Thessa froze beneath Theron’s gaze. She saw chilling murder in her reflection, a steely will that didn’t match the delicate, almost gentle face before her.
He had yet to even grow into a real man, and yet the soothing cadence of his voice and his small stature did nothing to belie his masculinity.
It filled her with a fear, a thought that she couldn’t do anything but what this man asked.
“Good.”
She didn’t even reply before Theron said these words. It came from a depth of confidence that didn’t need to be explained.
“It’s in my best interest that you continue to live for now. So do as I say and you will leave here. Now point me toward the exact direction of the Fire Soul every time you sense it, and give me the exact distance—approximations of the latter are okay. But if I feel like you are misdirecting me with the former, you will suffer for it.”
After saying these words, Theron let go of Thessa’s hair.
Somewhat stiffly, she pointed.
“Go.” Theron pointed to one of the tunnels to the side. Though oddly enough, it wasn’t the most direct one to the direction Thessa had pointed out. “I will follow behind you.”
Thessa could only do as she was told. She had no idea what was wrong with her body, but her mind couldn’t seem to muster up the will to defy Theron at all.
There were no bindings on her body or her soul. But it felt like even if she suddenly launched a sneak attack, it would be worthless.
Something told her that Theron wasn’t making her go on ahead because he feared an attack from the back either. It served a completely different purpose.
And when they ran into the first pressurized rush of steaming air, she found out why immediately.
If she was behind Theron…
She would have died.
Thessa’s heart shivered uncontrollably.
How had Theron known where she would be? Why did this chaotic battlefield feel like it was completely under his control?
When she first thought of Theron, she had pressed down the impulse. She wanted to believe that she was just paranoid, but now she was second-guessing everything.
Was it really him pulling strings from the very start? Was that masked figure his doing too? Did he know who it was, at least?
Feeling Theron’s gaze on her back, she suffocated her own thoughts, somehow scared that he would read even them.
Did Theron know who that figure was? Of course, he did. It was none other than a familiar street rat.
Theron knew that the moment all of this chaos was triggered, the best way to take control of this situation was with Thessa. But the Firewings wanted to protect her, and thus wouldn’t easily let her put herself into such danger.
When an opportunity presented itself, the cards that the Thistles had left in the dark would certainly take action. As expected, that was exactly what they had done.
At that point, Thessa could make two choices: run away or dive off the deep end.
The smart choice, regardless of what her retainers wanted, was most definitely the latter. If she ran away, the street rat would most definitely catch her and it would end the same way.
Now, all the cards Theron needed were in his hands.
He would end all of this soon.
…
Minutes later, Theron came to a stop. According to Thessa’s last report, they were 40 meters from the Fire Soul. The problem was that the distance she pointed toward was right beneath them and through what was likely two or three meters of heavily tempered rock.
This location wasn’t just a strong concentration of Fire Mana, but the much less permeable Earth Mana as well. The rock that could survive these temperatures and remain solid was incredibly tough. Only the Lava Beast could so easily bend them out of the way, which was why they were crawling on their bellies now instead of chiseling their way through.
But Theron had already known this.
The tunnels through here, he had already been around several times between getting to the Lava Beast in the first place and then completing his assassinations.
He had picked this path out on purpose.
Theron fell into silence, slowly rubbing his Mana-protected palm over the heated surface.
In blacksmithing, there was a process known as quenching. It was a technique where hot metal was rapidly cooled in a bath, making the metal incredibly hard. But, also…
Very brittle.
‘Yes, it can work,’ Theron thought after sensing for a while.
Then, as though he hadn’t just spent several minutes in the same location, he began to crawl forward once again.
…
Another several minutes later, Theron appeared at an entrance hanging off the wall of the underground world of lava. His shoulders were just barely wide enough to make it through the exit.
He hopped down. Thessa had already gone ahead, flames billowing around her. By the time they got to this point, even with Theron’s protection, she was burning through Mana at an alarming rate. She had no idea how Theron had managed all this time as a Bronze Mancer.
Could he be hiding his cultivation too?
Theron looked off into the distance where he knew the Fire Soul would be. But by now, they were already separated by more than just a few kilometers.
“Go toward the Fire Soul,” Theron said calmly.
Thessa’s pupils trembled. She grit her teeth, but in the end, she listened.
If Theron was going to use her as bait like this, it would also be her last chance to turn the situation around. In the end, there remained just the slightest hint of defiance in her heart…
So long as she didn’t meet his gaze.
She didn’t look back, and with a step, she launched herself forward.
What she didn’t see was that Theron wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, he was staring at the Bloomstone in his palm.
‘… All or nothing.’
Theron popped it into his mouth.
Next bonus chapter at 900 GTs. Currently at 848