Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...
The more than two-hundred-meter-tall giant of black flame strode forward step by step. To the Crow-Devouring Flame Soul Giant's elemental true form, the Plant People's treehouses were no more than children's sandcastle models. As it walked, it casually crushed dozens of enormous footprints among the treehouses. After it passed, raging flames still burned within those prints, melting the ice all around.
The crystalline trees that reached the Flame Giant's chest toppled in every direction. Pearl of the Sea City, which was considered fairly large among the lower Plant People, took Green only a dozen or so steps to cross before he reached the shore, where the waves had frozen.
"Oh? There are survivors?"
Upon a huge lotus-leaf-shaped vessel frozen atop the sea, an enormous Evil Reed Flower spread open its petals, saving Bamboo-Joint Thorn—whom it had protected at the cost of its own life—from the attack of the Extreme Cold domain.
Bamboo-Joint Thorn's slender figure stood atop the crest of a wave, frozen at the final instant of its rolling surge. He stared in disbelief and horror at Pearl of the Sea City, now transformed into a glacial hell. His body trembled uncontrollably. No words could express how he felt at that moment.
A city once brimming with life had, in the blink of an eye, left only him behind!
Loneliness, fear, despair...
At that moment, Bamboo-Joint Thorn forgot even death. He gazed at the terrifying black flaming figure more than two hundred meters tall on the island's shore. It stood in peerless majesty, with two great mouths upon its chest and back—one weeping, one laughing—radiating an unsettling, wavering aura that made hearts shudder.
It was devouring the souls of the Plant People who had died on the island.
"Evil monster, kill me too! Otherwise,