Bound by Hellfire

Chapter 20

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My body felt numb. The heat that had swept through me like a raging wildfire now slept deep within my chest, slumbering like heartburn after a hefty meal. My vision fluttered in front of me, eyes on the cold gray sky as the ashes of the dwindling trees swirled high into the clouds.

Finally, my lungs loosened, heaving in the cold stale air as the blood in my heart shot through my limbs. I took another deep breath before turning to my side. My hands planted on the cracked asphalt road.

The excruciating pain that had sent my body unconscious was now just a lingering sensation. A phantom of reality as my new world appeared in front of me. The forest around me cracked and decayed as branches withered into dust. Limbs snapped and crashed at the edge of the road, sending shards of debris to blow onto my shoes as another gust of cold wind echoed through the air.

"That was quite the performance you pulled back there"

I turned my head from the crumbling wood around me to the man who stood in the street. It was Dorian. Clad in his twisted mesh of black and red armor, his palm resting on the hilt of his sheathed blade.

He tilted his head downward. His horns reflecting the remnants of embers that burned through the once luscious treetops.

"The flames should be dying down, now that you have lost consciousness. Good thing too, I sensed a group of souls whose lives would have been on your hands had you held out for another second. Your pain tolerance is quite extraordinary," Dorian remarked.

I looked down at my arm, then at my hands, trying to picture the fire that had swirled out of them just moments earlier.

"What the hell is happening to me," I mumbled.

Dorian smirked in response. His deep crimson complexion seeming to darken as his eyebrow curled upward.

"Nothing that wouldn't have happened to you eventually. Though honestly, I didn't expect it to be to so--- explosive."

Dorian's dark red irises shifted within the blackness of his eyes as his head turned to the crippling forest beyond.

"Though it seems the fire here has been snuffed out much like yours has," Dorian murmured.

"I don't understand. Those flames--- that came from me?" my voice still a whisper.

Dorian nodded once in response.

"And this is just the beginning. Once you can control it--- wield it--- the power at your fingertips will be close to limitless."

My body shuddered as he spoke. To think that the power that lived in me was capable of something so--- horrifying.

"But, I still don't understand. I mean--- why me? Why do I have this power? What is it meant for?

"Because warrior blood runs within your veins. A lineage of power that expands far beyond your realm of understanding. This gift has now been passed to you, just as it was to your father, and his father before him."

My lungs tightened once again. His words hitting me like a ton of bricks.

"You knew my father?"

"A man of exceedingly rare talent. Pity that he only began to see the true potential of his power just before his passing," Dorian replied shaking his head.