The air shifted as the obsidian-winged Host stepped forward, his presence warping the heat around them into something colder—hungrier. His blade sang a dirge in the air, the scream-like note echoing into the void around them.
[Rival Approaches: Host "Vael, Scourge of Empathy" – Level 10]
[Class: Empath Executioner | Pleasure Rank: A]
[Soul Duel Initiated – Only the Authentic Self May Survive]
Nayomi's fists curled. Her flames flared instinctively, dancing violet-orange along her skin. Her body still ached from the trial she'd just completed, but the fury burned steady now. Controlled. Focused. She no longer feared the fire inside her.
Vael's voice was smooth. Too smooth. Like velvet over broken glass.
"So you've conquered your mirror. How precious."
He circled her, wings stretching, eyes flicking across her every movement. "But purging rage is not healing. Pain leaves its fingerprints. And mine... is to find them."
The blade shimmered—and then hummed with energy.
He was already inside her aura.
Too close.
[WARNING: Empathic Drain Imminent – Emotional Shield Required]
She flared Soulflare instinctively, but Vael was faster. A whisper touched her mind. A flicker of memory—Selis crying alone in the rain, Kai bleeding in her arms, her own mother burning as Nayomi was dragged away to the Binding Chambers—
"STOP!" she screamed, but the emotions weren't hers anymore. They were weaponized. Sliced and sewn together, looped back into her like a chain.
Vael smiled. "You can't fight what you refuse to feel."
And he struck.
Blade met claw. Sparks erupted.
She ducked low, rolled, launched a flame burst—but Vael's wings snapped forward like a shield of shadows, absorbing the impact.
[Soul Duel: Progress 11% — Vael Gaining Dominance]
The Tower responded to their clash. The arena morphed—flames replaced with cold gray stone, mirrors forming along the walls again, but these showed no reflections.
Only memories.
And all of them were hers.
The burning village. The first time she was branded. The night she killed her first love to survive a trial.
Nayomi clenched her jaw, knuckles white with effort.
He's trying to unmake me.
"Your strength is a reaction," Vael said, calmly stepping forward again. "To injustice. To betrayal. You think your fury makes you free. But you're still chained to what they did to you."
She staggered under the words. Not because they were false—but because they almost weren't.
"I'm not chained," she growled, flames rising again.
Vael tilted his head. "Prove it."
She charged.
Her claws met his blade again—and this time, she didn't try to dodge the empathic strike. She let it hit. Let the pain pour through her.
[Soulflare Triggered: Controlled Burn] [Emotion Converted: Despair > Wrath > Resolve]
She turned it into fire.
Lashing out in a whirling vortex of burning strikes, she sent him sliding backward, shadows singed from his wings. He hissed in genuine pain.
[Soul Duel Progress: 38% – Nayomi Gaining Ground]
"You think you know pain?" she snarled. "You sip suffering like wine. I bathe in it. I survived it."
Vael recovered, wings spreading in defiance. "You mistake endurance for evolution."
He drove his sword into the stone beneath them—and suddenly, the arena twisted.
It wasn't gray stone anymore.
It was her childhood home.
The one they burned.
The scent of blood and ash was perfect. Her mother's scream echoed from the next room. She was there again—a child. Powerless.
[Illusion Field Activated – Soul Imprint Reversion Attempt]
"No," she whispered. "No. Not again."
"Let it in," Vael said softly. "Let it break you. You must feel it to be free."
But this time—something changed.
She wasn't alone.
A hand rested on her shoulder.
She turned—and saw her mother.
Not the screaming figure from her nightmares—but the real one. Strong. Proud. Her eyes full of sadness... and pride.
"Burn them if you must," the memory said. "But never forget what you protect."
[Emotional Anchor Stabilized] [Override Initiated: Phoenix Warden Effect – Phase 2 Unlocked]
The illusion shattered in fire.
Nayomi emerged, eyes glowing like twin stars, her flames now threaded with white.
Purifying flame.
Vael staggered. "Impossible... That's System Reconciliation. Only Primes—"
Nayomi slammed into him, claws sinking through armor, searing his false empathy into vapor.
"You weaponized pain," she whispered in his ear. "But I am pain. And I choose who it serves."
[Soul Duel Progress: 92%...]
Vael tried one last time—his blade swinging in desperation, his wings darkening to obsidian void.
But she didn't dodge.
She embraced the blow.
And let the fire inside her detonate.
[Skill Used: Soulflare Nova – Terminal Release] [AOE Impact: 20m – Burn Duration 10s – Soul Lock Effect Engaged]
The explosion consumed the entire arena.
When the flames faded...
Vael lay curled on the ground, his blade a molten ruin. His wings gone. His aura broken.
He looked up, terrified.
"You… you were never meant to be a support class…"
Nayomi stood over him, chest heaving, fire flickering around her fists.
"I'm not a class."
She knelt, pulled his face close.
"I'm a warning."
[Soul Duel Complete – Victory: Nayomi] [Essence Claimed: 12,000 (Soul-Tier)] [New Trait Gained: Empathic Immunity – Immune to emotion-based damage or illusions] [Phoenix Warden Effect Strengthened – You now leave a healing flame aura for allies after revival]
The arena trembled.
But not from her.
Something older was moving beneath the Tower.
She turned just in time to see a sliver of black energy crack through the floor.
Not the Maw.
Not a Warden.
Something worse.
[System Alert: Prime Convergence Imminent]
Before she could act, the ground split—sending her spiraling through a vortex of flame and symbols, her essence dragged toward the next level of the Tower.
Meanwhile, in another chamber...
Kai knelt, surrounded by the fractured code of the Warden he'd slain.
His body was shifting—rewriting itself.
Selis appeared in a shimmer of blue mist beside him, her eyes wide.
"You're evolving," she whispered. "But not into something the System recognizes."
Kai looked up, blood at the corner of his mouth.
"I don't care what they recognize."
Behind him, golden text burned across the code-space sky:
[UNDEFINED CLASS: PRIME CATALYST]
Far above, beyond the veil of the Tower, a throne room flickered into view.
Seven figures watched Kai and Nayomi's ascent.
Only one spoke, their voice like thunder swallowed by silk.
"He was supposed to fail. She was supposed to break."
Another figure leaned forward, their face half-shrouded in the shifting veil of the system's law.
"But they didn't. And now..."
A third voice laughed—a low, rumbling sound that made reality tremble.
"…Now the game has changed."
To be continued...