Descent into the Furnace
The silver key Elise had handed me felt unnaturally cold in my palm, chilling me to the bone. But the moment I shoved it into the keyhole of the massive stone door at the back of the office, a vibration shot through my fingertips—a clear warning.
Rumble...!!!
As the heavy rock ground and turned, the door swung open, and I had to abandon even the thought of breathing. Sulfurous poison gas slammed into my lungs like a punch to the chest, while a massive blast of heat poured out like a storm, hot enough to evaporate the moisture from my eyes in seconds. What should have been a cool secret passage had been transformed by Ignis's rampaging mana into the heart of a colossal furnace.
I steadied my vision, rippling from the scorching air, and stepped into the darkness. The stone walls glowed red-hot, melting and flowing like liquid, and amid that hellish landscape, grotesque shadows flickered into view. They resembled human bodies in structure, but they were less living beings and more clumps of roaring flames and black smoke.
Deserving of the name Flame Watchers, these things were covered head to toe in blazing fire. What grated on my nerves most was their faces. Where eyes, nose, and mouth should have been, there was only smooth, melted-wax curves of flame. But on those eerie visages, four irregular holes gaped, as if someone had indifferently jabbed an awl into them.
Hiss...! Whoosh!
From those four holes, intermittent jets of ultrahigh-temperature blue flame erupted, like a high-pressure gas valve bursting. The instant they all swiveled toward me, the temperature in the passage spiked to the point where my skin felt like it was scorching off.
They didn't scream or make footsteps. Only the creepy whistle leaking from those holes and the roar of flames devouring the air filled the corridor.
It was an environment too brutal for my mana-less body to endure, but instead, the bloodline within me welcomed the extreme heat, pulsing madly. I clenched my fist so hard my knuckles went white.
It felt like hellish gazes were glaring at me from deep inside those four holes.
I was just about to charge blindly into that blazing hellmouth when the space in front of me warped disgustingly, and Asmodeus burst out of thin air with a shriek, blocking my path. Gone was her usual sly smirk; her eyes shook with terror and desperation.
"Are you insane? Are you out of your mind?! You think that Mana Insulation Body wrapped around your arm is enough to take you in there? Those aren't just common fireballs. They're high-grade flame lifeforms directly infused with Ignis's mana! At least 3rd Circle level. The second you step in, your lungs will cook, and their flames will melt your throat in an instant!"
She desperately shoved my chest, blocking the way. I stopped and looked down at her impassively.
"Circles? What's that?"
At my question, Asmodeus clutched her forehead, her face crumpling like the world was ending.
"Ugh... You really don't know and you're asking? Circles are a mage's rank and law! If 1st Circle is just candlelight, 3rd Circle is a fireball that turns a person to ash in a blink! Those things have that explosive energy crammed right into their bodies!"
Asmodeus clung to my arm like her life depended on it, yelling. But my gaze was already fixed on the depths of the passage, where red heat billowed out.
Stopping here would make Elise's revenge and Ignis's downfall nothing but a pipe dream. Ignoring Asmodeus's warning, I took another step.
"Move. I have to break through."
"What? Break through?! Hey, are you deaf?! That's beyond what your mana-less ass can handle! Please, let's just run for now? If you die here, it's all over!"
Asmodeus latched onto my arm. I shook her off roughly.
My firm refusal seemed to snap something in her. "Ah, fuck it! You wanna die that bad?! Huh?! If you wanna die, do it alone—why drag me into this mess?!"
A chill silence fell over the passage. Asmodeus, shocked by her own crude outburst, paled and clapped both hands over her mouth.
"Ah, no... Master, that's not..."
Trembling like a leaf, tears welled in her eyes as she tried to apologize.
But fate didn't even grant her that much time.
Rumble... Boom-!!
The ceiling above couldn't withstand Ignis's rampaging mana and collapsed in a massive roar. The entrance back to the office was buried under thousands of tons of rock, sealing our retreat completely. Dust and red flames choked the passage, leaving us no choice but to trample the Flame Watchers ahead.
"Ah... Aaa... We're fucked. Totally fucked..."
Asmodeus tore at her hair and slumped to the floor, staring blankly at the collapsed entrance.
I brushed off the flying ash and turned back to the approaching Watchers, their grotesque four holes gaping.
