Watching Thornborne's internal struggle, Ezmelral was once again caught on the peculiarity of a name. "Thornborne," she mused aloud to Raiking. "Surely that's not what his parents named him. Is it a title, like the others?"
Raiking's attention remained on the distant conflict, his voice cutting cleanly through the crowd's murmur. "It is a title, earned in blood."
He began the tale, his words painting a grim picture. "There was a king, blessed with the Flameonic Bloodline, who let a fear of mortality corrupt him. He became a predator, scouring planets to steal Essence Cores and cheat death."
"Syphoning can do that?" Ezmelral asked, her voice a whisper.
"It can. But the cosmos is vast, and such cores are precious few. His desperate hunger festered into a true madness... until he saw the power in his own kingdom as the easiest harvest."
"He turned on his own..." The horror was plain on her face.
"He did," Raiking confirmed, his voice dark with the memory. "The Entities who were the source of the bloodline saw their gift perverted. They aided in the king's downfall and laid a new law: those of the Flameonic line would forsake personal names. They would be known only as 'Thornborne,' a name to forever bind them—a living oath that their strength is a shield for their people, never again a blade for their own ambition."
She absorbed the weight of it, her thoughts lingering on the cracks etching Thornborne's skin like scars of a curse. Then, shifting her focus back to the battle, she saw A spike erupted from Thornborne's backhand—then another from his lower arm, then his middle, then upper, each one bursting from glowing fissures like shards of molten judgment. The water that had ensnared him slithered in retreat, flowing down his spine as more spikes emerged, chasing the stream like predators scenting blood.
Caeruleus realized her grip was fading; Thornborne's rising heat devoured her liquid form's edges like sunlight consuming mist. She disengaged with a twist—reforming above him in a spray of glimmering droplets. The scattered water rejoined in her palm, gathering into a single orb of compressed force. She dove, hand extended like the crest of a falling wave, her strike aimed squarely at his heart.
Thornborne crossed his spikes into an X, intercepting the blow with a resounding clang. The impact sent tremors through his arms, the ground quivering beneath his feet as sparks of fire and sprays of water collided into a hissing veil of steam.
Regaining footing, he drew deep from his Essence Core. Heat surged—his inner fire reigniting with savage ferocity. He bent backward, then roared forward in a burst of power, launching Caeruleus skyward. Her liquid body scattered, droplets catching the light like shattered glass before she reformed midair, ascending in a shimmering arc.
Thornborne crouched low, muscles tensing like coiled magma. Then—he leapt.
He shot upward in pursuit, a blazing streak of molten red against the pale sky.
Caeruleus retaliated from above, raising her palm to face him—Her Essence Core pulsed, the glow within her chest blooming like a deep-sea heart awakening. Water leaked from her skin, splitting into dozens of suspended droplets that floated before her like a constellation of tiny moons. With a thrust of her palm, air cracked like thunder. The droplets transformed into a storm of razor-tipped water bullets, raining down in a lethal barrage.
Thornborne swiped through them, twin spikes slashing arcs of burning light—the projectiles bursting into clouds of steam and shimmering spray. The remnants washed over him harmlessly, sizzling against his glowing cracks.
Undeterred, his form couldn't contain the inferno within—he dematerialized into a surging magma-flame, a blazing streak of molten fury rocketing upward. Caeruleus countered by dissolving into her fluid state, descending like a living waterfall to meet him.
They collided in a cataclysmic burst—fire and water exploding in a steam-filled shockwave that shook the arena. They separated in a hiss of vapor, only to clash again—flame surging against fluid in a dance of opposites, sparks and splashes flying as they repeated the motion, their dematerialized forms intertwining and repelling in the sky like stars locked in eternal combat, a mesmerizing ballet of destruction and evasion that left trails of mist and embers in their wake.
After bouncing off each other for the seventh time—their forms clashing in mid-air bursts of steam and flame, sparks and splashes scattering like fireworks—they hurtled back toward one another in a rhythmic spout of elemental fury. Thornborn re-materialized first, his magma-flame body coalescing into solid form mid-thrust, spikes gleaming as he drove downward like a volcanic spear unleashed.
He struck true—splitting Caeruleus's water form cleanly in half with a sizzling hiss, her liquid body parting like a river cleaved by a falling boulder, droplets spraying in a misty arc.
Her two halves ascended in a graceful spiral, reconnecting slowly as tendrils of water wove back together, reforming her shimmering silhouette amid the haze. Thornborn didn't relent—he dematerialized again, surging after her in a blaze of molten pursuit.
Their unique forms danced in the sky—a symphony of clashes, fire against fluid in a relentless cycle of collision: first impact a burst of steam that veiled the arena, second a splash of embers raining down like fiery hail, third a shockwave rippling outward, fourth—Caeruleus materializing mid-collision, her palm grazing the air as it collided with his magma-flame form in a explosive boom, the force sending him hurtling downward.
Thornborn crashed into the arena stage with a loud thud, flames dispersing in multiple directions like a volcano's dying breath, scorching the stone black in radiating patterns.
Caeruleus floated above, her Essence Core rumbling like ocean depths awakening. Water flowed from her in a cascading burst, shaping into the majestic image of a blue phoenix—its body pure fluid, wings rippling like waves, eyes glowing with abyssal light. She let out a piercing screech that echoed across the parted sea, then descended beak-first, a diving torrent of liquid fury aimed to impale.
Down below, smoke cleared around Thornborn—he faced upward, dematerializing his spikes in a flicker of embers, curling his arms to his chest in a protective posture as he channeled his Essence Core, igniting it like a molten forge reborn.
His skin cracked further, the fissures glowing brighter as spikes slowly emerged once more. With a guttural growl, he unleashed the incantation:
"FLAMEONIC BLOODLINE ESSENCE—THORNS EMBRACE!"
In an explosive surge, Thornborne uncoiled. From his legs, arms, back, and chest, a storm of spikes erupted outwards, each one trailed by a searing 'string' of his own molten blood. For a moment, he was the center of a monstrous sunburst of harpoons.
Then, obeying the blood-strings' command, the spikes arced and began to rotate, weaving together into a spinning, jagged cocoon. The air itself shimmered with violent heat as flames roared to life along every barb, transforming him into a blazing fortress—a nexus of pain and protection.
High in the veil of time, Ezmelral watched, utterly transfixed. Her breath caught not at the thorns, but at Caeruleus—a phoenix of majestic, liquid flame, her wings flowing with the perpetual, graceful plunge of ethereal waterfalls.
"She didn't chant anything," Ezmelral breathed, turning to Raiking. "How did she become... that?"
His crimson eyes remained fixed on the spectacle. "That is not something she became. It is her true nature—a celestial phoenix."
The words unlocked a memory: dusty village scrolls depicting cycles of rebirth, of legendary beasts rising from ash. Of course they were real. She saw it now in the hypnotic, rhythmic cascade of Caeruleus's wings—beauty and power woven into a single, flowing truth.
And then, everything stopped.
In answer to Thornborne's fiery citadel, Caeruleus froze mid-dive, her wings fanning wide to command the very wind. She raised her beak skyward and released a piercing cry that shook the arena's very foundations. Within her, an Essence Core ignited, and her voice thundered the incantation:
"WATER ESSENCE—FLORESCENCE STAGE ONE: CASCADE'S WRATH."