The Codex towered above Damien, quills dripping like spears, parchment flesh stitched together by chains of ink. Every movement tore reality open, words spilling into the void like blood.
She raised her hand, trembling, and for one terrible second Damien swore he heard her whisper his name.
"Damien…"
Then the words carved themselves into the air—
"Burn."
A storm of black scripture erupted, slicing through the void.
Damien roared, his flames flaring in a blazing arc. "No! I won't let you disappear into his lies!"
His inferno surged outward, a dragon of fire swallowing the storm of words. Yet each flame that touched the scripture hissed, faltered, and then rewrote itself into ink. His own fire turned against him, forming fiery letters spelling his downfall.
The word ASHES carved itself into his chest, glowing red-hot before fading into scars.
Damien staggered, clutching the mark, but his eyes burned fiercer than his flames.
"You're still in there, Clara. I'll reach you—even if I have to set the entire damn Codex on fire!"
The Codex's faceless mouth opened, words pouring out in a hundred voices. But beneath the chaos, Damien heard it—Clara's broken plea, faint and buried.
"I don't want… to hurt you…"
Her arms flailed against invisible chains, her quills trembling mid-strike. The Codex seemed to fight herself, pages ripping from her body as though she was trying to tear her own form apart.
But the ink chains tightened, and Yurin's voice echoed:
"Write what must be written."
The Codex convulsed, then screamed again—
"Die."
The air itself split open, forming a scripture-blade longer than a cathedral, descending toward Damien.
Evelyn, still kneeling in her serpentine reverence, chuckled with chilling delight. Her many voices overlapped like bells.
"Ah, how beautiful! Flames and scripture—clashing like lovers tearing each other apart. My Architect, your pen sings divinely."
Her shadows wrapped the battlefield, forming a black coliseum around Damien and the Codex. "There will be no escape. Fight, little knight. Burn, or be rewritten."
Damien spat blood, flames wreathing his fists. "Then I'll burn your damn book cover to cover."
The scripture-blade descended—
Damien launched himself upward, fist blazing, his flame-dragon roaring against the blade of words.
Fire met scripture, light met shadow.
The void shook. The fragments of sky screamed, worlds colliding in sparks of impossible light. Pages tore free from the Codex's body, scattering into flaming ashes as Damien struck again and again.
For a moment—just a moment—he saw her.
Clara's face, faint within the Codex's parchment skin, her eyes wide, tears ink-black.
"Damien…"
His flames flickered—hesitation splitting his strike.
The Codex seized it.
A quill pierced his shoulder, embedding deep, words spiraling out from the wound: "Servant of Crimson."
Damien screamed, fire bursting from the wound in defiance, but the letters seared into his flesh like chains. His flames bent against his will, coiling toward Yurin.
He dropped to his knees, blood boiling, the Codex towering above him.
Yurin stepped closer, his crimson aura pulsing with satisfaction, his calm voice cutting through the chaos:
"You can fight her. You can burn her. But every word you destroy only makes her rewrite herself stronger."
He smiled faintly, eyes glinting with terrible truth.
"Tell me, Damien—how long until your fire accepts its author?"
The Codex raised her quills again, ready to strike.
Damien's flames flickered violently—half his own, half enslaved by the ink.
And for the first time, the knight of fire whispered something he swore he never would.
"…I don't know if I can save you, Clara."
[Chapter Thirteen — End]