The black flames surged toward Don like a living tsunami—not orange or red, but black. Flames that consumed light itself, leaving trails of darkness in the superheated air.
Don moved.
His Agility of 250 carried him sideways in a blur, the black fire missing him by centimeters. Where it touched the ground, the volcanic rock didn't just melt—it ceased to exist. Erased. The flames burned through matter and kept going, hungry for more.
[ANALYZING ATTACK...]
[BLACK FIRE: DAMAGES PHYSICAL MATTER + ESSENCE DIRECTLY]
[WARNING: BYPASSES NORMAL DEFENSES]
[FIRE RESISTANCE POTIONS ONLY 40% EFFECTIVE AGAINST THIS]
Don pulled a Fire Resistance Potion from his Spatial Storage Ring mid-dodge and drank it in one motion.
[FIRE RESISTANCE POTION (C-RANK) CONSUMED]
[EFFECT: 60% FIRE DAMAGE REDUCTION]
[DURATION: 30 MINUTES]
[NOTE: BLACK FIRE REDUCES EFFECTIVENESS TO 40%]
Better than nothing.
Morgash's dual voices laughed—his own deep and gravelly, his twin's high and manic. The sound echoed across the vale.
"You dodge well, human! But can you dodge FOREVER?"
The General's staff—that screaming spine—swept in an arc, and pillars of black fire erupted from the ground in a grid pattern. Twenty columns of soul-burning flame, each one three meters wide, filling the battlefield.
Don's four Executioner's Edge blades solidified.
[IRON WILL ABILITY: WILL MANIFEST]
[COST: 8 MANA/SECOND]
He wove between the pillars, his enhanced Agility making the movements fluid. But the heat was intense—even with the potion, the superheated air scorched his lungs with each breath.
[STAMINA: 217 → 214]
The environment itself was a weapon here.
Don needed to counter-attack. Test Morgash's defenses. Find the weakness.
He created an ice spear while running—simple, fast, efficient.
[COST: 65 MANA]
And threw it at Morgash's center mass.
The spear crossed thirty meters in under a second.
Morgash didn't dodge. He raised his left hand, and a wall of black flame materialized between them.
The ice spear hit the wall and evaporated. Not melted. Evaporated. The ice turned to steam, the steam ignited, and the flames consumed even that.
"Pathetic! You think COLD can defeat US? We are FLAME INCARNATE!"
Morgash thrust his staff forward, and a beam of concentrated black fire shot toward Don like a laser.
Don activated Dash.
[EXECUTIONER OF FATE - DASH]
[COST: 20 MANA]
[COOLDOWN: 10 SECONDS]
He blinked ten meters to the right, the beam missing him and continuing until it carved a trench through the volcanic rock behind him.
[MANA: 11,530/12,500]
Don's tactical mind processed the situation rapidly:
Enemy advantages:
• Domain control (everything on fire)
• Black fire bypasses normal defenses
• Can create fire from nothing
• Environment drains stamina
Enemy weaknesses:
• Physical stats lower than Kragg (~190 Strength)
• High mana consumption for black fire
• Relies on staff for most powerful attacks
• Staff is the key
Don changed tactics.
Instead of attacking Morgash directly, he targeted the staff.
His four Executioner's Edge blades shot forward, not at the General but at the screaming spine in his hands.
Morgash's empty eye sockets widened—the first sign of genuine surprise.
"You—!"
He pulled the staff back defensively, and black fire erupted around it like armor. Don's blades struck the fire and were repelled, pushed back by the sheer heat and energy.
But Don had learned something important: Morgash protected that staff above all else. It wasn't just a weapon—it was his power source.
[Clever, little seed. Very clever. But he won't let you get close to it easily~]
Don activated his Execution Field.
[EXECUTION FIELD: ACTIVATED]
[RADIUS: 10 METERS]
[COST: 50 MANA + 10 MANA/MINUTE]
[MANA: 11,480/12,500]
The field expanded around Don, and immediately he felt the difference. The oppressive heat lessened fractionally within his domain. The black flames seemed less intense. And Morgash, thirty meters away, felt the field's influence at its maximum range.
