The Demon Fire Salamanders were of a sufficient size compared to the Dark Flame Snails. Furthermore, their teeth were comparable to the snail’s. However, the most important factor that made them the nemesis of the snails was that they had a shockingly sturdy stomach. One so strong, they could contain and digest the entire snail, shell and all.
For the most part, our escort mission proceeded smoothly except for some periodic encounters with the Demon Fire Fishes. By the time we arrived at the destination, a whole ten days had passed.
The gathering spot for the fire elementals was a giant volcano that seemed to connect the heavens and earths themselves. It was completely black with random streaks of red running down it; those were streams of lava.
Because the volcano itself was an elevated ground, the limbless fishes couldn’t climb it easily, thus making this a safe spot for the fire elementals.
“That’s…that’s Flame’s End the volcano?!”
Upon laying eyes on the towering volcano, the elemental, Arca, was visibly excited. From his puffed up chest and the slight glint in his eyes, I could tell he was welling with pride at the moment.
“What’s so special about that volcano?”
I casually asked out of curiosity. Who would have thought that one simple question ended up opening the floodgates to what felt like an eternity of gushing by Arca. Long story short, Flame’s End was the biggest fire elemental gathering in Purgatory. All the Six-stars fire elementals and those above it were afforded a place in this massive settlement.
Having spent over ten days with Arca, I picked up some basic knowledge about the fire elementals themselves. I discovered that they didn’t require food but had to absorb a certain amount of fire element every day. If they failed to do so, their body would become weak and perhaps even dissipate entirely if such a state persisted for long.
Back when Mo Na injured Arca, the wound in his belly refused to close up because the environment simply wasn’t able to provide enough energy for recovery. After resting in the lava lake however, the wound had gotten noticeably smaller. Thus, it could be seen how important fire energy was to these elementals.
The more powerful a fire elemental was, the more elements they needed to absorb from the environment each day. Notably, different regions had different supplies of such energy, which explained why these elementals weren’t able to settle down for long in an unsuitable environment.
If like what Arca said, Flame’s End allowed all those who reached the level of Six-stars to live there and barred no one who met that criteria, it was only natural for the volcano to be considered a sacred ground for the fire elementals then.
“So you’re saying it has an unlimited supply of fire energy?”
“Whether or not it’s unlimited, I’m not entirely sure either. All I know is that those who met the requirements are allowed to join without restriction.” As he said that, his voice trembled. “I initially thought of the entire raid as a disaster but who would’ve thought that it would become a one in a million opportunity instead…”
Perhaps to Arca, this entire Fire Devouring Fish raid was some sort of opportunity, but somehow it all felt a little off to me. Logically speaking, such an incursion should have happened in the past as well. This instance was supposed to be a unique occurrence but for it to require all the fire elementals to hide out in the volcano…
Looking at it from another point of view, this couldn’t have been some simple Fire Devouring Fish raid then, could it? At the very least, it was at the level where the salamanders couldn’t handle it by themselves.
Seeing the elemental prattle on like that, Mo Na begun to get a little annoyed so she cut him off halfway: “Since we’re here, isn’t it time for you to give us those two Five-stars Fire Elemental Cores you mentioned?”
“The fire elementals keep their promises.” Even though he was still in the midst of his gushing, Arca suppressed the burning desire within him to keep on talking, and waved his right hand. Not too long after that, another fire elemental stepped out from behind him and held out two red pearls, both the size of a chicken egg.
The pearls were nearly transparent and didn’t contain a single speck of impurity within them. Their beauty was one that couldn’t be put to words and had to be seen for oneself in order to do it justice. Compared to them, those so-called luminescent pearls from Earth might as well had been marbles.
Even though he was reluctant to part with these pearls, Arca handed them over to us in the end. “We are extremely grateful…you are a trustworthy devil who keeps a promise…”
He should, in fact, thank his lucky stars since I actually had the strength to simply snatch them for myself.
“Perhaps all devils might seem bereft of good points to you, and are a bunch of vengeful and erratic fellows, but at the very least, I’m not such a person. You should be glad.” I handed over the two cores to Mo Na before turning around to face No.3 and Big 4. “Let’s go, this isn’t a place we should stay for long.”
Just as I was about to leave however, Arca called out to me: “Wait, if I’m willing to offer another reward, would you stay to help us?”
‘Stay? No way. Since we got our reward, it’s time for us to leave, right this instant.’ Even though I only managed to gleam some tidbits of information during this escort mission, they were enough for me to piece together a terrifying conclusion: something big was about to happen. As for what that was, I had no idea, nor did I wish to find out. A battle of this level simply wasn’t one we could take part in right now. After all, with our current strength, we might just end up as fodder…especially since this volcano was the home of elementals who were at least Six-stars.
