Chapter 100: Grimoire XI
The arena shook as Laxin’s chains hammered down, their sparks flaring like dying stars before wrapping tight around Vex’s ribcage. The undead monster jerked against the bindings, furnace-light guttering, its skeletal frame grinding under the weight of defiance.
Aria’s flames surged with him, vines wrapped in emerald fire lashing across the battlefield, each strike tearing apart the illusions Vex tried to raise. The whispers came sharper, crueler, more insidious—You’ll never be enough. You’ll always betray. Every step you take leads to ruin.
Her body shook, but she clenched her fists until blood welled from her palms, forcing her mind to focus on pain that was real, not the lies trying to choke her.
"No more running," she spat, her voice a broken snarl, "If I burn, I burn fighting!"
The vines ignited fully, fusing into a blazing spear that she hurled into the furnace. It struck true, carving a line of green fire across Vex’s chest. The monster staggered again, the bone there blackening, cracking, leaking raw golden miasma.
Vex’s voice broke into a furious hiss, its calm veneer finally slipping.
"Defiance... is meaningless!"
The furnace pulsed, releasing a shockwave that shattered Laxin’s chains into fragments of molten steel. He stumbled, coughing blood, but laughter bubbled up from his throat, ragged and wild.
"Meaningless? Then why do you look scared, you sack of bones?"
He forced more chains into existence, each link glowing red-hot from the strain on his soul. His eyes burned with a reckless light, his grin refusing to falter.
Fenric stepped forward again, calm where the others were storm. His silver flames pulsed brighter than before, steady, unyielding. The Fairy King Ring spun once on his finger, casting radiant arcs of light across the ruined arena.
"You’ve shown your limit, Vex. Fear is your only weapon—and fear loses its teeth when met head-on."
Vex’s skeletal head tilted, hollow eyes narrowing, furnace trembling with unstable fury. It lunged, claws outstretched, furnace blazing black-gold in desperation.
But this time, it wasn’t just Fenric intercepting.
Aria’s vines and fire roared upward, forming a blazing wall that caught one arm. Laxin’s reforged chains wrapped the other, straining with a metallic scream. Fenric surged through the opening, his palm blazing with condensed Dragon Tongue.
"Luxa Drath!"
The silver-white strike speared forward, driving into the cracked furnace. The blow pierced bone, flame, and shadow, burning a hole clean through.
Vex shrieked, a sound that split air and thought alike, the illusions around the battlefield unraveling in a storm of golden sparks. For the first time, the despair receded—not gone, but shaken.
The furnace flickered violently, no longer untouchable.
And in that trembling light, the trio stood together—bloodied, burned, barely standing, but united. Their bodies screamed with pain, but their wills roared louder.
For the first time, Vex had not just been resisted.
He had been wounded.
The battlefield fell into a tense stillness, broken only by the crackling of Aria’s green fire and the faint rattle of Laxin’s chains.
The hole in Vex’s furnace glowed like a dying star, leaking streams of unstable light.
For the first time since it had been summoned, the undead creation looked less like an invincible curse and more like a cornered beast.
Its skeletal frame hunched, claws dragging across the stone floor, gouging furrows as if it could dig strength from the earth itself. The black-gold fire inside it roared, no longer cold or calculating—it was feral now, erratic, lashing outward in bursts that set the very air aflame.
Fenric raised a hand, silver flames spreading in a wide shield to block the fallout. He glanced back at Aria and Laxin, his voice calm even through the storm.
"Stay steady. He’s dropping the games. This will be raw."
Aria wiped blood from her nose, grinning despite her trembling body.
"Good. I’m sick of whispers in my head. I’d rather fight claws than ghosts."
Laxin spat red into the dust, his grin jagged, eyes gleaming wild.
"Finally. A straight fight. Let’s see what you’ve got when the masks are gone."
Vex roared. The sound was no longer a calculated hiss but a guttural, primal wail. It surged forward, skeletal body ablaze, moving with brutal speed. The ground cracked under every step, the furnace-heart glaring like a sun dragged too close.
Its claws slashed for Aria, a whirlwind of bone and fire. She twisted aside, vines exploding from her grimoire to catch the strike—but the sheer weight of the blow ripped through, throwing her across the arena. She hit the ground hard, coughing blood but forcing herself back up, green flames igniting around her shoulders.
