The battlefield was a hellscape of stone and flame.
Every breath Nefer took scorched her lungs, and the air shimmered with heat waves rising from the cracks in the earth. The landscape looked like it had been pulled from the heart of a volcano—jagged cliffs of obsidian, rivers of bubbling magma crisscrossing through the rock, and geysers of molten fire erupting randomly with explosive hisses. The sky was blackened with smoke, casting the world in a dull, apocalyptic glow. And in the heart of that nightmare, Nefer danced with death.
Her opponent—the molten python—was more than twenty feet long, thick as a boulder, its scales etched with glowing orange lines like cracks in the surface of the sun. Lava oozed from its body like sweat, pooling where it slithered, leaving destruction in its wake. The creature's eyes were like burning coals, locked onto her with primal fury. It hissed, its breath superheating the air in an instant, causing the metal on Nefer's armor to groan in protest.
Nefer herself stood poised on a rocky outcrop, white armor gleaming faintly despite the ash staining its edges. Her sword—long, single-edged, impossibly light in her grasp—vibrated slightly in her hand, humming with latent energy. She didn't flinch. Even when the serpent coiled back and launched itself forward like a comet, she didn't hesitate.
Her body blurred.
With perfect timing, she shifted sideways as the beast's fangs snapped where she stood a moment before. Her movements weren't wild or panicked—they were calculated, minimal, and efficient. She wasn't just dodging. She was reading the creature. Measuring the rhythm in its strikes, the pauses in its movements, the tension in its coiled muscles. Every flicker of its tongue, every subtle rise of its tail—all were pieces in a puzzle she was already halfway through solving.
The beast whipped around again with unnatural speed, its massive body sweeping toward her in a horizontal arc. She dove low, sliding beneath the attack, her armor skimming the hot ground. Sparks flew. Her sword flashed upward in a precise, vertical slice as she passed, cutting through one of the beast's lava veins.
A guttural roar exploded from the creature as it reeled in pain. Magma spurted from the fresh wound, but she was already moving again—never stationary for more than a heartbeat.
Still, it was relentless.
The python's body struck the cliff beside her, shattering it like glass. A wall of fire and rock erupted from the impact. Nefer leapt backward, her cape catching the hot wind, just narrowly avoiding a second lunge. She touched down lightly, her boots skimming across a jagged slab of stone that wobbled beneath her. She didn't allow it to break her momentum.
She leapt again.
This time toward the beast.
She landed directly atop its back, using her sword to anchor herself. Lava blistered the soles of her boots, even through the enchantments. The heat was unbearable—but she stayed calm, forcing herself to breathe slowly, despite the searing pain licking up her legs.
The creature thrashed violently, twisting its body in a maddened frenzy. She adjusted her stance each second, riding its movements like a warrior balancing atop a storm. Then—she saw it.
A weak spot.
Just behind its skull, where the molten lines converged and dipped inward—a point of instability in its structure. She didn't waste the opportunity.
Nefer drove her blade downward with all her strength and focus. The blade sank deep. A shudder passed through the entire beast. It screamed again, twisting upward violently, flinging her from its back.
She flew through the air, end over end.
She twisted midair, aimed her sword downward, and plunged it into a boulder just before hitting the ground. The sword caught. She swung hard with her free hand, using the torque to flip herself safely onto a lower platform instead of tumbling off the cliff edge into the magma below.
Her knees hit hard, but she didn't waste time catching her breath. The python, though wounded, was already coming for her. Its maw opened, and a jet of molten flame burst forth. She rolled to the side, barely escaping the blast, the heat blistering her skin through her armor. Part of her white plating cracked from the temperature.
Still, she was undeterred.
Nefer pulled herself up. Blood ran down her lip, her forehead, and her side—but her eyes… they burned with cold intensity.
"Brute force, mindless rage… That's your pattern," she muttered, scanning the creature again as it regrouped.
She crouched low, her fingers brushing the scorched stone at her feet. She was running low on stamina. One more mistake and she was finished. But it had a rhythm—it couldn't help it. Corrupted or not, it was still bound to instinct. And instinct, once mapped, was predictable.
As the python charged again, Nefer sprinted straight toward it.
At the last second, she dropped to the ground and slid beneath it, letting the creature pass over her. As she passed under its belly, she sliced a glowing line across it—just shallow enough to hurt, not deep enough to kill. Not yet.
It hissed and turned back around—but she was ready.
Now limping, she sprinted toward one of the rock pillars that jutted out above the lava lake. She scaled it in seconds, using her sword to carve holds into the soft stone when needed. The serpent came after her again, its body crashing against the pillar, shaking it violently. But Nefer was already near the top.
She looked down. The creature was winding around the base, preparing to lunge upward.
She closed her eyes.
Counted.
One… two…
A surge of molten energy crackled through the air. The python burst upward, mouth open, fangs glistening, body propelled by pure rage.
Three.
Nefer launched herself down the side of the pillar, not away from the creature—but toward it.
It didn't expect that.
With perfect precision, she twisted midair, her body curling like a spring. Her sword pointed downward. And with gravity behind her, her blade struck directly into the weak point she had marked earlier—just behind its skull.
The blade punched through with a sickening crunch.
Nefer landed with a heavy thud on the creature's head, embedding her blade deeper with her full weight. The python's scream was not a roar—but a convulsion. It twisted once—twice—then collapsed mid-coil.
Its body fell in sections, smashing into rock, dislodging boulders and spraying magma like blood.
Nefer stood atop its corpse, heaving for breath. The blade still buried in its skull. Her armor was scorched, cracked, and bleeding at the edges, her cape torn and melted. Her arms trembled from exhaustion, her knees buckled slightly.
But she had won.
The lava hissed below, quieter now.
And in that silence—just as her sword dematerialized into soul-light and returned to her—she heard the rumble. The dimension around her… began to fade. The molten world cracked like glass, light bleeding in through the fractures.
Nefer took a step forward as the world collapsed.
When she opened her eyes again, she stood on a cold, stone floor.
And before her, she saw two familiar faces.
Massa. Standing calmly, youthful once more, her expression unreadable. And beside her—Hope, alive, dusted with dried blood, but smiling faintly.
"You took your time," Hope said, a smirk barely curving his lip.
Nefer wiped blood from her mouth, raised an eyebrow, and smirked back. "Had to make it interesting."