Chapter 54 – Blood Explosion

Her whole body felt like it was on fire, a different kind from the hungry one threatening to swallow her young master.

At that realisation, Océane’s mind snapped into razor-sharp focus. She used everything left in her tired, screaming body, her thoughts racing through the blistering hot air choking her lungs.

She coughed, cursed when her eyes began to water, blinked repeatedly, and forced her gaze down into the pit as she pulled the earthen rope back — shortening it steadily, dragging her young master upward.

"This isn’t fast enough." She realised, watching the crimson fire climbing faster with every passing second.

Her body was completely spent, every muscle screamed at the smallest movement.

The splitting headache slamming against her skull and her near-emptied essence had drained her face to the colour of ice, her lips trembling with fatigue rooted deep in her bones and a fear that went beyond anything physical.

But Océane was not someone to underestimate.

Not only had she been rigorously trained to sacrifice her life for a Desdemona heir without hesitation — she was also, she now understood, motivated by something far simpler: she had come to love and respect Cassius Desdemona.

Not as a lover, as many might have assumed. As a master. As a leader. As someone worth following, regardless of everything else.

And so when the sea of fire began licking at the feet of her young master, something in Océane’s mind clicked.

Her mind expanded, entering a flow state rarely seen in someone of her bloodline level; time seemed to slow, crawling like a snail.

Cassius and the old man were roughly twenty metres from the surface. But even if they reached it, it would mean nothing if the fire wasn’t stopped first.

Océane’s hands tightened on the rope. They began to glow a bright, pure brown, so vivid it momentarily bathed the entire surrounding in an earthy, almost motherly warmth.

Her eyes reflected the light. Then, teeth gritted, she reached past empty — found strength she didn’t have — and pulled.

Both the old man and Cassius ripped out of the pit, launched into the sky above her.

"Lass! What are you doing?! Get away from the fi—!"

Océane filtered everything out. She activated her Second Skill: Rage of Earth.

The moment it triggered, the very ground she was kneeling on churned. It reacted to her dense, desperate essence, blasting outward in a wave of rock that moved like the maw of a devouring beast, smearing itself above the pit in an instant, sealing the opening and blocking the fire from climbing.

Fire met earth.

Océane’s eyes, nose, mouth and ears began to bleed freely as she went past her limit, forcing her earth to match the raw strength of the fire.

The two forces collided, mixed, fused in forceful yet seamless fashion and birthed something new as Océane trembled on the edge of collapse, her body going paler with every second.

Magma.

Born from the combination of fire and earth, it solidified above the pit and halted the devouring advance of the flames.

But...

"N-Not enough!" Océane cried, feeling it already. Her earth was weakening. The fire was growing stronger. The balance was tipping, and tipping fast.

If this continued, the fire would dominate and everything would burn again.

Fear crawled into her burning, exhausted heart. Her eyes went hazy, threatening to close on their own. Despair and helplessness bloomed in her stomach.

She cast one last glance at her young master, already resigned to spending the last of herself to buy him time...

...only to see him standing.

Swaying, feet still burning, yet still standing with three potion vials at his mouth.

"Ah, Océane, my dear." Cassius grinned at her crookedly, blood at his nose and ears, swallowing down two Tier Five Essence Regenerative Potions and one Tier Five Healing Potion taken from Anesthesia’s ring. "Aren’t you something? You can let go now."

He cracked his neck toward the building’s exit, clocking the barrier surrounding the structure, sealing them inside.

’So that man was truly serious about my death, wasn’t he?’

"Lad!" The old man called out, himself drinking potions, standing before the barrier with a deep frown, pressing a ghostly hand against it. "No time for staring! We need to get out!"

While the old man was shouting, Cassius was already running to Océane as she crumpled. "How hard is it?" He asked the old man at the same time.

He reached her in moments, scooped her into his arms in one clean motion, then pivoted and sprinted back to the old man.

Behind him, the magma was crumbling. Pure, unfettered fire was clawing through it, faster and faster.

They had very little time.

"Hard enough that none of us should be able to break it." The old man replied, and the information dropped into Cassius’s stomach like a ball of ice.

"Not easily, at least." He added.

"Any ideas?" Cassius asked, standing beside him now, Océane unconscious in his arms.

"No time to find one." The old man shook his head, watching the fire splutter through the failing magma and begin spreading around them like seawater filling a hole.

"Then brute force until it yields." Cassius decided, his eyes dark with exhaustion.

The potions had helped, but not enough to scrub away the tiredness clinging to his bones and his soul.

No time to think about it.

"Hold her a moment." He handed Océane quickly to the old man and drew his cane.

This cane was a gift from the twins. It was no ordinary weapon, being a Tier Seven artifact, with one added effect: Essence Amplification.

For a brief period, it could increase the essence flowing through the weapon and sharpen its lethality. At Tier Seven, the amplification was a pathetic 20% at most.

Still, at that moment...

"More than enough." Cassius growled, fire burning inside his eyes. His essence had recovered enough to go hard again.

The fire was fully out now, moving toward them with terrifying speed; and this time it carried the viscosity of lava, far more lethal than before.

’Queen’s blessing on me.’ He thought once — Ananke watching from her Gate with barely concealed nervousness — and then he moved.

"Fast! Faster! Come on, Lad!" The old man urged, his back ice-cold despite the heat scorching his lungs.

With the sword-half of his cane, Cassius coated it in Essence Amplification combined with his fire and drove it into the barrier with every ounce of strength he could pull in one breath.

The explosive power was already considerable, and the weapon’s effect pushed it further. The blade pierced deep into the translucent barrier.

The barrier shook and shrieked, but held. And worse, it was already slowly beginning to regenerate.

Cassius cursed. He left the sword embedded in it, turned his grip to the staff-sheath.

He took a batting stance. Hands trembling and damp with sweat, he loaded every shred of essence into the weapon and his arms...and swung it directly into the pommel of his own sword.

BANG!

The barrier shook but didn’t yield. Cassius didn’t stop either.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The old man watched with trepidation, noticing the fire climbing beneath their feet.

It began to burn them.

The pain was atrocious, both of them cried out.

And the fire kept rising, soon it would swallow them entirely. But the pain acted like a trigger.

A Snake Loop appeared above Cassius’s head: an Adaptation to the burning effect of fire beginning to form. It would take time to complete, and time was the one thing he didn’t have.

Yet even without the full Adaptation, it pushed him into something close to a semi-epiphany state. His Innate, combined with his extraordinary fire sensitivity and the direct experience of being burned, lifted his understanding and control over Bloodflame one step higher.

A new aspect of it revealed itself.

His eyes blazed brighter and he acted on it without hesitation.

He used his own blood and every drop he was shedding...detonated.

His whole body became a chain of small, rapid explosions, each drop of blood erupting as it fell, feeding directly into his speed and strength, pushing both into a completely different range.

He bellowed and swung — faster and faster and harder and harder — each strike more vicious than the last, until finally...

BAAAAAANNNG!!!

CRACK—!

His sword punched through the barrier, weblike fractures spread across the entire surface in an instant.

Then with one final punch, the barrier shattered open.

"GO!" He roared, and without waiting grabbed the old man and the unconscious Océane together and hurled them through the gap.

The hole was already sealing behind them.

Before it closed completely, Cassius dove through, throwing himself headlong as if his life depended on it.

Because it did.

He burst out of the building and into the open air, the skin of his feet peeling, charred and burned completely away, blood spraying out behind him.

—End of Chapter 54—