Published at 13th of September 2026 7:27 pm

Chapter 248: Fire and Light

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Chapter 248: Fire And Light

Rising higher into the sky, John sent out a call. Soon, black clouds of insects poured in from every corner of the city. As they funneled into him and began rebuilding his body, he reached through the Broodlink, searching for signs of life. What greeted him instead, was an overwhelming sense of excitement.

"They're... celebrating?"

Hissing and popping filled the air as his aura mixed with the toxins and bodies of the insects, hardening them into fresh chitin armor. He should have been mesmerized by the process. This was the first time he'd rebuilt himself from a single bug. His mind should have been burning with questions. What was the real him? Did he even have a body anymore? Instead, those thoughts were buried beneath an intense sense of shame and an almost equal amount of jealousy.

Shame at his doubt, at the fact he'd worried about the Brood.

Jealousy because as he stared down at the molten sea of fire consuming the city, he couldn't see a single reason to celebrate.

Yet the Brood could. The real Brood.

"I'm still weak."

That couldn't stand.

Closing his eyes, he poured his senses into the Broodlink and focused on a certain signature. It didn't take long for him to find her.

"Stay right where you are."

Another set of insect wings burst from his back, and within seconds, John tore across the city toward his target. The Vent Matriarch.

Earth bugs wouldn't do. It was time for an upgrade.

----

Kneeling at the edge of a rooftop, Min looked out over the destruction, her face lit by the fires burning through the city below.

"How are we supposed to fight that?"

Just behind her, the Puppet Master was being helped to his feet by a robotic puppet. His leather cap was scorched, soot blackened his overalls and face as he struggled to steady himself.

"We don't. I had no idea he was this strong. I'm sorry, Min, but this is too much. Not even Bigger Min can handle that."

Flinching at the name, Min knew the puppets were repairing Borvavich's tank. Even from here, she could hear the damn thing bitching as they worked.

"Draw your puppets back. Take them and get out of the city. You're debt is paid."

Pushing away from the one supporting him, the professor's brows drew tight as he limped forward.

"Never! At least not without you. If you stay, I stay. I already thought I lost you once. I refuse to see it happen again."

"Well said."

Min and the professor both turned toward the new voice as it's owner stepped from the shadows. The instant Min recognized the broodspawn, she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

"Snare! I thought you were charcoal. What's the plan? Are the others okay?"

Nodding to the professor, Snare stepped to the edge and looked down at the burning streets, his golden horns glowing against the destruction.

"No plan. As Sin would put it, all you need is faith."

Min's lip curled as one brow rose.

"Faith? Quit fucking around! I had faith you guys were immune to fire, now look at!"

Raising one hand, Snare cut Min off mid-rant. When he turned his head toward her, she caught the evil smirk in his eye as he brought a finger to his lips.

"Ssshhhh. Not all flames are equal. Now quiet, you're going to miss the show."

Min felt her blood begin to boil, but her rebuttal died as the apocalypse in front of Snare went completely still.

It felt like the whole world went silent.

----

Fire. Heat. Flame. Burning. All of it was supposed to be his domain. Pain had always prided himself on that fact, and until now, it had held firm.

His siblings had fled, but how could he? How could the Broodfather's flame flee before another's fire? The shame would be too great. The humiliation unbearable. So when the human's body erupted, Pain planted his feet and took the attack head-on.

His massive arms spread wide as his chest opened. He tried to draw in the attack, but it immediately overwhelmed him. It felt like trying to capture a wave with his bare hands. Blue and red fire washed over his body, and for the first time since his mutation, his skin began to burn.

The world around him became a red and blue inferno, hot enough to turn the street beneath his feet soft. Concrete glowed, sagged, then collapsed into a growing pool of magma around his legs. He sank past his ankles, then his shins, but his massive frame refused to move. Nine feet of blackened flesh and armor stood against the current, shoulders spread wide and tipped with jagged crags that glowed brighter with every passing second.

His body burned with it. The metal-like patches of black fur between his armored plates curled and melted away while the charred skin beneath split wider. Veins of fire already ran through those cracks, but now they burned nearly white as Ivan's flames forced their way inside. Pain threw back his bear-like face and roared, his oversized jaw opening wide enough to expose rows of burning teeth. Above them, his three-foot horns had gone from red-hot to nearly white at the tips.

