[Boiling Splatter: Spits out a twenty-meter-long, sixty-degree-wide cone of boiling poison liquid. Enemies hit by the poison will receive 3,000 points of fire damage and 2,000 points of poison damage.
[Smoldering Devastation: Spits a 5 meter by 5 meter fire web coated in poison at the enemy. Enemies caught in the web will be immobilized and will have to endure tremendous damage from the poison. Said poison will ignite the fire energy within the target’s body.]
One had to admit that Lasbes had truly deserved her title as a fire lord. Those who could rise up from the masses and distinguish themselves all possessed powerful abilities and techniques!
Even though Greem was of a superior grade, protected by two divine artifacts, and wielded two fire principles, he still had to be careful against the broodmother’s unusual Smoldering Devastation.
It was impossible for Lasbes to defeat him, but if he were caught in the web and ended up being bitten a few times, it would be quite embarrassing!
Thus, Lasbes had been able to force Greem to step back over and over again by spitting fire webs.
It wasn’t until they reached this volcano that she ran out of poison and webbing, upon which she was blasted by a fireball and marked with a fire brand.
“Submit or die?” Greem shouted in his booming voice.
“I would rather die than surrender,” Lasbes let out a screech. The rune on her stomach abruptly turned into golden fire and instantly spread all over her body.
This golden fire was the manifested Undying Flames. It possessed the principle trait of being able to ignore magic resistance and burn the soul directly. Even with her fire resistance as a Fourth Grade fire lord, Lasbes writhed in pain. Her entire body was scorched and charred black.
Fortunately for her, Greem did not intend to kill her. The Undying Flames only burned for five seconds before reverting into a rune. Greem then took out a healing potion and poured it on Lasbes’ blackened body.
Given the potent regenerative powers of Fourth Grade creatures and the aid of the healing potion, Lasbes recovered in just a few minutes.
A muffled boom.
Greem stomped on the Emberweb broodmother again after she attempted to burrow into the ground and escape. His voice boomed once more, “Submit or die?”
“You dare?” Lasbes didn’t even get to finish this time before she was once again engulfed by golden fire.
The sizzling sound of burning flesh could be heard, and a pungent smell filled the air.
A short moment later, the flames faded away, and Lasbes was healed by Greem again.
“Hehehehe. Little spider, keep it up. I have plenty of healing potions anyway. I should have no problem torturing you for another hundred years, at least. So tell me, what’s your choice this time?” Greem chuckled coldly, the calmness of his words sending chills straight through the broodmother’s body.
“I……”
Lasbes had only said a single word when the golden flames engulfed her. Her pained screeches and howls rang out above the volcano again.
A short moment later, the flames dissipated.
Greem frowned and scratched his head as he said with an ‘apologetic’ expression, “Sorry, that was a little early. What did you say just now?”
Lasbes lay breathless on the hard stone. She waved her limbs and pincers about furiously. She sliced the volcanic rock beneath her, leaving deep marks in the ground and sending pebbles flying everywhere.
“Why? Why did you come to find me? There are plenty of fire lords out there. Why did you single me out?” The broodmother was clearly very resentful about this issue.
“Because you’re the smartest of them all!” Greem smiled as he complimented her.
He did mean it.
Those hulking big guys out there might be pretty powerful and of a high grade, but they all had explosive tempers and no idea how to adapt. They were stubborn oxen that would run all the way down the same path. Threatening them with death would be useless.
In contrast, only individuals like Lasbes who had bloodlines from another world and sufficiently smart brains would know fear, as well as the value of life.
Smart people were always afraid of death!
It was an iron law concluded by the adepts, and Greem knew it well enough himself!
“And if I don’t submit?” Despite his severe injuries, Lasbes only needed to rest for a brief moment. Her body was continually healing, and her voice had regained strength.
“Then I will keep playing with you for a little longer until my patience runs dry,” Greem gave an honest explanation. “Then, I will twist off your head as a trophy, pull apart your limbs to make daggers, tear off your pincers for scissors, and make your spinneret and poison gland into magical equipment.
“Hmm, let me think, is there anything else of value in you…right, I can extract your soul as well. Hey, tell me, little spider, is there a spider crystal in you? I heard that’s a really valuable thing too.”
Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes couldn’t help but tremble as she listened to Greem list off her body parts like pieces of treasure. As a high-grade intelligent lifeform, she was different than those stupid, foolish, and short-fused fire giants.
