Chapter 316 – The Law of Flame… and that of the Great Valor
The flames engulfed Valor completely.
A colossal blaze, incandescent, devouring everything in its path.
Even the air seemed to scream under the heat.
— U-uncle Valor! cried a child, voice breaking.
— N-no… even him… sobbed another.
Agniryos slowly smiled, satisfied.
— My will is an inviolable law.
If I decide something burns, then it burns.
Even without visible fire.
My flames ignore resistances, defenses, immunities…
They cross distance, consume the soul, the essence…
And the pain can be instantaneous…
Or eternal.
Ravna clenched her teeth.
— If he loses… then we're doomed.
The flames roared still.
Then—
A laugh.
— HAHAHAHAHA.
The children lifted their heads, incredulous.
With a simple gesture of his hand, the flames dissipated like smoke swept away by the wind.
Valor appeared, intact, slightly smoking… but mostly bored.
— …That's it?
Honestly, that was disappointing.
The children let out a collective sigh, some even sketching trembling smiles.
— He's not arrogant for nothing… murmured Ravna.
Valor approached Eldric's charred body. His gaze fell on the grimoire, still intact despite everything.
He made it levitate.
— I was planning to humiliate you by using only the grimoire of poor Eldric…
But now the book evolves because of me.
— Theatrical sigh.
— Oh… that's really bad news for you, walking torch.
The grimoire was engulfed by Valor's mana. The engraved symbols changed, the pages rewrote themselves, as if the book was adapting to a power it should never have contained.
— Eldric had summoned a meteor.
The sky darkened.
— Me, I summon ten.
Ten meteors crashed down.
Agniryos raised his hand.
The meteors were vaporized before they could touch him.
— Futile.
— Oh? replied Valor, feigning surprise.
So you're not a fly.
Let's say… a fly a bit bigger than average.
But no matter the size of the fly.
— Cruel smile.
— It always ends up crushed.
— Wild Growth.
Colossal trees burst from the ground, intertwined and rushed toward Agniryos.
They were reduced to ashes upon contact with his aura.
— You really don't know who I am, declared Agniryos.
I am the incarnation of primordial flames.
Immune to fire, to annihilation, to nothingness.
Any attack directed against me will be consumed.
— We don't care about your nonsense, cut Valor.
Meanwhile, Ravna knelt beside Eldric. She placed her hand on his body.
— His condition is critical…
Valor, can we do something?
Without even looking at her, Valor tossed the grimoire toward her.
— That's not meant for me.
As she caught the book, something changed.
The grimoire, charged with Valor's mana, entered into resonance with Eldric.
It wasn't a classic healing:
the book used the absorbed energy to rewrite the state of the body, restoring what had been destroyed as long as the soul wasn't completely dissolved.
Eldric's body levitated.
The burns slowly disappeared, as if erased by an invisible hand.
Ravna understood.
— …He didn't take the book just to flex.
— Hey, shouted Agniryos, what did you do?
Valor turned to him.
— Nothing at all.
Why, are you worried?
Better prepare to die.
He vanished.
Reappeared behind Agniryos.
— Water Jet.
A blast of water under monstrous pressure surged forth.
— Useless, sneered Agniryos.
Water has no effect on my flames.
The jet evaporated before reaching him.
Valor smiled.
— Oh, I knew.
I just wanted to see if you were telling the truth.
— Such insolence…
You're mocking me!
Agniryos charged, burning time and space in his path.
Valor extended his hand.
Agniryos was stopped dead, as if crushed by an invisible force.
Valor slowly lowered his hand.
BOOM.
Agniryos was slammed to the ground.
Reality cracked.
Valor lifted him…
And slammed him down again.
— BOOM.
A portal opened before Valor, another behind Agniryos.
Valor stepped through the first.
Reappeared behind him.
— Bad placement.
A mana‑charged kick exploded into Agniryos's back.
He was hurled away.
Valor cracked his fingers.
— Seriously…
You really thought flames would be enough?
Chapter 317 — When Arrogance Meets Seriousness (and Reality Perspires)
Ravna watched Eldric blink, still lying on the ground.
— …Huh?
— Wasn't I… dead, just now?
He sat up suddenly, patting his chest, arms, face.
— Wait.
— I very clearly remember being burned to ashes.
Ravna gave a tired smile.
— Technically, yes.
— Practically, no.
Eldric turned his head and saw Valor in the distance, abusing a primordial being like a training dummy.
