The temple door slammed shut behind them.
Rivan stood with his squad inside the Blackroot shrine's heart, his LustCore burning against the oppressive chill. Every breath they took felt like inhaling ash. The twisted murals along the walls shifted as if alive, depicting bodies melting into each other—pleasure and agony indistinguishable.
[System Alert: Environmental Corruption Level: 79% — Recommend Immediate Action]
Ceyra stayed close to Rivan, blade drawn, her flame-threaded armor sizzling with each step. Saelra muttered protection rites under her breath, flame sigils glowing faintly on her palms.
Ahead, the central altar throbbed like a living wound.
Tethered to it by black chains was a woman.
She was barely clothed, her body smeared with strange oils, her eyes wide with terror. Her chest heaved with every strained breath, her curves marred by ritualistic cuts that bled slowly but endlessly.
[System Scan: Target Identified – Class: Forgotten Flame | Status: Dormant Flameborn Lineage | Corruption Level: 42%]
"She's one of us," Saelra gasped.
"Or she was," Ceyra muttered darkly.
Rivan approached slowly.
The woman—no, the girl, barely older than twenty—lifted her gaze to him. For a second, something flickered behind her fear.
Hope.
And then the altar pulsed.
A wave of corrupted desire smashed into them like a tidal force.
[System Defense Barrier Engaged — Host Shielded | Squad Exposure: Minor]
Kaela staggered but kept her footing.
Lyssha cursed, steadying herself with her blade.
The girl cried out—not in lust, but in raw, broken anguish.
Rivan grit his teeth.
"They're using her," he snarled. "Fueling their corruption through her body."
Saelra stepped beside him.
"Can you break the chains?"
"Only one way to find out."
He reached for the black metal bindings.
The instant his hand touched them, visions assaulted him.
Women bound in eternal climax.
Men consumed by shadows before they could even scream.
Flameborn ancestors writhing in corrupted pleasure.
The Eclipse Caller feeding on their helplessness.
[System Overload: Manual Override Required]
Rivan roared, summoning every ounce of his LustCore.
White-hot flame poured into the chains.
They sizzled.
Cracked.
And shattered.
The girl collapsed into his arms, sobbing.
"Thank you," she rasped. "Before it was too late."
[Thread Initiated: Forgotten Flame — Name: Veyla | Bond Strength: Fragile]
But even as he held her, the ground beneath them rumbled.
The temple was alive.
And it was angry.
The ground split beneath them.
Dark tendrils shot from the cracked floor, lashing toward Rivan's squad with vicious intent. Where they struck, stone melted into a viscous black sludge that pulsed like diseased flesh.
[System Alert: Reality Warp Detected – LustCore Shield Integrity 82%]
"Protect Veyla!" Rivan barked.
Kaela and Myra formed a shield wall around him. Ceyra and Lyssha flanked, blades flashing against the writhing tendrils. Saelra dropped to her knees, chanting a flamebinding mantra that laced the air with protective heat.
The girl—Veyla—shuddered in Rivan's arms.
"It's inside me..." she whimpered.
"Not for long," he growled.
[System Notice: Thread Stabilization Method Available – Emergency Flame Unification Ritual Initiated]
Rivan understood immediately.
Veyla's body had been turned into a corruption anchor.
If he didn't act now, she would explode into a creature of shadow and flame, destroying them all.
There was only one solution:
Seal her with pure LustCore energy.
He laid her down gently on the sacred stone dais.
The squad instinctively formed a defensive circle around them.
Rivan stripped away his armor, his skin pulsing with molten marks of power. Veyla's eyes widened—not in fear, but desperate hope.
"Will it hurt?" she whispered.
He kissed her forehead.
"Only if you resist the fire."
Her body quivered beneath his touch.
He started slow.
His hands traced the ritual scars on her thighs, igniting the corrupted marks with pure flame. Each kiss to her skin purged a piece of the darkness clutching her soul.
Veyla gasped, arching into his hands.
Her breasts, small but perfect, heaved with each breath. Her nipples hardened as Rivan's mouth brushed over them, washing her in waves of cleansing heat.
[System Update: Veyla's Flame Resonance 31% → 58%]
Tendrils lashed harder around them.
But the squad held strong.
Rivan lowered himself between Veyla's trembling legs.
His tongue flicked across her folds—deliberate, firm. She moaned, a high, sweet sound that echoed off the corrupted walls like a hymn.
Every lick, every kiss drove the corruption back.
Her hands clutched his shoulders, nails digging into his skin as he drove her higher, faster, until her body trembled on the edge.
"Rivan..." she sobbed.
"Give it to me," he commanded.
She shattered.
A scream of pure, untainted climax tore from her throat.
[Thread Stabilization Achieved – Veyla Bond Secured | Corruption Level: 0%]
A blinding pulse of light erupted from her body, obliterating the black tendrils in a wave of cleansing fire.
The temple shook.
And grew silent.
