As the wounded Regulus and Chaos surged forward, moments from their devastating clash, the utter darkness of the cavern shattered with a sudden, radiant eruption. A searing beam of purest white light screamed through the void, smashing violently into Chaos’s hooded visage, illuminating the monstrous truth beneath. For the briefest moment, everyone could see clearly: the shadows beneath his hood pulsed and writhed unnaturally, breathing like some grotesque living darkness. Then, in a blinding flash, the light detonated, stealing the sight from everyone present.

  Chaos reeled back, momentarily stunned, shadows scattering in panicked, chaotic disarray. Before he could recover fully, Celestine lunged at him, her golden hair streaming behind her like a comet’s tail, her face twisted with fury. Her wrist connected with Chaos’s distorted face with a crack sharp enough to split stone, but the darkness merely absorbed it, and Chaos let out a deep, mocking laugh.

  "You’ll need far more than a gentle touch to wound me, princess," Chaos growled, his voice rippling through the shadows like poisoned velvet.

  Celestine narrowed her blazing yellow eyes, her expression fierce and unyielding. "Oh, believe me, I’m just getting started."

  As she spoke, she revealed in her other hand a sword of radiant light, blazing brilliantly in the darkness, once the greatest beacon within the cavern before Regulus’s inferno had outshone it. Now wielded in her grasp, the weapon shone brighter still, making even Chaos recoil slightly, an unfamiliar discomfort flickering through his monstrous eyes.

  "So the princess has teeth after all," Chaos murmured, his tone suddenly cautious, the shadows around him shivering with uncertain menace.

  Without another word, Celestine’s free arm dissolved into a shimmering pillar of light, melding seamlessly with the radiant rapier she held. She surged forward with breathtaking speed, the blade slicing the air so swiftly that even Chaos struggled to react. The sword of purest light struck him across his shoulder and chest, its ethereal edge carving effortlessly through his dark, pulsing form, hurling him violently downward.

  Chaos crashed brutally into the cavern floor, bounced once with thunderous impact, and was flung upward to collide with the cavern ceiling, stone shattering around his body, debris raining in jagged chunks. As the dust settled, Regulus’s vision returned fully, his fiery eyes wide in astonishment. Where Chaos was just present, Celestine now stood proudly, her golden armor glistening brightly, a beacon amidst the destruction.

  She turned quickly to Regulus, urgency and humility crossing her luminous features. "Forgive me, Regulus," she said, voice heavy with a mixture of relief and lingering frustration. "I was not strong enough to stand alone."

  Regulus, battered yet unbroken, smiled warmly despite his wounds, breathing deeply as he steadied himself. "Against Chaos, few can ever hope to stand alone," he replied firmly, voice infused with unwavering determination.

  Celestine hesitated, worry flickering momentarily in her eyes as she observed Regulus’s damaged and melted armor. "Don’t you dare tell me t—”

  Regulus chuckled weakly, cutting her off gently, his confidence unshaken despite the obvious pain. "Don’t fret, princess. I'm not so foolish as to send you running. Chaos is fast—even faster beneath the cover of night. Alone, you’d never outrun him. Here, beside me, is the safest place for you now."

  Celestine’s grip tightened around her radiant sword, resolve hardening once more in her eyes as she faced upward towards Chaos, who was slowly descending back towards them, the shadows writhing furiously around him. She took a deep breath, drawing strength from the blazing resolve beside her.

  "Then here we stand," Celestine proclaimed defiantly, the glow of her sword intensifying until the very air seemed to shimmer around her. "Together, we will drive this darkness back, or together we shall fall."

  At her side, Regulus’s grin widened fiercely, the battered remnants of his armor hissing as fresh flames roared brighter around him, swirling into a storm of molten heat. He lowered his molten blade slightly, steadying it in both hands, feeling the weight of it like an extension of his own battered spirit. His stance hardened, shoulders squaring with grim purpose as he braced for the clash ahead.

  "Well said, princess," he rumbled, his voice a low, fiery growl beneath the roar of the cavern. "Let us burn brighter than ever."

  For a moment, there was nothing but the searing heat between them and the monstrous figure that floated above, chains slithering through the air like living things. Chaos hung suspended on his web of darkness, silent and patient.

  The heat around Regulus deepened, tightening like a coil around his heart. The fire within him, once wild and untamed, now sharpened into something focused, something lethal. He lifted his gaze, locking eyes with the horror before them, and in that instant, the grin faded, replaced by a grim, searing intensity.

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  His voice, ragged but strong, cut through the suffocating weight of the cavern. "Why?" he demanded, the flames curling tighter around his battered form, a visible extension of his burning soul. "Why betray the crown? Why turn on the ones you were sworn to protect, answer me Chaos!?"

  Chaos tilted his head slowly, his monstrous form rippling with lazy, indifferent amusement. "You misunderstand," he said, the words slow, heavy, almost pitying. "I have not betrayed anyone. I serve the crown. This is nothing personal."

