Chapter 113: Igniting Old Passion

The valley at the base of Mount Ignata looked like someone had taken a giant knife and carved a wound into the earth. Black rock walls rose on either side, funneling them toward what Grace could only assume was certain death. Or, well, a very painful experience.

“Eyes up,” Seraph muttered. “We’ve got company.”

Grace looked.

[Holy crap.]

Demons lined the cliff edges above them. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. Amethyst eyes glowing in the shadows. All watching. All waiting.

And none of them attacking.

“That’s… creepy as hell.”

“It’s almost like a show of force.” Seraph’s hand never left her sword. The tension in her shoulders said everything. “Like the Flame wants us to know she controls them.”

“Great. Love that for us.”

They kept walking. The heat got worse with every step forward. Grace’s armor felt like it was actively trying to cook her alive. The fire-resistant enchantments were doing their best but against this level of heat?

[Might as well have worn a tin foil suit.]

“Watch the shadows,” Seraph said quietly. “Last thing we need is to find out that she’s harboring a Primal Demon or something.”

The valley opened up into something that made Grace’s brain hurt just looking at it.

The inside of the volcano itself.

Molten rock bubbled in pools, glowing. Steam hissed from cracks in the floor, each jet hot enough to strip flesh from bone. The air shimmered and danced, making everything look like a heat mirage.

And in the center of it all—

“Finally.”

The word echoed off the walls. Then she appeared.

The Flame didn’t descend. Didn’t walk in. She just… existed. One second empty air, the next a woman made of fire and barely contained rage.

[Oh wow.]

She looked like Eternia. Of course she did. They all did. Same face that Grace saw in the mirror every morning. Same body, though significantly more… developed. But where Eternia radiated warmth and mischief and that general “wanna bang?” energy, the Flame was pure destruction in female form.

Her hair writhed like living fire, each strand a tongue of flame that moved independently. Her eyes were pools of molten gold that hurt to look at directly. And her armor carried intricate patterns of flame that danced across the metal.

“You came wearing such a pathetic shell.” The Flame’s voice crackled like a bonfire fed with bones. “What, are you pretending to be weak? Think that will make me go easy on you?”

Grace opened her mouth to explain the situation. That this was all a big cosmic misunderstanding.

The Flame raised one hand.

“No more words. I’ve waited millennia for this moment.”

“Look, I think you’ve got the wrong—”

“SILENCE!”

The word hit like a sledgehammer to the chest. Grace stumbled back, ears ringing.

“Do you know what it’s like?” The Flame began to pace. Each footstep left molten prints in solid stone. The rock actually melted under her feet. “To carry so much rage? To burn with FURY!?”

She laughed. It sounded like screaming metal being torn apart.

“You poured your anger into me. Every slight, every betrayal, every moment of wrath you couldn’t bear to feel.”

“That’s rough, but—”

“And then you LEFT!”

Fire erupted around the Flame. Not metaphorically. Actual walls of flame shot up from the ground. The temperature spiked so fast Grace’s exposed skin started to blister.

“Created your pretty angels and forgot about us entirely! But I didn’t forget.” The Flame’s form solidified. The fire condensed, becoming more focused. More dangerous. “I nursed that rage. Fed it. Let it grow until it became mine. And now…”

She smiled.

“Now I’m going to show you what real strength looks like.”

The Flame moved.

Grace had fought fast opponents before. Diana in training, when she was actually trying. That Primal Demon at Oakridge that nearly took her head off. But this?

This felt unfair.

One heartbeat, the Flame stood twenty feet away. The next, her fist was inches from Grace’s face.

Metal rang against metal as Seraph’s sword intercepted the blow.

The impact sent shockwaves through the cavern. The ground cracked. Loose rocks fell from the ceiling. Seraph’s boots carved twin grooves in the stone as she slid backward.

“Touch my rookie and I’ll make you regret existing,” Seraph snarled.

The Flame tilted her head. Like a cat that just noticed a new toy.

“Ah. The loyal soldier. How touching.” Fire danced along her fingers, each one becoming a miniature torch. “You can burn first.”

They clashed.

Grace had seen Seraph fight before. In training, where she held back so much it was almost insulting. Against regular demons, where she barely broke a sweat. But this?

This was Seraph unleashed.

Centuries of experience in every movement. Her sword sang through the air, leaving trails of golden light that hurt to follow. Each strike flowed into the next. No wasted motion. No hesitation.

And yet…

[It’s not enough.] Grace blinked.

Not even close. She tried to look up and find the Flame’s level, but she couldn’t see it. Where the words should have been, there was just “???”

[That’s very helpful. Thanks, System.]

The Flame fought like wildfire given purpose and a really bad attitude. She didn’t dodge attacks—she flowed around them like liquid fire. Her fists left afterimages. Her kicks cracked stone and sent showers of sparks flying.

“Grace! Stay back!” Seraph barely deflected a strike that would’ve caved in her skull. “Find an opening!”

