Avallac'h struck first, a lance of violet light tearing down the corridor faster than thought, and Seb threw himself sideways, the bolt scorching a black furrow into the stone where he'd stood a moment before.
"Seb, be careful!" Ciri's voice cracked out behind him. "He can curse you.. don't let him land a hit, not even a graze!"
"I know what he can do," Seb called back, already circling, sword igniting fully in his grip.
"Do you?" Avallac'h said completely calm and confident, his staff tracing a slow arc through the air, gathering violet light along its length. "I wonder."
Seb didn't wait for him to finish gathering whatever came next. He surged forward, flame trailing behind him, and swung his burning blade in a wide, brutal arc Avallac'h caught it on a shield of shimmering light that rippled and groaned under the impact but held, and the elf pivoted smoothly around the blow, staff sweeping low to sweep Seb's legs out from under him. Seb leapt the strike, flame igniting beneath his boots to carry him higher, and came down with a two-handed overhead cut that Avallac'h barely rolled clear of, the stone floor cracking and blackening where the blade struck instead.
"Truly impressive," Avallac'h said, already back on his feet, staff spinning once in his grip. "You've grown stronger.. But strength alone has never been the deciding factor between our kinds, Witcher.."
He flung out a hand, and a lattice of crackling silver energy shot across the corridor, and Seb barely twisted aside in time, feeling the air itself hum with malice as the spell passed a hand's width from his shoulder and shattered a column behind him into rubble.
Ciri had already taken a half-step forward, sword raised, unable to simply stand and watch, and Seb felt it, he knew her better than most, and without turning he thrust one hand out behind him. A wall of solid flame roared up between her and the fight, cutting her off entirely, sealing her safely back while denying her any path to intervene.
"Seb!" she shouted, fury and fear tangled together, pounding once against the heat radiating off the wall before common sense stayed her hand.
"Stay back!" he called over his shoulder, and then had no more breath to spare for words, because Avallac'h was already moving again, staff weaving a complex, glowing sigil in the air between them.
Seb closed the distance at a dead sprint, sword trailing fire in twin arcs, forcing Avallac'h into a defensive retreat, shield flaring gold with every desperate parry. He drove a flaming fist forward, and Avallac'h barely twisted his shoulder clear of it, the edge of his robe catching alight regardless, smoke curling up from the singed fabric. Seb pressed the advantage, relentless, sword and fist and flame together forming a storm the elf could only barely hold, retreating step by step down the corridor.
But Avallac'h was old, older than Seb could properly conceive, and old things did not survive centuries by relying on strength alone. As Seb's blade came down in another burning arc, the elf sidestepped at the last possible instant and drove his palm flat against Seb's exposed side, and violet light erupted from the point of contact, tearing through him with a cold, invasive agony utterly unlike any physical wound he'd ever taken.
Seb's roar of pain echoed down the corridor as he was thrown backward, skidding hard across the scorched stone, flame guttering weakly along his skin as something deep and foreign writhed beneath his ribs, gnawing at him from the inside.
"Seb!" Ciri's scream tore through the flame wall, raw with terror.
Avallac'h lowered his hand slowly, watching Seb struggle back up onto one knee, breathing hard, sweat beading cold on his brow despite the flame still clinging to him. "You are vulnerable to powerful magic," the elf said, almost gently. "Not so invincible after all, are you. I observed as much long ago, watching you train alongside Cirilla at Kaer Morhen, from a distance you never once suspected."
Seb's jaw clenched, fury burning through the pain, fire flaring bright once more around him as he forced himself back to his feet. "Creepy bastard."
He didn't give Avallac'h time to press the advantage. He surged forward again, faster now, angrier, sword blazing white-hot, and when the elf raised his staff to block the strike, Seb abandoned the blade entirely mid-swing, driving his open palm instead straight into Avallac'h's guiding hand. Flame erupted on contact, raw and merciless, and the elf's scream tore through the corridor as his hand and the staff it held were consumed in an instant, the ancient wood crumbling to ash, his own flesh blackening and curling before he could even think to pull away.
Avallac'h staggered back, cradling the ruined stump of his hand against his chest, his composed, ageless face twisted for the first time into something raw and human, agony, plain on his features.
