The ground quaked with ancient fury. As the temple door groaned open and the heat surged outward, Blazing Dawn stood at the edge of a battlefield lost to time.
The Molten Colossus rose.
Fifty feet of living magma, with obsidian armor that glowed at the seams, its steps shattered the volcanic floor. Chains still clung to its limbs—ritual bindings from the Sun-Kin, now weakened by time and fire.
Its molten eyes locked onto Aira.
"Flameborn. You carry the Phoenix Mark. Yet you are no priest. No heir. Are you here to inherit, or to destroy?"
Aira raised her flaming hands.
"Both."
Phase One: Testing the Flame
The Colossus moved with terrifying speed, swinging an arm the size of a tree trunk. Korin raised his shield—and was sent flying.
"Avoid direct hits!" Mira screamed.
Kael summoned a vortex of slicing wind, carving shallow gashes into its armor. They cooled instantly.
"Aira! That thing's regenerating through heat!"
"I know."
Aira blinked via Scorchstep to the Colossus's back, launching a barrage of concentrated flame lances. But the Colossus turned, its chest glowing—then fired a lava beam.
Seris dashed forward and slashed upward with her sword, diverting the beam slightly.
"You won't touch her while I breathe!"
The Furnace Heart
Mira discovered glyphs along the walls—Sun-Kin power conduits.
"These channels… they feed the Colossus! If we break them—"
"Then it bleeds!" Kael finished.
The team split up:
Kael unleashed wind bursts to clear debris.
Seris and Korin shattered conduits with raw strength.
Mira deactivated sigils, severing magical links.
Each conduit broken made the Colossus stagger. Its movements slowed. The glow of its heart dimmed.
Then—
BOOM!
The floor beneath Aira cracked.
A secondary core revealed itself from the Colossus's chest—protected by a cage of rotating magma spikes.
Aira narrowed her eyes.
"Now we burn."
Phase Two: The Infernal Gauntlet
The Colossus unleashed new tactics—flaming geysers, meteors from the ceiling, and summoned magma elementals.
Korin, battered but standing, roared back into the fight.
Mira shielded the team with a triple-layer barrier.
Kael guided Seris with wind bursts to her next strike points.
Aira blinked from flame to flame, dancing through the infernal storm.
She gathered power.
She remembered the Phoenix Heart.
"Let's end this."
She summoned her full Inferno Domain.
Everything inside it ignited.
The Colossus screamed—not in pain, but recognition.
"You… are the Flame Reborn… Then take… my burden."
It knelt, magma heart exposed.
Final Strike
Aira poured every ounce of mana into a single technique—
Solar Lance: Heavenbrand Flame.
It struck the core.
The Colossus exploded in light, fire, and fragments of obsidian that hovered in the air like ash falling upward.
When the fire cleared, only silence remained.
Aftermath
The team gathered, wounded but alive.
Aira knelt at the molten crater, where a glowing ember floated.
She touched it.
[New Flame Relic Acquired: Core of the Colossus — Boosts Fire Affinity +30%]
The temple began to collapse.
Scorchstepping rapidly, Aira led the team out just in time.
They emerged into sunrise, ash drifting behind them.
Waiting outside were scouts from the Dungeon Guild—and a s
crying orb broadcasting live to the nation.
The people had witnessed it all.
Aira Flameheart, slayer of the Colossus, stood reborn in legend.