Vin slept in euphoric death. For brief moments, he was a simple flame that silently burned in the afterlife. He could have rested there for hours or days... Maybe even made it a permanent home away from the pain of existence. However, he knew his life had a greater meaning and long since resolved to find it.

But dammit, it was frustrating. He'd always tried so hard, and even after getting the sword as planned, Vin lost to an unarmed man before he could manage a single strike.

'Pathetic.' But it wasn't over. The temperature spiked in that rounded town square. Hughton, Gideon, and Tristen simultaneously shouted for everyone near where Vin fell to get back. The observers did, and oddly, the General felt their panic and jolted away.

A magnificent lavender blaze exploded in a small radius, burning Vin's body down to ash. Embers grew more tempestuous, dancing and warping into each other before Vin's heart reshaped in his chest. It stuttered, then pounded rapidly, dragging him from the depths of death's icy grip.

The previously executed criminal fed his revival; he renounced their soul to restore his life. Vin exhaled, becoming sick. Even with his ability to resurrect, dying was dying; he couldn't shake the harrowing pain he felt being beaten to death. It lingered like an afterimage.

Vin tensed his fist, circulating hot blood through his veins. His clothing had burned up, so he was nude, his body glistening in the purple light. Vin scowled at the General, who had become wide-eyed and promised the brute, "You'll pay for this."

After two losses against the militant man, he didn't know how to deliver that promise, but he intended to. 'You should feel the pain I felt.'

Kaelix backed away slowly. A wink later, his head snapped toward his arm, and he saw a small purple fire had caught his long-sleeve armor when Vin erupted. The brute made the split-second judgment to snatch a sword and cut off his own limb before those flames, foretold to never burn out, engulfed him. A muffled, agonizing groan left his mouth as he peered daggers at Vin, yelling, "My god watches too!"

Even mutilated, the warrior roared ferociously, revving to continue. There was a spark of life in his eyes. Vin initially believed Kaelix used religion to manipulate the masses, but his God responded to his call in full.

From what Vin had been told, devotees of the red Phoenix received enhanced healing every dawn of a new day. It was far from sunrise, yet Kaelix's pooling arm stopped bleeding, quickly beginning to clot itself. Good for him, but Vin, on the other hand, had no other lives to spare. If he died again, that would be the end.

The General had an obsessive, animalistic gaze; his horns looked sharper, his scarlet scales looked scalding, and his wings were outstretched as if they'd lift him off the ground. He was fervent to battle to the end under his God's watch.

It was after they tried to kill each other that Vin could sense what Kaelix's soul conveyed with its deep vermilion blaze. Despite how much the town suffered due to his actions, that man's conviction, the reason he rejected Vin and the current sovereign was because he was scared. The General was brutal and terrifying, yet of all the monsters in that world, they feared change the most.

Vin recollected when he used the Shape spell in their fight, and Kaelix said their ancestors would be disgusted to see how they'd devolved. That man romanticized what Ravenours was like when the planet Vulcorath existed before assimilation. He hated that the current King wanted to implement magic into their armies of warriors, hated Vin and the idea of training on skateboards because it was outside their norms, and didn't want a filthy outsider to live among them and introduce cultural changes.

Kaelix wanted Ravenours to seek the heights that their ancestors reached and not rely on the magic their enemies invented or a single immortal man like legends.

In a way, they weren't so different. Back on Earth, Vin hated when his routine life went off-script. Change was his enemy, and his beliefs differed only after dying. Nevertheless, that brute was no friend to him, and he planned to see them dead one way or another.

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Since the properties of the dark flames made them boundless. Kaelix couldn't approach Vin without burning up, which gave the smaller human time to consider how to kill the savage. His plan to use the Shape spell to disarm the man and steal his weapon was flawless; the issue was that his physical body wasn't capable. His overall fighting knowledge was still too low despite learning a few things from his sister, Macy.