The General's dual voices hissed in irritation.
"What is this... pressure?"
His stats would drop by twenty percent within the field. Not much against someone of his level, but every advantage mattered.
Don needed to close the distance. Get within melee range where his superior Agility and four blades would shine.
He charged.
Morgash responded by turning the entire battlefield into an inferno. The ground erupted with black flame in a wave pattern—ten-meter-wide walls of fire spreading outward from the General's position.
Don created his Frozen Earth Breaker—the ice-and-stone hammer he'd practiced earlier.
[COST: 160 MANA]
And smashed it into the ground ahead of him.
BOOM!
The impact created a crater, and ice spread outward in a ten-meter radius. The black flames hit the ice and fought—fire against cold, heat against frost. For three seconds, they were equal. The flames couldn't advance through the frozen zone.
Three seconds was enough.
Don sprinted through the gap he'd created, his Agility carrying him twenty meters closer to Morgash.
Twenty meters. Still outside blade range, but close enough to—
Morgash's staff screamed—a sound that made Don's ears bleed. Not metaphorically. Actual blood leaked from his eardrums as the sonic attack hit.
[STAMINA: 214 → 209]
And with the scream came heat. Not external fire, but internal. Don felt his blood begin to boil in his veins.
[WARNING: SOUL BURN DETECTED]
[ESSENCE UNDER ATTACK]
[IMMORTALITY: ACTIVE - RESISTING]
His Immortality kicked in, regenerating the damage as fast as it occurred. But the drain on his mana was immediate.
[MANA: 11,320 → 11,020 → 10,720]
Three hundred mana per second to fight off the soul burn.
Don couldn't sustain that.
He pulled the Lance of the Frozen Tempest from his Spatial Storage Ring—his most powerful ice weapon, the one that had cost 300 mana to create.
And threw it with his full Strength of 250.
The lance crossed fifteen meters in a fraction of a second, trailing a blizzard behind it. The air itself froze along its path.
Morgash's dual voices screamed in alarm.
"NO!"
He tried to create a fire wall—too slow. The lance was already through his defenses.
It took him in the left shoulder.
BOOOOM!
The detonation was catastrophic. The fifteen-meter radius freeze activated instantly—everything within that sphere turned to ice. The black flames died. The volcanic rock froze solid. The superheated air became arctic in a heartbeat.
And Morgash—caught at ground zero—was encased in ice up to his chest.
His screaming stopped. His flames died. For three seconds, the Scorched Vale was silent.
Then the ice began to crack.
"RRAAAAAAAGH!"
Black fire exploded from inside the ice, shattering it from within. Morgash emerged, his left shoulder mangled—the lance had torn through muscle and bone, leaving his arm hanging useless.
But he was alive. And furious.
"YOU DARE! YOU DARE WOUND US! WE ARE FLAME! WE ARE ETERNAL! WE—"
Don's four Executioner's Edge blades struck while Morgash was raging.
Two targeted his legs—cutting deep into his right thigh and left calf. One blade aimed for his remaining good arm. The fourth blade went for the staff.
Morgash blocked the arm strike with his damaged left arm—screaming in pain but protecting himself. The leg strikes landed, drawing blood that ignited as it hit the air.
But the fourth blade—
It struck the staff dead-center.
CRACK!
The screaming spine fractured. Not broken, but damaged. A visible crack ran along its length, and the black flames emanating from it flickered.
Morgash's dual voices reached a pitch of genuine terror.
"NOT THE STAFF! ANYTHING BUT—"
Don pressed the attack. All four blades converged on the staff simultaneously, striking from different angles.
Morgash tried to protect it, wrapping it in layers of black fire, but Don's blades were relentless. Each strike widened the crack. Each impact made the flames flicker more.
CRACK!
CRACK!
SNAP!
The staff broke in half.
The effect was immediate and devastating.
