Ch.78 The Sacred Volcano and The Heavenly Sun Flame

[East Continent, Western Region, Unknown Mountain Range] Slap bang in the middle of an inconspicuous mountain range was an unsuspecting Volcano of gigantic proportions. Copious amounts of smoke continuously billowed out of its top but it had been like that for many years. All the beings in its vicinity had long ago lost their wariness and continued to do the best they could for their future generations. But that’s how things used to be. … One day, the strange but harmless ‘mountain’ that had stayed the same since the day they were born had undergone ground-shaking changes! It suddenly started absorbing dreadful amounts of Magical Energy as its size shot up. Its innocent grey colour darkened to charcoal black whilst horrifyingly hot ‘red-coloured liquids’ exploded into the sky with wrathful grace. Anything that was unlucky enough to be in its landing spot had turned into ash. The other mountains in the range were affected and they too started changing with the ones closer to the Volcano (which they identified with help from the System) becoming darker and taller. Only the mountains on the outskirts of the range were left unaffected. But eventually things calmed down and all the beings in the vicinity had either fled or died. There were still crazy amounts of lava all over the place and even more still flowing, but if you had basic intelligence and avoided the glowing hot lava (which they identified with help from the System) that you could feel even before you saw, then things were relatively safe. Soon, the more bold and intelligent creatures were attracted to the Volcanoes' ambient Magical Energy that kept rising every day, and thinking that their beloved homeland had turned into a cultivation haven, they crept closer and closer to the Volcano. They all had varying limits that they could withstand because of the unbearable heat with no one being able to touch the actual Volcano, but there were some that got as close as the 3rd ring (3rd circle of mountains that surrounded the 2nd circle of mountains, 1st circle of mountains and the Volcano itself. There are 9 circles/rings in total). When Magic Stones filled with Lava or Earth Essence started spawning they all rejoiced, although no one had the Lava affinity and were therefore unable to absorb the Lava Essence if they didn’t want to end up getting hurt. As beings born in the mountain range, most of them had an Earth Affinity and were fully capable of absorbing the Earth Essence from the Magic Earth Stones! A racial war for monopoly had quickly begun but it ended just as quickly as it started. The fights had become pointless with more and more people arriving, and with such a treacherous warzone (lava everywhere), dying was too easy. So they advocated for peace and so long as they were within the range, no one was allowed to kill. Everything was going well. Breakthroughs were occurring everyday and more and more Beasts were gaining Earth-aligned innate skills. Some even evolved when they crossed over a Realm and this was all in the matter of days.  But then things changed again. Out of nowhere, the creatures that they had looked down on the most, the weakest kind of lifeform that barely even qualified as Beasts, the most unsuspecting and useless type or race on the planet… Started slaughtering them! They were on average, half a metre tall and 1.5 metres long. Their bodies were split into 3 sections consisting of head, thorax and abdomen and they had 6 legs, 2 antennae and a pair of jaws also known as mandibles. Their charcoal-like bodies looked suspiciously like the Volcano that they had been praising all this time and even more suspicious were the visible veins filled with glowing lava that streaked over their bodies. The only normal thing about them were their black compound eyes that looked in every which way with obvious hunger. They were Ants! An insect subspecies that was supposed to be one of the weakest and most useless beings on the planet. And yet here they were, digging out of the rocky ground that no other being (to their knowledge) were able to so much as dent like it was nothing, and killing everything in sight without discrimination. They shot lava out of their mouths, bit down on necks with crushing jaws and stabbed through hearts with razor-sharp legs. Even though there were only tens of such Ants, hundreds of carcasses were dragged back into the tunnels. If someone were to gather the collective thoughts of all the beings on the mountain range and refine them into one. It would sound something like: ‘What the fuuuck?!?!?!’ … [West Continent, Centre Region, Unknown Mountain] ‘...Status.’ Deep into the depths of the West Continent, a peculiar existence made a prompt for its status page. DING! [Status] [Name: None] [Titles: None] [Race: Living Sun Flame (Anomaly)] [Cultivation: Heavenly Flame] [Anomaly Stage: Neophyte] [Combat Strength: Unknown] [Contracted Apostles: Liyanda] [Contracts: 1472 / 2500] [Affinities: Sun(100%), Fire(100%), Light(100%), Life(100%)] [Elements: Fire, Light] [Laws: Sun(90%), Fire(100%), Light(100%), Life(21%)] [Innate Skills: Contract, Spirit Sense, Syphon Essence, Appraise, Fire Manipulation, Light Manipulation] ‘My comprehension of the Laws of Life have increased… but it is difficult. It has been… a week? And it has only gone up by 1%... Disappointing. But I have made progress on the number of contracts. That is good.’ A giant golden ball of fire surrounded by nothing but ash pondered on its progress since its birth 1 week ago. This used to be the only Heaven Ranked Flame in the World that rested inconspicuously at the top of a mountain on the West Continent. It had a startling affinity with the Sun and was very powerful. Back then, its presence had been completely concealed. Even if someone were to walk within 1 metre of it they wouldn’t have even sensed it, talk less of seen it. This was the self-defence mechanism that all Natural Flames of the Heaven Rank and above had. It was fallible and could be seen if someone coming close was too powerful, but not even 4th Realm beings were good enough so the Heaven Ranked Flamed had been safe all its days. But alas, ‘something’ had disturbed it and it had become something else, something completely different from any of its kind, something that would cause entire galaxies to wail with fear because of its existence. It had become an Anomaly. But it was also in its fledgling stage and very visible. Its awakening as an Anomaly had stripped away its concealment and reduced everything in the surroundings to ashes. At the time, It didn’t know that It was in possible danger and planned to continue its days of nothingness with more nothingness. It had gained a fully sapient soul, yes, but it was a soul that was empty. Desires and emotions had yet to form. But the System had informed It of the Contracts and encouraged that It found some life forms to protect It while It was young and unable to defend Itself. So it did. … The Heavenly Sun Flame gave a glance at the over 1000 Humans that went about doing their business. They had golden hair, golden irises and powerful auras that were perfectly aligned with fire. Most of them had smiles on their faces and would look back at the Sun Flame from time to time with reverent gazes. However, 5 metres in front of the Sun Flame was a Woman that sat cross legged with closed eyes, clearly meditating. She was a woman of ethereal beauty with a perfect face that carried a wild charm, a curvaceous figure that tantalised the eyes and long golden hair that seemed to be made from the silkiest of materials. As if she could sense the Heavenly Sun Flame looking, she opened her eyes to look right back with an expression that was coloured in startlement, but unlike the other Humans behind her, her eyes were completely gold and glowed like the sun.  She abruptly scrambled to her knees and pressed her forehead to the ground in a manner that was similar to the way Beasts prostrated themselves, letting out a heavenly voice and saying: “Your humble servant, Liyanda, awaits your orders.”