The Blue Flames Devour Their Fury
The dungeon stretched beneath a dull gray sky, its terrain a chaotic mess of gnarled trees stripped bare of leaves and jagged pillars jutting everywhere like broken bones. Blue flames flickered in every shadow, licking greedily at the desiccated trunks that had somehow absorbed the inferno in place of foliage.
By the time Ron Hazley and his companions had slipped inside, Elise and the others had already pushed ahead. He recalled the dungeon’s layout from the game and veered away from their trail, following a narrower path that promised to lead him straight to the target.
Every few steps, slimes or orcs coated in the same glowing blue energy lunged at him.
*Slice!*
He cut them down with effortless strokes, never breaking stride.
*Blue Flame Forest.*
That was the exact name the game had given this place.
His mark was Hiccup, the beast-tamer demon, and the moment he joined the enemy he would trap Elise and the others. Ron had studied the route, memorized every twist, and was already closing in.
*Fwoosh!*
Heat slammed into him like a physical blow.
Between the flaming trees, a colossal giant stepped forward. Every time its foot struck the ground, the earth trembled like a living thing.
*Found him.*
A thorn-like wing on his back curled as he rose. The horn sprouting from his forehead spewed violent blue flames.
Blue-flame monster. The Crimson Flames Ogre. Heldrug. Elise’s runaway power source and the reason Ron had come here.
The entire dungeon, every monster it contained, was under the influence of this one beast. Its presence had turned the whole place into a furnace of corruption.
Heldrug noticed Ron and stopped, towering over him. Ron had to tilt his head all the way back to meet those burning eyes.
“Damn… how much mana did you feed him?” Ron muttered, pure admiration slipping out. “You really went overboard.”
It was the work of that purple-skinned beast tamer, Hiccup. No normal trainer would create a monster this massive. The thing would probably suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes by now.
He placed a hand on his sword hilt while still thinking useless thoughts.
*Grrrrr… groooar!*
The beast looked at him with pure hatred. A black club the size of a small building rose high above its head.
*Fwoooosh!*
Blue flames exploded along the club’s length.
*Clink.*
Ron drew his blade, lips curling into a smirk.
“Let’s see how that feels when I cut it.”
* * *
Several minutes earlier.
Elise Lorendia had already fallen into the dungeon. Moments later Lara Twislope followed.
While the two girls huddled together discussing the situation, Henry Twislope crashed in right behind them and joined the party.
Then—ding!
A semi-transparent notification window popped up in the corner of Elise’s vision.
**[Scenario Note updated.]**
**Read?**
“Oh Elise~ It looks like you, your friend, and her brother are all about to burn to death in the demon’s power! What a tragedy! But don’t worry, you’ve changed fate before, haven’t you? Let’s work hard this time too!”
Elise’s eyes widened for a split second, mouth opening in surprise.
That was the Scenario Note’s warning. The spark in her eyes dimmed for just a moment. She took a slow breath, forcing her usual calm back onto her face. She couldn’t let Lara and Henry see her panic.
After a short silence, the three decided to team up and take down the boss for the gate key.
As they pushed forward, orcs and slimes wrapped in blue flames spotted them and charged.
“Open. Scatter!”
Red flower petals bloomed from Elise’s crossguard.
The wind that followed was razor-sharp, slicing through every petal and cleaving every monster in its path.
*Fwoosh!*
“!”
But when the petals brushed the blue flames, their power vanished almost instantly. The wind died in its tracks.
Elise narrowed her eyes.
“Those flames… they’re eating mana.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Exactly. The second they touched the fire, the wind lost its strength.”
“Wow, this dungeon really is full of surprises.”
The girl wearing a beret and light-blue twin tails—Lara—raised her right hand, index and middle fingers splayed.
*Whoosh!*
Her night-sky eyes glowed softly.
“Elise, save your mana. Wide-area magic’s too draining here; my spells are better suited.”
