Chapter 40: Hot Burning Passion
The humungous figure of a skeleton covered the entire dark sky. It was wrapped with a robe made of mana. A sinister aura that could drive an ordinary insane emitting out with no restraint. Even the warriors were also affected almost losing themselves to madness.
Kim sensing this ordered them to go back to the ground except for Rentap who refused to do so. Rentap seems to have a stronger mental strength than his comrades. But he's at least a bit affected by the ominous aura. Rentap gave a thumbs up with a bright smile saying he's okay. Then he sat down to meditate, trying to recover his mental state.
Kim nodded and rushed towards Momo at lightning speed to check on her.
"Momo how are you feeling?"
"What's the matter, Master? Is everything okay?"
Kim tilted his head slightly after listening to her answer. It felt like she wasn't affected. No. More like, she can't feel anything at all. Her cute face with plumpy cheek stayed unfazed without any changes in the colour of her eyes. Still as clear as a tranquil lake.
"It seems her mental strength is strong, to begin with, or... her heart is too pure to be affected by this sinister aura. She can't fall down to madness if there was nothing in heart and soul that could do so..."
Enggang answered gladly with a squawked of relief. Then it gave Kim a wary glint.
"How about you boy?"
"Master?"
Kim leaned toward Momo with a smile and pet her head.
"Don't worry about me. You can look after Uncle Rentap"
"I'm not an uncle"
Being a person who had experienced war and killing, he carries a tainted heart. The devilish sinister aura could easily penetrate his sane state of mind, slowly corrupting it.
Kim focused his mana sense pointed towards Rentap to check his condition, inside and out. He might be saying okay, but human always underestimates their own weakness and injuries. It's the reason why someone would neglect health care at the hospital.
To be honest, Kim himself was unsure how long he could maintain his mental state. At least he could still do logical reasoning.
"I'm okay, bro. No problem. Except for that one giant hell ass skeleton standing there laughing like a mad man... or a girl. It creeps me out that huge things actually sounds like a little girl"
The three was checking on each other while the sound of laughter filled the dark sky. It should be daytime, but the mana pressure coming forth from Eliza forced the sky above them covered with endless darkness.
The darkness that could drive people to insanity.
"It's her domain born from her conjuring skill. I'm not sure what it is kid, but it could directly penetrate one's mind. In this case, this lich can manipulate the dead and control the mind of the living"
Without a moment of thought, the skeleton smashed its giant hand toward the three. Kim gritted his teeth and employed a barrier. Rentap took out his shield to add another layer. The huge skeletal hand smashed the barrier and produce a powerful shockwave that caused cracks to appear.
From those tiny cracks, a silver line passed through which then grew into a five-metres longsword, piercing through the sky towards the forehead of the giant skeleton.
The giant skeleton swung its other hand to produce a fierce wind which slightly moved the trajectory of the sword. The sword flew through the giant skeleton face, leaving a slight scar.
The wind continued to dance wildly until it formed a tornado that could swallow an entire town. The tornado kept on spinning until the atmosphere become too hot that flame burst out to produce a flaming tornado.
"Shoot"
Kim gritted his teeth and jump out from the barrier, with both of his hand at his sides producing two small fireballs.
"Both of you, get far away from here!"
Rentap grabbed Momo and sit her properly on his shoulder. He then ran away leaving powerful shockwave that caused a huge tremor shattering the earth beneath. This caused some part of the flaming tornado to split apart which weakened the main one.
Seeing Kim was left alone on the battlefield, made her jump in delight.
"Darling! You actually stayed to accept my burning passion for love! Now die for me!"
"Damn it. That huge thing with girly voice really doesn't match. Just begone already! Hellfire!"
Kim shot his charged fireballs towards the flaming tornado to cause an overheating would melt any iron like butter. The heat grew tremendously which cause instability in the atmosphere, dissipating the tornado. However, the random flow of heat has produced a raging firestorm instead. Producing domain of flame that was as hot as the core of the earth.
Eliza twitched, and employ barrier to maintain her composure within the blazing storm of fire. But Kim remained unfazed. Within the devastating hot temperature, his resistance to the flame was surreal. He felt like he was taking a refreshing bath.
"So you wanted to play with fire so much? Come!"
Kim unleashed his mana spirits which were covered with flames. They started to send a barrage of attacks against each other. Kim unleashed a fist imbued with flames that split the sky. Feeling imminent danger, Eliza blasted a huge flame to go against the power of the fist. The two attacks clashed and erupted with blazing flame.
Kim didn't waste any time to shoot hundreds of hellfire fireballs towards Eliza. Eliza made a gesture which her mana spirit would follow as well and a roar of a dragon could be heard. A flame dragon then pierced through from the ground, circling around the huge skeleton figure. The skeleton grabbed the dragon by its tail and swung it like a whip.
The giant skeleton uses a hundred metres fire whips which dance around like a flying dragon around the flaming disaster. Kim shoot out fireballs with each as terrifying as the destructive force of Alpha Cerberus fireballs... or even stronger!
Here and there deafening explosion could be heard as if a nuclear war was ongoing.
Hundreds of metres from the world of blazing flame, two people and a bird were surrounded by a myriad of undead monsters.
"It seems that skeleton didn't forget about us"
"Uncle, you can rest first if you want"
"I'm not that old, and I won't let a little girl fighting while I'm here. That's not cool"
"It's okay uncle, I know you are not strong now. Momo can take care of you. Master told me to"
Enggang only giggled hearing their conversations. Rentap then let out a sigh.
