Chapter 94 ‒ A Lone Flame in the Crucible
Chapter 94 ‒ A Lone Flame in the Crucible
Tyler pushed forward through the suffocating heat, each step echoing like a hammer strike against the charred stones. His scorched armour creaked with every motion, the molten wind snatching at his tattered cloak and tossing it behind him like a dying banner.
At the forest edge, two frantic silhouettes stumbled toward him — Tweeto, feathers blackened and twitching, and Bongo Banana, eyes wide with primal terror.
“[Player]! Don’t go there!” Tweeto shrieked, wings flaring. “It’s madness — the whole sky turned into a wound! We saw black clouds, crimson lightning tearing open the dawn. We were planning to leave soon, but we knew it was too late today!”
Bongo Banana pounded his fists together, his yellow fur singed in clumps. “Whole town’s cursed now! Monsters everywhere… even the ground is alive with hate!”
Tyler paused for a heartbeat, his eyes drifting to the horizon. Crimson lightning tore jagged scars across the sky, each flash illuminating the roiling black clouds like a demon’s pulse. His breath snagged in his throat, and his fingers curled tighter around the sword’s hilt.
Was this what Yandeon had warned him about? The darkness he could not escape?
He said nothing. Just lowered his gaze, stepped past them, and moved into the inferno alone.
As he crossed the last ridge above Shindo, the true horror unfolded before him.
[Entering Sanctuary: Crucible Gate]
[Divine Key – Zephryn’s Gale is resonating]
[Divine Key – Myrrak’s Hollow is resonating]
[Divine Key – Volkrayne’s Volt is resonating]
The snowy rooftops — gone. The peaceful gardens — swallowed by rivers of lava and ash. A flood of molten rock coiled through the streets, turning old plazas into gaping hellmouths. Shadows danced along the cracked walls like ghosts trying to claw free.
In the centre of that molten sea, amidst collapsed arches and burning lantern frames, a single figure staggered forward.
Nellisa.
Her pale hair matted to her forehead, blood dripping down her cheeks in slow rivulets. Around her, charred corpses of Storm Wizards lay twisted and still, their fingers frozen mid-reach — as though even in their last moments they had tried to protect her.
She stood there, shoulders quaking. Then her head snapped up, her lips parting in a howl that was half-laughter, half-scream. Her eyes glimmered with a wild, feverish light.
“[Player]… you’ve come at last…” she rasped, her voice ragged and delirious.
Tyler stepped from the ashen haze, each footfall sinking slightly into molten-cracked tiles. His eyes — once bright with purpose — now flickered with exhausted sorrow. He scanned the carnage, took in her trembling, blood-slicked hands. His throat closed around a thousand words he could not say.
Nellisa lurched toward him, eyes wide, like a starving animal seeing prey.
“[Player]… there is still time… join hands with me! Kill that treacherous bastard who betrayed my father! Kill him! End this with me!”
Tyler shook his head slowly. The motion felt heavy, as though the entire sky pressed against it. His mouth opened, but the words were brittle.
“No,” he whispered. “Look around you… Shindo is gone. The kingdom you claimed to avenge… turned to ash and screams. Was this really what you wanted?”
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Nellisa’s face twitched, a dozen emotions warring across her skin — disbelief, fury, and a bright, shimmering glee.
“I don’t care!” she screeched, spit flying. “They deserve it! Every wall, every life here — all of it worthless without Father’s justice! Let them all burn!”
Tyler’s hand dropped to his side, trembling. So lost… so far gone…
She stepped forward, shoving her tattered dress aside, pulling free the real ice sword. Its glacial glow hummed beneath the crimson sky, a blade both beautiful and hateful.
“Pathetic… If you won’t do it, I WILL!”
She lunged, swinging the sword with unsteady force toward King Wing, who knelt some distance away, struggling beneath a writhing mass of vengeful spirits.
Tyler’s hand shot forward.
[Activated Skill: Spider Web]
Shimmering threads shot out, catching her mid-lunge. She howled, veins standing out across her throat as she twisted and writhed, eyes rolling.
“LET ME GO! I HAVE TO KILL HIM! THIS IS ALL I HAVE LEFT!”
Her voice cracked and splintered. Her teeth gnashed, and tears cut clean streaks down her filthy face, sizzling as they dripped onto her scorched skin.
