Chương 538: Chapter 507: Trial Beneath the Burning Sun

The heat rose to insane levels as they descended. So far, the group couldn't see anything in the tunnel, but like before, it led deep underground until it ended abruptly. This time, however, they weren't looking down into an endless abyss but instead up toward a blazing red sun. The heat was so intense that even Thalion began to feel it. Below lay a platform, and in its center an Unari was bathing in the sunlight.

His skin was red, small flames licking across it, yet aside from that he didn't resemble a devil at all. The figure hadn't reacted yet, which gave Thalion time to quickly scan the surroundings. A few halo-like rings floated above the sun, but otherwise there was nothing. What looked like steel beams held the platform suspended above the abyss.

"I think it's better if we hide at first. This sun is really doing a number on me," Pikar whispered.

"Speak for yourself, human. This is perfect for my plants," Ricarda shut him down immediately. That was fine for Thalion. He didn't have much hope that Pikar would make a decisive difference in this fight anyway. This D-grade was clearly at least as strong as the girl was, which posed a serious problem. Yes, Thalion had very high fire resistance, but D-grades were always dangerous opponents.

Saranya would be his trump card—so far there hadn't been anything she couldn't cut, and he hoped this D-grade wouldn't be the exception.

"Fine then, let's do this," Thalion growled, unsheathing Saranya, the blade giving off a faint hum with the motion. He was already fully focused, ready to go all out at any moment, while Pikar sucrried behind the entrance. Now the Unari slowly turned toward him, arms stretched wide as if welcoming a friend, and judging by the expression on his face, it was clear he had long since lost his mind.

Well, what did I expect from someone who has stared into the sun for thousands of years, Thalion thought, hoping the Unari's carelessness would allow him to end the fight quickly.

"Welcome, welcome. I am so happy to see you here. Do not worry, your decision to become divine sacrifices was not wrong—and it will not hurt at all," the Unari said, theatrically raising his hands as if conducting a symphony only he could hear. At the same moment, an equally disturbing aura burst from him, and it was as if the small sun above responded. It had already been unbearably hot, but now the temperature rose several more levels.

Thalion could still endure it, but Ricarda had to wrap herself in red leaves to protect against the heat. There was no time to waste. Thalion exploded forward, aiming to sever the man's head in a single strike. Halfway through his charge, he activated Gaze of the Blooded Templar, and both the ability and his blade struck cleanly. The cut went straight through the Unari's neck, yet instead of the head falling, there was only a brief line of fire before it closed again. Great. So I can cut him, but it doesn't matter.

I need large-scale destruction, and since he's made of fire, my blood curse likely won't stick either, Thalion thought with growing frustration. The Unari merely kept smiling and summoned a row of fireballs above his head. That constant, manic grin began to unsettle Thalion. The Unari didn't even stop smiling when one of Ricarda's vines punched straight through his chest. The vine burned away instantly, and the wound closed moments later. By now, Thalion had abandoned any hope that this would be an easy fight.

The next attack confirmed it. Each fireball condensed, and in the next instant every single one turned into a concentrated red beam, all firing toward Thalion. They weren't precisely aimed, but with that level of power, their number, and their speed, accuracy hardly mattered. Thalion deflected one with his blade while twisting between the others, the heat from even narrowly avoiding them scorching his clothes and burning his skin despite his body tempering. Normally, fire shouldn't have affected him at all.

The burns healed instantly thanks to his passive regeneration, but the fact that he was taking damage simply from being near those attacks was alarming. He couldn't help but reconsider what would happen if he ever faced the fire elf again after it reached D-grade. Then an idea struck him. If the Unari's body was largely made of fire, perhaps dropping his passive skill would make the fight easier. The problem was that Ricarda could be affected by the curse as well, which was far from ideal.

After releasing his attack, the Unari slowly turned away, completely disregarding Thalion, and stretched out his hand toward Ricarda. She was already moving quickly to the side while firing thorns at the Unari. Most of them hit, but the Unari simply ignored the damage and acted as if he didn't feel anything, which was likely true. Thalion doubted that this one even had a sense of pain worth mentioning. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Yet this was an opportunity.

The Unari was moving very slowly and seemed to have completely forgotten about him. Knowing that it would hurt like hell, Thalion shifted into his water form and immediately began charging Myrelith's Tidal Lance. No longer immune to the heat and now a creature of water, the aura alone burned him, the oppressive heat tearing at his body as he felt far weaker than when he was submerged in the ocean. Still, the Unari noticed nothing.

Instead, he raised his hand and unleashed a jetstream of flames at Ricarda, who desperately tried to evade the attack. Before the fire could reach her and deal real damage, the Unari was erased by a massive beam of water. Thalion made sure to wipe out every trace of the body, yet he encountered no resistance at all. Steam erupted into the air as the water vaporized on impact, and overall, it had been a success—at least, it should have been.

