Chapter 95 ‒ Between Ash and Silence
Chapter 95 ‒ Between Ash and Silence
Ash and molten sparks flickered across the shattered avenues of Shindo. Tyler stood alone amidst the crimson glow, breath scraping raggedly against his helmet. Every inch of his armour bore black scorch marks, and the magma sword in his grasp pulsed like an angry heart.
Around him, fragments of ghostly red spirits faded into curling mist. System messages blinked at the edges of his vision again and again, seven times.
[Level Up! Tyler Level 139 → 146]
But there was no triumph in his eyes; only a dull, echoing fatigue gnawed at his core.
His body was battered, his mind felt splintered — but he had no choice but to move forward.
Beyond the fog of burning embers, Shindeon towered like a living volcano. Horns crackled with red lightning; molten blood pulsed beneath jagged armour plates. The ground beneath his feet frothed and boiled, steam pillars rising like dying screams into the sooty sky.
“Finally finished scuttling about with my incompetent servants?” Shindeon boomed, his voice dripping disdain. “I expected better from spirits born of agony… pathetic.”
Tyler narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip. Without a word, he dashed forward, a molten trail burning behind his boots.
Shindeon tilted his head slightly, almost bored. In a blur, Tyler activated [Ram], slamming into Shindeon’s chest. But instead of staggering the titan, the impact rebounded Tyler as if he’d struck an unyielding cliff. His back slammed into the molten ground, sparks and cracked stones exploding around him.
He coughed violently, his head spinning. Steam hissed around his shoulders, rising from the sudden contact with searing rock.
“Is that all?!” Shindeon’s voice thundered, echoing across the ruined city. “You charge like a rabid dog — and expect a god to flinch?”
Tyler staggered up, eyes flashing. He ignited [Berserk], red energy spiralling up his arms, his muscles swelling under the strain. His knuckles cracked as he gripped the magma sword with all his might, veins bulging along his forearms. He lunged in again, hacking with raw, desperate ferocity.
Shindeon caught the blade between two massive claws and twisted. Tyler was ripped off his feet, flung through the air, crashing into a half-melted pillar that splintered around him like brittle ice. A shower of molten shards rained down, hissing against his scorched armour.
His defence… I can’t penetrate it…!
Sweat and blood mixed across Tyler’s jaw. His legs trembled as he forced himself upright, each breath rattling like broken glass.
“You dance well enough for an insect,” Shindeon taunted, stepping forward, molten footprints burning deep craters into the ground. “Try again. Let me see how you scurry before I squash you.”
Tyler drew in a deep, ragged breath. He ducked low and triggered [Dash], weaving through collapsing arches and spiralling flame pillars. The cityscape around him blurred in streaks of black smoke and crimson embers. His magma sword slashed repeatedly, but each blow skittered harmlessly off Shindeon’s hide, sparking like pebbles striking a mountain.
Shindeon’s gaze followed each flicker of motion, unamused. With a single casual swing of his enormous blade, he tore an entire avenue apart, magma and stone blasting skyward in a violent storm. Buildings that had survived the initial quake now collapsed into heaps of ash and molten slag.
Tyler leaped back, barely dodging the molten deluge. The ground below him buckled, splitting open to reveal searing red veins of lava that licked at his boots.
He snapped his fingers, activating [Ink Cloud]. Thick, churning smoke enveloped Shindeon’s upper torso. Tyler seized the moment and hurled a [Fireball] point-blank.
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The orb smashed against Shindeon’s face in a dull burst of flame and ash.
When the smoke cleared, Shindeon laughed — a booming, rumbling sound that made the ground quake, loose bricks hopping in place.
“You truly never learn!” he bellowed. “Fine then, insect — I shall show you what real fire looks like!”
[Shindeon Activated Skill: Firestorm]
Infernal gouts of flame erupted around Shindeon’s body, spiralling skyward in a savage dance of crimson death. Trees burst like overripe fruit, rooftops disintegrated in waves of ember hail.
Yet Tyler remained still, his armour shimmering faintly with a hidden glow. The flames wrapped around him but left no mark.
Shindeon’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Why aren’t you burnt by the flames which annihilate everything?”
“I guess, your flames don’t reach me.”
[Passive Skill: Flame Nullification]
“Hmph… a cheap trick,” he spat, molten spittle sizzling at his feet. “Hiding behind borrowed resistances. How typical.”
He paused, tilting his monstrous head, his molten breath gusting across the plaza, distorting the air in violent waves.
