Thick black smoke billowed above Thornveil Forest, rising high enough to be seen from the capital itself.
Alarm spread quickly.
From guard towers.
From market streets.
From citizens pointing toward the dark plume staining the sky.
Fire.
Inside Thornveil.
Orders came immediately.
"Investigate."
A squad of six city guards was assembled without delay.
Mounted on horseback, their mission was clear:
Assess the fire.
Contain it if possible.
And signal for reinforcements should the situation prove beyond their control.
Without hesitation—
They rode for Thornveil.
Deep within the forest—
At the heart of the devastation—
The battlefield had fallen into temporary stillness.
Bren remained unconscious where he had fallen.
Sten, though alive, was still too shaken to stand properly after witnessing Nero's destructive firepower firsthand.
Zeak remained trapped in ice.
Frozen in absolute restraint.
The faint green aura that had once enhanced him had completely vanished.
And Maria—
Though injured and still reeling from the brutal kick to her head—
Forced herself upright.
Sword in hand.
Determined.
But Gareth never looked away from Nero.
His voice cut sharply through the scorched air.
"You're in no condition to fight."
Maria froze.
"You'll only slow me down."
A brief silence followed.
Then Gareth added—
"Get Sten out of here."
Maria clenched her jaw.
Frustration burned in her eyes—
But she obeyed.
Without argument.
She moved to Sten's side and helped him retreat from the immediate battlefield.
Nero watched them carefully.
Inside his mind, Angelo's voice surfaced.
"That same glow."
A pause.
"Be careful."
Nero's grip on his combat knife subtly tightened.
"I know."
His thoughts remained calm.
"I never got the chance to gauge Gareth normally."
Another pause.
"And now he's already enhancing himself."
His silver eyes narrowed slightly.
"Can't afford to lower my guard."
As Maria and Sten finally cleared the area—
The battlefield narrowed.
Burning forest.
Molten earth.
Chemical stench.
Smoke.
And two fighters.
Nothing else mattered.
Gareth adjusted his stance.
Sword steady.
Aura faintly shimmering around him.
"Are you ready?"
Nero lowered himself slightly.
Knife firm in hand.
"Yes."
Gareth's expression hardened.
"Good."
A branch snapped beneath Gareth's foot—
And he launched forward.
Fast.
Nero immediately raised his knife, ready to parry.
Head-on attack?
No.
At the last second, Gareth shifted right.
Just as Nero adjusted—
Gareth changed direction again.
Left.
A feint.
Nero's eyes narrowed.
Too late to switch hands.
Gareth's sword tore through the air with brutal force.
Nero reacted instantly, freezing a thick layer of ice over his left forearm and raising it to intercept.
Ting!
The blade struck hard—
But bounced off the reinforced ice.
Nero twisted sharply, countering with a knife slash aimed for Gareth's side—
But Gareth was already moving.
A swift kick slammed into Nero's torso, disrupting his momentum, while Gareth used the recoil to leap backward.
No hesitation.
He charged again.
Nero rushed forward to meet him—
But Gareth kicked a loose rock straight at his face.
Nero shifted his weight, narrowly dodging.
That instant was enough.
Gareth closed the gap, sword raised high.
Nero crossed his arms, ice reinforcing his left arm once more.
But Gareth adapted.
Instead of swinging his blade—
He drove his left fist directly into the ice.
CRACK.
The frozen defense shattered instantly.
Nero's eyes sharpened.
He retaliated immediately—
A stone pillar erupted upward from his right, spearing toward Gareth.
Gareth sprang backward, narrowly avoiding it.
Nero pressed harder.
An ice wall surged upward to his right.
Dozens of razor-sharp spikes formed instantly—
And launched.
Gareth sprinted sideways, moving right as the spikes tore past him, embedding themselves into the earth and burning trees behind.
He didn't stop moving.
Nero raised a stone wall directly in Gareth's path.
A trap.
But Gareth accelerated.
He planted one foot against the vertical wall—
And ran up it.
Nero's spikes slammed uselessly into stone below.
Midair—
Nero unleashed another barrage of ice.
No room to dodge.
Or so he thought.
Then—
The air beneath Gareth's feet hardened.
A translucent foothold.
Gareth kicked off it instantly.
His body twisted sharply left—
Then right—
Dodging midair like he was running on invisible platforms.
Another foothold formed above him.
Upside down—
He pushed off again.
And shot downward.
Straight at Nero.
Too fast.
Nero barely managed to reinforce his left arm with ice again before Gareth's blade crashed down.
Ting!
Nero deflected the strike enough to redirect Gareth into the ground—
But not perfectly.
The sword sliced through the ice—
And cut deep into Nero's forearm.
Blood spilled.
For a fraction of a second.
Then the wound sealed.
Flesh regenerated instantly.
The blood itself froze—
Then shattered into icy dust.
Only his torn sleeve remained.
Nero attacked immediately.
Using the explosion of dust as cover, he lunged with his knife.
But Gareth's sword burst through the haze with perfect precision—
Parting the dust itself.
Nero twisted violently.
Barely dodging the thrust.
Gareth rose without pause.
And unleashed a relentless barrage.
Strike after strike.
Fast.
Precise.
Overwhelming.
Nero gritted his teeth, forced entirely on defense.
Dodging.
Blocking.
Parrying.
Still—
He was being pushed back.
Inside his mind, Angelo's voice surfaced.
"He's on an entirely different level than the others."
Nero created another stone pillar between them—
Then leapt backward to create distance.
But Gareth immediately dashed around it.
Closing in again.
Nero raised his left hand.
A pale blue fireball formed instantly before his open palm.
Gareth's blood ran cold.
His instincts flared.
He changed tactics immediately.
Running.
Dodging.
Using trees and hardened air footholds to become nearly impossible to track.
Nero fired.
A devastating jet of pale blue flame erupted forward.
He swept his arm—
And the inferno followed Gareth's movements.
Trees vanished.
Stone melted.
Earth liquefied.
Everything the flame touched was erased.
Yet Gareth kept moving.
Weaving through destruction.
Leaping through air.
Dodging by fractions.
But then—
A mistake.
Gareth's eyes widened.
Bren.
Still unconscious.
Directly ahead.
"No—!"
Gareth pivoted instantly, abandoning his evasion to protect his fallen ally.
At the same moment—
Nero saw it too.
And reacted.
Immediately.
He cut the flame.
Then forcefully raised multiple walls of stone and ice between the blast and Bren while redirecting the remaining flames away.
But after such sustained force—
Stopping it wasn't clean.
The residual fire slammed into the barriers.
Ice vaporized.
Stone melted.
Wall after wall disintegrated—
Until the attack finally died.
Silence.
Smoke.
Molten earth.
And one undeniable truth—
Nero had just spared Bren's life.