"They're all lunatics!"
Seeing his companions acting so wildly, Leilin let out an exasperated sigh. "Madmen who've mastered tremendous power are the worst kind of trouble!"
"Hissss..."
While Leilin sighed, a massive phantom of the Komoyin Serpent Emperor materialized behind him. A terrifying black hole formed, its tremendous suction force constantly pulling at the fire elements across from him.
"Talent — Devour!!!" The horrifying ability of a fifth-level Komoyin Serpent Emperor — whether flame, light, or even the void itself — was all dragged into the black hole.
"Roar...!" The fire elements howled in terror, some even trying to flee, but their bodies were relentlessly dragged by the black hole's power behind them, ultimately being utterly devoured.
By the time Leilin passed through, a clear path had appeared through the entire void.
The five Radiant Moon Wizards had successfully breached the outer perimeter and entered the maze's interior. Occasionally, powerful auras emanated from various parts of the labyrinth.
...
In the center of the enormous labyrinth, upon a throne of crimson gold.
A figure wreathed entirely in flames suddenly raised its head, and a semi-transparent mirror materialized before it.
Image after image flashed across its surface — Leilin and his companions, exactly as they had appeared.
The Fire King's eyes flickered restlessly, sweeping past Leilin, Clark, and the others, pausing only briefly on Jing before settling completely on
"The power of destiny! It has returned everything to its original course!" the Fire King murmured, and two crimson figures split from its body, hurtling off in different directions...
Ding! Scan complete. Identified as Aranol Labyrinth, first-layer spellwork structure! High-energy reaction detected 12,800 meters ahead. Classified as a fifth-level creature — fire element probability: 87.18%.
On the Chip's screen, massive amounts of data fluctuated rapidly before a single conclusion appeared.
"As expected. I'm inside the labyrinth. I'll need to keep clearing the checkpoints ahead before I can reach the Fire King's position?"
Leilin was walking through a vast corridor at the time, its ceiling soaring dozens of meters high — utterly enormous, as if built specifically for giants. Leilin felt like a tiny speck within it.
"And it's even sealed off teleportation abilities, with such terrifying restraining runes!" Leilin shook his head. "Every possible loophole has been plugged. I can only push forward step by step with speed!"
"Why does this suddenly feel like clearing levels in a game from my past life?" Leilin stroked his chin, looking thoroughly exasperated.
But in his eyes, the blue glow hadn't dimmed in the slightest — the Chip's detection function had been pushed to its absolute limit.
This labyrinth's spellwork had completely separated their group of five. Even though Leilin tried to locate and contact his companions, he received no response whatsoever.
If Leilin were the Fire King, he wouldn't waste this opportunity to isolate and eliminate the enemies one by one. It would be practically insane not to.
Therefore, in addition to watching for traps and checkpoints along the way, Leilin's greatest concern was a potential ambush from the Fire King.
BOOM!
When Leilin emerged from the corridor, a wave of scorching heat slammed into his face. Before him lay an enormous lava lake.
White bubbles continuously rose from the molten rock, bursting and releasing a thick stench of sulfur.
The lava lake stretched to the horizon, like an immense red mirror.
"The fifth-level creature the Chip detected earlier — it's here?" Leilin's gaze settled on the lake's surface, seeming to pierce through the thick magma and see straight to the bottom.
"Come out!" A grin played at the corner of his lips as the massive phantom of a two-headed serpent plunged into the lava lake, churning it wildly.
Splat! Magma exploded outward, scattering in all directions like rain. At the bottom of the lake, a dark shadow grew larger and larger before bursting to the surface, revealing a terrifying jaw like that of a crocodile.
CRACK! The two-headed serpent phantom was snapped clean by the crocodile-like jaws. A colossal dark silhouette rose steadily from within the lava lake.
"RAAAWR!!!"
What materialized before Leilin was a creature vaguely resembling a crocodile, wreathed in flames. Drops of crimson magma slid endlessly from its scales and crevices. It was massive and elongated, and above its terrifying maw bristling with fangs burned two orbs of scarlet soul fire.
The creature looked like a fire crocodile standing upright on two legs — with arms and legs vaguely human-like, its fingers curved into black hooks that radiated a sense of razor-sharp lethality.
"Chip! Scan!" Leilin commanded without hesitation.
Ding! Fire King! Fifth-level creature! Elemental lifeform. Strength: 238. Agility: 124. Constitution: 495. Spirit: 1,523. A product unique to the Fire World — among hundreds of Morning Star-level fire elements, there is a very low probability of mutation, producing a commander-class fifth-level creature. Innate abilities: 1. Fire Affinity. 2. Flame Skin. 3. Summon Fire Elementals. 4. Unknown...
