David’s breath came ragged, the smoke and ash burning his throat with every inhale.

  How foolish. How arrogant.

  The mere fact that he had asked his young lord why he hadn’t been ordered to kill the enemy Mage now felt like a slap to his own face.

  His gaze locked onto the walking inferno before him. Flaming red hair, gently illuminated by a regal crown of docile flames. A man standing in the heart of an inferno with the ease of someone out for a stroll.

  This was a true Feuerkranz—the very reason their family could maintain such arrogance while remaining unchallenged. Pure destruction. Unfiltered, undistilled chaos. All-consuming flames that only grew stronger with time.

  "Is that your limit?" the man asked, looking at David with a gaze usually reserved for the most pitiful of creatures. "I expected more."

  David’s fists clenched, though he couldn’t force out a reply.

  "You were always so proud when following behind Maximilian. Like a peacock. I assumed that attitude came from skill. But I was wrong. Even after ascending, you’re still as mediocre as any other lowborn Mage."

  David held his composure, but he couldn’t pretend the words didn’t sting. They struck a tender place buried deep in his heart.

  Even now, after everything he had achieved, he still couldn’t stand beside the true prodigies of this world. The Feuerkranzes... the Wellenrufers... the Steiners... the Windt?nzers... Maximilian... Ezekiel....

  He had known it for a long time: he wasn’t like them. Even giving his absolute best only ever let him keep pace. Nothing more.

  He would never be one of them, couldn't ever match their brilliance.

  "You've been awfully quiet," the man said. "Have you finally decided to surrender?"

  David straightened his back, meeting his opponent’s gaze with as much composure as he could muster. “Why? Running out of steam already?”

  The other man snorted. They both knew it was a bluff. The Fire Mage hadn’t even broken a sweat, while David had been forced to go all out from the very beginning, yet had still struggled to keep up.

  The difference between them was obvious at a glance.

  “I suppose not,” the man said in his usual, dismissive tone. “But know this: I was willing to let you live.”

  It was David’s turn to snort. “You call that mercy? Or are we pretending now that we don’t know what happens to prisoners of the Empire?”

  The Fire Mage remained silent. Not even he had the audacity to claim that being taken alive by the Empire was a mercy. Especially for an Archmage. Too valuable to kill, the Empire’s Mind Mages would work day and night to break you, turning you into a weapon to be used against the very people you once sought to protect.

  It was a fate worse than death, and one of the many reasons the entire continent had united to halt the Empire’s expansion.

  The man nodded once, a minimal gesture of respect, before resuming his attack. Without any outward movement, the fires all around them began to coalesce.

  His [Crown of Flames] allowed him to control all fire within a certain area. What was little more than a gimmick for lower-tier Mages revealed its true terror at the Archmage stage. His domain was enormous, and the burning forest served as an endless reservoir of fuel.

  No wonder he looked as if he hadn’t even broken a sweat. He had only cast a single spell, one that fed and strengthened itself with the inferno around them.

  David dove behind a tree, merging with the ever-shrinking network of shadows, and emerged behind the enemy moments later. Half a dozen [Shadow Puppets] rose with him.

  His warriors charged the Fire Mage’s unprotected back without making a sound, not even disturbing the ash-covered ground.

  The first puppet reached the Feuerkranz. Its hand thinned into a blade, stabbing toward the man’s neck.

  “…This again?”

  At a glance, the puppet was vaporized instantly—along with all others trailing behind it.

  David had already darted away, hiding himself as best he could. Stealth and speed were his only allies here.

  He had accepted long ago that his shadows were nearly useless in this fight.

  Fire, aside from Light, was perhaps the worst possible matchup. Not only did the blazing battlefield cripple half his strength, but the closer his shadows crept toward the heart of the flames, the weaker they became.

  And that, unfortunately, was exactly where his opponent stood.

  Against a weaker foe, he might have been able to suppress their light with his darkness. Here, he was the one being smothered. Not only was the matchup disadvantageous, but the gap in raw power was crushing as well. The disadvantages stacked atop one another made him feel like a mouse hunted by a cat.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  All he could do was run fast enough to stay alive.

  Their game of tag dragged on, David growing increasingly winded. As a Grand Mage, mana depletion had felt like a tightening in his chest, a slow, painful squeeze. But for an Archmage, whose Core had already fused with their body, mana depletion manifested as pure exhaustion.

  And right now, David felt as if he had been running for days. His limbs were leaden, his breath ragged, his thoughts turning sluggish.

  He was reaching his limit.

  His only consolation was that the young lord had asked him to stall the enemy Archmage, nothing more. In that sense, he could claim success. A weak comfort, but he would take whatever he could get.

  David’s gaze drifted toward the distant silhouette of the Alexandria. How were the other fronts faring? He hoped they had at least made progress in rescuing the elves and holding back the rest of the Legion.

  Otherwise, all of this would have been for nothing.

  “...Don’t get distracted.”

  The voice echoing in his mind was unmistakably his young lord’s. Had Zeke sensed his wandering focus? Was he watching? That was… mildly embarrassing.

  “...Hold on a little longer.”

  Hold on? For what? There was no path to victory here, and the few remaining minutes he could squeeze out wouldn’t change much. If anything, pushing further would only jeopardize his ability to escape.