Morgash's black flames died. All of them. Every pillar, every wall, every protective barrier—gone. The eternal fires covering his body extinguished. His empty eye sockets stopped smoking.
The General fell to his knees, clutching the two halves of his broken staff, his dual voices reduced to a whimper.
"No... no... our power... our brother's gift... gone..."
[GENERAL MORGASH: POWER REDUCED BY 65%]
[CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE]
Don walked toward the kneeling General, his four blades hovering around him.
Morgash looked up, his empty sockets somehow conveying despair.
"You... you destroyed... everything..."
When he spoke again, only one voice came out—his own, without his twin's overlay.
"Just... finish it."
Don's first blade took Morgash's head cleanly.
[GENERAL MORGASH THE FLAME-EATER - DEFEATED]
[+1,500 XP]
[+5,000 KP]
The vale's temperature dropped immediately—without Morgash's power maintaining it, the unnatural heat began to fade. The black flames throughout the territory died, leaving only normal fire and cooling lava.
Don stood over the corpse, breathing hard. The fight had lasted maybe five minutes, but the intensity had been extreme.
[CURRENT STATUS]
[MANA: 10,640/12,500]
[STAMINA: 209/217]
[FIRE RESISTANCE POTION: 25 MINUTES REMAINING]
He'd used nearly two thousand mana and minimal stamina. The fight had been expensive but efficient. Targeting the staff had been the correct decision—without it, Morgash was just another Stage 2 enemy with crippled power.
[Well done, little seed. Very well done. You're learning—find the weakness, exploit it ruthlessly, end them quickly. You're becoming a TRUE executioner~]
Don knelt beside Morgash's corpse and began eating.
The flesh was hot—even dead, it radiated heat. Each bite filled Don's mouth with the taste of smoke and ash. But beneath the unpleasant flavor was power. Concentrated fire essence accumulated over 183 years.
[DEVOURING IN PROGRESS...]
[STAGE 2 GENERAL DETECTED]
[TARGET: STAGE 2, LEVEL 4]
[ANALYZING ESSENCE...]
The transformation began immediately.
Heat flooded Don's system—not painful like the black flames, but warming. Like standing too close to a furnace. His body temperature spiked, steam rising from his skin in the cooling air.
His cells adapted, restructured, became resistant to heat. His blood thickened, able to withstand higher temperatures. His lungs developed additional capacity to process superheated air.
[IMMORTALITY: ACTIVE - ADAPTATION MODE]
[MANA: 10,640 → 10,140 → 9,640 → 9,140]
One thousand five hundred mana burned in three minutes of continuous eating and absorption.
Don forced himself to continue despite the heat. Morgash's arms. His torso. The broken staff still clutched in dead fingers—Don consumed that too, and felt fire magic surge through him.
[ESSENCE INTEGRATION: COMPLETE]
[STAGE 2 GENERAL (LEVEL 4) SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED]
[MEMORY INTEGRATION: IN PROGRESS]
[WARNING: 183 YEARS OF PYROMANCER EXPERIENCE]
[PROCESSING TIME: 7 MINUTES]
The memories came like a firestorm.
Morgash and his twin—born conjoined, two souls in two bodies but linked. Morgash the elder by minutes. Both discovered fire magic young. Both grew powerful together.
The ritual—Morgash sixty years old, his twin dying from poison. Given the choice: let his brother die, or consume him and gain his power. Morgash chose power. Ate his twin alive while he screamed. Gained the dual voice. Gained doubled fire magic.
The guilt—never faded. Every spell, Morgash heard his brother's voice mixed with his own. A constant reminder. A curse that became strength.
Centuries of fire—experiments with flame. Discovering black fire. Learning to burn souls. Becoming the Flame-Eater not through title but through literally consuming fire, making it part of his being.
Morgash's final thought: Brother... I'm coming... finally... forgive me...
The memories processed, filtered through Don's Emotion Suppression, converted to data.
Fire magic techniques. Black flame manipulation. How to create eternal flames. How to burn essence. How to survive being constantly on fire. The cost of power—guilt, pain, eternal burning that never stopped.