"No choice now. Nowhere to run, so either they burn us or we break through."
No sooner had the cold declaration left my lips than I hurled myself into the cluster of flames like charging into a storm's eye. My Mana Insulation Body vibrated wildly on my wrist, desperately suppressing the external heat, but the hellish inferno forged by 3rd Circle mana or higher mocked its feeble barrier and began devouring my skin.
Hiss...! Boom!
A blue flame jet from the lead Watcher's four holes grazed my side like a serpent. In that split second, my tough fabric charred black, flesh sizzled, and the acrid stench of boiling meat stabbed my nose.
But instead of groaning in pain, I pushed my reflexes to the limit. Dodging their blazing whip-like swings by a hair's breadth, I slammed my red-hot fist into the nearest one's chest.
Splat...!
Punching through a wall of roaring flames bare-handed felt like plunging my arm into molten steel. The skin on my knuckles blistered red and burst on impact, the blood evaporating with a gruesome hiss before it could even flow.
Biting my lip, I didn't stop, mercilessly pulverizing its form.
The problem came next. Destroy one, and two more surged in like spreading embers. My vision warped unpleasantly in the searing heat, and every ragged breath scorched my alveoli like knives. Even my rigorously trained body was charring black like coal, crumbling pathetically toward its limit.
"Aaaah! No! That's why I said run! Are you really hell-bent on dying? What happens to my contract if you die—what happens to me? Please stop!"
In the midst of that hellish brawl, Asmodeus orbited me frantically, wailing and clinging. Her terrified shrieks and whines sawed at my nerves, taut with primal survival instinct.
In a split-second dodge from a lethal flame burst, her translucent specter blocked my view, scattering my focus. In that near-fatal moment, a cold, brutal killing intent bubbled up from my depths like lava.
I twisted my waist to evade the flame jet by a hair and shot a beastly, murderous glare at Asmodeus, who was grabbing at my arm amid the chaos.
"Shut up."
It was an icy bark, like frost settling. I swung my arm, smashing through her obstructing form like swatting a fly. Even as an intangible phantom, the overwhelming, razor-sharp aura I exuded crushed her soul; she let out a sharp "Eek!" and tumbled back pathetically.
With the noise and distraction gone, my world narrowed to only the enemies to rip apart and myself to survive.
My limbs screamed as muscles contracted in the murderous heat, skin charring black and oozing foul pus, but my eyes burned sharper and stranger than the flames before me. The horrific agony of burning flesh honed my reason like a keen blade.
I spotted the gap as they prepared another attack, their four facial holes yawning. Like a blood-starved beast, I plunged back into the hellfire.
Twisting through the flames, I obsessively studied their patterns. Just before they unleashed deadly heat blasts, a faint red core pulsed deep inside those four holes, caught by my sharp eyes. That was the heart making these flame clumps stand—the fatal weakness.
Without hesitation, I thrust my charred arm toward the face of the first charging one. Piercing the hot blaze, my iron grip clawed into the widest-gaping hole.
Kraaack...!
Ripping through its innards, I seized the red core and crushed it. With a grotesque screech, the massive flame body scattered into the air.
But the cost of that destruction was brutal. My right arm, striking the core directly, burned so badly the bone gleamed white, the agony blurring even my pain senses. The Mana Insulation Body had long since melted away.
Opposing these beasts with pure physical blows would turn my body to ash before I reached Ignis's forge.
I let my dripping arm hang, heaving ragged breaths, and stared at their faces again.
"Holes...?"
Even amid the despairing pain, a grotesque, feral grin spread across my lips. My gaze locked blatantly on the four holes in their faces.
A method surer than physical strikes to ravage and destroy their cores—nay, to explosively unleash my pent-up instincts—flashed through my mind, utterly mad.
In that instant, the dormant Lineage of Lust deep in my veins greedily devoured the surrounding heat, pulsing wildly.
My human reason had burned away long ago. Amid the horrific pain of melting flesh, I flashed a manic smile.
As Asmodeus watched from behind, aghast and slack-jawed on the ground, I gripped the waistband of my pants with bloodied resolve and yanked them down without a second's hesitation.
My cock, swollen to bursting from the heat, stood fully exposed before the infernal flames.
"If you're gaping those holes like that, waiting for me... then I'll fill each one, nice and thorough."