The cut burned.
Not like fire.
Like weight.
Harun staggered back a step as the stone surged violently from the fresh wound, crawling beneath his skin in jagged lines. His breath hitched—not from pain, but from resistance. His body didn't want to move the way it used to.
Gravity had doubled inside him.
He gritted his teeth and forced his legs to obey.
Raj watched with open amusement. "That look," he said, tapping his own temple. "That's the moment you realize your body's betraying you."
Harun didn't answer.
He shifted forward anyway.
The Spectral Sword came up again—slower this time, but heavier, carrying everything he had left. He slashed at Raj's torso, channeling raw output instead of precision.
The blade hit.
The impact rang through the ruins like a struck bell.
Raj slid back another half step.
Dust exploded outward.
For a split second, the battlefield froze.
Mira's eyes widened. "He—he's pushing him back—!"
Raj looked down at his chest. A faint mark—barely visible—ran across his skin. Not a wound. Not damage.
Pressure.
His grin faded.
Just a little.
"Oh," he said quietly. "So you can bite."
Harun felt the stone climb higher, locking around his ribs, squeezing his lungs with every breath. He ignored it and stepped in again.
Raj moved first.
A brutal hook slammed into Harun's side, directly into the spreading stone. The impact sent a shockwave through his body, rattling his spine. Harun flew sideways, crashing through rubble and skidding across the ground.
He tried to rise—
—and felt his leg refuse.
Not collapse.
Refuse.
His knee scraped against stone as he pushed, muscles fighting against something solid beneath his skin.
Raj walked toward him slowly, cracking his knuckles. "That's the problem with poisons like hers," he said casually. "They don't stop you right away."
He stopped a few meters away.
"They let you hope."
Mira screamed and dashed in, ignoring everything else. She struck Raj from the side, speed compressed into a desperate, violent blow.
Raj didn't even turn.
He caught her mid-kick.
Her eyes widened in shock as her leg stopped dead in his grip.
He looked at her over his shoulder. "You're persistent. I'll give you that."
He slammed her down.
Hard.
The ground cratered beneath her body. Mira gasped, blood spraying from her mouth as the impact knocked the air clean out of her lungs.
Harun roared and forced himself up, stone grinding beneath skin as he dragged his body forward.
Kunal staggered back into the fight, one arm sparking, the other reshaped into a jagged blade. He swung with everything he had left, striking Raj across the back.
The hit landed.
Raj lurched forward a step.
Kunal didn't stop. He hit again. And again. Metal screamed as he poured every reserve into the strikes.
Raj turned slowly.
And punched him.
The blow crushed Kunal's guard, slammed into his chest, and launched him across the battlefield. He rolled, skidded, and finally stopped against a collapsed wall, motionless.
Ishan tried to rise again.
His vision swam. Blood dripped into his eyes. He slammed his palms into the ground, forcing sand upward in a last, desperate attempt to slow Raj.
The ground shifted.
Raj stepped through it.
He kicked Ishan once.
Just once.
Ishan's body lifted off the ground and crashed down hard. The sand collapsed around him.
He didn't move again.
Silence followed.
Heavy. Crushing.
Harun stood there, half his body stiff now, stone crawling up his chest, his breathing ragged. He looked around.
Mira struggling to breathe.
Kunal unmoving.
Ishan down.
Omair bleeding, barely upright.
The Vipers surged again.
This time, they didn't hesitate.
They struck.
Edges flashed. Bodies twisted. Cuts landed.
Omair parried one—then another sliced across his shoulder. He grimaced as the stone began creeping from the wound immediately.
"Harun!" Omair shouted. "It spreads faster now!"
Harun saw it.
Vipers slashing, retreating, slashing again—not to kill, not to overwhelm, but to mark.
Stone bloomed wherever they touched.
Mira cried out as a Viper's edge cut across her arm. She ripped herself free and rolled, staring in horror as the skin around the wound began to harden, turning grey, veins freezing in place.
