The jungle did not scream.
It should have.
Fire tore through leaves. Heat crushed the canopy. Trunks split open from the inside, sap boiling before it could bleed out. Birds dropped from the sky without sound. Insects curled and turned to ash mid-flight.
But the jungle stayed silent.
Above it all, the Hellfire Phoenix circled.
It did not flap wildly.
It did not rush.
It moved slow. Deliberate.
Like it had all the time in the world.
Every beat of its wings pressed the air downward. Not heat alone—judgment. The ground hardened where its shadow passed, soil turning brittle, then glassy. The sky dimmed, red and black folding into each other.
At the center of the clearing—
Harun stood.
Stone.
Grey layers wrapped around his body unevenly, cracked in places where something inside kept pushing. His chest was locked mid-breath. His fingers half-curled, frozen in the memory of movement.
His eyes were open.
Alive.
Aware.
He could hear.
He could see.
He could feel everything.
He just couldn't move.
Mira staggered forward.
Her Dash tried to answer—flickered for a fraction of a second—then died like a spark crushed under a boot. The stone poison in her veins bit down hard. Her knee locked halfway.
She stumbled.
Caught herself on one hand.
That hand hardened instantly.
Grey crawled over her fingers, locking them against the ground. Mira sucked in a sharp breath and tore herself free, skin ripping where stone hadn't fully claimed yet.
She didn't look at the wound.
She looked up.
Raj was already there.
He hadn't rushed.
He hadn't posed.
He had simply stepped into her space.
The ground dipped under his weight.
Mira tried to pivot.
Too slow.
Raj's hand closed around her throat.
Lifted.
Her feet left the ground.
The heat from his palm didn't burn.
It pressed—like a furnace wall shoved into her neck. Her breath vanished instantly. Her hands clawed at his wrist, nails scraping uselessly against skin that felt like tempered steel.
Raj tilted his head slightly.
Then slammed her down.
The earth cracked.
Roots snapped.
Mira bounced once and rolled, coughing blood that steamed the moment it hit the ground.
She didn't stand back up.
Kareena watched from a distance.
Still.
Calm.
Arms folded.
Her eyes moved between Mira and Harun, measuring reactions, not outcomes. She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
The Vipers responded instead.
They didn't swarm.
They approached one at a time.
One cut.
Shallow.
Across Mira's side.
The effect was instant.
Stone bloomed from the wound like frost racing across glass. Mira gasped, fingers clawing at the dirt as weight doubled, then tripled.
Another Viper moved.
Another shallow line.
Different angle.
Stone spread faster.
Mira dragged herself forward, elbows digging into scorched soil. Her palm slammed down again—
—and froze.
She stared at her hand.
Grey. Solid. Unmoving.
Her breath hitched.
No scream came out.
Harun saw everything.
The way her body slowed.
The way the cuts were never deep.
The way they were measured.
Inside the stone, something in him slammed against the walls again and again. Rage without direction. Pressure without release.
He tried to move his arm.
Nothing.
Tried to force his jaw open.
Nothing.
He stood there, a statue watching someone die slowly at his feet.
Mira forced herself up again.
No Dash.
No speed.
Just will.
She took one step.
Raj struck once.
A short, brutal hit to her side.
Her body folded and crashed into the ground, sliding until she stopped directly in front of Harun's stone legs.
Blood pooled against grey stone.
She looked up.
Her eyes met his.
Her lips moved.
No sound came out.
But Harun understood.
I tried.
The phoenix beat its wings once.
The pressure wave rolled outward, flattening what little remained of the jungle. The Vipers recoiled, then reformed—edges glowing brighter, sharper.
Kareena raised one finger.
The Vipers stepped back in.
This time, they carved patterns.
Not deep.
Never deep.
Lines etched into flesh. Stone bloomed behind every mark. Mira's breathing slowed, each inhale taking effort, each exhale rattling in her chest.
She crawled.
Inches.
Her fingers reached toward Harun.
Stone climbed her forearm.
Locked her elbow.
Her arm froze mid-reach, fingers inches from his stone hand.