Still, he refused to close his chest.

The T-shaped rows of fangs across his torso spread farther apart, exposing the endless furnace beyond. Barbed chains hung from a burning sky inside him, dozens of human souls already dangling from their hooks. Their wailing mixed with Pain's roar as Ivan's fire poured into that place, yet no matter how much the furnace swallowed, more came.

But Pain kept eating.

He could feel the Brood watching, their thoughts and emotions pressing into his. Not one of them doubted him. Not one of them feared.

Pain's roar slowly died in his throat. His jaw clenched hard enough for his teeth to grind as he lowered his gaze through the fire. His body seethed and broiled, pieces of blackened flesh burning away, but his eyes never moved. They stayed fixed on the man who dared to burn him.

"Iiivvvaaannn Cchhhhooooo...."

His voice sounded like a cinderblock being dragged across concrete, each syllable grinding through clenched teeth as black smoke poured from his lungs.

The Brood's collective voice rose inside his mind, their bloodlust and madness bleeding into him until he could barely separate theirs from his own. From Panic to Bug, every one of them chanted the same word.

Burn!

"You overestimated yourselves."

Ivan's voice cut cleanly through the roar of the surroundings. A silhouette slowly began taking shape through the burning haze as the man walked closer.

"Shatterbay belongs to the Woons. Did you think we would allow you to do as you please?"

When Ivan finally came close enough to see Pain to see him clearly, something broke through the broodspawn's rage. For a single breath, he was surprised. The human looked completely different.

An Oni mask now covered the front of Ivan's face, its surface split across the nose between deep red over his brow and eyes and dark blue covering his mouth. Thick ridges curled across it like carved armor, framing two glowing black eyes, while four golden horns swept upward from its brow. The mouth was frozen into a vicious snarl, filled with long fangs that made the thing look like it was smiling at him.

It didn't wrap around Ivan's head. Behind the masks edges, there was no skin, no hair, not even flesh. Only a bare skull covered in blue fire. The flames rolled from the back of his head and neck without smoke, licking upward around the mask until it looked almost suspended inside them.

Black armor covered his body in jagged overlapping plates, thickestacross his shoulders and arms. Red fire burned through the gaps like blood through open cracks, pouring from one side of him while blue flames crawled across the other. Both colors twisted around his body without mixing, snapping against each other wherever they met.

Ivan Cho raised one hand.

Long black claws curled toward Pain, blue fire running between Ivan's fingers as he pointed.

"Know that your fire is the strongest I have ever faced. To honor that, I will end this with my most powerful skill."

The sea of fire stilled...every flame froze in place around them.

The world went quiet.

Only Ivan's footsteps broke the silencetwo hurried steps backward.

"How?!"

A heavy crash answered him as Pain slammed his paws into the ground, pulverizing the molten concrete beneath them. Down on all fours like the beast in his blood, his massive body began to glow through every crack in his charred flesh.

"Because the world must burn! PRAISE THE BROODFATHER!"

As if commanded by his words, the world moved again.

Every flamenatural, red, or blueripped toward him at once. Even the molten concrete and steel joined the torrent, the entire burning sea vanishing into his open furnace in the blink of an eye.

With a heavy crunch, the fangs across his chest snapped shut.

Ivan's hand immediately rose again, blue fire gathering between his claws as urgency finally broke through his calm.

"Die!"

Before anything could happen, one of Panic's Restraints whipped through the flames and wrapped around Ivan's waist. The tendril snapped tight and ripped him backward.

Ivan twisted in the air and hit the ground rolling. He barely cleared the spot before Widow crashed down with an axe kick, her heel smashing into the street with enough force to send molten concrete spraying into the sky.

Pain barely saw it.

Something immense was happening inside him.

His furnace was too full.

The eternal fire inside his chest churned with everything he'd swallowed, red and blue flames mixing with his own as the entire pocket dimension seemed to swell. Pressure pushed outward against his ribs. His chest expanded with each pulse, heat spreading deeper into his body.

He closed his eyes.

Metal screamed somewhere ahead of him. Panic laughed. Something heavy struck the ground, followed by Tomb's irritated grunt and Ivan's flames roaring back to life. Through the Broodlink, Pain could feel his siblings moving around the human, attacking from every direction.

But they weren't trying to kill him. He understood that immediately. They were stalling. They were saving the kill for him.

