Just as her skin began to blister and peel under the overwhelming heat, just as the last thread of her consciousness threatened to snap, the pain suddenly lessened in a way that made no sense to her fading mind. The inferno was still there, she could feel it roaring, could feel the abyss tremble beneath its fury, yet the searing agony that should have consud her was abruptly dulled, as sothing vast and unyielding had stepped between her and death itself.
Henrietta’s eyes struggled to focus through the haze of pain and blood, and then she felt it, an aura so familiar that it struck her heart before her mind could even process it. It was firm and overwhelming, tinged with spatial pressure and an unmistakable warmth that did not burn but instead wrapped around her like an unbreakable shield. Her breath caught in her throat as realization dawned, and her trembling lips parted in disbelief.
"Xavier ..." she whispered hoarsely, her voice barely more than a breath carried away by the raging heat.
He was there, standing over her with his back turned to the inferno, his body hunched protectively as he covered her completely. She could see his face from beneath him, twisted in raw strain and determination, veins standing out along his neck as he poured everything he had into holding the flas back. Sweat and blood ran down his temples, his teeth clenched so hard she could hear them grind as he endured pain ant to erase existence itself.
"You are not dying here," Lucas said through gritted teeth, his voice low and shaking yet filled with an unyielding resolve that made her chest ache. "Not today, not like this."
Henrietta’s eyes burned with tears as much as with pain, and for the first ti since the battle began, fear loosened its grip on her heart. She felt small beneath him, fragile in a way she had not allowed herself to feel in years, yet strangely safe despite the apocalyptic force raging just beyond his back. Her trembling hand reached up weakly and clutched at his robe, fingers digging in as though anchoring herself to reality itself.
"Xavier, you should not," she tried to say, her voice breaking as emotion overwheld her. "You will die if you keep this up."
He let out a strained breath that was half a laugh and half a growl of defiance, never once turning his gaze away from the inferno he was holding at bay. "Then I will die standing," he replied quietly. "But I am not letting you face this alone."
Her heart pounded violently against her ribs as his words sank in, warmth spreading through her chest that had nothing to do with Qi or cultivation. No one had ever stood between her and death like this, no one had ever chosen her life over their own without hesitation or calculation. As she lay there beneath him, shielded by his body and his will, Henrietta felt sothing inside her crack open, a deep and fragile place she had long kept sealed away.
In that mont, surrounded by fire and shadow, she felt protected in a way she had never known before, and the realization filled her with a profound and overwhelming sense of love and gratitude that threatened to spill from her heart.
Lucas felt it the mont the pressure shifted, long before his barrier visibly fractured, because the burn was no longer sothing he resisted at the surface but sothing that began to chew its way inward through flesh, bone, and will alike. The protective layer of Qi and spatial distortion he had thrown up around himself and Henrietta trembled violently, its stability unraveling as the shadow dragon’s inferno intensified beyond what it had unleashed monts ago. His vision blurred at the edges, not from fear but from the sheer strain of holding reality together with brute force alone, and the taste of blood flooded his mouth as his teeth ground together harder than before. He tried to activate his spatial teleportation but the inferno’s power overwheld and consud it instantly. He was shocked, stunned and dumbfounded.
Above them, the shadow dragon roared again, a sound so filled with fury and insulted pride that it seed to warp the abyss itself. To the beast, this was no longer a hunt or a territorial defense but a humiliation, because creatures it deed insects were defying its authority within its own domain. Its massive chest expanded, scales glowing faintly as the inferno drew deeper from its core, and the flas surged forward with renewed violence, pressing against Lucas’s barrier like a living tide intent on erasing everything in its path.
Henrietta could feel the sudden change imdiately, even through the haze of pain and exhaustion, and her fingers tightened desperately in Lucas’s robe as she felt his body tense further. "Xavier," she whispered urgently, her voice shaking now not just from injury but from fear for him. "Your barrier is failing. You cannot keep doing this."
He did not answer her right away, because his mind was racing faster than ever before, calculating and discarding possibilities in the blink of an eye. Defensive asures alone would not work, that much was painfully clear to him now, because the dragon’s power was simply too overwhelming and too relentless to be endured head on for long. Every second he held this line drained him at an alarming rate, and even with his newly refined body and sage realm strength, he knew that collapse was only a matter of ti if nothing changed.
The inferno pushed harder, and Lucas felt his back scream in protest as the heat began to break through in searing waves, his skin blistering beneath his robes despite the layers of Qi protecting him. He sucked in a sharp breath and finally spoke, his voice hoarse yet frighteningly calm. "You are right," he said quietly. "If I keep defending like this, we die."
The dragon snarled as if it understood him, its single unblinded eye narrowing with murderous delight, sensing weakness and victory inching closer with every heartbeat. The abyss floor cracked beneath its talons as it poured even more power into the flas, determined to crush the audacity of these mortals once and for all.
Lucas’s gaze hardened then, a dangerous clarity settling over his expression as the pain beca background noise to a far more pressing realization. Defense alone was surrender disguised as endurance, and surrender was sothing he had never been good at. He shifted his stance slightly, adjusting his footing even as the flas raged inches from his barrier, and a low, steady breath escaped him as he made his decision.
"We cannot outlast him," Lucas murmured, more to himself than to anyone else, though Henrietta heard every word. "So we end this by force."
Her eyes widened faintly despite her weakness, a mixture of fear and awe flickering through them as she looked up at him. "Xavier, he is a shadow dragon," she said softly. "This is his domain."
A thin, fierce smile tugged at the corner of his lips even as sweat and blood ran freely down his face, his eyes blazing with a resolve that bordered on madness. "Then I will tear his domain apart," he replied without hesitation. "Because if I do not switch from defense to offense right now, none of us leave this abyss alive."
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