The battle had a stalemate as neither could immediately attack the other without fatal risk. Since Vin hadn't moved, Kaelix, in a frenzied stupor, raised a sword before his face, seemingly praying to it for protection. The next moment, he readied his blade and bucked forward to strike. Before he drove, the King dashed and grabbed Kaelix by the back of his neck.

The royal simply and sternly told him, "Don't kill yourself."

Vin, still in the protective ring of his fire, sneered. He knew Gods weren't allowed to get involved with mortals. No matter how much the red Phoenix favored Kaelix, he was entirely mortal and would die a fool if he ran into the eternal flames. Shame the King stopped him.

The shaved, bulky warrior was locked in place by the force of the grip of Kane, the Ruler. The General's eyes widened in shock, not from the interruption but from the King's audacity in intervening in a battle of men. "Does my pride mean nothing to you!?"

Kaelix's breath came in ragged gasps, his body trembling with the adrenaline of battle. He tried to free himself, but the King's grip was ironclad. The militant man shouted for his release, but instead, the royal growled, "There is pride, and there is madness. Accept that you've lost."

"There is no slaying an immortal adversary blessed by a deity."

When the shaved-head brute didn't heed his word, the large regal man lowered his sharp ruby-red eyes. He exerted great power, forcing Kaelix to his knees and commanding him to submit to the Eternal. The General swiftly turned the tip of his sword backward toward his new foe and exclaimed, "Kane! You're unfit for the throne!"

He thursted the blade backward, though the King caught the sword with his bare hands. A bead of blood trickled down his palm, but he was unphased.

Murmurs masked the space as bodies began to move again, unfrozen from the situation's daze. They were surprised their King was subjugating Kaelix just as he returned from war and even more awed at Vin. That brilliant flame was a reality check for anyone who doubted the new Eternal's validity. That human before them was none other than the chosen warrior of the black Phoenix. If legends proved accurate, he could single-handedly raze villages to the ground and obliterate armies in the blink of an eye.

Vin slowly wafted his gaze around the thousands of people who stared at him. Then he looked to Maeve. As if she, the reason he was there, would grant him a weapon or tool he could use to slay his enemy.

The one-winged woman focused on another matter and ignored his regard. She was standing a few meters away from where Kaelix was subdued; Vin saw her with her fist clenched and a dark, seething expression wrung across her face. Her eyes had never been sharper, her fangs partly exposed as she clattered her teeth in rage. At that point, Vin believed she resembled the savages more than ever.

Though a sinister expression held her face tight, she gracefully crossed the space toward her father, coldly stating, "The Eternal has the right to his life."

The King, Kane, was occupied holding Kaelix in place, unbothered to even look at his daughter. "Once he has a clear mind, he can seek mercy. Until then, the Eternal hasn't made any demands of his death."

"Kill him," Vin interrupted. He wanted to be the one to end the General himself, but even more, he was exhausted by that situation. He could repent for being evil, go soul-searching, or do whatever else later, but right now, he needed to be just as cruel as those Ravenours.

Even after his official command, Kane did not draw his blade, evoking Maeve to boil and shout, "You've been ordered! Why are you hesitating!?"

The King wearily shut his eyes and sighed. He was still relatively young, but his demeanor was that of a man who'd lived lifetimes. "The many Gods of this planet have become restless. The world is changing; a great threat is coming. The Eternal's return is proof of that."

"We don't have strong magic like the Elves, ingenuity like the Rivanians, or natural hunters instincts like the Churus; we can't afford more losses."

The King looked at Vin and asked for a moment to discuss things with the General.

It was a moment rejected. Because before Vin could say no himself, fate pulled its strings. In a diabolical shift, a longsword was thrust through the King's lower abdomen and also pierced into Kaelix's chest.

There were tense inhales of awe from the many onlookers, and then, a bleak, methodical voice sounded. Maeve frowned, saying, "Kaelix is right. You're unfit to rule."