NOVGO.NET Chapter 86: Trial By Flame
Chapter 86: Trial By Flame
"Gage, step away from that copper brazier before the heat fuses your handcuffs."
The cavernous interior of the abandoned municipal stadium reeked of burning pitch and scorched stone.
"I didn’t light it, Fin... the flame started crawling out of the floor grating ten minutes ago!"
"Maya, what is the thermal reading on that central altar?"
"Four thousand degrees and climbing, Fin... but the thermal signature is anomalous, completely disconnected from normal thermodynamic laws."
"A ritual anchor," Ruby said, planting her shield in the center of the stadium tunnel with a dull clatter.
"Ignis," Fin muttered, resting his hand on the polished haft of his hatchet.
"Why would a patron god manifest an anchor in an abandoned sports stadium?" Nila asked, her fingers lightly resting on her foil.
"Because the stadium sits directly on top of the municipal gas mainline," Gage croaked, his face pale with dread.
"If the main line detonates, three city sectors go up in flames," Ruby muttered.
The fire in the center of the turf field suddenly twisted into a towering pillar of white-hot plasma, curling like the horns of an enraged bull.
A voice like grinding molten rock echoed across the empty concrete bleachers, rattling the cracked floodlights overhead.
"Gage... faithless cur."
Gage dropped to his knees, his hands trembling violently against the aluminum chains of his prisoner restraint harness.
"Lord Ignis... I am in custody, I am awaiting legal hearing!"
"You were commanded to ignite the fuel reserves beneath District Four... yet you sit in chains beside mortal vermin."
"There are one hundred and forty children in the harbor triage tents, Lord Ignis! I am a thief and an enforcer, not a mass butcher!"
"Then your covenant is broken, traitor."
A blinding arc of crimson fire snapped across the field, lashing against Gage’s chest with a sickening sizzle of burning cloth.
Gage screamed, arching backward onto the gravel as the residual golden fire of his patron blessings was violently ripped from his veins.
The glowing crimson runes across his forearms turned black, crumbling away like charred parchment to leave only scarred, ordinary human flesh.
"Gage! Stay down behind the wall!"
"My... my fire..." Gage gasped, coughing up grey ash onto the dirt. "It took the flame... it took everything..."
"Mortal clay, devoid of divine warmth... now you burn with the rest."
The pillar of fire solidified into a seven-foot avatar of living magma, its face a featureless mask of blazing orange light.
"Ruby, hold the exit corridor, don’t let the heat wash into the concourse!"
"I have the tunnel blocked, Fin, but this heat is scorching the paint off my shield!"
"Nila, get Gage behind Ruby’s back line!"
"Moving him now, captain!"
Nila hauled Gage by his collar across the red-hot gravel, dragging him into the shadowed safety of the reinforced concrete tunnel.
"Maya! Where is the physical relay sustaining that avatar?"
"Look at the south goalpost, Fin! The steel crossbar was melted down into a runic conductor loop!"
"I see the glowing loop, twenty yards behind the avatar!"
"You cannot snuff the eternal hearth, blank vessel!"
The avatar raised both hands, hurling a twin stream of liquid fire that scorched a black furrow straight toward Fin’s boots.
[ Stamina: 100/100 ]
[ Mana: 40/40 ]
Fin didn’t jump into the air where the flame would engulf him.
With one hundred and twenty-eight points of agility, Fin’s boots found the cool stone curb, pivoting laterally in a sharp, evasive zig-zag.
The grounding marrow in his bones hummed softly as the peripheral heat splashed against his shins, dispersing the thermal shock into the concrete bedrock.
"Warp Slip!"
[ Active skill: Spatial Warp Slip L1 initiated ]
[ Mana Cost: 10/40 → Current Mana: 30/40 ]
[ Spatial Translation: 8 Meters Forward ]
The world snapped sideways in a blink of folded air, carrying Fin past the magma avatar’s flank straight toward the melted goalpost.
"You arrogant spark, eat steel!"
Fin gripped the hatchet with both hands, driving the reverse spike directly into the center of the glowing copper conductor loop.
The heavy steel spike shattered the runic conduit with a concussive shockwave of blue mana discharge.
A roar of furious, dying fire tore from the avatar’s throat as its physical anchor dissolved into spinning embers.
The towering pillar of plasma collapsed into a cloud of harmless grey smoke, leaving only charred turf and cooling cinders on the stadium floor.
[ Containment Milestone Achieved: Avatar Projection Neutralized ]
[ Ritual Anchor Destroyed | Divine Conduit Dispersed ]
[ EXP: +5,700,000 ]
[ Total EXP: 22,500,000 / 250,000,000 ]
A massive surge of five point seven million experience cascaded into his core, driving the total past twenty-two million.
The stifling heat faded rapidly into the cold evening wind blowing off the bay.
"Fin! Are you whole?"
Ruby jogged out from the tunnel mouth, her shield rim steaming in the damp air.
"Not a blister on me, Ruby... the grounding passive took the brunt of the ambient heat."
Nila stepped out behind her, keeping one hand on the hilt of her rapier while keeping an eye on Gage.
"What do we do with him now, Fin?"
Gage sat huddled against the concrete wall, clutching his blistered forearms with hollow, exhausted eyes.
"He refused an execution order from a god to protect civilian shelters," Fin said quietly.
"His past crimes are still on record, Fin... fourteen counts of trafficking and unauthorized mana suppression."
"I am not wiping his record, Nila... but he enters supervised auxiliary service under the Iron Dogs pending his public magistrate hearing."
"What does auxiliary service mean in practice?" Ruby asked, wiping soot from her forehead.
"It means he doesn’t sit in a dark cell waiting for an assassin’s knife," Fin explained. "He carries sandbags, he hauls water to the medical tents, and he answers every question Maya asks under oath."
Gage lifted his head, his voice trembling with disbelief.
"Auxiliary service? After everything I did?"
"You carry sandbags, Gage... you earn your bread by keeping other people alive."
"I... I can do that. I swear on my life, Fin, I can do that."
"Good, get him into the transport van and bandage those burns."
A sudden, quiet vibration hummed through the empty space behind his collarbone, soft as falling snow.
The voice did not carry the heat of Ignis or the cold roar of the ocean.
"You break the anchors of the proud with remarkable ease, young predator."
’The Witness.’
"The time for whispering across the ether has drawn to a close."
"Are you sending another warning about the sea?"
"Tomorrow evening, when your household gathers to break bread, I shall take a seat at your table in the flesh."
"You are manifesting physically?"
"A witness must observe with eyes of clay if she wishes to understand the strength of mortal bone."
"Until the candles are lit, blank one."
The mental resonance faded into silence, leaving behind only the distant, steady rumble of thunder across the western sea.
"Fin? What is that expression on your face?"
"Ruby... tell Jolly to set another plate for tomorrow’s dinner."
"Another guest? Who is coming now?"
"A goddess, Ruby... and she is coming through the front door."
"A goddess sitting in apartment 4B?" Nila asked, staring at Fin with genuine disbelief. "Can the apartment building even support divine weight?"
"She said she is coming with eyes of clay," Fin replied, sliding his hatchet back into its belt loop. "Which means she walks in on two mortal feet and eats with a wooden spoon like the rest of us."
"Does she expect us to bow?" Ruby asked, shaking her head.
"I have never bowed to anyone in my life, Ruby, and I am not starting in our own kitchen."
"What if she dislikes the potato soup?"
"Then she can eat dry bread like everyone else," Nila said with a dry smirk. "Even heaven doesn’t get special catering in District Four."
"Let’s get Gage to the hospital tent first, then we clean the soot off our jackets before Jolly sees the holes."