Saria’s desperate warning still echoed through the scorched air, but Ifrit had already collapsed.
The sheer terror of the colossal lava head rising from the abyss sent the young girl sprawling backward onto the ash-choked earth.
As she stared up at the gargantuan hand reaching toward her—a fiery monolith blotting out the sky itself—her mind completely shattered.
Only primal, suffocating fear remained.
Yet, the crushing agony she braced for never arrived.
The apocalyptic hand froze abruptly in mid-air.
Ifrit’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Through eyes blurred with hot tears, she looked up into the Lava Troll’s burning, molten pupils.
The suffocating brutality she had sensed earlier was gone.
Instead, swirling within those massive pools of liquid fire was an unmistakable sense of…
confusion?
“Cough…
get away from here!
Ifrit, run!” Saria’s ragged, blood-choked shout drifted up from the depths of the crater once again.
The sound of that voice snapped the paralysis gripping Ifrit’s limbs.
Scrubbing the soot and tears from her face with trembling hands, the young Sarkaz girl forced herself to her feet.
Defying every survival instinct she possessed, she tilted her head back, locked eyes with the terrifying titan looming just an arm’s length away, and screamed.
“I know!
I know you’re here for me!” Her small fists clenched the scorched hem of her jacket, her slender frame shaking violently from the cocktail of adrenaline and terror.
“Because I have that thing inside me!” “Don’t hurt anyone else!
Don’t hurt Saria anymore!” The sheer weight of her despair crashed over her fragile psyche like a tidal wave.
Deep within her flesh, the Flame Demon Fragment—the ancient, malevolent entity lurking within her Originium-infected veins—keenly seized upon the cracks in her mental defenses.
It began to writhe and churn.
“Agh—ahhh!” Ifrit curled in on herself, her spine arching as blinding, orange-red flames erupted from her skin.
The familiar, searing agony tore through her nerves.
Yet, buried beneath the torment, a twisted sense of comfort bloomed in her chest.
‘If I am already a monster…
if I am just like it…’she thought, her sanity slipping.’Then maybe…
I can use this power to save Saria.’ The dark thought took root like a parasitic vine.
She abandoned her resistance, entirely surrendering the cage of her mind to the violent consciousness roaring beneath.
“Rooaaar!” The sound that tore from Ifrit’s throat was no longer the cry of a frightened child.
It was a primal, savage bellow echoing with ancient brutality.
Surging pillars of fire swallowed her petite silhouette.
Her form began to warp and distort as the consciousness of the Flame Demon Fragment seized absolute control.
“Ifrit…
no…” Down in the smoldering ruins of the pit, Saria barely clung to the frayed edges of consciousness.
Watching the flames consume the girl tore at her heart far worse than any physical wound.
The nightmare she had sacrificed everything to prevent was unfolding right before her eyes.
Shifting the perspective back to the Eldest— The Paladin, slowly coming down from the intoxicating high of his colossal transformation, was currently sitting obediently at the bottom of the molten crater.
He was simply waiting for the overflowing energy in his veins to naturally bleed off so he could shrink back to his normal human size.
As for the severely battered Terra Captain lying in the rubble nearby, he had noticed her, but he genuinely didn’t want to engage.
After all, this entire bloodbath had sparked from a massive misunderstanding.
He had literally fallen out of the sky and been treated as a hostile invader; her violent reaction was entirely justified.
Glancing around at the apocalyptic hellscape he had carved out with his own two hands, a heavy pang of guilt twisted in his gut.
His self-defense had been drastically overblown.
He firmly resolved to sit quietly and mind his own business until his energy stabilized.
However, the sharp, desperate scream of a young girl shattered his peaceful waiting period.
He instinctively tilted his massive, craggy head toward the rim of the crater.
A…
child?
The Eldest froze, his heavy brow ridges—forged from cooling magma—furrowing deeply.
‘Isn’t this a deadly battlefield?
Why is there a kid wandering around up there?
That’s incredibly dangerous!’ He leaned in, narrowing his burning eyes to get a better look.