Seb stood over him, breathing hard, flame still licking along his sword, his side throbbing with whatever foul magic still writhed beneath his skin, and behind him, the wall of fire guarding Ciri burned steady and unyielding, exactly as he intended.
Avallac'h staggered back, cradling his ruined hand, and something desperate flared in his remaining palm light gathering in a violent, roiling storm of violet and black. "I cannot allow you to leave!" he shouted, and hurled the gathered spell forward in a single, catastrophic wave.
"We are not asking for your permission!" Seb roared back, and met it head-on.
Flame erupted from him in answer, a wall of pure heat surging to meet the incoming spell, and the two forces collided in the center of the corridor with a detonation that tore the ceiling open above them, stone raining down in burning chunks, columns shattering to rubble on either side as the combined force of fire and sorcery ripped through the palace's foundations. Ciri threw an arm up against the blinding light and the wave of superheated air that followed, staggering back a step even as the wall of flame that had shielded her collapsed under the sheer violence of what was unfolding beyond it.
Seb held his ground at the heart of the inferno, teeth gritted, every muscle straining as he poured more and more of himself into the clash, driving Avallac'h's spell backward inch by grinding inch, the elf's remaining strength visibly buckling under the weight of it. And in the instant the spell finally broke, Seb's free hand snapped forward, and his burning sword released from his grip entirely, shot through the collapsing wreckage like a spear of fire.
It struck true.
Avallac'h's spell shattered entirely as the blade buried itself deep in his chest, and he dropped hard to one knee amid the burning rubble, both hands closing weakly around the hilt in a futile attempt to pull it free, his breath coming now in short, wet gasps.
Seb walked toward him through the drifting smoke and falling ash, flame still curling off his shoulders, his silhouette rendered monstrous and vast in the firelight and when Avallac'h finally lifted his head to look up at him, what he saw was not a man at all, but something closer to a demon striding out of the inferno to collect what was owed.
Seb stopped just short of him, reached down, and wrenched the burning blade free with a single, merciless pull. "You should never have done this, Elven sage."
Behind him, the flame wall that had guarded Ciri had long since fallen, the fight having consumed it in its own violence, and she was already moving toward them, sword lowered, her face pale and drawn in the firelight.
Avallac'h's gaze slid past Seb to find her, blood running freely from the corner of his mouth. "Is this truly what you want," he rasped, each word costing him visibly more than the last.
"I've told you a hundred times," Ciri said, and her voice, though it trembled faintly, did not waver. "I want to go home. Not to your king's bed. Not to whatever plan the two of you dreamed up for me before I ever had a say in it." Her jaw tightened. "I'm sorry it came to this. But you're the one who chose it, Avallac'h. Not us."
He looked at her a long moment, blood streaking half his face, the fire dying slowly from his ancient eyes. "No... I'm sorry that it came to this.." he said, quiet, and it was, perhaps, the only wholly honest thing he had said to her since the moment they'd first met.
Seb's blade came down in one clean stroke, and Avallac'h's head struck the burning rubble a moment before the rest of him.
Ciri flinched, the suddenness of it catching her fully off guard despite everything, a small, sharp breath escaping her before she could stop it.
"You shouldn't trust the Aen Elle, all of them." Seb said, turning to face her, his voice quieter now, the fire along his skin finally beginning to fade. "But I think you already knew that."
Ciri was silent for a long moment, staring down at what remained of the elf who had kidnapped her. "Yeah," she said finally, hollow. "Yeah. I just.." She didn't finish the thought. She crossed the last of the distance between them instead and slid her hand into his, gripping tight. "Let's just leave.. I don't want to spend another minute in this place."
Seb nodded, lacing his fingers through hers. "We should find Geralt first and leave together."
"You have a way out of this world?" Ciri asked, glancing up at him.
"...Actually, no." Seb winced faintly. "We'll figure that part out once we're all together."
Ciri let out a short, breathless huff. "Seb.. You're still acting before you think things through."
"I didn't need to think," he said simply, meeting her eyes, "not when it came to you. You were in danger. This was the only way I knew to reach you."
Something in Ciri's chest gave way at that, the last of her composure finally cracking under the weight of everything that had led to this single, burning corridor and she said nothing at all, only tightened her grip on his hand, holding on as though she never intended to let go again.
/-\
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