Jenkins stood on the stone bridge spanning the abyss and took a deep breath. He wasn't out of options yet. Without the White Bone Holy Sword, he himself was the most formidable weapon. As the World Tree Seedling, he knew the terrifying power that lay dormant within him.
"Hah!"
Without a mont's hesitation, he t the descending, fiery spiral sword. A true surge of physical power made Jenkins seem to grow taller in an instant, though thankfully without any grotesque, bulging muscles. He ignored the terrifying flas spewing from the Balrog, instead raising his hands and clamping them down—
Boom!
The dreadful flas from the Sin's Eternal Fla Greatsword and the demonic fire spewed by the Balrog engulfed the bridge, scouring its fractured surface. Yet, amidst the inferno, Jenkins stood unmoving, his hands held high, having brought the spiral sword to a dead stop.
"Hmm?"
The Balrog's wild laughter ceased. It stared at the ant-like human beneath its blade and imdiately understood what was happening.
Jenkins couldn't determine the current era, but it was, in fact, the 10th Epoch. The ancient Balrog, however, had been born in a much earlier age and was heir to even more ancient knowledge.
None of Jenkins's previous opponents had truly recognized what he was, but the Balrog did:
"The World Tree!"
The sword was retracted. The Balrog spread its arms, and an eruption of violet-red demonic flas completely flooded the abyss. A deafening roar and an explosive blast of violent spirit swept through everything. The Balrog was enraged.
Jenkins chose not to use his own fire or transform into an elental form like a fla spirit. Instead, he allowed himself to feel the surrounding inferno, to experience the power contained within the demonic flas, seeking a resonance with the natural elents.
The Balrog's next attack was a fist wreathed in demonic fire, thrown with all its might toward Jenkins on the bridge. It seed that even if it couldn't flatten him, it was determined to shatter the bridge itself.
In stark contrast to the Balrog's colossal fra, Jenkins, who was no bigger than a cat by comparison, also thrust his fist upward. The demonic fist collided with one glowing with flecks of green light. The resulting shockwave from the imnse force blew away much of the fla cloaking the Balrog's body, while the bones and weapons littering the bridge were swept clean, tumbling into the abyss.
The entire abyss trembled. Even the subterranean ruins that ford the backdrop behind Jenkins suffered a chain reaction of collapses. Jenkins didn't move an inch, though his boots burst and his feet sank slightly into the bridge's surface. He retracted his fist, feeling the inexhaustible power surging within him. The Balrog, however, roared in fury as it watched green cracks spread across the surface of its fiery fist. It staggered, about to fall backward, but managed to steady itself by plunging its spiral greatsword into the fractured bridge, causing the stone structure to shudder once more.
Its left hand brandished a chain of fire, whipping it through the air in a brilliant arc. Then, with a furious roar, the fla-wreathed chain lashed out at Jenkins on the bridge.
Jenkins reached out and caught the end of the chain. Blisters instantly ford on his hands from the heat, only to vanish just as quickly. He pulled taut the chain, forged from demonic tal, yanking it so hard that the colossal Balrog nearly lost its grip on the weapon.
Seeing Jenkins using both hands, the Balrog leaned forward again, this ti unleashing a sea of bright red fire. This fla was tainted with the evil of the Balrog's soul, making it more dangerous than any fire Jenkins had ever encountered.
The ancient Balrog was giving its all, yet as the sea of fire descended, it inexplicably parted around Jenkins's position, like a waterfall split by an invisible blade.
In the green light of Jenkins's eyes, the shadow of a tree seed to flicker for an instant.
"Get over here!"
He roared, pulling the Balrog's chain completely into his grasp. He quickly wrapped one end around his arm, then whipped the chain forward. With a sharp shriek that tore through the air, it pierced straight through the Balrog's body and shot toward the other side of the abyss.
But such a wound was equally insignificant to the Balrog. The enraged monster pulled its spiral greatsword from the bridge. The flas burning on its body began to die down, and even the light in its terrifying yellowish-brown pupils started to fade. It was pouring all of its power into the sword, using the vast, profound, and essential force of its very soul—almost a form of self-destruction—to fully ignite the flas of the Sin's Eternal Fla Greatsword.
An ignited sword—this was the true Sin's Greatsword. Imbued with the Balrog's full power, the blade fell as if to cleave the abyss in two. Even as Jenkins yanked the chain back to block it, the chain lted into molten iron in the greatsword's fire.
He raised both hands. As the spiral sword descended from the heavens, carrying with it imnse heat, force, and the Balrog's curse, he caught it, stopping it once again.
The Balrog imdiately released the hilt. Its massive body lit up once more, and an intensely hot light gathered at the location of its heart. The crimson flas, compressed to an extre degree, even began to glow white.
Then, in the depths of the abyss, the Balrog self-destructed.
From a species perspective, the ancient Balrog was a type of demon, originating from the [Lava Hells]. Therefore, the fire from its self-destruction and the fire from the explosion of the [Twin Demons] could both be called "demonic fire."
But just as Jenkins and Sigrid were both half-elves, and just as Chocolate and the pet cat of the Goodman family next door were both cats, so things with similar nas are, in fact, vastly different.
Jenkins didn't know who the last person to face an ancient Balrog's self-destruction head-on was, and he was quite curious if they had survived. In any case, he hadn't died.
The Balrog's massive explosion was truly earth-shattering for Jenkins. From the unseen darkness high above, a rain of falling rocks even began to descend.
The Balrog's fire slamd into Jenkins, finally knocking him down. But he used the force of the impact to toss away the now-useless spiral greatsword, then transford mid-air into a violet-gold ball of light. From within the light, he erged as a tiny mouse.
The nimble mouse was thrown backward by the blast. Its tiny paws latched onto the broken sword jutting from the bridge. With a quick pull, the entire Jenkins-mouse ducked behind the remains of the blade.
The power of the Balrog's self-destruction was certainly enough to threaten Jenkins's life. For a mont, the explosive demonic fire had nearly vaporized him upon contact. Fortunately, his body was no longer that of an ordinary half-elf. The power of the World Tree, though still faint, had been enough to let him confront the Balrog head-on, and it was certainly enough to ensure his survival through its self-destruction.
Of course, the most crucial factor was that the little gray mouse had hidden behind the hilt of the White Bone Holy Sword, which was still stuck askew in the bridge. In the Balrog's self-destruction, the broken holy sword had shielded Jenkins from the worst of the threat.
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