CHAPTER 25: DUSKFALL SAVED... OR DOOMED?!

Fuck. Everything had gone to shit ever since we arrived in this world.

I knew it, I felt it in my gut from the very first day. Not a single second of respite. Normally, hero summoning stories were beautiful, grandiose. The world applauds, people treat you like saviors, and the path is all laid out. But for us? Nothing but goddamn chaos.

My mother and my stepbrother had gone on a suicide mission in the middle of a tide of ravenous monsters. And now... this giant. This fucking giant smashing the wall like it was a toy.

I froze, mouth open, unable to believe what my eyes were seeing. How had humanity even survived until now? It didn’t make a goddamn bit of sense.

Two hands clamped down on my shoulders. I shook my head, startled, and Reina’s icy face filled my vision.

— "Get a grip, goddammit!"

Her black eyes drilled into me, sharp as steel.

I swallowed hard, clicked my tongue.

— "Ah... yeah, sorry."

A roar split the air. A yellow light, bright as an artificial sun, burst across the battlefield. Albrecht, the commander, was already charging the giant, his crimson sword glowing with runes. At his side, Selene, the very image of death, brandished her massive scythe, pale light radiating from its edge.

The clash shook the battlefield: the commander’s blade met the colossus’s mace, and the stones quivered like a bell. Selene’s scythe cut through the air, slicing off an arm in a single, precise swing. The fight was titanic.

But through the gaping breach, thousands were already pouring in. Undead, demons, reeking corpses, howling warriors. A tide. A true black tide surging over us.

I gripped my katana, knuckles whitening. Reina still stood beside me, calm, cold, but her eyes flicked toward Hikari. My voice burst out, dry, ragged:

— "Protect Hikari. No matter what."

Reina inclined her head stiffly. And I took a deep breath.

I wasn’t afraid anymore. I ran.

My legs hammered the cobblestones, my katana lit up, and the Primordial Flame burst forth in an arc of fire. Demons burned alive, their screams shredding the air. Corpses went up in flames, even those already rising collapsed again, charred to ash.

But I wasn’t alone. Not this time.

The rest of the Seven Thorns charged as well. The entire fortress rose. Hundreds of soldiers screamed, raising lances, swords, shields. This was war. A fucking full-scale war, and I was part of it.

Then the voice of the world cracked into my skull.

— [Level 25 reached.]— [Skill: Primordial Flame Level 3.]

I stopped barely half a second, mouth agape, breath caught. Then a laugh escaped me.

— "Aaaah... finally. Finally an upgrade!"

The fire engulfed me.

Not just my weapon. My whole body. My skin, my muscles, my bones — all became fire. I was one with the flame.

I hurled myself into the tide, every katana strike tearing through dozens of bodies. I burned them all. Dead or alive. My laughter rolled out, wild, uncontrollable.

— "So this is it... an S-rank blessing?!"

I screamed, exploded, slaughtered. The battlefield tipped. The demons recoiled. I alone shifted the balance.

Then came the pain.

A black blade, out of nowhere, pierced my side. I gasped, nearly collapsed. But the heat saved me. The steel melted, dripping down my incandescent skin. I gritted my teeth, clutched my bleeding wound.

And then... a light. A white light descended on us. Pure, overwhelming.

Hikari.

I felt the burn ease, my flesh sealing shut. Around me, wounded soldiers rose again, gaping bellies closing, severed arms regrowing in screams of relief. A single roar shook the battlefield.

— "UOOOOOOHHHH!!!"

The cry of an entire army, reborn.

I clenched my katana, my body still aflame, and laughed, my throat torn:

— "Fuck... let’s go!"

And the shout swelled, carried by hundreds of voices behind me:

— "WE CAN DO THIS! WE HAVE HEROES TO LEAD US!!"

No sooner had the words left me than something slammed down beside me. The shock stole my breath.

— "Selene?!"

I saw her there, sprawled out. Her body was nothing but a twisted wreck, arms and legs bent at impossible angles. Her clouded eyes still flickered faintly. I knew instantly it was over. Too late. Her last moments. My heart clenched in a vise.

She spat blood, a black froth spraying my cheek. Her lips trembled.

— "Please... kill..."

My stomach turned. I squeezed my hilt until my fingers went white.

— "I understand, Selene... now rest, you’ve earned it."

With a swift strike, I raised my katana and brought it down on her neck. The blade split flesh and bone in one motion. Her head rolled into the dust, eyes frozen in a strange peace.

The voice of the world snapped cold and merciless in my head:

— [Level 26 reached.]

My gaze, without meaning to, snapped straight toward the giant in the distance. His mace hammered against Albrecht’s glowing blade. Each shockwave rattled the fortress, made my teeth vibrate. The ground shook, the air rang like a bell. The flames around me surged, fed by my rage. My cheeks grew wet — but my tears evaporated instantly in the heat of my own fire.

I roared and charged, now with only one thought in my mind.

I killed. I rammed my katana into torsos, slashed throats, burned entrails. Demons screamed, their skin blistered, cracked, melted in my flames. Some burst into balls of charred flesh, others ran ablaze before collapsing, faces locked in masks of agony. Corpses sizzled like dry wood, the air reeked of roasted meat and shit. I slaughtered. I fed on their agony.

I laughed, drunk on rage and fire, kept piercing, slicing, roasting everything that moved. The dead fell by dozens, hundreds, and then... everything shifted. Half the army dropped at once, like puppets with their strings cut. Silence, broken only by the dull thuds of bodies hitting cobblestone.

Then again, the voice:

— [Level 27 reached.]

— [Level 28 reached.]

— [Level 29 reached.]