"No—no—!"
Harun moved instinctively, stepping in front of her, blade flashing to force the Vipers back.
Another strike slipped through.
This one caught his neck.
The effect was immediate.
Stone surged upward violently, locking his jaw, crawling across his throat, stealing his breath.
Harun staggered.
The Spectral Sword slipped from his fingers and clattered to the ground.
Raj's eyes lit up.
"There it is," he said softly. "The limit."
Kareena stepped forward at last, her smile serene.
"Hold him," she said.
The Vipers obeyed.
They wrapped around Harun's legs, his arms, his torso—pinning him in place as the stone raced upward, sealing muscle, locking joints, freezing motion.
Harun tried to move.
His body didn't answer.
He was still conscious.
Still aware.
But his limbs no longer belonged to him.
Stone sealed over his chest.
Then his shoulders.
Then his neck.
Harun's eyes remained open as the final layer crept up his jaw, hardening around his face.
He stopped breathing.
He didn't fall.
He stood there—
A statue.
Kareena studied him with fascination. "Remarkable," she murmured. "Even now… you're still watching."
Mira screamed his name.
Raj rolled his shoulders, flames flickering faintly beneath his skin.
"Alright," he said, grinning again. "Now we have time."
The air behind him shimmered.
Heat rose.
Something ancient stirred in the flames.
And from Raj's back, fire began to take shape—
Wings forming.
A scream of burning air tore through the battlefield.
Hellfire was coming.
The heat didn't explode.
It descended.
The air warped as flames peeled themselves away from Raj's body, stretching, folding, screaming as they took shape. Wings formed first—vast, jagged, made of burning ash and living fire. Then the body, elongated and hollow, eyes blazing like furnace cores.
The Hellfire Phoenix screamed.
Not a sound.
A pressure.
Mira dropped to one knee instantly, palms slamming into the ground as her lungs seized. Ishan barely managed to stay upright, shielding his face as heat waves tore across the ruins.
Omair cursed under his breath. "That thing isn't fire… it's punishment."
Raj spread his arms.
"Burn."
The phoenix moved.
It didn't dive.
It passed through the battlefield.
Where it flew, stone melted. Metal warped. Vipers screamed as their bodies ignited—not destroyed, but reforged, their edges glowing brighter, sharper.
Kareena raised her hand again.
The Vipers struck.
Not wildly.
Precisely.
Omair stepped forward without hesitation, blades flashing as he positioned himself directly in front of Harun's stone form. A Viper's edge tore across his side.
The stone spread instantly.
Omair didn't scream.
He planted his feet and cut again.
Another slash hit him.
His leg locked.
Kunal roared and charged to his side, damaged arm screaming as he intercepted another strike meant for Omair.
"Back off!" Kunal yelled.
Three Vipers cut him at once.
Metal froze.
Stone raced up his arm, across his chest, locking his torso mid-motion. His voice cut off halfway through a breath.
Kunal stood there—
Then didn't.
He became stone.
Omair looked at him once.
Then another Viper cut his shoulder.
Stone sealed his arm.
Then his chest.
Then his neck.
Omair exhaled slowly.
"Protect… them…" he muttered.
And turned to stone.
Mira screamed.
Ishan stumbled back, eyes wide, chest heaving.
"Harun… Kunal… Omair—!"
Raj laughed.
Kareena smiled.
The phoenix circled again.
Stone crept across Harun's statue, sealing him fully.
Still conscious.
Still watching.
The battlefield had stopped feeling like a place.
It felt like a sentence.
The Hellfire Phoenix circled above, its wings dragging burning arcs across the sky. Embers fell slowly, not fast enough to escape, not slow enough to ignore. Each one that touched the ground melted stone into glowing scars that refused to cool.
Harun stood frozen at the center of it all.
A statue.
Stone sealed his chest, his arms, his throat—his face locked mid-breath, eyes open, pupils still alive. The world moved around him, burned around him, died around him.
And he saw everything.