“Sis, don’t worry! I’ll take care of everything! Hide behind your little sister!”
“Aaaah! Move, Henry! You’re in the way!”
“Eek!”
Lara stopped casting for a second and punched her brother.
Again. She reset her stance and focused.
“Eogeom. Deploy.”
Mana shaped like soft blue fish swam out from her fingers, rearranging themselves into dozens of razor-sharp sword forms hovering in mid-air.
They spun in perfect formation around Lara and aimed outward.
*Swish.*
Lara pointed her index and middle fingers forward.
“Spread.”
*Shhhshwshwshw!*
*Chaaaak!*
The blue swords sliced through the air with perfect timing, dodging the blue flames and carving through the monsters.
“Let’s go, Elise.”
“Hold on tight, our Lara~ Want a hug later?”
“Ugh, not now…!”
“Trust your sister! I can’t wait to show the whole world how awesome my sister is…”
“Shut up before I close that mouth, Henry.”
The trio fought their way onward with ease.
Finally they reached a clearing at the edge of a cliff. On a hill-like outcrop, a grotesque creature in garish colors and a neatly tailored suit stepped forward to greet them.
Three pairs of eyes. Small mouth. Purple skin with a horn.
“Elise, it’s a demon.”
“Yeah. Obvious.”
The demon’s head snapped left and right like a broken gear.
“You’re the friend who dragged me here? With that carefree attitude?”
Elise stepped forward, voice polite yet cold. Her turquoise eyes held murder.
The timing and angle of the gate had been far too perfect. She’d already concluded someone was responsible.
She knew a few demons could open gates. That meant the creature in front of her was almost certainly the culprit.
*[Fairy… power… to me…]*
*Glurk. Glurk.*
From all sides, a swarm of slimes and orcs coated in blue flames surged forward. The numbers were impressive.
Their bodies swelled, eyes glowing with absorbed mana.
The power radiating from them was terrifying, yet not enough to feel like an outright death sentence.
*[My… beloved… child… give… fairy… power…]*
*Chaaak!*
*Slurp!*
*Fwoosh!*
Meanwhile Lara kept swinging her Eogeom swords, carving through monsters with practiced ease.
Some were bisected or shredded, but others somehow twisted the swords’ mana mid-strike, disrupting the flow.
Lara didn’t flinch. She simply kept producing more.
Elise narrowed her eyes. The Scenario Note had named a specific monster that would lead her party to death. She couldn’t see any such creature yet.
The demon’s head jerked in a way that sounded like grinding metal teeth.
*[Fairy… power…! I… raised this… with all my care… Heldrug… will give… its power… to you…!]*
“Heldrug?”
*Fwoooosh!*
An explosion of fire ripped through the trees above.
Massive mana pressure crushed down at the same time.
Lara and Henry’s eyes bulged. Elise tensed.
*[Hm…?]*
Hiccup, the beast tamer, felt something wrong in the air.
That fire belonged to his precious Crimson Flames Ogre.
He had planned to fight Elise’s party after joining them.
Instead, the monster was blowing everything to hell from the wrong place.
*Groooaar!!*
Heldrug’s roar shook the ground.
Hiccup understood instantly that something had gone terribly wrong.
The roar carried terror.
At the same time, on the battlefield.
*Fwoosh!*
Ron dodged the blue flames being hurled at him.
Heldrug swung its massive club wrapped in blue energy.
*Boom!*
The shockwave rolled outward, heat swallowing everything.
The flames poured down like a waterfall. There was no place to run.
But Ron didn’t change expression. He poured dense silver mana into his blade, making it glow like living fire.
*Passttt!*
He swung it overhead.
*Chaaaak!*
*Boom!*
The silver slash traveled with the sword and slammed into the club, unleashing a storm of mana.
Heldrug’s eyes widened.
The blue flames devoured the slash, but the explosion still happened. The backlash blasted the flames backward.
“So mana really does get eaten… ah.”
