Chaos spat the molten sword to the ground, feeling its lingering heat burn against the shadows cloaking his monstrous form, the metallic clang echoing sharply through the vast, hollow darkness of the cavern, momentarily overwhelming even the roaring fires that continued to scorch the air. His blazing crimson eyes narrowed sharply, fixating entirely upon Celestine as she gathered herself for yet another desperate charge.

  Even battered and bleeding as she was, Chaos had to admit to himself that her resilience was commendable, if irritatingly persistent. Yet, the battered princess herself was hardly a concern—it was that damned sword she wielded, burning with a brilliance he could neither ignore nor easily consume, that truly posed a threat. His shadows recoiled instinctively from its radiance, like vermin fleeing the first painful rays of dawn.

  As Celestine wiped the glistening rainbow-white blood from her forehead, Chaos watched with measured caution, noting the subtle shift in her form—the way her very essence seemed to blur and flicker, merging seamlessly with the radiant light emanating from her weapon.

  He felt a rare, fleeting moment of uncertainty stir in his shadow-bound chest, recognizing immediately that the princess was pushing beyond her mortal limits, becoming something more dangerous, more formidable than the human she should have been. His chains, restless as vipers, slithered impatiently at his feet, waiting for his silent command to strike, but Chaos hesitated briefly, intrigued and wary of the transformation unfolding before him.

  Then, without any further warning, Celestine exploded forward, her body a blazing comet hurtling across the cavern, leaving in her wake a brilliant trail of shattered stone and shattered glass. She surged toward him with speed no mortal should have possessed, moving less like a woman and more like a radiant beam of purest sunlight, defying even his shadows' attempts to fully comprehend her swift approach. Chaos reacted swiftly, thrusting his dark chains deep into the stone at his feet, anchoring himself firmly as the darkness rippled outward from him in a tidal wave of shadows.

  From every conceivable corner of the cavern, hundreds of black, serpentine chains erupted violently, shooting across the open space in a coordinated assault designed to ensnare both the charging princess and the wounded, enraged Regulus. The phoenix roared in defiance, flames erupting from his limbs, melting chains even as they wrapped around him, but without his molten sword, he could no longer swiftly sever them, their numbers and density sufficient to slow him considerably.

  Chaos observed this momentarily, acknowledging silently that slowing Regulus would have to suffice, as fully restraining the fiery warrior seemed nearly impossible. He turned the bulk of his attention back to the advancing Celestine, whose luminous form was evading his chains with startling grace, weaving and darting effortlessly through the storm of shadows as if her entire body had become weightless, incorporeal, a living manifestation of pure light.

  “Impressive agility, princess,” Chaos growled, unable to conceal the grudging respect beneath his derisive tone, even as he redoubled the ferocity of his attack, hurling wave after wave of dark chains at the elusive blur of brilliance that was Celestine. Yet, no matter how closely his chains snapped at her heels, she continually twisted and wove around them, always a step beyond their grasp, as relentless as sunlight piercing through storm clouds.

  "Your chains cannot bind the sun, Chaos!" Celestine shouted defiantly, her voice ringing with a fierce conviction that echoed boldly throughout the cavern, shaking the shadows themselves with its purity and determination. Chaos snarled bitterly at her words, channeling every last ounce of his concentration and strength into finally trapping her, his shadows writhing with increased fervor, desperation fueling the darkness as he pressed his assault.

  Then, without warning, a sudden and brutal force slammed into Chaos’s “face”. His head snapped violently sideways, the impact ripping through his concentration and severing the delicate grip he held over his chains. They faltered mid-air, shuddered, and then unraveled entirely, freeing both Regulus and Celestine from their bindings. Chaos staggered a step, his form rippling with confusion and fury. His burning crimson eyes flared wider as he turned sharply, seeking the source of the attack, the entire cavern now thrumming with a tension even he could feel pressing against his skin.

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  There was no immediate sight of his assailant—only the lingering taste of coldness in the air, a chill so alien in this inferno of a battlefield that it clawed at his instincts like a warning. For one strange heartbeat, Chaos knew a fleeting, inexplicable sense of unease. A cold dread. An impossibility.