“Why not try that cowardly [Poison Mist] trick you used before?” Shindeon mocked, sparks cascading from his maw. “Or did your pathetic companion take that trick to the grave with him?”
Tyler’s fingers trembled against the sword hilt. Milo… The memory stabbed deeper than any blade. His laughter, the gentle teasing — gone in an instant. A hollow echo in a city now consumed by flame.
Shindeon continued, savouring each syllable. “Even if you tried that wretched poison, it would fail. My [Firestorm] would reduce every drop to ash before it touched my skin.”
Shindeon resumed walking forward, [Firestorm] still raging. His horns crackled with red lightning, and each slow, deliberate footstep sent tremors through the shattered stones, toppling lamp posts and splintered barricades.
Tyler squinted against the radiating heat. “Then… why use it at all? You know it can’t burn me.”
Shindeon’s molten eyes gleamed, voice suddenly deep and resonant — not cruel, but regal and absolute. “Reason? I require no reason to burn this world. I was not created to reason, to build, to weep. I exist to burn. To reduce all to ash. That is the purest existence — no doubts, no hesitation. Only flame.”
Tyler stood silent, the roar of [Firestorm] surging around him like an ocean of screams. He… he truly is destruction itself…
With a sudden pivot, Tyler dashed backward, creating distance. He inhaled sharply and activated [Eagle Eye], his pupils narrowing to pinpoints of savage focus.
[Activated Skill: Lightning Bolt]
A crackling surge of blue-white energy arced across the molten battlefield, striking Shindeon’s shoulder with a bright, jagged flash.
Shindeon flinched — but only slightly. The scorch mark quickly receded beneath fresh molten flow.
“Interesting,” Shindeon rumbled, rolling his shoulders. “But your sting is still that of a gnat.”
Tyler’s breathing trembled. Even this barely scratches him… how can I breach that monstrous defence…?
Suddenly, a hoarse roar rang out behind him.
King Wing burst from his webbed prison, wild-eyed and bleeding. His body trembled, but defiance glowed in his frostbitten pupils.
“[Player]! Stay out of this!” he howled, stumbling forward. “I will… I must… defeat him with my own hands!”
Shindeon turned his gaze lazily. “Ah… the insect dares squeak again.”
King Wing lunged with a frenzied punch at Shindeon’s midsection. Shindeon’s tail coiled, then snapped forward like a whip, smashing into King Wing’s ribs. The tyrant was hurled backward, rolling across molten shards and coughing blood. Ash fluttered around him like dark snow.
Even still, he crawled forward, gasping. “I… I can’t… submit…!”
Behind Tyler, Nellisa’s frail figure shifted. She dragged herself forward, ash clinging to her hair and cloak like funeral shrouds.
In her shaking hands: a sword. Frost-blue, runes glowing faintly, as if breathing with its own frozen heart.
“Take it…” she rasped, her voice dry as cracked ice. “Kill… the monster… please…”
Tyler’s eyes flicked to her, then to the blade.
“Not again…” he whispered.
But Nellisa didn’t speak again. Her fingers slipped from the hilt, her body sagging to the ground like a broken marionette.
[Acquired Item: Ice Sword (+30 ATK, Freeze Core)]
[Passive Skill: Freeze Core]
[Freezes the target for up to 5 seconds. 25% chance of activating.]
Tyler wrapped his hand around the frost-chilled hilt. A deep cold rushed up his arm, biting into his bones but clearing his mind like an arctic wind.
He looked down at Nellisa’s still form, then across to King Wing, who lay half-conscious, blood trailing from his lips, eyes fixed on the sky in grim defeat.
Above them, Shindeon flexed his claws and exhaled molten breath that turned the air into shimmering waves of agony. Cracks widened across the plaza, belching heat like wounds.
Tyler lifted the ice sword, the runes pulsing beneath his trembling fingers.
He exhaled, his heartbeat slow and heavy. For Milo… for Shindo… for every life lost beneath this burning sky…
Tyler stepped forward, frost blade humming with resolve, magma sword waiting at his back.
The molten rivers froze for an instant, as if the world inhaled in dread.
Tyler lowered into his stance, eyes sharp, unflinching.
Above, lightning cracked along Shindeon’s horns, casting his silhouette across the fractured city.
“Come,” Tyler whispered into the roaring wind. “This ends now.”
And thus, the final duel began — a lone warrior, a blade of frost and will, against an infernal god of pure destruction.