CHAPTER 296: CHAPTER 296: SACRIFICE

Steel screamed against steel as Revenant Fang locked with the jagged sword of the First Pillar. Sparks exploded outward, scattering across the fractured arena floor. Noel gritted his teeth, muscles straining, fire already crawling up the length of his blade.

"Ignition Surge!"

Flames burst to life, wrapping Revenant Fang in searing heat. The cursed steel glowed crimson, pressing harder against the Pillar’s weapon. The pale figure tilted his veiled face slightly, and for the first time, his voice rasped with irritation.

"Tch..."

He shoved back, the clash splitting stone in a burst of light. His blade slashed horizontally, radiant energy trailing its path. Noel vanished into shadow, reappearing behind him in a flicker of black mist.

"Shadow Step!"

His form tore out of the Pillar’s shadow, blade swinging down in a burning arc. The cursed edge clanged against radiant steel, the impact thunderous.

Again and again Noel moved, slipping through darkness, appearing at the Pillar’s flanks, his strikes infused with fire. Each time, Revenant Fang blazed hotter, his movements faster.

The Pillar’s annoyance sharpened. His swings became harsher, heavier, but each cut pulled away at the last second—restrained. His voice grated, low and edged with anger.

"Why won’t you break?"

Noel’s answer was fire. He extended his left hand, mana roaring into his palm.

"Flamethrower!"

A continuous stream of flame erupted, engulfing the Pillar’s cloak and forcing him back a step. The black veil fluttered wildly in the heat, shadows stretching across his skeletal frame.

Noel reappeared at his side again, Revenant Fang glowing, fire licking across the cursed blade.

For the first time in the clash, the First Pillar’s posture wasn’t one of calm—it was of agitation.

Nicolas appeared beside Noel in a crack of displaced air, his cloak snapping in the heat of the flames. Lightning crawled across his arms, building faster and brighter with every breath. His eyes narrowed, his voice low and commanding.

"This ends here."

He raised both hands, arcs of electricity lashing the sky above the coliseum’s dome. Space itself began to ripple around him, the air groaning under the pull of distorted gravity.

"Celestial Maelstrom!"

A vortex of blinding power burst into existence, spiraling outward in a sphere of electric-blue lightning and fragmented shards of warped space. The storm sucked in rubble, ash, and the very light around it, a gravitational maw tearing at reality itself.

The First Pillar stopped mid-step. His jagged blade glowed, and for the first time his voice carried a note of something close to amusement.

"Hm... impressive."

He slashed downward, radiant energy pooling into the weapon. The runes along the arena walls flared weakly as though protesting the sheer density of mana gathering in that one point.

"Solar Judgement!"

From the tip of the blade erupted a beam of pure light, condensed into a column so narrow and precise it cut through the air like a celestial spear. The ground hissed, stone melting into glass where it passed.

The coliseum shook as both forces collided—the electric maelstrom roaring like a collapsing star, the radiant laser searing through it in a line of white-hot destruction.

The clash split the arena in two, shockwaves rattling the very walls. Dust poured down from the empty stands, the force reverberating through every broken slab of stone.

Noel staggered back, Revenant Fang blazing at his side, emerald eyes wide.

The maelstrom howled, arcs of lightning clawing at the heavens while the radiant beam drilled straight through it, cutting a path of molten ruin across the coliseum. For a heartbeat, the storm and the laser held each other in perfect opposition—then the balance snapped.

A fragment of the beam sheared away, ricocheting violently as space buckled under Nicolas’s spell. The lance of light bent, veering off-course, and shot across the battlefield like a divine spear.

Noel froze.

The white-hot line of energy was already streaking toward him, too fast, he didn’t have time to react. His body couldn’t move, the heat searing against his skin even before the impact. Revenant Fang was raised, but far too slow.

’Damn it—!’

From his shadow, Noir erupted. Her massive form tore upward in a ripple of black mist, colliding with Noel mid-step. The impact shoved him sideways with bone-crushing force.

The beam struck her instead.

It ripped clean through her chest, bursting out the other side in a blinding flash. Her howl split the silence, echoing across the coliseum walls as her colossal wolf form fractured, collapsing into smoke and dissolving into shards of shadow.

She hit the ground in her smaller body. A puppy of shadow and fur, barely the size of Noel’s arms, blood staining the stone beneath her trembling frame.

"Noir!" Noel shouted, voice raw, but the roar of the clashing spells drowned him out.

At the same time, Nicolas reeled as the remainder of the beam clipped him. The blast tore across his core, blood spraying as he staggered, his lightning faltering.

The Celestial Maelstrom shrieked, collapsing inward before exploding in a concentrated surge of lightning and warped space.

The First Pillar was caught in the blast. For the first time, his veil snapped back, his body staggering under the sheer force. Cracks tore through his cloak, pale skin seared and blackened. He raised his jagged blade to shield himself, but the storm forced him back, his form shuddering under the weight of Nicolas’s spell.

Noir whimpered faintly from the floor, her small body trembling in blood. Noel dropped to one knee beside her, Revenant Fang still clutched tight, emerald eyes locked on the enemy.

The Pillar straightened slowly, dragging himself out of the storm’s dying glow. Even wounded, his presence was suffocating. His veil turned toward Noel, his voice a low rasp echoing in the hollow coliseum.

"Soon... you’ll be ready. For him."

Noel’s chest tightened, the words carving deeper than any blade. ’Him... the one behind everything.’

The Pillar took a single step backward. His outline shimmered with light before dissolving, body dispersing into fragments that scattered like dust. Within seconds, he was gone—only silence remained.

Nicolas collapsed to one knee, coughing, blood dripping onto the cracked stone. Sparks of lightning still crawled faintly across his skin, but his strength was spent.

Noel bent over Noir, his hand trembling as he hovered above her tiny, blood-stained body. The coliseum was quiet, the fight over but far from finished in Noel’s heart.

Then, across his vision, the system flared to life in cold blue text:

[Mission completed: Save Nicolas von Aldros’s life.]

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[Reward available. Want to claim???]