In a bright volic cave…

  In a bright volic cave, the air shimmered with unbearable heat, ing the rugged walls into a surreal, molten nightmare. Sulfur and scorched minerals burned in Lisa’s nostrils, each breath searing the inside of her throat like she had swallowed embers.

  Her HP had plummeted into the single digits minutes ago. Ae adjusting the pain threshold to a tolerable seventy-five pert, her nerves screamed as if the setting had glitched and ked up to two hundred instead. Every muscle in her body trembled, the phantom sensation of fire lig at her skin making it impossible to ignore where she stood.

  Or rather, what she stood on.

  Liquid va roiled beh her, a bubbling expanse of molten rock shifting like the surface of some primordial beast. The twin ptforms of fire magieath her feet were the only things keeping her from an agonizih, their fragile glow flickering each time she faltered.

  And she could not falter.

  “Hold like this for aen minutes,” the Lord mused, his voice a purr of amusement that barely carried over the distant thunder of the shifting magma.

  Lisa would not make the mistake of thinking of him again as a dra—No.

  Not that.

  She smmed the thought out of her mind before it could take shape, shaking her head as if she could physically dislodge the notion. Focus. If she lost her grip oher of the spells she was maintaining, there wouldn’t be anythi of her tret it.

  Her mana reserves wavered at dangerous lows, a gnawiiness g at her. Every time she reached the brink of depletion, the Lord idly flicked his cws, replenishing her pool with almost zy indifferenot out of kindness. This wasn’t a test of magic; it was a test of endurance, of trol. A game where she held her own life in her hands, barely.

  Her pulse roared in her ears. The sweat trailing dowemple evaporated before reag her . Just half a sed of distra would kill her. But she ched her teeth and held on. Not for herself.

  For Katherine.

  Dmitry had been chosen as her fiancé, and there was nothing they could do to ge it. Not for ck —Lisa had tried. And failed. Over and over. And he loved that, didn’t he? That smug, predatory amusement every time he crushed atempt beh his heel.

  Lisa sucked in a sharp breath, her grip on the spells tightening. The Lord might have wanted her to break. Dmitry might have wanted her to suffer.

  But she would not give them the satisfa.

  Ten minutes passed. Then many more.

  The dra—Lord sprawled across his chosen perch like on a throne carved by the earth itself. His wings y folded, their leathery expanse shifting with each zy breath, the weird magic along his scales pulsing in rhythm. His eyes never left her.

  Watg. Measuring.

  “Very well,” he finally said, his voice a rumble of distant thunder. “You don’t ck determination.”

  Lisa barely processed the words through the haze of exhaustion. Her limbs trembled, every muscle screaming, the burh her skin no longer just heat but the deep, ag fatigue of holding on for too long.

  Then, without so much as a beat of his wings, he moved. That strange, effortless magic carried him forward, his fliding toward her with unnatural grace. And before she could react, before her mind even caught up to her instincts, she was snatched—lifted as if weightless, the world tilting—then unceremoniously deposited onto solid ground.

  Her knees buckled the instant they touched the rock. The magic circles had vanished, but their echoes still pulsed behind her eyes. The sheer strain of fog fod knows how lo her shaking, her breath ragged as she tried to pull herself together.

  But it was worth it. It had to be worth it.

  “You passed the sed test.”

  His voice had ged. Gone was the amused, taunting edge—it carried something quieter now, something heavier. Lisa forced her gaze upward just in time to see the transformation. The t beast shimmered, heat dist his form as it gave way to flesh. His frame pacted, shifting, his wings folding inward until they were gone.

  Theood before her.

  A humanoid now. Still tall, still radiating that impossible presence, but no lohe immeherworldly foring over her. His eyes, however, remained unged—glowing embers locked onto her with unnerving focus.

  “The st test.” His voice was subdued, thoughtful. “You have skill fid endurance of will. But do you have the attitude of fire?”

  Lisa’s breath steadied.

  “Yes,” she said. Without hesitation. Without doubt.

  A slow smile spread across his face, sharp and knowing. “Truly?” His gaze held her, searg. “Then tell me—what is fire? What does it mean to be fire?”

  Lisa exhaled, the heat pressing against her like a living thing, sinking into her bohe weight of exhaustion still g to her limbs, but she straightened, meeting his gaze without fling.

  “Fire does not obey,” she said, voice steady despite the tremor in her muscles. “It does not bow. It does not ask for permission. It rises where it pleases, es what it must, and refuses to be tamed.”

  A flicker of amusement—no, approval—passed through the Lord’s eyes.

  Lisa took a step forward. “Fire burns—not because it is told to, not because it serves some grand purpose. It burns because it is. Because it ’t be anything else. It doesn’t yield. It doesn’t promise. And when something stands in its way—” her fingers curled into fists, “—it turns that obstacle into ash.”

  The Lord let out a low, thoughtful hum.

  Lisa wasn’t done.

  “To be fire is to be untouchable. To know that the world will try to tain you, smother you, shape you into something small, something safe.” Her teeth ched. “But fire doesn’t stay where it’s put. It spreads. It refuses to be trolled.”

