Chapter 97 ‒ Echoes of Ash and Frost
Chapter 97 ‒ Echoes of Ash and Frost
The molten wind shrieked between broken towers, scattering burning embers like fireflies across the shattered plaza. In the midst of the devastation, Shindeon’s roar split the darkness — a sound more primal than any storm, more ancient than any prayer.
His claws trembled, spread wide and empty, as if they could not comprehend the absence of their sword. Lava-like blood gushed from cracks that spread across his armour like a web of lightning, dripping and sizzling into rivers of glowing slag at his feet. His breaths came in heavy, ragged gulps, each exhale sending waves of heat that twisted and warped the air.
Tyler stood across from him, the Ice Sword humming coldly in his grasp. His fingers locked so tightly on the hilt that even through armoured gauntlets, his knuckles turned bone-pale. Each pant left a fog on the cracked visor of his helmet. In that instant, the space between them felt vast — a void brimming with fury, fear, and the echo of inevitability.
Shindeon’s burning eyes flared as he bellowed, lunging forward with both fists. The ground beneath him shattered like glass, molten waves surging out in all directions. Tyler’s instincts screamed, and he vanished sideways in a flicker of blue — [Dash] tearing a blazing arc across the plaza.
He felt the searing heat graze his side, fragments of magma pelting his armour like meteor shards. He flipped backward, landing hard, frost shards scattering beneath his boots. Shindeon crashed into the spot where Tyler had stood, leaving a crater wide enough to swallow a house.
Tyler ducked forward, slashing low at Shindeon’s exposed collarbone crack. Lava-like blood burst out like a geyser, splattering across Tyler’s pauldrons and hissing violently as it slid over the frost blade.
Shindeon swung his claws in a sweeping arc, his voice thundering, “I will crush your bones to dust! You scurry about like a rat—!”
Tyler’s blade sliced into Shindeon’s inner elbow, forcing the titan’s arm to jerk violently aside. Another blow to the chest; another to the ribs. Each slash left an icy scar, each eruption of molten blood illuminated Tyler’s expressionless visor with fiery reflections.
He’s panicking… his movements are losing precision… keep moving… keep cutting.
Tyler darted under another claw swipe, pivoting over shattered statues and dipping through columns of steam. The Ice Sword flashed with every lunge, tracing arcs that looked like moonlight ribbons against the night sky.
Shindeon staggered, reeling back, volcanic steam venting from dozens of wounds. Cracks spread across his molten plates like spiderwebs, the glow beneath them flickering erratically.
In a final desperate pivot, Shindeon gathered himself. His horns glowed brighter than molten stars as he roared, “Enough! You dare mock a god’s design?! You carve my flesh as if I were mere clay?!”
Tyler’s eyes narrowed beneath the helmet. His heartbeat slammed in his skull like a war drum.
Shindeon lunged again, both fists raised overhead. Tyler’s gaze flickered to the massive dark sword still embedded in the molten ground nearby.
“Now… It’s now or never.”
Tyler activated [Gigantify]. His body expanded upward with a grotesque stretch, plates of frost shattering and scattering like dying comets. The ground heaved under his colossal weight, sending cracks radiating outward in seismic rings.
With trembling, oversized fingers, Tyler seized the dark sword’s hilt. Sparks exploded from his gauntlets as the weapon’s unearthly aura surged against his grip. Infernal runes crackled along its edges, each line pulsing like a black heart.
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Shindeon’s eyes widened in shock, his molten pupils contracting into pinpoints. “You dare…!”
“Finally! A sword of my size!”
Tyler roared, his voice booming across the city like a collapsing mountain. He lifted the dark blade overhead — it felt like hoisting an entire mountain, his joints shrieking under the strain — and swung it downward, driving it into Shindeon’s chest with a sickening, echoing crunch.
Molten blood gushed skyward in a volcanic spray. Cracks spiderwebbed from the point of impact, arcs of lightning crackling outward as if the entire city had been struck by a divine spear. Shindeon’s massive form quaked, his claws clawing at the embedded blade uselessly.
His eyes — once radiant with unstoppable malice — now glimmered with something else. Confusion. Pain. Fear.
