Memories troubled the general in the midst of battle.
The general's concentration had broken briefly, and Cassius moved in.
Strike after strike.
Oliver blocked most, but not all.
A slash tore through his side, another struck his leg, yet he still stood but he was bleeding heavily.
Qi corruption ate at his wounds, removing his vitality, then his stance faltered.
His sword dipped, becoming heavier with each passing moment.
Cassius raised his staff overhead descending a final blow wreathed in burning rot.
"Let this be the last ember," he hissed.
Light flashed then a ripple passed in the air.
Space bent and Ryu appeared between them.
His blade struck Cassius' staff mid-swing, deflecting the fatal blow with a surge of force that cratered the plaza stones beneath them.
Oliver dropped to one knee behind him, gasping.
Cassius stared at Ryu with hollowed eyes.
"You," he said. "Of course. You must be the one I have heard of, they told me, you're the bearer of the mark."
Ryu said nothing.
The mark on his hand burned brighter than ever.
"I'm not the one who took your life from you," Ryu said at last. "But I will stop you from taking theirs."
Cassius's smile faded into fury.
"Then burn, star-child."
And then the true battle began.
Cassius moved first.
His staff struck the ground, and from the impact burst a wave of black-green fire, curling like rot-laced smoke. The plaza fractured as the corrupted Qi surged outward, warping air, softening stone.
Ryu met it head-on.
He stepped through the pressure, blade glowing softly with the light of the star-flame. Space bent subtly around his frame, less a barrier and more a guide, not resisting Cassius' power, but moving through it.
Their first clash rang through the square.
Steel against staff.
Light against rot.
Qi burst in every direction as the two combatants tore across the stones, each strike a collision of emotions, one wild and festering, the other quiet and clear.
"You don't belong here," Cassius hissed, his voice strained, frayed by fury. "You weren't chosen. You were just… marked."
Ryu's answer came between strikes. " I choose my own fate."
Cassius lunged, sweeping low and twisting his corrupted Qi into the stone. Spikes erupted from the plaza beneath Ryu's feet, but Ryu sidestepped, barely a shimmer where his body bent the air. He leapt skyward, flipped, and came down with a spiralling slash of star-forged steel.
Cassius blocked with his staff, but the force knocked him off-balance, sliding across the stone.
Ryu followed.
Three quick strikes, one aimed for the hip, one for the arm, one for the staff.
Cassius barely parried.
Ryu's movements had changed.
He was no longer just fighting.
He was flowing.
A hundred feet away, Yan knelt beside her grandfather. Oliver Phoenix, the Undying Flame, was barely conscious. His once-glowing armour was scorched and cracked, his breathing laboured.
Yan pressed both palms to his chest, feeding her Qi into him, not to heal, but to stabilize, to keep the flame burning.
His voice was faint.
"He's strong."
"He'll win," she whispered.
Yan pushed her Qi beyond her capacity, her Qi created a partial barrier preventing the monsters she battled from earlier from getting close enough to strike.
Cassius struck again, sweeping his now-fractured staff in a wide arc. Black flame poured outward in a crescent, scorching everything in its path. Ryu countered by slamming his foot into the ground, releasing a gravitational pulse and compacting the earth into a small crater.
The flames parted and Ryu moved in.
Their weapons met midair. Sparks rained around them. Ryu's blade sang with resonance.
Cassius growled. "You've never known what it means to be cast aside!"
Ryu's voice was calm. "You were never cast aside. You were afraid of who you are, instead of earning something yourself you gave in, gave up. You surrendered everything for borrowed power."
Cassius shrieked, twisting his staff for a wild, overhead strike.
Ryu leaned forward, rolled beneath the blow, and drove the pommel of his blade into Cassius' ribs.
Cassius stumbled back.
Ryu rose.
The star-mark on his palm pulsed once, bright, golden, and final.
He stepped into the final movement with perfect stillness.
One clean slash.
The corrupted staff shattered in two.
Cassius fell to his knees, breath stolen, arms hanging limp.
Ryu stood over him, blade steady, breathing deep but measured.
Cassius looked up, defiance flickering in his eyes, but the fire was gone.
"Finish it," he spat. "You've taken everything. What's one more death?"
Ryu lowered his blade.
"I'm not here for that; I will leave you to face your judgement by Phoenix city."
Behind them, the last of the mutated beasts fell to the combined efforts of the Flame Guard and Kalavan's strike squads.
Yan remained with Oliver, the fire from her hands keeping his heart steady, her eyes locked on Ryu, but monsters still moved towards the city. It wasn't over just yet.
Cassius collapsed backward, staring up at the sky.
And for the first time in two decades, he remembered things clearly.
"I could have been a Phoenix…" he whispered.
"You still could have been," Ryu said softly. "But you chose your path, you and only you alone."
He turned away, but the star-mark on his hand flared.
Violently.
He froze.
Cassius coughed, the sound wet and broken.
Dark Qi bled from his chest, not blood, but a mist of rot and rage, unravelling in spirals as it soaked into the stone.
Ryu turned; blade still raised.
The corruption inside Cassius was coming undone. The power he'd wielded, the strength that had twisted his flame, was never his to keep. It had been borrowed, ripped from a cult-bound rift in exchange for his life essence. Now, with his will broke, the Qi fled him like rats from a sinking ship, trying to burrow back to the source it had been siphoned from.
The ground around his body fractured. His veins pulsed with festering green light as his form convulsed, not from pain, but from rejection.
Through it all, he smiled.
"I wasn't meant to live through this… was I?"
Ryu's eyes narrowed. "No."
He stepped forward, the star-mark on his hand glowing like a flame held in the dark.
Yan, holding her trembling barrier in place behind him, fought to maintain focus, her grandfather still cradled in her lap, barely breathing. She couldn't look away from Ryu, but each heartbeat felt like it might break her in half.
Ryu understood.
And with a steady breath, he acted.
His blade pierced Cassius' chest in a clean, final motion. The corrupted Qi screamed, not as a voice, but as a howl of energy ripped from its anchor.
Ryu didn't stop there. His hand flared with light. He reached into the heart of the rot and pulled.
Space bent and folded.
He compressed the lingering Qi into a singularity of flame and force, pushing his spatial understanding to the edge of collapse. Qi poured from him like a storm, his core stretching, his pool deepening, until it shifted.
Something broke open inside him.
The Ascension Realm.
The stars around his soul shone clearer than ever, and his body surged with newfound strength, yet only for a moment. Then came the weight.
Fatigue like gravity.
A tidal pull across every nerve.
Ryu dropped to one knee, gasping. His body hadn't caught up to his realm. Not yet.
Cassius' body dissolved. Not just burned, collapsed. The rot gave one last hiss as it curled inward and vanished into the cracks of the stone. All that remained was a ruined crest, blackened and twisted, and a scorch mark where he'd stood.
The broken phoenix.
Now silent.
Ryu stood slowly. The mark on his palm dimmed to a soft glow.
Yan's barrier flickered, then dropped as she rushed to his side. Her hands caught his arm just as his legs faltered.
"I'm fine," Ryu murmured.
"You nearly weren't," she said. Her voice was hoarse, but steady. "Don't scare me like that again."
Behind them, the square had gone still.
The last of the mutated beasts had fallen. Kalavan and the Flame Guard circled the edge, wary but victorious.
The fires had gone out and the city still stood.