— [Level 30 reached.]

My breath caught. The necromancer. Of course. They’d managed to kill him, and with him his entire horde collapsed.

But I didn’t stop. I charged into the remnants, carving survivors, burning the last screamers. My body was nothing but a raging inferno, my laughter mingling with their cries.

And finally, I reached where the giant and Albrecht still fought. Both half-dead, armor in tatters, flesh torn open. Their titanic blows still shook the battlefield, as if the entire war had narrowed down to their duel.

The ground still vibrated, each giant’s step sending shockwaves that cracked the cobblestones under my feet. His mutilated body was a gaunt colossus: only the right arm remained, massive, veined, gripping that colossal mace as if it still held his fate. His growls made the air quake, hot rancid breath gagging me with every exhale.

At his side, Albrecht. Fucking rock of a man. He staggered, drenched in blood, armor shattered into twisted shards. Yet his crimson blade still burned, runes glowing like a molten heart. We threw ourselves at the monster together, me with my flames, him with brute force. Each strike tore up debris, hurled corpses aside, made the surviving soldiers scream behind us.

Crash after crash. Katana slicing the air, fire arcs blazing, Albrecht’s blade carving thick flesh. The giant roared, every cry booming in my chest like a monstrous bell. But he kept swinging, goddammit, swinging like nothing could stop him.

And then... it happened. His mace cut a blazing arc above me. Too fast. Too low. My body already knew I wouldn’t dodge. My breath stuck, my legs froze. Death bore down.

That’s when I heard her voice.

— "I’m getting déjà vu."

Reina.

I blinked for a split second. Before me, the impossible: the giant’s arm froze mid-swing, coated in a translucent layer of ice. Not more than a second. No more. But fuck, it was enough.

I screamed, my body bursting with new fire. The katana sliced the air and severed his arm in a clean stroke. Flames burst from the wound. The massive limb spun through the air before crashing into his own army. Demons shrieked, crushed beneath tons of flesh burning from within, roasted alive. The stench of charred meat and ash clawed my throat, making me cough with rage.

The giant staggered, bellowing in pain. His bloodshot eyes rolled wildly. And then a whistle sliced the air. An arrow. Perfect.

It buried itself deep in his gut, the runed steel piercing his skin like butter. I looked up — Ilyas, far behind, bow drawn, dark silhouette unwavering.

The colossus bent his knees. His voice trembled, cavernous, grotesque, but almost... human.

— "So... this is how I end... without killing a single hero... I’m sorry, my king..."

His chin dropped, breath faded. And Albrecht’s crimson blade cleaved. One strike, clean, merciless. His massive head rolled, kicking up dust in a rain of blood.

I froze, body trembling, flames still dancing around me. The giant lay decapitated, chest smoking, entrails strewn for dozens of meters. Silence fell hard, broken only by soldiers’ gasps and crackling fire.

My katana hung at my side, my arm shook. I felt my tears run, but they vanished again, burned away by my own heat.

I collapsed to my knees, breath gone, muscles locked from hours of slaughter. Around me, the last demons were being butchered by our troops. It was no longer war, just mechanical slaughter: blades came down, lances pierced, corpses piled. They had only ever had numbers, and now that dawn was breaking... they no longer had enough to drown us.

I staggered back up, panting, a bitter smile tugging my lips.

— "Finally... fuck, finally..."

But one detail slammed into me.

— "Wait... what?! Dawn already?"

The light wasn’t from the horizon. It wasn’t from the sun. It burned above us.

I raised my head, and my blood froze. This wasn’t dawn. It was an eclipse. A black disc devouring the sky. And beneath it... a figure.

He descended slowly, carried by vast wings beating the air like a funeral bell. Each beat throbbed in my chest, heavy, relentless, like an apocalyptic trumpet.

My first instinct was fear. Pure, icy fear.

A body too tall, too perfect, almost elegant — three, maybe four meters. Lean, sculpted muscles crisscrossed with scars glowing like half-healed divine burns. Ash-gray skin vibrated with incandescent veins, every pulse sending a dark red glow through them like his blood was black fire.

His face... goddamn, his face. Beautiful. Striking. Sharp jawline, high cheekbones, the visage of an archangel on a fresco. But his eyes... fuck. His eyes were dead. Slitted pupils, scorched white irises, like he’d stared at the sun too long.

And he wept. Always. Black tears streamed down his cheeks, burning grooves into his skin. Yet his lips stretched into a mad smile, trembling between laughter and sobs.

His wings... I couldn’t count them. Torn, blackened, some aflame, others warped into razor blades. Every falling feather struck like a weapon: a sword, a spear, a killing projectile.

Above his head floated a cracked, splintered halo that swallowed light instead of giving it. A black sun ready to burst.

My heart pounded too hard. I wanted to back away, to scream, to cry.

He landed near the giant’s severed head. His trembling hand stroked the still-smoking flesh. And he spoke. His voice vibrated, warped, echoing in my bones like a broken prayer.

— "No... this isn’t possible... you’re not dead... you’re not dead..."

Each word tolled like a bell. His black tears poured faster, shoulders shaking.

— "Tell me it’s not true... I beg you..."

His voice cracked, and a strangled, deranged laugh tangled with his sobs.

— "Please... say you’re not dead... please... please..."

All around, the air thickened, suffocating. The war had gone silent. Even the survivors froze. Only that dissonant, distant chorus remained, like angels singing out of tune.

I gripped my katana, throat dry. Every fiber of me knew this wasn’t just another fight. What we’d just lived through was only a prelude.

That deranged angel, that magnificent, shattered being... had just stepped onto the stage.