*Crack. Sshhhk.*
Cracks spiderwebbed across Ron’s blade and it shattered into thousands of pieces that clattered to the ground.
*Yeah, this sword was never going to be enough.*
Ron sheathed the broken blade and stretched his arms, touching an instinct buried deep inside him.
*Swish!*
Silver-gray mana swirled in his palm, condensing into a single sword.
He gripped the hilt and whispered its name.
“Calzack.”
*Whoosh!*
A heavy wave rolled out from the sword. Ron’s hood and sleeves fluttered.
All the dry trees around him trembled. The blue flames scattered like wind hitting a sail.
He drew the sword from its sheath.
*Kiing.*
The clear blade sang as it released a deadly aura.
The Wolf Sword Calzack, left behind by the wandering knight Silvia.
Elise and the others didn’t know this sword’s power. They didn’t know that its owner, the wandering knight Silvia, had been a swordmaster of the ancient era.
Ron could do whatever he wanted now.
**[Conditions met]**
**[4th Tier]** **[Sword Expert]**
**[Wolf Sword Calzack ability unlocked.]**
*Haa.*
Silver-gray breath drifted from Ron’s lips as he became one with Calzack.
*Whoosh!*
A fierce silver wind of mana gusted from the blade’s edge.
*Iron Claw Wind.*
The ability of Calzack.
*Groooaaar!!*
*Fwoooosh!*
Heldrug screamed in defiance, pouring every drop of mana into the flames.
The firestorm spread. Trees ripped from the earth. Rocks melted.
Desperate, the beast brought the club down again with all its might.
*Boom!*
The ground shattered. An explosion erupted.
Yet the feeling that he had been hurt at all never reached Ron.
Heldrug instinctively knew a monster that powerful couldn’t be taken down so easily.
*Fwoosh!*
A gap in the flames. Ron shot out.
He had pushed off the ground and launched himself forward.
The blue flames tried to swallow the Iron Claw Wind’s protection.
But the wind was eating the flames faster than they could consume the wind.
Heldrug looked straight into Ron’s icy blue eyes.
*Ah… I’m dead.*
The Wolf Sword’s edge reflected the blue flames and sliced through the air in an instant.
A silver slash lanced out.
*Slurp!*
Heldrug’s head flew off.
Above the blue-flame forest, a colossal mana slash carved the air. The powerless head rose into the sky. The flames guttered out.
Hiccup stared in horror, unable to close his mouth.
*[My masterpiece…!! How…!!]*
Heldrug had been his pride and joy.
How much mana had he poured into it?
Now this monster had died in the blink of an eye, slaughtered by an unknown powerhouse.
*No way…?*
The guy who killed Orankel, my partner and the architect of the mana revolution…?
Hiccup’s mind reeled. Whatever had happened, it had gone far beyond broken.
Fear crawled up his face.
*Heldrug…!*
*Swish! Swish! Swish!*
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*
*……!!*
A violent gale packed with mana petals swirled like a storm.
Hiccup turned with wide, terrified eyes toward Elise’s group.
*Guh!*
A moment later, a sharp sword tip danced through the air and pierced the demon’s mouth.
Hiccup’s eyes reflected Elise’s face.
Her expression was dangerously calm, a smile full of killing intent.
The desperation in her turquoise eyes screamed that she would take his life the moment she wanted to.
“Hello~ Looks like I made it!”
*[W-What… how…?]*
How had she already reached him? He’d been fighting the flame-coated monsters only seconds ago.
Hiccup’s eyes darted around, frantically trying to understand as blood welled in his mouth.
Because Heldrug was dead, the blue flames’ influence had weakened.
Lara and Henry were still busy fighting the monsters. Elise had rushed in first.
Hiccup’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“Die slowly, will you?”
*[P-Please…]*
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
*Chop. Chop. Chop.*
*Aaaaah!!*
Flower-petal wind howled, shredding Hiccup’s body into pieces.