WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 153: Sacrifice

His hand rose, and this time, four burning spheres formed in a circle behind him.

Each orb pulsed with element. Flame. Stone. Lightning. Shadow.

They spun in the air, once, twice, faster and faster, the sky itself rumbling with the power they summoned.

Ben's eye twitched. "Shit."

Draeven stepped forward, mouth tight.

"Get ready," Ben growled. "We interrupt it, or we die."

The spheres locked into formation. And the Magus whispered, voice barely audible over the roar of magic, "Perish."

The four orbs shot out like divine judgment, spiraling in mid air twisting, converging on their location.

"RUN!" Vek'tal's voice roared, louder than the storm.

Ben and Draeven turned, eyes wide.

Vek'tal stood tall, his body already ablaze.. His very soul ignited. Gold flame poured from every crack in his skin. The ground trembled beneath him.

"I'll hold them!" he bellowed, eyes fierce. "MOVE!"

"Don't you dare—!" Draeven started forward. His molten eyes shook.

A Nephirid cannot cry. But that doesn't mean they don't feel.

The pain was there, raw and heavy, burning hotter than the fires that now consumed the battlefield. Draeven's chest rose and fell, his breath ragged. His grip tightened on the hilt of his weapon until the metal groaned.

Tzarek… gone And now Vek'tal.

His mind flashed to the past—nights huddled in shattered barracks, whispering dreams of vengeance. Laughing over stolen rations. Bleeding side by side. His family, ripped apart by the Ash King's madness. And now this… again.

His heart flared. Rage, yes but beneath it, grief. That silent, heavy ache he could never voice. He'd killed for his cause. He'd rebelled against his kingdom.

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But this? Just what did he do wrong? Why all bad things happen to him?

"Vek'tal!" he roared, stepping forward, fire bursting from his feet. "Stop this, don't you dare!"

But he stopped. Because he saw it. The truth. Sense of Helplessness wash over him.

Vek'tal's body was already flickering like a dying torch. Fire spilled from every inch of him, soul laid bare and feeding the inferno. There was no going back now. No saving him.

Draeven's hands trembled. His voice cracked. "You… idiot…"

Vek'tal turned, just barely his charred grin wide and full of defiance, even as his form crumbled like ash in the wind.

"If you stay," he rasped, flames curling out from his teeth, "then I die for nothing."

Draeven's knees buckled, but he didn't fall. He clenched his jaw. Turned his back. And ran.

Because that's what Vek'tal wanted. Because that's what brothers do.

Ben grabbed Draeven's shoulder, hard. "He made his choice."

The pain in Draeven's face twisted into rage, but he nodded, just once.

The moment they turned, the ground behind them erupted. The sky lit with fire and thunder as Vek'tal charged forward, roaring, the elemental orbs crashing down around him like the wrath of gods.

Vek'tal turned to face the storm.

The four elemental spheres screamed toward him, twisting like dragons forged from fire, stone, lightning, and shadow.

Vek'tal raised his arms, the flames pouring from his body now a solid cloak of molten fury. His muscles bulged, outlined in burning light, his veins glowing like magma channels. His fire had long surpassed normal heat, it was life itself, burning down to its final embers.

"Come on," he muttered, voice low, guttural, reverberating with flame. "Let me take you with me."

The first sphere struck.

BOOM!

A wave of fire clashed against fire, but Vek'tal held. His arms slammed forward, grabbing the core of the attack, his flesh tore, muscle peeled back, but he didn't stop. He forced it back.

Then the second hit, stone. It hammered him with crushing weight, slamming into his side and shattering bone. Still, he stood.

Lightning followed, tearing through the air and into his chest. He screamed, but the sound was defiance, not surrender.

The last shadow wrapped around him like a serpent, trying to consume his fire. But his fire was beyond shadow.

It exploded outward.

A nova of burning life erupted from Vek'tal, a pillar of golden-red fury that turned the cavern floor to molten glass. The elemental spheres collided with it, one by one, and crumbled, their power swallowed by the storm.

From far behind, Draeven skidded to a halt, heart pounding in his ears. He turned.

And saw it. A sun, blooming in the belly of the earth. "Vek'tal…" he whispered, voice hollow. His hands trembled around the shovel, blood dripping from his clenched grip.

Ben didn't stop. He didn't turn. He just ran, jaw clenched, eyes locked forward.

Because he knew. Vek'tal's sacrifice, no matter how noble or powerful, wasn't enough to end the Magus. That bastard wouldn't fall so easily.

'I need to find a way to kill him. Something more…'

His thoughts burned as fast as his steps. That flame, Vek'tal's final blaze, it wasn't ordinary. Not mana. Not aether. It was something else.

Ben could tell the flame coming out from Vek'tal is not normal, based on what happened he could conclude it's a final move that sacrifice his life.

It's stronger than even the aether he felt from the Magus attack, a whole new realm of energy.

'If that power come from life, than can I use it too?'

Technically he could create krell that have their own life, even those with smart intelligence.

If each one can explode like that than they have a change. 'Or should I try that?'