“…Raging Flames Lake is our territory, don’t get too cocky outsiders.” Even though his words were still as tough as before, his stature had diminished significantly. Clearly, he knew that his own might wasn’t comparable to our own.
Not giving me any chance to rebut, he turned his eyes onto the Demon Fire Salamander. “What did you call me out for?”
The salamander mooed a couple in response to the elemental who seemed to understand what it was saying. The two traded words for quite a while as I quietly listened in on the fascinating scene, taking care not to interrupt them.
“Hah, you’re saying they have no hostile intent? Don’t kid around, devils who come here are all up to no good.”
“Moo moo mooo.”
“You’re kidding! You’re saying the seal has been undone, after 80 000 years?!”
“Moo moo, moo mmoo.”
“…really?”
“Moo moo.”
“…I understand.” Their conservation ended but the fire elemental seemed visibly upset by its contents. Unwillingly, he turned to me and asked: “Hey, that devil in armor, even though the Demon Fire Salamander has vouched for you, I still have to ask you one more time, you are really from the Prison of the Dead?”
“That’s right.” I nodded my head. “Is there even a need to lie about such a matter? Besides, we don’t know a single thing about these surroundings lands or we would have spun a more convincing tale already.”
“I guess that’s true, looks like you really don’t know a single thing after all…” The elemental sighed though it seemed that he was willing to trust us at least. “Honestly, I chose to believe you all because of the salamander.”
“That Demon Fire Salamander?”
“That’s right. It said that after capturing it, you didn’t try to kill it. Moreover, it saw you appear out of thin air and because your direction coincided with its own, it decided to observe you. However, it came upon a Fire Devouring Fish and in the midst of that ensuing battle, you captured it…” As he said that, he pointed at the salamander in question. Essentially, what all that was trying to say to me was that all my explanations weren’t even worth a few moos from a salamander.
Right at the very end, the elemental even made sure to make that point extra clear to me: “All devils can’t be trusted with their words, even now I still can’t bring myself to trust you all.”
“Honestly, I don’t you need to trust us at all. We never intended to foster any sort of relation between us. So, if there’s nothing else, we’ll take our leave.” As I said before, this wasn’t me running away, after all, I beat him once already. I simply didn’t wish to waste more time here, mhm.
‘Here it comes…’
“Please wait, there’s actually something I need your…hmm…help with…”
‘I knew it…they wanted something from us after all. I could sense that yellow exclamation mark above their heads from a mile away…yes, I played World of Peacecraft, I’ll admit it.’
‘I just knew there was a reason why his tone suddenly became so tame.’
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll have to pass on that.”
“…” Even though his face was still a fuzzy mess, I could tell that it blackened the instant I rejected him.
“Fine, fine. What do you need of us? Let’s be clear here, if it’s too hard, I’ll still say no.” Once again, my soft heartedness got the better of me, forcing me to reach out to those in need. However, it wasn’t as if there were no merits to helping them either. Giving it some thought, I realized that since we were still unfamiliar with Purgatory as a whole, forming some connections with the local powers wasn’t all that bad either, even if said local power was kinda…
“The problem we have right now is…”
After confirming my consent, the fire elemental gave an excited nod before starting on an explanation of their situation.
The natural world was truly a wondrous place, no matter what creature it was, they always had a natural born enemy or counter. At times, such a nemesis could be found just nearby or even from the same source. Take for example a snake’s venom, while it might be able to poison most creatures to death, that same venom was also a crucial component in synthesizing antivenom.
Similarly, while the fire elementals and the salamanders make their home in the flames, their nemesis could also be found in the same living space.
The Fire Devouring Fish were a ravenous species that devoured everything in their sights. At times of extreme hunger, they would even consume their own. Just based on their own merits however, the Fire Devouring Fishes weren’t all that strong. However, should they gather together as a school and start raiding their surroundings, they became the stuff of nightmares for those living in Purgatory.
For the most part, they fed on the Demon Fire Worms and because of that, the two sides had a blood feud with each other. The Fire Devouring Fish had an ability which allowed them to feed on the energies hidden within the fire element, naturally that included the lava in the lake as well. However, because the fire elements within the lake contained too many impurities, consuming too much of it would cause them harm instead. Thus, they chose to attack the Demon Fire Worms.