Raj straightened.
Looked bored.
Kareena nodded once.
Stone surged faster now, racing up Mira's chest, sealing over pain, muting sensation. Her forehead touched the ground. Her eyes stayed open as her face hardened, expression locking somewhere between exhaustion and relief.
Silence fell again.
No crackle of fire.
No movement.
Just heat.
And stone.
The Hellfire Phoenix rose higher, its shadow stretching across the clearing like an eclipse that refused to pass.
Raj turned away.
Kareena followed.
The Vipers dissolved into ash and smoke.
Harun stood there.
Stone.
Watching.
Hearing.
Feeling everything.
Unable to move.
Unable to scream.
The silence didn't break.
It thickened.
Heat stayed pressed against the ground, unmoving, like the world had decided this was its final shape. Ash drifted slowly, not falling, just hanging in the air as if gravity had forgotten how to work.
Harun stood frozen.
Stone held him tight.
But inside—
Everything was screaming.
Mira knelt in front of him.
Stone had reached her shoulder now. Her left arm was fully grey, cracked at the elbow where she had tried to bend it one last time. Her breathing was shallow, uneven, each breath scraping through her chest like broken glass.
She tried to lift her head.
Failed.
Her forehead rested against the ground again.
Raj watched her for a moment longer.
Then lost interest.
He turned slightly, flames crawling under his skin in slow patterns. The Hellfire Phoenix responded, circling lower, its shadow swallowing the clearing.
Kareena stepped closer.
Her boots stopped just short of Mira's frozen fingers.
She crouched.
Not to help.
To observe.
The Vipers moved again.
Faster this time.
One slash across Mira's back.
Stone erupted outward, sealing muscle, locking her spine mid-flinch. Her body jerked once, then stiffened.
Another strike.
Across her thigh.
Stone swallowed the leg instantly.
Mira gasped.
A sound came out this time—short, broken, involuntary.
Her eyes widened in panic.
She tried to crawl.
Her legs didn't answer.
Harun felt it.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Delay.
The delay between thought and action that never completed.
He willed his body to move.
Nothing.
He willed his eyes to close.
Nothing.
He watched as Mira's world narrowed to the dirt in front of her face and the shadow of the phoenix overhead.
Raj stepped closer again.
He didn't touch her this time.
He didn't need to.
He simply stood there.
The heat intensified.
Mira's breath came faster now, shallow and desperate. Sweat evaporated before it could fall. Her skin blistered under the pressure, then hardened as stone raced to claim it.
She tried to scream.
Her throat locked halfway.
The sound died inside her chest.
Kareena stood up.
She looked past Mira.
At Harun.
Her gaze lingered for half a second longer than necessary.
Then she turned away.
The Vipers understood.
They stepped back.
Stone surged.
Fast.
Too fast.
Mira felt it climb her neck.
Cold.
Heavy.
Relieving.
The pain dulled as sensation vanished. The fear followed soon after. Her heartbeat slowed, each thump quieter than the last.
Her eyes flicked one final time.
Upward.
To Harun.
Her lips moved again.
This time, barely.
Sorry.
Stone sealed her jaw.
Her face hardened.
Her eyes stayed open.
The jungle was still.
Completely.
No wind.
No fire crackle.
No movement.
Just statues.
Team A.
Omair.
Mira.
Harun.
All frozen in different moments of failure.
The Hellfire Phoenix rose.
Its wings beat once more, scattering ash like snow. The heat pulled back slightly, just enough for the ground to cool into permanent scars.
Raj exhaled slowly.
Satisfied.
Kareena adjusted her gloves.
Unimpressed.
They didn't celebrate.
They didn't linger.
They walked away like this had been routine.
Harun stood alone at the center.
Stone locked his body.
His mind burned.
He replayed every second.
Every missed step.
Every moment where speed wasn't enough.
Where strength meant nothing.
Where watching hurt more than dying.
And still—
He couldn't blink.
A single tear formed.
Slow.
Heavy.
It slid down the stone near his eye and stopped.
Resting there.
Unmoving.
Nothing moved.