[An opening for fucking what? To die faster?]

But Grace summoned her Blade of Eternia anyway. The divine rapier materialized in her hand, its glow looking absolutely pathetic compared to the forces clashing in front of her.

Then Seraph did something incredible.

She scored a hit.

Her sword carved a line across the Flame’s shoulder, divine energy meeting elemental fire. For a second, Grace felt hope.

The wound closed instantly. Like it never happened.

The Flame scowled.

“Alright… My turn.”

The Flame’s right hand morphed, fingers fusing together and extending into a blade of pure fire. The heat coming off it made the air scream.

She swung.

Seraph tried to dodge. Almost made it.

Almost.

The blade passed through her neck like it wasn’t even there. Like cutting through air.

Time stopped.

Or maybe Grace’s brain stopped. One of the two.

Seraph’s head separated from her body. It hit the ground with a wet thud that Grace would hear in her nightmares. Her body followed a second later, collapsing in a heap of armor and spreading blood.

“SERAPH!”

Grace rushed forward. This couldn’t be happening. How could-

“Ow.”

Grace froze mid-step.

“That really hurt.”

The voice came from… Seraph’s head. Which was looking up at her from the ground. Blinking.

With an annoyed expression.

“Shit, shit. Grace, pick me up!” Seraph’s head asked.

Grace stared. The Flame stared.

“Are you… talking?” Grace asked, because her brain needed confirmation.

“Obviously.” Seraph sounded annoyed. Like being decapitated was just inconvenient. “We’re immortal, remember?”

“B-But your head—”

“Will reattach once we get out of here. Now pick me up before she recovers from the shock.”

Grace grabbed Seraph’s head. It was surprisingly heavy. And warm. And talking.

[This is so fucked up.]

“What about your body!?”

“Leave it. It’ll follow eventually.”

“Follow? What do you mean follow?”

“I mean it’ll get up and walk after us. Probably. Maybe crawl. Depends how much energy I have left.”

The Flame had stopped moving entirely. Just stood there, staring at the conversation happening between Grace and a severed head.

“You’re… still alive.”

“Disappointed?” Seraph’s head asked with remarkable sass for someone missing a body. “Sorry to ruin your dramatic moment. I know you probably had a whole victory speech planned.”

The Flame’s eye twitched. Then her whole face twitched. Fire erupted from every pore, turning her into a humanoid bonfire.

“WHAT KIND OF MOCKERY IS THIS?”

“The kind where we run,” Seraph said. “No, seriously, Grace, you’re not winning a fight against her. Run. Now.”

Grace didn’t need to be told twice.

She tucked Seraph’s head under her arm and booked it.

Behind her, the Flame roared. The sound shook the entire mountain. Dust and pebbles rained from above.

“YOU DARE FLEE? FACE ME, COWARD!”

“Keep running!” Seraph’s head bounced with each step. “And watch out for—”

A gout of flame missed Grace by inches. The heat singed her eyebrows and made her white hair crinkle.

“That! Watch out for that!”

Grace sprinted through the valley like her ass was on fire. Which it might be soon. Demons dove at her from the cliffs, apparently deciding that orders were less important than murder. She dodged, jumped, somehow kept her grip on Seraph’s head.

“Left! Go left!”

Grace veered left. A massive fireball obliterated where she’d been standing, leaving a crater of molten glass.

“How are you so calm about this?” Grace gasped between ragged breaths.

“I’ve been decapitated once before. It’s fine.”

“THAT’S NOT NORMAL!”

“Neither is running from a god with my head under your arm, but here we are!”

A demon dropped directly in front of them. Grace didn’t slow down. She lowered her shoulder and bulldozed through it, sending the creature tumbling off a cliff.

“Nice form,” Seraph commented.

“Not the time!”

The Flame’s voice boomed behind them, getting closer.

“ETERNIA! TURN AND FACE ME! STOP RUNNING LIKE THE WEAKLING YOU ARE!”

More fire. More dodging. Grace’s lungs burned from the heat and exertion. Her legs felt like jelly. The armor that was supposed to protect her now felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

“Almost there,” Seraph said. “Just a little—”

They burst out of the valley into slightly less lethal air. Grace didn’t stop. She kept running until her legs gave out completely, collapsing behind a large boulder that provided minimal cover.

“Well,” Seraph’s head said after a moment of Grace just wheezing. “That could have gone better.”

Grace stared at her commander’s severed head. At the volcano still roaring behind them. At the complete disaster this mission had become in record time.

“Your body better catch up soon,” she wheezed between desperate gasps for air.

“Give it an hour. Maybe two.”

“Great. Perfect. Wonderful.”

From the mountain, the Flame’s voice echoed across the wasteland.

“I WILL FIND YOU, ETERNIA! YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER!”

Grace slumped against the boulder, still clutching Seraph’s head like a really morbid security blanket.

[Well… That was a disaster.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep