Alfez ran
Not because he was a coward, but because stopping meant burning.
His legs scraped against the ground with every stride. Muscles locked, then tore themselves loose again.
His lungs dragged air like broken bellows. Still, he ran - ran as fast as he could.
[Behind him, the earth shuddered.]
Each footstep of that thing landed heavy. Something massive was closing the distance. He didn't look back at first; he already knew.
Fire thundered...
When he did glance over his shoulder, the world split open. An elephant-shaped mass of living flame charged through the ruins. No flesh. No skin. Just heat given form. Fire poured off its body in slow, violent waves. The air around it warped and screamed.
Its eyes — molten and sun-bright — were fixed on him.
Certain...
"What… what the fuck is that thing?" Alfez choked out.
Ash slid under his boots. He stumbled, barely catching himself as his shoulder slammed into a half-melted wall. Heat scraped his skin. His heart punched against his ribs like it wanted out.
"How is this even real?"
Reality didn't answer. The ground was carpeted with human skeletons.
"Wait, human heads?!" His voice trembled in shock.
Skeletons lay fused into the stone, fingers still clawing at ground that had turned soft long enough to trap them. Skulls stared upward, mouths open, frozen mid-scream. Some bodies had collapsed together, piled like they'd died fighting for each other.
Alfez gagged and veered sideways. His foot caught. A femur snapped under his weight. He pitched forward, palms scraping ash and glass. Pain was sharp and immediate. He didn't let himself stop screaming.
"Who the fuck—" His voice tore.
"Who the fuck gave those coward Elites the right to drop me into this hell?"
The words echoed across the ruins and came back hollow. without any answer. Only the roar....
The fire beast trumpeted. Not sound, but pressure. The air folded inward. Heat surged. Alfez felt his hair crisp at the edges.
Closer.
He pushed himself up and ran again, his vision blurring. Smoke nearly burned his eyes. Ash stuck to his sweat-soaked skin. Every breath tasted like metal and blood.
He scanned the ruins as he moved. Cracked streets. Collapsed towers.. Nothing alive. Nothing that cared..
Each step forward felt wrong. Each step back was even worse. He clenched his jaw until it hurt.
"Think," he muttered, forcing the panic down. "Just think. Just fucking think."
His hands shook, but his feet didn't slow. You've survived worse.
The thought rang false the moment it formed. The monster roared again. The ground split beneath its weight. Alfez ran harder. One thought cut through the noise, sharp and stubborn, anchoring him to motion:
"I will not die. At least not in this place. Not in a place ruled by broken systems and borrowed fake gods. Not as another skeleton melted into the ground."
"Man, please… please not like this."
Alfez's stomach churned. The air clung to him, thick and acrid. Smoke, ash, burnt flesh, he could feel it coating his lungs, clawing at the inside of his throat.
"This shitty place… it'll kill me if I stay."
He staggered forward, hands clawing at his mouth.
"Ghk—! Ghk—!"
Something exploded from his throat. It was warm and wet. Blood hit the stone with a dull, splattering thud. He stumbled, knees nearly giving out. Heat, smoke, and the metallic taste of iron filled his senses.
His vision blurred at the edges. He swayed. One foot. Then the other. The stone beneath him seemed to rise and fall like waves.
He fell, collapsing into the ash.
The air was thick with the scent of blood and death.
And yet somehow he could still move. He forced his knees under him.
Failed. Tried again. This time, he rose unsteady, swaying, blood dripping from his lips onto the blackened stone.
Behind him, the heat deepened. The ground groaned. The fire-beast was close enough now that the air itself recoiled from it. Flames rolled off its body in heavy sheets, cracking the remains of buildings as it advanced. Each step erased what little remained of the past.
Alfez turned.
His legs shook. One arm hung low, fingers twitching. His chest rose and fell in short, ugly breaths. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared at the smear of red.
"No," he said. His voice came out rough. "Not here."
The beast lowered its head. Fire gathered along its tusks, heat compressing until the air screamed.
Alfez straightened his spine. If this was a system if this world ran on rules and outcomes and disposable lives then he wouldn't die crawling.
Heh... A laugh slipped out of him.
"If I'm dying," he said, spitting blood into the ash, "I'm doing it standing."
He moved. This time, not away. Forward.
He tore a length of broken metal from the rubble half a signpost, edges jagged and warped. It burned his palm instantly, skin blistering, but he didn't let go.
The distance vanished.
Fire crashed into him like a wall. His coat ignited. Heat tore across his back. He screamed not in fear, but defiance and drove the metal spike upward with everything his body had left.
The impact rang out. Steel met condensed flame. The force flung him sideways. He slammed into the ground, rolling through ash and embers. Pain followed late, blooming through his ribs and shoulder.
He coughed. Blood hit the ground again.
The beast recoiled. Not much, but enough. Cracks spidered across its flaming hide where the strike landed. Fire leaked differently there now unstable, violent.
Alfez pushed himself up on one elbow. So it bleeds, too.
The monster roared, the sound folding the air inward. Flames surged, wilder than before. Alfez dragged himself upright again, legs trembling, vision dimming at the edges. He raised the broken metal.
"Come on," he muttered. "Let's see whose system breaks first."
His legs burned and his lungs screamed, but he charged. The fire-elephant loomed, molten eyes blazing, flames rolling off its body. He swung the jagged metal at its flank. Sparks hissed. Pain shot up his arm, but the beast faltered.
Tusks arced toward him. He rolled, kicking up ash, and slammed the spike into its leg. Fire hissed, heat searing his hands.
The monster pivoted, swinging again. He planted the spike and shoved upward. Molten cracks ran across its body.
He spat blood into the ash. "Not me," he muttered, and ran at it again.
He swung once more. Pain lanced through his wrist. He stumbled. A crack echoed in his ears. He looked down.
His fingers were bent the wrong way. Blood soaked his palm.
The spike slipped once. Twice... But he didn't let go. Not yet. Not here...
Above the ruined city, a figure crouched on a shattered rooftop. Masked with Binoculars pressed to his eyes, reflecting the flames below.
"No way," the voice muttered, disbelief threaded through it. "That child… has guts."
The figure didn't move right away. He just watched as Alfez gritted his teeth, swinging through the pain, challenging the beast as though the world itself had no claim on him.
Alfez stumbled back, blood dripping from his shattered hand.
The fire-elephant loomed above him, molten eyes unblinking. He sank to his knees, chest heaving. Every breath scorched. Every thought was heavy.
Maybe… maybe this is it.
For the first time, he let himself see it; the years of running, hiding, the cowardice he had worn like armor. Miserable. Small. Unworthy.
He had lived under the shadow of others, letting fear decide his path.
And now he was here. Alone. Facing the impossible...
Yet even as the flames pressed closer, a flicker of something warmer sparked inside him.
At least I fought back.
He closed his eyes.
Boom!!!
Fire exploded forward.
The ground erupted beside him. Heat slammed into his back. He was thrown forward onto scorched stone. Smoke and debris stung his eyes.
"Hey, kid," a voice called out from behind a mask. "Why are you sleeping here?"
Alfez blinked through the haze. The masked guy crouched atop a nearby rubble pile, calm in the chaos. Flames licked the air between them, yet he seemed untouched.
Alfez's shattered hand clenched the spike. His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a question sparked.
He's been watching me? But why?
The fire-elephant shifted, with his molten eyes glinting, but its roar faltered under the silent scrutiny of the masked man. Something unspoken hung in the air, heavy and deliberate.
Suddenly, the masked guy drew his sword.
It was no ordinary blade; it blazed with flames…...