  Celestine’s entire frame stiffened, her golden armor rattling faintly with the force of her anger. The light around her blazed like a second sun as she took a half-step forward, voice cracking with fury. "Nothing personal?" she screamed, her luminous sword trembling in her grip. "You murdered my companions, one by one! Before even today, it was always you! Always you stalking us, killing them in the night! Their lives, their dreams… All because they were with me! You call that nothing personal?"

  Chaos’s flames for eyes dimmed slightly, a flicker of some ancient weariness crossing his monstrous face. "There is no room for words here," he said simply, raising one clawed hand toward her almost in benediction. "Interpret it as you wish."

  Before they could move, before they could so much as breathe, Chaos shifted. His body melted into the shadows, vanishing in an instant, only for him to reappear behind Regulus like a wraith. Chains snapped forward, lethal and inevitable, aimed straight for the Phoenix’s exposed back.

  Regulus, sharp as he was, had already begun to move. He twisted, flames exploding from his feet to propel him sideways, but he knew, he could feel, that he was too slow. His battered body was not what it had been at the start of this battle. For the first time, he realized he might not be fast enough to dodge.

  A crack of light split the air, and a pillar of brilliant radiance materialized between him and the incoming chains. Celestine, her body a blazing laser of righteous fury, hurled herself into the attack. Her sword flashed up, intercepting the chains with a shriek of metal and energy, but the force of the blow catapulted her away, sending her crashing like a comet into the far wall of the cavern.

  Regulus’s eyes widened for a breath, heart lurching, but she was alive—he could see the stubborn, defiant flicker of her light even through the dust. But he couldn’t focus on her safety, since his window to strike had opened. He pivoted without hesitation, molten sword gripped with both hands, and swung it with all the might his battered frame could summon.

  Chaos turned, shadows boiling around him, but he knew he could not fully evade. Instead, his monstrous mouth unhinged again, grotesque and cavernous. He caught the sword between his jaws, the searing metal jammed deep between his brutal teeth.

  The clash rippled through the cavern. The sword hissed and screamed against Chaos’s maw, the Sol infused within it burning to be free, but Chaos bit down harder. Darkness leached into the blade, devouring its radiance, draining its strength, pulling the life from Regulus’s precious weapon.

  Regulus grunted in frustration, feeling the resistance grow heavier. His flames flared wildly, wings of fire trying to beat him backward to wrench it free, but the black chains of Chaos tightened around the sword like serpents, anchoring it in place.

  With a snarl of pure rage, Regulus let go.

  In the same motion, he coiled his body back and hurled his right fist forward, flames erupting around it with titanic force. His cape behind him twisted and warped under the pressure, forming into a giant, blazing wing that hurled itself forward as an extension of his will.

  The punch landed with a thunderous crack against Chaos’s chest, the momentum of it staggering the monstrous figure backward.

  The fiery wing followed a heartbeat later, slamming into Chaos with enough force to collapse part of the cave behind him. The impact blasted a hole of light through the darkness, the ground quaking under the combined weight of their powers.

  Chaos stumbled, chains flailing, his shadows flickering uncertainly. For the first time, the monster reeled, even if only slightly, against the onslaught.

  Regulus landed heavily, panting hard, smoke and steam rising from every part of his battered armor. His sword was still trapped in Chaos’s maw, but he did not falter. His body was cracked, his strength flagging, but the fire in his heart roared brighter than ever.

  "You want ashes?" Regulus growled, lifting his flaming fists again. "Then burn trying to make them!"

  Across the cavern, Celestine struggled to her feet, battered but unbroken, her breath ragged in her throat, her golden armor cracked and scorched but refusing to fall away. The sword of light she wielded still shone defiantly in her grasp, pulsing with an inner radiance that no darkness could drown. She staggered once, the cavern spinning around her, but forced herself upright, planting her blade into the melted stone for support as she steadied her shaking body.

  Her luminous yellow eyes locked onto Chaos across the battlefield, burning with a fury that outshone the fires around her. In that moment, the pain, the fatigue, the blood trickling from her wounds—all of it was swallowed by the burning resolve in her chest. She raised a trembling hand to her forehead, wiping away the rainbow-white blood staining her vision, smearing it across the golden trim of her battered gauntlet.

  The air around her began to shimmer, her entire body flickering, trembling—and then, with a sound like a star tearing free from the heavens, she erupted into a form of pure light. Her figure blurred into brilliance, her edges lost to the radiance until she became something more than flesh, something more than mortal—a beacon of wrath and hope made flesh.

  And despite the agony stitched into every fiber of her being, she tightened her grip around the hilt of her sword, straightened her back with a defiant breath, and without hesitation, launched herself forward.

  The ground cracked beneath her with the force of her dash, a trail of shattered stone and molten glass marking her path as she tore across the battlefield, a blazing spear aimed straight for the heart of the darkness that had dared to defile her world.

  Every victory counts! Whenever any of these milestones is reached, I’ll drop a Bonus Chapter as a reward! Hit them all, and you get even more!

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