Chapter 75: Enough games!
"I have to say, I’m really impressed," Asriel said, her voice carrying cruelty as she looked down on him. Her smile was the kind that dripped with amusement and disdain in equal measure. "Of all the other players who have dared to enter this realm, you are the only one foolish, or brave, enough to cross the soul desert. And then you went even further. You walked willingly into my chamber... and challenged me."
Her words echoed with centuries of authority. She was not just mocking him; she was reminding him of the sheer futility of his defiance.
Stephan pushed himself up from the cracked stone, his body glowing faintly as five more souls burned away inside him. His wounds knitted, bones set, and breath steadied. He staggered once, then straightened, his sword rising into his hand like a natural extension of his will.
Blood still stained the corner of his mouth, but his eyes gleamed like flint.
"I’m not done yet," Stephan growled, planting his feet firmly as violet motes of energy swirled faintly around her towering frame. He lifted his blade, grip tightening until his knuckles blanched. "The real battle begins now."
Asriel tilted her head, not mockery, not dismissal, but something almost curious.
Then she laughed. A low, rich laugh that promised carnage.
"Good," she whispered, violet energy crackling at her fingertips. "Show me what a doomed man is capable of."
The chamber trembled, the air heavy with the clash of wills. One god’s prisoner, one god’s chosen, destined to break each other or burn together.
Stephan’s chest heaved as he held his sword steady. His breath misted in the chamber, though the air was far too hot for such a thing. Every rib screamed when he moved, but he pushed the pain down into the place where his fury lived.
He could feel the weight of her violet aura pressing against his skin like a thousand unseen hands, suffocating, mocking. She hadn’t even tried yet. That was the part that cut deepest.
"You’ve lasted longer than the others," Asriel said, pacing with her hands folded neatly behind her back. She looked like a queen studying a jester rather than a warrior sizing up an opponent. "But you’ll burn out soon. All humans do."
Stephan lowered his blade, his body trembling. Then, with a sudden defiance, he slammed the sword point-first into the stone floor.
"Not today bitch," he snarled.
He closed his eyes and reached inward, past the broken bones, past the aching flesh, past even his own will. He reached into the abyss inside him, where the reservoir of stolen souls writhed like a storm. One by one, they screamed as he tore them apart. Twenty souls, gone in an instant, burned to ash within his core.
The effect was immediate. His veins lit up like molten cracks in stone, black fire searing outward across his skin. His aura expanded violently, colliding with Asriel’s until the very walls of the chamber quaked.
Her smirk faltered.
"You..."
Before she could finish, Stephan reached for more. He grabbed his blade, lifted it from the floor, and forced five more souls directly into its core. The weapon shrieked like a dying beast as it drank them, its edge trembling with unstable black fire. The air warped around it, distorting the world like heat haze.
Stephan’s eyes snapped open, burning with an unnatural glow. "This ends differently."
Asriel tilted her head, expression shifting to something sharper, less amused. A predator recognizing another beast.
He moved.
This time his speed was nothing like before. The distance between them vanished in a single step, the air detonating in his wake. His blade came down in a savage arc, black fire tearing a scar through the chamber itself.
For the first time, Asriel didn’t stand still. She leaned aside, but not fast enough, the blade grazed her shoulder, ripping through the violet veil of her soul phasing. The sound was unbearable, like metal screaming against glass. Sparks of black and violet fire sprayed into the air.
Blood. Just a drop, bright and red, slid down her flawless arm.
Stephan landed hard, spinning, his aura whipping outward in violent lashes. "I can fuck you up now."
Asriel’s eyes widened a fraction before narrowing again. Her smile returned, but it was no longer one of mockery. It was sharp with hunger.
"You’ve grown teeth." She touched the wound with her fingers, gazing at the blood like it was a rare jewel. "But burning souls at this rate? You’ll run out before you destroy me."
