Chapter 501: Golden Breaker

Ignis drove her fist into the eye she had ripped free, shattering it in one blow. She didn’t stop there. Her other hand shot out, grabbing another floating eye from the steam, and slammed it into the ground. Golden fire poured from her palms, engulfing both eyes until nothing remained but ash and fading embers.

More eyes opened in the tear of reality. They fired in unison.

A dozen beams of ice-cold light screamed toward her, converging from every direction. Ignis twisted, but one of the beams caught her across the face.

The impact was devastating.

Half her head vanished, seared away by the freezing light. Bone, flesh, and scale dissolved into mist. Her body staggered backward, golden fire sputtering wildly around the wound.

For a heartbeat, she stood there, head half-gone, flames flickering like a dying candle.

Then the fire surged.

Her regeneration kicked in with violent speed. Flesh knitted itself back together. Bone reformed. Scales regrew across her cheek and jaw until her face was whole again, her eyes burning brighter than before.

She spat blood onto the molten floor and looked up at the eyes.

"That’s useless."

She launched herself forward.

Her fist smashed through the nearest eye, then the next. She grabbed a third and crushed it in her palm, fire pouring from her fingers until it dissolved. A fourth tried to retreat, but she caught it with a kick, sending it crashing into the wall where it shattered like glass.

One by one, the eyes died. Burned. Erased.

When the last one vanished, Ignis stood alone in the chamber, breathing hard, steam curling off her shoulders.

She looked down at her hands. Golden fire danced across her palms, steady and warm.

"With this," she said quietly, "I’ve become stronger."

Then she felt presence watching her.

Ignis slammed her foot against the ground, and golden fire exploded outward in every direction, sweeping across the chamber like a tidal wave.

The flames spread. The walls burned. The floor melted. And as the fire consumed everything, the illusion shattered.

The chamber dissolved, revealing a vast, empty space beyond. Floating in the center, wrapped in a dark, tattered robe, was a single eye. It was massive, easily the size of a house and it stared at her.

The eye shimmered, and then it wasn’t just an eye anymore.

A figure materialized in front of her. A mage. Robed in black, face hidden beneath a deep hood, staff in hand. It floated above the molten ground as if gravity meant nothing.

Ignis’s lips curled into a sharp, wild grin.

"Finally," she said. "You’ve shown yourself."

The robed figure raised its staff, and the air around it turned to killing cold. Frost spread across the molten floor, crawling toward Ignis in jagged veins.

Ignis didn’t wait. She surged forward, golden fire roaring around her arms, fist cocked back to strike.

The mage’s staff flared. A massive fist of ice materialized in the air between them, easily the size of a boulder. It slammed down, catching Ignis’s flaming punch head-on.

The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the chamber. Fire and frost ground against each other, hissing and screaming. But the ice didn’t melt. It held, and then it pushed.

Ignis’s eyes widened.

The ice fist drove her backward, and the mage’s earlier attack slammed into her from the side. The impact hurled her across the chamber. She crashed into the wall, stone shattering around her, and slid down through a cloud of dust.

She landed in a crouch, one hand braced against the cracked floor.

Golden fire still burned along her shoulders. She wiped blood from the corner of her mouth and grinned.

"Not bad."

She rose to her feet. Her wings snapped open behind her, blazing with golden light.

The mage raised its staff again, chanting low and fast.

Ignis launched herself forward, wings beating hard, accelerating faster than before. The air screamed around her. The ground melted beneath every step.

The mage thrust its staff forward. A storm of ice spikes erupted from the floor and walls, thousands of jagged spears all converging on a single point on her.

Ignis didn’t slow down.

"[Dragon Will: Golden Breaker]."

Her fist pulled back, wrapped in spiraling golden fire, compressed into a single blazing point. She met the storm head-on.

The attacks collided.

Fire and ice exploded outward in a shockwave that shattered the chamber walls. Steam and frost warred in the air. The spikes cracked, melted, and dissolved into nothing as Ignis’s flames burned through every last one.

But the mage was already moving.

