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Beric Dondarrion stood wreathed in roaring fire, his blade of divine flame shining.
Aeron Grim moved like a ghost cloaked in smoke and shadow, eyes gleaming violet, greatsword gripped in hand. His breath was calm, even as the storm churned around them.
Then
CLANG.
Steel met flame again, but this time Aeron didn't linger. He pivoted, twisting low beneath Beric's retaliatory swing and struck upward but the blade met nothing but flame.
Beric's body blurred like fire on the wind, intangible, unbound.
Aeron jumped back, eyes narrowing. "So I can't cut you.."
Beric raised his sword, speaking as if from within a furnace.
"Not while the fire sustains me. You cannot cut what you can't touch."
Aeron didn't waste time with more words.
He thrust his hand forward, and black chains erupted from his palms thick, jagged, coiling like serpents around Beric. [Chains of the Abyss.]
They struck from all sides, aiming to ensnare Beric like a spider's web. The air grew colder, the ground darkened beneath the weight of Aeron's shadow power.
But the moment the chains touched Beric's skin they went through his body unable to hold him.
Beric stepped forward, unhurried, his voice was low.
"Your magic is poison to life. The fire rejects it."
"I'm getting sick of these fanatics." Aeron growled.
He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a blur reappearing behind Beric, Drakaryzor already cleaving downward.
The greatsword struck but passed through the flames again.
Beric turned, his blade arcing horizontally, forcing Aeron back with a wave of burning pressure. The flames sang with divine judgment.
A beam of sunlight shot from the miniature sun behind him, splitting the air like a god's spear. Aeron twisted his body, rolling just beneath it, the beam scorching the land behind him, vaporizing a boulder.
From the ground, Aeron pushed off vaulting himself toward Beric again. His greatsword trailed dark flame in its wake.
They met once more.
SLASH.
BLOCK.
FEINT.
It was not a battle of brute force now but of wits and instincts.
Aeron abandoned traditional attacks, now channeling Ruler's Authority his hand extended, and invisible pressure slammed into Beric like a siege ram.
But instead of staggering, Beric simply ignited brighter.
The flames rippled, twisted and absorbed the force.
Aeron's eyes flared. "I'm stronger, but it doesn't mean anything.. If I can't harm you does it..."
Beric's body flared gold, and his voice echoed through the field.
"This is divine fire. Of the red god himself and it will keep burning while he still sees something in me."
He raised Dawnbringer, and Aeron saw the truth he would never win this with conventional means.
Beric lunged, his blade swinging down in a radiant arc. Aeron barely dodged, the heat so intense it melted everything it touched.
He skidded across the snow, smoke rising from his shoulder.
He looked up, then smiled.
"You're just a walking bonfire, and I think I have the solution for that."
Aeron flexed his fingers once, then slowly drew his arms to his side. The shadows rippled from his wrists like smoke, and the very air shimmered as the Gauntlets of the Warrior materialized around his hands, plated bracers forged of a dark metal and divine wrath. Their surface pulsed faintly with violet glowing runes.
As they latched into place with a low, echoing thud, the ground beneath him cracked.
He looked down at his new arms at the power thrumming through him and smiled.
"You are not ready for this, Apostle of R'hllor " he said, his tone smooth and mocking. He looked up, his violet eyes glowing brighter.
Beric narrowed his eyes, golden flames swirling in them. "Another toy made of shadows?"
Aeron tilted his head slightly, and with a low chuckle, replied
"Yeah… a toy I almost forgot about, because I got it recently, you see…"
The air around his fists hummed with restrained fury.
"But it seems it was made especially for you."
Before Beric could respond, Aeron vanished his form blurring forward like a streak of darkness. In less than a heartbeat, he was upon him.
CRACK
A single, colossal punch landed square in Beric's chest, and for a breathless moment, the fires went out.
The radiant miniature sun behind Beric shuddered and blinked out of existence. His flame-forged sword dimmed, and Beric was launched backwards an explosion of snow and steam erupting behind him as he tore across the frozen earth and trees, crashing through a jagged cliff face.
A deep silence followed.
Aeron stood where he had punched, hand still extended, a small wisp of steam rising from the gauntlet. He rolled his shoulders once.
Then he disappeared again.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Beric hadn't even pulled himself up before Aeron came down on him like a hammer.
A barrage of punches fell each one a cataclysm of muscle, magic, and controlled rage.
Shockwaves tore through the ground, sending snow and shattered rock flying with every blow.
Beric could barely defend himself his divine fire surged again, but it flickered under the force of the onslaught. His face twisted in pain, blood now staining the corners of his mouth. Each hit broke something.
To Beric, the world was reduced to a blur of violet eyes and black flame, a monster born of shadows hammering him into oblivion.
He managed to cry out perhaps a word, perhaps a prayer but it was cut off.
Aeron grabbed him by the throat, lifting his broken form like a rag doll. The divine flames clinging to Beric's shoulders hissed and retreated in fear.
Aeron looked him in the eye those haunting golden eyes dimming now, flickering like a candle in a storm and said with quiet disgust:
"You talk a lot about fire and light, but in the end..."
He clenched his other fist and drove it into Beric's chest, straight into his heart.
"The light went out."
Beric's body slumped, lifeless, arms hanging limp.
Aeron let the corpse fall, watching it hit the snow with a thud.
He looked down, almost disappointed.
"Died so fast the moment I could hit you…"
Aeron knelt beside the body.
Beric lay broken and still, the once-blazing fire of his divine body snuffed out, his sword nothing but a smoldering ember on the snow.
Aeron reached forward, placing his gauntleted hand just above Beric's chest, there was no heartbeat.
His violet eyes narrowed, the faint whisper of dark energy pooling in his palm.
A single word rested on his tongue.
"Ari—"
But he stopped.
The corpse twitched.
Just the fingers at first. Then the chest rose with a gasp so sharp it echoed like a scream. A burst of steam left Beric's lips as if he'd drowned and been yanked from the deep.
Aeron slowly stood, stepping back.
The air changed. Warm now. Subtly. Unnaturally. The snow that fell near Beric evaporated on contact.
The flames around Beric's body reignited.
Fingers clenched. Shoulders tensed. And then the man stood albeit staggering, hunched, steaming with power.
Aeron's eyes narrowed, glowing once more with cautious menace.
Beric raised his head. His face, now smeared with blood and soot, bore a half-grin through scorched lips.
"My Lord still sees purpose in me," he rasped, voice broken but reverent, as if in prayer.
"Still expects more."
The flames ignited fully again, licking along his shoulders and back, and the sword of living flame once more formed in his grasp brighter now, fiercer.
Aeron remained still, studying him.
Then he looked at the woods and smiled.
"Hah... That makes things interesting... it seems there is a priest or a priestess of the red god nearby and that's how you came back..."
He cracked his neck.
"Let's see how many times your god wants to bring you back."
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If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Shadow Monarch in DC
&
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