Jacob was momentarily surprised by the presence of this footprint, and he could tell it wasn’t old but had been recently formed because the edges still clung together, undisturbed by the desert wind or heat, confirming it had been made no more than a few hours ago.
’Someone had walked through this path recently...’ His gaze sharpened, ’This mark is human-sized and there are no drag marks—meaning whoever it was, they weren’t injured or exhausted. Since I’m in the domain of Faery Humans and humans, it isn’t out of the ordinary...’
Jacob stood, his windbreaker rustling against the shimmering wind.
"A traveler... or a fool," He muttered before he stopped paying attention to it as he reached the most straightforward conclusion behind it.
After this was the Ashen Mirage Desert, a Forbidden Region—a place even Legendary Kings dared not wander casually. But forbidden didn’t mean empty. Experts, outlaws, seekers of treasure or knowledge... even prisoners banished here. It was possible others had wandered in. Most never wandered out.
Jacob didn’t dwell on it. The only path that mattered was the one guided by the Map of the Blazing Constellation as he pressed forward.
The map pulsed gently, hovering at his side like a ghostly sun, constantly aligning with a constellation no one else could see. Its light grew slightly more intense with each step, just barely, but Jacob noticed.
’The attraction force is increasing...’
He soon entered a stretch of desert where the heat changed again—not hotter, but stranger. It felt somewhat off.
Looking ahead, the air shimmered in unnatural ways, forming twisting images—spires rising and falling, skeletal trees swaying in a wind that wasn’t there, shadows of massive creatures walking just beyond sight.
At this moment, the map rotated abruptly and darted toward one such shimmering distortion ahead—a dome-shaped distortion, like a bubble of warped light hanging in the desert.
"A mirage...?" Jacob narrowed his eyes as he muttered, "No. It’s too stable to be an illusion formed by the heat. And the map... is pulling straight into it. This should be one of the hidden pathways..."
He paused for a moment, then walked in without hesitation. Thereafter, the world rippled like he had stepped through oil. Inside this strange phenomenon was not the desert.
He was suddenly surrounded by a dome-like landscape filled with impossible geometry—fractured dunes twisted in spirals, with floating rock shards rotating around empty centers. Blackened fire plants bloomed midair, spitting sparks. Everything was mirrored, duplicated in flickering waves.
But more importantly, Jacob suddenly sensed something.
At that moment, from the dunes, the air, and the twisting ridges, multiple life forms began to rise. They weren’t Flameborn.
These creatures looked like distorted mannequins made of glassy fire, with flickering masks instead of faces. Their bodies seemed hollow, yet echoed with warping sound every time they moved. Eyes formed and unformed along their limbs. Dozens of them emerged, shifting through the surreal space, and they were hostile from the dense, destructive aura surrounding them.
Jacob looked at those strange creatures rising in huge numbers, and they were all at least Legendary Nobles, while there were even Legendary King Rank auras hidden among them.
After a moment, Jacob instantly made a decision, "Let’s not waste time."
Just when the first creature pounced, Jacob vanished, leaving only a spark in the air. He reappeared farther ahead, then flickered again, racing between attackers, dodging their distorted fire-blades and soul-biting claws.
He could’ve fought them, but they weren’t worth the effort, and it would’ve wasted a massive amount of time and his power.
Jacob decided to simply avoid them, for they can’t outrun him if he wanted to avoid them at all costs, while he followed the map, which was leading deeper into this region.
The map’s pull grew stronger the deeper he went. Its light burned gold now, blazing like a second sun. It wanted him to push on, so Jacob did.
He shot forward like a comet through the ever-twisting mirage, bending through its impossible architecture and crossing through its depth with precision that defied the surrounding space.
The creatures chased, but none could keep up. With a final burst of fire and a flicker of plasma light, Jacob ripped through the edge of the mirage bubble. It popped like a dream.
Once he was out, everything suddenly went quiet, and then the world changed. He found himself standing at the edge of something vast yet horrifying.
Before him, the ashen dunes abruptly ended in a jagged cliff that overlooked a roiling sea—a sea of blazing lava.
It stretched far into the horizon, glowing with deep crimson and gold, endlessly bubbling and breathing like a living thing. The heat here was no longer just oppressive—it was alive, seeping into every layer of existence.
Jacob’s windbreaker fluttered in the waves of pressure. His eyes flickered profoundly as he mused, ’This isn’t just some natural lake of magma. The Law of Fire is too dense here, and even a Legendary Lord might die here without the protection of Fire Law!’
At this moment, the Map of the Blazing Constellation suddenly surged with light and tugged hard in the direction of the sea. Its glow became wild—almost frantic.
Jacob was astounded when the map reacted so strongly for the first time ever since he had entered this place, "I’m close."
However, because of the abrupt change in his surroundings and being momentarily surprised, Jacob failed to notice something, and he was startled when an alarming voice rang from far away.
"There’s someone else there! He just came out of that Mirage Array!"
The owner of this voice sounded extremely startled, and his voice was grave and filled with vigilance. However, because he was quite far away from Jacob and could only see him with his special eyesight, he had never imagined that Jacob had already heard him with his terrifying, precise senses. The owner of that voice had revealed himself on his own.
Jacob instantly looked over, and the other party happened to be looking over as well. Other than the owner of that voice, there were eight more figures, and Jacob instantly noticed a virtual projection of a map in front of a small figure among this group.
Both sides were startled, and they all knew that they weren’t alone in this conquest anymore!