Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

Suddenly—

The demonized knight charged.

With a twisted grin and a flick of his wrist, he hurled his ominous spear, its entire shaft wreathed in purple, flickering flame. The air crackled under its presence, and though a few meters still separated them, the weapon surged forward like a giant serpent, lunging straight for Khione with terrifying speed, as if it could bend the laws of space itself.

"!?''

Khione's icy blue eyes widened faintly.

Her vision blurred—she was still reeling from the last impact, her body aching, the taste of iron thick on her tongue. But she didn't panic.

Instead, she bit down sharply on her lower lip, drawing a thin line of blood to jolt her senses back to focus. The pain was grounding—sharp and real.

With steely calm, she slammed her small wand into the earth, her voice cold and sharp as the winter itself:

"Ice Wall!"

At her command, a wall of solid, glimmering ice surged upward with a deafening crack. Two meters thick, one meter high, its surface sparkled like cut diamond, refracting light into a dance of frosty blues.

At the same moment, crystalline wings of ice burst from her back, blooming like a butterfly mid-flight. With a mighty leap, she soared into the air, retreating high above the battlefield.

Just in time—

BOOM!

The flaming spear struck the ice wall.

It didn't just pierce it—it sliced through it as if it were made of paper. The purple flame ignited the frozen surface, sending explosions of steam and shards flying in every direction.

Had she been a second slower, it would've torn through her completely.

"Tch!"

The demonized knight clicked his tongue in irritation, his malicious reptilian eyes rising.

High above, Khione hovered, her icy wings keeping her aloft. Her gaze was cold and unreadable, looking down at him as if from the heavens.

Without a word, her wand transformed—morphing into a sleek crystal ice bow, smooth and sharp, its energy pulsating with frost.

With elegant precision, she began launching arrow after arrow, each one condensed from pure, freezing prana. They fired in rapid succession, streaks of white light trailing in their wake.

Tuk! Tuk! Tuk!

The knight, unfazed, gave a crazed grin and spun his massive spear like a whirlwind of flame.

Whoosh! Slash!

The weapon cleaved through the barrage, each swing disintegrating the arrows with bursts of steam and sparks.

But Khione wasn't aiming randomly—she moved like a phantom in the sky, circling her enemy, attacking from every angle, unleashing a storm of arrows so intense the very air temperature dropped.

Within moments, a twenty-meter radius around the demonized knight was turned into a frozen wasteland—a glacial field riddled with half-buried ice arrows, the ground cracking under the clash of extreme heat and biting cold.

Above it all, Khione floated silently, her eyes never blinking, her bow drawn once more—

A goddess of frost descending upon a battlefield of fire.

"You're moving around... buzzing like an annoying fly."

The demonized knight's lips curled into a sneer. His grip tightened around the shaft of his ominous spear, knuckles turning white. With a sudden shift in stance—one foot braced forward, body low and coiled like a beast about to pounce—he began channeling prana from the depths of his corrupted core.

Siiii~ Siii~

The flame around his spear roared to life, dark purple and red intertwining in a menacing blaze. The ground beneath him sizzled, cracks forming from the heat, warping the air around him.

Then—he struck.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The spear was thrust in rapid succession, so fast it blurred, creating a barrage of flaming arcs that screamed through the sky like blades of infernal lightning. Each swing unleashed a shockwave of flame, cutting through the atmosphere, so hot they warped the clouds and set the sky ablaze.

''!?"

Khione's expression stayed composed, but a flicker of surprise flashed in her icy eyes.

She barely dodged in time.

The arcs of fire almost clipped her mid-flight, their pressure alone enough to tear feathers of crystal from her wings.

With a sharp breath, she canceled her wings midair, folding them into her back, and dropped like a falling snowflake, narrowly slipping through the storm of fire that threatened to incinerate the heavens.

That's when the knight grinned—

This was his trap.

Whoosh!

The spear he had launched earlier, hidden within the storm of arcs, cut through the air like a phantom, heading straight for the descending Khione, its point glowing with a malicious flame meant to kill.

But then—

He saw her eyes.

Cold. Unshaken. Calculating.

"Wait… no—"

A chill unlike anything before raced up his spine.

He had been played.

"—Blossom, Ice Petals!"

Khione's voice echoed with supernatural calm.

