Dancing on the golden ashes-Chapter 276: Tempest and the Inferno

The power of Wrath and Pride burned through me, searing hotter than any mortal flame. The world around me turned to ice, but I—I was the inferno. Blinding, untouchable, and most importantly, unkillable. Even that creature, that grotesque monstrosity whose strength could tear me apart if I faltered for even a breath—it didn't look terrifying anymore. It looked... pathetic. A mutt. A trembling little puppy, snarling at something it could never understand. Something divine.

My fingertips lit up with a golden flame, each one containing an ember that blazed with a heat rivaling the sun itself. I could feel the power swelling beneath my skin, not meant for some distant, cowardly attack. Oh no, this was something far more intimate. I clenched my fists, feeling the energy build until even my bones trembled, quivering in the presence of my own might. The pressure crackled through me, divine and deadly, and then, with a single step—silent and swift, like a ghost finally unleashed from its shackles—I lunged at the werewolf.

The moment I moved, it howled—"HRRAAAAAOOOOHHHHH—!!"—a sound less like defiance and more like desperation. As if some part of it understood that whatever I was now, I wasn't prey. Not anymore. Now, I had become the predator, and it... it was just prey. Helpless. Blind to the truth of what stood before it.

I didn't give it a chance to breathe. My fist crashed into its chest with the force of a meteor, golden flame bursting on contact in a violent bloom, like a flower tearing through flesh, blossoming out the other side of its body. A tree of golden roses erupted from the impact point, beautiful and terrible, each petal trembling with deadly power as it sent ripples through the air. The sound—BOOOOMMM—echoed like a divine hammer slamming into the world's spine, and as each rose detonated, the air shimmered with holy fire. Bones cracked. Fur singed. The beast's massive frame was flung backward, then jerked forward, only for another punch, another meteor from me, to strike it full-force and send it flying, limbs scrambling for grip as it carved a deep trench through the scorched, blackened earth.

I was already on it before it landed.

Another punch, this time to the jaw—CRRACK—sent blood spraying in a fine arc, teeth scattering like shattered gemstones. My body moved faster than it could track, golden flames trailing behind every movement like divine afterimages. My feet didn't touch the ground. I glided like a demon forged in sin, merciless, fluid, unstoppable.

It tried to claw at me again, a desperate swipe, wind curling behind its strike, but I ducked beneath it with inhuman grace, claws grazing nothing but air. I pivoted, letting the momentum twist through my hips, and brought my knee up into its gut. The breath left it in a wet, choking grunt, and my claws followed, raking across its chest in an upward slash that peeled flesh from muscle like ribbons from a gift.

"How do you like it, huh?! Feels good, doesn't it?! To feel pain... to feel something!" My voice cracked, raw with Wrath and Pride, each word soaked in rage, every punch landing harder as my emotions flared like wildfire. It felt so fucking amazing, I can't even describe it. I could feel again. And it was bliss. Like a drug shooting straight into my soul, dragging me to the edge of ecstasy.

But I knew the truth. After this fight... it would all fade. I'd go back to being the same cold, hollow Gaon. No joy. No rage. No sorrow. Just silence. Just void.

And it pissed me off.

I hated it. But there was nothing I could do. This was the price I paid—the sacrifice I made when I tore my own heart out. And that choice... that curse... would become my prison. A cage I'd have to break one day.

"RRRRAAAAAAAOOOOOHHHHHH—!!"

The monster's howl ripped through the world like a blade of sound, so loud and so raw that it shattered the air itself. The ground beneath its feet crumbled, torn apart by the pressure, massive slabs of earth lifting and then exploding outward as if the planet itself was trying to run away from the beast. From its body surged a torrent of wind... No, not just wind, it was a world-ending storm, so powerful that it felt ancient, almost divine, and alive.

The blast slammed into me like the wrath of the heavens.

BOOOOOOOOOOM

I was thrown like a ragdoll, spinning through the air as the world around me turned into a hurricane of chaos. My back hit a jagged rock formation—CRACK—followed by the sickening snap of bone. My body rolled across the shredded landscape, bouncing, bleeding, skidding through stone like I was nothing more than a corpse caught in a storm.

For a moment, the pain was all I knew; it was so sharp and overwhelming, blooming through every nerve like fire cracking bone. But I stabilized myself quickly and steadily, grounding my feet against the wind, forcing my battered body to hold firm. I brushed off the pain with a sharp exhale; it wasn't the worst I'd felt, not by far. I'd endured more. I had survived worse.

Crimson blood dripped from my lips. My vision pulsed with white. My limbs screamed with pain. But I refused to give up.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and as my eyes fell on the smear of blood now staining my skin, something in me shifted. The taste of iron, the sight of crimson didn't scare me. It excited me, making me smile.

"Heh... is that it? I was starting to get bored."

The wind didn't stop, it grew stronger and more violent. Now the monster wasn't just charging with brute force. No... This thing had evolved. It raised its arm, and the air bent, warping into a blade. A single slash through the wind sent a crescent of pure pressure hurtling at me, slicing through stone like paper. I ducked, barely, the force of it peeling the skin off my shoulder in a flash of pain.

More soon followed in a rapid-fire attack: slashes, gusts, piercing spikes of compressed wind that stabbed the air around me like thrown spears. I moved fast, dodging, spinning, wings folding tight to reduce drag, my body carving through the chaos with unnatural precision. But still, it pressed me. The beast was controlling the battlefield now.

Each time it moved, the storm answered—twisting, howling, bending to its will. Every roar, every clawed strike was laced with elemental fury, raw and relentless. And in that moment, I knew... our battle had only just begun.