Fire Mage-Chapter 755: Chaos Against Fate

Zegan slowly turned around and looked at Kirell and Kaiser. Both of them were still reeling from Meledin's death, shock frozen on their faces. But that shock did not last long. Rage soon replaced it, especially in Kaiser's eyes, which burned with killing intent.

Without a word, Kaiser shot forward. His body tore through the air like a supersonic projectile, closing the distance in an instant. At the same time, Kirell vanished from her spot. Her figure flickered and reappeared ahead, moving like a blade slipping through space itself as she intercepted his path.

Zegan immediately assessed the situation. His body was already at its limit. The backlash from invoking the authority of death had drained him severely, and even maintaining his current state was becoming difficult. Fighting two Rank-6 opponents in this condition was no different from courting death.

He made his decision without hesitation.

Turning sharply, Zegan fled.

Dark energy surged from his back as a pair of wings formed—vast, black, and feathered like those of a fallen angel. With a powerful flap, he shot upward into the sky, heading straight toward the storm clouds above.

"Don't let him escape!" Kirell shouted.

Her shadow expanded instantly, forming wings of darkness that spread from her back. She propelled herself forward, chasing after him with terrifying speed. Kaiser followed close behind, channeling his spirit power beneath his feet. Using Saint's Flow, he stepped on the air itself, each step creating a ripple as he surged upward in pursuit.

The sky became their battlefield.

What followed was no longer a fight—but a relentless hunt.

Zegan fled with everything he had left, while behind him, two predators closed in without mercy.

…

A few kilometers beyond the outskirts of the Holy City, within the dominion of the Sacred Empire, the sky lay vast and silent beneath a pale, watchful horizon.

More than a thousand meters above the ground, Edith hovered in stillness. Two eerie, dark wings stretched from her back, their edges flickering like living shadows, while her long black hair flowed freely in the high-altitude winds. Her presence alone distorted the calm of the sky, as if something unnatural had taken root within it.

Facing her from a distance of over twenty meters stood Asthar.

His gaze was sharp, cautious, and filled with restrained hostility as he watched her every movement. Yet beneath that composed exterior, something far more unsettling gripped his mind. His Inner World was burning—consumed relentlessly by a creeping purple flame that gnawed at his consciousness with every passing second.

"Mind Fire…"

The realization struck instantly.

Without hesitation, Asthar drew an arrow, notching it smoothly against the string as he raised his bow and aimed straight at Edith.

"A mere clone dares to play tricks?" he said coldly, his voice carrying quiet disdain as his fingers released the string.

To beings like him—and the other two avatars—perception extended far beyond the physical. They did not judge strength by appearance, aura, or even rank alone. They looked directly at the soul. The true measure of existence.

It was precisely this ability that had led them to their earlier decision. When they glimpsed Runeth's soul form, they saw something vast, incomprehensible—an existence that could not be allowed to persist. Elimination had become inevitable.

Edith, however, was different.

When they observed her, they saw only a fragment—a mere shard of a greater soul. Insignificant. Incomplete. Something that could be erased with precision.

And so, Asthar's arrow did not target her body.

It targeted her soul.

The moment it left the bowstring, the arrow warped reality itself. Space fractured along its path as it slipped between layers of existence, entering the Astral Realm in pursuit of the hidden soul shard.

As it closed in—

Edith smiled.

Without a trace of urgency, she activated the spell.

[Rebirth Domain].

Her entire form ignited, dissolving into pure rebirth flame. Her physical body ceased to exist as a conventional entity, transforming into a living blaze that burned with quiet, absolute authority. The surroundings became hot, followed by the sky turning red.

Asthar's eyes narrowed.

A moment ago, her soul shard had been clearly defined within the Astral Realm—isolated, vulnerable. Now…

It was different.

Her astral form was no longer separate.

It was fused.

The same rebirth flames engulfed both her physical existence and her soul, merging them into a singular, unified state.

'Her physical body and astral form… became one?'

The arrow struck.

It pierced through her chest cleanly—

And passed through as though nothing had been there at all.

No resistance. No damage. No effect.

For the first time, a flicker of surprise surfaced in Asthar's eyes.

Edith's smile deepened.

With a single beat of her dark wings, she surged forward like a projectile, cutting through the sky with explosive speed and closing the distance in an instant.

Asthar did not retreat.

He drew again.

This time, the arrow pulsed with a dense, purplish-black aura—far heavier, far more dangerous than the previous strike. Without hesitation, he released it.

Edith's instincts screamed.

This was not the same attack.

Even in her rebirth state, this arrow posed a real threat. If it struck true, it could very well obliterate her soul shard entirely.