"If it means adding you into my collection then I will burn every soul I have got," Stephan said, tightening his grip on the hilt as the black fire roared higher.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he lunged again, blade screaming with the weight of five sacrificed souls. The clash that followed split the chamber with light and shadow, a collision of raw wills shaking the throne room to its foundations.
The battle had changed.
For the first time, Asriel had to fight.
Stephan’s chest rose and fell in ragged heaves, but his grip never loosened from the sword. Blood ran down his temple, blurring one eye, yet his focus burned hotter than ever.
The twenty souls he’d burned within himself clawed at his insides, shredding his spirit with their howls, but their power flooded his veins like liquid lightning. His aura surged outward in violent pulses of black flame, each burst cracking the stone beneath his boots.
And the five souls he’d forced into his blade... they twisted it. The weapon groaned as if alive, its edge warping with fire so black it bent the light around it. It no longer looked like steel, it looked like a wound cut into reality itself.
"You’ve managed to scar yourself into something useful," she said, her voice lilting, almost musical. "But burning souls recklessly is a fool’s path. Do you even know what happens when you push beyond your limit?"
Stephan lifted the sword, its black fire snarling in answer. "I don’t care what happens to me. I care about putting you down."
And then he moved.
The chamber erupted again. His body blurred into a streak of black flame, faster than he’d ever imagined himself capable of. His blade fell in a savage arc, and for the first time, Asriel shifted, forced to move. She twisted, but too late. The sword carved across her shoulder, tearing through the violet veil of her soul phasing. Sparks of violet and black burst like fireworks.
A single drop of blood slid down her pale skin.
Stephan landed hard, boots skidding across cracked stone. He spun the blade, ready for another strike. "Im going to severe your head."
Their clash shook the entire chamber. His blade screamed with every swing, the black fire biting into her defenses. Asriel blocked with her forearms wrapped in violet energy, each impact sending shockwaves that cracked pillars and split the floor.
The room became a storm of light and shadow, black flame against violet radiance. Stone collapsed from the ceiling. Entire slabs of wall sheared off and crashed into dust, yet neither gave ground.
Stephan feinted low, then snapped his blade upward in a brutal arc. It ripped across Asriel’s guard, tearing violet sparks into the air. She hissed, retreating a step.
That sound, that break in her composure, fueled him like nothing else.
He pressed harder. Swing after swing, he drove her back, his body screaming with strain but refusing to slow. His crimson aura flared so violently the chamber felt like a furnace, the air blistering, heavy with power.
Asriel’s playful tone slipped into something sharper. "Do you even realize what you’re doing? Every soul you burn drags you closer to ruin. That power isn’t yours...it’s theirs."
"You know nothing about these souls!" Stephan roared, his next swing tearing a crater into the stone floor.
The chamber thundered.
For a heartbeat, Asriel was on the defensive. His strikes grew heavier, his speed sharper, the black fire gnawing at the edges of her violet aura. He carved into her defenses again and again, and the violet veil wavered.
Her smirk faded. Her eyes, silver burning violet, narrowed with something new, annoyance.
She caught his next swing between her palms. The force of it cracked the ground beneath her feet, but she held it.
Then she leaned in, her voice low, her breath cold against his face.
"Enough games."
The temperature plummeted. The violet aura around her ignited violently, blazing like a star. Stephan was blasted backward, crashing through a broken pillar. His blade skittered across the ground, black fire flickering, nearly snuffed.
Asriel stepped forward, her expression no longer playful, no longer mocking. Her form began to ripple, violet energy pouring from her skin like smoke. Her hair lifted in the unnatural wind, silver strands turning black at the tips. Her voice deepened, layered with echoes.
"You wanted to see the truth of what I am, human?"
The chamber walls quaked as cracks spread, violet light bleeding through like molten veins. Her body stretched, elongated, her silhouette darkening into something monstrous, something divine.
"Then look well."
The glow consumed her form, and Stephan, struggling to his feet, could only watch as Asriel began to reveal her true form.