Mira staggered backward, coughing as heat ripped through her lungs. Her arm—half-grey now—hung heavy at her side, fingers trembling as the stone crept further with every heartbeat.
"Ishan—!" she shouted.
Ishan was already moving.
Blood streaked his face, his breathing broken, but his eyes were still sharp. He planted himself between Mira and the advancing Vipers, hands slamming into the ground with a roar.
Sand surged up violently, not elegant, not controlled—desperate.
The wall formed just in time.
Vipers slammed into it, bodies flattening, reforming, tearing through like blades through wet clay. Their edges glowed faintly, reforged by the phoenix's heat.
"Stay behind me!" Ishan yelled.
Mira didn't listen.
She never did.
She forced her legs to move, dash broken, speed uneven. She struck a Viper mid-coil, smashing it aside with everything she had left. The impact cracked bone in her foot.
She screamed.
Still didn't stop.
Raj watched from a distance, arms crossed, expression almost relaxed.
Kareena stood beside him, eyes half-lidded, observing as if this were a performance tailored just for her.
"They're still trying," Kareena said softly. "That's… admirable."
Raj snorted. "Stupid, more like."
The phoenix screamed again.
A wave of heat crashed down.
Ishan felt it hit his back like a wall. His sand barrier vaporized instantly, turning to glass and then nothing. He dropped to one knee, coughing violently as his vision swam.
A Viper slipped through.
Then another.
Mira saw it.
"No—!"
She launched herself forward, body screaming in protest, and shoved Ishan out of the way just as a blade-like edge sliced across her side.
The cut was shallow.
The effect was instant.
Stone bloomed across her ribs like frost racing over water.
Mira gasped, fingers clawing at her chest as weight doubled, then tripled.
Ishan caught her before she fell.
"Mira—look at me," he said urgently, gripping her shoulders. "Don't panic. Don't let it spread."
She laughed weakly.
"Easy… for you… to say…"
Another Viper struck.
Ishan twisted just in time, the blade grazing his arm.
That was enough.
Stone surged upward violently, locking his elbow in place mid-motion.
Ishan froze.
Not completely.
But enough.
Mira's eyes widened. "Ishan—your arm—!"
He looked down.
Grey had already reached his shoulder.
He swallowed hard.
"Guess… this is it," he said quietly.
"No," Mira whispered. "No, don't say that."
Raj stepped forward.
Slow.
Heavy.
Uninterested.
"Protecting each other till the end," he said. "Cute."
He gestured lazily.
The Vipers answered.
They came in from every angle.
Ishan pushed Mira back with his free arm. "Run."
She shook her head violently. "I'm not—"
"RUN!"
He slammed his fist into the ground one last time.
Everything answered.
Sand erupted in a massive wave, not to attack—but to separate. To throw Mira clear. To buy a second.
It worked.
Mira was hurled backward, crashing hard against the ground, rolling until she hit the base of a broken pillar.
She looked up—
—and saw it.
Vipers cutting across Ishan's legs.
Across his torso.
Across his neck.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
Stone consumed him instantly, racing faster than it had with anyone else. His mouth was open, like he was trying to say something.
Then he stopped.
Ishan became stone.
Standing.
Facing forward.
Mira screamed.
The sound tore out of her throat, raw and broken, echoing across the ruins. She tried to stand and failed, legs giving out beneath the growing weight in her body.
She dragged herself backward instead, palms scraping stone, tears streaming down her face.
"Please," she whispered. "Please…"
No one answered.
Raj looked bored again.
Kareena sighed softly. "Such effort," she said. "For nothing."
The phoenix circled lower.
The Vipers closed in.
Mira pushed herself up—shaking, broken, alone.
She looked at Harun's stone face.
Still watching.
Still trapped.
"I'm still here," she said, voice cracking. "I'm not done."
Her legs trembled as she stood.
Alone.
Surrounded.
Stone creeping higher.
And the battlefield leaned in, waiting.