“It hurts…
It hurts so much—!!!” The Eldest’s consciousness screamed in absolute agony.
He felt as though his very being had been shredded into billions of burning fragments, only to be violently stitched back together by an overbearing, tyrannical power.
Every inch of his newly forged flesh groaned under the impossible burden.
Violent energy rampaged through his veins, tearing through his internal pathways as it desperately searched for an outlet to vent.
Pain drowned out his reason, stripping away his humanity and leaving behind only the most primitive, raw instinct: destruction.
He needed to inflict this torment upon others.
He needed to reduce everything around him to ash.
In reality, his mountain-like body lumbered through the Rhine Lab complex.
His lower half had completely merged with molten lava, pooling and spreading outward with every step he took.
Four arms, each as thick as a commercial high-rise, swung blindly through the air.
The sheer wind pressure generated by his movements was enough to rip the steel siding off the remaining structures.
“BOOM—!!!” A colossal palm slammed downward.
The experimental building below disintegrated instantly, crumbling like a child’s tower of wooden blocks.
Structural steel beams liquefied the moment they made contact with his burning flesh.
Concrete instantly superheated into crimson lava, splattering across the courtyard as explosive flames and thick, choking smoke shot into the night sky.
“Help!
What is this monster?!” “Where is security?!
Where is the Defense Department?!
Stop it, quickly!” “No!
I don’t want to!
I don’t want to fight this kind of thing!!
Retreat!
Retreat now!!!” Far below, tiny figures scrambled through the debris, screaming in terror.
Desperate shouts, agonizing wails, and broken sobs drifted upward.
Countless sounds of human suffering pierced into the Eldest’s pain-addled mind, driving his already chaotic nerves further into a state of absolute madness.
“ROAR—!!!” Too noisy!!!
A terrifying shockwave of sound and fire exploded outward from his maw, shattering every remaining pane of glass within a mile radius.
Driven entirely by instinct, the massive Lava Troll swung his arm toward the densest cluster of fleeing personnel.
He just wanted to crush the annoying sources of the noise.
However, just as the giant arm was about to fall and turn another sector into scorched earth— “WHOOSH—!” A familiar white crystal spike, streaking through the air like a meteor flowing in reverse, shot precisely and ruthlessly toward his burning face.
The moment the crystal spike entered his immediate perimeter, it was swallowed by the ambient heat of the lava field, melting away before it could cause any substantial physical damage.
But the memory attached to that specific attack—the strike that had nearly ended his life just a short time ago—fiercely stimulated the Eldest’s chaotic consciousness.
He whipped his massive head toward the source of the projectile.
His giant, molten eyes widened.
Down below, a tiny white figure stood tall amidst the ash.
Her body was clad in thick, calcified crystals, standing her ground like a knight in heavy armor.
It was her.
The woman who had almost killed him.
The phantom pain of being pierced through the chest collided with the endless, burning agony of his current state.
The combination erupted like a volcano within his fractured mind.
“ROAR-AWOOOO—!!!” He completely abandoned the scattered, fleeing researchers, locking all of his murderous focus onto Saria.
All four of his massive arms rose simultaneously, the molten rock shifting and hardening into colossal fists.
The next moment, those four fists plummeted from the sky like falling meteorites, slamming down hard toward the exact spot where Saria stood.
From Saria’s perspective, the situation was dire.
After securing Silence and sending her toward the designated safe zone, Saria had turned back to face the Lava Troll.
Her heart was heavy with cold solemnity.
She knew the gap in raw power between herself and this monster was vast, a chasm that had only widened now that the creature’s size and energy output had surged to catastrophic levels.
But when she saw that giant arm swinging toward the dense crowd of evacuating personnel, her body had moved on instinct.
Now, four meteorite-like fists were crashing down on her.
Saria did not choose to meet the strike head-on; attempting to block that mass would be like a mantis trying to stop a speeding heavy-duty transport.
Instead, she pushed her Originium Arts to their absolute limit, channeling the energy into herself and the shattered concrete beneath her boots.
Thick calcified crystals instantly erupted from the earth, forming a slanted, reinforced ramp behind her.