While she was still burning through the spikes, it had prepared another spell. A lance of absolute cold, thin and impossibly sharp, shot through the steam straight at her heart.

Ignis saw it a heartbeat too late.

She wrapped herself in golden fire, layers upon layers, and raised her right hand to block.

The lance struck.

Her right arm was severed clean at the elbow, the limb dissolving into frost and steam. Blood sprayed across the molten floor.

Ignis staggered back, but she was still smiling.

The mage tilted its head, as if confused. It raised its staff again, preparing the final blow.

It never got the chance.

Ignis opened her mouth.

Ignis opened her mouth, and a torrent of golden fire erupted from her throat, brighter and hotter than anything she had released before. The flames engulfed the mage before it could react, swallowing its robes, its staff, its hooded face.

But just as the fire closed in, the mage raised its staff. A barrier of violet light bloomed around it, flaring to life in the instant before the flames hit. The golden fire slammed into the barrier and stopped, neutralized, dissolved, swallowed.

Ignis cut off her flames and straightened, breathing hard.

"So you’re tough after all."

She looked down at her missing arm. Golden fire flickered at the stump, and flesh began to knit itself back together. Bone reformed. Muscle wove. Scales regrew across the new limb until it was whole again, fingers flexing as if they had never been severed.

Her lips curled into a sharp, hungry grin.

"But that’s interesting."

She raised her newly restored hand, golden fire coiling around her fingers.

"I want to know if my fire can erase that barrier too."

The mage’s eyes glowed brighter behind the barrier. It slammed its staff against the ground, and reality itself cracked.

A ripple spread outward, warping the air. The chamber twisted. Gravity bent. The floor, the walls, the light, everything fractured like glass, then snapped back into place. And Ignis felt it.

She couldn’t move.

Her body was frozen in place. The space around her held her like invisible chains. The mage’s spell had locked her in a web of bent reality, and she could do nothing but watch.

The mage raised its staff and began to chant.

Purple energy gathered at the tip, then it fired.

A wave of violet energy screamed toward her.

Ignis gritted her teeth.

’Damn it.’

Her fire surged. Golden flames erupted from her core, hotter than before, and the invisible chains began to crack. She pushed against them, muscles straining, fire roaring. The reality-bending hold shattered like glass.

The violet energy was still coming.

Ignis opened her mouth and let out a torrent of golden fire, meeting the attack head-on. The two forces collided and screamed against each other.

Her fire held.

Then it pushed forward, swallowing the violet energy whole, burning through it, erasing it.

The mage staggered back, its barrier flickering.

Ignis didn’t give it time to recover. She spread her wings and the fire along her body compressed, layer over layer, into points of heat across her arms, her chest, her wings.

She raised both hands.

"This is how it ends."

Then she flicked her fingers, and a dozen concentrated points of golden fire shot through the air like stars, streaking toward the mage from every direction.

The barrier flared, trying to neutralize them. But the fire didn’t dissolve. It burned through.

The mage raised its staff, desperate, and the two forces met in a blinding explosion of gold and violet.

The explosion of gold and violet tore through the chamber, shattering reality itself. Cracks spread across the air like broken glass, and through those cracks, Ignis’s golden fire poured without restraint.

Everything the flames touched simply vanished.

The mage’s barrier cracked, then shattered. The violet energy dissolved. The robed figure was engulfed, its hood burning away, its staff crumbling to ash. It collapsed to the ground, flames still eating through its body.

It lifted its head one last time and looked at Ignis. Its voice was barely a whisper, broken and fading.

"...You pass."

Then it dissolved into ash and scattered across the molten floor.

Ignis stood alone in the ruined chamber, breathing hard. Her body was drenched in sweat and blood, her right hand pressed against her chest, fingers curled over her heart.

She felt it.

The doubt that had been weighing on her, the fear, the insecurity, the feeling of being useless, it was gone. Burned away like everything else.

She straightened slowly. Golden fire still flickered weakly around her arms, but it was calm now.

Her lips curved into a proud, exhausted smile.

"Adam...."

She raised her head toward the shattered ceiling, toward the light breaking through the cracks in reality.

"I won."