Chapter 293: Find The Clone

The boiling magma lake turned into a swirling vortex of molten rock and white-hot slag.

Columns of liquid fire eighty feet high erupted around the caldera, cutting off every path out. The heat had climbed beyond what standard equipment could handle, and the rock beneath their boots was beginning to crumble into glowing embers.

Up on the basalt arch, Julie coughed behind her heat-resistant mask, keeping her camera pointed at the inferno below.

"The whole lake is turning into a blender!" Julie shouted into her microphone, her voice trembling through the static. "The monster just grew an entire arm back out of raw lava! If anyone in chat knows an ancient rain dance, start typing it in the comments right now!"

"Keep your head down, Julie," Selena ordered.

Her hands remained steady on the latches of the empty containment case as she watched the readings on her wrist display.

"The ground beneath the crater is becoming unstable. If it pulls in more magma, the whole mountain could blow."

Down in the basin, Nicholas stood on a floating shelf of cooling black rock, his dark coat whipping in the hot wind. His eyes remained fixed on the titan’s forehead, where the Crimson Fire Stone burned like a miniature star.

"Vixen," Nicholas said through the private comms, his voice calm. "Create a wide spatial barrier beneath its feet. Cut off the magma."

"Something that wide will burn through half my Qi in twenty seconds," Vixen replied. She stood on a swaying stone pillar, struggling to keep her balance.

"You only need ten."

"That’s a very comforting way to put it."

"Zero, attack the upper joints when the magma stops. Don’t let it get back up."

"Understood," Zero replied, silver Qi blazing along his sword as he endured the heat.

The S-rank impure released a deafening roar.

Its four newly formed obsidian arms came together as a massive sphere of crimson plasma formed between its palms. The sphere quickly grew to the size of a two-story building, making the air around it twist and crack.

It was preparing to slam the sphere into the ground and destroy the entire basin.

"Now!" Nicholas shouted.

Vixen threw both arms forward, her emerald eyes glowing with spatial energy.

"Spatial Barrier."

A wide, invisible tear opened across the center of the magma lake, directly beneath the titan’s knees.

The magma rushing up from below slammed into the spatial barrier and disappeared.

The flow was cut off.

The titan’s fiery core flickered as its internal furnace began to lose its source of power.

Nicholas moved immediately.

"Gravity Distortion."

He thrust both palms toward the ground.

A tremendous force crashed down onto the titan’s upper body, pressing its massive basalt shoulders toward the ground.

CRACK-CRUNCH!

The titan’s knees buckled.

Without the constant flow of magma keeping its body strong, its enormous weight became too much to support.

The ninety-foot creature crashed into the broken floor of the caldera, its skull slamming into the exposed stone hard enough to shake the entire mountain.

The giant plasma sphere between its hands lost control and exploded outward in a wave of heat that scorched the surrounding walls.

"Zero, cut the arms!" Nicholas shouted.

Zero dropped through the smoke like a silver streak.

His longsword flashed twice, sending two enormous crescents of silver Qi through the air.

SHIIIING-SHIK!

The attacks sliced through both upper shoulder joints.

Without the magma to regenerate them, the massive basalt arms tore away and crashed into the smoking ground.

The titan thrashed.

Its remaining limbs clawed at the stone while the Crimson Fire Stone in its forehead began to glow brighter and brighter.

It was trying to destroy itself.

Nicholas was already moving.

"Spatial Fold."

Space twisted around him.

He crossed eighty yards in an instant and appeared directly on top of the titan’s skull.

The heat was intense enough to burn ordinary flesh, but the Void energy surrounding Nicholas protected him. He planted his boots against the jagged ridges around the creature’s forehead.

"Plague Touch."

A heavy five-foot broadsword of black Void matter formed in his hands.

Nicholas reversed his grip.

Then he drove the blade straight behind the crystal’s housing and deep into the creature’s skull.

SHIK.

Void energy exploded inside its head.

The titan released one final, low gasp.

The orange light inside its chest flickered.

Then it faded.

The massive basalt body hardened, turning into brittle, lifeless volcanic glass.

The Crimson Fire Stone broke free from the shattered bone and fell into the ash.

Nicholas reached down and caught it with his Void-coated left hand.

The superheated crystal pulsed violently against his palm, but his plague aura kept the heat under control.

Before Nicholas could call Selena for the containment case, a sharp, foul smell cut through the sulfurous smoke.

From the northern cliffs, a massive wave of oily black miasma poured into the caldera like an avalanche.

The fog spread across the basin, swallowing the air and blocking their view.

"What is this?!" Vixen shouted through the comms, dropping into a crouch as the black mist covered her stone pillar. "I can’t sense through it!"

