The path beyond the salamander's chamber was different.
The air, though intensely hot, was clean and pure, free of the paranoia-inducing toxins. The explosive yellow crystals vanished, replaced by veins of a deep, ruby-red mineral that pulsed with a gentle, rhythmic light, like a sleeping heartbeat. The very walls of the cavern seemed to hum with a latent power.
"Okay, this is an improvement," Quynh Nhu commented, deactivating her suit's extra filtration unit. "No more paranoid delusions about my beverages. On the other hand, it feels like we're walking into a giant oven."
"The geothermal energy is concentrating," Mei observed, her eyes glued to her datapad. The readings were off the charts. "The rock around us isn't just hot; it's saturated with pure fire-elemental Qi. We're getting close to the core."
Gary the Gnasher was in paradise. The intense heat seemed to invigorate him. He trotted ahead happily, his three heads sniffing the air with glee, occasionally licking a hot rock like it was a giant salt lick.
They walked for another hour, descending deeper into the mountain's fiery heart. The ruby-red veins on the walls grew brighter, their pulsing more rapid. The ambient temperature was now high enough to melt lead. Pham Tuan had his Earth Qi shield active constantly, creating a bubble of tolerable heat around the less-resistant members of the team.
Lin Ming, however, felt perfectly at home. The Fire Qi in the air was drawn to him, swirling around his body not as a threat, but as a welcome. His partial understanding of the fire element made him a kindred spirit to this place.
Then, they entered a chamber that made them all stop in their tracks.
It was a vast cavern, so large they couldn't see the ceiling. The floor was a smooth, obsidian glass, likely formed from flash-melted rock. And crisscrossing the entire chamber were rivers. Rivers of pure, flowing lava.
A network of narrow, natural stone bridges, some no wider than a balance beam, were the only way across.
"Minerva," Lin Ming said, his voice low. "Is there another way around?"
"Negative, Leader," Minerva's voice replied. "All other paths converge here. This is the only route to the core chamber. I have designated this area 'The Floor is Lava,' for obvious reasons."
"You've been spending too much time with Quynh Nhu," Lin Ming muttered.
"This is the first true trial," Mei said, her expression serious. "The old stories called this 'The Dragon's Veins'. One misstep, and you're incinerated."
Quynh Nhu peered over the edge of the first bridge, down at the incandescent river of magma flowing below. "So, no pressure then."
"I will go first," Pham Tuan declared, his voice resolute. He took a heavy, deliberate step onto the narrow stone bridge. His connection to the Earth element gave him an unparalleled sense of balance and stability. He was the perfect anchor for the team.
One by one, they followed him. Mei went next, her steps careful and precise, followed by Quynh Nhu, who moved with a sniper's unnerving stillness. Gary, surprisingly, trotted across the narrow bridges with the nonchalant grace of a mountain goat, his three heads providing a perfect tripod of balance.
Lin Ming went last.
As he stepped onto the bridge, he felt a change. The Fire Qi in the chamber, which had been passive before, suddenly became aggressive. It was a conscious pressure, a test. Wisps of flame, like fiery serpents, shot up from the lava rivers below, lashing out at him.
They weren't just random bursts of heat. They were targeted attacks.
He didn't flinch. He simply raised a hand and swatted them away as if they were annoying flies. His control over energy was so precise that the fiery serpents dissipated before they could even touch him.
But the chamber wasn't done.
As they reached the center of the cavern, the lava rivers began to churn violently. From the molten depths, figures began to rise. They were humanoid in shape, but made entirely of fire and cooling magma. Their eyes were burning coals, and they wielded swords of pure flame.
"Lava soldiers," Quynh Nhu deadpanned from her position on a wider, central platform. "Of course, there are lava soldiers. This place is a cliché."
There were dozens of them, blocking all the forward paths.
The voice was different from the salamander's. It was harsh, grating, and echoed from every fire-soldier at once.
"Alright team," Lin Ming said calmly. "Looks like we have to fight our way through. Pham Tuan, front line. Create a wall. Quynh Nhu, pick off the ones that look like officers. Mei, stay back and analyze them. Find a weakness. Gary... try not to eat them."
Gary let out a whine of disappointment.
The battle began. Pham Tuan roared, slamming his fists together. A wall of solid rock erupted from the obsidian floor, creating a defensive barrier. The lava soldiers smashed against it, their flame swords clanging uselessly against the stone.
Quynh Nhu's rifle started its deadly song. She didn't use normal bullets. She used custom-made cryogenic rounds. Each shot hit a lava soldier with a burst of intense cold. The effect was dramatic. The molten-hot creature would hiss, its body rapidly cooling and solidifying. It would freeze in place, becoming a brittle statue of obsidian, before shattering into a thousand pieces from the thermal shock.
"Their bodies are unstable!" Mei yelled, her scanner working overtime. "Extreme temperature shifts! That's the key!"
While his team held the line, Lin Ming took the offensive. He leaped from the platform, landing gracefully on another narrow bridge, right in the middle of a squad of lava soldiers.
He didn't need ice. He was going to fight fire with fire.
A lava soldier swung its flame sword at him. Lin Ming met the blade not with his sword, but with his bare hand. He caught the blade of pure fire. And instead of being burned, he began to absorb it.
The lava soldier's sword flickered and died, its energy flowing directly into Lin Ming. The soldier stared at its now-empty hand, its coal-like eyes wide with confusion.
"Thanks for the top-up," Lin Ming said with a grin.
He channeled the absorbed energy. A brilliant, sun-hot flame erupted from his own palm, far purer and more intense than the lava soldier's. He unleashed it in a torrent, engulfing the entire squad. They didn't even have time to scream as their forms destabilized and dissolved back into the lava river below.
He moved through them like a fire god, a whirlwind of controlled, devastating power. He was a master of their own element, and they were mere children before him.
In minutes, the chamber was cleared. The last of the lava soldiers had been shattered or melted. The path was clear once more.
They regrouped on the central platform, breathing heavily.
"Okay," Quynh Nhu said, reloading a cryogenic magazine. "That was definitely the hard part."
"I do not believe so," Minerva's voice chirped. "My sensors indicate the energy readings from the core chamber ahead have just spiked. Dramatically. And the telepathic voice we heard... it was not coming from the soldiers. It was coming from something else. Something much, much bigger."
As if on cue, a deep, resonant rumble shook the entire cavern. It wasn't an earthquake. It felt... alive.
From the far end of the chamber, where the final bridge led to a massive, rune-covered gate, a shadow began to stir.
Two colossal, burning eyes, each the size of a truck, opened in the darkness.
A colossal figure, wreathed in shadow and flame, began to rise from the lava, blocking the final gate.
The Final Guardian had awakened.