Sebastion’s face turned dark as he glared at the undead woman. I could not help but smile as I saw the sweat on his brow, despite the freezing chill. Sounds of his labored breaths bounced off the walls of the ice-filled chamber. The signs of exhaustion and energy depletion were obvious. Sebastion had been using his talent nonstop since the moment he arrived in Kala. I was amazed he had not collapsed yet. Based on what I knew of Sebastion’s talent, his energy usage passed even my highest estimate more than thirty minutes ago. It gave me some sense of pride that he had grown so much in so little time. If only we could return to a time when we were not enemies…

Sebastion did not respond to my ultimatum right away but instead turned to the corpse of the dragon. He pointed his finger towards it and a condensed beam of light shot from his finger, striking the dragon with the same force that was able to collapse a mountain in the battle before. A deafening boom of thunder shook ice from the walls. The beam of blinding light lasted for several seconds before Sebastion finally stopped his attack. I blinked away the spots in my eyes and turned to look at the nearby corpse in surprise.

Sebastion narrowed his eyes as his expression turned black. Despite having hit the corpse with the full brunt of his attack, only the smallest smoldering scratch appeared on the scales of the beast’s stomach.

I could not help but feel a little nervous at the sight of the unharmed dragon. I had never seen one of these creatures before this one. I had no idea their bodies were so tough. If I really decided to resurrect this creature, would I be able to stop it if it went on a murderous rampage?

Sebastion pointed towards the undead woman I controlled and I knew he was preparing to disintegrate her. I simply smiled in response.

“Destroy this body if you want but my flames are intangible and do not disappear the moment one of my puppets is destroyed. For all your power, you cannot stop me. So, why don’t you take a breather and we can have a chat?”

“We have nothing to discuss. I am not going to play your game. I know you are not strong enough to control that creature yet or this entire catacomb would have been filled with your undead horde and I know you are not heartless enough to let it loose on the world even if you pretend otherwise. End this nonsense and surrender.”

I chuckled at Sebastion's attempt to call my bluff. It was true, there was no way I would risk bringing such an obvious trap back to life but that did not mean the body was useless to me. Maybe the one that set this all up predicted how I would react and I was still playing into their hand. However, if I hesitated now, everything would be lost. I had to bet it all on one final trick.

“Silly Sebastion, you have had no choice but to play my game from the moment I announced my revival. If you had paid more attention in my lessons all those years ago you would know, in the endless war, surrender is never an option.”

As I spoke, the green flames in the undead woman’s hand flowed into the corpse of the dragon. Sebastion looked at me in disbelief as the dragon began to stir for the first time in countless millennia.

The undead woman collapsed as all the flames in her body flowed into the corpse of the dragon. As her vision faded, I marveled at the majestic creature and felt a pang of regret that it would never truly be able to see the light of day.

The moment the dragon was revived, it opened its mouth to roar, revealing not just the terrifying fangs but row upon row of green and blue crystals, my flames solidified one thousand times over. With the mouth of the dragon opening, a single string was broken. A simple bear trap triggered, crushing one of the crystals. Blue flames exploded outwards, flowing into the dragon and creating a chain reaction as all the crystals began to explode.

I thought back to the giant rodent Irene controlled. Its self-destruction had nearly leveled a third of the city back then. Compared to what I had just triggered, that self-destruction was a puff of warm air. This would be the single biggest explosion of golden flames I had ever created and thanks to hiding the crystals within the dragon, Sebastion was right in the middle of it.

I closed my eyes as the earth began to shake and swell for nearly a minute before collapsing inwards. A section of fields and hills bigger than the entire city of Kala was devoured into the earth as part of the catacombs collapsed.

Even Sebastion, for all his power, should not be able to escape that unscathed. I was not naïve enough to believe that explosion was enough to actually kill Sebastion. Its power did not reach what he had used to collapse the mountain on Svend, but with how drained he already was, this explosion could be all that was needed to finally bring Sebastion over the brink of exhaustion.

A tear ran down my cheek as I remembered a back to when Sebastion was still a child. He had stolen a sword from the local blacksmith and ran off to play hero with a real blade. No doubt the silly boy had wanted to show off in front of Lucia as usual, but a real sword was different from the wooden plaything he normally carried around. Regardless, Sebastion tried fighting a boar with the blade. He learned the hard way that fighting with a blade you could barely even lift was suicidal. His talent had still been weak in those days, nothing compared to what it was now and that boar nearly mauled the future King Sebastion to death. If not for Lucia’s healing talent, he would have probably died that day. I remember lecturing him afterwards, I berated him for rushing into a fight unprepared and made him promise that he would never do anything that stupid ever again.