She reacted instantly.

"Ignis Sanctuary."

A dome of roaring flame expanded around her, forming a protective barrier that radiated intense heat and stability. A Rank-6 Legendary spell, forged for absolute defense.

The arrow collided.

The impact did not merely strike the barrier—it distorted space itself. Ripples spread outward as cracks formed in the surrounding fabric of reality. The flame dome trembled violently, its surface fracturing under the pressure. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

At that same moment, Edith's left eye glowed with a golden hue.

Twenty possible futures unfolded before her.

Simultaneously, her other eye activated.

[Phantasmal Analysis].

Every minute detail—the trajectory, the aura density, the fluctuations in Asthar's stance—was dissected and understood.

Her thoughts accelerated.

[Accelerated Thoughts].

The world slowed.

The sky, the wind, the drifting fragments of flame—all seemed to pause as her perception stretched beyond normal limits.

But Asthar did not slow.

Even within her altered perception, his movements remained precise, fluid, and relentless. One arrow after another appeared in his grasp, each released with perfect timing.

Every shot struck the weakened points of her barrier.

The cracks widened.

Then—

The dome shattered.

In that same instant, another arrow had already arrived, its tip inches from her face.

Edith vanished.

Her body dissolved into flame, reappearing two meters to the right in a burst of fire.

Asthar's response was immediate.

Without shifting his stance, he aimed upward and released another arrow into the open sky.

As it ascended, the arrow split—

One became twelve.

Each copy spread outward, flying at calculated angles. Yet among them, one behaved differently. Space fractured around it as it vanished entirely.

A heartbeat later—

A crack appeared behind Edith's neck.

From within that fracture, the arrow's tip emerged silently, already within striking distance.

As if she had anticipated the strike long before it was loosed, Edith reacted at the final instant. Guided by the foresight granted through her [Eye of the Faceless], she tilted her head and neck with precise control, allowing the arrow to graze past her instead of piercing through. The movement was minimal—barely enough to avoid death—but not without consequence. A thin line opened across her neck, and with it, her [Flame Body] flickered violently before collapsing altogether.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"It nullified my spell…?"

The realization came quickly. The arrow had not merely carried destructive force—it had interfered with the very essence of her rebirth flames, disrupting the cohesion between her physical and astral existence. That single scratch had forced her out of a state that should have rendered her nearly untouchable.

Before she could fully reassess, the space around her fractured.

Cracks appeared in multiple directions, each one opening within a radius of one to two feet from her body. From within those distortions, arrows surged forth in perfect synchronization, each aimed at a vital point—head, heart, spine, and throat. There was no overlap, no wasted motion. Every trajectory was lethal.

Yet Edith did not panic.

Instead, her expression remained composed as a third eye slowly manifested on her forehead. Its lid parted, revealing a gaze that did not belong to the physical plane.

In the next instant, her body dissolved into flame once more.

She vanished.

A heartbeat later, she reappeared directly behind Asthar.

The third eye pulsed.

A dense beam of Chaos Fire erupted forward, tearing through the air with overwhelming force, aimed straight at his head.

Asthar moved—

Or rather, he tried to.

At that exact moment, the dormant purple fire within his Inner World flared violently. It surged through his consciousness, disrupting his thoughts and freezing his reactions for a fraction of a second.

That single moment was enough.

A faint, unfocused look crossed his face as the beam struck.

The Chaos Fire pierced through his forehead cleanly, detonating outward as his skull burst apart. Flesh, bone, and blood scattered into the air, only to be consumed instantly by the raging flames. His body remained standing for a brief second longer, a hollow cavity burned through his head, before the fire spread and engulfed him entirely.

Victory.

Or so it seemed.

As his body began to fall—

The world shifted.

Time… reversed.

The Chaos Fire receded, its destructive force unraveling. The scattered fragments of his skull—blood, bone, and brain—moved backward through the air, reassembling piece by piece. The burned flesh restored itself, the wound closing as if it had never existed.

The flames condensed.

The beam of Chaos Fire itself reformed, retracting through space as it returned toward Edith, flowing back into the third eye on her forehead.

Her body moved as well.

Not by her will, but by the pull of an unseen force.

She returned to her previous position—exactly where she had stood moments before, surrounded by spatial cracks and incoming arrows, as though the entire sequence had never occurred.

Only one person retained the memory.

Asthar blinked once, his expression darkening as the full sequence replayed within his mind.

Edith, however, remained unaware.

To her, nothing had changed.

A faint exhale escaped Asthar.

"Fate Rewind."

His Sub-Class Skill.