The sky above the Vistro estate no longer felt natural. It was like the world itself had been torn open and turned into a stage for destruction. When the Duke wiped his blood across his palm and spoke the summoning words, the change was instant. The air became suffocating, like a giant furnace closing in. The clouds burned away in seconds, leaving an empty sky that was quickly filled with a living heat that pressed down on everything below.
From the rift in the sky, the Flame Phoenix appeared. Its wings stretched wide enough to darken the entire valley, formed from flowing waves of blazing solar flames. Every time it flapped its wings, fire rolled across the land, turning the night sky into a red, endless dawn. When the creature roared, it sounded like a star collapsing, and the air itself seemed to catch fire.
The Phoenix stared down, and its eyes burned with power. With a sudden, predatory dive, it folded its wings and shot toward the ground. It looked like a falling sun, a streak of crimson and gold aimed directly at the heart of the crater where Edward stood. The speed was so immense that the air in its path was turned into a vacuum, creating a sonic boom that shattered the eardrum of every living being for miles.
Edward stood still amidst the melting stones of the courtyard. The Seven Golden Revolution Seals still floating above him. He looked at the descending sun, and for the first time since the battle began, a genuine, excited expression touched his face.
The battle of elemental spirits was about to begin.
Edward slammed his foot into the ground. The impact echoed as his mana surged outward in a violent wave. From the shadow beneath his feet, a bolt of blue lightning shot up, tearing through the blood-red clouds above. Thunder rolled as the lightning widened, twisting and coiling in midair.
Within that pillar of light, a massive form began to take shape.
Scales of crackling lightning formed first, followed by a long, serpentine body that writhed through the sky. A draconic head emerged, its eyes burning with cold, electric fury. The Lightning Wyrm Dragon fully manifested, a high-rank elemental spirit born purely from Edward’s mana, its presence shaking the heavens as it let out a thunderous roar.
The Lightning Wyrm Dragon was not a new summon.
Edward had called upon it before. In his fight with Valerius, the battle had ended almost as soon as it began. The knight’s strength, pride, and experience had all been swallowed by the overwhelming force of the lightning beast.
Now, the dragon surged forward once more.
Its massive body twisted through the sky as it accelerated, thunder exploding in its wake. Blue arcs of lightning trailed behind it like tearing scars in the air as it shot ahead, rising fast to meet the descending Flame Phoenix head-on.
BOOM!
The two spirits met mid-air, five hundred feet above the ruins.
The impact was so strong that everything seemed to freeze for a moment. A dome of bright energy expanded, vaporizing all the moisture in the air. The shockwave flattened the last walls of the Vistro estate.
The Flame Phoenix slashed with its claws, each one a blade of heat. But the Wyrm Dragon was too fast. It wrapped around the Phoenix’s neck, its scales grinding against the fiery feathers like saws. Every touch sent bolts of electricity through the Phoenix, disrupting the mana that held it together.
The Duke, still in the air, struggled to keep his focus. His face was pale, and sweat evaporated as soon as it appeared.
The Phoenix opened its beak and unleashed a Solar Breath, a stream of fire that looked like a laser cutting through the sky. The Lightning Wyrm dodged, moving erratically and leaving trails of blue static. It struck back with a Thunderbolt Burst, a sphere of compressed electricity that exploded against the Phoenix, sending molten mana raining down like glowing hail.
Valerius, standing in the courtyard with one arm, watched the sky in awe. He had seen the Duke fight before, but never seen anyone, especially a fifteen-year-old, hold off the Flame Phoenix.
The battle became more intense. The two spirits were a tangled mess of red and blue, a spinning vortex of fire and lightning moving wildly. The heat was so strong that the ground turned into bubbling lava.
But as the fight went on, things started to change.
The Flame Phoenix screeched, a sharper sound than before. Its wings spread out, no longer flapping like crazy, but moving with a slow, steady beat. With each beat, the flames around it got tighter, brighter, and hotter, until the fire around its body was almost white.
The Wyrm Dragon stepped back a bit.
For the first time, its lightning sputtered.
The Phoenix shot forward. Where its wings went, the lightning in the air was snuffed out, swallowed by the heat. The Phoenix slammed into the Wyrm head-first, pushing it back through the sky. Thunder boomed as the dragon had to coil up to defend itself, its scales flickering as sparks of electricity flew everywhere.
"This is the full power of an Archmage summon," Valerius muttered hoarsely, dread creeping into his voice. "It would be difficult for Edward’s High Mage summon to overpower."
The Phoenix attacked again.
Its claws tore through the Wyrm’s lightning scales, ripping off chunks of mana. Each wound exploded in bursts of blue light, and it hurt. The Wyrm roared, its voice twisted as its huge body was thrown back.
The dragon tried to fight back, shooting out a storm of lightning. But the Phoenix sliced through it, its wings like fiery shields, scattering the attack with raw power. A long streak of fire followed, slamming into the Wyrm’s side and sending it spinning.
The sky shook and trembled.
The Lightning Wyrm Dragon crashed through a bunch of red clouds, its shape flickering. Big parts of its body broke apart into bolts of lightning before coming back together.
With a sharp cry, the Flame Phoenix folded its wings and sped up, flames squeezing around its body until it became a spear of fire. The pressure crushed the air around it. The Wyrm barely managed to turn, raising its head and coiling its body defensively as it gathered what remained of its power.