Now, I would remind him of that promise. Sebastion has become too overconfident in his strength. Even if he had spent the past fifty years preparing for Envy’s return, there was never a guarantee in any fight. Just like the incident with the boar, Sebastion was trying to run off by himself.

“A teacher’s work is never done,” I said with a sigh.

“If you consider this a lesson, remind me to never learn anything from you,” said a pained groan next to me. Svend sat on the grassy hill with his hand over his chest. His hand gripped at the wound on his chest as he took slow, deep breaths. The golden metallic sheen on his skin pulsed brighter with each breath and his injury healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

“Tough love is essential,” I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand, “Are you going to be ready for a round two by the time Sebastion digs himself free of the catacombs?”

“Yes, yes, an injury like this is nothing to my Divine Body. Ten more minutes and it will be nothing more than another scar to add to the collection.”

“Good, remember our focus. All we need to do is keep him pinned down until the last of his energy is drained. If he gets away, all this preparation will have been for nothing. He will not fall for the same trap a second time.”

Svend fell silent. I could not see his expression under the fierce helmet but I knew he was still seething from the fight earlier. He took a deep breath and steam flowed out from under his helm, giving Svend a devilish appearance. The wound on his chest began healing at an even more accelerated rate as he nodded.

I grinned at Svend as I felt the earth begin to shift and move. A familiar domain spread out from underground, a shadow of its former glory. When the fight started, Sebastion’s Domain was like a vast ocean with depths unknown but now all that majesty was gone. What I felt now was barely a shallow lake by comparison.

Svend stood up as his own domain wrapped around his body and his halberd. He floated up into the air and looked down at the collapsed earth, ready to strike the moment Sebastion showed his head.

This was our final stand. If Sebastion could still take what I had prepared for him and walk away, there would be nothing we could do that would be able to stop him. There was no point in running or hiding. Dragging out this conflict only benefited the Demons. If Sebastion proved himself superior despite taking everything I could throw at him, then I could only trust he would be able to fill my role in the war to come.

I shook my head to dispel any doubts and put a confident smile on my face. I would not be taken easily.

The sound of cracking stone and an impatient growl echoed from behind me as the chill in the air was completely dispersed by golden flames. Nox strode past me with confident rolling steps, a snarl on his face. Following behind him was a massive scaled creature that crushed the ground as it moved. Naga had only just completed her transformation this very morning. Like Sylvie, the oversized snake had burst into flames before being reborn from the ashes.

Naga had changed much since her transformation and barely resembled the grey snake from before. She now had bright blue scales that covered her entire body. Golden flames escaped from long spines along her back and continued all the way up to her head where two large horns had grown. Naga had even sprouted four stubby little legs, though her ability to walk on them was questionable. For now, she still slithered everywhere she went.

Perched atop Naga’s head was a small red bird. Sylvie whistled down at me as we passed. She puffed her feathers with pride and tapped on Naga’s head with her foot. Naga appeared to be listening to Sylvie’s command as she half-crawled in the direction of Sylvie's tap.

The three creatures released golden flames as they moved to surround the sunken pit where Sebastion had been buried. A shadow blocked out the sun as the floating island of Dragon’s Nest also moved into position.

A stillness fell across the fields as everyone’s attention focused on the collapsed cavern. A deep rumble echoed from under the ground as the rock began to heave and shift before even that fell quiet. Svend raised his halberd, preparing to strike in an instant.

Brilliant light began to shine from under the ground as an explosion rocked the earth. A shower of broken stone and dirt rained down across the plains as a radiant figure floated up into the air.

Despite the grand entrance, Sebastion did not resemble any of his previous majesty. The entire right side of his body was covered in bright red burns. His auburn hair was almost completely burnt away except for a few patches on the left side of his head. His clothes were little more than tattered rags that barely managed to keep his dignity. His once intimidating sword was now bent and twisted into melted slag.

Sebastion looked furious as he shouted with all his might. “Aurielle, I…”

However, Sebastion was never given an opportunity to express his rage before a massive halberd fell from the sky with the deafening sound of thunder. Sebastion barely had time to protect himself as he was thrown back into the pit and once again buried in rubble.