Kaden laughed for a while in a deranged manner. He soon stopped as he remembered there was someone left to kill. He was in pain, but could move. There was still Ronnald’s corpse to Devour, but what mattered right then was Olren. Where was he?

No one was going to escape. If he let Olren go, he would run to the nobles and they would send more people. That would be such a trouble and considering how petty they were, the nobles surely would not stop before he was dead.

Kaden finally heard some sounds and looked at the entrance where had come from. Olren was climbing up the almost vertical tunnel.

“Hehe”, Kaden laughed a bit and then shouted up. “Get down here, Olren!”

He then cast a fire ball and made it hit just above Olren. The explosion caused Olren to lose his grip and fall down. He only let out a pitiful scream as he plummeted down. Once he hit the ground, Kaden walked up to him. Olren tried to get up, but there was nowhere to go.

In his desperation Olren attacked Kaden in hopes that he was too injured. Kaden for sure looked like it. He was covered in blood. His clothes torn, bleeding gashes all over him and his movements slow.

But Kaden ignored all that. As long as he was functional, he viewed his pain as something secondary. He quickly grabbed Olren’s hand and twisted it until its bone snapped.

“You brought me so much trouble this time”, Kaden told Olren. “Still, I enjoy the killing so I will be rewarding you with a painful death.”

Kaden started dragging Olren towards the lava pool in the chamber.

“Ah! No”, Olren screamed. “Let me live and I will help you fight back all the families involved! There won’t be anymore assassins!”

“Huh?” Kaden was a bit surprised. “Assassins? Oh, they were your doing as well. Hehe.”

In fact, Kaden had not considered the assassins to be Olren doing. He thought it was that someone had found too much about him. Criminal organizations were also a good guess. He had even thought it might have been Trohin’s enemies since he was using his name as a cover. But the nobles? He didn’t think they would care about him the slightest bit.

“What!? You didn’t know?” Olren shouted while trying to struggle free. It was getting pretty hot that close to the lava pool. “Then why! Why did you try to kill me?”

“Why? You insulted my mother!” Kaden replied. There was some anger in his voice.

“Wha… what! WHAT!” Olren screamed. “Such a reason… why? When!! No… I remember! For that reason! You lunatic! You held such a minor grudge!”

It was getting pretty hot even for Kaden, but he surely was far more resistant to heat than Olren who Kaden was now holding in front.

“No one insults my mother!” Kaden told Olren. “You signed your death sentence long time ago already. There was just never chance to kill you.”

Olren was starting to trash around furiously. The heat was getting unbearable. Olren continued to scream and try to free himself. Then suddenly his clothes ignited and he started to scream even more. Kaden tore off whatever rags he had on before they would too.

Olren was burning as Kaden stood at the edge of the lava pool. Olren’s flesh was basically bubbling as if he was on a frying pan. Kaden was pretty fine with his resistance.

“You mutant!” Olren was screaming even as he was about to die. “Someone will put you down! Gods curse you!!”

“Gods?” Kaden said questioningly. “They don’t care. Never have.”

Then he tossed Olren into the lava and he only momentarily screamed and then silence. Only bubbling of the lava remained.

“Well, thats that”, Kaden muttered to himself and looked around and put some new clothes on from his bag.

Ronnald was a charred body some distance away. He must have been able to put the fire out, but he wasn’t moving. Kaden walked up to him and started stomping on his chest, crushing it. It was good to make sure he was actually dead. Luckily he had not been as tough as Burgen and was defeated with a single strong strike.

Just as Kaden was about to start Devouring him and then planning to continue with Dorin’s corpse to heal his wounds, the earth started shaking! The lava started to bubble up very quickly!

What was happening?

“I wonder how much of this remnant is connected to the actual volcano or perhaps it is the fire elemental”, Kaden thought as he picked Ronnald’s corpse in his bag. “I will have Devour this later. I can’t stay here, if this place gets filled with lava!”

He had to leave Dorin’s corpse behind as lava was already extremely close to it. Such a waste.

Kaden hoped that the exit would be open. Otherwise he could be in a big trouble!

He rushed up the tunnel. While at it, the earth shook more and harder. Rocks started to fall down and as Kaden looked down, the entire chamber he had just been in was filling with lava.

There was no time to look back as Kaden rushed towards the path towards the exit. He still had his old plans about blowing up the exit in worst scenario.

The big chamber where the large fire elemental had been was a mess. There was a smoldering corpse, if you want to call it that. The fire elemental seemed dead and its beaten body was bleeding pure fire mana. The smaller ones were gone and there were only small piles of ashes left from the zombies.

The chamber itself had started to collapse. More lava was pouring on from shattered roof and huge rocks were everywhere. The battle must have been violent.

As far as Kaden could tell, the fire elemental had died just a while ago. From the signs around the lava lake there were some that didn’t look like they came from combat, but instead looked like some fiery formation. Kaden couldn’t really say what it was for, but he guessed the fire elemental had kept the volcano in check with it. It looked like it had been broken and not by accident.

