Chapter 14 – The Heartwood Strike

Following the adventurers from a distance, Evan grew increasingly uneasy.

Why did this route feel so familiar?

They were heading for the Magma Fiend’s home.

Evan knew no battle had occurred in the Magma Fiend Lair. The mushrooms he had stationed nearby would have detected the mana disturbance.

Had the Magma Fiend remained away after its latest outing, allowing the adventurers to pass without encountering it?

Evan had assumed they used another route he had yet to discover. The Deep Strata were unimaginably vast and surely possessed more than one entrance. He simply lacked the strength to explore them.

If they had come through the Magma Fiend Lair, one question mattered now.

Had the Magma Fiend returned home?

* * *

“Now I can finally relax.”

Finding the duke’s daughter had greatly improved Garrick’s mood. What adventurer would not covet an entire city as a reward?

“Boss, you have no idea how desperate I felt when you said the signal shifted on the Ninth Stratum. I thought she really had fallen into the tenta...”

Nyx kicked him before he could finish.

Garrick glanced at the pink Puffcap in her arms and remembered that Elara was present. He had spoken far too freely.

“Ahem.”

As usual, Captain Nolan rescued the conversation.

“Ivan, are you certain you can undo Lady Elara’s Polymorph? Should we find a specialist in curse-breaking once we reach the surface?”

Ivan bristled. “Do you think I’m inferior to those third-rate frauds? Someone cast Polymorph and followed it with a Polymorph Fixative. You believe that can defeat me?

“It won’t be any harder than turning all of you back from scarecrows after the Strawman Abyss.”

Nolan had only meant to change the subject. Instead, he had stepped on Ivan’s pride.

“I know nothing about magic. If you’re confident, that’s all that matters.”

Without noticing, the party reached the entrance to the upper stratum.

The cavern remained as hot as before.

Nyx already hated heat, and carrying a Puffcap made it worse. Lady Elara was a noblewoman, however. Even in this form, passing her casually to one of the men felt improper.

Nyx endured the heat and quickened her pace.

Elara showed little reaction. All her resistances were LV6.

“Wait!”

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Ivan’s sharp warning stopped them.

“The mana pattern has changed.”

[Reconnaissance]

“Nyx,” the Archmage said calmly. “Take Lady Elara and go.”

Nyx looked at him once. The old Halfling often lost his senses to mana addiction, but when lucid, he was the most experienced member of the company.

Without hesitation, she carried Elara into the long shadows cast by the party and raced into the passage at impossible speed.

The cavern began to shake the instant she disappeared.

Lava pools on either side churned like boiling veins. Thick bubbles of molten gold and crimson burst one after another, while sulfurous smoke and waves of heat billowed outward.

Nyx’s flight told the hidden enemy that it had been discovered. It no longer intended to let the remaining prey escape.

An inhuman roar shook the cavern, and an enormous figure rose from the lava.

Its mountain-like upper body was assembled from half-solid magma and charred bones. A dark-red shell covered its torso like armor, protecting the Lava Heart within.

Dozens of flame creatures, each the height of a person and shaped like smaller copies of their master, leaped from the pools and blocked the route ahead.

Garrick swallowed hard.

“The Magma Fiend... and lava golems.”

“LV64,” Ivan reported after using Reconnaissance. “Be careful.”

There was no time for further discussion. The Magma Fiend swung a molten fist at them.

[Shield Domain]

Garrick raised his shield, conjuring a vast spectral barrier before him. The blow struck it head-on and stopped.

The difference in level still took its price. Blood seeped from beneath Garrick’s vambrace.

[Resurgence]

[Life Potential]

Nolan drew a breath and cast one healing spell and one enhancement. Only then could Garrick continue holding the Shield Domain.

The Magma Fiend roared again. Unable to crush the insects before it, the creature swept up a wave from the lava pool.

Ivan immediately inserted an A-grade Mana Crystal into his abdomen. At the same time, he cast [Awaken] to preserve his reason amid the torrent of mana, despite the agony it would cause.

Against an LV64 Magma Fiend, he dared hold nothing back. He released 300 percent of his power.

[Ice Ring]

The embedded crystal amplified his spell far beyond any ordinary staff. Ice spread outward from the three adventurers, freezing the stone floor and the lava golems before colliding with the molten wave and barely solidifying it.

“We... need to run.”

Pain tore through every nerve in Ivan’s body. He could not maintain this state for long.

Even with the explosive amplification, his magic only matched the Magma Fiend’s ordinary strength. If the fight continued, all three would die.

“That may not be simple.”

While the adventurers dealt with the lava wave, the Magma Fiend had moved beside the passage entrance. Its enormous body now blocked their escape.

Ivan swore, a rare lapse in his composure.

“Damn it all. If I live through this, I’m apologizing to Kermo. She told me Magma Fiends were highly intelligent, and I laughed at her.”

“Do we retreat the way we came?” Garrick glanced at the passage behind them. There was still time.

“No. Hold a little longer.”

Nolan’s voice carried the weight of a decision. After ten years at his side, Garrick knew exactly what he intended.

“You want to use that? Even then, we may not be able to kill the Magma Fiend.”

Ivan said nothing. After blocking another lava wave, the pain had left him unable to speak. He needed to save his remaining strength for one final spell.

Nolan offered no explanation. He only looked at Garrick.

As he always had, the Half-Dragon chose to trust his captain.

Nolan drew a small branch from inside his coat. Two tender leaves grew from its tip.

Watching from afar, Evan immediately noticed that the object possessed a Status Panel.

[Divine Artifact: Heartwood of Genesis Fragment]

Another Divine Artifact.

Mana flowed into it, but the branch demanded more than mana.

It drained Nolan’s vitality in great gulps. His face became gaunt before their eyes.

Only when the artifact was sated did Nolan point it toward one corner of the Magma Fiend’s chest, where a narrow crack marred the rocky shell.

He had noticed that weakness, and it was the only reason he had dared to fight back.

One leaf dissolved into a flash of green light. It pierced the Magma Fiend’s armor and shattered the Lava Heart inside its chest.

Certain of victory only a moment before, the Magma Fiend suffered a fatal blow.

With its core destroyed, it could no longer support its enormous body. The creature collapsed beside the lava pool and released one last, feeble cry.

The strongest monster Evan had ever seen, the creature that had trapped him for years, died without warning.

Beneath the prime Puffcap’s shell, the Sunstone Fragment still radiated warmth.

So this was the power of a Divine Artifact.