"Lerio... the mage who controls souls. And your hero... killed my sister."
The words hung in the air like a sentence. Anaalyn felt their weight pierce through her chest - cold and sharp.
"How do I know?" - his voice returned, calmer now, but even more terrifying. "A person's soul tells you everything. Every regret, every lie, every loss... it's all there. And his..."
He took another step forward, and the faint light revealed part of a nearly melancholic smile.
"That soul doesn't belong to someone who's lived without ghosts. It screams for what it's lost. It bleeds for the people it couldn't save. It is... fascinating."
Anaalyn kept her hammer raised, but her hand began to tremble.
"And the 'father'?" - she asked, voice steady despite her racing heart.
"Oh, that was just a guess," Lerio replied with chilling calm, as if discussing the weather. "But judging by your reaction, I was right, wasn't I?"
Anaalyn's silence was all the confirmation he needed. Lerio smiled, satisfied.
"Interesting... so predictable. Even after everything he's done, you still try to hide the inevitable. His soul bears the weight of two deaths... and the fear of a third. And you think you can stop destiny with a bit of training and hope?"
"You don't know anything about him," Anaalyn growled, stepping forward. "Or about us."
"I know enough." Lerio raised his hand, and for a moment the forest responded - ashes on the ground lifted slightly, as if gravity itself had submitted to his will. "I know you think you're fighting for justice... but all you're doing is feeding a cycle that began long before you were born."
Anaalyn clenched her teeth.
"If it's truly inevitable, then we'll break that cycle with our own hands."
Lerio laughed softly - not mockingly, but with genuine interest.
"Words from someone who still believes she has a choice." Lerio took another step forward, and the pressure around them grew suffocating - the ground trembled as if breathing with him. "But I'll give you some advice, little girl: when his soul finally breaks... don't be near him. Because the real Bruno..."
He paused for a second, glancing up at the gray sky with a lazy smile curling his lips.
"...is already on his way. And I haven't even finished yet... ah, forget it."
Before Anaalyn could react, the mage's hand sliced through the air like lightning - straight for her face. Reflex. Instinct. She raised her hammer, but the blow never came. The hand diverted at the last second, grazing past her head and stopping in empty space.
"You're not the one I'm after, after all..." he murmured, his tone far too calm for what was coming next.
Lerio closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, a deep, hypnotic purple glow emanated from his irises. The forest fell silent. No sound. No wind. Just the whisper that left his lips:
"Die - Timoris."
The word didn't sound like a spell. It felt like a sentence.
Anaalyn tried to move her feet. She couldn't. Tried to raise her hammer. Nothing. And then, instead of physical pain, something far worse came.
The memories crashed through her mind violently - not like ordinary recollections, but like burning spears piercing her consciousness.
She saw her father's face smiling at her when she was a child.
She saw the fire.
She saw her village in flames, bandits looting everything.
She saw a sword driven into the chest of a man who tried to protect her.
She saw him - a knight wrapped in darkness, his blade dripping with blood, saving lives at the cost of his own soul.
And then his face changed.
The knight became the same man she now knew as Bruno.
"No..." she whispered, her voice cracking. "This... can't be..."
Lerio circled her like a predator studying its prey.
"Let's end this trauma nonsense," he said with disdain. "It's getting boring watching you all hide behind old pain. The truth is simple, little girl: the man you hate and the man you admire are one and the same."
"Bruno..." she whispered again, tears burning her eyes.
"Bruno." Lerio repeated the name as if it were a revelation, as if he wanted her to carve it into her soul.
"Bruno."
And in that moment, Anaalyn no longer knew if she wanted to kill him... or simply understand who he really was.
"Let's end this trauma thing... it's getting old," Lerio sneered, as if all her pain were a bad joke.
"BRUNO!"
Anaalyn's scream tore through the silent forest - desperate, confused - and soon faded into a trembling whisper:
"...Bruno..."
And then, he was there.
Not the man she knew - not the warrior with the tired eyes and sarcastic humor - but him, the knight from her memories. No armor shrouded in darkness, no heavy cloak hiding him. Just a man standing among the ashes, chest rising and falling slowly, and his sword still raised to the heavens as if defying the gods themselves.
