Shadow Weaver: Sole Heir Of The Night-Chapter 167: Fire Giant

"Ranked sixty eighth on the Gaia Ice Wall. Sounds pretty intimidating."

Zeke walked forward without hurry, each step steady, deliberate. Fire bloomed around him, sparks snapping into existence as heat bent the air.

Once, he had been a Sky, a pure flame bearer who bent fire as easily as breathing. The element answered him without question.

After his second voyage, that simplicity had been stripped away. What replaced it was denser, layered, something sharper hiding beneath the flames.

"Fire versus ice. A rivalry as old as history. Of course you’re nothing but..." Liana began, lips already curling in disdain.

Her words faltered.

"...Sky," she muttered, eyes narrowing as she truly looked at him.

The Sky were no minor faction. Comparable to Lokians once, stronger now by most measures, honed by conflict and scarcity.

Instead of irritation, her smile widened. Excitement flickered behind her gaze. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Much better."

Snow shuddered at her feet. Ice peeled up from the ground, flowing toward her like a living thing.

Plates layered themselves over her body, smooth and seamless, forming hardened armor that glimmered with pale light.

In her hand, a spear took shape, condensed from pure ice, its edge impossibly sharp.

Ice constructs.

Liana’s ability went beyond control. She forged reality, temporary creations bound by will alone.

They repaired themselves as long as her focus held. Damage was not lost, only stored.

Attacks were swallowed, frozen, and returned in kind.

Woosh

A heartbeat later, Liana vanished from where she stood.

Ice shattered beneath her feet as she surged forward, a streak of white and silver cutting through the air. Zeke’s flames roared higher in response, the ground beneath him blackening and cracking as heat bled outward.

Without hesitation, he reached out.

Fire answered him violently. Pillars of flame speared up from the scorched earth, twisting and colliding as they rushed toward her like living things.

Fire melts ice. That truth was carved into every battlefield and every lesson ever taught.

But what wrapped Liana was not ordinary ice.

She tore straight through the inferno.

Flames clung to her armor, crawling over her body, yet they failed to slow her even a fraction. Frost hissed where fire touched, but nothing gave way.

She appeared in front of Zeke in the same breath.

Her fist came first.

Instinct took over. Zeke raised his arms and braced, fire condensing around him as he blocked.

The impact rang through him.

The world lurched as his feet tore free from the ground, his body hurled backward as if struck by a battering ram. Pain exploded across his arms and chest, rattling bone and breath alike.

"She’s sanctified," Zeke thought grimly as he skidded to a halt, heat flickering unsteadily around him.

His whole body screamed.

In raw elemental output, they were evenly matched. Flame against ice, pressure against pressure.

That alone was terrifying.

Liana was sanctified, while he was exalted. The gap should have been impossible to cross.

And yet here they were.

But physical strength was a different wall entirely.

Her abilities favored form and force. Every construct she wielded carried weight, density, inevitability.

Mitigating that difference was far harder than matching her element.

"Hehe."

Despite the pain, Zeke grinned.

Fear never reached his eyes.

If brute force would not work, then there was only one option left.

End it fast.

Without hesitation, he reached behind him and drew out a staff of gold. Strange symbols spiraled along its length, old and heavy with meaning, each one faintly glowing as his grip tightened.

"Take this."

He leveled the staff forward.

Fire condensed at its tip, compressing inward instead of exploding outward. Space warped around the forming sphere, heat bending reality itself.

It looked less like flame and more like a fragment of the sun, unstable and furious.

Boom.

The fireball detonated forward, the shockwave tearing through the air. Liana reacted instantly, ice surging up to form a shield before her, thick and layered, its surface etched with shifting runes of frost.

The collision was deafening.

The fire did not melt the shield.

Not even a little.

Instead, the problem became weight.

The sheer mass and pressure behind the blazing sphere slammed into the construct, forcing it back inch by inch. Ice screamed as the ground beneath Liana fractured, her boots carving trenches as she was pushed steadily backward.

She gritted her teeth, will flaring as she reinforced the shield again and again.

"Tch," Titus muttered from the side, bitterness creeping into his smile.

