Chapter 1328: When Fire Raised an Army

Black particles flowed back together.

Ethan re-formed beside Feylora and kept drawing in her green healing energy.

Elira saw a person suddenly appear out of nowhere where there’d been nothing a second ago. She jolted so hard her wings flicked, then immediately ducked behind Feylora.

Half her face peeked out from Feylora’s shoulder, eyes locked on Ethan like he might bite.

Ethan shot her a helpless look, then turned his attention back to the sky.

Up there, the fight was already at a breaking point.

They’d managed to box Cindara in from multiple angles, but the little fireballs inside her flame domain kept multiplying.

One fireball by itself didn’t do much.

But there were too many.

Even a small force, if it hit the same spot nonstop, could grind any defense down.

And even a slow attack, if it filled every inch of space, could leave you nowhere to run.

Ataneya’s twenty-four fox tails wrapped Cindara again.

Seraphina hit from the front.

Andona flared her golden wings and closed from the opposite side.

Three forces converged on the center—

And golden firelight rose where Cindara stood.

At the edge of the flame domain, Queen Elowen floated in the air and snapped her fingers.

Ice-blue cold spread from her fingertips. Moisture in the air condensed instantly, and ice arrows formed in ranks at her sides. Their tips aimed at Cindara below, shafts etched with fine frost patterns. The chill they radiated shoved aside the drifting fireballs that tried to float near.

But Elowen’s attention wasn’t fully on the center of the battlefield.

She was still watching Feylora.

And then she saw a familiar figure beside her.

"Ethan..."

So he hadn’t left at all.

On the other side, Kaelira raised a purple-red energy sphere.

The power inside it crashed and churned. Each pulse forced nearby flames to recoil. Even Cindara, trapped in the middle, turned her fire-red eyes and gave the sphere an extra, lingering look.

Ataneya’s tails were still wrapped around Cindara—

But Cindara didn’t wrestle them this time.

Her figure vanished from the center of the bind and reappeared several meters away in midair, cleanly slipping out of Ataneya’s control.

She’d barely stabilized when Seraphina’s claw slammed down from above.

BAM!

Cindara was driven straight into the ground.

Her flame-red body punched through the canopy, snapped several thick trunks, and finally cratered into soil already cracked by heat.

Andona swung her arm right after.

A golden blade shot from her palm along Seraphina’s impact line, chasing the target down and stabbing precisely between Cindara’s chest and abdomen.

The holy edge pierced scales.

Divine Power flooded in.

But Cindara didn’t yank the blade out.

The power at her chest began to rotate. The sacred blade broke down from the inside out, dissolving into specks of gold light that she swallowed bit by bit.

Elowen’s ice-arrow rain came down.

Kaelira shoved her purple-red sphere forward.

On the ground, Cindara finished digesting what Andona had fed her, then lifted both hands and raised a blazing flame barrier overhead.

Ice arrows hammered into fire.

Hiss—hiss—hiss—

Cold and heat blasted outward in opposing waves. Nearby trees frosted over on one side and burned on the other.

Cindara blocked the arrows, but her gaze kept cutting past the barrier toward the purple-red sphere closing in.

The greed in her eyes wasn’t subtle. It was naked.

Not far away, trees around Ethan’s position were already catching from the strengthened Blazing Vortex.

Fire crawled down from the canopy. Bark split under the heat. Ethan—only just recovering most of his strength—had to move, taking Feylora and Elira with him to a patch where the flames were weaker.

Cindara noticed the movement.

Didn’t care.

Right now, she only cared about what Kaelira was delivering.

The temperature kept climbing.

Arrows melted as they entered the flame barrier, and the flames were pushed down by the cold. Heat and chill alternated over the ground until the air swung between scalding and bone-biting every few seconds.

When the purple-red sphere finally touched the barrier—

Cindara dismissed the defense herself.

She spread her arms wide.

And welcomed the violent energy sphere straight into her body.

"Absorbing again?" Ethan had already lifted into the air with Feylora and Elira.

Watching Cindara hug that sphere, he couldn’t help frowning.

"She’s really not afraid of bursting."

Feylora’s healing had brought him back to nearly full.

He only needed to get one more of his energy spheres into Cindara. Once that happened, the structure his white lightning had left inside her would be enough to form a complete link.

Then Ethan was confident—he could take full control.

Two spheres formed in his hands.

The left burned fire-red.

The right crackled with dense white lightning.

Holding both, Ethan began moving slowly toward Cindara’s position.

Phoenix Queen Ignara also rose above Cindara.

Heat from the flame domain started streaming toward her. The surrounding fireballs dimmed as they lost temperature, while the inferno inside Ignara grew brighter and wilder.

Ignara lowered her head and opened her mouth.

A massive stream of fire blasted down from above, aimed straight at Cindara’s head.

But Cindara was buried deep in the act of absorbing Kaelira’s power.

That purple-red energy was too violent.

Even she couldn’t fully control it instantly. And to keep anything from interrupting the absorption, Cindara had left behind a few "cute little creatures" around herself.

Elowen’s ice arrows kept falling from above.

Wave after wave.

They slammed into Cindara’s scales and protective flames, scattering icy shards. The barrage looked terrifying—

But the real damage was limited.

Then the arrow rain stopped.

Not because Elowen held back.

Because a platform of flame began forming above Cindara.

Crimson fire connected into a single, continuous plane, cutting off the line of sight between Cindara and everyone above her.

No one could see what she was doing anymore.

Namyanna dropped to the ground first.

She gripped her trident, aimed the tip at the flame platform—and threw it.

The trident pierced fire.

Water erupted from the impact point and spread fast. The flood raced across the land, swallowed burning trees, and in moments became a wide, open sheet of water.

Steam roared upward.

Most of the flame platform was pressed down, leaving only a few stubborn tongues of fire still flickering between ice-cold spray.

Queen Elowen landed on the water as well.

Her toes touched the surface.

Cold spread from that point like ink in clear glass.

The moving water froze from bottom to top. Sheets of ice laid themselves out one after another. Elowen lifted a hand, and snow and ice surged up from the ground, condensing into warriors clad in frost armor.

A cold wind swept the battlefield.

The newly made "sea" became an "ice continent."

The flame platform above froze into a thick ice dais.

And the one who benefited most?

Cindara.

A moment ago, she’d had to keep pouring power out to keep that flame platform from collapsing.

Now Elowen had frozen the structure for her.

No need to support it herself anymore.

How considerate.

The others landed on the ice one after another.

But before they could even locate Cindara, the surrounding Red Dragon vortices changed.

Figures stepped out from the spinning flames.

They carried massive long-handled battle axes. Fire burned above their heads. Their eyes were vicious as they stared at the group.

Mixed among them were several smaller Blazing Vortices.

Only two of the Red Dragon vortices still looked... confused, their eyes peeking through the flames almost comically blank, like they weren’t sure why they were here.

Then, around the group, the Emerald Castle’s army appeared as well, forming up fast into a battle line.

Across the ice, they squared off against the flame soldiers in a tense standoff.