Swish.... Bam… Bam… Bam…
The air trembled. The ground cracked.
Heat rippled through the streets, warping the air until even the metal of parked cars and ambulances began to melt. The whole atmosphere boiled under the pressure of two monsters in human form.
Rihan kept attacking, strike after strike, faster than the eye could follow.
His movements blurred into streaks of light and flame. No human could track him anymore—only the afterimages of destruction told his story.
"Taste the fires of hell, you monster!"
Slamm—Boom!
Tita crashed into the wreckage, walls breaking beneath his enormous frame. He tried to rise, but Rihan's next blow slammed him down again, harder, faster, without pause. The earth quaked beneath their fury.
"Ugh… ahhh… you MOTHERFUCKER!" Tita roared, blood and spit flying from his mouth. "I'll kill you! I'll kill every last one of you standing here!"
His voice echoed across the burning streets as his body began to swell, growing larger and darker, monstrous veins glowing red beneath his skin. His aura pulsed like molten steel.
"I'll crush every one of these pathetic insects! Come on, Rihan—stop me if you can! Burn them! Burn them all!" Tita charged toward the terrified crowd, laughing wildly. "These gnats were born to be crushed!"
Rihan stood still.
His eyes followed Tita running toward the helpless people. Flames licked across his arms, but his breathing was calm—too calm.
The wounds on his body stopped bleeding; instead, fire flowed from them. His pain turned into something else… something terrifyingly serene.
Pffft.
A small laugh escaped his lips. Then another.
And another. Until the quiet chuckle became a violent eruption of laughter.
Ha... hahahahaha...!
The crowd froze. Their trembling bodies stared at the man they had called their savior—laughing amid the flames.
"He's... he's laughing…" someone whispered through tears.
"We're all going to die," another sobbed.
Sprint. Thud. Thud-thud.
"Hahaha! Look at your hero!" Tita shouted, sprinting through the chaos. "Look how he laughs like a maniac when he should be saving you! Pathetic!"
He turned his monstrous face toward the people. "The life of a mosquito has no value. Neither does yours! Because you're all just insects to me! Now DIE!"
Whoosh—Smack!
"Hellbound Drive!" Rihan roared, his voice echoing like a thunderclap.
His fist ignited—an inferno of pure fury.
Hellbound Drive: A rocket-charged flaming punch whose strength depends entirely on the user's rage.
Thud! Shrrrshhh!
The impact sent Tita flying across the battlefield, scraping across the asphalt for hundreds of meters before crashing into the debris.
The earth cracked under the force, scattering molten fragments in every direction.
The shockwave burned through the air, and even those standing far behind screamed as sparks and embers tore at their skin. Some had their sleeves burned off, others their hands blistered from the heat.
But no one blamed Rihan.
Even as pain spread through the crowd, they cheered his name, their tears falling freely.
"Kill that monster, Blazefury! Kill him!"
Rihan turned his burning gaze toward them. "Run… as far as you can."
The people understood. Without hesitation, they fled the battlefield. Their shouts faded into the distance as the earth itself seemed to breathe fire.
Above them, helicopters circled—the media capturing every second. Below, cameras had already melted to slag.
"You… you're no hero," Tita snarled through blood and broken teeth. His jaw hung loose, bone cracked, his body trembling. "You're a monster. A creature from hell. Your flames are the fires of the inferno!"
Rihan didn't answer immediately.
He simply stared down at Tita, expression unreadable. Calm. Almost… peaceful. The peace of someone standing between life and death.
Then, softly—he laughed again.
"Haha… yes. You're right. I am a monster." His voice trembled, not with fear, but with acceptance. "Everyone thought so."
He clenched his burning fist, eyes flickering with memory. "But calling my mother's fire hellfire… that's an insult to her. The flames inside me are her gift."
The flames around him surged, turning from red to blinding white. The ground began to melt.
"Infernal Burst."
Infernal Burst: A massive eruption of life-force flames—sacrificing one's own vitality to unleash a fire that consumes everything.
The world turned white.
Rihan vanished inside a storm of fire.
"Ahhh! Let me go! You insect!" Tita screamed as Rihan grabbed him, flames wrapping around both of them. His voice broke in agony. "I'm burning! I'M BURNING!"
Rihan soared upward, dragging Tita with him, breaking through the clouds.
The wind howled. The sky cracked with thunder. The two figures disappeared into the blinding light above the storm.
"Let me go!" Tita's voice grew hoarse.
But Rihan only smiled.
High above the world, beyond the clouds, he turned them downward.
Fwooom—Thud!
They plummeted like a meteor.
The collision shattered the ground. A crater opened where they landed, flames erupting in waves that tore through the city.
Windows shattered. Helicopters wobbled violently in the air, struggling against the shockwave.
"Let me go! I'm burning alive!" Tita screamed, his voice now raw and broken.
The world watched in horror.
People from every corner of the globe stared at their screens, witnessing a godlike inferno swallowing everything. Reporters cried as they recorded. The heat radiating from the screen itself felt suffocating.
For the first time, they realized—if this was the power of a hero, then it was a miracle humanity still existed.
Rihan's body was burning too. His skin cracked, glowing beneath the fire. Every breath he took seared his lungs. He was destroying himself, bit by bit.
"You're insane!" Tita howled. "You're willing to die… to save them?! These filthy insects?!"
Rihan's eyes softened.
"Humans aren't insects," he said quietly. "Yes, many are selfish. Many are greedy. Some even curse the heroes who protect them…"
He raised his hand, gripping Tita tighter. "But killing them for that? My mother would never forgive me."
The flames flared brighter, painting the clouds red.
Tita's monstrous skin began to melt, dripping like molten iron.
"You called my fire hellfire," Rihan whispered, his voice trembling. "Then burn in it with me. Wash away your sins in the fire you mocked."
"You… you're mad—!" Tita's words broke into screams.
"I'll prove my mother was right. I'm the powerful one here!" Rihan shouted. His laughter mixed with the roar of the flames.
"Hahaha… burn! Burn into ashes!"
Reporters' tears fell as their lenses blurred. The crowd, far away from the battlefield, could still feel the heat wave wash over them like a living beast.
Inside their homes, people watching the broadcast stopped breathing, their hearts pounding with dread and awe.
And then—silence.
When the flames finally died, there was nothing left of Tita. The massive creature was gone—his flesh, his bones, his evil—all turned to dust, scattering into the wind.
Ashes of a monster.
Rihan looked up at the sky, his body trembling, the last embers still clinging to his burning skin. His vision blurred, the world fading.
He smiled faintly.
"Mom…" he whispered.
The wind carried a faint scent of burnt iron and smoke — and peace.
And then he fell.
His charred body dropped through the air, landing silently in the center of the crater.
The flames flickered once, then went out.
All across the world, people stared at their screens, unable to move. The reporters had stopped speaking. The city was silent—except for the soft hiss of cooling metal.
Had the world just lost another hero?
No one knew.
But in that silence, in that crater of ashes and light… the people who had once called him a monster whispered his name with trembling lips.
"Blazefury…"