Crimson Lotus Karma Fire Burns Three Beasts

Gray covered his ears, feeling as if his eardrums were about to shatter.

"Don't just stand there! Save them!" Gildarts roared.

With a flash of movement, he leaped to the ceiling of the cave, his hands moving like lightning as he quickly plucked down the hanging cocoons.

Gray snapped out of it, and, enduring the ringing in his ears, rushed forward to help.

"Ice-Make: Blade!"

Gray condensed an ice blade in his hand and carefully sliced open a cocoon.

Inside was a middle-aged woman in a coma; her face was pale, but her chest was still rising and falling slightly.

"She's still alive!"

Gray felt a surge of joy and quickened his movements.

On the other side, the battle had reached a fever pitch.

Lu Chongwei was fighting three beasts alone, yet he showed no signs of falling behind.

"Get lost!"

Lu Chongwei let out a furious roar.

He dodged a pounce from a Gidoken, grabbed the base of its wing with a backhand grip, and using the strength of his waist, he hoisted the massive creature into the air.

Whoosh—

A giant black shadow flew over Gray's head.

Gray looked up to see Lu Chongwei tossing the adult Gidoken toward the cave entrance as if it were nothing but trash.

Immediately after, Lu Chongwei repeated the feat.

Utilizing the extreme speed of Flash Step, he maneuvered through the cramped space, seized an opening, and threw the other adult Gidoken and the cub out of the cave one after another.

"There's no room to fight in here, so get out and fight me!"

Lu Chongwei let out a cold snort, gripped his blade, and strode out in pursuit.

Outside the cave, the moonlight was cold and clear.

The three Gidoken crashed into a pile of jagged rocks; although they were disheveled, their thick hides meant they hadn't sustained any fatal injuries.

Seeing Lu Chongwei emerge, the fierce light in the eyes of the three magical beasts intensified.

They seemed to realize how troublesome this human was and decided to join forces.

Lu Chongwei stood in the clearing, looking up at the three beasts circling in the air, and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

"There were civilians inside, and I was holding back so hard because I was afraid of hurting them."

Lu Chongwei stroked the hilt of his blade, his eyes gradually turning fanatical.

"Now, there's plenty of room."

"It's the perfect time to test the true power of this blade on you."

In mid-air, the three Gidoken arranged themselves in a triangular formation.

They opened their mouths in unison, and eerie purple magic power gathered frantically within them.

Hum—

The air began to vibrate.

The three massive energy spheres merged in the air, transforming into a terrifying orb of light several meters in diameter that radiated an aura of destruction.

At this moment, Gildarts and Gray, having finished saving the people, also rushed out of the cave.

Seeing this scene, Gray's expression changed drastically.

"No! That's a high-compression magic cannon! Lu Chongwei, get out of the way!"

Without a second thought, Gray slammed his hands onto the ground.

"Ice-Make: Lance!"

Countless massive ice lances erupted from the ground, shooting toward the energy sphere in the sky like a forest in an attempt to intercept it.

However, crack!

The moment the ice lances touched the energy sphere, they shattered like glass, turning into a sky full of ice shards.

The energy sphere continued on its path, heading straight for Lu Chongwei.

"Get out of the way!!!"

Gray screamed in despair.

Under an attack of this magnitude, a human body could never hope to withstand it!

However, Lu Chongwei did not dodge.

He stood his ground, watching the whistling energy sphere, a trace of contemptuous amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Dodge? Why would I need to dodge?"

Lu Chongwei slowly raised the long blade in his hand, its tip pointing straight toward the firmament.

In the instant before the energy sphere was about to swallow him whole.

An inexplicable flame erupted from within his body without any warning.

It was no ordinary fire.

It was the karmic fire from hell, the red lotus that incinerates all things!

"Boom!"

The energy sphere collided with Lu Chongwei, yet the explosion everyone expected never occurred.

Instead, it was as if a snowball had been thrown into a furnace; it was instantly enveloped, devoured, and burned to nothingness by that terrifying flame!

Not even a speck of dust remained!

"What?!"

Gray's eyes widened, his face filled with shock.

As the firelight dissipated, he saw Lu Chongwei still standing in the same spot, completely unscathed.

At this moment, his entire body was wrapped in crimson flames, and even the Zanpakuto in his hand seemed to have transformed into flowing magma.

His hair danced wildly in the heatwave, his gaze firm and cold, like a god born from the fire.

A terrifying wave of heat instantly swept across the entire area.

The surrounding air began to distort, and the rocks on the ground started to glow red and soften.

Even Gildarts, standing far away, felt his throat go dry, a stinging sensation of burning spreading across his skin.

"This temperature..."

Gildarts' pupils contracted violently, and for the first time, a look of horror appeared on his face.

"This kid's magic attribute... it's actually reached such a terrifying level?!"

High in the air.

The three Gidoken felt a fear they had never known before.

It was the instinctive dread of a creature facing its natural predator.

They shrieked, desperate to turn and flee, to get as far away as possible from this monster radiating an aura of destruction.

"Trying to run?"

Lu Chongwei's eyes narrowed, and the blade in his hand trembled slightly.

"Too late."

He took a deep breath, his voice low yet resonant, like a great bell tolling across the heavens and earth.

That ancient Shikai incantation finally echoed in this world for the very first time.

"Reduce all creation to ash—"

Following the chant, the flames on the blade surged into the sky, dyeing the entire night sky a blood-red hue.

Lu Chongwei swung his blade with force.

"Ryujin Jakka!!!"

BOOM—!!!

The crimson flames erupted instantly, transforming into a pillar of fire that reached from the earth to the heavens, swallowing everything in its path.

The terrifying heat of 6,000 degrees Celsius was unleashed in that moment.

There was no explosion.

There was no shockwave.

There was only pure, ultimate destruction.

The three Gidoken in the air didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly reduced to ashes.

The once-hard rocky ground began to melt like a candle, turning into boiling magma that dripped and flowed downward.

The air was scorched into extreme distortion, and everything within sight became blurred and indistinct.

"So hot! It's so hot!"

"Help! Is this hell?!"

Deep within the cave, those humans who had previously been unconscious were jolted awake by the sheer intensity of the scorching heatwave.

They screamed in terror, and even though their bodies were incredibly weak, the instinct to survive drove them to scramble toward the cave entrance on their hands and knees.

How could this still be the world of the living?

This was clearly a hell of fire!

Standing at the cave entrance, Gray was currently experiencing the most desperate moment of his life.

As an Ice-Make Mage, his sensitivity to high temperatures was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

"Sizzle, sizzle—"

He discovered with horror that even his last remaining pair of shorts had begun to smoke.

A violent, burning pain radiated across his skin, as if all the moisture had been evaporated in an instant, causing his flesh to crack and shrivel.

"Ice-Make..."

Gray attempted to gather his magic power to create an ice shield to cool himself down.

However.

Even though he exhausted every ounce of his strength, not a single water element in the air responded to him.