Veyla collapsed into Rivan's arms, spent but smiling.
"You saved me," she whispered.
"No," he murmured, brushing hair from her eyes. "You chose to live."
[New Title Gained: Flame Reclaimer]
[Squad Status: Stabilized | Temple Threat: Dormant]
The air inside the broken shrine tasted of burnt metal and old blood.
The squad regrouped around Rivan, weapons drawn, breaths ragged.
But the battle wasn't over.
Beneath the dais where Veyla had been chained, the stone cracked open, revealing a staircase spiraling downward into darkness deeper than death.
[System Warning: High-Level Corruption Signature Detected | Eclipse Core Dormancy: Weakening]
"We should leave," Kaela urged, shield held high.
"We have the girl," Ceyra added. "Mission's done."
Rivan's instincts screamed otherwise.
Because something down there called his name.
Not in words.
In hunger.
He took a step toward the stairs.
Saelra caught his arm.
"Whatever sleeps down there," she whispered, "it dreams of you."
[Optional Quest Activated: Eclipse Core Confrontation | Reward: Unknown | Risk: Extreme]
He met Saelra's gaze.
"I'm not here to run."
And descended into the black.
The steps were slick with moisture, the walls carved with obscene prayers.
Every breath grew heavier, every step harder.
But Rivan pressed on, alone.
Until he reached it.
A cavernous chamber, lit by a single floating orb of black flame.
Beneath it floated a form — not a man, not a woman, but a shifting mass of beauty and terror. Faces, breasts, mouths, arms—forever moving, forever seducing, forever devouring.
The Eclipse Core.
And it spoke.
"Flameborn... why resist?"
The voice slithered across his skin, stroking every nerve, every hidden desire.
"Join. Merge. Burn brighter than any mortal."
Visions filled his mind:
A thousand women kneeling before him, enslaved by dark flame.
A kingdom forged in corruption and ecstasy.
Power beyond mortality.
[System Defense: Critical Strain | Moral Anchor: Holding]
Rivan closed his fists.
"I don't need your corruption to build my empire."
The Core laughed, a sound like a lover gasping into a knife.
"Then you will fall."
It lashed out.
A tendril of black fire struck Rivan's chest—pain blooming instantly, burning his LustCore thread.
He fell to one knee, gritting his teeth.
But he didn't scream.
He rose, one hand clutching the tendril.
And pulled.
"You want my flame?" he roared. "Come fucking take it!"
[System Override Mode Engaged – Flame Sovereign Protocol: Initiated]
His body ignited in white-gold fire.
The tendril snapped like rotten twine.
And the chamber trembled.
The Eclipse Core screamed.
Not a human sound.
A chorus of broken moans, wails, and seductive cries twisted into a single, maddened shriek.
Rivan stood at the center of the cavern, wrapped in flame so intense that even the black stone beneath his feet began to melt.
[System Mode: Flame Sovereign | Power Output: 240%]
The Eclipse Core lashed at him again.
Tendrils of dark flame and corrupted pleasure struck his body, trying to pierce his defenses, trying to pull his mind into the abyss.
He roared.
White fire exploded from him, a sunburst of pure LustCore energy that burned the tendrils into ash before they could even touch him.
"You don't own me!" he bellowed. "You don't own any of us!"
The orb shuddered.
Cracks appeared along its surface.
The mass of twisting bodies screamed louder, trying to tempt him one last time — showing him visions of ultimate pleasure, a harem of millions, a world where he would be worshipped as a god.
Rivan laughed in its face.
"I don't need your lies."
He summoned everything.
Every bond.
Every moan.
Every thread of loyalty, love, and lust he'd forged.
The faces of Saelra, Kaela, Seraxa, Ceyra, Lyssha, Selyra, and now Veyla burned bright in his mind.
They weren't slaves.
They were his flame.
[Sovereign Strike Unlocked: Nova of Binding Flame]
He raised both hands.
The white fire condensed into a sphere at his palms, humming with pure, unbreakable power.
And he hurled it.
It struck the Eclipse Core dead center.
The black orb shattered.
The faces screamed, twisted, then dissolved into motes of dust.
The cavern collapsed around him.
Surface – Later
Rivan emerged from the ruins as the sun rose.
Covered in soot.
Glowing faintly.
But alive.
His squad rushed to meet him.
Veyla threw her arms around his neck.
"You did it," she sobbed.
"We did it," he corrected, voice rough.
[System Update: Eclipse Core Destroyed | Blackroot Cult Weakened by 73%] [New Title Gained: Eclipsebreaker]
[Squad Loyalty Increased | Regional Influence Expanded]
The Flameborn had survived.
But the war was far from over.
Because somewhere beyond the marshes...
A darker force had felt the Core's death.
And it would not sit idle.
---
Next Chapter (27): Ashes Beneath Desire [18+] The Blackroot survivors flee — but one of them leaves behind something Rivan can't ignore: a girl whose flame is tied directly to his future.
---