All of it absorbed. Made his.
[MEMORY INTEGRATION: COMPLETE]
[KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED: EXTENSIVE]
[PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE: MINIMAL]
[ABSORPTION SUCCESSFUL]
[CALCULATING ENHANCEMENTS...]
[MAJOR POWER INCREASE DETECTED]
Attributes:
Strength: 250 → 275 (+25)
Agility: 250 → 272 (+22)
Vitality: 195 → 225 (+30)
Dexterity: 215 → 235 (+20)
Stamina: 217 → 232 (+15)
Wisdom: 240 → 268 (+28)
Magic Power: 250 → 285 (+35)
Intelligence: 230 → 255 (+25)
[STAGE ADVANCEMENT DETECTED]
[STAGE 2 - CRUCIBLE OF ESSENCE]
[LEVEL 3 → LEVEL 4]
Don's essence layers compressed further. His four Executioner's Edge blades pulsed, growing fractionally sharper, darker, more lethal.
[EXECUTIONER'S EDGE: ENHANCED]
[BLADE POWER: +15% DAMAGE]
[BLADE DURABILITY: +20%]
[NEW TRAITS ACQUIRED]
[FLAME BODY - EPIC]
Effect: Can ignite parts of body with fire (does not damage self)
Bonus: Fire damage +40%, Fire resistance +80%
Special: Can survive in extreme heat environments indefinitely
[BLACK FIRE MANIPULATION - RARE]
Effect: Can create black flames (damages matter + essence)
Cost: 100 mana per use, 20 mana/second to maintain
Warning: Extremely mana-intensive
[DUAL CASTING - UNCOMMON]
Effect: Can cast two spells simultaneously
Bonus: Elemental manipulation speed +30%
[FIRE IMMUNITY - RARE]
Effect: Complete immunity to fire damage (normal flames)
Note: Black fire and divine flames can still harm
[PYROMANCER'S SIGHT - COMMON]
Effect: Can see heat signatures through obstacles
Range: 50 meters
[LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION]
Goblin Language: Fluent (Perfect) - No change
[MADNESS: 27% → 29%]
Don stood, his transformed body radiating heat. His skin showed faint patterns now—not just the golden-green veins from Vex's poison, but orange-red lines spreading from his hands and up his arms. Fire essence integrated into his very being.
When he breathed out, smoke came with it.
He was becoming something less and less human with each General consumed.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 14 → LEVEL 15]
[EXPERIENCE: 3,542 + 1,500 = 5,042]
[LEVEL 15 ACHIEVED]
[EXPERIENCE: 42/12,000]
[PHYSICAL STATS +10]
[MENTAL STATS +15]
Updated Attributes:
Strength: 275 → 285
Agility: 272 → 282
Vitality: 225 → 235
Dexterity: 235 → 245
Stamina: 232 → 242
Wisdom: 268 → 283
Magic Power: 285 → 300
Intelligence: 255 → 270
[FREE STATUS POINTS: +5]
[5 POINTS → AGILITY]
[AGILITY: 282 → 287]
[MANA CAPACITY INCREASED]
Magic Power: 300 → Mana: 15,000
[CURRENT MANA: 9,140/15,000]
[CURRENT STAMINA: 209/242]
Don flexed his hands and flames erupted from his palms—not black fire (too expensive), but normal orange-red fire that he could now create at will.
His Flame Body trait activated instinctively, fire spreading across his arms like living tattoos before fading.
He had consumed three Generals now. Gained their powers. Absorbed their essence.
And he was only halfway through Stage 2.
Don looked toward Morgash's citadel. Twenty-three hundred enemies remained—fire shamans and elementals who'd served the Flame-Eater.
Without their General, they were leaderless. Vulnerable.
Time to finish what he started.
Don's four Executioner's Edge blades manifested, and orange-red flames ignited along their edges—his Flame Body trait enhancing them.
[New ability discovered: Flame-Edged Execution]
The slaughter of the Scorched Vale began.