The blade seemed heavier than ever, carrying not just the weight of past battles, but of all the lives, sins, and broken promises that had accumulated upon it.
The wind howled, and the ashes swirled around him as if they recognized his presence. Lerio stopped walking, his golden eyes narrowing - for a brief second, even he seemed to hesitate.
Bruno said nothing. There were no words, no speeches. Only that calm, unshakable gaze - the same gaze that had once made an army retreat.
Anaalyn's legs weakened. Her heart pounded so hard it hurt.
That man - the knight she had hated in nightmares and admired in memories - was no illusion. He stood before her.
The silence that followed was almost sacred, as if the entire forest held its breath for this inevitable reunion.
"So..." Lerio murmured, a crooked smile spreading across his lips. "The ghost decided to crawl out of the grave."
But Bruno didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
Because in that moment, even destiny seemed to understand that the real battle was about to begin.
"Timoris et destructionis sine fine patiuntur!"
The words echoed like thunder torn from the earth's core, and magic surged toward Bruno like a living, ravenous wave, distorting the air around him. Nearby trees cracked and split in half, as if the forest itself were trying to flee.
Bruno didn't move. Not a step.
"Fear..." - his voice cut through the roaring magic like a blade. - "A beautiful emotion, isn't it? The weak run... the strong endure..."
He took a step forward, and the ground shattered beneath his boots. The air burned around his body, the dark magic trying to devour him from within, seeping into his pores, suffocating him completely. Even so, he kept walking.
"And me?" - his eyes were now two endless abysses, without color or limit. - "I fight."
He glanced over his shoulder, and the look he gave Anaalyn was soft - almost human. - "Don't be afraid, little dwarf. I don't fall easily."
Then came the smile.
It wasn't the usual restrained, sarcastic grin. It was wild, genuine - as if everything in that moment - the danger, the pain, the hatred - filled him with pure, primal joy.
For some, it was a harbinger of terror. For others... the last spark of hope.
The magic finally struck him fully, tearing through the ground and exploding around him, seeping into his lungs, burning his skin, trying to shatter his soul.
But Bruno inhaled. He inhaled the magic.
As if destruction were air. As if fear were fuel.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
The roar was not of pain. It was a battle cry.
The entire forest shook - trees bent, the earth vibrated, the sky seemed to darken.
And when the purple light faded, he was still standing.
Clothes torn, blood dripping from his lips... but standing.
Bruno raised his sword and pointed it directly at Lerio.
"Now it's our turn, cowboy."
The words left Bruno's lips with calm, dangerous sarcasm as dust swirled around him. He extended his hand, and unlike before, there was no violence in the gesture.
His palm rested gently against Anaalyn's face, brushing aside a strand of ash-streaked hair covering her eyes.
"Get up," he whispered - and there was a confidence in his voice she had never heard before.
With her bones aching and her mind throbbing from the mental magic, Anaalyn stood. Her legs trembled, but her spirit burned - stronger than ever.
"Let's go."
Beside her, Bruno spun his sword in a precise motion. The air around them crackled - not with magic, but with pure will.
Lerio smiled.
It wasn't the calm smile of a confident mage - it was the insane grin of someone who had crossed the line of humanity.
His body began to burn - literally.
Scarlet flames consumed his arms, climbing to his shoulders, and behind him a second, fiery silhouette began to emerge - the spiritual form of his soul fused with Líria's.
Two hearts, two wills, two hatreds.
One fury.
The ground beneath his feet turned to molten lava, trees disintegrated into dust before touching the ground. The heat was so intense that the air distorted like glass.
A colossal sphere of fire formed above his head - spinning, pulsing, alive.
"This looks fun," Bruno said with a smirk, and without hesitation, he lunged forward.
His sword sliced through the air in a precise arc - each swing leaving behind a trail of gray energy that dispersed parts of the flames.
Beside him, Anaalyn dashed in a zigzag pattern, summoning ancient dwarven magic. The ground beneath her feet rose into pillars of stone to shield her from the flames.