Thalion shifted back into his human form to begin healing, but he hadn't like the vulnerable feeling that came from no longer being in water one bit. With a wave of mana, he dispersed the steam, scanning the area for any trace of the Unari, because there had been no kill notification. Which meant it was still alive.

"Where is he?" Ricarda shouted, her head snapping from side to side as she desperately searched for any sign of the Unari.

"He has to be here somewhere," Thalion muttered, focusing on his skill Hunter of All. It had even allowed him to track Ricarda after she activated her escape token, yet now it pointed toward the center of the seventy-meter-wide sun above them. Which made no sense. Even this insane Unari should have been destroyed by that inferno. Yet the skill did not lie, and as Thalion narrowed his eyes, he began to make something out within the blinding light.

As the flames shifted, a terrible realization settled in, and a cold feeling crept up his spine. The sun began to rotate—and shrink. The pressure in the chamber rose steadily.

"Great… last time I absorbed the treasure, and now the big boss is doing the same," Thalion thought, a rare hint of helplessness creeping into his mind. There was no point in attacking the sun—anything that got close would be instantly incinerated.

"Oh no," Ricarda muttered, staring upward. Strands of power lashed out from the shrinking sun, scorching the ancient stone walls, while the entire chamber began to tremble, dust raining down from the ceiling. It was as if the sun itself was being pulled inward, collapsing into something at its core. And then it revealed itself. A red demon. Its skin burned like molten fire, its eyes blazing like living flames within their sockets.

Wings unfurled from its back, its hands twisted into long claws, and only after a moment did Thalion notice the long tail, lined with vicious spikes. Four horns rose from its head like a crown, and the creature stood easily three meters tall as it turned toward him.

"That hurt," the demon hissed, its aura erupting outward—far stronger than before. Then it moved. The demon shot forward so fast that Thalion barely managed to react in time. Against the elves, he had been the stronger and faster one, but here he was clearly on the back foot—especially when it came to raw power. The demon slammed into the ground in front of him, the impact ripping stone into the air from sheer force.

A thorn shot past Thalion's head and struck the demon's shoulder, only to bounce off harmlessly, followed by Ricarda swearing behind him. Thalion stepped in instantly, not giving the demon time to counter, and thrust forward with Saranya—only for the blade to slide across the creature's scales. It wasn't completely ineffective; it left a shallow cut, but the wound healed almost immediately.

"Saranya… do you have something to say about that?" Thalion teased as he used Telekinetic Dash to launch himself into the air.

"Ey, not my fault—there is something special going on with those scales," Saranya replied. The demon shot up right behind Thalion, and it was far faster than before. That was a serious issue, because right now Thalion had no real idea how to fight it. He could try his blood curse, but what if it ended up buffing the demon instead? Even E-grades already had considerable resistance, and this one was a D-grade—and a special one at that.

Besides the control Thalion would gain, the curse itself was still a straight buff, and that was the last thing he wanted to give his opponent. If he extended his passive skill, he could likely apply the curse easily, since the demon probably contained a large amount of fire within its body. In the end, it was a gamble, and Thalion wasn't willing to take that risk just yet.

The demon hadn't used any real fire-based abilities at first and simply chased Thalion, who dodged around the enraged creature while trying to injure it with Saranya. Even with charged attacks, he managed nothing more than deep cuts that healed almost instantly. Then the demon escalated. At first, it had relied only on its claws, but now it began to breathe fire and unleash a variety of fire-based abilities, each one far more powerful than anything Thalion had seen before.

It became increasingly difficult to evade, and even getting close to one of those attacks was enough to scorch his skin. His regeneration remained strong, but despite neither fighter landing a decisive blow so far, the real problem was clear—Thalion simply couldn't kill the demon. His eye-based skill had barely any effect, yet he continued using it whenever he found an opening. Perhaps the demon's soul was its true weak point, and it would only take time for its defenses to crumble.

But that time was running out, because the demon kept accelerating, growing faster with every passing moment. It must have realized that Thalion couldn't seriously injure it, which only made its attacks more aggressive and far harder to avoid. Ricarda didn't dare get close and instead began channeling power from a flower growing out of her back, firing a laser beam at intervals. The attack was completely ineffective, doing little more than pushing the demon slightly to the side whenever it connected.

The demon didn't even acknowledge the attack and continued its relentless pursuit of Thalion. It grew more reckless with every second, and Thalion was running out of options. His vines were burned away or torn apart without significantly slowing the creature down. Something had to change, or this would end badly. Fortunately, he already had an idea. After being hit by several attacks, he realized that his divine passive skill was definitely affecting the demon's flames.

If that was the case, then he could alter the affinity of the demon itself—he just needed to choose a form that would counter it. A form with an extremely high resistance to its own element. Then the demon caught him. Its claws wrapped around his neck, and with a brutal crash, Thalion was slammed into the wall. For a moment, everything shook, and just as the demon moved in to tear his heart from his chest— Everything went dark.

The demon froze for a split second as its own color shifted, and when it looked up, it was met by four black eyes… and a wide-open maw waiting for it.