  And then he saw him.

  Emerging from the rising heat-haze, bloodied but upright, stood the last person Chaos had thought worthy of remembering. A human. Broken, battered, pinned by black chains only moments ago—but now standing tall as if none of it had ever happened. His body still bore the marks of Chaos’s assault, his clothes torn, his blood staining the ground beneath his boots, but his eyes—those eyes burned with a crimson so deep, so unnatural, it mirrored Chaos’s own. No fear lived there. No despair. Only something colder. Something more calculating. Something dangerously human.

  The recognition clicked like a blade snapping into place, and for the first time in this endless battle, a flicker of something sharp and wary crept into the pit of Chaos’s monstrous heart.

  He didn’t hesitate. With all the force of a collapsing mountain, he drove his fist into Kaiser's gut. The blow should have launched him across the cavern, reduced his insides to shattered pulp, left him gasping his last breaths in the sand. But instead, impossibly, Kaiser moved with him, hands clamping down onto Chaos's arm with vice-like strength, refusing to yield even as the blackened fist tore through his stomach like a blade through paper.

  For a heartbeat, Chaos genuinely wondered how. How could something so frail endure that? He knew the full weight of his strike, knew he had not held back a fraction of his power. This was not some casual blow—this was a strike meant to kill anything that stood against him. And yet this man, this mortal, bled but did not fall. His spirit did not break. His crimson eyes burned brighter, not weaker, igniting not in desperation but in raw, undiluted hunger for the fight. Chaos, for the briefest flicker, felt a pressure he had not felt in a long, long time.

  But he was not a creature prone to hesitation. Chaos withdrew his arm without ceremony, placed his blackened hand flat against Kaiser's torn chest—and unleashed his next move without mercy. A soundless command passed from Chaos’s will into the world, and in an instant, a dozen black chains erupted from Kaiser's own body, piercing through his limbs and torso like grotesque iron spears. Kaiser’s form jerked violently with the impact, yet not a single scream left his lips.

  With casual disdain, Chaos kicked him away. Kaiser's body skidded across the molten-glass floor, the dangling chains clattering against the ground, his blood smearing crimson trails in his wake. Chaos turned his attention away, already dismissing the battered human as no longer a threat. He had tasted Kaiser's power firsthand—whatever this man was, he had no weapon, no means to pierce darkness. Compared to Regulus, compared to Celestine, he was nothing but an anomaly wrapped in misplaced pride.

  Celestine, burning like a star, darted at him in the same breath, her rapier of light slashing toward Chaos’s head with such speed that even he barely twisted aside in time. The edge of her blade caught the very hem of his cowl, tearing a line of smoldering cloth that hissed and curled into ash. Chaos snarled low in his throat, pivoting with predatory instinct, lashing out with a brutal, hammering punch aimed to shatter her defenses.

  But before his fist could connect, an avalanche of flame and force slammed into him—Regulus, reborn in fury, crashed into Chaos like a living comet, his flaming elbow cracking against Chaos’s body with the force of a collapsing star. The blow lifted the Liberator off the ground for a fraction of a second, long enough for Regulus's burning wing to unfurl and whip downward like a tidal wave of searing destruction.

  The cavern trembled as Regulus's wing struck the ground, erupting in an inferno that cooked the very air, shattering stone and glass alike in a molten blast. Chaos howled as fire engulfed him, the black shadows writhing around him shriveling under the savage assault. His monstrous form writhed and twisted within the maelstrom, his chains snapping and reforming in frantic desperation.

  Celestine, sharp-eyed and unrelenting, seized the brief moment of opportunity. She dashed backward from the impact of the flame, her body a streak of light leaping off a crumbling wall, launching herself high into the molten air. In a single, fluid motion, she turned mid-leap, driving her rapier down into Regulus's burning wing, pinning Chaos even further beneath the crushing force of phoenix flame and searing, holy light.

  Chaos roared again, louder this time, a sound that shook the deepest parts of the earth. But for the first time, it was not a roar of dominance.

  It was a roar of pain.

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