Arson's cursed flames tore through the air, black fire laced with Thorn's influence. Sylvia barely dodged, leaping aside as the scorching heat singed her shoulder. She winced - but stood her ground.
"Arson, stop!" she shouted, her voice trembling with a mix of pain and disbelief. "You said I make things interesting, right? You won't destroy me."
But it didn't work.
Arson didn't pause.
No flicker of recognition.
No witty retort.
Just a brutal, blazing wave of cursed fire, larger than anything before. It slammed into her and sent her crashing through the wall, shattering stone and wood as smoke billowed out.
Sylvia coughed, her vision blurred, her body trembling. But inside, she knew. He's not trying to kill me... not fully.
He's lost - but not gone.
Thorn, from the throne, smirked darkly. "He bends only to my will now," he said. "And you... you are his most hated enemy. He no longer needs your balance. He needs conquest."
Sylvia struggled to her feet, blood trickling down her cheek. Her bark armor cracked, her vines drooping from strain. But her eyes were steady.
"I still have some fight left."
She raised both arms, and the ground responded. A massive net of vines and barbed thorns erupted from below, coiling around Arson, binding his arms and legs - choking, holding, tightening.
"You're not going to turn me into that scared girl from seven years ago," she growled. "I've grown."
Arson roared, his flames flaring. With sheer brute force, he burst free, shards of vine and bark exploding outward.
Before Sylvia could react, he charged with merciless fury, delivering a flaming blow that slammed her back into a pillar, splintering it.
She gasped in pain but didn't collapse.
Instead, she thrust her arms forward, summoning more nature powers- thorn missiles, root strikes, and shockwave blasts of green energy.
The throne room shook with their duel - flame vs. flora, rage vs. resolve.
Sylvia summoned everything she had left - thick, barbed vines lashed across Arson's body, thorns tore through his skin, and roots burst from beneath, wrapping around his legs and biting into his flesh. She shouted through gritted teeth, "You're not him! This isn't you!"
But Arson stood tall, barely flinching. His body was scorched and pierced, but he didn't stop. The curse mark on him pulsed darkly. From within, he was screaming, but his body only knew one thing - kill the threat.
And Sylvia was the biggest threat.
She summoned even thicker roots, forcing sharp trees upward to impale him, tearing through his armor and into his torso. Choking flowers bloomed around his face, spraying toxic pollen. Energy-sapping climbers coiled around his arms, trying to drain him.
And still he stood.
The vines burned. The trees crumbled. The flowers withered in cursed flame.
The moment Sylvia's flurry slowed - just for a second - Arson charged.
With an enraged, corrupted roar, he slammed his flaming fists into her, over and over. The first hit sent her flying - the second caught her mid-air. The third and fourth came as she crashed into the floor.
She was too exhausted to block. Too drained to fight.
Arson didn't stop.
He rained blow after blow, fists wrapped in burning fury, eyes void of mercy. Each strike shook the walls. Thorn, watching from above, simply whispered:
"Good. Break her. Prove your loyalty."
Sylvia was bloodied. Bruised. Gasping.
Her mind spun - no opening, no words, no mercy.
She couldn't even raise her arms.
And yet, she still stared at him through the blood in her eyes.
Please... remember.
Arson continued. Blow after blow rained down like a cursed storm. His flaming fists struck Sylvia with a violence fueled not only by rage-but by something deeper.Pain. Hatred.
Each strike was heavier than the last, his eyes consumed by darkness, the curse mark glowing like molten fire. Sylvia's body-bloodied, broken, unmoving-absorbed every hit. She couldn't even raise her vines now. Couldn't shield herself.
But she could feel it.
The fury. The torment. The twisted anguish behind his brutal attacks. It wasn't just rage-it was all the hate he'd buried, now amplified by Thorn and twisted to target the one person who stood beside him the most.
Her.
Tears welled in Sylvia's eyes as another punch crashed against her ribs.
She couldn't fight back. But she could still feel. She could still think.
She could still reach out.
She tried to lift her hand-just to touch him-but her body wouldn't move. Instead, her cracked lips opened, barely above a whisper.
"...I know you're still in there..."
Arson didn't stop.
Sylvia's tears slipped down her cheeks, mixing with the blood on her face. Her voice trembled, filled with sorrow-not fear.
"You're not just rage... not just destruction."
Another hit.
She winced-but kept speaking.
"You're the one who made our journey a game... You're the reason I pushed myself to keep up... You're the one who made me believe I wasn't weak..."
She swallowed hard, vision fading, but voice gaining strength.
"If you kill me now... You're not just killing your enemy-you're killing the one person who could've protected you from the rest of the world."
She coughed, blood dripping from her mouth.
"...I almost gave up trying to stop you... almost gave up wanting to kill you."
She smiled bitterly through the pain.
"But even now... I don't want you to die."
Silence.
"Because we were never meant to destroy each other," she whispered, eyes locking onto his hollow gaze. "We were meant to balance."
Her body slumped but her words hung in the air like a thread of light through the darkness.
Arson's fists didn't stop.
Each punch landed with explosive fury, and Sylvia's body rocked with every blow-her bones screaming, blood spilling, but her will unbroken.
"I... I understand..." she choked out, voice rasping, "...what it's like to be hated... to be alone..."
A roar of cursed flame hit her again. She coughed violently, blood staining her lips-but she didn't fall.
"...the other tribes... they don't get it. They don't know you..."
Her body trembled, but she looked up into the burning crimson of his cursed eyes.
"But I do."
Arson raised his fist again.
Sylvia whispered, barely audible, "You destroy... I restore. That's why I'm here."
He struck. But this time, his fist trembled before it landed.
Sylvia kept going, her voice breaking with every word.
"If I'm with you... they won't hate you anymore. I'll clean up your flames... I'll make the world see you aren't just a monster... you never were..."
Tears streamed down her face, splashing onto his arm-mixing with her blood that smeared across his knuckles.
And something changed.
Arson's body flinched.
A painful growl tore from his throat. "Ghhrrrrr...!!"
The curse mark on his body throbbed violently, glowing darker. Thorn's voice echoed faintly through the darkness in his mind-commands, lies, manipulations.
But another voice began to echo too.
Sylvia's.
And then-
A memory.
He was ten.
She was seven.
They had fought. She had stood before him, refusing to back down. He remembered the moment he thought he'd killed her by using his everything. He remembered how the flames cleared and her small body didn't move.
He remembered standing there, frozen-staring at what he'd done. At what his rage had caused.
And the guilt.
The fear.
The memory surged forward with intensity, crashing against Thorn's domination.
"Shut up... shut up... SHUT UP!" Arson howled aloud, clutching his head.
Sylvia, with what little strength she had left, pushed her body forward. She collapsed into his arms, falling against his chest-blood soaking through his armor.
But she held on. Barely. Desperately.
"I'm still here," she whispered against him.
"I never left you."
Arson's whole body tensed.
The curse mark pulsed violently, resisting-trying to take back control.
His flames ignited again, ready to burn everything-
But his arms didn't move.
His fingers shook.
"...You're still here..." he repeated, his voice cracked. "...Why...?"
The tears. The blood. The bond.
The curse was seeming to gradually break.
And Thorn... was watching.