She knew very well that death was not her ultimate fate when a high-grade elementium being like herself fell into the hands of a human adept. No, it was the start of endless torture!
At the thought of being enslaved for the next thousands of years, Lasbes couldn’t help but feel sorrow overwhelm her. She crouched on the ground and started crying out loud.
Still, as an oddly-shaped arachnid fire creature, her crying just looked terribly ugly in the eyes of a human.
“Hi, little spider, have you made up your mind? If you still don’t submit, I will take your legs to start!” Greem ground his foot into the spider impatiently, instantly making the broodmother howl in pain.
“I submit…I submit!” Bad people were usually only afraid of worse people. Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes finally lowered her prideful head and submitted to Greem after two thousand years of running rampant in this region.
What came next was much more straightforward.
Lasbes opened up her soul consciousness, and Greem planted his soul brand in there.
In doing so, Fourth Grade Fire Lord Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes became the first native creature that Greem managed to subdue since entering the Fire Elementium Plane.
Chapter 1446 - Ancient Secrets
With the aid of a local, Greem’s conquest became a lot easier.
For the fire creatures that had lived here for millions of years, the Fifth Grade Greem was no different than a god of fire. No matter how they struggled or resisted, there was no way they could change the inevitable result.
Greem’s overwhelming power was the key that guaranteed the successful execution of his will!
Taking down Lasbes was like pushing down the first domino tile. He was able to snowball and conquer a sizeable territory within the region. However, the fire creatures did not have much ambition, much less the dreams to conquer the entirety of the Fire Elementium Plane.
A Fifth Grade Fire King like Groms, for instance, conquered a good territory and enslaved some of the nearby fire creatures to serve as slaves. That was enough. There was no need to spend too much time making all the fire lords submit to him.
The Fire Elementium Plane was a classic ultra-sized planar world. It was a dozen times the size of a large planar world like the World of Adepts.
The upper limit of power between the two worlds was also very far apart.
The World of Adepts could only contain individuals of Fourth Grade and below, while the limit of power in the Fire Elementium Plane was Seventh Grade. That meant one was very likely to run into fearsome Seventh Grade fire creatures within the Fire Elementium Plane.
Greem was little more than an ant before such powerful beings!
Still, as a Fifth Grade fire adept, Greem would not hold back when it came to himself. He picked carefully and chose a spec
ial place for his residence. It was a place called the Molten Altar.
It was said that the Molten Altar was once the passageway to the kingdom of a certain powerful Fire Hierarch. However, something happened that resulted in the death of this Fire Hierarch. The holy fire burning on the Molten Altar was extinguished along with him.
Even so, the holy power that lingered around the Molten Altar had yet to fully dissipate after millions of years. Everyone who worshipped flames did not dare to approach the Molten Altar.
As an outsider, Greem did not have the same fear and respect that was engraved in the soul consciousness of the fire creatures. After much pondering, it seemed like the Molten Altar was the only place on Groms’ map that matched Greem’s identity as a Fifth Grade.
Greem brought the Emberweb broodmother along with him. On the sixty-eighth day since his arrival, they reached the Molten Altar.
It was a silent and desolate land.
Even with Greem’s tremendous and pervasive Spirit, he could not sense any souls or life in this area.
It was almost as if the place had been cursed. Even the scorched and withered earth and the hot winds blowing dust into the air seemed to carry a mysterious weight.
The winds howled, the fires rumbled, and the ground itself seemed to be crying..
Emberwb Broodmother Lasbes immediately stopped walking upon arriving here. An expression of fear and respect appeared on her ugly face.
“Master, better not choose this place! I…I can smell the smell of grudge and death here. Even high-grade creatures like ourselves will be inflicted with something bad if we stay here too long,” Lasbes advised hesitantly.
Greem did not reply. He simply stood on the spot and assessed this land silently.
He could see stretches of mountains rising and falling in every direction from where he was. Black smoke rolled above the towering volcanoes, and the scarlet flash of the lava illuminated the skies, causing it to appear dark-red and black.
There was a relatively flat plain amid all the volcanoes. At the center of the plain was a crescent-shaped lava lake about ten kilometers long. The Molten Altar was located within the crook of the curved lake.
The altar was unusually large and majestic, surrounded by giant hundred-meter-tall stone pillars. At the center of the structure was a four-tiered stone altar. A strange stone platform sat at the very top.
Due to its age, the altar was exceedingly old and was falling apart.
