Unable to go up, Minos focused his sight more downwards, but the extreme darkness made it hard to see even with the advanced vision granted by his Omniscient Eyes.
After looking around for a bit, not expecting much, Minos was surprised to notice a soft blue light in the distance, the light so weak that he barely registered it.
With nothing else to do, Minos decided to check the location out, his fingers piercing into the rocky walls as he slowly made his way towards it.
Fortunately the distance wasn't actually that far, so after a bit of climbing, he managed to reach it.
The light was coming out of a small hole in the cliffside, just barely big enough for Minos to squeeze through.
First poking his head in to make sure the area was safe, Minos proceeded to squeeze inside, crawling through the tight tunnel and towards the light.
Luckily for Minos, the cave rapidly expanded, allowing him to stand up right after only a bit of crawling.
As he got closer to the blue light, the temperature began rapidly rising, soon enough becoming so hot that Minos was forced to cover his body in Nux to protect himself.
The only time he had ever experienced similar heat was years ago, back when he first traveled into a volcano and experienced the immense heat of lava.
But even that wasn't as bad, not to mention the light coming off from the lava was red, whereas this was blue.
Uncertain as to what was actually causing the heat, Minos decided to keep walking forward, the sweltering air not scaring him.
Finally, as Minos managed to make his way into the core of the cave, he noticed the source of the light, a soft blue flame levitating mystically in the air, unattached to anything.
Shocked, Minos kept looking from a distance, having never seen anything like this before.
'Wait a minute… The Nine Eternal Flames!' Minos suddenly thought in astonishment.
In the past he had read a book that had mentioned such a concept, supposedly claiming that there were Nine Eternal Flames, one on each Continent.
Unfortunately, that was about as deep as the reference went, making Minos assume that the Nine Eternal Flames were more myth than anything else.
But as he looked upon this strange blue flame, that was the only thing he could think about, nothing else explaining the phenomenon as clearly.
Curious, Minos wanted to get closer, but by now the heat was already so extreme that getting any closer would risk injury.
Not to mention he had no idea how to control the flame, so even if he stood right next to it, it would make no difference.
It was a bit disappointing, but at this stage Minos had to accept that this was currently beyond him.
Still this cave was a good resting place, not to mention the warmth was quite comfortable, so Minos decided to stay the night and leave in the morning, hoping the Hell Beasts would be gone by then.
Finding a cooler corner, Minos took a seat, his eyes looking around the cave one more time just to make sure he didn't miss anything.
But other than the blue flame, there was nothing, so Minos shut his eyes and began cultivating to pass the time.
What he didn't realize was that as he began cultivating, the blue flame also began pulsing, as if trying to match his breathing.
As the time passed, he and the blue flame seemed to slowly begin connecting, the blue flames pulsing becoming more and more inline with Minos's breathing.
After an hour of this, the two were completely synced, the blue flame compressing as Minos breathed in, then expanding as he breathed out.
Minos was still unaware of all of this, his eyes shut and his mind quiet as he focused on his meditations.
However the blue flame didn't seem to be finished at that, and once their 'breathing' was synced, it began slowly floating towards him.
At first the speed was so slow that Minos still hadn't noticed, but as the blue flame got closer to him, so did the heat, causing him to open his eyes in confusion.
'Did that blue flame move?' Minos thought to himself, certain that it had gotten closer towards him.
With his memory, he wouldn't make such a mistake, so the only question was why and how.
A bit worried, Minos decided to relocate towards the exit of the cave, ready to run whenever things got dangerous.
Taking a seat right by the hole in the wall, Minos got back to cultivating, though this time he had an eye open, watching the blue flame's every movement.
Just as he expected, as he began breathing, the blue flame would inch towards him, the speed slow but noticeable.
'This blue flame, it's like it's alive…'
Confirming the blue flames movements once and for all, Minos decided to stop cultivating, curious to see if it would still move.
But shockingly enough, the blue flame seemed to already be connected to Minos on an invisible level, still traveling towards him regardless of what he did.
As interested as he was in the blue flame, with its intense heat, if it actually did manage to come into contact with him, I'd likely reduce him to ashes.
He had no plans of dying here, so he could only leave the cave and pray that the blue flame would give up its chase, otherwise he may be in trouble.
Crawling back out of the tight hole, Minos once again climbed up towards the familiar branch, not forgetting to look below him every once in a while.
However his worst fears soon came true, the blue flame also exiting the cave and flying up after him.
Fortunately it moved at a very slow pace, even a normal human capable of out-walking it, which made it relatively easy for Minos to get away, but more than the speed, he was worried about the flame's unrelenting nature.
'What should I do?'
As slow as the blue flame was, if it kept following him, he'd be forced to constantly change locations, and this certainly wasn't a place where movement was easy.
He could head back up, but again it was possible the Hell Beasts hadn't left yet, so he'd just be running from one death to another.
Without many options, Minos could only play tag with the blue flame, constantly moving between the branch and the cave to avoid it.
Originally, Minos planned on just doing this for a day before heading back up, but he soon noticed that the blue flame was actually picking up speed, causing his heart to drop.
At the rate it was increasing in speed, it wouldn't take long before it could move faster than Minos could climb, at which point death would be all but guaranteed.
Having been forced, Minos could only climb back up towards where the Hell Beasts may be, just hoping that they had left.
But as his head popped up out of the ravine, he was disappointed to find the Hell Beasts still there, one of them even jumping up to attack him.
Dropping back at the last second, Minos managed to avoid its swipe, the demonic beast just looking down at him with derision before walking back off.
With that option proving to be a deadend, Minos could only climb down to the bottom of the ravine, hoping some sort of way out existed down there.
Avoiding the blue flame that was still following, Minos began his slow descent to the bottom, the journey soon proving to be much longer than first expected.
As deep as the ravine looked, Minos expected the trip to only be an hour or two at most, but here he was half a day in, no end in sight.
The blue flame was already catching up to him, and after twelve plus hours, it was now moving faster then he was.
Despite wanting to curse at his piss-poor luck, Minos just kept climbing, not one to give up even if death itself was right at his doorstep.
Luckily for Minos, his luck finally turned around, his foot finally landing on solid ground instead of more air.
Pulling his sore fingers from the cliff wall, he turned around, the darkness down here so thick that he couldn't even see his own fingers if he held them in front of his eyes.
Pulling out a Shining Talisman, he ignited it, but he was surprised to find that it only managed to light up a one meter radius around his body.
Normally light was to darkness what water was to fire, instantly extinguishing it as soon as it came in contact.
But the darkness here seemed to have special properties, capable of not only competing with the light, but even overpowering it.
Ironically enough however, the light of the blue flame seemed to be stronger than this darkness, providing Minos his only source of real illumination.
Relying on the blue flame, Minos began walking forward through the darkness, not traveling too fast for fear of stumbling into something or even someone beyond what he could handle.
However this place was incredibly quiet, to a point of eeriness, the quiet so thick that the sound of Minos's feet hitting the earth couldn't even reach his ear.
It seemed this darkness was even more evil than first expected, seeming to have sound-dampening qualities as well.