If the situation allowed it, they didn’t mind paying a visit to the Raging Flames Lake either.
Truth be told, the fire elementals were a formidable bunch. Compared to the other elementals, they were more combative and aggressive. Unfortunately for them, all that was useless before the Fire Devouring Fishes…to them, they were just food.
By devouring fire elementals, the Fire Devouring fishes were able to evolve. Because of that, these fishes would periodically raid the settlement of the fire elementals. Being made entirely of fire, there could not be any worse enemy than those fishes for the elementals. Thus, they began searching for allies.
‘The enemy of my enemy is a friend.’ With that in mind, the fire elementals sought to ally themselves with the Demon Fire Salamanders who were feuding with the fishes. Like that, a close, symbiotic relationship was formed.
Naturally, there was nothing in this world that was smooth sailing from the start, an alliance was no exception either.
In the beginning, the salamander looked down upon the fire elementals for being so worthless in the fight against the Fire Devouring Fishes. On the other hand, the fire elementals scorned the salamanders and in their arrogance, labelled them as creatures with low intelligence.
Still, the two races ended up allying because of two main reasons:
One, they both had a common enemy.
Two…the salamanders had no ability to devour flames. In other words, while the elementals might not be able to fend off the fishes, they were more than capable of fighting the salamanders. Moreover, while the fire elementals might have looked down on the salamanders because of their intelligence, in reality, the fire elementals were barely smarter than a rock…
Naturally, any one-sided relationship where one relied on the other completely, would never last long. The salamanders had the ability to defend the elementals from the fishes and in exchange, the elementals possessed a unique ability that aided the evolution of the salamanders.
Thanks to their elemental nature and body, any product of their body, even waste products, were considered rare ingredients in the eyes of human mages. Whenever an elemental was filled to the brim with energy and couldn’t evolve, they would expel this energy as a waste product. These would then coalesce automatically into a flame red mineral known as Flame Crystals, a magical ingredient.
Another thing of note was that the salamanders were able to evolve by consuming fire elementals as well. However, unlike the fishes, they didn’t have an ability that could counteract fire so completely. Thus, the only way for them to reliably get their hands on these crystals would be to trade.
In conclusion, the salamanders provide protection for the elementals and in turn, the elementals gave them crystals. Both sides benefitted and an alliance was formed, though perhaps they were more of customer-contractor than anything else.
Back to our current situation, the whole reason why the elementals needed our help was because the salamander had just brought them a most unfortunate piece of news. The Fire Devouring Fishes were making moves again. And this time, they actually gathered up several schools of fishes together to form an insurmountable force.
Because the of the abruptness of their attack, the distant fire elemental tribes were caught completely off guard and were mostly wiped out. The salamanders were just as unprepared as the elementals so by the time their response was prepared, too much time had passed. A number of smaller settlements like Raging Flames Lake were left on the wayside as a result.
The salamander came bearing word that the salamanders wished for them to evacuate Raging Flames Lake and find shelter in the designated location in the salamanders’ stronghold.
For their own safety, the elementals naturally wouldn’t say no. Still, even if they evacuated, they would surely meet some fishes on the trip. The salamanders weren’t able to provide too much support on this front so they could only make this request of us.
Even though we just fought with them, compared to the blood feud they had with the fishes, our fight was nothing but a little scuffle. Besides, with death knocking on their doorstep, who else could they rely on but us?
“So you want us to be your bodyguards?”
The fire elemental threw us an uneasy look and said: “Please don’t refuse our request…”
“All right, no matter what, we are acquaintances of sorts. Besides, I don’t like those fishes anyway. More importantly…I still don’t know how to reach Abaddon…” Suddenly, I had this strange sensation of being in some sort of RPG. Feeling lighthearted at the moment, I decided to ask another question: “If we help you guys, what’s our reward?”
“Reward…” The fire elemental pondered for a second as if hesitating over something. That hesitation didn’t last long however as he soon sighed and said: “I have on hand, two Five-stars fire elemental cores. If you can ensure our safe arrival at the designated safe zone, I’ll gift you two elemental cores as thanks.”
‘Five-stars fire elemental cores?’
I was suddenly reminded of home by that nostalgic term. Back then, Sares told me of such an object which would allow those who couldn’t cultivate to attain power. It felt so distant back then…now, thinking back on that day, that scene…it almost felt like it just happened yesterday.
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