"This is the entrance my Lord, the fire's presence is more intense on the left"
Bright and scorching was the underground tunnel system, lava flowing down the walls in every road the crossways presented them
"The fire's presence is more intense on the second left pathway"
Since he had no recollection of ever seeing or hearing of this place they followed Ika's lead taking one wrong turn after the other as the maze like place spun then in circles
"I'm so sorry my Lord, I really do feel more energy emitting through here than the other roads"
Upon chancing on another dead end The fire tracer apologize, this was the sixth time they had to go back already
"Continue"
Unbothered he had her guide the way even when she proved to be incapable of doing so over and over again, taking through meaningless routs and past dangerously heated areas, finally stopping at a crossway with an exit toward the top
"Back at square one huh, why don't we map the place out first Master"
"I second mother's opinion, my skills seem unable to trace the source of the fire"
"We would only end up with a map of dead ends anyway"
YuJu seemed to catch onto something
"You see, if she felt the fire in a general direction then it just means she is getting the most direct route toward it, but we have gone around in a circle, there can only be one reason for that"
"The fire is also on the move"
For once it was Zero who spoke
"What's to be done then my Lord? Even if we speed up as I track it down it would still be hard to pinpoint its location without a map"
"What makes you think it's in this cavern at all?"
YuJu questioned, not waiting for an answer as he walked forward to puncture a hole in the wall, letting the lava bleed out like a leak in the dam
"....RIght, if a fire was to be found anywhere it would be in lava"
Ika didn't know why she thought the thing would be floating around like some ghostly apparition instead of swimming in its own environment
"What are we to do then Master? It's not like we can swim after it…..right?"
Mia started to regret her rhetorical question given it was turning none rhetorical by his amused smile
"Remember not to drink any lava, won't be easy to flush it out of your system, if there is anything left of it after that anyway"
Throwing them some ointments he smeared one directly onto his skin, taking a deep breath as his energy mixed with the applied stuff before diving into the flowing lava
"Wait Master! How are we supposed to make use of it-"
Cutting her words short was the figure of the Zero throwing herself forward into the glowing river, blue light shining under the ointment
"Arent we vampires? Shouldn't we be afraid of fire to-"
Fwush
Hearing the flutter of flames she turned to see Ika clad in fire, her class making the most use of this thing her master gave them
"I'll be going first mother"
Ika said before she too disappeared under the bubbling stuff
"....."
Left alone Mia could only look between the stuff in her hands and all that bright dangerous lava, gulping hard at the thought of having to dive inside it
"Subrina definitely made this stuff….I shall seek remuneration from her when we return"
Making up her mind to try and bury her fear of diving she put it all over her body and jumped head in, eyes closed and body as stiff as a log
'Hmm?'
Not feeling a burning nor suffocating sensations the nervous vampire slowly peeked her eyes open, chancing upon a red see blocking her vision, only the dark figure of three humanoids could be made out
One person waved for another who took the lead, guiding them once more with a racing heart, only this time without taking any turns at all, heading straight toward the source of what she presumed would be the greatest power boost yet
While Mia was feeling uneasy, Ika exited, and Zero like a fish in water for some reason, YuJu was being extremely cautious, because unlike the others he hadn't forgotten the report of a Witness's sighting in these parts, one they have yet to catch a whiff of
'Though it's not really a Witness but a devolved version of one'
If it was a Witness they were up against...he didn't want to imagine the consequences
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom Though his mind was drowning with possibilities of what they might have to face to get their hands on the fire source he didn't miss the plethora of gazes sent their way
There was no need to alert the others about it however, all of them could see the dark large shadow of an octopus before them, scaring the living daylight out of Mia as its limbs sprouted eyes gazing in alert toward them in the depths of this red sea
Like witnessing a snake everyone scattered immediately, easily dodging the rays except for Mia who was glanced by the side of her leg with one of them due to her delayed movement
Sensing something off with her the others sprang into action, two of them shining with red light as they swam in circled toward the creature
Meanwhile, YuJu, who had half his focus aimed toward avoiding the beams, made way to grab the struggling Mia before she got hit again
Though in reality he could go into stealth any moment, the lava not hindering him at all, quite the contrary he could blend in such a place even easier than the surface, but if he did that then the others would have to bear the full brunt of the ey's attack too early on
Now with Mia in hand he had to avoid double the fiery rays, trying to get close as well and help the two finish the thing off sooner
'What's wrong with you?'
As he did he conveyed his thoughts to Mia through blood messages by directly holding her palm with his
'I am deeply sorry Master, I am afraid of going underwater, or anything of similar nature'
'Now's not the time to linger on some childhood drama, get a hold of yourself'
'It's not a trauma Master, I never feared underwater, until we decided to dive into this lava, I am unsure why but I just can't get rid of this dread inside me'
YuJu frowned, that didn't make any sense, why would one develop fear out of nowhere when they fought battles with beasts of disastrous levels and directly met head to head with wraiths looking like they came from the depths of someone's nightmare
His debating thoughts were interrupted by another barrage of rays that almost hit Mia once more, looks like the creature decided to get rid of him first then focus on the other annoying two
'Go back to the surface and wait for us there'
Since she was a hindress rather than an asset he had her leave, providing cover as she floated away in shame
'She's out of range'
Once she couldn't be hit no more his body disappeared before all those eyes, driving the thing crazy as something actually managed to hide from it?!
Wildly firing beams about it sought to flush him out, giving opportunity for Zero to plunge close for a solid hit
Opening its mouth to issue a silent scream the creature writhed as its body actually cracked just from that single punch, proving just how strong one could be when they allocated all their points into one stat
Seeing as it was really in danger it tried to focus fire on Zero, but a dark smoke enveloped its sight, confusing its as all senses seemed to be cut loose
Alarmed it tried to swim out of the smoke but the thing seemed to be endless, without an exit no matter how far it swam
Its state of diary lasted no longer however as a barrage of punches and kicks came from Zero who could see through her lord's aura, cracking the hard shell of this many eyes octopus until it broke open in a burst of light
'That was easier than I believed it to be'
The white haired woman's sheer power surprised him, what seemed more ridiculous however was the fact that lava, which was filled with fire energy, didn't restrain her class's skills, in fact, the fiery liquid seemed to be supporting them, strengthening those horrible melee attacks like never before
'Guess our journey should be smooth sailing even if we meet more of these devolved Witness's things would be manageable'
No sooner than he thought a few dozen or so eyes peered toward the cloud of smoke, numbers going up crazily each passing second as boiling heat started to charge up from them
'.....'
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