She had already prepared this.

The ice arrows she had scattered earlier weren't just stray shots—they were anchors, laid with precision around the battlefield. With one-third of her prana surged into this powerful spell, the area around the demonized knight began to frost over instantly.

From each fallen arrow, a ghostly mist curled upward like tendrils. The temperature plummeted, frost crackled underfoot, and the world turned to blue and white.

Then, all at once—

BOOM!

A giant flower of ice erupted from the ground—

Petals the size of wagons, layered and sharp, swallowed the demonized knight whole, sealing him inside a colossal glacial blossom, its form intricate and terrifyingly beautiful.

The moment the flower bloomed, the world around it stilled—like time itself had frozen.

But Khione wasn't unscathed.

"Gh—!"

As the flame-covered spear reached her, she twisted her body mid-air with an almost unnatural movement—like a leaf bending in a storm. Still, she couldn't fully escape.

The spear's flame grazed her, hissing like a viper.

It sliced across her side, burning through fabric and flesh, the pain like molten knives searing through her ribs. Blood splattered mid-air, mixing with the ice particles around her.

Her body was sent hurtling backward, spiraling uncontrollably.

CRASH!

At the last second, she conjured another pair of ice wings, folding them around herself like a protective cocoon.

The impact sent her crashing through the trees, shattering branches like twigs. The ice shield cracked but held, absorbing the worst of the blow.

If not for that final defense, she might've been knocked unconscious—or worse.

Now, wrapped in broken but still-glowing wings, Khione skidded across the frozen battlefield, breathing heavily, blood trailing behind her in the snow-like mist.

Above them, the giant frozen flower loomed, still shimmering in eerie silence, encasing the knight within its deadly beauty.

The battle wasn't over…

But the tides had shifted at least for a moment.

Khione stood in the middle of the silent, frozen wasteland she had created.

Frost danced gently in the air around her as she gripped her small wand with trembling fingers, her breaths shallow and visible in the frigid air. The wind howled across the shattered landscape, brushing against her torn clothes and the bloody gash on her side.

She glanced down, assessing her battered body. Her ribs screamed with pain. Bruises bloomed across her skin. Her legs trembled slightly beneath her.

Her hand reached for a healing potion in her spatial ring—

Ba-dump!

Her fingers froze.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

A deep, unnatural heartbeat echoed through the battlefield. It was not her own.

The sky darkened as if the world itself had suddenly grown afraid. Her heart skipped a beat. The icy mist around her trembled, and all sound seemed to vanish for a brief moment.

"What…?"

Her expression didn't change much—but her eyes widened ever so slightly. The color drained from her face.

Every hair on her body stood on end. Her limbs refused to obey her commands. Her instincts screamed—danger!

Above the battlefield, a ghostly illusion began to take shape—tall, monstrous, with glowing purple eyes and a gaping mouth full of fangs. It loomed for a split second like a phantom deity of destruction.

Then—

KAAAAABOOOOOM!!!

An earth-shattering explosion burst out from the center of the frozen flower she had conjured. The icy petals were vaporized, melted into nothing as a powerful, corrupted aura surged outward like a typhoon.

The ghostly purple flames devoured everything they touched. Trees instantly withered and crumbled, the very ground beneath them melted into blackened magma-like slush, and the air itself seemed to catch fire, distorting reality.

Emerging from that hellish storm…

A monster.

The demonized knight stepped out, his form no longer recognizable as merely human or even beast. He had evolved, stepping into his second form—like a cursed creature from another world.

His once reddish salamander-like body had turned entirely purplish-black, steaming with corrupt flame. Purple veins pulsed violently across his skin like writhing snakes beneath glass. His body was taller, bulkier, and radiated a pressure so overwhelming that the ice under Khione's feet began to crack and melt.

"This aura…"

She couldn't move.

Her knees buckled slightly under the weight of it. The sheer intensity of his power—it rivaled an Advanced Red Knight.

For the first time, Khione genuinely thought:

"I might not survive this."

Her expression remained stoic, but a whisper escaped her lips.

"This is bad."

Reality itself seemed to ripple as the monster took a step forward.

Step.

A pulse of dark flame radiated from his body, causing the frozen landscape to collapse further, frost turning to vapor in an instant.

Step.

He was gone.

BOOM—!