For such a mighty settlement, at least it was in my eyes, to end up as a refugee camp, things truly had to have been bad. More importantly, there was still the matter of devils having a horrible reputation. A reputation so horrible, even devils didn’t trust each other… ‘in short, don’t trust a devil.’
“I’ll have to pass on that, I’m sure you know about our abysmal reputation as well. If I stay, can you guarantee that I won’t encounter any problems because of that?”
“…” Arca fell silent for a moment. “My considerations were lacking…”
“Then we’ll take our leave now.”
“Wait, I know you have no concrete plan at the moment. Even if you leave now, you’ll just end up wandering around aimlessly. If you wish to find the area where the devils used to live, I might just be able to give you some clues regarding that…”
“The area where the devils used to live? Didn’t you say that you had no idea?” I posed a question regarding that not too long ago. Back then, he told me that he had no idea and I wasn’t all too surprised by that answer. What did you expect from a shut-in elemental? After all, shut-ins with a 100 out of a 100 in geography were pretty rare.
Arca hesitated the moment I said that but he chose to fess up in the end: “I didn’t tell you then because I was afraid you would force me to speak…”
‘Fine, I’ll just have to chalk this up to a devil’s horrible reputation again.’
80 000 years ago, this entire region used to be the territory of a Devil King. As for what that king was called, that information was lost to time. One day, that Devil King simply vanished into thin air, and along with him, all his subordinates disappeared as well.
For some unknown reason, their territory ended up being shut behind a mysterious barrier and the devils who lived there simply disappeared without leaving much of a trace. However, that didn’t mean that all the clues were gone either.
The hint Arca gave us was to head east. As for what there was there, even he himself didn’t know the details. All he heard was that devils used to live there.
‘The east huh, I guess just knowing that is good enough for now. As for that disappearing Devil King and his subjects…thanks but no thanks…’
After all, I couldn’t even comprehend what kind of an existence a Devil King was.
Having said our farewells to Arca, we immediately set off without stopping. In order to avoid any accidental clashes, Arca even assigned us a few fire elementals to be our guide, at least up to the point where we completely left the boundaries of Flame’s End.
As expected, we ended up meeting several patrols of Fire Elementals. Their first reaction to us was naturally one of complete wariness and even hostility in some cases. Thankfully, Arca’s bit of conscientiousness and foresight saved us from any potential clashes. He had specifically instructed the fire elementals guiding us to vouch for us.
While I still wasn’t able to understand their language, the gaze they gave us after that round of explanation was noticeably friendlier though there was still a tinge of suspicion buried deep beneath it.
The moment we left the boundaries of Flame’s End, our guides bid us farewell and left immediately, seeing as the area was no longer part of the safe zone.
Because we still couldn’t communicate, I could only wave my hands at them as a form of goodbye.
“Mama, do you think those elementals will drop these cores if we kill them?” Still in the midst of playing with those pearls, Mo Na narrowed her eyes at the departing figures and added: “We can still make it if we chase them now…”
With regards to her devious suggestion of robbery, my only response to pick her up by the cuff of her neck and slap her not-so meaty bottom thrice. Brows furrowed sternly, I chided her: “Papa doesn’t like children who are naughty so you’d better not do bad things, got it?”
“But devils are supposed to do bad things.” Bottom spanked, she showed no sign of remorse and instead gave me a harrumph of dissatisfaction before turning her head away to ignore me. “Devils who do good deeds are the devils who are bad instead.”
‘Devils who do good deeds are the devils who are bad instead? That sounded so weird. Either way, this calls for another round of punishment.’
I lifted her face up with my finger and made her look me right in the eyes from that position. “I don’t care about the others but I definitely won’t allow you to do bad things. I want you to be a good girl instead.”
“A good devil is one who does what she wants.”
“That’s for other devils, not for Papa’s little baby.” For her to lean towards such deviant behavior was only to be expected of a devil. After all, devils weren’t able to even understand the concept behind the term good samaritan. However, I was different. Even though that episode in the human realm left me sullen, I still couldn’t deny the human nature within my soul. Because of that, I did not want Mo Na to be bad either. It was my wish for her to be kind-hearted or at the very least, not be a wicked devil.
Bad girls just weren’t adorable after all.
“Hmph, Mama isn’t adorable at all.”
“Papa just has to look cool, not adorable.” Seeing as our little chat wasn’t going to work out, I returned Mo Na back to her perch around my neck before addressing No.3 and Big 4: “We’ll find a place to rest first, after that we’ll head east…I wonder how long this journey of ours will last this time.”
“No matter how long it takes, we’ll do our best to protect Master.” The two of them pledged their loyalty once more, never once mentioning the two elemental cores.
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