Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 16: The Flame Tyrant
The thirty plus experts came together in front of the corridor from the fifth floor to the sixth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods.
Linley could tell that Olivier’s aura seemed to have changed. In his heart, he couldn’t help but feel astonished. “This Olivier, could it be that he has made another breakthrough?” As the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier had needed only twelve years to reach a level where even Haydson was no match for him, rising to the level of being just beneath the Five Prime Saints.
This rate of improvement was very terrifying.
Now that another eight years had passed, it would be strange if Olivier hadn’t improved, actually.
Desri looked at Hayward and the twenty other experts, then said loudly, “You should know the situation on the sixth floor. The ten of us will be responsible for dealing with the Flame Tyrant. As for the rest of you, your responsibilities will be lighter. As long as you can stay alive, go search for the exit to the seventh floor.”
The other twenty experts nodded.
Their task was far easier. Even if Desri hadn’t instructed them to do so, they would’ve still gone in search of the exit.
“Enough. Let’s head out.” Desri said in a bright voice.
And then, Desri and the rest of the Five Prime Saints, Linley, Bebe, Cleo and his sibling Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions, took the lead, stepping into the stairway and heading out towards the sixth floor. Behind them, the twenty remaining experts followed closely.
Linley and Bebe exchanged glances.
They were both very confident. Compared to eight years ago, Linley not only had improved in his ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’, his spiritual energy had improved as well. In fact, Linley had the feeling that he was about to make a breakthrough and reach the rank of Grand Magus Saint.
Battle-qi refining, after all, only needed a bit of spiritual energy to control it.
But eight years of training had caused Linley’s battle-qi to reach the maximum possible amount a Saint-level Dragonblood Warrior could reach.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” ....
The ten most powerful Saints of the Yulan continent transformed into shadowy flashes. In the blink of an eye, they simultaneously entered the sixth floor...the world of the Flame Tyrant!
“Hot!” As soon as he entered the sixth floor, Linley felt greater heat than he had ever felt before.
Right now, Linley and the other nine experts were standing atop glowing red rocks. This entire sixth floor was colored red by lava and molten rock.
“Drip, drip...” Scarlet flows of lava streamed like rivers throughout the sixth floor, occasionally releasing bubbles of gas. In the area around the lava rivers were glowing red rocks. Normal creatures would not be able to survive in a place like this.
The other twenty experts entered the sixth floor as well.
“Quick, search for the exit.” Desri instructed mentally. The twenty plus experts didn’t say anything, immediately flying away.
Desri glanced at Linley, Tulily, and the others. Without needing to speak, all of them began to fly together. Tulily, Rosarie, and Rutherford flew in the center, while the other seven experts surrounded them. Tulily and the others were already beginning their preparations.
They might encounter the Flame Tyrant at any time.
“If we can avoid even meeting the Flame Tyrant before we enter the seventh floor, that would be good.” Linley secretly thought to himself, while at the same time he carefully inspected his surroundings, searching for the passageway that would lead them to the seventh floor.
Suddenly, within one of the rivers of lava, a stone popped out. The strange thing was...this stone had eyes and a mouth. The stone suddenly flew out from within the magma river. It was actually the head of one of the Magma Demons.
That Magma Demon roared, “Humans!”
“Not good.” The faces of Linley and the others instantly changed.
“Swish!” “Swish!” “Swish!” ....
From within the river of lava, suddenly one Magma Demon after another appeared. The bodies of the Magma Demons were pure scarlet, and wrapped by faint wreathes of flame. They were roughly 2.5 meters tall, and wielded stone axes, warhammers, and other heavy weapons.
In the blink of an eye, Linley saw three hundred Magma Demons appear within the area of their group.
“The sixth floor is extremely large. If all the Magma Demons in the nearby areas are as numerous as they are here, then there are definitely over a thousand of them.” Linley thought inwardly, while at the same time, the experts began to fly at high speed while maintain high alert, ready to attack at any moment.
“Oh, humans have come?” A rumbling, thunderous voice rang out within the sixth floor.
The rocky ground of the sixth floor began to shake, and even the lava flows began to bubble and rise up in waves, as a massive figure arose from within the middle of a lava river. It was simply enormous. As it stood up, even the level of the lava river itself dropped dramatically.
“It really is like a mountain.” Linley saw that distant, enormous creature: The Flame Tyrant!
The Flame Tyrant’s entire body was formed from tough, unyielding boulders, with fire surrounding its entire body. With such an enormous body, its physical strength alone was no doubt at a terrifying level.
“Everyone, be careful.” The faces of the ten experts were solemn.
The Flame Tyrant glanced at them with a contemptuous look, then laughed wildly. “The likes of you would dream about entering the seventh floor? In your dreams. Today, all of you will die! Children, come kill these outsiders along with me!” The Flame Tyrant’s voice was extraordinary loud, and his words echoed like the thunder in every part of this world.
As the Flame Tyrant spoke, he suddenly summoned a dark red greataxe into his hand.