The Chip quickly projected a three-dimensional phantom of the enormous Fire King before Leilin.
Beside the phantom, a data panel displayed all of the creature's statistics in detail.
"A fifth-level fire elemental lifeform! With stats like these!" The phantom of the Komoyin Serpent Emperor materialized behind Leilin.
Without playing his trump cards, dealing with a Radiant Moon-level creature like this would require a bit of strategy.
"RAAAWR!!!" The Fire King roared. Three spheres of dark crimson light separated from its body and fell into the lava lake.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The dark crimson spheres swelled continuously before exploding, revealing three fire elemental beings of varying forms, each radiating at least Morning Star-level energy fluctuations.
Shoo shoo! Crimson energy conduits extended from the Fire King's legs. The lava lake's level dropped noticeably, and after a massive amount of magma was siphoned away, the losses the Fire King had sustained from splitting off its subordinates vanished completely.
"Summoning magic that splits off Morning Star-level minions! And it can replenish its own body like this!"
Leilin stroked his chin. "In the Fire World, this creature's vitality is far too tenacious. One moment of carelessness and I'd be dragged into a brutal fight — that would be extremely disadvantageous for me."
"Roar!"
As the Fire King roared, the three Morning Star-level fire elemental beings charged forward.
"Bloodline Restraint!" Leilin spread his hands. Crimson bloodline energy formed a halo, binding one of the Morning Star-level fire elementals in place.
"Frost Sphere!" At the same time, a crystalline orb of ice detonated midair. Snowflakes drifted downward, even causing the lava lake's temperature to drop by several degrees.
The two fire elementals caught in the attack were both covered in a layer of frost, freezing solid together with the surrounding ground.
Alert! Alert! Severe energy fluctuation detected within the opposing fire elementals — self-destruction imminent! Subject, please exercise caution!
The Chip's warning made Leilin's expression change in an instant, and at that moment, the Fire King's roar reached him as well.
"ROAR!"
BOOM! BOOM!
Accompanied by devastating shockwaves, the three Morning Star-level fire elementals were engulfed in blazing red light before detonating violently. Scorching waves of fire swept outward in every direction.
Though Leilin had been warned by the Chip and prepared accordingly, retreating in time, he still caught a bit of the blast's fallout.
"Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar!"
And just then, the Fire King split off four more dark crimson spheres, forming yet another four Morning Star-level fire elementals. Leilin's face darkened at the sight.
"If I don't take out the main body, this trouble will never end!"
Dark, eerie flames coalesced around Leilin's body, devouring all the fire waves from the Morning Star elementals' earlier self-destruction.
Whoosh! The black phoenix fire burned even more vigorously in the Fire World. Its subtle devouring force made the opposing fire elementals retreat again and again — even the Fire King itself was visibly wary.
"Fire Feather Technique — Ultimate Art: Evil Phoenix Soaring!"
With a piercing phoenix cry, a colossal black phoenix materialized. Its massive wings of flame swept outward, and the four Morning Star-level fire elementals were instantly obliterated — even the flames on their bodies absorbed by the black demonic fire, making the phoenix even larger as it hurtled toward the Fire King.
"RAAAWR!"
The Fire King roared furiously, its body sheathed in a layer of flame skin, and collided with the enormous black phoenix.
Eerie black flames and scarlet fire clashed and scattered in all directions, devouring and consuming each other. The tremendous tremors rippled through the labyrinth in every direction...
Elsewhere, Melinda chose a corridor with unmistakable familiarity. She encountered almost no danger along the way, advancing unimpeded.
Only the light in her eyes burned brighter than ever. "I've... come. Are you ready?"
Suddenly, the massive fluctuations created by Leilin's battle reached this part of the labyrinth, causing the corridors here to tremble.
"This time's ally is quite powerful!"
Melinda smiled with satisfaction, and her figure melted into the shadows.
...
SHING! A black greatsword slashed downward. Its blade light split into four midair, decapitating a four-headed fire elemental creature in a single strike.
Four massive heads tumbled to the ground, erupting into blazing flames.
"Well done, brother!"
The swordsman was naturally Clark, and behind him, Joanna gazed at Clark with indescribable tenderness in her eyes.
These two fifth-level Wizards had actually managed to bypass the Aranol Labyrinth's restrictions and act together!
"It won't be long now, Joanna! Brother will soon take you to get your revenge!"
Clark laughed heartily.
Suddenly, his expression changed. "Watch out!"