Chapter 31: The Flame Centipede’s Master!

The air suddenly blazed hot. Everyone looked up — a dark‑red glow surged into view.

The wave of heat raced forward at terrifying speed. Within mere seconds, the thin film of water beneath the three of them was completely evaporated. A pungent stench filled the air, a foul mix of sulphur and rust.

"Back off!" Gwendolyn’s voice rang out from his shoulder.

Cecil stepped back three paces. Right where he had been standing, the scorching heat coalesced into an orange‑red halo. The halo burst open, shooting straight toward the tunnel’s domed ceiling. The fire split mid‑air into four or five blazing tongues, spraying out in different directions.

Blazing fire tongues carried thick plumes of smoke. Cecil turned his head aside instinctively as the searing heat singed his sleeves, filling them with the sharp smell of burnt fabric.

Right after that came a second burst of flame, then a third. They erupted from random directions with no visible pattern, as though controlled by some hidden force. The dark‑green stone slabs beneath their feet began to glow red‑hot. A faint squeaking sound rose from the soles of their boots the moment they made contact with the scorching ground.

"—Above us!" Freddy shouted.

From the ceiling of the tunnel, a dark‑red segmented body dropped down. Unlike the earlier dark‑brown centipedes, this one’s body was a deep red tinged with orange. The edges of its segmented carapace glowed like live embers pulled straight out of a furnace. It was slightly smaller than the previous two centipedes, yet the tip of every single one of its legs was ringed with faint flames, leaving short searing burn marks wherever they touched the ground.

A Flame Centipede.

It dropped fully to the ground and curved its body into an arch, completely blocking the path leading to the stone gate. Six pairs of dark‑red compound eyes locked onto Cecil and his two companions from every angle. Tiny flames flickered at the tips of its antennae, flaring and dimming in rhythm with its breathing.

Cecil took half a step back with his right foot. Frost gathered in his right hand, but this time he did not release it right away. The instant the cold met the air, part of it was blown apart by the oppressive heat. The efficiency of his frost plummeted sharply. Before the layer of white frost could even fully form, it dissolved into wispy steam.

Gwendolyn sprang off his shoulder. Mid‑air, she opened her jaws and unleashed a concentrated blast of frost. Passing through the scorching heat surrounding the Flame Centipede, the stream of frost shrank to half its original size. By the time it struck the side of the centipede’s head, only a thin wisp of icy mist remained. The centipede barely reacted. Its dark‑red compound eyes blinked once, and its head tilted slightly toward Gwendolyn.

The power of frost was heavily weakened under such extreme heat. Cecil realised that instantly. Inside his mind, he brought up the silver interface. The option [Ice Armor · Convergence] was still glowing. He had not allocated any points to this skill, yet the system had automatically unlocked its basic version once the trigger conditions had been met.

"Gwendolyn, Ice Armor!" he called out.

The moment Gwendolyn landed, she did not pause. The resonant hum rising from her throat jumped to a higher frequency. Instead of blasting outward in a straight line this time, the frost she released spread out from around her body into a thin spherical barrier.

The instant that layer of frost touched Cecil’s body, it did not scatter. It clung tightly to his skin and robe, forming a translucent pale‑blue membrane stretching from his shoulders down to his waist, like a tailor‑made thin suit of armour.

Waves of scorching heat slammed against the outer surface of the Ice Armor and were held at bay. Cecil could feel the armour draining rapidly. Every second, tiny shards of ice flaked off its surface and were swept away like snowflakes caught in a gale. Yet Gwendolyn kept pouring out frost to maintain its structure. In this constant tug‑of‑war, it would at least hold for a short while.

"Circle around from the side!" Cecil shouted. At the same time, he gathered a compact ice sphere in his right hand. This ice sphere was denser than any he had made before, its surface shimmering with a silvery glow. He hurled it toward the Flame Centipede’s flank.

The outer layer of the ice sphere melted slightly as it cut through the heat wave, yet its core remained rock‑hard. Upon striking one of the centipede’s carapace segments, it exploded into a cloud of white steam. The steam quickly evaporated, leaving behind a small dark patch where the shell had been cooled.

The centipede let out a low hiss and lurched to its left. Fine cracks spread across the carapace right at that cooled patch. Its movements slowed for a split second. Even though the frost had been greatly weakened by the high temperature, direct contact against the hard shell still took effect.

Seizing that opening, Freddy and Lydia darted around from the other side of the Flame Centipede. Turner darted out from Freddy’s shoulder. The grey shadow skimmed across the ground, slipped through the gaps between the centipede’s legs, and reached the gate. Ivy came right behind it. Her emerald‑green body slithered swiftly through the gaps of rising steam on the floor.

Cecil advanced toward the Flame Centipede head‑on. Part of the Ice Armor on his left side had already peeled away, revealing his tattered old robe underneath. Once more, he gathered ice spheres in his right hand and hurled the second, then the third one in quick succession. The centipede was forced to twist its body to dodge them. However, confined within the narrow tunnel, every dodge only pushed it further away from the gate.

It was at that exact moment that a voice came from behind the gate.

"—Stop."

It was a clear female voice, spoken in a lazy drawl. Calm and unhurried, like the first words someone mumbles right after waking up. The voice was not loud, yet it cut cleanly through the roar of burning flames and the clatter of clashing carapaces, reaching every single person’s ears.