At the exact same moment, a powerful kinetic thrust exploded from beneath her feet.
She wasn’t trying to build a shield.
She was using the explosive force of her own Arts to launch herself backward at maximum velocity.
“RUMBLE—!!!” The giant fists slammed into the earth.
It sounded as if four heavy bunker-busting munitions had detonated simultaneously.
A terrifying ring of kinetic force expanded outward.
The surrounding buildings that had barely survived the initial rampage were lifted from their foundations by an invisible hand, then violently torn to shreds in mid-air by the turbulent shockwave that followed.
Even though Saria had initiated her evasive maneuver early, she was still caught by the outer edge of the blast.
The sheer pressure slammed her violently against a relatively intact reinforced retaining wall in the distance.
The impact cracked the concrete behind her, and only then did her momentum finally stop.
“Cough…” She pulled herself out of the cratered wall, the thick calcified armor covering her body webbing with deep fractures.
A sickeningly sweet taste filled her throat, and she had to forcibly swallow down the blood surging up from her lungs.
Looking out over the courtyard, her heart sank.
Centered on the point of impact, a radius of several hundred meters had been completely transformed into a bubbling, burning hellscape of liquid rock.
She couldn’t let this monster continue to wreak havoc.
At this rate, it wouldn’t just be Rhine Lab that fell; the destruction would spill out into the surrounding Mobile City districts, resulting in unimaginable casualties.
She lifted her gaze to the terrifying silhouette standing in the sea of fire.
Towering over thirty meters tall, the creature seemed to bridge the gap between the burning earth and the smoke-choked sky.
The lava flowing across its body acted as its blood, radiating a heat so intense it distorted the air and emitted energy fluctuations that inspired pure despair.
Just by existing, it projected the oppressive weight of a walking Catastrophe.
A deep, bitter sense of powerlessness gripped Saria.
Her calcification Arts were formidable.
She could block heavy artillery fire, stabilize the wounds of her companions, and severely weaken her enemies.
But facing an anomaly of this magnitude—an entity that crushed the very concept of tactics with pure, absolute mass and energy—all her combat experience felt agonizingly inadequate.
How was she supposed to stop this?
Just as the doubt threatened to take root, the memory of Silence’s trusting eyes flashed through her mind, accompanied by the weight of her own vow.
‘I promise…’ Saria’s golden eyes hardened.
The fractured white crystals covering her body rapidly repaired themselves, condensing thicker and denser than before, shimmering with an unyielding, cold light.
No matter the method, no matter the physical toll on her own body, she had to hold the line.
She had to buy time for the evacuation teams and wait for heavy reinforcements.
Just as she adjusted her stance, preparing to launch a harassing strike, the atmosphere in the center of the battlefield shifted.
After venting its rage into the earth, the Lava Troll’s frenzied movements suddenly paused.
Its massive, burning head tilted slightly, its molten eyes slowly scanning the hellish wasteland it had just created.
It looked at the collapsed laboratories, the rivers of magma, and the faint, charred silhouettes of those who hadn’t been fast enough to escape the blast radius.
Then, something entirely unexpected happened.
The colossal monster actually curled its shoulders inward, physically shrinking back as if it had been startled by its own actions.
The subtle shift in body language was entirely at odds with its apocalyptic appearance.
It looked…
bewildered.
Saria’s breath hitched.
That specific posture, that exact hesitation—it was painfully familiar.
An image of Ifrit instantly overlaid the giant monster in her vision.
Whenever the Flame Demon consciousness inside the young Sarkaz girl went berserk, causing widespread destruction, Ifrit would eventually regain a sliver of clarity.
And when she looked at the ruins she had caused, her face would always contort into that exact same expression: a heartbreaking mix of fear, deep regret, and total bewilderment.
An absurd theory took root in Saria’s analytical mind.
She stared intently at the Lava Troll, rapidly cross-referencing its current behavior with her previous encounter with the entity, and then comparing it to Ifrit’s clinical history.
The pieces began to align.
“A berserk state…” Saria whispered to herself.