— …Who's that?
— Valor, answered Ravna.
— Without him, you'd really be dead this time.
Eldric frowned and raised his grimoire.
— Wait…
— That's not my grimoire.
The book floated lightly, covered in new symbols, its pages breathing like a living thing.
— It is, corrected Ravna.
— It's yours.
— It just… evolved after coming into contact with Valor.
Eldric stayed silent for a moment.
— …I hate when people break my stuff.
— But this time, I'll let it slide.
He looked at her, narrowing his eyes.
— But…
— How are you still standing with a hole like that in your chest?
Ravna lowered her gaze to her torso.
A gaping hole, clean, as if a part of her had been neatly removed.
— Oh, that?
— Nothing serious.
— Nothing—
— Ravna, we can literally see the background through you.
She shrugged.
— My body stopped considering that a wound a long time ago.
She explained calmly:
— It's not mana.
— Nor classic regeneration.
— It's traumatic adaptation.
Eldric listened, pale.
— After taking mortal wounds over and over, my body learned to…
— redistribute vital functions.
— The heart, the lungs, all that… they're not really centralized anymore.
She smiled, almost embarrassed.
— As long as the general structure holds, I stay conscious.
— The rest is just detail.
Eldric swallowed hard.
— …I understand better why the children didn't panic.
— For them, if you're calm… then everything's fine.
— Exactly, said Ravna simply.
— Still, heal yourself, sighed Eldric.
The scars on Ravna's body began to glow.
No mana.
No spell.
Her cells accelerated their division, guided by an ancient bodily technique:
absolute mastery of bio‑adaptation, where the body imposes its will on its own flesh.
The hole closed quickly.
She stood, clenching her fist.
— I don't know about you…
— But I really want to make him pay for what he did.
Eldric turned his head toward the battlefield.
— Let's wait to see what Valor does.
— For now… he's having fun.
In the distance.
Valor grabbed Agniryos by the head.
— Alright kids, watch closely!
— This is what we call hands‑on teaching.
He chained right hooks, left hooks, monumental slaps.
— Wham.
— Wham.
— Wham.
Each blow cracked reality, as if space itself was in pain.
— Take note, Solan: wrist loose.
— Lyane: eyes fixed on the target.
— Kaor: always hit harder than necessary.
A kick to the stomach.
Agniryos spat blood and was hurled away.
Valor was already behind him.
— And this is the "return to sender" version.
BAM.
Agniryos flew again.
Then Valor reproduced, almost lazily, the Absolute and Eternal Flame Tempest.
A gigantic whirlwind of fire rose, engulfing Agniryos.
— Seriously…
— Are you weak, or am I, the great Valor, just too strong?
He thought for half a second.
— Nah.
— It's me.
Within the flames, Agniryos slowly stood.
— First them… Oris and Kae…
— Then you…
He clenched his teeth.
— Copying my attack…
— I already told you fire has no effect on me!
— Yeah, replied Valor.
— I just wanted to see what it looked like.
Agniryos's aura exploded.
The environment changed.
The air grew scorching, heavy, almost solid.
The ground began to melt in places.
The trees dried instantly, reduced to drifting ashes.
The sky turned a dark red, as if the world itself was sweating.
Valor turned calmly toward the children and teachers.
— Alright.
— Now it's getting a little less funny.
He teleported them away.
— Put them somewhere safe.
— This version… burns even the scenery.
He turned back to Agniryos.
— Looks like mister wants to bring out the big guns.
Agniryos's hair came loose, floating freely.
His gaze grew calm.
Cold.
His presence crushed everything.
— Oh, said Valor.
— You stopped barking.
Agniryos appeared before him in an instant.
— You are arrogant.
— Talkative.
— Selfish.
He fixed Valor without hatred.
— But I don't blame you.
— Maybe it's in your nature… humans.
He raised his hand.
— I will purify you.
Valor smiled.
— Oh.
— He's speaking softly now.
He cracked his fingers.
— Now it's getting interesting.
Chapter 318 — The Memory of Fire
The primordial flames covered Agniryos's body.
It was not combustion.
It was a memory imposing itself upon reality.
The fire did not appear around him — it emerged from within, passing through flesh, soul, and concept without meeting resistance. The laws retreated. Time hesitated. Space folded, as if the world itself had just realized it was unqualified to witness this.
Opposite him, unmoving, Valor watched.
Arms crossed.
Expression neutral.
