"You…" Her teeth scraped together. "You thief."
The air trembled around her.
Evan didn't blink. Flames circled his pupils like a second pair of eyes.
"I only claimed what failed to kill me."
The earth shuddered as his aura rose. Vela snarled.
"I don't care for your lines. Tell me where my body is."
His head tilted. "Body? What body?"
"Don't act dumb!" Her voice cracked like a burning whip. "You can't control my flames unless you meet my other half. You stole her. Return the body before I burn your soul clean out of existence."
Her power spiked so violently that Kael's skin split. Thin cracks ran across his ribs. Flame seeped from them like molten blood.
Evan exhaled.
"Oh. You mean the bird corpse from the Undead Zone. Yes, I remember." His voice went colder. "Useful thing. After I deal with you? Your soul will reunite with it."
Vela's face twisted.
"So you admit it."
She didn't wait for more.
The flames around her detonated.
The temperature jumped so fast the air burst with white static. The ground rippled. Trees bent away from her. Even Kael's body groaned and warped from the raw force pouring through it.
Evan's expression hardened.
She wasn't the same as she had been before.
She was pushing Kael's body past the Expanse limit.
And she was seconds away from stepping into a newly ascended Tier 1 state.
If she crossed that line, this fight would turn into a massacre.
He shot forward—
'Too late.' He thought as he found her gone from the place.
His instincts screamed.
He threw ice across his back just as a force hit him like a falling star.
CRACK—BOOM!
He flew like a rag doll.
Trees shattered behind him. One. Three. Seven. Fifteen. Bark exploded into dust. His spine slammed into the last trunk and split it in half.
His ice shattered. His bone armour cracked open. Blood ran down his mask.
He pushed himself up, breath shaking.
Everything hurt. His ribs felt like they had been struck with hammers. His muscles twitched uncontrollably.
A faint green light crawled over his back, his healing kicking in with quiet urgency.
He lifted his eyes.
And froze.
Vela—no, Kael's body under Vela's full awakening—stood like a mythic beast torn from hell.
Crimson hair.
Crimson eyes.
Crimson runes carved across his skin like glowing magma veins.
A faint halo of flame circled behind him, bending the air itself.
It wasn't a warrior standing there.
It was a divine calamity wearing Kael's face.
"Trying to spook me by looking like a half-baked immortal?" Evan spat blood. "I've killed immortals. I'll add you to the list."
He drew both swords.
Crimson Edge hummed in his palm.
"Hah... just a baseless lie, you're noth..."
Vela paused.
Her flame flickered. Her pupils narrowed at the sight of the blade.
"That sword…" she whispered. "So you really are the one misleading everyone, ruining Kael's life."
Her expression sharpened.
"Then I'll break you and drag your corpse to the city myself to prove his innocence."
She vanished.
A flame spear blinked into existence right in front of his face.
Evan twisted aside. He caught the spear with his palm. It sizzled, eating into his skin.
He didn't stop.
He forced the spear down and swung it in a wide arc.
The air boomed.
Vela ducked beneath it and snapped her fingers.
Flame orbs erupted everywhere.
Heat rolled out in waves so thick the ground melted. Leaves curled into ash. The forest turned into a burning wasteland in seconds.
Evan's silhouette stayed steady in the inferno.
She dropped from the sky and hurled every orb at him.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
He summoned Geo energy.
Earth spikes rose like a fortress around him—
And disintegrated instantly under the barrage.
But Evan wasn't there.
A shadow passed above her.
Her eyes widened.
He came down with both fists clasped together, aimed at her skull.
WHAM!
She crashed into the earth, forming a crater.
No time to breathe.
He dropped again, heel glowing with mana.
She rolled aside as his kick hit the ground.
The earth split into a massive spiderweb of cracks. The entire forest floor shook.
Evan summoned ice spikes, dozens—maybe hundreds.
They all melted from her aura alone.
Vela smirked.
"You think these tricks will hurt me? Even your fake strength won't—"
"Then endure it," Evan said, feeling sick of this situation and current state.
His voice lowered.
His aura burned.
And then—
Everything inside him exploded at once.
One talent...
Seven abilities...
Eleven skills....
A full cascade of power.
His aura roared like a hurricane made of fire and lightning. The ground bent around him. Wind circled him. Mana howled.
His strength multiplied.
His speed sharpened.
His blade shone with lightning, ice, blood, flame, lunar resonance—everything merged into a violent, tearing aura that made the world flinch.