  But as if hearing his thoughts, Zeke’s voice returned a moment later.

  “...Help is on the way.”

  Instead of feeling relieved, David only grew more concerned. What help could possibly be coming? He knew exactly what forces they had available. The only one who might have made even a small difference was Vulcanos—and that was the one person who had suddenly vanished during their journey, with no trace of where he’d gone.

  David sighed.

  Despite his doubts, what choice did he have but to obey? He only hoped his young lord wasn’t making the same mistake he had: underestimating the might of a true Feuerkranz.

  Once more, David engaged, driving his shadows to strike from every angle while he stayed out of sight. But it was pointless. Exhausted as he was, his attacks were nothing more than hollow imitations of their former strength.

  "...I thought you’d be running by now," the man remarked casually as he turned David’s former hiding spot to ashes.

  He emerged at the man’s blindside, hidden behind the charred stump of a once-proud tree. The reprieve lasted only a moment before the Fire Mage’s gaze locked onto his new position as well.

  David didn’t hesitate. He dove into the shadows, widening the distance once more.

  Not a moment too soon. A pillar of flame descended exactly where he had been standing, turning the stump to ash and banishing every trace of shadow.

  I, too, wish I had run, David thought grimly as he struggled to catch his breath. He didn’t know how many more jumps he had left—no more than a dozen, most likely. Maybe enough to stall for another minute, but only if he abandoned all attempts to fight back.

  Just then, a figure stepped into the clearing, emerging from the burning forest on the southern side.

  It was the Chimeroi, Ash, followed by roughly thirty wolfkin.

  David grimaced. Was this his so-called reinforcement? They would be crushed like ants.

  The Fire Mage turned to face the small force blocking his path, a slow frown creeping across his face. “How are you here? What is that idiot even doing?”

  Ash didn’t respond. Instead, he lifted a hand and pointed forward.

  At his command, the thirty soldiers behind him moved as one. Each conjured a lance of ice from thin air, seized it, and hurled it with the power of a siege ballista.

  David was mildly impressed. Beyond their shocking physical strength, their discipline and control over their innate abilities matched that of many trained Mages. Maybe… they wouldn’t be entirely useless after all.

  He prepared to assist them—only for another voice to echo sharply in his mind.

  “Don’t interfere. Use this chance to catch your breath.”

  It was his young lord’s voice. David recognized it instantly, though the timing and the flat, almost mechanical tone made it feel strangely distant. Even so, David chose to obey.

  He could barely stand as it was, and the chance to breathe, just for a moment, was more than welcome.

  The Fire Mage grew visibly annoyed at being ignored, though the dozens of incoming projectiles didn’t seem to concern him at all. From the burning trees around him, tendrils of flame rose into the air, weaving into a corridor of fire.

  Before the spears even crossed half the distance, they had already melted—water and ice alike vanishing in an instant.

  “You came to challenge me with this level of strength? Whoever commands you clearly has no regard for your lives. If—”

  His words were cut short by a second volley, released immediately after the first. The Chimeroi showed no interest in banter.

  David’s brows furrowed. Weren’t they supposed to stall him? In their place, he would have taken this chance to drag the fight out as long as possible.

  The second volley did little more than the first, and the one after that was just as ineffective.

  “You are testing my patience,” the man said after the fourth volley vanished in steam. “If you insist on keeping your silence, then you might as well keep it forever.”

  His words were followed by his first true attack.

  The corridor of flames that had served as a barrier condensed into a spear: massive, towering, as thick as several grown men standing shoulder to shoulder. It looked like a burning tree ripped from the heart of an inferno.

  David tensed, ready to move, ready to save as many as he could—when the voice echoed in his mind again.

  “Don’t interfere.”

  He clenched his jaw. Every instinct screamed at him to act. If not for his lord’s steady, unshaken tone, he would have already thrown himself into the attack.

  A wall of ice surged up from the ground, conjured by the combined might of the wolfkin warriors. A second and third followed instantly, forming a layered bulwark in the spear’s path.

  David’s frown deepened. It wouldn’t be enough. Feuerkranz Mages weren’t called Siegebreakers for nothing.

  The spear tore through the first wall like a red-hot blade through frost, barely shrinking. The second fared little better, and even the third only managed to slow the blazing projectile for the briefest moment.

  The Chimeroi scattered as their defenses crumbled. It did them little good. The projectile detonated like a falling star, bathing the clearing in fire. Every single wolfkin was caught in the blaze.

  David bit his lip.

  Had that really been worth it—sacrificing all these noble warriors just to buy him a moment to recover?

  When the worst of the flames receded, he saw that the wolfkin had not died outright. Their icy constitution had kept them alive, but only barely. Severe burns covered every patch of exposed skin. Some areas had blackened entirely—a clear sign of nerve damage.

  None of them could fight.

  Except for Ash.

  Their leader emerged from the smoke as if it parted for him alone, his body entirely unscathed.

  “Are you ready to talk now?” the Fire Mage asked, slowly lowering his hand as he admired the destruction he’d caused.

  Ash stood firm, face unreadable, despite the state of his warriors.

  Just then, David heard his young lord’s voice again, calm, steady, and unbelievably welcome. Though the words themselves left him utterly confused.

  “Your reinforcement has arrived.”