It started with a smell.
Not smoke. Not blood.
Rot.
Like something dead had been left in the sun too long. Like iron and ash and… something worse.
Even before the sirens wailed, I felt it.
My flame pulsed in my chest — not burning.
Warning.
Then came the bells.
All across the academy — deep, hollow, panicked.
A demon breach.
The first in twelve years.
I was already out of bed, boots on, coat half-buttoned, when the second bell rang.
Outside, students were running.
Not toward the wall.
Away from it.
I pushed through the crowd, heart pounding, flame whispering.
I didn't wait for orders.
Didn't wait for backup.
Because I knew.
Whatever was coming — it wasn't like the demons we'd studied in books.
It wasn't random.
It was coming for me.
By the time I reached the south wall, the sky was on fire.
The forest beyond the barrier burned with black-and-red flame, but the heat wasn't spreading.
It was focused.
Instructor Margo stood on the wall, sword drawn, shouting orders.
Elite mages lined the top of the gate.
And below, stalking out of the smoke—
He came.
A demon taller than any I'd ever seen.
Ten feet. Maybe more.
Skin like cracked obsidian. Horns curved back. A single massive eye glowing orange in the center of his face.
And stitched into his chest, barely hidden beneath chains—
A demon seal.
I heard someone whisper:
"That's a general…"
And it clicked.
Not just a demon.
A Demon General.
One of the seven.
Creatures born from cursed flame and forgotten gods.
Margo barked, "Do NOT engage unless ordered!"
But I was already walking forward.
Because the demon had stopped.
And was staring right at me.
He didn't speak with words.
Not at first.
He just raised one massive hand.
And pointed — a black claw — at me.
Then I heard the voice.
Low. Echoing inside my head.
"Child of the Black Fire."
"You reek of the First Flame."
"Come forward. Let me test what still lives inside you."
The students behind me backed away.
Some muttered spells.
Margo shouted something — maybe my name — but I didn't hear it.
The fire in my chest had already woken.
I dropped into the field, crossing through the burning grass, my boots crackling on scorched earth.
The demon waited.
Watching.
Like he didn't see me as a threat.
Just as a... curiosity.
"I don't know who sent you," I shouted, "but I'm not afraid of you."
The demon didn't laugh.
He stepped forward.
And the earth cracked beneath him.
The fight didn't start with magic.
It started with speed.
He moved faster than he should've — closing twenty feet in a blink.
His claw came down like a hammer.
I rolled left — barely — and the ground where I stood exploded.
Stone and flame rained into the sky.
I pulled the fire into my hands.
Not all of it.
Just a flicker.
A line of black heat slashed through the air and hit the demon's chest—
Nothing.
Didn't even flinch.
He turned, slow and calm.
Then grabbed a boulder the size of a horse and threw it at my head.
I caught it.
I shouldn't have caught it.
But the fire took over.
It surged through my arms, and I screamed as I slammed the boulder back into the ground, shattering it like glass.
The demon paused.
He grunted, voice inside my head again:
"You are still small."
"But the seed is real."
He raised both arms.
And the sky turned black.
The next second was a blur.
Fire rained down from the sky.
Not red. Not even black.
Violet.
Demonfire — the kind that melts magic itself.
The students screamed from the wall. Margo activated the barrier — too late.
I raised my arms.
And the fire inside me answered.
Black flames shot up, wrapping around me, deflecting the violet fire in spirals.
The demon stared.
For the first time…
He looked interested.
He stepped forward again, claws glowing now.
Chains broke from his chest, releasing dark magic.
"Your flame is untrained," his voice said. "But it is old. Wild. Untouched."
He raised a hand.
"I will tear it from you."
Then I heard another voice.
Not his.
Not mine.
But hers.
Lunelle.
From behind me.
"Get down!"
A silver arrow sliced the air — glowing like moonlight — and hit the demon in the eye.
He roared — not in pain, but in rage.
The ground cracked.
Flame exploded in every direction.
I was thrown back—into the air—and caught mid-fall by a cushion of cold light.
She stood behind me.
Bow drawn.
Eyes sharp.
"You're not ready for him," she said. "But we'll stall him together."
We fought.
Not just with fire and ice.
But with understanding.
She froze his legs — I shattered them with flame.
He blocked one of my attacks — she hit him from behind.
For a moment…
We moved like one.
But the Demon General didn't fall.
Not yet.
After twenty minutes of hell, we were gasping, barely standing, flame and frost barely flickering.
The demon bled.
Black blood.
But he still smiled.
"You've improved," he said.
"You know me?" I asked.
He nodded.
"I knew the one before you. The last flame-holder."
"What happened to them?"
His smile widened.
"I killed him."
The rage inside me ignited.
This time I didn't hold back.
I let the flame out.
All of it.
The black fire roared from my body in a spiral, lighting up the battlefield like a second sun.
It screamed.
It remembered.
The demon's face changed.
Not fear.
But recognition.
Then I charged.
I hit him in the chest — flames exploding from my fists — and for the first time, he staggered.
He growled.
Then leapt into the sky—
—and vanished.
Gone in a flash of shadow and flame.
Silence.
Then cheers.
Distant. Dazed.
I fell to my knees.
Breathing smoke.
Lunelle walked over slowly, helping me stand.
"You did it," she said.
"No," I whispered. "He let me."
She looked at me, confused.
I pointed to the sky, still burning faintly.
"He came to see if I was ready," I said.
"And?"
I turned toward her.
"He'll come back when I am."