"Demi god echo."

Zeke had pulled out something he should not have.

""Your friend is a fool," Leon commented, eyes narrowing as the heat and frost distorted the air before them. He did not like where this was headed. Zeke had drawn a demi god echo. If Liana answered in kind, this would stop being a spar and become something else entirely.

"He knows what he’s doing," Enzo said, shaking his head, his gaze never leaving the clash ahead.

That was not entirely true. He had no idea why Zeke was escalating this far, this fast. Still, there was no reason to abandon him now.

The moment Liana finally dispersed the fireball in front of her, the space between them collapsed.

Zeke was suddenly there.

He leaned into her guard, closing the distance until there was no room to breathe.

"Explosive contact."

The words were barely audible.

His fists moved.

Each strike landed cleanly against her armor plates, precise and deliberate. With every impact, a tight burst of flame detonated, sharp and controlled.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The armor held. It did not crack or shatter.

But the explosions rattled her focus, fire crawling across the ice, heat bleeding inward. The rhythm of his blows denied her the chance to counter, forcing her body to react again and again.

Her breath grew heavier.

Heat built beneath the armor, suffocating and relentless. Her muscles burned as her body pushed past its limits, overworking itself under pressure and temperature.

Then Zeke noticed it.

She was laughing.

Behind the mask, unseen, Liana was smiling.

Her hand shot out without warning.

Cold fingers clamped around Zeke’s face.

The world flipped.

She drove him straight down.

The impact thundered across the castle front, stone erupting as Zeke was slammed headfirst into the ground. The shockwave rippled outward, rattling banners and walls alike.

Enzo frowned.

Leon sighed, shaking his head.

There was a reason his sister was called the wolf.

It was not just her temperament.

Unlike the others, who followed refined and carefully prepared voyage sequences, Liana’s first voyage had been an accident.

A supreme star seed.

Within it, she had inherited the attributes of a dire wolf.

Her body responded now.

With every strike she threw, her frame expanded subtly, muscles swelling, blood pulsing harder through her veins. Strength layered upon strength as instinct took over.

She pounded Zeke again and again, driving him deeper into the shattered ground. Blood streaked across his face, heat flickering weakly beneath her blows.

She was changing.

Becoming.

A dire wolf in all but form.

Enzo took a step forward, intent on stopping it before it went too far.

Then something moved.

A scorched black arm burst from the rubble and caught Liana’s descending strike mid air.

The ground trembled.

Zeke rose.

"Fire giant."

His voice was low, rough, almost buried beneath the roar of flame.

His body began to grow, not transforming in shape, but expanding in presence. Heat thickened around him, flames clinging to his skin like molten armor.

Strength answered strength.

However, with his growing size, it became clear the fight had crossed a line.

Zeke continued to expand until he towered over the courtyard, his frame reaching the height of a two story building. He no longer needed to look down at Liana.

He cast a shadow over everything.

Roar!!!!

The sound tore through the air, savage and primal. Flame surged outward as he brought his fist down.

The strike hit the ground like a falling star.

Stone exploded. The earth convulsed. Shockwaves rippled outward, rattling walls and sending cracks racing through the castle front.

It was an earthquake born from fire and mass.

Liana had changed completely now.

Her form twisted into a full werewolf, limbs lean and powerful, muscles coiled tight beneath frost hardened fur. Her agility skyrocketed as she darted and leaped, narrowly avoiding each descending blow.

Every impact missed her by inches yet devastated the ground she had stood on moments before.

She could still move.

But she could no longer fight.

Any attempt to strike back would tear through the surroundings, collapse structures, bury spectators. The battlefield itself had become the enemy.

"Okay, let’s stop here."

Suddenly words that were calm, Absolute.

A crushing presence descended from above, heavier than flame or ice, pressing down on the space itself. The air thickened, forcing both combatants to freeze mid motion.

Even Zeke’s flames stuttered.

Both heads turned upward.

Standing there, untouched by chaos, was a man whose very existence commanded silence.

Count Jake, and right beside him stood minister fin with a mischievous look on his face.