She roared, smashing the ground with her fist.
Golden lights surged across the battlefield and exploded into a protective circle around them.
"Nice!" Bruno shouted.
"I'm not just a little dwarf out for revenge, remember?" she shot back, a smile forming even in the midst of hell.
Lerio unleashed his first spell - a Solar Lance, a concentrated blast of molten fire.
Bruno leapt forward and spun his sword, channeling gray energy that neutralized part of the impact.
The rest shattered against Anaalyn's stone barrier, which exploded into shards from the collision.
The battle turned into a deadly dance:
Lerio spewing seas of fire and summoning dragons of living flame.
Bruno cutting through each attack with surgical precision, absorbing part of the energy with his blade.
Anaalyn shaping the earth as if it were an extension of her own body.
When the massive sphere of fire finally descended upon them - an attack capable of erasing a city - Bruno shouted:
"NOW, ANAALYN!"
She slammed her fists into the ground.
Golden and blue lights exploded around Lerio, rooting his feet and trapping the dual soul within his body.
Bruno gathered all the energy around his sword - gray, black, pulsing - and leapt high, cleaving through the explosion.
The blade sliced the sphere in a blinding flash.
The fire split in two. Lerio's scream echoed through the forest.
When the ground stopped trembling, the three stood - Bruno with his sword buried in the soil, Anaalyn by his side, both panting and covered in ash... and Lerio kneeling, his body cracking with unstable energy.
"Time to finish this," Bruno said, voice low and steady, his eyes burning with restrained fury.
Lerio, still trying to stand amid the flames, lifted his head with difficulty.
"Finish...?" - he spat blood and ash.
"What's a protagonist without his final move?" - Bruno replied, a cold, dangerous smile on his lips.
Before the mage could react, Bruno vanished in a flash.
The impact came a second later - a kick straight to Lerio's chest, so powerful it launched him against a colossal tree, splitting it in half.
The mage's body hadn't even hit the ground yet.
Bruno was already there.
A storm of punches followed, each blow faster than the last, each impact making the ground quake.
"ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA!"
It wasn't just the tree shattering - it was Lerio's very flesh being crushed under the weight of Bruno's fury. The flames that had once danced around him now faded one by one, replaced by cracks, blood, and strangled screams.
"Ora...?" - the mage stammered, spitting blood, his face now unrecognizable. - "What does that even mean...?"
Bruno stopped for a moment, his fist still clenched, a wild smile shadowing his face.
"It means I'm not playing around."
He grabbed Lerio by the collar, pulling him close - so close the mage could see something in Bruno's eyes that wasn't hatred... it was resolve.
"You messed with the wrong people. And when someone does that... I don't stop until the world forgets their name."
The ground beneath them began to crack from the released energy, and for a second it seemed as though even the forest itself was holding its breath.
Bruno's gaze locked onto Lerio's golden eyes - and for the first time, the mage who spoke so much of fate and vengeance felt true fear.
"You should've stopped while you had the chance..." - Bruno whispered, his voice cold as steel.
He lifted him with a single hand, as if Lerio's body were nothing but dead weight, and then, in one fluid and precise motion, the air around them exploded with energy. The veins in Bruno's arms glowed deep red - power flowing like living fire beneath his skin.
"This is the end."
With a primal scream, Bruno delivered one final punch - not just with his body's strength, but with everything inside him. The pressure of the blow warped the air around them, and on impact, Lerio's chest simply... collapsed.
"ORAAAAA
There was a dry, deep sound - like thunder cracking inside a cavern.
The mage's fused soul tried to resist, flames and shadows struggling to cling to life.
But it was too late.
Lerio's body was hurled backward, tearing through the tree, the earth, and the silence of the forest. When he finally stopped, he was no longer breathing. His once-golden eyes, filled with hatred, now stared blankly into nothingness - no destiny, no vengeance, nothing.
Bruno stood there, panting, his fist still clenched and trembling. Slowly, the red sparks around his body faded.
Behind him, Anaalyn staggered to his side. Even wounded, a small smile crept across her lips.
And there stood the monster of the forest