The walls of the Great Hall burned with silent fury. Every breath felt like inhaling sparks. Mal'kar, the Flame Eater, stood at the center of it all — tall, cloaked in darkness and fire that twisted unnaturally around his body.
Elliot could barely keep his footing.
The energy radiating from Mal'kar wasn't just fire — it was living destruction. Controlled. Cold. And ancient.
Kaelith stepped forward, blade drawn, flames circling her legs like loyal wolves. "You won't take him."
Mal'kar's voice was deep and smooth, like molten stone sliding across ice.
> "Why fight for someone who hasn't even chosen his flame yet?"
Elliot's chest burned. The Mark pulsed wildly. The Vaelion flame inside him responded to Mal'kar's presence — not in fear, but in recognition.
> He's touched the same fire, Elliot realized. Or something worse.
"I didn't come to follow anyone," Elliot said, stepping beside Kaelith. "I came to end this."
Mal'kar smirked. "Then prove you're worthy of the flame you carry."
He extended a single hand — and the stone beneath their feet shattered, creating a massive dueling platform of floating obsidian and glowing lava veins.
Rhaemir, bleeding and weary, appeared at the chamber's edge.
> "Don't fight him, Elliot! That power—he's bound to the Ember Pact! He feeds on pain and destruction. The more you fight, the stronger he becomes!"
Elliot narrowed his eyes. "Then I'll burn fast and hit harder."
Kaelith grabbed his arm. "Don't lose yourself."
> "I already did," Elliot whispered. "Now I'm taking it back."
---
The duel began.
Mal'kar moved like a ghost, flame tendrils lashing out with inhuman speed. Elliot blocked one, dodged two — the third caught his side and seared flesh. He grunted, rolled, and launched a counterburst of golden fire.
Mal'kar absorbed it.
Absorbed it.
> "You burn bright," he said, voice calm. "But bright flames die fast."
He thrust his hand toward Elliot. A wave of black fire surged forward, screaming as it came.
Elliot shouted, raising both arms—
> "Vaelion's Aegis!"
A golden wall erupted before him. The black fire struck it — and shattered.
But it cost him. His legs buckled. Blood trickled from his nose.
Mal'kar advanced.
> "Let go of your mercy. Let go of your fear. Let me show you what the flame can become when unshackled."
Elliot steadied himself. His mind swirled with images from the Scroll. The prophecy. The throne. The serpent. The girl he once loved.
And then… he smiled.
> "You're wrong," he said. "The flame doesn't want chaos. You made it that way."
He opened his arms.
The Mark on his chest blazed to life — not wild, but focused.
> "The flame is choice. And I choose who I become."
Golden fire erupted from Elliot's body — brighter than any before. Not destructive. Not wild.
Pure.
The blast knocked Mal'kar back — hard.
He hit the obsidian, cracking it. For the first time, he looked stunned.
"You... refined it?"
Elliot stepped forward. "No. I just stopped using it to run from who I am."
With one final motion, he summoned a blade of flame and drove it into the ground.
> BOOOOOM!
A shockwave burst outward, throwing everyone off their feet — and hurling Mal'kar through the back wall and into the darkness beyond.
---
Silence.
The flames calmed. The ground cooled.
Kaelith rose slowly. "You just… pushed the Flame Eater into the abyss."
Elliot collapsed to his knees, breathing hard. "Yeah. But I don't think he's dead."
"No," Rhaemir said, helping him up. "But he knows your name now."
---
Far away, in the ruined crater of the mountain, Mal'kar pulled himself from the ashes. His armor cracked, his pride wounded.
And his hunger... growing.
> "You are not finished yet, Elliot Finn," he whispered.
"You are just beginning."