The axehead of this greataxe alone was over a hundred meters wide. In the hands of the Flame Tyrant, however, this Bloodlust Greataxe was nothing more than a small hatchet, and he twirled it with grace and ease.
“Kill!”
Having received the order, the large amount of Magma Demons hovering in mid-air simultaneously let out howls of rage as they charged towards Linley’s group. Even Olivier and the other twenty-plus Saints came under attack from the Magma Demons as well.
“Charge through them.” Tulily ordered.
The ten major experts didn’t hesitate at all, charging straight towards the Flame Tyrant. Halfway there, over a hundred Magma Demons surrounded them.
Earlier on the fifth floor, it was Desri, Bebe, and a group of experts killing several Magma Demons. But now, it was over a hundred Magma Demons attacking them.
“Have to block them.” The outer layer of seven experts knew this very well. Facing the attacking Magma Demons, Linley fought empty-handed.
“F*ck off.” Linley directly punched towards one of them.
“Haha...” The Magma Demon laughed loudly as it sent a fist smashing towards Linley. Linley used his draconic scales and the outer layer of ‘Pulseguard Defense’ to accept this punch, taking the heavy blow of the Magma Demon’s stony fist head on.
Linley’s body trembled slightly, but the Magma Demon’s body trembled, then exploded into shards of rock.
“What terrifying strength!” Linley was inwardly shocked.
If he were to take those blows at full strength, he wouldn’t have been able to repel it so lightly. Just then, he had primarily used his Pulseguard Defense to ameliorate 90% of the power of the enemy’s attack. How could the 10%, upon encountering Linley’s draconic scales, possibly harm Linley?
Against the Magma Demons, Linley only utilized the 256 layered waves of the Throbbing Pulse of the World.
“Boom!” Every single Magma Demon which attempted to attack Fain were smashed flying away by Fain’s lightning-fast fists. Fain’s speed was simply too fast. Those Magma Demons couldn’t touch him at all. But Magma Demons were extremely durable, and Fain’s attacks were only able to heavily injure them.
It wasn’t that Fain wasn’t powerful; it was that Fain didn’t dare to use his full force. He had to conserve his energy.
Each of the Magma Demons which attacked Desri, upon drawing near him, suddenly toppled down from the skies for seemingly no reason at all.
Desri was originally a Grand Magus Saint of light-style magic. He was currently a Prime Saint, and his spiritual attacks were at a terrifying level. Although these Magma Demons possessed tremendous physical attack and defense, Desri’s spiritual attack just so happened to strike at their weakness.
“Slash!” The three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions very forthrightly smashed the Magma Demons with their dancing paws, sending rocks everywhere and heavily injuring those Magma Demons, with many dying.
At times, when the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions wished, they would suddenly open their mouths and directly swallow the Magma Demons into their stomachs.
But Bebe...Bebe was terrifying. His speed was comparable to Fain’s, and those Magma Demons weren’t able to touch Bebe at all. But even the most casual claw swipe from Bebe would heavily injure the Magma Demons.
“Boss, these Magma Demons are really tough to deal with. Their bodies are too hard.” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind.
“Of course they are hard.” Linley understood.
He had once tried to be like Bebe, and to use his speed to dodge the enemy’s attack, and then use pure force to strike against the bodies of the Magma Demons. But the defense of the Magma Demons was simply too great; Linley’s pure strength-based attacks were only able to injure the Magma Demons.
“Bang!” Yet another fist from Linley shook yet another Magma Demon in front of him into powder.
“Different profound truths clearly result in different levels of power for attacks.” Linley couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. “My Profound Truths of the Earth, despite not having reached the limit, in terms of power, is far more powerful than the Profound Truths of the Wind.”
Even Prime Saints could have fairly large differences in power. For example, that leader of the Snowy Panda-Cats, who had mastered an extremely powerful and profound truth of the Elemental Laws of the Wind. As for Desri and Fain, the profound truths they had gained insight into could only be considered ones with fairly low attack power amongst the manifold Elemental Laws.
“Boom!” “Boom!” ....
Every single one of the Magma Demons attacking Linley was reduced to powder. This sight caused many of the other Saints to feel astonished. Based just on pure physical attacks, at most they might be able to break the Magma Demons into small pieces of rocks, but they couldn’t possibly reduce them into powder.
“The Flame Tyrant is here.” Desri called out softly.
“You little rascal. You’ll be the first to die.” The Flame Tyrant stared angrily at Linley. Then, like a thunderbolt, it leapt off the rocky ground, making the rocky ground tremble and crack as it delivered a mighty chop with the Bloodlust Greataxe in its hands.
Clearly, Linley’s ‘military exploits’ had been seen by the Flame Tyrant.
“Rosarie.” Tulily growled.
Rosarie, Tulily, and Rutherford, who had been prepared this entire time, finally unleashed their attack. Suddenly, countless amounts of ice and frost descended in an area of many kilometers, and even the rivers of lava were chilled to become rocks.
The fires covering the body of the Flame Tyrant were extinguished, and the scarlet red stones on his body turned a much dimmer red as well, as countless amounts of frost and ice covered his body.
