Standing right in front of the small lake of yellowish brown magma, Vin shuddered and trembled from the terrifying heat emanating from it.
The barrier of violet colored runic flame symbols condensed around him, had shrunk to just an armor size on his body, this was so he could negate the massive heat coming at him in droves.
But even then his skin tingled in pain, this heat was very much almost unbearable, and he was very sure of it, if anyone within the same stage as him dared to stand where he was standing right now, they'd have melted a long time ago, burnt into ash.
At this point a part of him really wished he could turn around and walk away from this place, Vin turned his head over and glanced at Zara behind him, she didn't seem to have a problem standing here, probably because she was part Hellhound, or maybe it was because she had stayed in this place for so long that she got used to the heat around here.
Vin returned his focus back to the lake of magma in front of him as his eyes shone with excitement like never before as he suddenly figured out what it was.
"If I'm not mistaken this - - this must be it, the legendary Earth flame essence. What're the odds?" his voice quivered as he spoke, no one knew if it was from excitement or shock.
According to what he had read in the ten thousand flames section on the Tome of Eridoria, Earth Flame Essence were said to be found in places that was believed to be the birth place of the terrifying Earth Flame.
First came the essence, and then the flame, this could only be formed from a large concentration of flame energies, and this entire volcano was rich in such energy, in fact the third layer was practically oozing it.
"Judging by the density of the essence and the heat it's emanating out, I can say this essence was formed not too long ago, probably at the same time Zara appeared here, if not Hell flames or not I'd have melted by now" Vin analyzed aloud.
Through the memories he had gotten from her, he knew that Zara had come here appropriately five years ago, she had been in the the third layer of this volcano for the last fives years.
She had first of all devoured all the guardians that had been placed in this layer, before staying here and cultivating silently, hoping for a day to leave this place and enact her revenge.
'Zara must have figured out that an earth Flame Essence had condensed here, that was probably the reason why she hadn't left this place all this while, she was waiting for the oppotuned moment to absorb it for her cultivation' Vin thought to himself.
At first he had wondered why someone of her talent and bloodline would still only be in the seventh stage of the Spirit Sea Realm, now he knew that it was because she had suppressed herself for this long.
"Zara, how about both you and I absorb this Earth Flame Essence for our cultivations, I'm pretty sure there's enough to for both of us?" Vin said as he turned to his companion, the reply he got was Zara's enthusiastic nod.
"Now then, how do I absorb this without turning into ash" Vin muttered as he entered a deep thought. Absorbing the Earth Flame Essence like that was succide as his body wouldn't be able to handle the heat.
No matter how much he desired it, he would never dive headfirst into certain death. Zara seemed to have understood his concerns as she nudged his shoulders.
"Sigh! Do you have any ideas for me Zara?" Vin asked, there was a little bit of hope in his eyes, Zara had been here a long time so she must have figured out a way to dilute the energy.
Zara nodded her head in acknowledgement, before turning around and disappearing into the distance, appearing a while later with a glowing blue pearl held in her Jaws.
"Whoa, where did you get this?" Vin exclaimed as he took a closer look at the pearl, there was dense blue mist emitting out of it, 'If I'm not mistaken, this must be a water pearl, a pretty good one at that, and judging from its density, it shouldn't have any problem diluting the entire lake into something more... manageable, where could Zara have gotten something like this and at such an opportune time too.' he though to himself.
Since she couldn't talk, she transmitted images of some of her memories through the link that they shared, and from it Vin could see that she had found it in a forest region located somewhere within this realm, it was then he knew that Zara had first landed in a forest when she entered this realm, she had them located this volcano soon after.
When she found the pearl she didn't know what it was and what to do with it, but she knew it was a treasure and so she kept it, when she had come to this volcano and saw the newly formed Earth Flame Essence, she figured out she could use the water pearl to dilute it in the future and so she had kept the pearl till now.
Although due to the extremely hot temperature the peark had lost a lot of its energies and had thus shrunk by half, but with the rest of the energy it had, it could at least make sure they didn't turn to ashes thereby protecting their lives.
"Good job Zara, you just potentially saved our lives" Vin praised as he rubbed her sleek midnight fur. Zara closed her eyes for a moment as she enjoyed the caresses.
"Well then, shall we?" Vin asked after a while, to which Zara nodded. Vin then took a step forward with the pearl in his hands before dropping it into the yellowish brown lake.
The lake gave out a sizzling sound as the pearl melted within it, and soon after the heat started reducing within the entire chamber, they both stood in front of the lake watching it berserk energies being dilluted little by little until three whole hours had gone by.
"I think that's about the best it can do" Vin stated after a while, by now the waves of hot essence being emmited out of the lake had reduced by half, but they still waited for one more hour just to be on the safe side, and now it had already been six hours since Vin have been in this volcano.
After both man and Beast had confirmed thy it was safe to enter the magna pool they took a step forward, but only Vin was going to be entering the pool directly.
That was because the lake of lava was only about ten meters wide, and wouldn't be able to fit in both Vin and Zara at the same time.
Zara, seemingly unafraid of the now diluted magma, due to her great resilience as a Hell Beast dipped her two front legs into the lake, with a small suction generating below her paws.
Zarathustra absorbed the magama's essence little by little, refining it and adding it's energy to her cultivation, after a while her aura started increasing and getting more condensed.
As for Vin, even though the energy of the magma lake, he still didn't dare to directly enter the lake just yet, he needed to get used to its growing power first.
Vin stumped his foot on the ground and leapt above the lake and just before he dropped into it, he reversed the flow of his Spiritual Energy and released a repulsive force from his body, allowing him to slowly levitate above the center of the lake.
Naturally this was only possible due to the abundance of flame energies within the third layer, Vin wasn't exactly strong enough to fly just yet, but by absorb the abundant flame energies in the air, and in turn reversing it's flow within his body he could naturally release such repulsive energy.
But he still wouldn't be able to maintain this for a long period of time, probably only a few hours at most, that was because reversing the flow of energy in his body would naturally put a lot of strain and pressure on him, and besides it was incredibly dangerous.
Just a single mistake when doing such a thing cloud result in self implosion, and that naturally meant death. It took incredulous focus and precise control over your Spiritual Energy to even pull off something like this, and naturally this wasn't a problem for Vin since he had practiced his control over his Spiritual Energy almost every time.
Besides also having all his Spiritual Energy converted into runic symbols also gave him an edge in something like this, in fact Vin had also felt it was a blessing he had met his master and learnt all about runic symbols just when he had just truly began his cultivation.
If not, he wouldn't have been where he was today, a faint smile hung on his face as he settled down crossed legged on the air to begin his cultivation.
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