The Flame Centipede froze mid‑movement. Its body slowly relaxed. Its legs retracted out of their attacking stance. The dark‑red glow in its compound eyes remained, yet that aggressive, predatory lock had vanished. It took half a step back, opening a narrow passage between itself and Cecil.

A figure stepped out from the shadows behind the gate, halting right at the boundary where pale blue‑white light met dark‑red glow. She wore a long dark‑grey robe, its hem covered in dust and scorch marks. Her hair was tied loosely into a single bundle falling over one shoulder. On her face was an expression that blended lazy nonchalance with raw curiosity — the look of someone who had not laid eyes on another human for a very long time. A tiny mole sat at the outer corner of her left eye, and her irises were amber.

The Flame Centipede coiled itself into a ring beside her feet. The flames at the tips of its antennae shrank down to two faint pinpricks of embers.

"It has been ages since I saw newcomers walk in here." She spoke. Her gaze lingered on Cecil, Freddy and Lydia one after another, then settled on Gwendolyn perched on Cecil’s shoulder for two full seconds. "Which intake year are you from?"

Cecil’s Ice Armor was slowly cracking and peeling off. Gwendolyn pulled back her flow of frost. Fragments of the Ice Armor slid off his shoulders like melting shards of glass and dissolved into nothing amid the sweltering heat.

"This year’s intake," Cecil replied. "Who are you?"

The woman leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms over her chest. Her amber eyes glittered faintly in the dim light. "My name is Vera Coleman. I belong to the intake two batches above yours, if you really must know. I have been trapped inside this monster gate for a very long time. At first I kept count of every passing day. After a while, I simply stopped."

She glanced down at the Flame Centipede at her feet and tapped the edge of its carapace lightly with the tip of her boot. "This is my Spirit‑Beast. You nearly pushed it over the edge."

Gwendolyn poked her head out from Cecil’s shoulder. Her blue eyes scanned Vera and the Flame Centipede from top to bottom. Then she let out a soft huff. Her tail swept lightly across the back of Cecil’s neck.

"I wondered who it could be." Gwendolyn’s tone carried an irrepressible edge of mockery, yet underneath it lay lazy relaxation. "Turns out you are just another trapped survivor. Putting on such a big show. I thought we were about to run into some king of guardian beasts."

The corner of Vera’s mouth twitched slightly. She stared at Gwendolyn with her amber eyes for several seconds, then slowly curved her lips into a smile.

"...A talking lizard? How interesting." She straightened up. Instead of taking up Gwendolyn’s jab, she stepped aside and opened the stone gate wider. "Come inside. It is safer in here. At least for now."

"Let’s go!" Gwendolyn said from his shoulder. "She truly has no intention to fight. I can smell it."

Cecil stepped past the stone gate. Freddy and Lydia followed right behind him.

The space behind the gate was far larger than expected. It looked like an artificially carved stone chamber. Its dome was not very high, yet the floor area was roughly the size of a medium‑sized living room.

Several dim rune lamps hung on the walls, casting a warm yellow glow over everything.

Scattered in the corner were odds and ends: old water flasks, rolled‑up blankets, and a few booklets whose pages had curled at the edges.

There were other people inside the stone chamber. More than one.

Leaning against the wall sat a girl who looked around seventeen or eighteen years old. She had light chestnut hair tied into two loose braids falling over her chest.

A book lay open on her knees, yet her eyes were not fixed on the pages. She was staring straight at the entrance. The moment she saw Cecil and his two companions walk in, a flush of red swept over her cheeks, exactly like someone suddenly called out of the blue. She quickly lowered her head and pretended to keep reading, flipping the page far too fast to hide her fluster.

Resting on her shoulder was a butterfly. It was vividly coloured. When its wings spread open, they were almost as wide as an adult’s palm.

Its wings shimmered with shifting hues of blue, green and purple under the dim yellow light, like a small sliver cut straight out of a rainbow.

The butterfly’s antennae swayed gently, as if sensing the aura of the newcomers on behalf of its master.

Vera had already walked into the middle of the chamber and casually sat down on an old crate. The Flame Centipede coiled into a tight dark‑red ring right beside her feet. "Do not just stand there. Sit down. We do not stand on ceremony here."

On the other side of the chamber sat two more people. One was a middle‑aged woman in her early forties, with neatly cropped short hair.

Her Spirit‑Beast lay at her feet: an ash‑grey rock bear. It was not particularly huge, yet its shoulders were broad, and the thick fluffy fur covering its chest looked like a natural suit of plate.

The rock bear had its eyes shut, dozing peacefully with slow, steady breaths.

Further away in another corner sat a middle‑aged man wearing a dark grey suit. His tie was half undone, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

His Spirit‑Beast was a silver‑grey falcon perched on the beam of a wooden stand beside him. It had folded its wings tight against its body, its sharp beak tilted slightly downward, pale golden eyes half‑lidded.

He did not look like a captive at all. He looked more like a travelling merchant taking a brief rest on a station bench mid‑journey.

Cecil found a dry spot near the entrance and sat down. Freddy squatted down on his left, and Lydia leaned against the wall to his right. Gwendolyn hopped down from Cecil’s shoulder and crouched on the straw mat right in front of his knees. Her tail curled neatly beside her claws. Her blue eyes quietly swept over every single person inside the stone chamber.

"Did all of you come in through different portal gates?" Cecil asked.