Breakthrough in Fusion
Flames flashed, and Scarlet Eye’s figure appeared once more. Now, however, his face was filled with fury and his aura was unstable.
He glared at the storm of fire that had burst forth and immediately turned back, his palms opening up a spatial passageway like drawing apart a curtain. He immediately re-entered the Lava World.
*Rumble!* Tens of seconds later, black lightning and a large rock smashed into the firestorm, revealing the miserable figures of Zegna and Archibald.
*Woosh!* Cracks spread across the rock like spiderwebs, and large fragments began to fall off.
At the end of it all, Archibald’s body was much smaller than before, and could even be called ‘pocket-sized.’
Zegna was in an even more pitiful state. Not only were their traces of burn wounds all over his body, even a great portion of his hair had been burned off.
“Haha! After this, the injuries on Scarlet Eye’s body will probably take at least a hundred years to recover!” Archibald was unusually carefree as he burst into laughter.
He then glanced at Zegna, “So? Should we chase after him?”
“Forgive me, Your Highness! This body of mine probably won’t be able to take the intensity of the next battle!” Zegna laughed wryly.
“Then forget it. The losses the Atlan Union suffered this time should be enough to give them a headache for a long while.”
Archibald laughed, “My Divineflame Empire should have been the victor in the power struggles, but with Scarlet Eye being an Emberwing, we can’t let our guards down…”
“I believe that with your guidance, the fire elementals will remain the leaders of the Lava World!” Zegna had a smile on his face.
Reputation and nice words meant nothing to him. As long as there were enough benefits, calling the other party the leader of the Lava World was not an issue.
“Haha…” Even so, that was enough for Archibald to laugh heartily.
“Alright, based on our previous agreement…” Zegna wanted to continue on, but his expression immediately changed. “Damn it! Bowens and the rest are such trash!” he cursed, turning into a streak of black lightning and disappearing in that instant.
“Hehe… interesting!” Large flames appeared under Archibald’s feet, lifting and moving him forward as he followed.
Though he had joined hands with Zegna, he had never let down his guard against this guest from another world.
……
Underground, next to the giant spell formation. Leylin had met with a crisis as well.
The barrier that Scarlet Eye had set up had actually been a trap. The moment it made contact with an external force, it had immediately shown the image of the Emberwing himself, and unleashed an attack.
This was the terrifying attack of a Radiant Moon! It could seriously injure if not kill even the current Leylin.
‘Schiker’s bloodline can’t be fake, and my Fireplume shouldn’t be a problem either. Is it Bowens?’ Leylin quickly shot Bowens a glance, but found him equally panicked, evidently not expecting this situation.
“Despicable thieves, die!” Scarlet Eye’s figure roared, hair and eyebrows seemingly beginning to burn up. Tremendous, fierce flames formed a blazing phoenix that charged towards Leylin’s groups.
As if this phantom had a will of its own, its first target was the traitor, Bowens.
“AAAH!” In the face of the suppression from a rank 5, Bowens’ Fireplume energy was destroyed quickly despite his desperate attempts at saving himself. He cried out miserably as he burst into flames. In one move, Bowens of Jupiter’s Lightning had died at the phantom’s hands.
After taking care of the traitor, the phantom looked straight at Leylin and the other two. Leylin seemed to have become the primary target.
Goosebumps appeared on Leylin’s body.
‘Is there no other way but to undergo Kemoyin Serpent Transformation with the other two? If we do that, the entirety of this underground room will be destroyed!’ In a short period, a variety of thoughts passed in Leylin’s mind, and he gave up on this plan.
“I can only use Fireplume to fight it out.’ A glint appeared in Leylin’s eyes as he made up his mind.
[Beep! Simulation of Fireplume at 100%. Mission complete.] The A.I. Chip’s prompt sounded out.
The A.I. Chip’s progress in fusing Fireplume’s energy with his point mass had already reached 99.9% completion before. Scanning Bowens’ version of Fireplume was enough for it to take that last step.
“Oh!” Leylin’s expression changed, Fireplume energy turning black as it was absorbed by his point mass.
His point mass buzzed as it shook vigorously, rotating at a high speed. Powerful energy undulations were emitted from it.
The nebula surrounding the point mass had increased in area by half a fold before it slowed down and stopped.