Unfortunately, the sheer oppressive weight of his gaze, coupled with his mountainous size, terrified the poor girl so badly she immediately fell flat on her back.
Seeing the kid tumble, the Eldest reacted on pure instinct.
He reached out a hand to help her up—a reflex as natural as pulling a fallen junior off the hardwood during a college basketball game.
But his arm locked up halfway.
He stared down at his own palm.
It was a jagged mass of dripping lava, easily large enough to crush a three-story apartment complex.
He snapped back to reality, pulling his hand away in absolute mortification.
A wave of deep helplessness washed over him.
Just as he was mentally berating himself, the atmosphere at the edge of the pit violently shifted.
A sudden, intense burst of heat erupted from the child’s location.
Accompanied by a feral roar, a towering, blurry phantom forged entirely of dark orange fire manifested in the air.
It excitedly spewed tongues of flame in every direction, reveling in its own insignificant destruction.
The Eldest tilted his colossal head, utterly bewildered.
“Roar?” (What the hell is that thing?) Did that little girl just…
transform?
Did everyone in this bizarre world have a second form?
What kind of ridiculous setting was this?
Driven by sheer curiosity, the Eldest pressed his four massive arms against the scorched walls of the crater and began to haul himself upward.
His mountain-like physique slowly eclipsed the rim of the pit, casting a shadow so vast it completely swallowed the little fire phantom.
Unaware of the looming eclipse, the Flame Demon Fragment roared in absolute arrogance.
‘Finally free!
Those pathetic, insignificant ants!’it bellowed in its ancient tongue.’I will burn them all to ash!
Everything in this world will be reduced to cinders by my hand!’ “Roar?” (What exactly are you planning to do?) The Flame Demon Fragment whipped around.
Who dared to interrupt the great…
The magnificent…
The Eldest stared down at it.
The Flame Demon Fragment stared up.
The ancient entity’s movements completely locked up.
The Eldest narrowed his glowing, molten eyes, leaning his colossal face closer.
“Rooaar…” (I asked, what did you say you were going to do?) The Flame Demon Fragment violently shuddered.
The sheer difference in scale between the two was like comparing an erupting supervolcano to a solitary match flickering in a hurricane.
Under the Eldest’s suffocating, god-like gaze—and much to the absolute bewilderment of the surviving researchers watching through the Rhine Lab monitoring feeds—the ancient terror that had just been baring its fangs was instantly cowed.
It was as if someone had dumped a glacier over its head.
The dark flames extinguished in a fraction of a second.
The entity instantly shrank back into Ifrit’s body, slamming the door shut behind it and vanishing without a single trace.
It just…
ran away?
The Eldest blinked in genuine surprise.
He smacked his heavy lips in disappointment, accidentally splashing a wave of liquid magma onto the scorched earth.
‘The little thing actually looked quite unique.
What a shame…
It felt like it could actually understand me.
I was hoping we could have a nice chat.’ Up on the ledge, Ifrit stood completely frozen, blinking her wide eyes.
The violent, bloodthirsty consciousness that had just hijacked her nervous system was entirely gone.
In its place was a crystal-clear, overwhelming sensation of…
absolute panic and terror radiating from the ancient tenant hiding inside her soul.
Ifrit was stunned for a long moment.
Then, realization dawned on her.
Her shock morphed into pure indignation, and she started screaming at the empty air.
“Hey!
You cowardly bully!
You only pick on the weak and run from the strong!
Aren’t you usually acting all high and mighty, playing the tyrant inside my head?!” She stomped her foot.
“That guy is a Flame Demon!
Aren’t you a Flame Demon too?!
Get back out here and fight him!” If the Flame Demon Fragment possessed a mouth of its own, it would have undoubtedly shrieked back in aggrieved fury: ‘You expect me to fight THAT?!
You call that walking apocalypse a Flame Demon!?’The Eldest stared down in utter bewilderment at the tiny girl shouting furiously at the empty air.
