Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

Elreth ducked under a wide horizontal slash, embers trailing behind her as she spun, then thrusted upward at her opponent's exposed side. The blow struck—but it was like stabbing a mountain. Her spear bounced off his dark carapace with a resounding clang, the flames barely leaving a burn mark.

"Too shallow," she whispered, gritting her teeth.

Suddenly, the enemy slammed his saber into the ground. A tremor exploded outward.

"Gravity Crush," he uttered, voice low and malicious.

Elreth felt her body suddenly plunge as if the entire weight of a collapsing mountain had fallen on her. Her knees buckled, bones groaning from the unbearable force. The forest trees around them bent and snapped like twigs, crushed by invisible pressure. She gasped as her lungs struggled to expand under the sudden gravitational pull.

"Let's see that smug smile now!" the demon bellowed, lunging toward her, saber overhead.

Her vision blurred.

Move. MOVE!

At the last moment, her will ignited. A pulse of flame exploded beneath her boots—boom!—sending her shooting sideways like a comet. The demon's blade crashed into the earth where she had just been, vaporizing the ground in a deafening shockwave. Chunks of earth flew into the air like cannonballs, trees disintegrated to ash, and a crater formed in the wake of his wrath.

Elreth landed hard and skidded across the dirt, panting, her armor cracked at the chest. She spat out blood.

But she grinned.

"You're strong," she coughed, wiping her lip.

"Perfect."

Her crimson spear gleamed under the molten sky, its flames growing darker, almost black. Her aura intensified—the mark of someone beginning to transcend. With the arrogance of a true battle maniac, she stood once more, her orange-red eyes burning with purpose.

Then she vanished again.

They clashed mid-air this time—blow for blow, flame for rock. Her spear swept in fluid arcs, dancing, jabbing, weaving between the monstrous swings of his saber. For a moment, it was a dance of gods.

But the tide began to turn.

The demonized knight began predicting her movements. His armor adapted—shifting its structure, morphing new blades from his elbows and shoulders like an evolving weapon. He fought like a juggernaut. Her thrusts began to slow. Her strikes missed their mark. Her muscles began to ache.

Suddenly—CLANG!

He parried her spear, spun, and brought down his saber in a devastating counter.

Her spear arm rose instinctively.

SLASH!

A flash of red.

Time slowed.

Her right arm—her spear arm—was gone.

Cleanly severed at the shoulder.

The shock didn't register at first. She landed hard, rolling violently across the ground. Blood sprayed in an arc, steaming against the burning forest floor. Pain roared through her body a second later like a tsunami.

"AAAAAAARGH!!"

The forest seemed to go quiet.

Elreth clutched her stump, writhing in agony. Her breathing was ragged. Her vision swam. A lifetime of training, of pride, of glory—everything she built—seemed to shatter in an instant.

And yet...

Despite the pain... she laughed.

It was soft at first. Broken. But it grew louder. Stronger. Defiant.

"You think this is enough... to stop me?"

Her lone hand pressed to the dirt, and with blood trailing down her chin, she began to rise again.

Her remaining eye—narrowed and wild—locked onto the demon.

"You're wrong… I live for this, it is why I love fight, there's a beauty in desperation."

The flames around her didn't vanish. They flared brighter. Black and red. Her body surged with power.

The Law of Fire—the most untamable of all Laws—responded to her resolve.

A dark phoenix silhouette spread behind her, wings made of molten fire.

The knight stepped back. "That's impossible…"

She took a step forward. The ground beneath her turned molten. The air shimmered.

"No more holding back," she growled. "No more control."

Her spear lay broken behind her. Her arm gone.

But her will remained.

With her remaining hand, she condensed her flames into a single point—a burning spear of pure Law, forged from the flames of her soul. It pulsed, alive and angry, unstable like a miniature star.

This wasn't magic. It wasn't technique.

This was fury.

This was evolution.

The phoenix shrieked.

"Let's see how your armor handles this!" she roared, voice shaking the heavens.

She charged, the spear of flame shrieking in her hand. The knight swung wildly, trying to crush her mid-dash, but she weaved like fire itself, slipping under his blade, then—

BOOM!

She drove the flaming construct straight into his chest.

The impact unleashed a wave of destruction. The knight's armor exploded outward. His mouth opened in a silent scream. His entire upper body ignited as the Law of Fire invaded, corrupted, and burned him from the inside out.

"Ashes to ashes…"

She whispered the final words as the spear detonated within him.

KRRAAA-BOOOOOOM!!!

A fiery mushroom cloud erupted into the sky, leveling the forest for hundreds of meters. Shockwaves sent clouds parting. The land cracked and burned.

And then silence.

Just wind. Fire. Ash.

The demonized knight was gone.

All that remained was scorched, molten earth... and Elreth, kneeling in the middle of it, breathing heavily, her one arm braced against the ground.

Half her armor was gone.

Her face bruised, bleeding.

But she was smiling.

She had won.

Her body trembled, dangerously close to collapse. The backlash of her self-made technique was immense—her muscles were cooked from the inside, bones cracked—but the fire within her still burned.

And in that moment... she felt it.

A faint resonance deep within her soul. The Law of Fire had acknowledged her. She had received the acknowledging of the family guardian mystical beast.

Not just as a wielder.

But as its chosen heir, it was how she felt because she awakened faster than others.

Her aura pulsed differently now.

It was the beginning of something greater.

The birth of a true Flame Sovereign.

Elreth firmly believed she was the chosen one, the true heir of Law of Fire, after all it said that mystical beast such as phoenix govern or was closer to the Law of Fire. Well, if she only knew the truth of who is truly ruler of the Law of Fire.

''I live the rest to you,'' she fell unconscious on the ground afterward. Her injuries were severe.