Chapter 57

The peacock statue stood poised on the intact half of the shattered stone walkway, its obsidian gaze locked not on Vivi, but on the surface of the lake...no, beneath it.

Blop. Blop.

Bubbles rose lazily at first, then faster, building to a sudden swell. From the depths, a dome of water surged upward, steaming at the edges, its center glowing red with violent heat.

With a hiss and a crack, the dome burst apart, and from the spray emerged Vivi, crouched low with her arms smoking, fists clenched tight. Her hair clung wetly to her face as the remnants of steam curled off her shoulders like smoke from a forge.

SKREEEEEE!

The peacock shrieked in answer. Its stone feathers shimmered unnaturally, grinding against each other until they fused, its wings morphing into two enormous, obsidian blades that gleamed faintly with a strange sheen. With a sudden, thunderous flap, it launched itself forward in a blur of motion.

Vivi reacted instantly, her hands bursting into flame as she pushed off one of the fractured platform, charging to meet it head-on.

They collided in a storm of sparks and steel.

Vivi’s fists blurred in a flurry of blows, left, right, elbow, palm, but every strike was deflected, expertly turned aside by the flat of the peacock’s blades. It responded with better precision, lashing out twice. Vivi barely managed to dodge, but not without cost. Two deep gashes carved across her forearms, blood sizzling where it met the heat of her flames.

Gritting her teeth, Vivi raised both arms, catching the flat of the descending blade with her scorched forearm, while her other hand smacked aside the second. She twisted, launching a rising kick, but the peacock deflected it with a smooth flick of its wing-blade, unbothered.

It was faster. Much faster.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Blade after blade came at her, an endless storm of slashes and thrusts. Each movement had no wasted effort, no flourish.

Vivi was forced into full defense. No room to strike back. No time to think. She parried with her forearms, redirected with her palms, ducked, stepped, pivoted. The river shuddered beneath her with each impact.

Three feet.

Another three.

Another.

She was being pushed back, step by brutal step.

And the peacock wasn’t slowing down.

Overwhelmed, Vivi ignited enormous plumes of flame from her hands, using the explosive force to propel herself backward at sonic speeds.

But the peacock was faster.

In an instant, it overtook her, soaring overhead with uncanny agility, its blade-like wings slicing through the air like guillotines. Despite their size, it flew with grace, outpacing Vivi's retreat with ease.

Vivi twisted in midair, narrowly avoiding a thrust aimed for her chest. She burst forward, trailing flames in every direction, weaving through the relentless assault. Her fire danced and spiraled around the peacock’s stone frame, but it remained unaffected, its movements more precise, and sharper than any assassin she had ever faced.

The sky became their battlefield. They clashed, separated, and tangled again, over and over. Each fought for the higher ground, both refusing to give it up.

Unable to break the deadlock through melee, Vivi pushed away with a spin and conjured an arrow of blue fire in her palm. With a yell, she fired it straight toward the creature.

The peacock spiraled midair, its body twisting into a corkscrew. It spun like a drill, crashing into the arrow with a deafening shriek. The arrow shattered. The peacock shot through the blaze untouched, leaving behind a fiery ring that erupted seconds later, an expanding funnel of scorched air.

Vivi’s eyes widened in disbelief. 'No damage?'

She remembered the walkway stones, how they never scorched under her flames.

'They’re made from the same material… it’s not just fire resistance...'

Her thought caught in her throat as the peacock pulled back, green energy swirling in its beak like liquid emerald light.

'It's immune to magic!'

SKREEEEEEEEEEE!!!

A concentrated blast of compressed air exploded from the peacock’s beak, slamming into Vivi like a battering ram. She was hurled downward, a flaming comet plunging into the river.

BOOM!

The impact created a massive crater in the riverbed, water blasted skyward as Vivi landed in a crouch. Her boots ground into stone, legs bent from the impact, flames clinging to her skin like a second layer.

Her breathing was calm. Focused.

'In that case…'

The roaring flames around her were drawn back into her body, vanishing in a single breath until only a faint red aura shimmered across her skin like heat haze.

Before the water could even rush back into the crater, the peacock dove again.

Both of its blade-wings thrust downward like falling guillotines.

GONG!!

Vivi caught the tips of the blades in her bare hands, the impact forcing her knees deeper into the cracked bedrock. Her arms trembled under the strain, muscles locked as they absorbed the kinetic force.

The crater widened from the sheer pressure, stone cracking in every direction. The river still hadn’t reclaimed the space, they were locked in the eye of their own storm.

The peacock twisted midair in a graceful backflip, retracting its blades just as Vivi lunged forward to intercept. Talons slashed toward her face, forcing her to duck low... only for the shriek to follow.

SKREEEEEEEEEEE!!

The sonic blast hit her like a warhammer.

A bludgeoning wave of compressed air slammed into Vivi at point-blank range for the third time in under two minutes. She rocketed backward, skipping across the water’s surface like a stone, once, twice, three times, before crashing into a jagged, moss-covered boulder with a thunderous crack. Water and stone exploded around her, mist and dust veiling the carnage.

Before the haze could settle, the peacock burst through it, blade aimed straight for Vivi’s skull.

Bang!

The weapon stabbed deep, just beside her head. Vivi had managed to deflect it with her palm at the last instant, the edge biting into the rock instead.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The peacock became a whirlwind of steel, stabbing again and again, dozens of times in the span of seconds. Each strike was parried, redirected, or deflected, carving deep punctures into the boulder that now looked more like swiss cheese than solid stone. Vivi’s eyes barely tracked movement, instincts turning her arms into a blur of motion, her core locked to the rock as if rooted there.