The Flame Tyrant’s attacking motion suddenly came to a halt, as though he had been frozen.
Water-style forbidden-level spell: Absolute Zero!
Under the attack of this Absolute Zero spell, generally speaking, when it was used, that terrifying drop in temperature alone would cause the opponent to freeze, then shatter into countless pieces. Even the opponent’s soul would be frozen, then shatter.
But the target of this spell was the Flame Tyrant. This forbidden-level spell, ‘Absolute Zero’, was only capable of affecting his soul and making him temporarily dizzied. In addition, encased in countless amounts of ice, his weakness, his power dropped as well.
“Swish!” Immediately afterwards, Rutherford transformed into a ray of light, charging straight towards the Flame Tyrant.
Rutherford, the number one Saint of the Arctic Icecaps, who had been training there for thousands of years, had reached a level of perfection in terms of utilizing the forces of glacial ice. Rutherford’s palms suddenly glowed with a faint blue light, and he smashed them hard against the body of the Flame Tyrant.
The strange thing was...
The countless amounts of ice and frost that had been layering the body of the Flame Tyrant suddenly sank deep into the Flame Tyrant’s body. “Crunch!” The enormous body of the Flame Tyrant actually began to be covered with countless tiny cracks.
The body of the Flame Tyrant was extremely hot, but after being covered by the opposite-element spell, ‘Absolute Zero’, and then with Rutherford forcing that energy deep into its body, the incomparably tough rocky body of the Flame Tyrant began to crack on a wide scale from the sudden change in temperature.
“Bastard.” The Flame Tyrant finally recovered from his state of dizziness. Realizing the situation he was in, he couldn’t help but roar in anger.
“Die!” Tulily had already reached the Flame Tyrant’s body.
Dark black light surrounded Tulily’s fists, and the entire area around them was filled with countless cracks in spacetime. Tulily’s fists seemed to carry the strength of the heavens themselves, as he smashed viciously against the body of the Flame Tyrant. The already cracked body, suddenly...
“BOOOM!”
Countless rocks were sent flying everywhere by that terrifyingly powerful explosion. The Flame Tyrant had exploded into countless rocky fragments.
“Success.” Tulily, Rosarie, and Rutherford all let out a long sigh.
This was the ultimate attack of the three of them. First they pooled their energy together to cause the Flame Tyrant’s soul to be attacked, while at the same time counteracting the heat of the Flame Tyrant’s body with the Absolute Zero spell. Then, Rutherford would control the frost and the ice to make it go deep into the Flame Tyrant’s body.
Fire and ice were polar opposites, and the sudden clash between them would cause the rocks which made up its body to crack. This caused the defensive power of the Flame Tyrant to drop by ninety percent. With only ten percent of its defense remaining, it had naturally shattered when facing Tulily’s most powerful attack.
“If they didn’t work together, that terrifying defensive power of the Flame Tyrant probably would allow it to take Tulily’s full power attack without much impact.” Linley said to himself.
Now that the Flame Tyrant was dead, everyone naturally felt much more relaxed. It would be fairly easy to deal with the remaining Magma Demons.
“Let’s hurry up and find the exit.” Desri said. Everyone nodded, feeling much more relaxed.
However...
What nobody noticed was that during that wild explosion earlier, when countless rocks had been blasted in every direction, there was a seemingly translucent, fist-sized rock that had also been shot out far away. This translucent rock, in the distance, began to spin.
“Rumble...”
The entire rocky ground was beginning to shake.
“What is going on?” Tulily, Rutherford, Linley, and the others felt shocked.
“Crunch!” Large amounts of cracks appeared in the ground of the sixth floor, and then one enormous rock after another flew up, as well as a large amount of the rocks in the lava rivers. Over billions of enormous boulders flew up.
Linley and the others watched with gaping mouths and stunned gazes.
“Not good.” Everyone had the sense that something bad was happening.
However...nobody knew what the problem was. All ten experts were on guard, carefully inspecting their surroundings. But on the sixth floor, one rock after another continued to rise into the air.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”
All of the giant rocks, as though listening to some command, shot out to one location at the same time. With a terrifying series of sonic booms, trillions of boulders instantly clustered around one location, and that location was the place where the translucent rock was floating.
Countless boulders surrounded that translucent rock.
In the blink of an eye...
Yet another Flame Tyrant appeared!
The faces of the ten experts changed dramatically.
“That translucent rock.” The ten experts seemed to see, just then, those countless boulders clustering around the nucleus. Desri’s face sank down. “That was the core of the Flame Tyrant. Without destroying that translucent rock, we can’t kill the Flame Tyrant. He can just make himself be reborn.”
“You have truly made me angry.”
The mountain-like Flame Tyrant’s body was once again wreathed in flames, and his eyes were filled with fiery rage as well. Wielding its Bloodlust Greataxe, he bellowed with fury, “You detestable humans want to enter the seventh floor? In your dreams! All of you will die!”
The mighty bellow of the Flame Tyrant echoed throughout the sixth floor!