At her feet, a dying Storm Wizard’s hand reached, shaking violently. His mouth parted in a last, desperate gasp.
“Your… Highness… please… run…”
His hand fell limp. His eyes glazed over, reflecting the flicker of crimson lightning one final time before fading.
Nellisa didn’t turn. Her eyes stayed locked on King Wing, a predator seeing only prey.
King Wing, meanwhile, snarled as spirits clawed at him, each swipe tearing bloody rents across his arms and back. He shoved them away with primal force, grabbing a fallen guard’s cracked spear. His chest heaved, blood trickling from his lips.
Tyler stepped toward him, the spider silk still shimmering between his fingers.
“Stop — you can’t keep fighting. You’ll die here for nothing.”
King Wing spat blood, eyes wild with defiance. “I don’t need your pity! I don’t need help! I… am the king…! I can kill them all… alone!”
With a roar, he lunged at Tyler, swinging the broken spear in a desperate arc. Tyler’s eyes narrowed. He dodged, stepping behind King Wing in a single pivot.
[Activated Skill: Spider Web]
The strands shot forward, wrapping around King Wing’s arms and torso, slamming him against a half-melted pillar. The spear slipped from his fingers, clanging to the ground.
King Wing struggled, his eyes bloodshot, teeth bared like a cornered beast.
“NO! I… will not… kneel…!”
Tyler didn’t flinch. He pressed the web tighter, watching as King Wing’s strength faltered, his head slumping forward at last.
Nellisa’s eyes bulged at the scene, her screams descending into manic sobs. “You… you took everything! You took my revenge! You… you ruined it! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!”
Tyler knelt before her, his voice barely above a whisper. “There is no vengeance left to be had. Only ashes.”
She didn’t hear him. Or refused to. Her entire body convulsed against the web, fingers grasping for the sword that lay now just beyond her reach, its icy glow dimming as it sank into a pool of lava.
In one fluid motion, Tyler pressed a hidden nerve point along her jawline. Her eyes rolled back, her body slackened, and at last, silence.
He stood, his breath ragged. His gaze swept across the shattered plaza, to where Shindeon now loomed.
Shindeon’s horns pulsed with living lightning, molten steam hissing from every joint. He flexed his enormous fists, savouring each curl of magma around his knuckles. Slowly, he turned his gaze downward, locking onto Tyler.
[Shindeon, Infernal Warden of the Underworld] [Level 250]
“So… the little puppet finally returns,” Shindeon rumbled, each syllable a molten boulder crashing into the earth. His blade — a monstrous slab of dark shards wreathed in crackling red lightning — scraped along the ground, carving molten trenches into the plaza stones.
He drove it down into the earth with a thunderous impact.
Crimson veins of energy split outward like a spiderweb, ripping open molten rifts. Vengeful spirits burst forth, their faces twisted into shapes of eternal torment, shrieking as they clawed at the sky.
Shindeon’s lips peeled back into a smirk that dripped with malice. “Last time, you faced only a shell. Even then… you needed that pathetic little companion to protect you.”
Tyler’s jaw tightened, memories flickering — Milo’s bright eyes, his foolish grin, the warmth in his voice as he swung a broken broomstick on moonlit rooftops.
I’m alone now… but I am not that same child.
Shindeon tilted his head, a taunting purr rumbling in his chest. “No smiling fool to hide behind… no brother’s warmth to cling to. Just you — and me.”
Tyler drew his magma sword fully. Its glow sputtered against the blood-red sky, but beneath the flickering light, his grip did not waver.
He stepped forward. The molten ground hissed beneath his feet. The spirits recoiled momentarily, watching like a horde of jackals circling a lone lion.
“Then I’ll face you alone,” Tyler said, his voice even and unyielding.
Shindeon roared in laughter, a sound that bent the air and shattered broken tiles. Sparks and lava fountained upward, lighting the night like a thousand dying stars.
Tyler lowered his stance, eyes burning. His breath steadied, each exhale a defiance against the crushing heat and despair around him.
“Come then,” he murmured. “Let’s finish this.”
For a single heartbeat, the world stilled. Even the spirits froze in place, the air itself seemed to shiver.
Then Tyler launched forward, a lone ember tearing toward a towering infernal god.