To Ashes And Blood

C. Valdona

The Sabio’s glowing lips slowly curled into a horrifying smile.

“...C...?”

The field fell silent. Even the runners stopped moving.

The Sabio’s voice didn't need to be loud to be heard across the battlefield.

That single letter seemed to make even the Sabio uncomfortable.

Damien’s heart twisted in his chest as he whispered, “No. No. No. This can't be possible.”

The Sabio locked eyes with him for a brief moment. The mist around them seemed to thicken.

Then he noticed something else.

Cole had become eerily quiet.

The Cinder's eyes shifted from the Sabio to Damien and then back to the Sabio.

His usual playful expression had completely disappeared.

Corvin swallowed.

“Did that spawn from hell just talk?”

No one answered.

With a cracking sound, the Sabio tilted its head further, bending its neck at an impossible angle. Its glowing eyes remained fixed on Damien, as though it were trying to remember something….or someone.

Damien tightened his grip on his blade.

“In the original timeline, Sabios weren't supposed to appear here,” he thought. “And how does it know my name?”

At that moment, the Hollow King's eyes flashed through his mind.

“It's looking at me the same way the Hollow King did.”

The realization made his stomach turn.

The Sabio's cracked lips parted.

“You...”

Its voice sounded broken beneath the constant clicking that accompanied every word. It was as though several voices were trying to speak at once.

“You shouldn't be here.”

A cold chill ran down Damien's spine.

The world seemed to stop.

His lungs refused to work.

This confirmed the thoughts he had been trying to suppress ever since he saw the crater.

The timeline was being corrupted.

Everything was out of place.

Yet somehow, this thing knew.

Vera looked between Damien and the creature.

“Damien?”

Her voice barely reached him.

Corvin frowned.

“How the hell does it know him?”

Cole didn't speak.

He didn't take his eyes off the Sabio for even a second.

He maintained a calm demeanor and simply observed.

As though they feared it, the runners immediately retreated when the Sabio took a step forward.

A series of cracks echoed from the Sabio's joints.

“The Broken One...”

This time, the words echoed throughout the nest.

Damien's blood ran cold as he stared into the Sabio's eyes.

Broken One.

The title meant nothing to him, yet hearing it felt wrong.

Like hearing a forgotten memory spoken aloud.

The Sabio's eyes widened slightly.

Recognition.

Fear.

Excitement.

All at once.

It smiled.

“Why so early...”

Its voice became quieter.

“Much... too early...”

Every instinct in Damien's body screamed danger.

Not because of the Hollow.

Because of what it knew.

That was something it shouldn't know.

The air around them suddenly trembled.

A pulse of invisible force exploded outward.

The Sabio moved in a flash, shattering the ground beneath its feet.

It crossed the distance in an instant.

Faster than any runner.

Faster than anything Vera or Corvin could react to.

Its claws shot toward Damien's throat.

And then….

BOOM.

The entire battlefield exploded, clearing the mist around them for a brief moment.

It wasn't from the Sabio.

As the dust settled, Damien…now on the floor….raised his eyes toward the towering figure standing above him.

“Cinder Cole...”

The shockwave flattened every runner nearby.

Hundreds of meters of earth collapsed inward.

Dust erupted into the sky.

Damien barely managed to get back to his feet.

Cole's large hand was wrapped around the Sabio's wrist.

He stood between the Sabio and the four Ashens.

One hand rested in his pocket.

The other held the Sabio completely still.

The creature struggled to free itself.

Nothing happened.

Its arm didn't move an inch.

For the first time in that nest, fear appeared on the Sabio's face.

Cole sighed.

“Now you've annoyed me.”

His joking tone was completely gone.

The temperature around him seemed to rise.

The ground beneath his feet glowed faintly red.

Like a volcano buried beneath the earth had awakened.

The Sabio immediately tried to retreat.

Cole grabbed it by the face.

The battlefield disappeared.

That was the only way Damien could describe it.

One second there were pillars.

The next, there weren't.

One second there was solid ground.

The next, there was a crater.

Cole slammed the Sabio into the earth.

The impact generated a shockwave powerful enough to tear apart the surrounding tunnels.

Every remaining runner exploded into pieces.

Corvin, Vera, and Damien stared.

For the first time, they truly understood why Cole was one of the Six Cinders.

“First time?”

The Ashen scout, Vale, asked.

The look on their faces gave him all the answer he needed.

He chuckled.

“Every time I go out on missions with him, seeing him fight feels like the first time.”

The Sabio emerged from the crater with broken limbs and half its face missing.

Its regeneration struggled to keep up with the damage.

Cole cracked his neck.

“Come on.”

His voice echoed.

“I hit you softer than I hit Corvin.”

“HEY!”

Corvin pointed at him.

“No one asked you.”

The Sabio ignored Cole.

Its eyes shifted toward Vera.

Noticing that, Damien's heart stopped.

“No... you wouldn't dare.”

He struggled to remember.

“In the original timeline... they die. But not now.”

The Sabio's damaged face twisted.

It understood it couldn't defeat Cole.

So it chose something else.

The creature vanished.

“VERA!”

Damien moved before thinking.

The moment he stepped forward, pain exploded inside his skull.

His vision blurred.

A violent headache struck him, and blood began to drip from his nose.

Fragments of memory shattered apart.

Damien stumbled.

“No... the future is disappearing.”

The realization terrified him.

Changing fate carried a price.

But he couldn't stop now.

The Sabio appeared directly behind Vera.

Its claws descended.

Damien reached her first.

He shoved her away.

The claws pierced straight through his shoulder.

Agony exploded through his body.

“Damien!”

Vera screamed.

Cole's expression darkened.

For the first time since arriving at the nest, the Cinder looked genuinely angry.

The air became unbearably hot.

Bright red flames erupted around him.

Then Cole moved.

Nobody saw what happened.

Not even Damien.

One moment the Sabio was standing above him.

The next, it was flying across the battlefield.

Half its body had been blown clean off.

It crashed through multiple stone pillars before collapsing into a heap.

The silence that followed was like that of a mortuary.

The battle was over.

The Sabio tried to move, but its body trembled.

Cracks spread rapidly across its skin.

Cole approached slowly.

“Even death wouldn't save you from me if you got back up.”

The creature laughed.

A weak, scattered sound.

Then it shifted its eyes past Cole and toward Damien.

Its lips parted as the cracks reached its neck.

“The King...”

Damien froze.

The Sabio's smile widened.

“The King remembers.”