Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Three Years into the Future

The sky was bleeding ash.

A cracked sun hung behind a veil of smoke as the air shimmered with heat. Buildings leaned at broken angles, windows shattered, steel frames half-melted by fire. The once-mighty city center now resembled a graveyard of glass and ruin.

In the middle of it all, fire walked.

The monster known as Pyrrhus emerged from the smoldering remains of the courthouse tower, standing easily three stories tall. His body was black stone streaked with rivers of magma, limbs layered in armor forged by the earth’s core. Every movement sent flickers of flame from his skin, raining embers across the street.

He exhaled, and a jet of fire blew from his jagged mouth.

From across the blackened plaza, a single figure walked through the haze.

No armor. No team. No cape.

Just a lean figure in a scorched gray jacket, dark boots, and a blade at his side.

He could swap bodies with anything that had a mind.

Pyrrhus turned his head, amused by the approaching figure.

"Another insect crawls into the flame. What makes you special, mortal?"

Edward said nothing. His hand slid to the hilt of his sword.

Pyrrhus took a step forward—molten footprints burned into the pavement.

"Speak, boy. I enjoy screams before the end."

Edward’s voice cut through the smoke, low and calm.

With no warning, he sprinted forward.

Pyrrhus flinched in surprise at the sudden burst of speed.

Edward closed the distance in seconds, blade flashing upward. The sword struck Pyrrhus’s knee—not deep, but enough to force a reaction.

Pyrrhus roared and swung his massive arm like a hammer.

Edward ducked beneath it, spun sideways, and slashed at the monster’s thigh. Sparks exploded off the blade. Lava oozed from the cut.

A second fist came crashing down. Edward flipped backward, landing in a crouch, then darted left as a pillar of fire exploded where he’d just been.

Pyrrhus bared burning teeth.

"You’re fast. But that blade is toothless."

"We’ll see," Edward replied.

Pyrrhus raised both hands, and the air shimmered. From his palms, two whips of flame burst forth, spiraling and slicing through the air.

Edward rolled beneath one, leapt over the second, then used a crumbling traffic light as a springboard. He launched into the air, twisted mid-leap, and came down with the blade arcing toward Pyrrhus’s shoulder.

Flame hissed. The sword sank half an inch into molten rock.

Pyrrhus snarled and backhanded him mid-air.

Edward was sent flying across the plaza, smashing into the hood of a melted car. The impact drove the breath from his lungs.

The sword remained gripped in his hand.

Pyrrhus stomped forward.

"You are persistent, I’ll give you that."

Edward pulled himself off the car. His ribs screamed. His left arm trembled.

Pyrrhus looked at his shoulder. Thin magma dripped from the cut.

"That was your best chance. You won’t get another."

Edward began to circle, staying just outside the monster’s range.

"Then let’s make this one count."

He dashed forward again—low, fast, like lightning skipping across stone.

Pyrrhus reared back to crush him.

Edward changed direction at the last moment, sliding under the monster’s legs.

He slashed upward as he passed—blade dragging a line across the back of Pyrrhus’s knee.

The monster stumbled.

Edward touched his heel.

Inside Pyrrhus’s body, everything was fire.

Edward’s consciousness was submerged in a storm of heat, fury, and molten muscle. The fire wanted control. It wanted to burn.

But Edward gritted his mental teeth and seized the moment.

With Pyrrhus’s own hand, he reached for the embedded sword in his shoulder.

And shoved it deeper—straight toward the core of the monster’s chest.

Flame erupted from the wound.

Pyrrhus’s mind howled in rage.

Edward held his focus.

Then—he released the switch.

Back in his body, he hit the ground in a roll, gasping. The sword was still inside Pyrrhus.

The monster staggered backward, smoke pouring from the hole in his chest.

"You—you violated me!" he thundered.

"You let me in," Edward muttered.

The wound burned brighter, cracking the black stone of the monster’s chest.

But Pyrrhus was not finished.

He raised his arms—and the entire ground began to shake.

The earth split. Fire poured upward. Buildings nearby collapsed as a ring of flame surged outward from the beast.

Edward sprinted through the waves of heat. His jacket caught fire at the edges, but he didn’t stop.

He had to reach the sword again.

With a scream, the monster slammed his fists into the ground.

Explosions of fire burst in a chain, chasing Edward across the plaza.

He dove into the smoke, rolling under a flaming beam, and sprinted through the haze toward the monster’s towering form.

The sword still jutted from his shoulder.

Pyrrhus reached to tear it free.

—and touched his chest.

Just long enough to reach up and snap the sword off at the hilt—leaving the blade lodged inside.

Edward drove the broken half deeper with a roar of his own.

Then jumped out again.

Back in his real body, he hit the pavement hard.

Flames burst from his mouth.

He thrashed in all directions, clawing at his own chest.

The blade was glowing now—superheated and fused with whatever organ beat within his molten chest.

A massive chunk of his right shoulder broke off.

He ran—again—toward the collapsing monster.

Pyrrhus turned, weaker now.

"You will die with me!"

He opened his mouth to unleash one last blast of flame—

Edward threw the broken hilt.

It flew, end over end, and struck Pyrrhus in the eye.

The monster flinched.

And that was all Edward needed.

He launched himself up the monster’s knee, then to the thigh, leapt from a spike of armor, and grabbed onto Pyrrhus’s jaw.

The heat burned his palms, but he didn’t let go.

He drove his hand into the open mouth—

This time, the body was failing.

The fire was sputtering. The internal pressure rising.

Edward barely managed to move the limbs anymore.

But he forced the arms up—toward the head.

The top of Pyrrhus’s skull split, cracked down the middle.

The heat released was blinding.

From his real body, he watched the monster erupt.

Like a volcano in reverse.

A geyser of fire shot into the air, ten stories high, as the body tore itself apart.

Smoke rose from the crater.

The body of Pyrrhus was gone—nothing left but a half-melted skeleton of black glass and slag.

Edward collapsed to one knee.

He was soaked in sweat, burned, bruised, barely breathing.

The flames around the plaza slowly dimmed.

The sky began to clear.

He pushed himself to his feet, staggering toward the center of the destruction.

The sword—now just a twisted chunk of metal—was embedded in the black glass.

He picked it up anyway.

Something moved above.

Through the thinning clouds, a new shape had appeared in the sky.

He narrowed his eyes.

He raised the ruined sword.

"You can’t take Earth that easily."