And for the first time since dawn, the sky above remembered it was allowed to be blue.
The villagers gasped as if their lungs had only just been returned to them. The ridge exhaled a long, brittle sigh. The silence wings that had bent the morning cracked, threads snapping like bowstrings too long under tension. For a heartbeat, the battlefield looked almost merciful.
Then the Corrupter roared.
Not the hollow hush from before, but a raw exhalation of black flame, as if the void itself had learned the sound of hunger. The ribs in his chest expanded, fissures glowing like coal struck by lightning. His fused crown spun so fast the fragments blurred into a false halo. Shadows poured from his wounds and braided together, stitching ribs and wings that Andy's four-element cuts had already undone.
The system chimed, clipped and cold.
[Warning]
Corruption Surge: Phase III Initiated
Enemy Integrity: 44% → Stabilizing
Absorption Mode: Active
Null Resistance: 88%
Recommendation: Ascension Trigger required
Andy's grip tightened on the Oathblade. Its edge hummed steady with fire, tide, gale, and stone, but the vibration had changed — deeper, heavier, almost too much for the blade to carry. His shoulder throbbed where ember met bone, not in pain, but in pressure, as if something inside him wanted out.
The Phoenix Ember Core.
He felt it stir — not as flame, not as heat, but as memory. The echo of the day he had swallowed a dying phoenix's last gift, fire that had not been meant to be held by flesh. It had burned quietly ever since, hidden beneath dragon aura, patient as an ember buried in ash. Now it beat against him from within, demanding release.
Nia staggered closer, her staff a trembling pillar of light. Her eyes locked on his chest as though she could see through skin to the core pulsing inside. "It's time," she whispered. Her voice carried the awe of liturgy. "Andy — let it in."
Aurelia planted herself on his other side, blood streaking her temple, hair wild with wind and ash. She grinned, feral even in exhaustion. "About time you stopped hoarding that fire. Show us what happens when you stop holding back."
Andy's breath came steady. He closed his eyes.
The Corrupter shrieked, flinging filaments across the ridge, a storm of shadow-lances meant to pierce everything. Villagers screamed again. Nia threw glyphs skyward, Aurelia blurred into motion, cutting threads, but still they came, endless.
Andy didn't move. He lowered the Oathblade to his side, exhaled, and let the Phoenix Ember Core burn free.
It started in his ribs — a spark that spread into marrow, into veins, into every seam of his being. Heat, yes, but not the wild burn of flame. This was clarity, fire that burned not to consume but to reveal. The Oathblade flared white-gold, its four elements bending inward, folding around the ember, drinking it, then offering themselves in return.
The system did not chime. It sang.
[Dragon-Phoenix Integration: Initiated]
Condition: All Four Elements Mastered
Core Fusion: Ember → Aura (Syncing)
Status: Ascension Trigger Engaged
Andy's aura expanded. Tier II, once enough to crush wyverns, now felt like old skin sloughing away. His breath filled not just his chest but the ridge itself. Fire braided with water until steam poured from his shoulders; wind coiled around stone until the ground itself rose to meet him.
The villagers watched with eyes wide, shielding their faces from a light that was not flame, not sun, not star — something older, something balanced.
The Oathblade no longer looked like steel. Its spine gleamed white-gold, wings of fire curling from its fuller, runes embedded deep as if carved by mountains. Ember roared, tide sang, gale whispered, earth hummed, and the phoenix's memory braided them into one language.
Andy's skin shimmered. Along his back, not wings of shadow or dragon-scale, but wings of fire and light unfolded — feathered at first, then scaled, then both, every plume edged with storm. A mane of heat rose from his shoulders, and when he opened his eyes, they burned gold, slit with dragon's calm and phoenix's promise.
Nia gasped, voice trembling as she whispered the truth aloud. "Dragon… Phoenix."
Aurelia laughed, awe tangled in delight. "Finally. Our overpowered bastard."
The Corrupter screeched, shadows clawing the sky, silence crashing in waves. His crown bent low, ribs glowing with stolen stars. He hurled his surge forward — a wall of nothing, a cathedral of black flame meant to unmake everything.
Andy stepped into it.
The wall disintegrated on contact. Fire seared it, water drowned it, wind shredded it, earth buried it. Phoenix light purified what remained. The silence broke like glass under song.
The Corrupter recoiled. His wings crumpled inward, ribs spasming as black fire sputtered.
Andy raised the Oathblade. His voice was calm, even. "Dragon-Phoenix Form… awakened."
The system bowed in acknowledgment.
[Dragon-Phoenix Form Unlocked]
Status: Ascended
Dominance: Absolute
Aura Contamination: Nullified
Andy moved once. Only once.
The Oathblade traced a line of gold-white across the ridge. Heat followed, tide sharpened it, gale carried it, earth grounded it. The strike did not clash — it decided. The Corrupter's crown split. His ribs fractured. Silence collapsed into whimpers and then into ash.
The villagers cried out, not in fear, but in belief. The sky brightened, as if clouds themselves wanted to kneel.
Nia and Aurelia both clutched his arms, their bodies trembling with exhaustion, but their eyes shone with something fiercer than pride.
Andy stood unshaken. His breath was even. His aura steady. His face, for once, did not show fatigue.
He lowered the Oathblade. Fire dimmed, light softened, but the wings of flame and scale did not vanish. They folded calmly, like a cloak returning to its master's shoulders.
He looked at the Corrupter's broken form, still writhing in fragments of shadow, and spoke with quiet certainty.
"This ends with me."
The ridge obeyed. The sky leaned. And the Dragon-Phoenix stood alone, unchallenged.