Chapter 10: LET DOWN
General Duncan Keller stood at the edge of the frozen river, his expression hard as stone. Before him stood the heads of the five major noble houses of the Grelon Empire. He said, his voice flat and cruelly composed:
"I would ask about your day or wish you well, but I already know how it's going… and how it will end. So that wouldn't be a genuine greeting, would it? We might as well get started."
The heads exchanged uneasy glances, but none spoke at first. Then Matriarch Miron Mau clicked her tongue with audible disapproval. Her frown deepened, sculpted with disdain.
"I didn't think one of the renowned Chained Generals of the Shurur Empire thought so little of their lifelong enemies that he'd fight five Apocalyptic Imprinters alone."
General Duncan Keller scoffed.
"This is me giving the Grelon Empire some face. I sent away General Asher Flowers. If the two of us fought you together, our names would be sullied. The Dyson people would call the Shurur Generals bullies… and the heads of Grelon's noble houses would command no more respect."
Patriarch Noa Inertia muttered under his breath, too low for anyone to hear clearly:
"If two Stage Nineteens fight five Stage Eighteens… it'll be a slaughter. We should attack now—before he changes his mind."
But the General wasn't done.
"You people are not the Blood Covenants," General Duncan Keller growled. "I don't know where you got the courage to stand before me—but it's too late. Ready yourselves."
Then, in one sudden motion, General Duncan Keller lowered his palm onto the frozen river. The ice hissed.
And then it screamed.
Steam rose in great waves as the river melted. Boiling water turned to fire—flaming water, an impossible contradiction of nature. The noble house heads leapt back to shore instinctively, eyes wide as the entire river was set ablaze.
The heat was monstrous, like standing at the gates of some infernal world.
Patriarch Noa Inertia's voice trembled as he explained:
"His Hue property... it's flammable. It turns all water into flames."
Matriarch Esme Ardour's face darkened.
"This is troublesome. The General's an Ascendant Imprinter. He doesn't need his Ract Stone to activate Water Prints—he can use natural water as a medium. That means he spends zero Nits of Hue to activate his techniques."
Patriarch Gaston Gullet stepped forward, already calculating. His face, typically jovial, was all seriousness now.
"We can't afford a battle of attrition," he said. "Going against an Ascendant Imprinter with major reserves in Nits of Hue... All of us combined might not equal half of his."
The General frowned at their hesitation, his voice edged with cruelty.
"Are you just going to stand there?"
That was the cue.
Noa Inertia immediately raised his Ract Stone, a yellow light flashed from it. He chanted:
"Ancestral Print—Tactile."
A massive stone slab erupted from the bank and slid out across the burning water. It was anchored to the waves themselves, adjusting with each swell, now a crude but functional platform.
The house heads leapt onto it one after another.
But the General vanished.
Duncan Keller dropped into the flaming river without a sound. The surface hissed where he disappeared, the fire curling inward like a beast swallowing its prey.
The nobles scanned their surroundings, nerves on a razor's edge. Matriarch Zara Avarice whispered with urgency:
"Form a circle. Watch each other's backs. He can strike from any side."
They were isolated—trapped in the middle of a river now made entirely of living fire. An artificial platform in a sea of death.
Matriarch Esme Ardour turned to Patriarch Gaston Gullet, her voice stern.
"Use your corrosive Hue. Your Ice Prints. Try to eat away at the flames."
He hesitated.
"It won't be enough. Not against a Stage Nineteen's Etch Technique."
But Matriarch Miron Mau snapped:
"Just do what you're told, old man. He didn't use a Print to create this Etch technique. If you counter it with an Engraved-level Print, it'll be enough."
Gritting his teeth, Gaston clasped his hands.
His Ract Stone shot into the sky, growing from a small cube into a massive structure that floated above them. He leapt onto it.
With a fierce motion, he slammed both hands down at the flames below.
"Engrave: Frostbite!"
The Ract Stone flared with a sharp orange hue.
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted. The surface of the flaming river crackled and froze, the fire pushed back by creeping ice. Relief swept through the nobles like a passing wind.
But it was short-lived.
A hand shot up from the fire and yanked Matriarch Miron Mau by the ankle. She screamed as she was pulled under.
Before the others could react, Matriarch Zara Avarice surged forward, her arm morphing into raw lightning.
"Conjecture!"
She slammed her fist into the fiery river, parting the flaming water. Noa Inertia followed instantly, stone walls rising from the parted river to hold back the flames.
They peered down.
At the bottom, deep in the glowing trench, Duncan Keller embraced Miron Mau in a death-grip. Flames curled around them like a funeral pyre.
But the Matriarch did not go quietly.
Her arms shifted—viciously rotating flower petals emerged from her flesh, a signature of House Mau's savage elegance. She spun, shredding through the General's body.
His form collapsed into molten flame.
She leapt back onto the platform, panting, burns lining her arms.
"We need to get back to the shore!" she warned. "If he uses his Prints on this flaming water… it won't just burn. It will erase us. You so much as touch it, you're gone."
But her words came too late.
General Duncan Keller reappeared in the sky, right behind Patriarch Gaston Gullet.
Before Gaston could look back, Duncan grabbed him—then plunged down into the fire below.
The flames shifted. No longer like water—they now resembled pure fire. True flame.
The floating rock platform beneath the house heads began to crumble as the house heads jumped back to the shore.
Gaston's Ract Stone fell into the inferno and was instantly consumed.
From the heart of the fire, the General rose again.
Hands tucked casually into the pockets of his long coat, not a burn on him.
He looked at them with nothing but disappointment.
"Pathetic," he said coldly.