The Villain's Story

524 [524] It rose.

I woke up, tired, but thankfully I was alive. The pain in my body disappeared, and my mana had recovered. It seems the phoenix bloodline did quite the work.

Standing up, I massaged my stiff body and looked at the ice wall I had conjured up. It was holding its own against the heat outside.

When I had constructed it, I made sure to scatter as much of my ice mana around the cave. I could probably survive the heat, but the 'passenger' with me won't be able too.

The deadly lava isn't the only thing that's dangerous here. The heat it emits is equally dangerous. The heat would have killed her already if it wasn't for my mana cooling this place down.

After I reinforced the ice wall and made the cave cooler, I went over to her and bent down. I wanted to see whether my act of covering her in a ball of ice had repercussions. After I scanned her with dragon eyes, I was glad to find out that it didn't happen. She held on, perhaps due to her rank.

If it was a normal human, they would be cooked meat right now. The heat here is no joke, even with my ice mana. Her face was getting red.

I put my hand over her and cooled her down further. Then, I sent her to my domain. I would have liked to do this sooner, but those damn bats and my mana exhaustion made me unable to do so. In order to send people to my domain, I need to stand still and invest quite a bit of my mana, about 20% of it.

I couldn't do that before. Using the connection with my soldiers in the domain, I told them to transfer her to the healing room. That would help with her injuries.

I also ordered them to only subdue her and put her back to sleep if she woke up. I don't want her to attack my soldiers thinking they are monsters.

I should also explain it to her when she wakes up through the spatial bond. That will help clear things up.

Now...the only thing left for me to do is figure out how to get out of this place. The air in this little cave is limited, So I took one large breath and held my breath. I can do it for long enough to figure something out.

I walked over to the wall and looked at the red lava beneath. There was quite the distance between this cave and the lava...thankfully.

It shouldn't rise, but then again we are in a different planet, So I don't want to take any chances. Anything can happen in this accursed place.

Common sense won't work here.

After covering myself in a shield of ice mana, I broke the ice wall and flew into the underground expanse once again, I continued my journey forward. Behind me were the bats. I judged that if I can't find any escape from here, I will simply rush in and killed them all, then dig out the bodies stuck in the crevice and escape from there.

I encountered more caves as I made my way through the underground expanse, the red light coming from below didn't change in the slightest, however. Furthermore, I also feel as if the lava is getting higher, The bubbles keep popping constantly and the whips of lava that would spew out occasionally were deadly, I stuck to the ceiling to avoid them.

No matter how much further I travelled, I didn't see any change, I wondered if there would finally be something different.

The lava below was acting stranger the further I went, it was moving like water now, I could see the ripples and waves form above it.

"Weird ass planet."

I muttered as I looked at the water-like lava, According to my knowledge it should be dense, but here it is...

'I can only hope that 'a wave' won't appear.'

I hope I didn't jinx myself there. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. I stopped by another cave and went inside, preparing to rest for a while and cover my mana. I did the same once again, covering the entrance of the cave with a wall of ice and spreading my mana all over the cave to cool it down.

I sat down and began to meditate. The heat outside ripped my ice mana shield apart, and I had to expend most of my mana on it. This kind of environment was the least suited for me. I was an ice dragon stuck in a large cave filled with lava and heat. This is the perfect environment for Elijah and other fire element users. The speed of their recovery and advancement would be insanely good here.

Technically, I am an ice, chaos and space dragon hybrid, But one of the elements I possess and use the most is at a disadvantage here, and that is affected me. The power of my spells is decreased, and the environment is eating me alive.

I can feel my strength disappearing every second. I fucking hate this.

"I need...to escape."

I'm tempted to go back and fight the bats to the death and leave, the only issue is will I be able to do so when I get back. I could be so weakened that they would tear me apart, and there are no caves for quite a distance there, So I don't have anywhere to rest.

Sighing inwardly, I got up and unfurled my wings once again. The fire mana here is sickening.

I took it slow and steady, trying to save my strength for as long as I could.

I repeated this tiring cycle for a few days, as I was reaching the ends of my wit I finally saw something which filled with me hope. With a smile plastered on my face, I flew towards my 'escape'.

This endless, depressing sea of lava had ended abruptly, and a wall of red rock was in front of me, however, at the top of this wall, hidden in a corner behind multiple stalactites, I saw a hole.

After using my dragon eyes on it, I found out that it led up! I was so glad, I almost flew in circles.

I rushed towards the hole and broke the stalactites that hid it, they fell into the Red Sea below and were devoured by it quickly. The lava wasn't as dense as expected, it was exactly like water at this point, the only difference being it was hot.

I flew up towards the hole, which looked as if it had been dug by a large drill machine. I ignored the strangeness of it and flew upward. The only thought of my mind being of freedom. I saw a light at the end of this tunnel, and I rejoiced.

I flew high up, and finally fucking escaped the hell below!

"Haha!"

I raised my arms in triumph as I enjoyed the light of the suns. The subtle heat from it was much more appreciated than the hell below! Those two strange suns never seemed so friendly to me before.

I sat down on the ground, and enjoyed the light breeze. I looked around and found myself to be in a mountainous area. There were small patches of grass here, but most of it was 16:28

covered in snow.

"Snow?"

Although I had an inkling of where I was, I enjoyed the environment benefiting me for once, and recovered my mana in an instant.

After a while, I stood up and looked at the mountains above. Just as I had predicted, I was in the north of the base, where the mountains were. I could see the city up above, it just seemed as I was on the opposite side of the mountains.

"This is not good..."

I muttered to myself, as I felt the energy of multiple monsters in the area, all S-rank. The mammoths, yetis and the ice statues I saw were in an abundant number here.

Although I was glad I had escaped the hell of fire mana below these mountains, I hated that I was thrown into another predicament as soon as I escaped.

The universe truly hates me, I could feel some of their energies approaching me quickly.

The earth beneath me shook, and the air trembled as I saw what was coming towards me.

"...hi."

I said, to the behemoth of a monster that appeared in front of me, easily towering over my figure. It was a mammoth, having tusks made of crystal and fur as white as snow. The eyes shone with a blank hue as they stared at me with hostility.

The thing was giant. Before I saw them from the distance so they didn't look that big but...

"Holy shit..."

I cursed, as I summoned my spear and donned my armour. Thankfully, the monster appeared to be on the weaker spectrum of S-rank monsters. That didn't mean I could defeat it, though, The chances of doing that were still slim.

The best I can do, is run when I can.