The entrance was barely open. By barely, it meant that saints and Sacronan were fighting for who controlled it. Luckily at the moment it was taken by saints! Kaden rushed there as quickly as he could.

“Kaden!” Nelsen shouted who noticed him approaching. “At least someone is alive! You don’t look good, but there is no time to rest. We are merely preventing Sacronan from retreating at this point.”

“The lower levels are being flooded with lava”, Kaden reported. “I barely made out after fighting with some Sacronan’s soldiers.”

“That damn fire elemental broke some kind of seal just before it perished”, Nelsen said and then continued to explain the situation. “The volcano is going to errupt again and this place will likely flood with lava once that happens. Get out now. Walden and Sari were still alive last I saw, Hem is dead and no one has seen Olren so I fear the worst. Judgement lost a few members too. I’m not sure this all was worth it, but we are making Sacronan pay the price too. At least we got the fire elemental’s core, but Leoren is still fighting Sacronan’s Yakon for it. That fight has not ended. Don’t get in their way on the outside. Find the gliders and prepare to escape.”

Kaden nodded and left towards the exit. There were many corpses littered along the way. He wondered for a moment whether his fight had been rougher or the one that had happened there at the escape path. It didn’t matter much, though. He was wounded but alive. As soon as he had some time, he could Devour the body in his bag and heal. Still, that was something he could not do in the open. Someone might see him Devour a ‘comrade’.

Eventually he reached the rift leading outside and he didn’t hesitate to step through.

What waited him in the outside was a fire storm. The volcano was errupting again and at the same time the two sides were locked in combat. As fire and ash rained from the sky, spells flew back and forth.

Screams and shouts filled the area. Also some laughter from Corshik’s priests who had more than ample resources to generate more destruction.

“How the hell am I going to get out of here?” Kaden though to himself as he looked for a cover. He wasn’t in a perfect fighting condition to begin with. “Damn, I’ll probably have to just push through with everyone.”

He joined the battle and killed a few common soldiers. He tried to Devour them a bit, but their flesh was worthless. It took more mana to cast Devour than their entire bodies would give. He eventually found a corpse at Channel Opening stage, but it wasn’t much better. It merely restored his mana levels a bit, but not really his body. Kaden required bodies at Formation stage to truly repair his powerful body that was at High Beast stage.

Behind him people, including Nelsen and Erral, came out of the remnant. Soon after there were series of explosions and the entrance area collapsed.

“Looks like Erral survived too”, Kaden thought to himself. “I didn’t see him on the way out. Good, I might be able to do it myself some time.”

Kaden wasn’t sure how many of Erral’s soldiers were alive. He hoped most of them had died. Still, perhaps it would have been best that they had perished out there in the fight. The entire trip inside the remnant had taken a bit too long and Sacronan had managed to get more reinforcements.

“Everyone! Focus breaking out of here!” Leoren shouted. He was even more messed up than Kaden. In fact, he didn’t look like to be even in fighting condition. He was limping forward and pressing some wounds. Still, he was at Condensation stage and perhaps it wasn’t as dire situation as it seemed.

Suddenly some inhuman roars were sounded! Beasts!

“Shit, even more chaos”, Kaden though. “They must have noticed the stench of blood. Can’t really blame them.”

The beasts suddenly rushed up the volcano and attacked any humans indiscriminately. They didn’t care whether someone was from Saint Empire or Sacronan. The weaker soldiers were being torn apart.

“Ignore the beasts unless one stands in your way!” Leoren shouted some more orders. “We must continue!”

While the beasts did draw some fire away from the saints, they also did attack them directly. Kaden tore a few of them apart, but they were frenzied from all the available food. With his condition, Kaden wasn’t going to take any risks, if he could avoid it. Luckily he didn’t run into any tougher beasts. He might be able fight off quite a few dire beasts, but not too many.

*GRONKHHH*

That was familiar.

“Uh… maybe its another”, Kaden told himself. “What would it be doing here?”

But then…

“I smell your mana! It’s quality good! Feels nice!” Said the familiar voice.

Kaden looked around and noticed everyone else seemed to only hear beast roars. He heard some soldiers around him talk about that a stronger beast had arrived.

“Shit, it’s here for me”, Kaden cursed to himself.

“I kick out old stinky hubby!” The boar roared from somewhere. Kaden started to hear heavy running from distance. “I like you. Become my new hubby! I will care you forever and ever!”

Then the huge Cerulean Boar crashed into the area.

“Its a high beast!!” Everyone pointed at it and screamed.

“Damn it!” Leoren cursed and then shouted. “Fight it only if it comes here! I’m in no condition to fight!”

Kaden stared at the crazy boar incredulously. It had to be crazier than him. How had it come there? It had a water affinity and was nearly a Lower Cari. It wasn’t impossible that it would have followed after him and crossed the sea. The worst part was that, right then, with the Condensation stage leaders injured and unable to truly fight, the boar was likely strongest being around.

“It really wants me”, Kaden thought and shuddered. “I can’t let that happen. I saw what had happened to its previous… ‘hubby’.”

Things were not going well.