  Her pulse was hammering now, but she wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or something else—something hotter c through her veins, filling the spaces where doubt used to be. The Larded her in silehen, slowly, he stepped closer. The heat around him thied, pressing against her skin like invisible hands, but she stood her ground.

  “That,” he said finally, voice lower now, like the crag of fmes, “is an answer worth sidering.”

  His humanoid form flickered, his outline blurring like an ember caught in a gust. For a heartbeat, Lisa could see the fire in him—the sheer, urained force beh his carefully held shape.

  The Lord chuckled, deep and rich, like the smolder of coals before an inferno.

  “Very well,” he said, and this time, there was no mockery in his tone. No amusement. Just something solid. Something real. “You may yet prove worthy.”

  [Mythic Path Unlocked: You have embraced the fmes that refuse to be tamed. Prestige Css chosen "The Rebel Fire."][From now on you bear the name Lisa, The Rebel Fire.]Lisa’s eyes flicked to the glowing noti front of her, her lips parting in disbelief. Her heartbeat, already rag from exhaustion, skipped a beat. She barely registered the slow rise and fall of her chest, her breath ing shallow as her brain worked to process what she was seeing.

  “My—mythic?” The word came out in a whisper, brittle, uneven. She blinked rapidly and tore her gaze away from the notice, looking up——into the Lord’s eyes. He was mythical, beyond question. The sheer presence radiating from him roof enough of that.

  The best csses she had ever heard of were heroes, and they were legendary. She swallowed, something uneasy ing in her gut.

  “Do you doubt me?” The Lord’s voice rolled through the cavern, dark, carrying the slow, simmeri of something dangerous.

  Lisa snapped back to reality, her body stiffening on instinct. “No! I just—” her throat tightened. Surprised. That’s what she was. Shocked, even. This wasn’t something she expected. “Charlie… somehow… did it?”

  The Lord snorted, a puff of smoke curling from his nostrils. His amusement was razor-thin, barely cealing something far sharper beh it.

  “You mean that vermin that came with you?” His lip curled slightly, s thi his tone. “Fet about her now.”

  Lisa bristled, but before she could say anything, the heat in the cavern swelled again, pushing against her skin like an unspoken and. The Lord’s gaze bore into hers, his words slower, more deliberate.

  “You o embrace fire.”

  ***

  On the coast…

  The prince flexed his fingers again, his brow furrowing as he turned his hand over, studying the way the light caught on the surface of his palm. His golden eyes flickered with something close to fusion.

  “I don’t uand...” he murmured, slowly g his fist as if expeg it to fade from existence. “I’m… in the ring and I’m not at the same time?”

  I shrugged, adjusting the amulet as it settled against my colrbone. “You told me yourself. This is divine magic we’re dealing with. It doesn’t have to make sense.”

  His gaze snapped up to mine. “But... I’m forbidden to...“ He blinked, realization dawning over his face like the slow spread of dawn. His fiwitched at his sides, aook a careful step forward, testing his bance. Like a newborn deer, but make it royal.

  “This isn’t a real body, is it?”

  “Nope,” I said, rog bay heels with a grin. “It’s a mana struct. Your sciousness, shaped into a temporary mana form.”

  His mouth opened slightly, a thousand thoughts clearly f behind his eyes. Too bad for him, I didn’t care to hear them. Because right then, I lifted my hand and—

  Sp.

  A sharp crack echoed through the cliffs as my palm ected with his face, my fingers stinging from the impact.

  He staggered back a fra, blinking in sheer disbelief. Not from pain—just shock. Which was uable, holy.

  So I spped him again.

  “Pretender!” he growled, his golden eyes burning with fury. “What was that for?”

  I cocked my head, giving him a quizzical look. “Do you really have to ask?”

  He paused, the anger in his expression shifting into something like… resignation. He exhaled, tilting his head to the side slightly, sidering me.

  Then, with the most exhausted voice I’d ever heard from him, he muttered, “Fair enough.” The priared at me like I’d personally offended his entire lineage. “So you risked the wrath of the divine… just so you could sp me?”

  I folded my arms, tapping my fingers against my biceps as if pting. “Well, it wasn’t just for that.” I paused, then gave him a zy grin. “But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t deeply satisfying.”

  His golden eyes narrowed. “Pretender...“ he sighed. Then his gaze wandered past me, finally taking in our surroundings—the vast expanse of shimmering blue stretg to the horizon, waves crashily against the cliffs below.

  The air was thick with salt and warmth, the perfect blend of zy paradise meets treacherous beauty. The sea glistened like molten sapphire uhe sun’s embrace, and the breeze carried the st of something sweet—maybe citrus from the scattered vegetation ging to the rocky ledges.

  He turned bae with a wry smirk. “So, you chose to take a retreat into a tropical isnd after all...“ He rolled his shoulders, as if already settling into the idea. “That’s—“

  “What? No.” I scoffed, jabbing a fioward a darkened crevice carved into the cliff-side. The yawning mouth of a cave loomed above us, half-hidden behind a curtain of hanging vines. “Look there. We o… retrieve something else.”

  The prince followed my gaze, the out the most obnoxious ugh I’d ever heard from him. A deep, knowing, utterly exasperated ugh.

  “Oh, Pretender,” he drawled, shaking his head as he crossed his arms. “And for a moment, I actually thought you had ged.”