Solar Mage

Chapter 47: Tears of Lava

Deactivating the Flame Claws on my arms, I grab Rachel and Tin, holding each tightly between my arms as I quickly begin running for the next room.

Oh what the hell? How can something that big manage to jump that high?! Once that thing lands, it will completely obliterate the entire room with its impact and thousands of molten magma meteors shooting out everywhere!! I need to quickly get to the next room and shut the door!!

As the slime continues its descent and progressively closes in on us, the temperature of the air surrounding us rises more and more.

This is getting a little hot... It's mostly bearable for me, probably because of the blessing of the body that Pyro gave me.

My focus at the entrance to the next room slightly lowers as I glance at Tin and Rachel, in my arms their skin red and much hotter than usual– sweating profusely as their heavy breathing turns to painting.

It's bearable for me, but for Tin and Rachel, it probably feels like they're being cooked alive in the Devil's Cauldron. They won't be able to survive in this heat for much longer, especially because of their prior injuries and dehydration.

My focus on the next room returns as I continue to sprint at my fastest.

We're so close, but it would take me at least four seconds before I can get inside the room and shut the gate. And that's just the positive estimate where everything goes right, not accounting for the fact that I'd even be able to break the button or that the gate shuts immediately! But my estimate of the time it takes for Tin and Rachel to be finished cooking alive in this, accounting for the massive increase in heat as the monster continues to get closer, they'll be dead in less than two seconds! What can I do though? I only have spells that produce heat!

From my side vision, I notice Rachel moving her arm, and trying to make noise, or say something.

I know you're scared– But I'm sorry Rachel I can't do anything to save you...

Tears try to leak out of my eye, but they instantly evaporate from the intense heat in the air.

But my tears stop flowing as I suddenly notice something in her hand.

What's this? I have no idea, but if she's willing to move her arm that much, even through all of this, she must be planning something!

I grab the golden shield shaped tablet from out of her hands with my teeth

Damn, the heat is starting to affect me as well. This is probably an artifact from the way it's designed, I've seen a silver version of this, it's a relatively common artifact made by the church, called Divine Shield but never a gold one. I don't know how to activate this since the way to use it is only taught to priests. Screw this, I only have one thing that I can use in this situation and I don't even have a second before they are completely cooked!

I slightly open my mouth, leaving a small gap between my teeth and the artifact, before chomping down, through it.

Activate!!

In an instant after biting through the artifact, a small golden light appears from my mouth, that goes through my body and expands around us in a sphere.

Woah, the heat is gone! To get rid of heat so hot that it could burn skin, this is way beyond the powers of an artifact that's mass produced and isn't even from the ancient ages. Just where did she get this? She's supposed to be a new adventurer like me, so how does she have something as powerful as this?

I look back at Rachel in awe, but also examine her condition.

Good, both of them have somewhat calmed their breathing, and I can no longer feel their heartbeat despite the fact that I am holding them nowhere near their heart. I, however, can not say the same for myself. Now that the heat is gone, I can completely feel the fatigue and how much my body is trembling.

I look back up at the slime, closely approaching.

I don't know if this artifact will be able to stop something as hot as that, but since my Sun's Gate didn't manage to even slightly alter it, I am not willing to test that. It's about 5 seconds from making impact with the ground. As for me,

I look forward, remaining emotionless.

I'm about half a second away from getting inside. This monster has a great aim, landing just before it hits the door. Is this just luck, or is the monster afraid of what's inside the gate?

I pass through the door and immediately drop the two of them, then I activate Flame Claws on my arms. Once I drop them, the golden shield around us disappears.

Damn, it's getting hot again, I need to close off this room immediately.

"I'll disarm the trap and drop the door down now. You guys just rest–"

My Heightened Senses warn me of great danger behind me, just as I turn away to destroy the button.

Rachel!!

"CLANG–KZKZ"

That was close!!

I clash using Dustin's sword covered in Solar Aura with a giant 40 feet tall stone statue that swung its even more massive, 50 feet tall halberd down.

What the hell? I didn't even touch the button! How did this thing activate? And how am I losing to it in battle of strength when I'm using aura?!?!

I suddenly feel a strong heat coming from behind me.

No– I forgot about the lava slime!!

I divert my attention and turn to where I dropped Tin

"Tin– I need you to destroy–"

I see Tin, on the ground, using his Axe for support as he kneel, struggling desperately as he tries to stand

Damn! He won't be able to move. What about Rachel?

"Rachel–"

I swing my head over to where I dropped her. Her body lays on the ground, with her eyes closed, panting heavily.

Shit– they're both incapable of moving, and if I leave this clash with this bastard stone statue, they'll both die! What doI do?!?!

