Chapter 9: The Shadow in Flame
As chaos erupted outside the massive red gate, Ryz stood silently on the rooftop of a nearby building, watching the swirling sky. The gate pulsed with waves of energy, its surface cracking like glass revealing another dimension beneath. Screams echoed, sirens wailed, and the five S-rank hunters rushed inside along with elite guild squads.
Ryz narrowed his crimson eyes.
Then, without a word, he used a power he hadn't touched in years.
Null Presence.
With a simple breath, his body faded from existence not invisible, but truly erased. Not even the divine could trace him now. No aura, no sound, no presence. He stepped through the gate, and the world around him changed.
The air turned heavy, reeking of sulfur. Flames rose from jagged cracks in the earth, rivers of lava flowed beneath shattered black stone. It wasn't just a dungeon it was a prison of hellish energy. A twisted domain.
And it was filled with bodies.
Ryz looked around calmly. Hunters dozens of them lay wounded or dead. Burned armor, broken limbs, blood splattered across the ground. Two S-rank hunters lay unconscious, barely breathing. Three others Elric of Iron Howl, Sera of Skyglass, and Darnel of Crimson Ward were gone. Nothing left but ash.
His gaze shifted.
In the distance, amidst a vortex of fire, Velmira stood locked in combat.
She moved like lightning divine blades flashing from her hands, wings of pure light stretching behind her. Her golden eyes were filled with fire and fury. Across from her, a monstrous figure towering, with molten horns and wings of burning bone stood grinning.
Satan. One of the Twelve Pillars of Hell.
"You're slower than I expected," Satan mocked, voice thick like smoke. "Was heaven always this weak, or is it just you?"
Velmira didn't respond with words only a barrage of blinding strikes. Her blades cracked through the air, slicing molten rock, carving the flame into fragments. Satan laughed as he dodged, his claws dragging trails of fire.
"Is this justice? Is this divine wrath?" he jeered. "I've felt more sting from a mortal's prayer!"
They clashed, the air quaking around them. Light slammed into flame. The lava churned, and burning meteors rained down from above.
Velmira drove him back for a moment, forcing him to block with both arms. She panted, divine light flickering.
Satan grinned. "You're fading. Tired already?"
"You talk too much," she snapped, and flung a blast of searing radiance.
He stepped through it like mist, appearing behind her in a blink. His claws raked her side, blood hitting the air. She cried out but spun to counter, blasting him point-blank.
They staggered apart both scorched, panting. The battle raged for what felt like hours.
Then, the flames darkened.
A colder presence emerged.
Lucifer.
Crowned in bone and shadow, he stepped from a split in the lava, his smile cruel and elegant. He walked past burning corpses, ignoring the injured hunters.
"Well, well," he said. "The goddess herself came down. How tragic."
Velmira's eyes widened. "Lucifer."
Lucifer spread his arms mockingly. "Did you think your meddling would go unnoticed? Earth is not your playground."
She raised her blade. "I don't answer to you."
Lucifer laughed. "No. But you'll die just the same."
From his hand, black flame ignited. The heat was unbearable, even for a goddess.
Satan stepped back, giving Lucifer room. "Shall I watch?" he asked, amused.
"She's mine." Lucifer's eyes glowed like twin stars dying in slow motion.
Velmira raised a shield of light, already shaking. She was exhausted.
Lucifer hurled the flame.
She braced for the end.
But the moment the fire left his hand—
Time stopped.
The flames halted midair. The tremors ceased. Even Satan's laughter died in his throat.
Lucifer turned his head slowly. "What... what is this?"
From the shadows behind them, a fog rolled in. Thick. Black. Alive.
It moved like thought impossible to grasp, darker than death. And from it, a figure stepped forward.
Shrouded in smoke, with burning red eyes and a presence colder than death, he stood silently.
Lucifer instinctively stepped back. "Who are you?"
Satan's flame died out. He squinted, his grin gone.
Velmira, bruised and bleeding, stared up in disbelief. "Ryz..."
Lucifer looked between them. "You... you know this thing?"
Ryz didn't answer. His voice, when it came, was soft but carried weight like falling mountains.
"I came to take her."
Lucifer frowned. "You're interrupting something div—"
But before he could finish, Ryz turned his head.
And in that moment, Lucifer felt something grip his soul. As if enormous, blood-red eyes from an unseen world were staring directly into him, pulling at his essence, ready to consume.
His voice caught. His knees buckled slightly.
Satan's growl faded to silence.
The mist darkened around Ryz. The earth itself seemed to shiver.
Lucifer took a trembling step backward.
Satan growled. "I don't care what you are."
He charged.
Ryz didn't move.
The moment Satan crossed the boundary of the mist, his body seized up. His flames died. His eyes went wide. And then he dropped, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.
Still breathing. But broken.
Lucifer looked down at Satan, then back at Ryz.
"You... you did that with a glance..."
Ryz turned away.
He approached Velmira. She was too weak to stand, but still conscious.
"Is this the goddess I once knew?" he said, a shadow of mockery in his voice.
Velmira couldn't answer her eyes fluttered shut. She had lost consciousness.
He lifted her with one hand.
The mist wrapped around them, and they vanished.
—
Outside the gate, the remaining hunters had escaped. Erin of Mireveil and Lennox of Arclight, both injured, helped the wounded flee. None of them had seen what happened inside. The red gate collapsed behind them, fading like smoke.
They were safe.
But no one spoke of victory.
Too many were dead.
Too many were missing.
And the ones who returned… were silent.
Somewhere, far away, Ryz walked again in silence carrying a goddess, with blood on her hands and questions in her eyes.
The world of flame and death faded behind them, swallowed by silence. Once outside, he didn't go home. Instead, he walked the quiet street until he reached her house plain, a little too normal for a goddess. He stepped inside, still holding her limp body.
The house smelled faintly of flowers and old paper. He gently laid her down on a couch and knelt beside her. With a flick of his hand, dark mist swirled around her chest and temples drawing out broken divine threads, scorched power, and wounds that no human eye could see..