A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 5455

Jared knew the raw truth. He could not win.

Survival meant only one thing, and that was to flee.

"Blazing Stride!" he barked, summoning every shred of the newborn power.

Golden fire flared beneath his feet, exploding outward in a radiant ring as his spiritual energy burst forth.

His body blurred into a streak of molten light and shot toward the palace gates.

Soul Devourer staggered at the sudden burst of speed. By the time comprehension struck, Jared had already crossed the threshold.

"You won't escape!" Soul Devourer roared.

Black mist coiled around him as he streaked after the fleeing Jared.

Down the avenues of Celestia City they flashed—one a comet of gold, the other a jagged shadow—painting the night with a terrible, hypnotic beauty.

Jared poured everything into Blazing Stride, each heartbeat pushing his battered frame closer to its absolute limit.

Jared sprinted through the moon-lit thoroughfare, boots slapping stone, heart hammering like a war drum. Behind him, Soul Devourer tore through the night, every stride shrinking the gap until Jared could almost taste the creature's cold breath on his neck.

"Run all you like, brat—there's no escape!"

Soul Devourer's laugh slithered after the words, and twin fists gathered a vortex of black-purple energy, ready to blast through bone and soul alike.

Jared glanced over his shoulder. The horror closing in felt less like an enemy and more like a tidal wave, inevitable and merciless. Panic prickled across his skin.

He knew the ugly truth. Under such circumstances, it was only a matter of time before Soul Devourer caught up to him.

"Brat, looks like my time's up..." Vermilion Demon Lord's voice quivered inside Jared's mind, ragged and faint. "This is the last favor I can grant you..."

A spark blazed in Jared's sea of consciousness. That dying fragment of Vermillion Demon Lord's soul erupted, flooding his veins with raw, furious power that burst outward in a golden shockwave.

"What?"

Soul Devourer's eyes widened. Jared's silhouette blurred, then shot forward so fast the air cracked. For one impossible heartbeat, he outpaced the predator itself.

In Vermilion Demon Lord's final breath, every remaining drop of strength had poured into Jared, spiking the latter's speed beyond mortal reckoning.

Jared became a streak of liquid gold, vanishing beyond the distant archway before street dust had time to settle.

Left staring at the empty road, Soul Devourer's face twisted in raw frustration. "Curse it all—he slipped away again!"

His call echoed inside. Please don't be gone. I can't face that monster alone. Worry coiled tight around his heart, colder than the night wind that whipped across the barren plain.

Only the faintest, fading ripple—no more than a bruise on water—hinted that the Vermilion Demon Lord had ever been there at all.

A dull certainty settled over Jared like snowfall. Vermilion was gone—gone beyond all calling, beyond every sorcerous art.

To pull Jared back from death, Vermilion Demon Lord had scattered every fragment of his own soul, choosing oblivion so that Jared might yet breathe.

"Mr. Vermilion! Mr. Vermilion!" Jared's voice cracked through the silent chamber, echoing off unseen walls.

He ransacked the reaches of his mind, clawing through memory and essence for a single ember of that Vermilion's aura, but found nothing. Only the emptiness roaring louder than thunder.

The realization punched the strength from Jared's legs. He collapsed to the cold floor, fingers digging into stone that offered no comfort.

He had pledged to restore Vermilion Demon Lord's body, to lead him back into daylight and flesh.

Again and again, Vermilion Demon Lord had rescued him, lent him forbidden power, yet Jared had failed to keep his own promise.

"Why did you vanish before I could set things right?" Jared's plea wavered, raw as an open wound. "I, Jared Chance, have tried to live without shame—yet toward you I have sinned beyond measure."

Grief seized him. A howl tore loose, and tears spilled unchecked, mourning the mentor who had burned himself to ash so Jared might still rise.