Shindeon rasped, molten spittle spraying from his maw as he stammered, “I… I… cannot…!” His fingers twitched, claw tips sparking as they scraped across his chest plate.
Tyler’s body shuddered as he released the hilt, shrinking rapidly as [Gigantify] ended. He dropped to the ground, rolling across fractured stone, his breaths tearing out in hoarse rasps.
For a brief, surreal moment, the two figures faced each other — one mortal, heaving and bloodied; the other a towering god, mortally wounded, trembling like a broken monolith.
Shindeon staggered backward, his molten legs buckling beneath him. With a strangled bellow, he dropped to one knee, magma coursing down like rivers from his wounds. His fists fell to the ground, fingers digging furrows into the molten earth as he struggled to remain upright.
Tyler forced himself upright, drawing ragged breaths. Memories swirled in his head — Milo’s innocent smile, Nellisa’s haunted laugh, the frostbitten cries of Shindo’s lost soldiers. Every moment crashing down into a single, cold point.
Shindeon raised his molten gaze, a single ember of defiance flickering. His voice emerged in ragged, fractured growls.
“I am… Shindeon… Infernal Warden of the Underworld…” He coughed lava, splattering the ground like burning coals. “I was not born to live… but to burn… to reduce all to ash… to herald the end…”
Tyler’s hands trembled, the Ice Sword reflecting the molten glow of Shindeon’s body.
Shindeon’s head tilted slightly, his molten eyes narrowing as if searching for something beyond Tyler’s visor. “It was not hatred that guided me… it was design… I was… made to be this…”
A long pause. A molten drop rolled from Shindeon’s jaw and hit the ground with a hiss. “Even for a god… even we cannot defy our design…” His claws curled into the earth, the last strength draining from them. “Yet now… I see it again… that fire… brighter than my own… for the second time…”
Tyler’s eyes widened behind the visor, his fingers tightening on the sword.
Shindeon’s molten chest heaved, the light in his eyes dimming. “Slay me… warrior… claim your prize… but know this — I will return… stronger than before… and next time… your world will not escape the flame…”
A moment of pure silence stretched between them. The plaza trembled as if holding its breath.
Tyler took a single step forward, raising the Ice Sword to shoulder height. His own voice came out as a whisper, barely audible over the shifting lava. “Even if you return… I’ll be waiting…”
Shindeon’s molten lips curled in what almost looked like a smile. A final shudder wracked his towering form.
Tyler lunged. One horizontal slash — clean and final.
The blade tore through Shindeon’s neck, and [Freeze Core] triggered instantly. Frost spiralled across the severed head, turning it into a shimmering, crystalline sculpture midair.
When it crashed to the ground, it shattered into thousands of icy shards, scattering like falling stars over the molten rivers.
Shindeon’s decapitated body let out one last guttural groan before collapsing forward. His massive form fragmented into particles of pale, fading light, swirling upward in a silent, ghostly spiral toward the dark sky.
A series of crystalline chimes echoed faintly as the fragments vanished one by one, leaving behind only the hissing of molten pools and the quiet groan of shifting rubble.
[+90 XP]
[Level Up! Tyler Level 146 → 148]
[Attribute Points: +2]
[Achievement Unlocked: Trials of the Ember]
[Grade: AA]
[Condition: Defeat the Primordial Beast, Shindeon, the Infernal Warden of the Underworld]
[Acquired Item: Massive Dark Sword]
[Acquired Item: Ancient Bone]
[Acquired Item: Divine Key (4/5)]
[Divine Key Acquired — Shindeon’s Ember]
[Acquired Runestone — Firestorm]
[Skill: Firestorm]
[Inflicts 40 burning damage to all targets within a 2.5 meter range, for 5 seconds. PE Cost: 20]
Tyler stood frozen, shoulders slumped, the frost blade lowered to his side. The molten reflections danced across his armour, painting him in shifting patterns of crimson and ghostly blue.
Ash drifted gently around him, settling on the broken stones like a funeral shroud. The ruined city lay silent, save for the occasional crackle of cooling magma.
Through his cracked visor, a single, weary eye gazed upward.
“Even gods shatter… and so do men… What remains of me now?”