Ignite the Sun

Shadows surged and covered Arthur's body with a cocoon of darkness, hiding whatever horrific transformation was about to take place.

"What the hell happened?" Nickolas questioned as everyone gathered around Tharion.

"The suppression imposed on the Blight was dispelled when I destroyed the blade – it seems like the suppression has made the fragment inside more dangerous and Arthur has just attempted to merge himself with it."

"Isn't that very bad?" Isara frowned.

"Not necessarily, considering his high susceptibility to mental alterations the transformation will almost certainly turn him into a mindless beast – he will be stronger but dumber."

The ground shook once more and the veil of shadows surrounding Arthur started to crack, like an egg of a terrible monster.

What emerge from within retained only a passing resemblance to the man it once was; the creature was humanoid, but only in the sense that it had four limbs and was standing upright. Its skin, if you could enven call it that, was ink black and oily, as if made of tar.

It didn't have hands but instead both of the monster's forearms extended into long, broad blades which looked remarkably similar to his former sword. The creature didn't have feet either, instead balancing on its needle-like legs.

The head was the only reason Arthur was even remotely recognisable – its face was a twisted version of his former one with no nose, small burning-red eyes and inhumanly wide, lipless maw displaying dozens of oversized fangs.

"I must say, you're hideous even by corrupted creature standard." Leon commented.

The beast roared and snarled, not waiting even a second before flinging itself at Tharion.

Despite mine more people standing in close proximity, it was like it couldn't see anything but the man that defeated it and forced to take this form.

The Guardian parried the first few blows with his forearm, but apparently that wasn't enough because for the first time since the battle started he reached for his sword.

Arthur might have lost any semblence of technique he might have had before, but he did exponentially grow in terms of strength and speed.

Every blow exchanged between the two caused miniature craters to appear beneath their feet.

"If this escalates any further the castle will be done." Nickolas said. "We have to finish this quickly."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Damien questioned. "Tharion is already amortising most of the damage with his body, if a former god can't contain him quickly then what hope do we have?"

Nickolas sighed as he observed the vicious duel – his friend was right, this time sword techniques weren't enough to solve the problem.

"I have an idea." Isara spoke up. "Since he achieved this current form by merging with the sword he probably retains some of its qualities, we can use that against him."

"Not to rain on your parade but the magic parts of the sword worked only because the Blight was being suppressed." Calen pointed out. "Now that it's free the magic won't be able to interact with whatever remains of the weapons enchantment."

"He won't be able to activate magic, that's true – but someone else could."

"Sure I guess, but what would be the point of us activating his-"

Calen suddenly realised what she meant – from everything they learned so far the usage of magic was extremely dangerous for partially corrupted mages.

It must be even worse for a being completely surrendered to the Blight.

"Do you think it'll kill him?" He asked.

"Probably, but if not then he'll get at least seriously hurt."

"Let's do it then. What enchantment should we activate?"

"Preferably something that won't accidentally help him or make things worse..."

"Mind link." They said in unison.

"What's that?" Leon questioned.

"The most basic spell involving blood, it essentially allows two people to communicate telepathically at short distances." Calen explained

"What do you need to cast it?"

"I mean, blood obviously – doesn't matter whose since the monster likely won't be able to create a proper link anyway."

"We should use yours." Cassian suggested.

"Why?"

"Because of the Sun Domain, now that the flame is bound directly to your body maybe your blood retains some of its powers."

"Good thinking, maybe it'll hurt him even more." Calen nodded. "Isa could I borrow your dagger? And Ellie, give me an empty vial."

A cut, a squeeze, and a few seconds later he was holding a small glass container full of crimson liquid.

"You can uninronically say that you have fire in your blood." Alfred chuckled.

It sounded like a joke but it wasn't – faint lines of golden and orange flames flickered from time to time in his blood.

Calen didn't even bother bandaging the cut he made on his palm, it was already starting to heal after all and would probably close completely in a few minutes.

"Throw it at his back." He handed the vial to Nickolas. "You're probably the only one who can actually hit him."

Nickolas nodded.

"I'll do my best."

He waited for a sign that the fight was about to slow down for a moment and immediately bolted to position himself behind Arthur.

With all the strength and precision he could muster he threw the glass container at the center of the monster's mass.

The vial hit Arthur between shoulder blades, braking with a quiet 'clink' and spraying him with the red liquid.

There was an immediate reaction – the skin that was touched by Calen's blood began sizzling, but more importantly a giant red rune appeared on his back.

The beast clutched its head an bent in half, producing a shrill scream that could be only described as inhuman.

At the same time Calen grabbed his own head in pain.

"Shit I was wrong, he knows how to use it..."

But the pain didn't last long.

Tharion didn't miss a beat delivered a devastating blow to the monster's head, crushing it instantly – but his blade didn't stop there, traveling all the way through the creature's body and bisecting it.

After that everything fell silent.

They've won – but what came next?