Vela's expression broke for the first time.
"You—your aura just—doubled—"
"This," Evan said, "is the best I can do without killing you."
He disappeared.
A crater formed where he had been.
Vela sensed him too late.
He was behind her.
His blade swung.
Not the sharp edge, but with the blunt side.
Even so—
Her armour shattered on impact.
She flew.
Crashing.
Rolling.
Slamming through dirt and stone until a trench carved itself beneath her.
She coughed, crimson blood dripping from Kael's lips.
When she looked up…
Evan was already walking toward her.
Each step cracked the ground.
And his burning eyes locked onto hers like judgment itself.
Vela conjured several flame blades and fired them forward.
Evan leapt up, almost floating, no recoil, no shock.
Vela grinned like a madwoman in a stolen body.
She lifted her hand. Tiny flame orbs appeared around Evan.
He glanced at them, unimpressed.
"This won't work on me," he said.
Her grin didn't fade.
"Cheap trickster. This will prove that fakes can't beat the real thing."Her fingers closed.
The orbs were linked with thin vines of fire, forming a tight cage.
It was so narrow it could trap a bird.
It kept shrinking.
Evan simply watched her while hanging mid-air, as if thinking.
Then he spoke.
"Fine. You think I'm a cheap fake? Then I'll bring out the real one."
The cage swallowed him whole, turning into a burning sphere.
Vela exhaled in relief.
'This should corrupt him—mind, soul, or body.'
Instead, silence.
Then the sphere twitched.
Cracks flashed across its surface.
Vela pushed more force into it, but the pressure from inside was overwhelming.
Her control shattered.
The cage burst apart. Ashen flames exploded outward.
And Evan stepped out.
Not alone.
Vela looked up—froze—eyes wide.
Her sword almost slipped from her hand.
"N… no… impossible… how can she move… how can she EXIST?"
Terror hollowed her voice.
Flying below Evan was the Origin she came from.
Velma.
The true Death Phoenix.
Tier 0 Peak form—weak compared to her prime, but still a nightmare to anyone who once belonged to her.
Vela's entire being remembered what her main body was capable of.
"No. It's a clone. It HAS to be a clone. No one can resurrect her. That thing was bound to the body!"
She roared, manifesting a massive phoenix above her, pouring every drop of mana and authority she had left.
It looked exactly like Velma, but radiated unstable abyssal energy.
Her fear drove her power higher.
'I must escape. If she's real, Kael will die. But how… how can she do this to me? I am her. I must run.'
Blood dripped from her lips.
Kael's body was almost out of mana.
Her legs shook. Her vision blurred.
She launched the phoenix forward and stumbled backwards, ready to flee.
But then—
She froze.
An invisible force held the phoenix mid-flight.
Velma wasn't even moving.
She simply willed it.
The massive attack trembled like prey under its true master's shadow.
Then Velma opened her mouth.
Like a void.
The phoenix tried to escape, sensing the danger—but the suction dragged it in.
In seconds, the attack, its flames, and its authority disappeared.
The sky cleared.
Vela stood blank, mind empty, eyes unfocused.
Evan landed lightly.
"I expected this. Bringing Velma out was too much for you," he said. "But don't worry. It's almost time to say goodbye to the world."
Vela backed away, tears evaporating into mist.
"No… no… It's not real! You can't control her! Not without removing those chains!"
"Oh? You mean this?" Evan lifted his hand.
A simple-looking chain materialised, but the aura around it wasn't as simple as it looked.
Vela's breath broke.
She remembered the real body trapped in those chains.
"H-how… why are you fine? Why aren't they killing you? No… no…"
She tried to run, but Evan gave a single order.
Chains crackled behind her.
She turned—too late.
They slammed into her and wrapped around her body.
She struggled, but nothing drained.
No mana.
No vitality.
These weren't the same as before.
She looked up at Evan.
Even behind the mask, she felt it—he enjoyed seeing her like this.
Velma retreated on her own, being full of stolen flames and authority, quietly plotting her next move without the interference of the mysterious spirit guiding her master.
Evan stepped in front of Vela.
She tried to back away, but the chains felt like mountains.
He raised his blade.
"No more talking. Let's end this."
He stepped forward and swung.
Vela closed her eyes.
Her main body revived.
Her existence empty.
She breathed once, wishing she had one more chance to be more than a fragment, but reality is different from dreams.
The blade cut through.
Silence settled over the battlefield.
And then—
/THUD/