The tenth level of Fireplume had been modified to fuse with his point mass. This result was not just an addition of one plus one. Furthermore, this was a perfect fusion, not the bastardised version that Bowens had created. The amplification of power was even greater than Leylin had expected.
[Beep! Fireplume modification complete, point mass is being upgraded. Host body…] The A.I. Chip’s voice was intermittent, but Leylin had no plans of listening carefully.
He felt power overflowing in his body, and facing the incoming rank 5 attack he made his move without hesitation.
After the modification, the energy of Fireplume was driven by the force of a Morning Star’s point mass. The resulting power was terrifying.
*Crackle!* Devilish black flames appeared around Leylin, forming a phoenix wreathed in black fire.
The phoenix cried out, and this screech brought with an aura of devilish power.
“Modified obscure tenth level of Fireplume— Soaring Demonic Phoenix!” Leylin spread his arms like a soaring phoenix, slashing towards the phantom Scarlet Eye with grace.
*Chirp!* Melodic phoenix cries were heard, and the blackfire phoenix streaked across the horizon to welcome the phantom.
Confronting this blackfire phoenix, Scarlet Eye’s face was tinted with confusion, even fear. The earth rumbled as black and gold flames intertwined, creating a shockwave that spread throughout the area.
Following that, the black flames actually began to devour the other side, becoming even more exuberant as time passed. Soon enough, it had exterminated the other party’s phoenix and even drowned out Scarlet Eye’s figure.
‘This modified Fireplume is this good at absorbing other Fireplume energy as fuel and fusing with it?’ Seeing Scarlet Eye’s phantom struggling amidst the black flames and gradually disappearing, even Leylin himself was shocked, and he was the creator!
He felt that with the A.I. Chip balancing and fusing the essence of Fireplume into his point mass, the power of this already formidable technique had been furthered and reached a horrifying degree of power.
It was a pity that the A.I. Chip was unique to him, and only he could train in this Dark Fireplume version.
“What… What just happened?” Gilbert and Emma were dazed. What had they just seen? Leylin had wiped out the phantom of a rank 5 Magus in just one move?
That was a full-out attack from a rank 5! In that moment, Gilbert and Emma felt as if they were dreaming.
It took a while before Gilbert spoke. “Ley–Leylin, did you break through to rank 5?”
“No, I just made some progress in Fireplume…” Leylin answered truthfully. Though the fusion of Fireplume energy with his point mass had immense benefits, it had not allowed him to cross over into the Radiant Moon realm. If this had been an attack by a phantom of Zegna instead, it wouldn’t have been nearly as easy.
His easy dispatchment of the Scarlet Eye phantom was most likely to do with the modified Fireplume.
“I have a intensified feeling,” Leylin raised his arms and watched the demonic black flames, “that these mutated black flames are the bane of all traditional Fireplume energy.”
“Whatever it is, we need to leave after getting the firasource stones! It’s a pity we lost Bowens.” Gilbert watched the flames piteously. A bright point mass was received by starlight and floated into the astral plane.
Not caring about Bowens, Leylin pointed his hands at the flame shield. “Open!” The membrane began to be burned down by black demonic flames.
No, it was not burning. It was being corroded! The top-grade flames from Scarlet Eye’s Fireplume were corroded by the modified flames from Dark Fireplume, gradually revealing a giant hole.
“Let’s go.” Leylin and the other two arrived before a complicated spell formation.
Emma touched the runes on the ground, looking solemn. “Spatial binding runes. Dormant sacrificial runes and life absorption runes as well! This spell formation is probably used to extract the life force of some being.”
“Could that lifeform be at the centre…” Leylin immediately focused his gaze on the red light at the heart of the spell formation. It was weak, flickering like a candle in the wind. And yet, it somehow survived with all tenacity.
‘The energy undulations are similar to those of firasource stones! I can somewhat guess what it is!’ Recalling the sorrow he had felt before, Leylin sighed and produced the black copper key he had obtained from Bowens.
The large black copper key rose into the air and projected a large number of complex data and light rays.
The spell formation on the ground began to activate, and the sound of a key clicking was heard continuously.
At the same time, the runes on the ground were unsealed one by one, revealing a giant cage.
*Rumble!* Scalding red light filled the entire room, and the cage in the middle opened up to reveal a scarlet egg.