CHAPTER 259: NERO VERSUS ELRETH IN AN EPIC MATCH

"What to say? She simply the best thing to ever happen to me, of course I’ll cherish her. She is my everything." Nero Adams

•••

The thirty minutes of peace were a precious island in a sea of rising tension. Nero and Khione sat slightly apart from the others, sharing delicate pastries and sweet fruits he produced from his spatial ring. They spoke in low murmurs, a private world where her icy demeanor thawed into soft smiles and his intense focus softened into quiet contentment. The ice queen was looking extremely beautiful right now. Their mini romantic moment continued for a while.

It was a necessary calm before the coming storm.

When the time came, Nero stood, his expression shifting from serene to sharply focused. He met Eltreth in the center of the scarred training ground. She held her black obsidian spear, her long crimson hair loose and flowing like a banner of war. Her orange eyes were blazing infernos, and visible heat shimmers distorted the air around her. The Law of Fire answered her call eagerly, flames wreathed around her body and along the spear’s length, causing the temperature to skyrocket and the very air to crackle with dryness.

Opposite her, Nero stood with his sword unsheathed. He had made a decision. To face the Princess of Flame with his own fire felt redundant, a clash of echoes. This was the perfect arena to hone his new, thrilling power. He would use only the Law of Lightning. As Khione gave the signal, a cascade of golden electricity enveloped him, a stark, brilliant counterpoint to her deep crimson inferno.

"Begin!"

Eltreth moved first, a predator unleashed. She sought to dominate from the first second.

"Scarlet Serpent’s Strike!" She thrust her spear, and the fire around it elongated, transforming the weapon into a massive, roaring serpent of pure flame that crossed the distance between them in an instant, its maw open wide to consume him.

The air itself burned in its wake. Nero didn’t meet it. With a sharp CRACK, his body dissolved into a streak of golden light. He Flash Stepped ten feet to the side, the fiery serpent slamming into the ground where he’d stood, leaving a trench of molten rock and superheated air.

He had no time to breathe. Eltreth was already spinning, her movements a fluid, aggressive dance. "Ember Lotus Bloom!" She slammed the butt of her spear into the earth. A circle of incandescent fire erupted around her, then shot outwards in a dozen spiraling tendrils of flame, each one seeking him out like a guided missile, cutting off every angle of escape.

Nero became a phantom woven from lightning. He didn’t just run; he flickered. He Flash Stepped in a zig-zag pattern, the after-images of his form lingering for a split second before being vaporized by the pursuing fire tendrils. The crack-crack-crack of his teleportation was a constant staccato rhythm against the roar of the flames. He was a ghost in the machine of her destruction, always one step ahead, the heat licking at his heels but never catching him.

The others—Lux, Adam, Azalea, and Blake—were forced to retreat further and further back. Adam erected a thick wall of earth to shield them from the concussive blasts of heat and the occasional stray bolt of lightning. They were no longer spectators in an arena; they were witnesses to a cataclysm, watching from a safe distance as two forces of nature remodeled the landscape.

"By the gods..." Lux whispered, his silver eyes wide. "He’s not even trying to counter-attack yet."

"He’s reading her," Azalea said, her analytical gaze missing nothing. "Learning the rhythm of her aggression."

Eltreth, realizing her area attacks were too slow, changed tactics. She focused her power, the flames around her condensing from a wild inferno into a tightly controlled, white-hot aura. She charged, her speed enhanced by explosive bursts of fire at her feet. She became a meteor, closing the distance in a blink.

"Sun Piercer Thrust!" Her spear became a needle of concentrated solar energy, aimed with lethal precision at his heart. It was too fast and direct to simply dodge.

Nero met it this time. He didn’t use his sword. He crossed his arms, and the golden lightning around him intensified into a solid, buzzing Lightning Aegis. The spear tip met the shield.

The sound was unbearable—a high-pitched shriek of energy as ultimate heat met ultimate speed. Light flashed, blinding everyone for a moment. When it cleared, Nero had been pushed back several feet, his boots leaving deep gouges in the earth, but his shield held. The point of impact glowed orange, the lightning desperately dissipating the thermal energy.

A wild, exhilarated laugh escaped Eltreth. "YES! Finally! A real fight!"

A matching grin, fierce and full of battle-joy, spread across Nero’s face. The defensive phase was over.

He exploded into motion. "Lightning Lash!" He flicked his wrist, and a whip of crackling electricity snapped toward her spear, trying to wrench it from her grasp. Eltreth yanked it back, the fire around the shaft fighting the current.

Nero didn’t let up. He Flash Stepped above her, "Heaven’s Judgment!" A pillar of lightning slammed down. Eltreth looked up, unafraid, and met it with "Solar Flare Burst!" A sphere of miniature sunfire shot from her palm, meeting the pillar in a mid-air detonation that rained fire and sparks down upon them both.

The battle escalated into a beautiful, terrifying symphony of destruction. The world dissolved into two colors: gold and crimson.

Eltreth would unleash a Phoenix Descent, a colossal bird of fire that swooped down from the sky. Nero would answer by becoming the lightning itself, Flash Stepping through its ethereal form, his passage tearing it apart from the inside.

He would create a Storm Wall, a advancing curtain of forking lightning. She would respond with a Scarlet Dragon’s Roar, a continuous beam of incinerating flame that pushed against the lightning, the two forces grinding against each other in a violent, unstable equilibrium that shredded the earth between them.

They were no longer just fighting; they were creating art from annihilation. They danced across the hellscape they were creating, their laughter ringing out—hers a triumphant, fiery peal, his a low, exhilarated chuckle—a stark contrast to the roaring elements and the ground shaking beneath their feet.

Eltreth was a queen of unbridled power, every move meant to overwhelm and incinerate. Nero was the king of impossible speed and precision, a storm that could not be caught, striking with the unpredictable fury of a thunderbolt.

The end came swiftly. Eltreth, panting and glorious, her prana reserves finally dipping low, gathered the last of her strength for one final, magnificent technique. "Crimson Star: Supernova!" She leaped into the air, compressing all her remaining fire into a single, dense orb the size of her fist above her spear tip. It glowed with the light of a dying star, promising absolute obliteration.

Nero felt the immense pressure. He couldn’t deflect this. He had to overwhelm it at the source. He planted his feet, sheathed his sword, and raised both hands to the sky. The golden star in his heart blazed. All the scattered lightning in the area, every spark and arc, converged on his outstretched hands, forming a spinning, chaotic sphere of raw power.

"Divine Wrath: Thor’s Answer."

He thrust his hands forward. The sphere of lightning shot forth, not as a beam, but as a solid, roaring projectile of contained storm.

The Supernova met Thor’s Answer.

There was no sound. For a heart-stopping second, there was only a sphere of blinding white light. Then, the silence broke.

The resulting explosion was unlike any before. A ring of force and energy expanded outward, vaporizing what little remained of the training ground’s features. Adam’s earth wall shattered, and the group was thrown back onto the grass. When the light faded and the dust settled, a massive, glass-smooth crater stretched where the field had been.