Laxin’s chains lashed in response, tangling Vex’s leg and yanking it sideways. For a heartbeat, he almost dragged the monster down. But the furnace pulsed violently, sending an eruption of black-gold fire down the chains. The links snapped, and the backlash sent Laxin flying, his arms shredded, skin blistered where the chains had fused to flesh.
Still, he laughed through bloodied teeth, dragging himself up with trembling legs.
"Yeah... that’s it. You hit harder when you’re scared."
Vex turned on him, furnace flaring, claws raised to strike.
But Fenric was already there. His silver flames erupted in a sweeping arc, his voice sharp in the Dragon Tongue.
"Veyl Drath!"
Wind and fire fused into a silver storm, slamming into Vex’s side and hurling it back. Bone splintered, shards flying like shrapnel, and the furnace flickered dangerously again.
Fenric stood firm, his mantle of flame undiminished, silver eyes locked on the monster.
"This ends soon. One way or another."
Vex steadied itself, the wound in its furnace sparking violently, each pulse more unstable than the last. Its hollow eyes burned with rage and desperation as it let out a bellow that rattled the broken coliseum.
There would be no more illusions.
No more whispers.
The next clash would be nothing but will against will, flesh against flame, until only one side remained standing.
Vex’s roar still echoed as the monster charged again, furnace flaring like a dying star on the verge of collapsing into a black hole. Every step it took sent cracks spiderwebbing across the arena floor, stone rising and falling in jagged waves from the sheer pressure of its unstable core.
Aria staggered upright, blood dripping from her chin, her emerald fire guttering but refusing to die. She clenched her fists, vines trembling as if they too fought to remain solid. "Fenric... Laxin... this thing’s going to burn itself out. But if we wait, it’ll take us with it."
Laxin wiped blood from his mouth with a shaky grin, chains materializing again despite his shredded arms. Each link glowed faintly red, formed from his own lifeblood. "Then we don’t wait. We choke it until the damn star goes out."
Fenric’s gaze stayed on Vex, silver flames rippling across his body like a second skin. His voice was calm, firm, the anchor that steadied their storm.
"Then we go together. Every strike, every ounce of will. No holding back."
The three of them nodded, no more words needed.
Vex struck first, claws tearing through the air like scythes. Aria met it with a wall of blazing vines, her flames screaming green-white as they wrapped around its arm. The bone cracked under the strain, furnace-light bleeding through the gaps like molten gold.
Laxin’s chains lashed in next, not for restraint but for destruction—each link detonating as it coiled, tearing chunks of rib and spine from Vex’s body. His face twisted with pain as the feedback seared into his flesh, but he pulled harder, laughing through the agony.
"Break! BREAK, DAMN YOU!"
Fenric moved last, stepping through the chaos with measured certainty. His silver flames condensed into his palm, denser than they had ever been before. The Fairy King Ring on his hand spun violently, arcs of light flaring like lightning across his arm. Dragon Tongue thundered from his lips—
"Noct Drath!"
Darkness answered the call, fusing with silver fire into a blade of night-flame. He drove it straight into the wound already carved in Vex’s furnace.
The impact was apocalyptic.
A scream tore from Vex that was less a sound than a rending of reality itself. The furnace cracked wide open, spilling black-gold fire in a geyser that devoured everything it touched. The skeletal body convulsed, bones shattering, illusions collapsing into storms of light.
Aria’s vines tightened, dragging the monster down. Laxin’s chains wrapped and detonated again, tearing its arms away. Fenric’s silver-dark blade sank deeper, piercing the heart of its existence.
The furnace finally shattered.
Golden miasma erupted in a tidal wave, engulfing the coliseum in searing brilliance. The world shook, stone collapsing, shadows dissolving into blinding light.
Through it all, the three of them stood their ground—fire, chain, and flame refusing to yield—until the roar dimmed, the furnace flickered, and the light died out.
What remained of Vex collapsed to the ground, its bones charred black, the furnace nothing but cracked ash. The arena was silent, save for the ragged breaths of the three who had endured.
The abomination of despair, for the first time, lay still.
Fenric exhaled slowly, silver flames dimming, eyes never leaving the broken husk.
"It’s done."
But even as the dust settled, a faint glimmer pulsed in the ash of the furnace—weak, unstable, but not gone.
Vex’s core was wounded.
Not destroyed.