The "Furnace" was an appropriate name.
The creature that rose from the lava river was a being of pure, primal power. It was vaguely humanoid, but stood at least thirty meters tall. Its body was not made of cooling magma like its "children," but of a deep, obsidian-like rock that seemed to swallow the light.
Cracks ran all over its form, revealing a core of incandescent, white-hot energy. Its head was bestial, with a crown of jagged, fiery horns. It held no weapon, because its fists, each the size of a small car, were weapons enough.
This was the Final Guardian. An ancient fire elemental, bound to this chamber for millennia.
its voice boomed in their minds. It was a physical pressure, making their teeth ache.
"He seems grumpy," Quynh Nhu muttered under her breath, her rifle aimed squarely at one of the creature's colossal, burning eyes. "Definitely not a morning person."
"We seek the First Flame," Lin Ming projected back, his mind a calm fortress against the psychic onslaught. "We have proven our worth. Let us pass."
The Guardian let out a low rumble that sounded disturbingly like a chuckle.
It took a single, earth-shaking step forward, its immense foot cracking the obsidian floor.
"So much for diplomacy," Lin Ming sighed. "Alright, team. New plan. This thing is too big for a frontal assault. We need to find a weak point."
"Its entire body appears to be a weak point, if you hit it hard enough," Pham Tuan grunted, slamming his fists together. "I will draw its attention."
"Don't be an idiot, Tuan!" Mei yelled, her eyes glued to her scanner. "The energy readings are off the scale! Its core temperature is hotter than the surface of a star! If it hits you, even your shield won't hold!"
"She's right," Lin Ming agreed. "We fight smart, not hard. Quynh Nhu, aim for the joints—the knees, the elbows. Anywhere it needs to bend. Slow it down. Pham Tuan, you're not a battering ram this time. You're a moving wall. Intercept its attacks, but don't meet them head-on. Deflect, redirect. Mei, keep scanning. Find the spot with the highest energy concentration. That's its core. That's our target."
"And what will you be doing, Leader?" Pham Tuan asked.
Lin Ming grinned. "Me? I'm going to climb it."
Before anyone could argue, the Guardian attacked. It didn't punch. It slammed its colossal fist down onto the central platform where they stood.
"Scatter!" Lin Ming yelled.
The team leaped in different directions, just as the platform shattered into a million pieces. The shockwave sent them flying. Quynh Nhu used her grapple to swing to a nearby bridge. Pham Tuan landed heavily on another, cracking the stone but holding his ground. Mei and Gary were thrown towards a ledge, with Gary instinctively shielding Mei with his own body.
Lin Ming used the force of the blast to propel himself upwards, directly towards the Guardian's rising arm.
The battle became a chaotic, deadly dance.
Pham Tuan was magnificent. He became a master of redirection. When the Guardian swung its massive arm, he wouldn't block it. He would raise a ramp of stone at the last second, causing the fist to slide off course and slam into a cavern wall. When it tried to stomp, he would create a trench, making it stumble. He was an ant, expertly leading a giant on a clumsy, destructive chase.
Quynh Nhu was a phantom of death. She moved from bridge to bridge, her cryogenic rounds impacting the Guardian's joints with sharp cracks. Each hit would cause the obsidian rock to hiss and freeze, momentarily slowing the creature's movements, giving Pham Tuan a precious split-second to react.
Meanwhile, Lin Ming was scaling the beast like a mountain climber on a living volcano. He ran up its arm, dodging swatting hands and bursts of flame that erupted from the cracks in its skin. The heat was immense, but his body, now attuned to the fire element, simply absorbed it.
"Mei! I need a target!" he yelled over the comms.
"Its chest!" Mei's voice came back, filled with excitement. "There's a nexus of energy right in the center of its torso! It's the source of its power! But it's protected by the thickest armor!"
Lin Ming reached the Guardian's massive shoulder. He looked down at the swirling, white-hot energy visible through a large fissure in its chest. That was it.
"Nhu! Tuan! I need an opening! Give me five seconds!" he commanded.
"On it!" Quynh Nhu replied. She stopped aiming for the joints. She emptied the rest of her cryogenic magazine in a rapid-fire volley, concentrating all her shots on a single spot on the Guardian's chest plate.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The obsidian rock hissed and groaned under the extreme thermal shock. A network of fine, icy fractures spread across its surface.
"NOW, TUAN!" she screamed.
Pham Tuan understood instantly. He roared, planting his feet and channeling every ounce of his Qi. He didn't create a wall. He created a fist. A colossal fist of solid rock, which erupted from the ground and shot upwards, aimed directly at the weakened spot on the Guardian's chest.
BOOM!
The rock fist slammed into the frozen armor plate. It wasn't enough to break through, but it did its job. The armor plate shattered, exposing the brilliantly glowing core beneath.
That was the opening Lin Ming needed.
He leaped from the Guardian's shoulder, plummeting towards the exposed core. He didn't draw his sword. He didn't form a fist.
He held out his palm, and from it, a small, dark vortex began to form. It was a technique born from his understanding of the Tu Thu Dien. Not Earth, not Water, but the principle of the Void itself. A miniature black hole, designed not to destroy, but to absorb.
He slammed his palm against the Guardian's core.
The effect was instantaneous and silent. There was no explosion. The Guardian's white-hot energy, the power of a star, was suddenly being siphoned away, flowing into the vortex in Lin Ming's hand like water down a drain.
The Guardian froze. Its colossal, burning eyes widened in shock and, for the first time, fear. It felt its own life force, its ancient power, being stolen.
"It's called 'turning the power off'," Lin Ming said calmly, as he absorbed the last of the creature's energy.
The brilliant light in the Guardian's core faded. The cracks in its body went dark. The burning eyes dimmed and went out. The colossal figure, now just a lifeless statue of rock, began to crumble, its form turning to dust and falling back into the lava river from whence it came.
Lin Ming landed softly on the now-clear path to the final gate. The chamber fell silent.
He had just absorbed the energy of a being that was, for all intents and purposes, a demigod of fire. His dantian felt like it was about to burst, saturated with a pure, potent Fire Qi.
[Battle Will System]
[Target Eliminated: Ancient Fire Guardian (Pseudo Nascent Soul)]
[Battle Assessment: Excellent. High marks for teamwork and creative problem-solving.]
[Points Awarded: 120,000]
[Current Points: 345,000]
He looked at the massive, rune-covered gate before him. It slowly began to grind open on its own, as if recognizing him as the new master of the chamber.
Beyond the gate was not a room, but a small, quiet grotto. The air was cool and still. In the center, floating an inch above a simple stone pedestal, was a single, perfect, ever-burning flame.
It wasn't a physical fire. It was a concept. A piece of the world's fundamental laws, given form.
The First Flame.
And as he approached, the flame pulsed, and a book, its pages made of shimmering heat, materialized within it.
The Fire Codex.
He had found it. The second piece of the puzzle for his perfect Golden Core. He reached out his hand, and the fiery book floated gently into his grasp. The moment his fingers touched it, an infinite ocean of knowledge about the nature of heat, light, energy, and destruction flooded his mind.
His quest in the Dragon's Maw was over. It was time to go home and prepare for his breakthrough.