The final thrust came, and she caught it.

Blade wedged between her left palm and the crook of her right elbow, Vivi held firm. Her lips curled into a fierce grin.

With a roar, she drove her fingers into the blade itself.

Crack.

The stone-like surface began to dent beneath the pressure. Her fingertips dug into the hardened weapon, and pain screamed up her arms.

But she didn't stop.

Her hands exploded with fire, twin jets of searing heat forced into the microscopic cracks. Flames surged through the blade, then up the peacock’s limb, penetrating its chest and igniting from within. A burst of fire escaped from the avian’s eye sockets in a sharp FOOM, like exhaled breath from a furnace.

THWOOM!

The peacock was hurled backward, its once-fluid form spiraling out of control. Cracks split across its ornate frame, glowing with embers as it hurtled through the sky, finally crashing into a distant boulder with a ground-shaking crunch.

A dome of fire encased Vivi, holding the lake’s water at bay as she sprinted along the exposed lakebed. Each step cracked the silt and rock beneath her feet, steam hissing in her wake. She moved like a bullet, eyes locked on the target, closing the distance.

The dome collapsed behind her with a sharp hiss, water surging inward to reclaim its space. Vivi didn’t stop. As the lake rushed in, she transitioned mid-stride into a dive, her body slipping seamlessly into a high-speed swim. She was a torpedo now, weaving past scattered debris and river flora, trailing bubbles and faint flickers of blue flame from her limbs.

There it was, just ahead.

The peacock floated in the river’s center, drifting downward in a daze. Its wings hung limp, body still rattled from the previous blow. By the time it stirred, Vivi was already upon it.

A burst of blue flame flared from her palm as she launched a superheated punch straight into the creature’s gut. The impact sent the peacock rocketing out of the water in a spiraling arc, droplets turning to steam in the wake of her heat. Vivi followed, igniting the air behind her with blue jets as she soared after it, eyes gleaming with momentum and fury.

The peacock retaliated midair, thrusting a blade toward her. But the motion was sluggish, just a fraction too slow.

Vivi twisted her body with perfect precision, narrowly avoiding the strike, then surged above the creature. With a shout, she brought a blazing fist down on its chest, slamming it back toward the lake like a falling comet.

The peacock crashed into the water with thunderous force, but it wasn’t finished. It flared its wings and caught itself just before fully submerging, talons digging into the riverbed as it stabilized its stance.

Vivi dropped down right after it, her hands interlocked into a hammer. She came down hard.

Another explosion shook the water.

The peacock raised its blades in time to block, catching the blow, but only barely. Its form quivered under the pressure before it shoved her back with a screech.

Then its chest pulsed.

Emerald light flooded its throat as it drew a long, deep breath. Vivi braced herself.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

A compressed shockwave of wind, sound and force erupted from the monster’s beak.

Vivi narrowed her eyes. There was no retreat. She clapped her palms together, forming a sharpened edge with her arms, and surged forward, piercing the blast like a lance.

Her boots skidded across the lakebed, carving a trail as the shockwave pressed against her. She roared and took a step, then another, forcing her way through.

Then she was through.

Her hands shot out and grabbed the peacock’s beak mid-screech. With a grunt, she forced it shut, the sound stifled with a sharp crack as she locked its jaw tight.

Its eyes widened.

Now gripping the peacock’s head, Vivi dragged it violently through the riverbed, slamming it into the ground again and again. Each impact echoed through the water, sending up columns of silt and carving new cracks into the creature’s stone hide.

The peacock screeched in rage, flailing with its bladed wings. Vivi slipped past them with practiced instinct, entering its guard before it could react. With a roar, she thrust both hands into its chest, fingers sinking deep as her palms sparked.

“YAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Her entire body erupted in twin flames, red and blue fire swirling around her like a raging inferno. She poured every ounce of heat into the statue’s core.

A shriek tore from the peacock’s beak as jets of fire blasted from its back. The sheer pressure split the river in two, steam hissing skyward in a narrow column as the blast tunneled through its body.

The force hurled the beast backwards, and it crashed into the temple’s outer wall with a thunderous impact, dislodging stone and dust in its wake.

Vivi stumbled forward in the water, panting heavily. Her breaths came ragged. The entire battle had barely lasted ten minutes, but she was already drained.

Blood ran down her limbs, mixing with the water around her. Her armor was scorched and cracked, her fingers trembling. Still, she forced herself forward, dragging her body out of the river and up to the shore.

Then she froze.

Across from her, the peacock rose once again.

The stone surface of its body began to fall away, no longer cracking, but shedding in clean, deliberate fragments. Beneath the crumbling shell, gleamed sleek, luminescent feathers in brilliant blue. Its form grew more regal, more massive, as it stepped out of its own ruin.

Vivi stared up in disbelief. 'The stone… was armor?'

Her eyes rose higher. And higher. Until she was looking at the true form of the beast, a towering, avian juggernaut with sapphire flames flickering within its eyes.

It let out a slow exhale.

In an instant, the river froze solid.

A sheet of ice sprawled across the surface, catching Vivi off-guard. She gritted her teeth and stumbled forward, steadying herself on trembling legs.

'So this is what an S-Rank boss feels like…'

Blue and red flames reignited around her arms, her breathing ragged but steady now, eyes locked on the glowing monster ahead.

She raised her fists.

“Bring it on!!”

---

It was said that the Monarch Of White Flame sealed away his regrets in the form of feathers, and that a single cry from the guardian born of regrets would shatter even the will of immortals.