Chapter 247: The Fog Dungeon 2: Void Flames

‘What the hell is that kid?’

Was the question going through the minds of almost everyone currently on the Sea Guardian.

All the heads of the Hydra had been cut multiple times over, yet the kid looked barely exhausted.

Unfortunately, though, no matter how many heads the kid cut down, another would just replace it, turning this into a battle of attrition.

Unfortunately for the kid, the beast possessed multiple cores to draw mana from, each with the mana capacity of an S-Rank.

Which meant it was more than likely for him to run out first.

Or at least, that’s what they thought, but even as the fight went on, the butler didn’t seem to be getting any closer to running out of mana.

“I-Is he even human?” One of the spirit mages couldn’t help but ask.

The longer they remained within the fog, the more corrupted their mana became.

Although the cat was absorbing most of the corrupted mana into itself, it was only buying them time.

If they stayed within the fog for another hour, they would inevitably become corrupted humans.

Due to the amount of corrupted mana Noctis was currently absorbing, the effects were starting to show on him as he was very clearly getting drunk on it.

The most obvious sign was the grin slowly appearing on his face.

[Adrian, are you okay?] Renelle also asked mentally.

[I am,] the butler responded before chuckling, [just a bit drunk on corrupted mana.]

[…]

She went silent after that as she continued observing her butler fight.

Speaking of corrupted mana, she wondered why none of it was affecting her.

Back in the dungeon, the corrupted mana had been affecting her until Adrian reached her side.

But now, there was not the slightest bit of pollution within her mana.

Renelle glanced at the bracelet on her wrist, wondering if this was because she could now share mana with her butler.

BOOM!

That was a question for later; right now, she had to keep an eye on her butler, ready to interfere at any moment.

Adrian enveloped himself in a cocoon of shadows just in time to avoid being reduced to scorched meat by the flames released from one of the Hydra’s heads.

His clones were keeping the other heads busy, and although the normal clones not using [Shadow Possession] were completely outmatched by the Hydra, that gap was reduced by the bull sharing its elements with them.

Though that meant that the bull couldn’t move.

The clone possessing Marion’s body, on the other hand, seemed to pose the most danger to the Hydra as it was actively restraining it.

The Hydra also noticed this, but couldn’t properly focus on that clone since the other [Shadow Clones] were just as annoying.

One of its heads launched a stream of corrosive acid towards Adrian, but the butler simply switched places with his clone, reappearing closer to the Hydra’s head.

He then pulled another clone towards him, transformed it into a lightning spike and launched it towards the Hydra’s head.

The creature wasn’t allowed a chance to protect itself when the spike suddenly passed cleanly through its neck, leaving a massive hole in its wake.

The head immediately went limp, a sign that it was dead, but Adrian knew that was only temporary.

A second later, his thoughts were proven right when the dead head shriveled up, disconnected from its neck, and a new one took its place.

“This is getting annoying,” the butler muttered.

As much as his drunken mind was enjoying this, he was still aware enough to realize that he was running on a timer.

‘Noctis,’ he mentally called out, ‘can we borrow Darius’s flames?’

Since the cat had shown that it could affect the void flames, he guessed that it’d be able to borrow them too.

‘Damn it,’ the butler muttered, but the cat was not done yet.

‘Let’s do it,’ Adrian mentally responded.

He then gave an order to the bull clone, and the next second, he felt a connection established between him and the clone.

Almost like another layer of connection had been added to their already existing connection.

He could feel the heat from the mana that the clone was sharing with him, and he realized that instead of his own mana pathways, another was being temporarily created within him.

A mana pathway that allowed him to use flames.

The butler opened his palm and watched as flames lit up above it, causing the eyes of the spirit mages below to widen.

Adrian paid the spirit mages no mind. His entire focus was fixed on the flames dancing above his palm.

Adrian did as instructed, and the next second, the orange flames suddenly turned black, similar to Darius’s void flames.

A grin appeared on the butler’s lips as he looked back at the Hydra. “Let’s get to cooking, shall we?”

The Grand Duke, meanwhile, turned to Renelle and asked, “What is he?”

After all, he doubted anyone in Avera could do what the kid was casually doing, which made him wonder if he truly was just an ordinary butler.

“Him?” Renelle looked up at Adrian before smiling, “he’s my butler.”

Zephir looked at her and then back at the floating Adrian before letting out a sigh. That was not the answer he was looking for, but he was certain that he wouldn’t get anything more.

Adrian, on the other hand, dismissed all of his remaining clones the moment he realized how much mana he was burning.

He left behind only the two clones using [Shadow Possession].

With the others gone, the hydra shifted its attention to Adrian and the clone wielding the strings, and that’s when it noticed the true danger,

The Void Flames.

All seven heads suddenly hissed at once as instinct screamed at them that the tiny human before them had become a lot more dangerous.

They opened their mouth simultaneously and released a combination of seven different elements at the same time, hoping to deal with the human at once.

In response, Adrian simply lifted his hand and launched the black flame into the attack.

Unlike the explosion most expected, the moment the black flames collided with the seven elements, they started disappearing.

It only took the black flames a few seconds to eat through all the other elements before heading directly for the Hydra.

The beast released more elemental attacks towards the attack, but it was all for naught.

The spirit mages on the ship watched as the void flame slammed into one of the creature’s heads, and it was immediately set on fire.

The hydra let out a screech of pain as it started thrashing violently.

The beast attempted to retreat into the ocean, but the clone possessing Marion’s body wasn’t about to let it.

It trapped the creature in a web of mana strings, dragging it back to the surface… though it wouldn’t matter if it went under.

The head continued burning to ash, but unlike previously, the head didn’t regenerate. Instead, the black flames suddenly moved to the next, quickly eating into it.

“W-what the hell?”

The spirit mages watched as the flames jumped from head to head as the beast continued struggling.

Its ridiculous regeneration had been rendered completely useless against the black flames.

A couple of minutes was all it took for the Hydra’s entire form to be no more, but somehow, the flames left the cores completely unharmed.

Adrian then looked down at the spirit mages below him and then at his lady before smiling and mentally asking, [How did I do?]

[Perfect,] Renelle replied with a smile.

With a nod, the butler dismissed his clones and slowly landed back on the ship, with multiple eyes on him.

Grand Duke Zephir, on the other hand, was even more convinced of his decision now; after all, not even the King possessed a subject with such ridiculous potential.

Alvíss looked at the butler; he was one of the few who already knew how terrifying this man was, so he wasn’t truly surprised.

Adrian landed by his lady’s side before saying, “Do you have anything with the ship’s mana or even Seth’s mana on it?”

The Grand Duke seemed a bit confused, but he still nodded and turned towards the captain of the Sea Guardian.

Without exchanging a word, the captain nodded and brought what seemed to be some sort of Crystal and handed it to Adrian.

“This is a part of the core that powers the other two ships; there should be a bit of mana within it.”

Adrian took the core and, from his [Shadow Vault], took out the compass that the old man had given him.

He then fed the mana into the compass and the needle immediately started spinning.

The butler then handed the compass to the ship’s captain and said, “follow it’s direction.”

“It should lead us to the other two ships.”

***

Seth, on the other hand, had a look of horror on his face as he kept himself from sinking.

Only a single thought repeated itself over and over in his head.

‘I-I’m going to die.”