Cathedral Duel: Stone, Souls, Fire
The confrontation began not with a word, but with a surge of pressure. Vaxor vanished. The space where he had stood rippled like disturbed water. Kaelen didn't turn; he felt the disturbance in the soul-tether he kept extended around him. With a sharp exhale, Kaelen slammed his palm into the floor, calling upon the element of stone. A jagged spire of granite erupted from the ground at his back, just as Vaxor materialized in a flash of red light, his blades inches from Kaelen's throat. The impact sent a shockwave through the cathedral. Vaxor recoiled, his face twisted in a mocking grin as he dematerialized again, reappearing instantly above Kaelen. Kaelen’s violet eyes blazed. He pulled upon the cold, sorrowful energy of the souls within him, manifesting a shimmering, translucent barrier that rippled like a dark lake. Vaxor’s blades struck the barrier, the screech of metal on spectral energy echoing like a dying scream. Kaelen reached out, his hand glowing with the searing heat of a supernova, and swiped at the air. He wasn't aiming for the demon; he was aiming for the path Vaxor had just traveled. The heat ignited the very space Vaxor had teleported through, turning the air into a furnace of liquid fire. Vaxor tumbled out of his teleportation, stumbling as the searing heat singed his obsidian skin. He hissed, his form flickering uncontrollably as he tried to stabilize. He looked at Kaelen—a man who held the rage of the elements in one hand and the silent, cold judgment of the dead in the other. The demon grinned, his jagged blades humming with newfound hunger. The hunt had only just begun. using the picture/images added