Ifrit roared.
The sound alone shook the corridor, flames exploding outward as dozens of blazing arrows formed behind him, hovering like a burning constellation waiting for permission to ruin someone's evening.
With a flick of his clawed hand, they launched.
Jacob reacted first.
Golden sigils burst into existence around him, layered shields snapping into place one after another. The arrows struck with violent detonations, fire splashing across translucent barriers that rippled like struck water.
The heat was unbearable. Stone melted. Air screamed.
Jacob gritted his teeth, boots sliding backward across the floor as the barrage continued.
So it was real.
All those old stories. The Blaze Of Berfolt.
He'd grown up hearing it like a legend told after too much wine.
And now the legend was trying very enthusiastically to kill him.
Ifrit lowered his arm, flames curling around his body as he examined Jacob with amusement.
"The bloodline survives," the demon mused. "How disappointing. I hoped our family finally learned weakness."
Jacob exhaled slowly, forcing his racing heart to calm.
He wasn't Lith. He wasn't Syrax.
He didn't crave battle.
He liked festivals. Good food. Loud laughter. Making sure people felt safe enough to smile.
And apparently that was exactly why he was still standing.
His magic answered his nature.
Light flared beneath his feet.
A summoning circle unfolded across the floor, intricate runes spinning outward like blooming petals.
"Come on," Jacob whispered.
Two shadows leapt from the circle.
Massive black hounds emerged, bodies formed from dense mana and starlight, eyes glowing silver as they landed beside him with low, protective growls. Their presence pushed back the heat, stabilizing the air around their master.
Jacob smiled despite the sweat running down his face.
"Ifrit," he said, raising his shield again, voice steadier now.
"This is the day I catch you."
The demon stared for a moment.
Then laughed.
A deep, delighted laugh that rattled the corridor.
"You?" Ifrit said, flames flaring brighter. "You are not a warrior."
Jacob adjusted his stance, shields rotating around him like orbiting moons.
"No," he admitted.
The hounds crouched, ready to spring.
"But I protect people," Jacob continued quietly. "And that means stopping things like you."
Ifrit's smile sharpened.
"Then protect yourself."
He slammed his foot down.
A wave of blue fire erupted forward, hotter, denser, ancient flame meant not to burn but to erase.
Jacob thrust both hands forward.
"Guard Formation!"
His shields expanded instantly, overlapping layers forming a radiant barrier dome. The hounds lunged through openings in the defense, splitting apart as they charged opposite sides of the demon.
One snapped at Ifrit's arm, jaws clamping down with a burst of binding magic. The other circled low, dragging chains of glowing runes behind it that wrapped around the demon's legs.
Ifrit staggered half a step.
His eyes widened slightly.
"Oh," he murmured, impressed despite himself. "You're full of surprises huh?."
Jacob pushed forward, sweat dripping from his chin, maintaining multiple spells at once. Defensive arrays reinforced his body while summoning magic tightened around the demon like closing iron bands.
He wasn't overpowering Ifrit.
He was containing him.
Buying time.
Holding the line.
Exactly what a Berfolt was meant to do.
Flames surged violently as Ifrit strained against the bindings, cracks forming in Jacob's shields.
The corridor trembled.
Jacob smiled through the pressure, breath shaking but determined.
"Not letting you loose again," he muttered.
Because somewhere else in this living nightmare of a castle, his friends were fighting battles meant for heroes.
And for once, the boy who loved feasts and festivals would be the wall that refused to fall.
Ifrit's body slackened.
For half a second Jacob thought the bindings had worked.
The flames dimmed. The pressure vanished. The corridor fell eerily quiet.
Then the demon moved.
Faster than thought.
His hand shot forward and wrapped around Jacob's throat, lifting him clean off the ground. Fire erupted from his palm, crawling up Jacob's neck in violent orange veins. The shields shattered instantly, dissolving like glass under a hammer.
Jacob choked, fingers clawing weakly at the demon's wrist.
One of the black hounds lunged without hesitation, jaws clamping onto Ifrit's arm. Silver light flared as binding magic activated, forcing the demon to flinch.
For a moment.
Ifrit glanced down, annoyed more than hurt.
"Bullshit! A Berfolt only need rely on his fire."
He grabbed the hound by the skull.
Flame compressed into his grip.
The summon howled once before disintegrating into ash that scattered across the burning floor.
Jacob's vision blurred. The heat was unbearable. His magic flickered, struggling to respond as consciousness slipped away.
Ifrit turned back to him, grin widening, teeth lengthening into monstrous fangs.
"Who would have thought," he mocked, voice dripping amusement, "for a second there that almost tickled."
He leaned closer, eyes glowing like furnaces.
"Child, you are leagues below what you'd need to threaten me.I have seen things that would make your kings piss their beds, your are nowhere ready for what's out there. Not even a lick of holy fire? Are you a cripple or something?"
Jacob didn't respond.
His arms hung limp. Breath shallow. Skin blackening where the flames touched him.
Ifrit clicked his tongue.
"Oh? Passed out from the shock? Tsk. Since when did my blood get so weak?."
His jaw unhinged wider than any mortal creature's should, fire gathering between rows of burning teeth as he prepared to devour him whole.
The corridor pulsed with heat.
And then-
CRACK.
A sudden impact slammed into Ifrit's throat.
Not magic.
Not flame.
Force.
Pure, brutal force.
The demon staggered sideways, grip loosening just enough for Jacob's body to drop and hit the floor with a dull thud.
Ifrit coughed, flames sputtering as he clutched his neck, eyes snapping toward the body laying on the floor.
He exhaled smoke, slowly straightening.
His grin returned, thin and sharp.
