and a loyalty that ran deeper than magma. If such a man became his son-in-law, Earthfire Pavilion would surely burn brighter.
That said, Ignatius couldn’t help but wince at how brazen Jared was. The latter had only known Lindsay for a short while, yet he had already coaxed her into bed.
Several seconds later, Ignatius finally cleared his throat, the sound rough against the hush that had fallen over the chamber. “Jared, regarding you and Lindsay… When did this happen?”
Jared’s eyes flew wide for the briefest beat. Then, with the smooth confidence of a gambler inventing a winning hand, he spun a story on the spot.
“It… It was in Flame Gorge,” he said, voice steady, gaze unwavering. “Lindsay was wounded, and while healing her… Well, one thing led to another…”
The explanation held just enough truth to sound convincing. He had, in fact, tended her injuries in that scorched ravine, though his hands had never strayed past the flow of celestial energy. To everyone listening, however, his words dripped with implication, more than enough to set tongues wagging.
Color instantly flooded Ignatius’ weathered cheeks. He shot his daughter a glare that chastised her for her lack of modesty and restraint. Lindsay bowed her head so low her hair screened her face, wishing the earth would swallow her whole.
Gerald, however, burst into booming laughter that rattled the pillars. “Excellent! Excellent… Ignatius, this young man is extraordinary. He carries the Golden Dragon Bloodline, rare treasures, and boundless potential. A fitting match for Earthfire Pavilion’s princess!”
With that single declaration, the ancient patron had hammered the matter into iron. Ignatius inhaled, shoulders tense beneath the weight of protocol. Since the old patriarch had approved, who in their right mind would dare object? Besides, there was no doubt that Jared was a prodigy. With such a son-in-law beside him, Earthfire Pavilion’s future would burn brighter than ever.
“Well, since Great Elder Earthfire has spoken…” Ignatius said before turning to Jared, his expression layered with pride and reluctant sternness. “We‘ll address your relationship with Lindsay later. First, you did trespass into the forbidden ground. For exposing the traitors, you escape death, yet punishment remains.”
“I accept whatever judgment you deem fair,” Jared replied without flinch or hesitation.
