Elara dragged her blade along the earth, splitting the demon's wall of corrupted flames in half. Fire collided with abyssal darkness in explosive shockwaves that shattered stone and melted metal. The very air caught fire around them, creating a hellscape visible from the palace walls.

When Azaroth lunged with molten claws, Elara dodged and slashed upward, her blade searing through one of its molten arms. The demon's roar shook the earth, windows exploding outward for blocks in every direction.

"First blood to me," Elara snarled, crimson flames wreathing her form like a second skin.

Azaroth regenerated the severed limb with casual ease. "Child's play, little Archon."

Elara planted her blade in the ground, channeling heat into the stone itself. The ground cracked and glowed as her power spread through it like veins of lava. Fire torrents and flame bullets erupted from multiple points around the demon, hammering it from all angles in a symphony of destruction.

As the creature staggered under the relentless barrage, Elara charged with her sword trailing fire like a comet's tail. Her cross-pattern slash exploded across the demon's chest, leaving molten wounds that glowed like forges.

But Azaroth was far from finished.

The demon roared, its body glowing with otherworldly energy that made reality bend around it. From its chest, it formed a massive spear of corrupted flame, a meteor of pure destruction that pulsed with power from the deepest hells.

"Let me show you true despair!" Azaroth hurled the flame spear skyward.

It arced through the air like a falling star, the sky itself seeming to crack under its passage. The very heavens bled crimson light as the weapon reached its apex and began its terrible descent.

Elara raised her greatsword with both hands and met the descending spear head-on. Her blade cleaved it mid-air, the resulting explosion flattening everything for a quarter-mile radius. Buildings evaporated, the earth itself was scoured clean, and a new crater formed where the capital's eastern district had stood.

When the light faded, Elara emerged bloodied but unbroken from the devastation.

"Did you think to call upon your precious Sun Empress?" Azaroth laughed, its voice carrying across the wasteland they'd created. "She cannot help you, girl. We have already trapped her in an endless mind loop. She doesn't even know her empire burns."

The words hit Elara like a physical blow. The Sun Empress, trapped, helpless, unaware of the chaos consuming her realm. The last pillar of order in this world, reduced to a prisoner in her own mind.

Rage beyond human comprehension filled Elara's heart.

****

The battlefield stilled as Elara raised her hand toward the sky. Above her outstretched palm, a colossal sun ignited, writhing with uncontrollable energy that made the air shimmer with oppressive heat. This wasn't flame anymore, this was stellar fire, the birth-cry of stars, the power that forged worlds.

For the first time, Azaroth faltered. Its molten wings folded slightly as it recognized the power before it, something beyond mortal magic, beyond even demonic strength.

Elara's crimson eyes narrowed, her aura swelling into a storm of fire that dwarfed the capital itself. When she spoke, her voice carried the authority of cosmic forces.

"Sun's Doom: TENTH SPELL!"

The artificial sun descended, its gravitational pull warping the battlefield. Air and stone bent toward it as space itself groaned under the strain. Azaroth unleashed a desperate abyssal torrent from its chest, all its power, all its malice, concentrated into one final attack.

It wasn't enough.

The descending star crashed into the demon, engulfing Azaroth in a cataclysm of light and flame that could be seen from neighbouring counties. The ground quaked as if the world itself was breaking, the horizon glowed like a second dawn, and ash swept across the land in waves.

When the flames finally subsided, ash floated like snow across a transformed landscape. Where the eastern quarter of the capital had stood, only glass and slag remained.

In the center of the endless crater, Azaroth's charred, skeletal figure emerged, skin scorched obsidian, cracks glowing with magma-like veins, molten blood hissing against the superheated ground.

Elara gasped in disbelief as the demon twitched. Its body began stitching itself back together, black flesh knitting over glowing cracks, molten blood hardening into armor-like scales. Within seconds, it stood whole again, stronger than before.

"Impossible," she whispered, her knees buckling as exhaustion overtook her.

She collapsed, gasping, sweat and blood dripping onto the glass beneath her. Her aura flickered like a dying flame, her reserves completely spent, her body pushed beyond the limits of what mortal flesh could endure, what even legends dared not test.

Azaroth began walking toward her with deliberate, heavy steps. Each footfall shook the ash-ridden ground, steam trailing in its wake as molten feet met cooling glass, hissing like serpents disturbed from slumber, echoing across the shattered battlefield.

The demon stopped before Elara and spread its arms wide in a grotesque display of dominance. Its shadow swallowed her broken form as the sky turned ashen and the air became suffocating.

When it spoke, its voice was like grinding stone, carrying the weight of cosmic inevitability.

"No matter what you struggle for, no matter how bright you burn... You were destined to die long ago. This is the honor of Mother."

The word Mother sent a chill through reality itself. Across the capital, people shuddered without knowing why. The very air seemed to recoil from the name, as if existence itself feared what was coming.

Elara's wide, defiant eyes stared up at the creature that had stolen her uncle's face, worn it for four years, and now stood over her broken body in triumph. Her spirit remained unbroken, but her flesh had failed her.

She could not rise. Could not fight. Could only watch as Azaroth raised one molten claw for the killing blow.

In the distance, the capital burned. The faction armies continued their pointless war, unaware that their world's greatest protector was trapped in her own thrown and their light in a crater of her own making.

The demon's claw descended, ready to end the bloodline of fire forever.