The abyss howled as their clash erupted.
Vemy's Celestine flames, now streaked with silver, burst outward in waves that devoured shadow. The Guardian's chains lashed like serpents, each ring spinning with the force of collapsing stars. The impact of their collision wasn't sound—it was existence itself breaking apart.
Cracks spread through the void, spiderwebbing across the endless black. Slabs of broken stone floated up like shattered glass caught in a storm.
Vemy's wings beat furiously, holding back the crushing weight of the thirteen rings' combined power. His flames scorched the chains that wrapped around him, but for every one he burned, three more emerged. They latched onto his limbs, his torso, his throat, burning into his skin as they pulled him toward the Guardian.
The Guardian's voice boomed, fractured and layered.
"Do you feel it now? The inevitability? Every wielder of the Thirteenth Ring has stood where you are now. Every one… broken. Every one… consumed."
The chains dragged Vemy to his knees. Blood spilled from his mouth, hissing as it touched the burning floor. His aura flickered, his flames trembling.
The whispers surged again.
Stop fighting. Let it take you. The Ring is power. The Ring is eternity.
For a moment—just a heartbeat—Vemy's eyes wavered. His flames guttered low, the silver streaks dimming. The Guardian's claw rose, ready to end him in one final strike.
But then—he heard it.
A voice, faint, buried deep within his soul. Not the whisper of the Ring. Not the taunting of fate. A voice warmer, sharper, alive.
"Stand up. Don't let this be where you end. Break the chain."
His eyes widened. He recognized it.
It was Akiar's voice.
Something inside him snapped. His flames flared, violently, ripping apart the chains coiling his body. The silver streaks ignited into radiant threads, stitching through the Celestine-blue voidfire until it burned brighter than ever.
The Guardian reeled back, its claw halted mid-strike. Its hollow eyes flickered—not with fear, but with recognition.
"That flame… no… that resonance…"
Vemy roared, his voice carrying through the collapsing abyss.
"I'm not like the others! I'm not your reflection! I'll burn this fate, and I'll tear the Thirteenth Ring apart with my own hands!"
The silver-threaded flames spiraled into his fist, forming a concentrated inferno so dense the air around it cracked like glass. He launched forward, punching straight into the Guardian's chest.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The Guardian's body convulsed as the silver-blue inferno surged through it, burning through its chains, cracking its scales. The thirteen rings wailed in unison, spinning erratically, their glow unstable.
The Guardian staggered, for the first time truly weakened.
But as Vemy pulled his hand back, panting, the Guardian did not fall. Instead, its hollow laughter echoed again, more jagged than before.
"You think you've won? Fool. You've only broken the lock."
The thirteen rings detached from its body, spinning wildly in the air. Their glow fused together into a vortex of impossible energy, brighter and darker than anything Vemy had ever seen.
The Guardian's body split apart into fragments of fire and shadow, sucked back into the vortex. Its voice thundered as it dissolved:
"Now you face the true will of the Ring."
The thirteen rings fused into one—an enormous, burning halo that pulsed like a heart. Chains erupted outward, endless, dragging the battlefield itself into its orbit. The abyss collapsed inward, stone and light and flame sucked into the storm.
Vemy's eyes widened. His wings flared instinctively, but the pull was overwhelming. His body lifted from the ground, dragged toward the monstrous ring.
"Not good…!" He strained, but his flames barely held. His silver-threaded aura cracked like strained glass, struggling to withstand the gravity of the Thirteenth Ring unbound.
The whisper returned, louder than ever, not sweet this time but commanding, domineering:
You are mine. Submit, or be erased.
The vortex consumed everything around him, even light itself.
And Vemy, flung helplessly into the storm, vanished into its blinding core.
⚡ Cliffhanger: Vemy is dragged into the fully awakened Thirteenth Ring itself—where its true will awaits.