Although he couldn’t understand a single syllable of her language, the sheer aggressive cadence of her voice gave him a distinct impression.’I have no idea what she’s saying, but I’m pretty sure she’s swearing like a sailor right now.’ As he shifted his weight, the immense wind pressure generated by his movement swept over the ridge, rustling Ifrit’s clothes.
The gust snapped her back to reality.
She froze, suddenly remembering that the real, apocalyptic monster was still looming right in front of her.
Cold terror wrapped its icy fingers around her heart once more.
Gritting her teeth, Ifrit forced her trembling legs to hold their ground.
She stared up at the silent, imposing Lava Troll.
With a voice fractured by desperate sobs, she tried to bargain one last time.
“Please…
don’t hurt Saria anymore.
If your target is me…
just take my life.
Let Saria go.
Let everyone else go…” She squeezed her eyes shut, trembling like a leaf as she awaited her final judgment.
Seeing the poor girl shaking so violently made the Eldest feel incredibly awkward.
He unconsciously reached up to scratch the back of his magma-plated head, the grinding of cooling stone echoing loudly.
‘What is wrong with this silly kid?
Why doesn’t she know how to run away?’he thought, his anxiety spiking.’With a body this massive, even shifting my weight might collapse this entire ridge.
The ground here is completely unstable.
If I accidentally bump into her, she’ll be crushed!’His glowing eyes swept across the devastated, unrecognizable landscape he had created, and a fresh wave of horror washed over him.’Wait…
could her family…
have been living nearby?’The thought made the Eldest’s heart drop into his stomach.’If they were…
I’ve probably already turned them into human jam…’ He violently shook his colossal head side to side, desperately trying to dislodge the grimdark imagery from his mind.
Unfortunately, Ifrit interpreted the massive head-shake as a direct refusal of her plea.
“Waaahhh!” Ifrit finally broke.
She collapsed to her knees and sobbed with absolute, soul-crushing despair, her small shoulders heaving as if the entire world had abandoned her.
The Eldest panicked.
‘Why is she crying again?!
I literally didn’t do anything!’ He tried to contort his craggy, molten face into what he assumed was a gentle, comforting smile.
In reality, it looked like the terrifying grimace of a demon lord preparing to feast.
Wanting to console her, he slowly raised a hand capable of flattening a mountain peak, but it just hovered awkwardly in the air.
He had absolutely no idea what to do.
Right at that agonizing moment, his frantic gaze locked onto the battered white figure still lying at the bottom of the pit.
A spark of inspiration hit him!
Although they couldn’t speak the same language, the Eldest relied on his gamer intuition to piece the puzzle together.
‘Could that woman be this kid’s mother?’ He squinted, comparing the two.
Same stark white hair.
Same distinct pair of horns.
Same intense eyes.
The Eldest winced internally.
‘…Oops.
Sorry about that, kid.
I almost beat your mom to death.’ The giant hand hovering in the air swiftly changed trajectory.
With a level of delicate precision that completely defied his catastrophic size, the Eldest carefully bypassed Saria’s battered body.
Acting like the bucket of a massive excavator, he gently scooped up the entire chunk of earth beneath her, bringing the broken crystals and the unconscious woman along with it.
Ifrit shrieked in terror at the sudden movement, her legs giving out entirely as she slumped against the dirt.
But as the colossal palm leveled out in front of her, revealing the bloodied white figure resting on the mound of earth, her fear evaporated into overwhelming relief and worry.
“Saria!” she screamed, fresh tears streaming down her soot-stained cheeks.
Watching the girl’s reaction, the Eldest confirmed his theory.
They definitely knew each other.
He let out a massive sigh of relief that sounded like a venting steam pipe.
But his relief was short-lived.
He reached up with his free hand and scratched his head again.
‘Tsk…
why did she have to pass out?
I wanted her to wake up and take this kid away…
This language barrier is an absolute nightmare!’ He was currently holding an unconscious Terra Captain in one hand, staring down at a hysterical, weeping child who refused to leave, all while his internal energy reserves were still boiling over.
The Eldest couldn’t help but throw his head back and groan at the sky.
“Rooaaar!” (What an absolute headache!) [Rhodes’s Note: Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?
(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!
to use the links!)