Slightly… bored.
— Hm.
He tilted his head.
— "Embodied memory, primordial fire, cosmic hatred… classic. I was hoping for a bit more originality."
The world shifted.
Agniryos was not born.
He remembered.
When the Being of the Void fell under the blow of the End, there was neither cry nor revolt.
Death — incarnation of the Inevitable, silent messenger of Vael — delivered its sentence without hatred, without emotion. A pure act. Definitive.
One does not struggle against the End.
Power left the throne.
Torn away.
Uprooted from existence itself.
It was transferred elsewhere — into a human named Nova.
Not by choice.
By necessity.
Valor raised an eyebrow.
— "Ah. So you're what's left when you empty even the void…
He smiled faintly.
— No wonder you're so angry."
In the emptiness left behind, something ignited.
Not a creation.
A residue.
Agniryos understood what he was the very moment he burned for the first time.
A shell born of a shell.
A fire born of a void already emptied.
A remainder turned incarnation.
And yet…
he burned.
The Eltarions watched.
All of them.
They had seen Death strike.
They had seen the End impose itself.
They had seen their creator fall without a single prayer being heard.
But above all, they saw what Death left behind.
The shell.
Intact.
Seated upon the throne.
Valor let out an amused breath.
— "Leaving the corpse as decoration… cruel. Very educational, though."
From the moment of his birth, Agniryos felt their gazes weigh upon him.
Not prayers.
Not supplications.
Raw helplessness.
He then understood the truth Valor already knew:
This world did not hold together because of him.
It held because the cosmic corpse still persisted.
Agniryos was not the pillar.
He was the threshold.
— "So in summary," Valor said calmly,
— "you kept a tomb doing all the work while everyone stared at you like you were responsible."
Silence.
— "Yeah. I'd have been in a bad mood too."
From that day, Agniryos never spoke to them.
He was neither king.
Nor guide.
Nor god.
He was a flame born to watch, not to explain.
So he isolated himself.
He shaped a domain of primordial flames.
The *Ignivar Primordialis.*
A fire older than creation.
A fire even Valor now regarded with greater attention.
— "Okay."
He uncrossed his arms.
— "Now we're talking."
The Ignivar do not burn to destroy.
They burn because existence cannot resist them.
They consume matter, soul, time, concepts…
and even stories.
What they touch does not disappear:
it never existed.
Then came Kae and Oris.
Agniryos lost.
And when he was killed, it was neither fear nor exhaustion.
It was hatred.
A hatred so pure that even Valor frowned.
— "Hm… that one, I know."
Then came the heat.
A human fire.
Imperfect.
Violent.
Determined.
Kael.
The Ignivar blazed anew.
Agniryos returned.
Not as before.
And now, facing Valor, the memory of fire finished imposing itself.
The primordial flames once again covered his body.
It was not a transformation.
It was a sentence.
Agniryos finally raised his eyes to him.
No pity.
No contempt.
Absolute hatred.
Valor sighed… then smiled.
— "Well.
He stepped forward.
— Looks like you've finished your tragic monologue."
He lifted his eyes to the flames.
— "My turn to remind you of something, Memory of Fire.
— Memories burn bright…
but they always lose to someone who's still alive."
Chapter 319 – The Festival of Arrogance
Valor gazed at the devastated horizon, hands in his pockets, a satisfied smile plastered on his face.
— Well.
He snapped his fingers.
— The festival can resume.
He tilted his head slightly toward Agniryos, as if speaking to someone who had just arrived late.
— I already know that anything involving fire, explosions, annihilation…
He shrugged.
— …affects you about as much as a summer breeze.
But that was precisely the point.
His smile widened.
— You're the perfect candidate to test my new spells.
Agniryos did not respond.
He didn't even blink.
A second later, Valor was upside down, suspended in the void, arms crossed — just… to flex.
— Seriously, you could at least react a little, couldn't you?
Then, without warning, he appeared before Agniryos, fist charged with dense, condensed mana, violent, ready to tear existence itself apart.
But the punch never reached its target.
The *Ignivar Primordialis* erupted.
Not a normal explosion.
A negation.
Flames burst from Agniryos's body and spread like a memory too ancient to be contained.
Matter vanished.
The soul dissolved.
Time tore apart.
Space folded.
Concepts burned.
Stories themselves reduced to absolute silence.
What the Ignivar touched was not destroyed.
It had never existed.
Valor took the attack head‑on.