"…Annoying," he muttered.
Then he looked down.
Jacob lay on the floor.
Still.
Unmoving.
The corridor was quiet except for the faint crackle of fading fire and the distant groan of a collapsing castle deeper within the structure.
Ifrit tilted his head, studying the boy with mild curiosity. A golden light lingering faintly around Jacob's clenched fist, like embers refusing to die out.
"Well," Ifrit said softly, almost amused, "that didn't last long."
He stepped forward, boots scraping against scorched stone.
One step.
Then another.
Heat gathered in his palm again, slow and deliberate. No urgency now. No concern. Just certainty returning to its natural place.
He stopped over Jacob's body, casting a long shadow across him.
"You had potential," Ifrit murmured. "For a mortal."
He raised his hand slightly, flames beginning to coil into a final strike.
And then-
Jacob moved.
A sharp inhale broke the silence.
Fingers twitched.
The golden light flared again, weak at first, unstable, but present.
Ifrit paused.
Jacob pushed himself up slowly, one arm trembling beneath his weight. Burn scars now covered parts of his skin where fire had bitten too deeply into him, raw reminders of the exchange. His breathing was heavy, uneven, but his eyes-
His eyes were open.
Gold, fractured but burning.
He wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing ash across his cheek as he rose fully to his feet.
Unsteady.
But standing.
Ifrit's expression shifted slightly.
Interest.
Jacob flexed his hand once. The golden aura around it flickered, then stabilized, wrapping tighter around his knuckles like a second skin.
He stared directly at the demon.
No hesitation left.
Only intent.
"I'm not done," Jacob said quietly.
Ifrit smiled again.
This time, wider.
"Oh," he replied, voice low and pleased. "Good."
The air between them tightened.
Flame and divinity pressed against each other, neither willing to yield.
Jacob lowered his stance, pain etched across every breath, but his resolve sharper than before.
Ifrit rolled his shoulders once, heat surging outward in response.
"Then try again," the demon said.
And Jacob attacked.
No flourish. No hesitation.
Just motion.
His fist came in low, wrapped in that fractured golden light, aimed straight for Ifrit's ribs. The air around his knuckles bent as holy energy compressed into a tight, unstable shell.
Ifrit twisted his torso just enough for the strike to miss his core, but not enough to avoid impact. The blow clipped his side and detonated outward in a flash of light, cracking the stone behind him into a spiderweb of fractures.
Ifrit didn't retreat.
He answered immediately.
A brutal elbow swung down toward Jacob's collarbone, heavy enough to crush armor. Jacob raised both forearms, bracing. The impact sent him skidding backward across the scorched floor, boots carving twin grooves through melted stone.
Ifrit followed.
Too fast for something that size.
He closed the distance in a single step and drove a straight punch toward Jacob's face. Jacob tilted his head just barely, the fist grazing his cheek instead of landing clean. The pressure still ruptured the wall behind him.
Jacob pivoted on his heel and snapped a counterstrike upward into Ifrit's jaw.
Golden light exploded on contact.
Ifrit's head snapped back, but his body followed through the motion, turning the damage into momentum. He grabbed Jacob mid-recovery by the wrist and pulled, yanking him forward into a knee strike that collided with Jacob's stomach hard enough to lift him off the ground.
Jacob coughed blood, but his grip didn't break.
His hand ignited again.
He drove his forehead forward.
A headbutt, glowing with divine energy, slammed into Ifrit's chest.
The impact sent both of them staggering apart.
For a brief moment, silence.
Then the room gave up.
The corridor walls cracked outward from repeated impacts, stone and enchanted metal buckling under the strain. Ceiling supports groaned, then snapped, sending chunks of masonry crashing down around them.
Ifrit exhaled sharply, heat rolling off his body in waves.
"Good," he said, voice almost satisfied. "Again."
Jacob didn't respond.
He moved instead.
He rushed forward, ducking under a sweeping claw strike from Ifrit and driving a punch into the demon's solar plexus. The golden aura flared violently, pushing fire backward for a split second.
Ifrit grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him.
Jacob smashed through a stone pillar.
The entire structure collapsed behind him.
Dust filled the air.
For a moment, Ifrit couldn't see him.
Then Jacob emerged from the rubble.
Blood on his lips.
Scars burning across his skin.
Still standing.
Still moving.
He wiped his face once and exhaled through pain that should have stopped him already.
Ifrit's grin widened.
"You're learning," he said.
Jacob answered by charging again.
This time faster.
He feinted left, stepped right, and drove a clean hook into Ifrit's side, then immediately followed with an upward strike to the jaw. The combo landed in rhythm, each hit layering golden light into the demon's frame like a hammer striking molten iron.
Ifrit stumbled back a half step.
Only a half step.
Then he grabbed Jacob by the wrist mid-combination and twisted.
Bone strained.
Jacob gritted his teeth and used the momentum to flip himself upward, planting a foot on Ifrit's chest and kicking off hard enough to send them both crashing through the collapsing wall behind them.
They broke into the castle proper.
A grand hall.
Tall pillars.
Broken banners.
And terrified silence from distant corridors as the sound of war rolled in.
They landed hard on marble flooring.
Jacob rolled once, came up in a crouch.
Ifrit landed heavier, cracking the ground beneath him.
The hall around them trembled.
Chandeliers swayed.
Stone statues began to fracture from residual force alone.
Ifrit stood first.
He cracked his neck slowly.
"Now we're in a proper space," he said.
Jacob's golden aura flickered again, weaker but steadier now.
He raised his fists.
And the fight continued no longer contained to a corridor, but spilling into the heart of the castle itself, where every strike echoed like a declaration that neither side intended to stop.