Pressure surged inside him again and again. His claws dug deeper as another wave followed, hotter than the last. His muscles tightened, then began to swell. The armored plates covering his arms and chest groaned as his shoulders pushed wider, already massive limbs thickening until the shape of his body became less like a demon standing upright and more like the beast buried inside him.

Another pulse hit.

Molten crags tore through his blackened skin, spreading across his shoulders, spine, forearms, and legs. Glowing rock piled over glowing rock until parts of his body looked freshly pulled from a volcano. Between those jagged plates, patches of black metallic fur sprouted thicker than before, spreading across his neck and shoulders as his frame continued to bulk.

The broodspawn's jaw pushed farther forward. His face broadened around it, becoming heavier and more bear-like as his fangs lengthened.

Then something cold touched his forehead.

His eyes opened, and at the center of his brow, a single blue flame burned.

The Brood felt it.

Opening his maw as molten saliva dripped, Pain roared, and the Brood disappeared.

Panic's Restraints released at once. Fang sank into shadow. Every attack stopped so suddenly that Ivan stumbled forward from the loss of pressure, catching himself before looking up.

Fire erupted from the demon's throat like a flamethrower, a solid torrent large enough to swallow the world.

All he could see was death.

"AAAAAAAGH!"

Arms spread wide, Ivan took the blast head-on. His armor immediately began to scorch beneath the endless stream as the sound of Pain's roar continued through the flames and shook the city.

As fast as it came, the attack ended as Pain snapped his jaws shut.

The last of the flames washed past Ivan, and the broodspawn was already on top of him.

Burning white fangs slammed into the human's sides. Ripped into the air, Ivan's armor popped and sizzled between Pain's jaws before his teeth punched straight through, scorching into the flesh beneath. Pain tasted blood, hot and thick across his tongue, and shook his head viciously.

Ivan screamed.

Whipping his head side to side, Pain eventually threw him into the ground. The human hit hard enough to crater the molten street, but the demon was already charging. He dropped onto all fours and brought one massive claw down. Then another

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The earth shook with every hit. Buildings already weakened by the battle buckled around them as Pain hammered Ivan deeper into the ground, claws tearing through armor and flesh while the human desperately tried to fight back.

After that, it stopped resembling a fight.

Every time Ivan managed to stand, Pain put him back down. Every blast of red or blue fire was swallowed, ripped apart, or answered with more violence. Ivan struck him, burned him, tore chunks from his body, but Pain barely noticed anymore. His furnace was roaring. His blood was boiling. His siblings were watching.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!"

The human stumbled backward and grabbed the edge of his Oni mask and violently ripped it off. Blue flames burst around a bare skull as he threw his head forward and roared. Fire billowed from his mouth, pouring toward Pain in a raging wall of blue and red.

Pain answered back. His jaws opened wide, and the fire inside him roared.

The two attacks collided, and the explosion wrecking everything around them.

Buildings vanished. Concrete melted into glowing rivers, steel sagged and collapsed as the pressure ripped across the city. Pain dug his claws in and kept roaring, forcing more and more fire from his furnace. The souls trapped inside began wailing as their bodies ignited.

Ivan's flames began to bend. Then they started moving backward.

Pain pushed harder.

Blue and red disappeared beneath his attack as it crawled closer to the human. Ivan's skull became harder to see through the heat, his own flames collapsing around him until Pain's attack was seconds from swallowing him completely.

Then...they both stopped. Their attacks cut-off simultaneously.

Both of their heads snapped east.

Pain's eyes immediately burned from a beam of pure Light tore into the sky, so bright that even looking toward it made his vision scream. He squinted through the irritation, one claw rising instinctively as the white pillar continued upward.

Something was inside it.

The Cardinal.

Pain stared as Chelk's ruined form slowly rose within the Light.

Suddenly, the beam expanded, and Pain's bloodlust disappeared. The Light spread farther and farther across the sky, swallowing buildings beneath its glow as something began taking shape.

Something massive.

Pain slowly raised his head....and kept raising it. The thing continued to grow. Dozens of wings covered in eyes unfolded across the sky. Not the little wings the Cardinal had worn before. These stretched beyond buildings, beyond streets, their shape still forming as more and more Light poured into the world.

For the first time, Pain truly understod.

The Cherub they had fought before wasn't an angel.

This was a real angel.

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