Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

Let's rewind time—an hour before Nero's cataclysmic clash.

Over a hundred kilometers away, another battlefield was soaked in chaos and pressure—a duel where pride, instinct, and survival danced in deadly harmony.

Elreth faced an abomination like the other two: a demonized human scarab, his figure hunched beneath layers of pulsating earthen carapace, the armor jagged and grotesque like a nightmare birthed from the deepest crevices of the abyss. The exoskeletal shell shimmered like volcanic obsidian, shifting and reshaping as if alive, grinding with every motion like tectonic plates colliding. His very presence made the ground groan.

Crimson-red cracks pulsed along his back as he raised his massive stone saber, the air around it warping from the sheer density of earth-elemental prana. This was no mere brute. He wielded the Law of Earth—and worse, he'd merged it with the domain of gravity. The battlefield bowed beneath his will.

"Struggle for me," he sneered, voice hollow and gravelly, like stones grinding under pressure. "Let me see your lovely face contorted in despair… Princess."

Elreth didn't flinch.

The usual cold arrogance that clung to her like a royal mantle was gone, replaced by a sharp, focused glint. She knew this wasn't an opponent she could toy with. He was stronger. His aura was suffocating. But that's what made this fight exhilarating.

She smiled.

That simple act alone stung the demonized knight's pride.

'How dare she smile…!'

Her crimson hair fluttered as she let out a breath. The tips of her bangs shimmered with energy. Her amber-orange eyes ignited, blooming into a radiant red with vertical reptilian slits—a sign of the Red Knight awakening. She had advanced… not fully, but enough to stand here and fight.

Her spear trembled as it absorbed her power. Flames surged forth, thick and liquid-like, wrapping the weapon in a hellish crimson blaze. The temperature around her rose instantly, leaves caught fire, and cracks spread across the earth.

Then—

They vanished.

A blink, a flash of sparks, and then BOOM—they collided in the forest's heart. Trees were uprooted. Rocks shattered. Shockwaves blasted in every direction.

Their figures darted through the shadows at blinding speeds, one cloaked in flickering flame, the other in shifting layers of earth. With each strike, they left behind destruction: trunks exploded, stones vaporized, terrain reshaped.

CLANG!

BOOM!

WHOOSH!

Their Laws clashed—flame and earth wrestling in chaotic opposition. Each hit sent tremors through the forest floor, as if two primal gods were locked in deadly embrace.

Elreth spun mid-air, spear trailing fire as she went for a low slash.

But the knight caught it with his stone saber, and with a grunt, redirected the force—gravity shifted, pulling Elreth downward like a meteor. Her body crashed into the ground with a deafening shockwave, cratering the forest floor.

She gasped, blood staining the corner of her lips, eyes wide with realization.

"You can shift gravity at will…?" she muttered, wiping her mouth as she stood up slowly.

"Indeed," the knight said, stepping down from a boulder as if gravity no longer applied to him. "And you… will learn what despair feels like."

He stomped the ground—

And the entire terrain flipped.

The battlefield tilted, rocks and debris hurtling toward Elreth as she struggled to stabilize herself. Using her spear like a staff, she launched upward, riding a burst of fire to escape the shifting landscape.

But he was already waiting.

A hammering punch, coated in gravity-enhanced force, connected with her side mid-air.

CRACK!

Bones fractured.

Elreth flew through three trees before tumbling to a stop, coughing violently, struggling to breathe. Her vision blurred. Blood poured down her side. Her ribs—definitely broken.

Still, she got up.

Her legs trembled. She leaned on her spear. But her eyes burned brighter.

"Still not enough," she thought, gritting her teeth. "I still need… more strength."

The demonized knight walked toward her slowly, footsteps heavy, deliberate, like a boulder crashing with each step.

"Your flame… it's too weak to burn me."

But even as her body screamed in agony, Elreth's lips curled again into a smile.

"Is that so?" she said, voice hoarse but proud. "Then maybe I just haven't turned up the heat yet."

She plunged her spear into the ground, and with a guttural roar, summoned every drop of fire-elemental prana she had left.

A crimson pillar of flame erupted, spiraling skyward in a vortex of roaring inferno.

It wasn't polished. It wasn't refined. But it was raw, wild, and desperate.

The knight frowned. She shouldn't be able to stand. Let alone fight. Was she trying to evolve mid-battle?

Elreth screamed as the fire consumed her skin—she was burning herself to push beyond her limits.

Her armor cracked. Her skin charred.

But the flame didn't stop.

A faint mark glowed on her left shoulder—an ancient sigil. Her Law of Fire reacting, reshaping her limits. The flame around her became denser, purer, tinged with gold.

Even the knight paused.

Is this… a mutation? No—

It was a flame bloom, the sign of someone stepping toward mastery of their Law. A brutal, rare occurrence. The kind only born in life-or-death fights.

Elreth stood tall again, her eyes wild with power and pain.

"Let's go, bug-face…" she whispered, spear igniting with reborn flames.

"Round two."

They both vanished at the same time again, their weapons clashing.

The ground quaked as the battle raged on. Blades of wind and fire whipped through the scorched forest, carving trenches into the earth. Every time Elreth's flaming spear clashed with the demonized knight's monstrous saber, sparks flew like miniature suns, lighting up the battlefield in violent bursts.

Elreth ducked under a wide horizontal slash, embers trailing behind her as she spun, then thrusted upward at her opponent's exposed side. The blow struck—but it was like stabbing a mountain. Her spear bounced off his dark carapace with a resounding clang, the flames barely leaving a burn mark.

"Too shallow," she whispered, gritting her teeth.

Suddenly, the enemy slammed his saber into the ground. A tremor exploded outward.

A powerful attack was about to be unleashed.