The wind howled across the broken plains. Blood stained the rocks. Bones were buried under the dirt. Among them we saw the Borun. After his victory one Vestige ca to fight with him. He was on the ground.
He walked forward, dragging his chains behind him. Each step was heavy.
Across from him stood a girl. Small. Barefoot. Her robes were torn, soaked with old blood. She held a curved blade longer than she was tall. It scraped the ground, leaving sparks behind. She was in the air.
Her eyes were empty. Her mouth did not move. The blade scread for her.
Tseral. The Last Executioner. She descended in the ground. Borun's eyes stucked towards her. After that...
She moved without any warning.
Borun didn't blink. He was already prepared for that.
The first swing ca fast, a wide arc that split the air. Borun blocked with his chains, wrapping them around the curved blade. The tal groaned. Sparks flew.
But the blade kept moving. It twisted unnaturally, pulling itself free, and ca down again.
Borun stepped aside. Too slow. The blade cut across his shoulder. Blood sprayed.
He grunted and snapped his chains forward.
They shot out, trying to bind her arms. Tseral spun, the blade slicing through the links. One chain fell in pieces.
She charged again, dragging her sword along the ground. It scread louder now. Borun crouched and punched the ground.
Chains burst from the earth beneath her.
They coiled around her legs.
She didn't fall.
Tseral drove her sword straight into the ground. The earth trembled. A shockwave blasted out. The chains snapped.
Borun slid back, boots skidding on the dust.
Then he moved.
Both arms raised, he launched his chains in a wide sweep. They circled, then closed in like jaws.
Tseral t them head-on.
The sword clashed against the spinning links. For a mont, neither gave ground.
Then Tseral ducked low and rolled forward, under the wall of chains. Her blade ca up in a flash, cutting across Borun's ribs.
He growled and swung a fist.
It connected. She flew back, skidding across the ground, robes tearing.
Borun didn't give her ti to recover. He stomped forward, chains flying like snakes.
They wrapped around her wrists this ti, and he pulled.
She was yanked toward him.
He raised his knee.
It slamd into her gut.
Her body bent in half.
He spun and smashed her into the dirt.
The chains tightened.
She coughed blood.
Still, her hand twitched. The blade moved on its own.
It cut through the chains again.
She rolled away, coughing, but alive.
Borun's chest heaved. Cuts covered his body. One chain was gone. The others were dented.
Tseral stood slowly. Her face was blank, but her blade glowed red now.
She rushed him again.
Borun roared.
They t in the middle.
The sword ca down. The chains went up.
tal slamd against tal. Sparks filled the air.
Borun caught the blade with both chains. He twisted.
The sword snapped in half.
Tseral's eyes widened.
Borun didn't wait.
He punched her square in the chest.
Her feet left the ground. She flew backward, hit a broken mountain, and didn't rise.
Borun walked to her, breathing hard.
She tried to move.
He raised his fist one last ti.
It ca down.
Her body went still.
The battlefield fell silent again.
Borun stood over the Executioner, bleeding, battered, but victorious.
He looked at his broken chains, then at the fallen sword.
Then he turned and walked into the smoke. And she vaporized in the air.
The smoke cleared in bursts as wind rushed in from the ruined sky. We saw Caldra...
She stumbled through the molten rock, her body broken. One wing was gone. The other dragged uselessly. Her staff burned low, flas sputtering at the tip.
Draenya stood in the crater's center.
The Ash Drinker no longer laughed. Her skin had lted away in places, exposing blackened bone wrapped in glowing veins of fire. Her ribs showed. Her jaw cracked as she turned.
"You should've died in that blast," Draenya rasped, dragging her foot across molten stone. Her left arm dangled, half vaporized. Her breath stead. "You're still standing. Why?"
Caldra coughed blood, raised her staff.
"Because I was born in fla," she said, voice raw. "And I'll die in it, not to it."
Draenya snarled and charged.
Caldra swung her staff low. A wall of fire burst from the ground, blocking the path. Draenya crashed through it, shrieking as more of her flesh burned away. She tackled Caldra to the ground. The staff clattered to the side.
Caldra punched her in the face. Once. Twice. Flas burst from her fists. Draenya hissed, sinking black nails into Caldra's shoulder, tearing deep.
The two won rolled through ash and stone, flas lashing out around them.
Then Caldra kneed her in the gut. Draenya coughed molten blood. Caldra grabbed her by the face, stood up, and slamd her into the ground.
"Enough!" Caldra roared.
Her hand glowed white-hot.
Draenya's skin blackened under her grip.
Draenya cackled through a burning throat. "You don't have the strength to finish it."
Caldra didn't answer.
She reached her other hand toward the sky. The clouds parted as fire poured down, summoned by her will. Her whole body lit up like a sun.
She didn't speak.
She scread.
And the fla ca.
A column of pure fire dropped from the sky, engulfing both of them. The mountain crater shook. Rock lted into glass. The air rippled with heatwaves so strong that distant trees caught fire.
The light faded.
Ash rained.
Caldra lay on her back, unmoving. Her cloak gone. Her skin scorched.
Beside her, Draenya was nothing but blackened bones and cracked stone. Her jaw split open, frozen mid-laugh.
She was dead.
The Ash Drinker would drink no more.
Caldra's fingers twitched.
She was still alive.
Barely.
The sky burned orange above her.
She stared into it and whispered, "Still... not done yet…"
Then darkness took her eyes. Her eyes slowly slowly closed.
Thud.
Thud.
She fell in the ground. Vea and Svea saw it and moved fastly to help her.
They reached their and moved her towards the Frein. Frein was starting imdiately her treatnt through his healing magic.
Besides him Ren. Still unconscious. Protected in the mana shield.
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