From the sky, dozens of fiery arrows were unleashed. They pierced the twisted limbs and bodies scattered everywhere, burning them to ash. Valentine Crow lifted his head upward and saw Iris soaring with her blazing wings, flames gathering around her.

The upper half of his body swelled and stretched until it reached her height. From every patch of his skin, small eyes emerged, blinking and following her movements.

Iris fired a flaming arrow that pierced his chest, but the wound sealed instantly. Then she unleashed a barrage of arrows. They all tore through his body, but in the blink of an eye every wound closed.

Valentine extended a hand that had grown to the size of a building and struck Iris with tremendous force. Her body was flung into the wall of an abandoned building, shattering it completely.

Yet she rose from the rubble, flapped her wings, and flew again. She forged a spear of flame in her hands and hurled it straight at his chest. Valentine raised his arms to block it, but they dissolved the moment the fire touched them. This time they did not regenerate.

When Iris saw this, she finally understood. Valentine's ability to regenerate had limits. She began launching more fireballs. Valentine countered by releasing more limbs.

On the ground, Raven knelt with his sword, Tide's Edge, lying beside him. Tears streamed down his face. In front of him stood a replica of Valentine, staring in silence.

It approached slowly and said,

"Don't you want to avenge your father? Your family?"

Raven reached for his sword, but as he raised it the watery edge vanished before it could take form.

Valentine covered his face with his palm and laughed, then said,

"Before you stands the man who made you kill your father, who destroyed your family, and instead of killing me, you weep? Seems that man didn't give you the right role."

Raven lifted his head and said,

"That man? Who do you mean?"

Valentine lowered his hand from his face and said,

"Oh, right, you don't know the truth yet? All of this, my dear boy, is nothing but a farce."

"What are you talking about?"

Valentine vanished, and one of the hollow bodies shifted into his form, then he continued,

"I was once a researcher in the Imperial Forces."

Beside him, another hollow body turned into a man in his early thirties, brown-haired, dark-eyed, wearing a clean white coat. Valentine waved his hand and the body disappeared.

Raven, rising to his feet and brushing dust from his clothes, asked,

"And what does that have to do with this being a farce?"

"Do you think an exiled researcher could carry out everything you've seen? Experiments of this scale? You know how many resources they demand. Now think. How could a man banished to the lower districts possess them?"

"Weren't you working with the Wardens?"

Valentine said,

"The Wardens? Those fools were working under me. I'm the one who founded that gang."

"You?!"

"Yes, me. Now ask yourself this: how could an exile build a network of such magnitude?"

Raven muttered, staring at the ground,

"Someone very powerful must have been backing you."

Valentine's smile widened,

"Finally, you're starting to use your head. Now think why didn't I hunt you down after you escaped?"

He stepped closer,

"You weren't even trying to hide. You joined the Bloody Fang, carried out missions without disguises. I even heard about you the boy with the water sword."

Raven's blade pierced Valentine's body. The figure collapsed, but then another hollow body turned into Valentine once again.

"Have you wondered why I ignored you all those years? But the moment you raided one of the warehouses, I appeared before you?"

Valentine vanished and another hollow body shifted into his form.

"Did you ever ask yourself why I didn't kill you, even though I had countless chances? Did you wonder about the source of that force that affects both you and me?"

Raven said in shock,

"You know that there's a power influencing you?"

Valentine shook his head,

"Knowing is one thing, resisting is another."

Raven didn't move or attack. He knew it was pointless against him. Instead, he tried to extract as much information as possible before retreating.

He asked,

"Where does that power come from?"

Valentine laughed hysterically before replying,

"Maybe you should ask your boss."

From the sky, a rain of fire arrows descended, tearing toward the ground. They devoured the bodies and everything in their path. The twisted husks turned to ash. Even Valentine's body was consumed by the flames.

Sensing danger, Raven lifted Tide's Edge with one hand and raised a watery barrier that blocked the remaining arrows before they could strike him.

Above, Iris was still soaring. She rained more fiery arrows upon Valentine's body. But from a shadowed corner of the ruins, one of the hollow forms transformed into Valentine again. His hand grew enormous and struck Iris by surprise, sending her tumbling violently through the air.

She quickly regained balance and surged toward him. Flames engulfed her fists as she swung for his face. He caught the blow with his bare hand, then shoved her away with the other, forcing her back through the sky.

His hands charred black, but he merged them into his body and sprouted two fresh arms. Iris countered by launching a volley of fire spears that pierced his chest and limbs, burning him completely, but soon he reappeared in another body.

From his new form, fleshy arms sprouted and unleashed twisted creatures that swarmed Iris from all sides.

Iris released a wide burst of fire that exploded outward, burning most of them and scattering the rest. But those that remained attacked again. Their arms expanded and struck her, pushing her back through the air.

From behind, a massive hand took shape into Valentine himself, lunging at her back. She conjured a barrier of fire around herself that blocked the blow and forced him back slightly. But dozens of arms extended from his body, piercing her defenses and scratching shallow wounds across her arms and shoulders.

She tried to ascend higher, but one of the arms seized her ankle and dragged her down. She lifted her hand to form a fireball and release it, but a strike from the side hit her before she could. The arms coiled around her, and from them new bodies emerged.

Iris erupted in a massive explosion of fire, burning everything around her, shredding the arms and bodies, and forcing them away.

She then soared high into the sky, her face etched with fury and exhaustion. She raised her hand upward, gathering a massive sphere of fire above her head.

She hurled it down with immense force. The scattered bodies below merged together, forming one colossal body Valentine's new form. He raised his enormous hands to block the blazing sphere. His arms burned to cinders, his body melted and came apart.

But Valentine did not die. The lower half of his body stretched from the ground, rising back toward the sky until he was face to face with Iris.

He unleashed countless fleshy arms. Iris burned them one by one as she dodged swiftly. Then she soared higher than ever before, halting in midair.

Flames gathered around her body, condensing slowly into the form of a massive phoenix. She closed her eyes, then released a colossal fireball directly at Valentine.

He could not withstand it. All the arms evaporated, the bodies dissolved, and the remaining replicas of Valentine disintegrated. Only his main body remained, plummeting from the sky in flames.

But Iris could no longer control her fire. She wanted to stop it. She tried, but the flames only grew stronger.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.