Free Web NovelChapter 161: Chapter 161: The Pyre Harvest
Chapter 161: The Pyre Harvest
The heavy iron doors of the Labyrinth elevator ground open, and a solid wall of apocalyptic heat slammed into us.
We stepped out onto the jagged obsidian shoreline of Strata 6.
The subterranean ocean of boiling magma stretched out as far as the eye could see, illuminated only by the violent orange glow of molten rock and the towering spires of bright blue Pyre Cobalt.
Rolf took a heavy step forward, the intense heat instantly causing his silver armor to hiss. Lysandra shielded her face, her maroon wings pulling tight against her back to avoid the rising ash.
"The ambient temperature is lethal," Nyssa reported, her thick glasses instantly fogging up.
"Prolonged exposure will cook the internal organs of anyone not wearing S Grade chitin."
Anise stepped to the front of the Pack, gripping her wooden staff.
The Level 100 Hero was still strictly bound by her seal, but she did not need her absolute, world breaking power to keep us alive.
"Gather closely," Anise commanded softly.
She tapped the base of her staff against the obsidian glass.
A ripple of cool, golden holy magic washed outward. Lysandra immediately placed her hands on Anise’s shoulders, weaving her heavy pink vitality magic directly into the holy ward.
The two contrasting manas fused, wrapping perfectly over our skin and armor like a second, breathable layer of cold water.
The suffocating heat of Strata 6 instantly vanished, replaced by a soothing, regulated chill.
"My seal remains intact, Sovereign," Anise smiled up at me, a slight sweat forming on her brow from the exertion.
"But this mana coating will completely nullify the environmental heat as long as my mana holds."
"Good work, Hero," I rumbled, pulling my heavy combat knife from my thigh.
"Keep the ward up. Rolf, Kaelith, Lysandra. We clear the islands. Nyssa, you mine."
Nyssa did not even wait for me to finish the sentence.
The Chief Architect let out an uncharacteristically high pitched, maniacal giggle. freewebnσvel.cøm
Her green tattoos flared brilliantly as she sprinted toward the nearest thirty foot spire of Pyre Cobalt. She completely ignored the terrifying environment.
"Perfect crystalline structures!" Nyssa laughed, pulling out a heavy kinetic hammer.
She slammed the tool against the base of the spire.
"Yes! Break for me! We need more trains! We need a whole navy of iron! Haha!"
I watched my usually stoic, calculating genius acting like a starved gremlin in a gold vault, rapidly shoveling glowing blue rocks into her spatial ring.
I shook my head, a dark smile forming beneath my visor.
Suddenly, the magma ocean violently erupted.
It was not just a single Obsidian Leviathan this time.
The magma bubbled and boiled as five colossal, hundred foot long serpentine beasts burst from the molten depths.
Their thick, jagged volcanic armor glowed white hot, and their razor sharp jaws snapped the toxic air.
"Multiple hostiles! Level 55 to 58!" Lysandra warned, her eyes glowing bright pink.
"Break their shells!" I roared.
The Pack engaged with absolute, terrifying synergy.
Rolf howled, launching himself directly at the nearest Leviathan.
The massive beast swung its heavy, rock plated tail in a devastating arc.
Rolf did not dodge. He caught the massive tail directly against his chest plate.
His silver symbiotic armor absorbed the apocalyptic kinetic force, converting the impact into pure momentum.
"My turn!" Rolf snarled, driving his silver claws deeply into the cracks of the beast’s tail and ripping a massive chunk of volcanic armor completely off.
On the right flank, Lysandra hovered in the air. She did not bother trying to blast through their obsidian shells with raw magic.
Instead, she pushed her Charming Queen aura into a concentrated, psychic spike.
She flooded the primitive, aggressive mind of the second Leviathan with absolute, paralyzing euphoria.
The massive beast shrieked in confusion, its eyes rolling back as it went completely limp, crashing heavily back into the magma.
Before it could sink, Kaelith fell from the toxic ash clouds above. The Noctharion Empress landed perfectly on the back of the stunned beast.
Her hands were cloaked in the pitch black Law of the Absolute Void.
She plunged her hands cleanly through the beast’s impenetrable skull, deleting its brain matter from reality in absolute silence.
I did not let my Vanguard have all the fun.
I engaged my boot thrusters, rocketing across the boiling ocean and slamming directly into the chest of the largest Leviathan.
The beast snapped its massive jaws, trying to bite my head off.
I raised my left brass gauntlet, catching its massive fangs and forcing its mouth open.
