Chapter 138 - Chapter 138 · Soulfire Pact

Shattered star marks blazed across the sky, like the of ancient gods spilling upon the mortal realm. In the distance, warfires had spread to the Abyssal Pass, with flames coiling like enraged serpents to tear at the horizon. Deep within the Chosen Temple, silver relief walls trembled like a living breath, as thousand-year-old spirits stirred from their slumber.​Ilea knelt before the Soulfire Altar, crimson marks spreading across her bare back—the Falling Star Cursed Seal had fully bloomed upon her skin. Her fingertips trembled, blood dripping from her wrist, yet unable to conceal the terrifying awakening surging within her.​Lucian approached slowly. She felt the blazing power emanating from him, the repressed fiery desire of a Flame Knight Captain long constrained. He lowered his head near her ear, voice deep as night:​"Do you know what this mark signifies?"​"Domination... or sacrifice?" Ilea murmured, her voice trembling not with fear, but with something unspoken.​Lucian offered no answer. His palm brushed the cursed runes on her back, fingertips tracing the winding patterns downward, as if touching something forbidden. His lips pressed to her shoulder, then her collarbone, finally lingering at her ear:​"Would you let me kiss every flame upon your body?"​She said nothing, only opening her arms as if embracing fate itself. He pulled her close, claiming her breath and pulse in his rhythm. Flames coiled around their intertwined bodies, each collision a rift in the world's fabric.​She moaned, trembling yet unresisting. As he drove deeper, she closed her eyes, letting her world dissolve into flame—whether to perish or be reborn.​Climax surged, their bodies merging as one. Ilea gasped his name, surrendering her soul entirely. He held her then, pressing her to his chest where flaming runes pulsed like a sun.​"I won't let you fall," his voice wavered, a vow spoken into the night.​Just as their passion peaked, the temple shook violently. Starlight fractured, runic arrays shattered. A jet of black light erupted from the altar, swallowing Karanos whole before surging toward them.​When they woke, they stood in a new realm—rift's core where fire and ash billowed endlessly.​Life and death hung in balance, with only cascades of shattered stars flowing beneath their feet.​A blood-red projection rose as the temple reliefs crumbled—the Lunar Rift Envoy, a shadow materializing from ancient curses.​"Your pact is sealed," his voice echoed like a waking nightmare, "body and soul no longer belong to mortal realms..."​Lucian shielded Ilea, drawing his Soulfire Sword to point at the envoy. "She belongs to me—not any god."​The envoy smiled faintly: "Does she? Then test this—can you bear the cost of 'soulfire burnout' after betraying the divine?"​Before the words faded, the entire Chosen Temple convulsed, the ground roiling like a sea of blood. The envoy transformed into a shadow, lunging at them.​Ilea's eyes flew open. Cursed seals flared violet, condensing into a starfall rune in her palm.​"Enough."​With her last strength, she drove the rune into the ground. In an instant, the temple erupted like a collapsing stellar core, unleashing a cataclysmic tide of energy!