Time shattered when their blades clashed.
Matt and Nimistran stood alone in a frozen battlefield—a broken timestream created by their divine powers. Around them, the world held its breath. The clouds above were stilled like oil on glass. Arrows halted mid-flight. Shouts turned to silence. Even flame paused.
Only two moved.
Matt Salurga—the Flame Reborn. Nimistran—the Blade of Oblivion.
---
"I erased kings stronger than you," Nimistran whispered. His blade dragged through air, leaving cracks of pure void behind. "But you... you're a virus that keeps rewriting its code."
Matt's eyes gleamed with emberlight.
"I'm not a virus. I'm the firewall you forgot existed."
They clashed again.
The world blinked.
---
The Voidwalk Duel Begins
Nimistran moved like thought—teleporting mid-slash, stepping through echoes, turning cause and effect inside out.
Matt adapted. He let the Void inside him guide instinct, not thought. He fought without planning—just feeling, burning, reacting.
Every swing of his Shadowsidian Blade carved echoes of flame through time, blocking phantom strikes from alternate futures.
---
Nimistran appeared behind him—blade aimed for the heart.
But Matt didn't turn. He whispered:
"Your blade aims for my back… because you know my eyes will end you."
He twisted.
CLANG.
Blade met blade. Sparks erupted, freezing midair.
Then—Matt's fire exploded.
He activated Soulflare Sync.
Wings of burning memory unfolded. Sigils burned across his arms. Flames shaped like people—memories, friends, the dead—swirled around him.
Nimistran staggered. "What... is this?"
Matt answered, eyes glowing gold:
"Every life you erased… I carry them now."
---
The battlefield snapped back into motion.
Grey screamed over the comm crystal, "MATT, WE NEED YOU—THE GATE'S FALLING!"
Sam yelled, "We're losing the west wall!"
Matt held Nimistran's collapsing body by the collar.
The Paladin bled black essence, his form flickering between timelines.
"Kill me and I'll just return," Nimistran hissed. "I exist in every version of your failure."
Matt leaned in, blade glowing.
"No. You only exist in one."
Shhck.
He stabbed the Shadowsidian Blade through Nimistran's heart—and then through his shadow.
The death was complete.
---
Time healed.
The world roared back to sound.
The battle still raged—but the west flank held, the gate held.
Mailane ran to Matt, her arms around him. He collapsed into her grip, exhausted.
"Did we win?" she asked.
"No," Matt whispered. "Not yet."
He looked to the horizon.
A storm of Void and Fire rose.
Thermuz approaches.