Stone statues stood exactly where they fell.
Heat thinned.
Ash settled.
The Hellfire Phoenix climbed higher, its shadow loosening—but not leaving.
Raj slowed his steps.
Something felt wrong.
Harun stood frozen.
Stone sealed his body completely now.
Chest.
Shoulders.
Neck.
Only his eyes remained exposed.
Still.
Unblinking.
Inside—
Silence broke.
Not loudly.
Not violently.
Like two opposite pressures finally touching.
Darkness moved first.
Not shadow.
Not void.
Density.
A heavy pull behind Harun's thoughts, dragging anger inward instead of outward. Rage stopped screaming. It folded.
Then—
Light answered.
Not bright.
Not warm.
Compressed.
A sharp, focused presence, tightening around the dark mass like a boundary.
They didn't clash.
They locked.
Harun's heartbeat stopped.
Then restarted.
Slow.
Deep.
Different.
Cracks appeared in the stone.
Not spreading outward.
Pulling inward.
The stone around Harun's chest trembled. Hairline fractures ran across his torso, glowing faintly—half black, half white.
Raj turned fully now.
His smile faded.
The air bent.
Not heated.
Warped.
Ash reversed direction, lifting instead of falling. Heat collapsed toward Harun, drawn into the fractures like gravity had changed its mind.
The Hellfire Phoenix screeched.
Once.
A sound of warning.
Harun's eyes rolled back.
Gone.
His body didn't wake.
He didn't regain consciousness.
But—
He moved.
Stone shattered.
Not exploded.
Peeled away.
Chunks fell inward, dissolving before hitting the ground.
Harun stepped forward.
One step.
The ground cratered—not from weight, but from absence, like matter had been erased where his foot landed.
His aura formed late.
Black and white spirals, slow and controlled, rotating around his body like a broken eclipse.
Light didn't glow.
Dark didn't spread.
They coexisted.
Raj exhaled sharply.
"Well," he muttered. "That's new."
The Vipers rushed.
Harun didn't look at them.
He moved through.
A single swing of his arm—
Not fast.
Not slow.
Final.
The Vipers split cleanly down the center, their stone cores collapsing into dust before they could hit the ground.
No blood.
No sound.
Just absence.
The Hellfire Phoenix dove.
Fire screamed downward.
Harun tilted his head.
The flames bent.
Not blocked.
Redirected.
Dark material absorbed the heat.
Light material compressed it.
The phoenix collapsed into a silent spiral and vanished mid-air.
Raj stepped back.
Once.
Harun kept walking.
Eyes unfocused.
Body moving on instinct alone.
Stone statues around him trembled—not breaking, but reacting.
Kareena raised her hand.
Poison formed.
Stopped.
Mid-air.
Frozen between dark pull and light compression.
She narrowed her eyes.
"…Unconscious," she whispered.
Not afraid.
But cautious.
Harun stopped.
Right in front of Raj.
Close enough for heat to matter.
Dark-light spirals tightened.
The ground screamed.
Raj clenched his fist.
Hellfire flared and died.
Suppressed.
Compressed.
Raj smiled again.
This time strained.
"Good," he said. "That's better."
Harun raised his hand.
Dark material wrapped the limb.
Light edged it into shape.
Not a blade.
Not a weapon.
A concept.
He struck.
The impact didn't throw Raj back.
It removed space.
Raj slid across the ground without moving, boots carving trenches where reality tried to catch up.
He stopped.
Looked down.
A line.
Across his chest.
Not a wound.
Not yet.
Harun's body shuddered.
The eclipse destabilized.
Cracks raced back over his skin.
Light dimmed.
Dark loosened.
His knees buckled.
He collapsed.
Unconscious.
Stone rushed back—
—but slower now.
Incomplete.
Silence returned.
Heavier than before.
Raj touched his chest.
Smiled wider.
"Temporary," he said.
Kareena nodded.
"Then we leave," she replied. "Before it wakes."
They turned away.
Again.
Harun lay there.
Breathing.
Barely.
Stone creeping.
Solar Eclipse fading.
Unfinished.