The lava slime makes impact with the floor, and the entire room shakes, stones falling out of the walls and ceiling as a massive wave of air as hot as fire fills the room.

Shit– I won't hold on for much longer with this statue!!

I turn my head back and see the entirety of the entrance completely gone, the only thing visible being the slime's titanic orange–red body standing over the entire room. Then, it's body begins to rotate to the right

No– that's the movement it makes when it's about to attack! It's gaining momentum! I won't be able to dodge it while fighting this statue!! The air is so hot, it feels like I'm on fire. I can't see Tin and Rachel anymore, and they're probably already dead, but if they're still alive, I can't drop this halberd of them!

The monster stops rotating to the right and starts rotating left, quickly gaining speed as it swings back.

No– it's about to attack! Father, Dustin, Rachel, Tin, I'm sorry for not being able to save you.

I close my eyes, accepting my fate as two massive lava meteors hurl straight at me, hundreds more aimed at every other part of the room.

I'll make sure to apologize to you in my next life.

I drop my sword and all my negative emotions.

"BOOOOOM!!!"

Hundreds more follow afterward in the span of a second, until all the noises stop.

What happened? Am I in the afterlife now? Should I open my eyes? I'm excited!

I slowly lift my eyelids up, highly expectant and filled with impatient anticipation.

Wait, this isn't the afterlife, did I not die? Hmm, Pyro must've interfered and saved me.

Altering my focus, I turn and see Tin standing, the shaft of his Black Iron pointing upwards.

"Oh Tin,you're alive and even standing! This is a great miracle from Pyro, let's go pray to Pyro together once we get out of here!"

His voice echoes throughout the room but his body doesn't make any motion at all.

"Yeah, let's do that."

The back of his armor suddenly starts to become orange.

What's that orange light?

The armor gets more orange, until it begins to drip.

?

The entire backplate of his armor quickly drips down afterwards as molten magma spits out of the hole in his backplate.

"Tin?"

He falls backward into the ground, unresponsive.

"Tin..."

Once he completely falls, his front is revealed. His Black Iron Axe has a hole through it, and Tin. Tin's chest– torso is almost completely gone, all the way from his collarbone, to his ribs. A massive hole ripped, his heart gone, and the flesh exposed from the hole, all completely hardened magma.

In this moment, I felt a kind of fire ignite in my body. A tear forms around my eye, and evaporates into a burst of flames.

"TINNN!!!!!"

Tears continuously spew out of my eyes and burst into flames, every part of my body touched by the tears erupting into white flames as my tears flow endlessly.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!!"

The lava slime stays still as I walk up to it.

"YOU MUST THINK YOU'RE IMMORTAL SINCE YOU CAN ABSORB AND MELT EVERYTHING THAT YOU TOUCH. WELL LET ME HELP ALTER YOUR PERSPECTIVE."

My eyes radiate in absolute white light as an orange ball of flames grows giant, flames spiraling around the exterior, five times as big as the first artificial sun.

Its size reaches the ceiling and beyond, almost as large as the lava slime itself. Even still, the slime makes not even the slightest movement.

"AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!

The ball of flames continues its growth, stopping after increasing its size by two times, ten times the size of the original. The lava slime still makes no moves.

The Artificial Sun starts to get dimmer and smaller, as if the flames lost their form and began dissipating away into the air. Eventually, almost all of the artificial sun is gone– all that's left is a small round sphere, now having lost all of its color.

The arrogant, brainless monster suddenly feels something wrong with its monster instincts and begins rotating its body to attack.

"HAHA, IT'S TOO LATE NOW MONSTER, IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO TASTE DEATH."

The ball of white light continues to get smaller and smaller, until the ball and even the light from the ball is no longer visible.

"DIE!!!"

Just before I release the spell, the monster swings and breaks off its arm, hurling a massive body of lava, half the size of the stone statue at me.

I close my eyes.

"Hoooo..."

Sun Magic, Dusk: First Form - Molecular Bisector.

A white flash could be seen for a moment, moving at the speed of light one moment, and gone the next. The light needle passes through everything in its way, the air, the slime's arm, the slime's membrane, and the slime's core. Everything occurring and ending in less than a millisecond to Arthur, using Heightened Senses.

Ah, so it's finally finished. It's a shame I wasn't able to do everything I wanted, but at least I got revenge for Tin and Rachel. Compared to not accomplishing anything, this is enough for me. I couldn't even move my body if I wanted to. I've used two hundred percent of my mana. I would say that my biggest regret was calming myself down to perform Molecular Bisector. The level of hatred and rage I felt in that moment, will never come back.

"BOOOOOOOM!!!!"