She remembered their first clash.
Despite its terrifying form, the entity hadn’t displayed any inherent malice or desire for wanton slaughter.
Its actions had been entirely defensive, focused solely on breaking out of containment and surviving.
It was different from the malicious, whispering Flame Demon inside Ifrit, but this current mindless rampage perfectly mirrored Ifrit’s total loss of control.
‘Is it possible he’s trapped in a blind frenzy, just like Ifrit?
Or is this simply a biological essential for entities possessing a Flame Demon’s core?’ The realization caused the tightly coiled tension in Saria’s chest to loosen by a fraction.
If this was merely a temporary berserk state triggered by trauma or energy overload, rather than a conscious, malicious will to destroy, then the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless.
At the very least, it meant there was a window for communication—or containment.
Adjusting her tactical approach, Saria slowly lowered her hands.
She suppressed her aggressive posture and actively dialed back the fluctuations of her Originium Arts, carefully maintaining a safe distance.
She needed to observe.
She had to confirm if the creature experienced periodic windows of lucidity, and more, she needed to identify the exact trigger for its rage.
“…Ugh…
Hiss…” A suppressed, rumbling groan echoed from the Lava Troll’s throat.
The blinding pain of the energy overload had finally begun to plateau.
Compared to the total sensory whiteout from a few moments ago, the Eldest found his thoughts slowly piecing themselves back together.
In that brief window of clarity, the frantic, overlapping voices of his roommates flooded into his mind through their mental chat group.
[Fourth: Boss!
Boss, how are you?!] [Second: Boss!
Can you hear us?
What’s the situation on your end?!] [Third: Boss, are you okay?
Sorry!
I shouldn’t have used so much force…] […Still…
not dead yet…] The Eldest forced the words through the mental link, fighting through the lingering haze of agony.
[The energy is too full…
it’s painfully bloated…
it’s a bit better now…
once this energy slowly dissipates…
I should be able to change back…] [Great!
Boss, stay steady!] The Second’s voice immediately replied, the relief evident before his tone shifted into a sharp, serious warning.
[Boss, be extremely careful!
Your current location is still on Rhine Lab’s territory!
You must leave there as soon as possible!] Rhine Lab…
Prompted by the Second’s warning, the Eldest forced his heavy, molten eyelids open and slowly scanned his surroundings.
He saw nothing but absolute ruin.
Shattered concrete, melted steel, and rivers of fire.
Did I…
did I cause this?
A heavy wave of shock, confusion, and deep, suffocating guilt crashed over him.
He couldn’t remember the exact details of the last few minutes, but the catastrophic devastation stretching out in every direction painted a perfectly clear picture.
Just as his newly recovered conscience was violently shaken by the tragedy he had wrought— “WHOOSH—WHOOSH—WHOOSH—” The sharp shrieks of propulsion engines cut through the air.
Several heavy anti-armor missiles, trailing thick plumes of exhaust, streaked across the sky and slammed directly into the Lava Troll’s massive back.
The warheads struck the thick, hardened lava carapace.
But instead of the expected violent detonations, the kinetic and explosive force simply vanished.
The Paladin’s innate defensive mechanics triggered automatically, instantly absorbing the incoming damage and converting it directly into raw energy.
In a fraction of a second, the internal pressure that had just begun to stabilize violently spiked.
The agonizing, bloated sensation of energy overload came crashing back with twice the intensity.
“ROAR—!!!” The missile strike hadn’t caused a single scratch, but it had acted like a barrel of aviation fuel poured over a smoldering fire.
The fragile sliver of clarity the Eldest had just managed to grasp was instantly incinerated.
The agonizing pain shattered his reason, and the primal, overwhelming urge to destroy seized control of his body once more.
An devastating roar tore through the sky, vibrating with the sheer violence of a wounded beast provoked beyond its limits.
Saria, who had just been preparing to step forward and attempt a peaceful de-escalation, froze.
Her golden pupils shrank to pinpricks as the monster’s aura flared to catastrophic levels.
“Oh no!!!” [Rhodes’s Note: Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?
(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!
to use the links!)