His body was engulfed, devoured, erased…
then reappeared, smoking, cracked, covered in pure mana pulsing like a second skin.
He leapt back, landed heavily, inhaled deeply.
— …
Then he smiled.
— That's it?
He shook his head, almost disappointed.
— Honestly, I expected more.
His mana had adapted.
Not by resisting the flames.
By refusing to be erased.
Valor did not survive because the laws protected him —
he survived because his very existence crushed the idea of disappearance itself.
Agniryos watched calmly.
The flames shifted.
They became clearer.
Purer.
More… severe.
— Don't worry, arrogant human, he finally said.
— My flames can do everything.
He raised his hand.
— Purification.
The flames surged instantly, striking Valor directly, without detour, without warning.
Valor smiled again.
He swept the Ignivar aside with a simple flick of his hand.
— You're mistaken.
He tilted his head slightly.
— The nature of the great Valor never changes.
Chains burst from the void and wrapped around Agniryos.
Valor, still with his hands in his pockets, pummeled his face with kicks delivered with insulting nonchalance.
Agniryos shattered the chains.
He grabbed Valor's foot.
And slammed him into the ground.
Reality cracked like glass.
Dimensions screamed.
The ground gave way down to the foundations of the universe.
Valor vanished.
Then reappeared instantly, face bloodied, and struck Agniryos with a simultaneous kick to the torso.
He pointed a finger before his face.
— Composite Annihilation: *Orbis Cataclysmæ.*
A gigantic sphere formed, a blend of wind, light, darkness, and lightning.
It did not spin.
It devoured.
The orb was hurled forward.
Everything in its path was pulverized, erased, scattered into total chaos.
Valor landed, smile intact.
He ran a hand through his hair, his face regenerating casually.
— Who can resist the almighty great Valor, huh?
He didn't have time to finish his sentence.
He was hurled across the universe and crashed into mountains of lava.
He slowed, still smiling.
The next instant…
The entire universe froze.
Ice.
But not ordinary ice.
Absolute ice, frozen outside of time, indestructible, so cold it immobilized even concepts.
Heat could not exist in its presence.
Even fire hesitated.
Agniryos smiled.
— Ice?
He shook his head.
— Sorry for you, human. My flames are not ordinary.
He adjusted them.
Creation through the Ignivar.
— I can forge gods of fire.
— Conscious stars.
— Divine weapons.
— Entire worlds.
Ten fire gods appeared and surrounded Valor.
— Everything I create carries an irreversible part of my fire.
Valor raised his hand.
Pulled them toward him.
Spikes of shadow erupted from the ground and pierced the gods.
They counterattacked.
Valor repelled them with such violent force they were reduced to dust.
Agniryos appeared behind him.
— Instant Freeze.
Everything stopped.
He could have frozen the entire universe.
But the children were still there.
So he limited it.
Even time itself halted.
He walked slowly toward Agniryos.
— You see… I could have done worse.
He struck him.
Sent Agniryos flying.
He was already behind him, frost blade in hand, and slashed—
The blade stopped dead.
— Oh?
Valor smiled.
— You managed to break free from my indestructible ice?
Agniryos shoved him back with a flaming punch that ignited space‑time.
Valor stepped back.
— Hm.
He smiled again.
— The insect's not doing too badly.
Agniryos created twenty fire gods.
He fused ten.
Then another ten.
Two entities appeared, red‑haired, crushing presence, their aura warping reality around them.
— Ignir, said Agniryos.
— And Pyraxis.
Ignir fixed his gaze on Valor.
— Human, surrender. You have no chance against us.
Valor looked at them.
Silence.
— …
— Oh, pardon.
He smiled.
— Insects don't deserve to be spoken to.
Pyraxis lunged.
He was sliced into a thousand pieces.
Ravna appeared beside Valor.
Her presence was different.
Heavier.
More dangerous.
— I'll help you, she said calmly.
She looked at Agniryos and Ignir.
— Three against one wasn't fair.
Ignir frowned.
— Who is this woman…? I didn't even see her arrive.
Agniryos answered coldly:
— Looks like you forgot what I did to you earlier.
Ravna ignored Agniryos.
She looked at Valor.
— Eldric took the children to a safe zone.
Then she smiled.
— Now we can cut loose.
Valor smiled even wider.
— Even three against one…
He spread his arms.
— Flies will always remain flies.
The festival had truly begun. 😈🔥❄️