"It’s the impure squad!" Selena shouted. "Nicholas, look out!"

A deafening crack came from the mountains.

BANG.

A high-caliber bullet tore through the black fog.

It wasn’t flying straight.

A strange yellow Qi surrounded it as it curved around the rocks in a twisting path, heading straight for Nicholas’s back.

Nicholas didn’t turn.

"Gravity Distortion."

A sharp pulse of force burst from behind him.

The bullet struck the invisible barrier and was thrown upward into the sky, where it exploded harmlessly against the ash clouds.

"Told you it wouldn’t hit, boss!" Sniper’s lazy voice echoed from the rocks above. A spent shell clattered against the ground. "Guy has eyes in the back of his head! I’m out of ammo. Let’s go!"

"Shut up and shoot again!" Hexi screamed from inside the black fog.

Hexi stepped out of the thickest part of the miasma ten paces in front of Nicholas.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his bandages were stained with fresh blood from his injured ribs. He looked completely unhinged.

His hands were raised as he pushed his mind-controlling miasma toward Nicholas.

"Drop the stone, Phantom!" Hexi shrieked. "It belongs to Master! You heroes don’t know what to do with that power! Give it to me, or I’ll rot your brain from the inside out!"

Nicholas stood on the dead titan’s skull, the Crimson Fire Stone resting calmly in his left hand.

His expression didn’t change.

"You really don’t learn."

Nicholas didn’t draw a weapon.

"Spatial Fold."

He vanished.

Hexi’s eyes widened as the space directly in front of him twisted.

Nicholas appeared inches away.

He stepped through the black miasma without hesitation and slammed his right palm into Hexi’s bandaged stomach.

BOOM!

The impact drove the air from Hexi’s lungs.

The remaining ribs on his left side cracked as the force sent him flying backward.

Hexi crashed across the volcanic rock, sliding through the smoke before slamming into the base of a basalt pillar.

"Hexi!"

A small, frightened voice came from the ground.

A patch of darkness spread beneath Hexi.

Shadow emerged from it, her pale face streaked with soot and tears. She grabbed Hexi by his collar and began dragging him toward the darkness.

"Don’t kill us! We’re leaving! We’re leaving!" Shadow sobbed, staring at Nicholas in fear.

Nicholas didn’t chase them.

He lowered his hand.

"Take your trash and get out of my sight."

Shadow pulled Hexi completely into the shadows.

The darkness closed behind them, leaving only smoking rock.

High on the ridge, the sound of Sniper’s footsteps quickly faded into the mountain passes.

The black miasma slowly disappeared into the rising heat.

For the first time in fifty years, the caldera became quiet.

Selena hurried down the rocky path, reaching the dead titan with the containment case already open.

Julie followed behind her, holding her camera high as she filmed the battlefield with wide-eyed amazement.

"Is the stone intact?" Selena asked.

"Intact," Nicholas replied.

He stepped off the titan’s skull and carefully lowered the glowing red crystal into the padded case.

Selena closed the heavy titanium latches.

With a turn of the key, the suppression field activated.

The Fire Stone’s crimson glow disappeared behind the sealed case.

Above them, the terrible red storm began to break apart.

The clouds slowly opened.

For the first time in half a century, warm golden sunlight broke through the ash and illuminated the volcanic valley.

"Two down," Selena breathed, wiping sweat and soot from her forehead. "Earth Stone and Fire Stone secured."

"And the footage is legendary," Julie whispered, zooming in on Nicholas’s soot-covered face. "Chat is crying. I am crying. My bank account is singing."

"Thirty percent," Nicholas reminded her as he walked toward the extraction point.

Julie let out a loud, defeated whine that echoed across the quiet caldera.

Before Selena could smile, the radio on her vest suddenly released a sharp emergency tone.

She picked it up, her expression becoming serious.

"Selena here. Go ahead."

Dana’s voice came through from Grayland.

But it wasn’t a normal check-in.

Her voice was tense and breathless, with sirens blaring in the background.

"Selena! Phantom! Thank God you’re on the line!"

"What’s happened, Dana?" Selena asked, tightening her grip on the radio. "We just secured the second stone."

"It’s Sub-Level 9," Dana gasped. "The containment seals collapsed ten minutes ago! The clone... he didn’t just break out of the stasis field. He had help from the inside!"

The sirens behind her grew louder.

"Rogue impure operatives breached the lower levels, killed the security team, and extracted B!"

Nicholas stopped.

Zero turned sharply, his hand dropping to the hilt of his sword.

"And that’s not all," Dana continued, her voice shaking. "Before they escaped, B accessed the main research system. He stole the deciphered scans of Ikar’s parchment."

She took a breath.

"The clone has the coordinates to the remaining five stones."