"I don't know anymore!" He started to rampage through the undead monsters shattering one after another with the power of his tremor. Momo skillfully wields two swords, slashing away her enemies while jumping around with her acrobatic skills. Sometimes, she would throw her sword to pierce through the head of an undead monster. Other times, she would summon her sword to rain down from the sky and pierce through the ground, unexpectedly appear out of nowhere.
Her conjuring skill was getting sharper after she woke up from her coma. Her sword conjuring was close to perfection. As if a real sword has appeared.
"She's almost there... at this rate, she would become a master. A master conjurer, that's impressive"
Among the three types of mana user, a master of the conjurer is extremely rare. While most enchanter and manipulator has a similar trend on how their skills are utilized, conjurer skill is unique to each individual. It's really rare to see two conjurers with the same skill. Thus, it's harder to become a powerful conjurer since no one will be able to teach you unless their skills are the same.
Rentap and Momo seamlessly fought through the hordes of undead monsters. Until... they heard the roar of a dragon.
"Seems like it's going to be harder...there's two of them now"
Rentap unsheathed his parang and charge toward the two dragons. Momo saw Rentap and ask him to stop. With her short leg, she bounced towards Rentap and finally jump on his shoulder.
"Uncle, focus ahead. Momo will take care of others" She smiled toward Rentap, giving him a thumb up. Rentap give her a thumb up back and continued to charge towards the two dragons!
Momo closed her eyes and clasped both of her hands together, unleashing pure fearsome mana. The amount of mana she released was too much that it was almost inconceivable.
The voice noticed this and can't believe his mana sense. "It seems that another one will become a Master. For two of them to show this remarkable feat... I must be an awesome teacher!"
Momo raised both of her hands and thousands of swords raining down from the sky, piercing the undead monsters left and right. Stopping them from getting close to both of them. Meanwhile, those who were obstructing their path would get slashed down instantly within a hair breath of a second. Blink and that's the end of your life.
From tens to hundreds to thousands, more and more of them were slashed down mercilessly either by the sharpness of Rentap's parang, or the infinite number of swords storming down the scene.
"Bahahahahahahaha! Are you having fun, princess?"
"Go, uncle, go! Faster!"
For one point of view, it's just a girl and her uncle having fun.
"Kill them all!"
Yes, just a girl, and her uncle having fun... or the devil itself came to brink forth destruction upon this land. No different.
As they went closer, one of dragon flew in the sky and another opened its mouth to breath out a corrosive purple flame. Rentap employed his shield to make a barrier. Causing the rampaging devils to stop in their tracks.
"Leave this one to me, uncle."
Without a moment of hesitation, Momo left the barrier and run to the side of the dragon. The dragon noticed her movement and aim its breath towards her. She didn't faze even a second and let the flame hit her.
"This is it? I've faced worse!"
She conjured a sword at her right hand and shoot it straight towards the dragon exposed mouth.
The dragon stopped its breath and raise its arm to block the oncoming sword. But the sword was strong enough to actually pierce through its arm.
"Don't you dare to look down on me monster"
Momo looked like a mouse facing an elephant in front of the zombie dragon. Small, yet terrifying.
"For a warrior like me to get left behind by a princess...my brothers would laugh at me"
"Come to me, dragon! I will head you, face on!"
The flying zombie dragon caught to Rentap's taunt and dive down for a suicidal attack.
Rentap put his parang near his waist, performing an iai stance. Closing his eyes, he breathes deeply as if he was one with nature itself. Gathering the mana of his homeland.
I am' the hero of this nation. My name is Rentap the earthshaker!"
The whole was in a tremor, as Rentap slowly unsheathed his parang to slice the dragon. But suddenly, just before he performed his slicing motion, the dragon suddenly stop moving and slowly vanish in thin air.
During that time, the undead monsters went back to the ground as if they were dead again... only two of them and Enggang were left on the battlefield. Then they felt a sudden change in the atmosphere. Their lips and throat were dry and it was harder to breathe. Enggang flapped its little wings and flew around. Moments later it once again perched on Momo's shoulder.
"The air... is very dry. It's not just here, but almost everywhere is getting dry"
It then looked toward Kim and Eliza. But what it was looking was not them fighting. Instead, the sky on top where clouds abruptly gathered.
Snow started falling and melted instantly. Some even managed to reach the ground before evaporating in the air. Obviously, the snow wasn't ordinary. Kim noticed the changes in the atmosphere and saw that more snow was falling and each was imbued with familiar sinister mana. It was that damn skeleton mana, he thought.
Eliza was in a huge disadvantage since her resistance to the flame was inferior when compared to Kim. Even if she could hold on with her barrier, but her mana would get depleted sooner. If she was some other manipulator she would just wait and try to beat Kim using the flame the surrounding both of them.
However, a master manipulator like her who had lived for so many years could make an island appear in the middle of the sea, creating an advantage within a disadvantage.
She released her mana spirit, causing herself to be exposed to the blazing red world.
Kim looked towards her and saw her smiling face. He doesn't know why her face seems obnoxious... maybe because it's a smiling skeleton?
"Aren't you passionate about receiving my love, dear?"
Now, he realized why he suddenly felt obnoxious... in fact, he has all kind of negative feeling in his head now.
Eliza winked at Kim and waved her finger.
"Blizzard"
Outside the blazing red sea, a sea of water vapour circle around like storm and slowly turned into a massive blizzard. Overpowering the flaming domain.