Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 714 - 716

He turned to Mira, to Vaelin, to Eldara, to the ones who had chosen to stand beside him despite not knowing the truth.

"Are you with me?"

Mira's jaw clenched. "Do you really need to ask?"

Vaelin gave a sharp nod.

Eldara smirked. "Always."

Jude exhaled. The fire in his veins **answered.**

Then the sky **shattered.**

And the battle for everything began.

Jude barely had time to brace himself before the world **came apart.** The sky cracked wide like glass under pressure, and from the darkness beyond, something **pushed through.** It was vast, shifting, wrong, something that did not belong in this world but had forced its way in nonetheless. The very air trembled in its presence, as if reality itself recognized the intruder and recoiled. Jude felt the fire inside him respond, not with fear, but with an almost **eager recognition.** The flames within him burned brighter, as if they, too, remembered. As if they had been waiting for this moment.

Mira cursed under her breath. "Jude, tell me you know what that is."

He did. Even if he had no name for it, even if he could not yet put its nature into words, he **knew.** It was the force that had cast him out. The presence that had **erased** him. And now, it was here to finish what it had started.

The city **reacted.**

As the sky split further, the structures around them **shifted.** Buildings that had stood silent for ages **moved**, stone grinding against stone as if the entire place were waking from an impossibly long slumber. Symbols that had long since faded began to glow along the ancient walls, pulses of golden light racing through the veins of the city like blood returning to a dormant body.

And the thing in the sky **descended.**

It had no face, no true form only a shifting, writhing mass of darkness, tendrils stretching out as if tasting the air. But its presence **crushed** everything around it. The weight of it settled on Jude's chest, pressing down like an unseen force trying to **erase him all over again.**

But this time, he did not break.

The fire within him pushed back, and for the first time, he felt the full **force** of it not just warmth, not just power, but **defiance.** The flames roared in response to the encroaching darkness, burning through the pressure, forcing the void **back.**

The tallest figure turned to Jude. "It remembers you."

Jude's fingers curled into fists. "Then it should know I'm not leaving this time."

The creature in the sky shifted. The pressure grew. And then, it **attacked.**

A tendril of darkness lashed out, a jagged spear of void cutting through the air with impossible speed. Jude barely had time to move before it **struck.** The ground **exploded** beneath his feet, sending shards of stone flying in every direction. He felt Mira's hand on his wrist, yanking him back just in time to avoid a second strike.

Eldara drew her blades, her body already moving before the dust had settled. "I hope you have a plan, because it's not waiting for us to figure one out."

Vaelin's eyes were locked on the massive presence above. "We hold the city."

Jude's flames **flared.** "No. We take it back."

He moved.

The fire around him surged as he leapt forward, heat rippling through the air as he met the oncoming tendrils **head-on.** He didn't hesitate, he **couldn't.** The darkness had stolen everything from him once. He wouldn't let it happen again.

Flames met void in a violent **collision.** The impact sent shockwaves through the city, a clash of forces so ancient, so deeply ingrained in this world's history, that the very ground **remembered.** The streets pulsed with energy, golden veins of power racing outward from the battle, as if the city itself was lending its strength to the fight.

Mira and Vaelin moved in tandem, slipping through the chaos like shadows. Eldara was a streak of silver and steel, her blades cutting through the tendrils that reached for them, severing the darkness before it could take hold.

But the creature did not falter.

For every strike Jude landed, for every wound carved into its form, the void **reformed.** It was not bound by flesh, not confined to the rules of this world. It was something **else.** Something that had existed before names, before time, before **him.**

But that didn't mean it was invincible.

Jude's fire wasn't just flame, it was **memory.** And memory was stronger than oblivion.

He could **see** it now. The way the city's symbols reacted to his presence. The way the flames inside him connected to something far **older** than even the darkness above them. The answer had been here all along, hidden in the bones of the city, in the whispers of the stone, in the pulse of power beneath his skin.

He didn't need to destroy the void. He needed to **reclaim** what it had taken.

The city was a part of him. And it was time to **wake it up.**

Jude shifted his stance, lifting both hands. The fire responded instantly, flaring outward, not in a chaotic blaze, but in something **sharper.** More **focused.** The flames curled around his fingers, forming intricate patterns symbols he had never learned but somehow **knew.** Symbols that **belonged** to him.

The moment they appeared, the city **answered.**

Light **exploded** outward, racing through the veins of the structures, surging up the walls, illuminating the streets like golden fire. The air **hummed** with energy, as if the entire city had been holding its breath, waiting for this very moment.

The void **reacted.**

The creature above twisted, its form writhing as if in pain. The pressure it had exerted over them **wavered.**

It was afraid.

Jude took a step forward. The fire in his hands burned brighter. The symbols around him pulsed in response.

"This is my city," he said. "You don't belong here."

The void **screeched.**

It struck again, but this time, Jude didn't just block. He **countered.**