With my right hand, I ignited the pitch black and crimson Flame of Death.
I did not blast it. I plunged my flaming fist directly down its throat.
The conceptual fire violently erased the beast’s internal organs. It shrieked in pure agony, its volcanic armor turning gray and brittle.
I ripped my arm back out, pulling a massive, glowing orange volcanic core from its chest cavity.
I didn’t toss it to Nyssa. I held the ancient, saturated core in my palm and fed it directly to my Law.
The Flame of Death wrapped around the core, actively devouring the ancient, localized magma energy.
DING!
[System Alert: Law Mutation Progressing.]
[The Flame of Death has consumed an Ancient Volcanic Core. Conceptual heat capacity increased.]
[Target Eliminated. Extreme EXP gained.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 54.]
The rush of raw power flooding my system was intoxicating. Progressing past Level 50 was supposed to take years of meditation and careful study.
I was doing it by brute force, grinding apex predators into dust.
"Bring me another one!" I roared, throwing the lifeless ash of the Leviathan aside.
For the next two hours, the obsidian islands turned into an absolute slaughterhouse. We moved from rock to rock as a flawless execution squad. Lysandra stunned them, Rolf shattered their armor, Kaelith delivered the silent killing blows, and I burned their souls to ash.
Every single time a beast fell, I ripped out its core and fed it directly to the Flame of Death.
DING!
[Level Up! You are now Level 55.]
DING!
[Level Up! You are now Level 56.]
DING!
[Law of the Flame of Death resonance is deepening. You are assimilating the fundamental concept of the Abyss.]
While we fought, Nyssa continued her absolute frenzy.
"Look at the density of this vein!" Nyssa cheered loudly, completely covered in blue dust.
A massive Leviathan crashed onto the island mere feet from her, its head cleanly severed by Kaelith. Nyssa didn’t even flinch.
She just used the beast’s cooling corpse as a step stool to reach a higher cluster of Pyre Cobalt.
"Thank you, Kaelith! Perfect angle!"
By the time the final Leviathan crumbled into dust, the surrounding magma ocean was completely silent. The glowing orange waves lapped softly against the jagged black glass.
I stood at the edge of the largest island, my chest heaving. The Flame of Death burning in my palm was no longer just black and crimson.
The edges of the fire were now lined with a terrifying, molten gold hue. I had consumed over twenty ancient cores.
I was Level 56, and my Law was growing heavier, denser, and far more lethal.
"All islands are clear," Kaelith reported quietly, stepping out of my shadow.
"And my spatial rings are completely full!" Nyssa announced, jogging over to us.
Her white uniform was completely ruined, smeared with soot and glowing blue dust, but her smile was radiant.
"We have enough Pyre Cobalt to build an entire armada. We can go back up!"
Before I could give the order to retreat, the ambient mana pressure in the cavern violently shifted.
Anise gasped, dropping to one knee as her golden ward violently flickered.
"Sovereign," Anise breathed, clutching her chest. "Something is pulling the mana out of the air."
I looked out over the sprawling subterranean ocean. The boiling magma was no longer crashing against the shores. It was swirling.
A colossal, miles wide whirlpool began to form in the very center of Strata 6.
The thick, toxic ash clouds above us were forcefully sucked downward into the vortex.
The heat radiating from the center was so intense that the nearby obsidian islands began to actively melt.
"Get behind me," I commanded, my heavy brass gauntlets clenching.
From the center of the molten whirlpool, a shadow emerged.
It was not a Leviathan. It was not an insect.
It was a true, ancient Dragon.
Its wingspan was easily the size of a human city. Its scales were not made of flesh or metal; they were forged from pure, solidified volcanic ash and molten starmetal. A crown of jagged, burning magma horns rested upon its massive, draconic skull.
When it opened its eyes, they burned with a terrifying, ancient intelligence that made the Progenitor Queen look like a mindless insect.
DING!
[Continental Threat Detected: The Volcanic Ash Dragon.]
[Threat Level: Calamity. Level 70.]
[Warning: This entity is a Guardian of the Labyrinth’s depths. Its physical body is immune to all forms of standard kinetic and elemental damage.]
The colossal beast slowly pulled itself out of the whirlpool, towering thousands of feet above our tiny obsidian island. It looked down at us, let out a slow breath of pure, white hot steam, and spoke.
Its voice did not just shake the cavern. It literally shattered the black glass beneath our feet.
"Who dares steal the blood of my ocean?" the Dragon rumbled.
