Chapter 57. Flamebound

The duel was brief, brutal, and fought entirely on borrowed time.

Theron had poured his entire essence—the collected, purified Ash of the Severed Flame—into pulling Kade into the crater. He became a living vortex of corrosion and weight, a power that wasn't designed for brute force but for entrapment. He intended to immobilize Kade, then watch as the instability of the Nexus core reduced the Guardian to dust.

Kade refused to give ground. His Silver Wolf essence didn't resist the pull; it wrapped itself around it. He was not just shielding; he was anchoring. He drove his consciousness, his history, and his unbreakable devotion into the very mountain, rooting himself to the bedrock. He turned the destructive gravitational pull of the Ash back against its source.

Theron shrieked as the reflected force hit him. His power was pure Ash, corruptive and unstable; it could control others, but it could not bear to be controlled.

“You cannot defeat what has no