Chapter 509: Demon Queens Unite
Hell was splitting into two opposing forces.
On one side, the eternal fire of the Phoenix, burning as if the sun itself had fallen from the sky.
On the other, the glacial cold of the Blue Dragon, a frozen breath capable of extinguishing all life.
And between them stood Sapphire and Stella.
Both panted, their bodies scarred by flames and ice, but neither of their eyes betrayed any surrender. On the contrary: there was a dangerous, almost playful spark in each gaze.
The battle resumed with violence.
The Phoenix plunged into a flaming spiral, its wings igniting everything in its path. Stella raised her arms, summoning gusts of cutting wind that crashed into the flames. The clash created an incandescent storm, fire and wind intertwined in uncontrollable chaos.
On the other side, the Blue Dragon opened its maw, releasing an icy breath that froze even the air. Sapphire lunged forward, spear in hand, spinning in red spirals. Each rotation created crimson flames that clashed head-on with the ice.
The impact was catastrophic.
The collision of fire and ice cracked the firmament, transforming the sky into fragments that resembled falling glass. Flames burst forth in bursts, while ice stalagmites appeared out of nowhere, growing like murderous spears.
Sapphire advanced on the dragon, cutting through the icy stakes with powerful blows. Her body burned, each step leaving trails of fire.
Meanwhile, Stella was swept away by the Phoenix's fury. The bird flapped its wings, each movement creating cyclones of flame. Stella, however, smiled. Her winds danced in swirls that enveloped her, allowing her to slip through the fire with nearly impossible movements.
With each twist, each dodge, her blades of wind streaked across the Phoenix's flaming body, creating incandescent flashes that quickly closed.
The sky became a groundless battlefield. There was nowhere to look without being engulfed by fire or ice.
Sapphire felt her blood boil.
Stella felt her heart race like never before.
But then, something strange happened.
At the height of the battle, Sapphire recoiled from a blow from the dragon. She landed on a floating rock, her body heaving. Her flames were unstable. For the first time, she realized something was wrong.
Her flames… were weaker.
She raised her hand, and the fire that should have burst into crimson flames wavered. It was as if something was sucking the essence of her power, draining the heat directly from her soul.
The Azure Dragon roared. Its icy breath seemed to feed on it.
"Shit…" Sapphire growled, her eyes narrowed.
On the other side, Stella fell to her knees in a column of unstable air. Her wind wings faltered, the whirlwinds that protected her crumbling.
She tried to raise her arms again, but the air… the air didn't respond.
It was as if the Phoenix had mastered the element itself, taking possession of what Stella commanded.
"No…" she whispered, staring at the golden flames burning above her. "This fire is devouring my winds…"
For an instant, time seemed to freeze.
Sapphire and Stella stood still, panting, their bodies throbbing with pain, staring at their enemies as if hell itself had folded into silence.
Then, they locked eyes.
Between the roar of the Blue Dragon and the cry of the Phoenix, a moment of complicity emerged. A strange silence, charged with understanding, as if the same idea had dawned on them both at the same time.
Sapphire was the first to smile—a crooked, fierce smile, filled with fury… and excitement.
Stella returned it with something even more twisted, a laugh unbelonging to mortals, a cruel delight that only a demonic creature could return.
In that moment, without needing words, they both thought the same thing.
The air vibrated, their bodies trembled with energy, and in the next instant, they vanished.
A red flash split the sky.
Sapphire appeared before the Blue Dragon like a burning star, every fiber of her body engulfed in crimson flames. Her eyes burned with hatred, and the spear in her hands pulsed as if it were an extension of her very soul.
She pointed the weapon directly at the beast. The flames enveloping her crackled and exploded as if hell itself had crowned her. "You and me," he growled, his voice firm, insane, vibrating between the cracks of reality.
The dragon responded with a roar that shattered space. The air froze in an instant, blue fissures slicing through the sky like blades. The creature's crystalline eyes reflected absolute contempt, as if Sapphire were nothing more than ash in the wind.
But Sapphire didn't back down. She advanced.
On the other side, the world was engulfed in a whirlwind. Stella dissolved into the piercing winds and reappeared before the Phoenix, the creature's golden flames illuminating every contour of her exhausted body. The heat was overwhelming, a wall that should have consumed her alive.
But Stella didn't tremble. She inclined her head slightly, as if greeting a worthy adversary.
"Hello," she said, almost amused, as if she were about to dance.
The Phoenix responded by spreading its wings. The sky became an erupting sun, flaming feathers falling like meteors.
Stella raised her arms. And for the first time since the fight began, the winds truly responded. They weren't free as before; they were heavy, fought over, but they pulsed with her will. Invisible whirlwinds surged around her, blades of air that clashed with the fire, slicing through the heat with violence.
And so, the battlefield was split in two.
On one side, Sapphire against the Blue Dragon.
On the other, Stella against the Phoenix.
Two impossible duels.
Each impact felt like the end of the world.
Sapphire advanced like a furious comet, her spear splitting the dragon's scales with devastating blows. Each thrust set the ice ablaze, each slash exploding into fragments that fell like broken glass from a celestial mirror. The dragon roared in response, slashing with colossal claws, raising walls of ice that rose like instant mountains—and Sapphire blasted them with living fire.
It was pure brutality: flame against ice, fury against fury.
Meanwhile, Stella danced in the storm. The Phoenix's golden fire descended in incandescent torrents, solar waves that devoured everything. But Stella spun between them like a living blade, her winds twisting into nearly invisible shapes, slicing flames into deadly lines. Each beat of the bird's wing set the world ablaze; each movement of Stella's caused the fire to split into even more violent explosions.
It was speed against speed. A spectacle of murderous beauty, a dance in which every mistake would cost one's life.
The sky no longer existed.
There was only fire, ice, wind, and blood.