Eruption of Fire

The darkness cracked.

A faint, crimson light sparked. Then roared to life.
It wasn't warmth. It was fury. Pressure. A fire without sound, without heat, without mercy.
It coiled around my body, seeped into the cracks of my pain. My vision blurred red, my heartbeat steadied.

I felt him.

A presence surged up from my core. Wild. Relentless. Not a voice, but a scream in my blood.

Vulcan...

He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.
His will burned through me like molten iron.
I knew what he wanted.

My fingers twitched. Then moved, reached for Hellframe, and seized it.

Somewhere, my broken body twitched. I barely stood up.

Lumier, standing before me, teased me, "Ooo... I was just about to stab your heart to see if you were alive. Guess you ruined my chance to be polite. How rude!"
Then burst into anger, "Now, die!"
He lunged toward me with his devastating speed, blurring in front of my eyes.

A voice echoed in my mind, "Let. Me. Burn."

A flicker of heat slithered through the air as Hellframe rattled and met Lumier’s blade head-on.

A warmth surged through my chest—no, not warmth. Heat. Scorching. Persistent.

My heart pounded like a war drum. My body, broken moments ago, felt like a forge igniting from within.

BOOM!

The flames got outside with a burst, pushing him aside.
The arena shook, leaving the crowd in a shock.
He stumbled back, shielding his face from the heat.

But this time, the fire didn't spread out... It wasn't out of control.
I felt the fire as my own belonging.

Lady Temina, her emotionless eyes turned anxious, as she stood up from her seat, murmuring, "It's... Vulcan... But how?"

Flames swirling around my body like a cloak, my grey mane lifted in the heat, golden eyes blazing.

Hellframe caught on the flames too. It looked alive, pulsing, hungry.

My voice was layered—mine and someone else’s.
"You wanted a fight, Lumier?" I said, the fire crackling with every word.
"Then face the fire. Face Vulcan."

The words echoed across the arena, carried not by wind, but fire.

I surged forward.

Flames wrapped around my limbs, not as decoration, but as fuel. I was faster... faster than I’d ever been. The ground cracked beneath my feet with every step. Each swing of Hellframe left the air humming with heat.

Too fast.

The world blurred. My body jolted forward before I could think. In a blink, I was inches from Lumier.

His eyes widened as I swung Hellframe.

Huh!

The strike missed its angle, skidding his blade. I landed behind him. The flames surged too hard, and I nearly lost my grip.
The fire had made me faster, stronger. But without control, untrained. Every movement was raw, no restraint.

Lumier didn't block the first blow. He didn't need to. It barely touched his blade.

Finding a golden chance, he countered.
A slash to my back.

I moved instantly and made some distance, only to lunge again at him.

I overstepped again. My sword came down hard, cleaving the floor instead of my opponent.

The power coursing through me was too much. My arms shook from the force, my knees buckled with each launch. My own strength was tearing me apart.

Chunks of stone flew. The heat warped the air. The audience gasped, stunned silent.

Across from me, Lumier panted, clutching his blade with shaky hands.

"You're just flailing!" he yelled with a fake smile on his face, trying to convince himself.

I tried to chase him again, but my feet skidded across the stone. I couldn’t control it.

He spun with the wind, trying to ambush me, while I still wasn't able to get on my feet. But I managed to block it somehow.
Our weapons locked. For a heartbeat, we were nose-to-nose.
"You're reckless!" he barked, blocking with trembling arms.

We broke apart in a blast of heat and wind.

The battlefield cracked, smouldering and scarred. The crowd had fallen dead silent, watching a duel beyond their comprehension.

But then—

Something shifted.

The fire wasn’t just wild rage. Beneath the fury, I felt... not a scream, but a heartbeat.

Vulcan was responding to me.

I slowed my breathing. Focused. The fire adjusted. It didn’t rage, it danced.

I moved again, faster than before, yet this time I saw the angles.

Hellframe felt lighter, it was no longer an extension of me, but a reflection, just like brother said. Every movement blazed with fury, with purpose.

I swept it in a lowering arc, flames curling around it.

Lumier blocked. But the force pushed him back.

Our blades clashed again and again. Sparks. Flame. Wind. The air screamed between us.

He was continuously keeping up.

For every blow I landed, he landed one back.

Fire met wind.

My fists burned with flame. His kicks carried tornados.

Hellframe hissed, cloaked in fire, cutting arcs through the air. Lumier’s sword, reforged mid-battle by wind pressure alone, whistled through the air. The elements howled around us.

A cut to his gut.
A spinning kick to my ribs.
A knee to his jaw.
A slash to my thigh.

We were bleeding. Breathing heavy. Both of us cracked and scorched. But neither fell.

His movements were fast, they had the weight. He adapted to my rhythm. Tight footwork, fluid counters, wind coiling around his limbs like armour.
But his hands still trembled with the big hits that I landed. He was at his limit.

He smirked, wiping blood from his lips.
"You think fire alone can beat me?" he spat, parrying a blow that should have shattered his guard. But it drove him into knees.

Then, while keeping my strike blocked, he gathered his last amount of strength into one single storm-burst. "That's enough... Die already!"

The arena shook. Dust clouds broke out and my vision kept fainting.

A quiet excitement started to build up as the clouds began to move.

There standing Lumier, barely managing to lift his body, burnt and stained with blood.

And I was laying down at a distance, without any motion. My muscles screamed, my sight was blurring.

"Let me burn..." the voice whispered again. Or maybe I said it aloud.

Then, I roared.
I rose. Somehow.

Hellframe lit like a falling star. I drove it straight into the stone floor. The ground cracked in a web around it, molten lines glowing beneath my feet.

Flames burst from my arms... my fists wrapped in molten gauntlets, shaped not by will, but by rage.

I dashed in. The flames howled with me.

Lumier raised his sword. Desperate, trembling.

Crack!

I shattered it with a single punch.

He staggered. I followed. A blazing hook to the ribs.

A knee to his stomach.
A flaming elbow across his jaw.
He fell, coughing blood, but I wasn’t done.

I stood over him. Lifted both fists. And struck. Again. And again. Each blow fueled by fire, a forged hammer on flesh and bone.

Lumier didn’t respond. His face bloodied, eyes half-shut.

Still... I didn’t stop.

I felt nothing but the need to crush. To punish. To burn.

The stone shattered beneath him. Smoke erupted like a geyser. The impact echoed across the silent arena.

I raised my fist again, flames snarling louder than the crowd ever could.

"BASALIN!!!"
A voice.
Lady Temina’s voice.
Sharp. Desperate. Humanly.

I froze.
My fist hung in the air, trembling.
The flames flickered, uncertain.
Lumier, broken and beaten, lay unconscious beneath me.
My breath slowed.
Slowly, my gaze rose.

The crowd—silent. Horrified.

The queen—pale. The king—stiff. My mother—crying. My father—cold.

Lady Temina—eyes locked on mine.
"...That's enough," she whispered.

The flames around my arms sputtered and shrank... still there, but no longer raging.

I stepped back from Lumier’s ruined body. My legs nearly gave out.

The fire hissed in my blood, but no longer screamed.

Hellframe still stood, embedded in the ground like a witness.

I raised my fist in the air, but the viewers remained quiet, deadly silent.

And I—

Collapsed.