Sofie's tears evaporated on her cheeks as the heat rolling off her body surged. The faint shimmer around her snapped into violent arcs of flame, her aura igniting with raw fury.
The ground beneath her cracked,blackening as embers scattered in every direction.
Ryouma's grin widened, sharp and cruel. "Ohhh… now this is interesting." He raised his sword lazily, as if inviting her. "Come on then. Show me how much hate a broken little girl can burn with."
Sofie didn't answer back.
A column of fire erupted from her body, searing the night in blinding orange. Her small frame seemed swallowed by the blaze, her eyes burning like molten gold. She charged, faster than Ryouma expected, fists wreathed in fire. Her first strike hammered into his guard, sparks flying as his blade screamed against the sheer force.
"—Tch!" For the first time, Ryouma's mocking tone faltered. The impact forced him back, boots skidding across scorched earth.
But Sofie didn't let up. She was relentless. Every swing of her fists erupted in fiery explosions, each one louder, hotter, and more desperate than the last.
The air trembled with the violence of her rage.
Her firestorm raged out of control pillars of flame shooting into the sky, ash swirling, the battlefield turning into a furnace. Ryouma laughed even as his arms trembled against her onslaught.
"YES! THAT'S IT! Let it consume you!!"
But beneath his grin, his eyes narrowed. This wasn't just a tantrum. This was raw, unbridled elemental will the kind that could scar the land itself.
Still, he twisted his blade and shoved her back with a brutal counterstrike, sending her stumbling a few paces. She panted, flames spilling off her body like a living inferno, her eyes locked on him with nothing but hatred.
Ryouma licked the blood from his lip, smiling with dangerous delight."You almost look like him when you fight like that. But the difference is.." He raised his sword, its edge humming with killing intent. "..he's dead. And you're just pretending."
Sofie's breath hitched. She wanted to scream, to burn him alive, to destroy everything.
And then It stirred.
Deep within her chest, where the fire spirit had lain dormant all this time, a spark roared awake. Her grief became fuel, her rage became the ignition. Flames licked around her arms and hair, not her own, but something far older, far more powerful. The ground shook, molten cracks splintering beneath her.
Ryouma's grin faltered. His blade lowered slightly as his eyes narrowed. "What… the hell is this?"
Then it happened—
From Sofie's back erupted a colossal surge of fire, spiraling skyward into the form of a bird. Wings spread wide, each feather a blazing inferno edged with violet fire, its body glowing like molten gold. Its screech ripped through the mountain, shaking stone and sky alike.
A Phoenix.
Majestic, terrifying and divine, the Phoenix rose with its tail feathers streaming like burning rivers of sunlight, its wings unfurling with storms of fire and thunder, as if the heavens themselves bent to its presence.
The fire wrapped around Sofie, not consuming her, but fusing with her flesh and spirit. Her eyes glowed with molten amber, hair lifting as if it were fire itself. She gasped, overwhelmed by power so vast it was beyond mortal comprehension.
Ryouma stumbled back half a step, his smirk twitching into shock. "Tch… you're kidding me. That's… a Phoenix…?" His Ryōki flared instinctively, his instincts screaming danger.
Sofie rose slowly to her feet, her shadow swallowed by the Phoenix's light. She looked at Ryouma not with fear, not with despair but with a gaze burning like the sun.
The Phoenix spread its wings behind her, its fiery screech cutting the air, a promise of wrath.
And for the first time, Ryouma's laugh faltered.His blade trembled slightly in his hand as he stepped forward and teeth bared.
"Don't think this changes anything, girl!" he roared, surging at Sofie with a murderous arc of steel.
But the Phoenix's fire answered.
Flames surged outward in a living wall, wreathing Sofie in a barrier so intense that Ryouma's strike recoiled before it even reached her flesh. His sword screeched as the heat bent the metal, sparks hissing away. He cursed, staggering back with blistered skin on his forearms.
Then—A voice.
Deep and ancient, resonant as the roar of creation itself, echoing in Sofie's soul.
"Child… I shall lend you my power."
Sofie froze with eyes wide. The world seemed to still, her heartbeat drowning in the divine presence.
Lend me…? she thought, confusion swirling.
But then her gaze locked on Ryouma—mocking, cruel, Klaus's murderer. Her chest clenched.
She nodded."Yes… I need this."
The Phoenix ignited, its body blazing brighter than the sun. Its wings folded around her like a cocoon of living fire, and then they merged.
The flames clung to Sofie's flesh, shaping and reforging. Her armor shimmered into existence black and red, laced with golden lines like molten veins, her body clad in the divine regalia of flame. The Phoenix's essence became her armor, searing with elegance and fury. Her hair lifted in streams of golden fire, her eyes glowing molten amber.
She no longer looked like a girl.
She looked like judgment incarnate.
Ryouma staggered back, his jaw tight. "What… the hell is this now!?"
But the earth itself gave him no time to breathe.
The battlefield shook violently, the mountain groaning as if splitting apart. The sky above tore open, clouds splitting into a vortex of flame and storm.
And then it came.
A blaze ripped through the skies,descending like a falling star. A weapon, massive and divine, tore the sky asunder as it screamed toward the earth.
The spear.
It landed with apocalyptic force, splitting the scorched ground as a shockwave blasted outward, knocking Ryouma off his footing. Smoke and embers spiraled into the air as the weapon stood before Sofie, its crimson and gold edge burning like the sun itself.
The Phoenix's voice thundered again.
"Take it, child.This is my blade the Deathless Flame."
Sofie stepped forward, breath ragged, her fingers trembling as they reached. The moment her hand closed around the shaft, the spear pulsed alive, fire surging like blood into her veins. The ground cracked under her feet as her aura flared crimson and gold, her rage fusing perfectly with the weapon's will.
Ryouma snarled, his instincts screaming. "Damn you… damn you!!"
Sofie raised the spear, its edge glowing with murderous heat, and then she moved.
Faster than thought.
Her first strike blurred, the spear slamming into Ryouma's guard with such force it shattered the ground beneath him, sending cracks like spiderwebs into the mountain. Sparks rained like meteors as their weapons clashed.
But Sofie didn't stop.
With a scream, she swung again, the Deathless Flame carving arcs of molten fire through the air. Each strike came heavier, faster, more brutal. One slash carved across Ryouma's chestplate, searing through armor, skin, and flesh. Blood sprayed, sizzling as it hit the inferno.
"GAHHH!" he roared, staggering, but Sofie was already there.
She spun the spear, plunging its burning edge into his shoulder meat tearing, bones cracking, blood gushing in rivulets. Ryouma bellowed, his blood boiling against the heat, steam hissing as the wound cauterized even as it opened.
Sofie ripped it free, flames following like a whip, slicing across his torso and hurling him into the ground with a sickening crunch. The battlefield was no longer a place of war but a furnace, every step she took leaving burning craters, every swing of her spear ripping firestorms across the mountain.
Ryouma rose, coughing blood, his grin broken into a bloody snarl. "You think… this will be enough to kill me!?"
Sofie's answer was silence as only the screech of the Phoenix echoing through her as she thrust her spear down, aiming to pin him to the earth like one of the countless corpses he had made.