The stone carvings and decorations on the altar were crumbling. Even most of the stone pillars had collapsed entirely, leaving behind only foundations measuring two to three meters in height.
For some reason, strange images flashed through Greem’s mind when he saw the ancient ruins before him.
The entire sky and earth were crimson. A thousand-meter-tall portal of light stood at the center of the plain. The Molten Altar burned with a glassy, purple fire in front of that portal.
Fire creatures from all over crowded the plain. They were of different species and grades, but they had the same fervor on their faces. They prayed zealously near the purple fire on the altar, guided by numerous fire priests.
Every so often, a strong light would erupt from the purple fire, casting a purple glow on one of the believers.
Whenever the purple glow appeared, the crowd would erupt into thunderous cheering. The prayers of the believers would grow louder and louder. Everyone watched enviously as the believer clad in purple light slowly walked up the altar and vanished through the portal.
Every time this happened, the atmosphere would rise even further and closer to the point of total ignition.
All the believers became even more zealous and fervent, hoping that they would become the next one to be chosen.
Passing through the portal…entering the kingdom of the god…merging completely with the origin fire.
For some reason, this mysteriously intense wish infected Greem’s mental consciousness as well. Even he wanted to kneel down and pray before the Molten Altar.
[Beep. Detecting the intrusion of a mysterious foreign will. Please stay alert.
[Beep. Detecting that Host has been enchanted. Principle defenses are activating now.]
The next second, the two principle lights shrouding Greem’s body clashed and sent sparks into the air. A golden barrier instantly engulfed his hundred-meter-tall body.
With the golden barrier protecting him, the unknown emotion that had reached across time was abruptly dispelled.
Greem shivered. When he came to his senses, the vision before him had faded. The land returned to its former desolate appearance.
“Chip, what’s going on? What happened to me just now?” Greem asked solemnly.
[Beep. Detecting an unusual Spirit fluctuation forcefield in the region. Initial estimates suggest this is some sort of spacetime rewind to the ancient times. Suggesting that Host increase mental defenses!]
Spirit fluctuation forcefield?
Spacetime rewind?
Greem thought to himself. He couldn’t help but become more curious about the Molten Altar standing at the edge of his sight.
Judging from his vision earlier, a powerful fire creature resembling a god had appeared in the Fire Elementium Plane millions of years ago. He had forged a powerful god kingdom of fire and left the Molten Altar here as a passageway to the kingdom for selected believers.
A god of the Fire Elementium Plane.
If such an individual did exist, they would be thousands of times stronger than the World of Gods’ fire gods. The reason for it was simple. The number of believers and zealots was not even on the same level.
Most gods from the World of Gods were reliant on a single material plane. However, no matter the number of intelligent creatures there, it could not possibly compare to an elementium plane. Moreover, elementium creatures were beings with simplistic thoughts and few demands. They were not like intelligent lifeforms of other worlds, with complex thoughts and unending greed.
If a fire god did appear in the Fire Elementium Plane, he could have as many zealots as he desired. That was a far better scenario than fighting for believers in the various material worlds.
However, according to Greem’s understanding, the most powerful individuals in the Fire Elementium Plane were no more than Eighth Grade Fire Hierarchs. He had never heard of a fire god from this world whose power lay in faith.
It seemed like it was impossible for a true Elementium Ruler to be born among the elementium creatures!
It was said that this too had something to do with the Titans.
Greem had come across conjectures by other adepts when reading ancient records found in Zhentarim. These conjectures proposed that the four elementium planes were where the fundamental particles of the multiverse were most plentiful, as well as the source of all supernatural powers in the material worlds.
To avoid an excessively powerful individual rising from within the four major elementium planes and cutting off elementium supply to the material worlds, the Titans would patrol the elementium worlds every so often. They would exterminate any powerful individual who had a chance of becoming an Elementium Ruler.
Despite the countless elementium beings and vast lands of the four major elementium worlds, the most powerful individuals were only Eighth Grade Elementium Hierarchs. Ninth Grade Elementium Rulers had never been born.
This was the fundamental reason behind the shadows!
That meant the fallen Fire Hierarch here must have been a peak Eighth Grade existence. He must have been too powerful and was attacked by the Titans. His god kingdom then fell apart, and his altar was destroyed.
Even after millions of years, this Molten Altar retained a portion of its strange powers from ancient times. It could drag people into a sort of spiritual illusion that provided glimpses into ancient secrets.
Greem had managed to break free of the illusion earlier. What would have happened if he didn’t manage to do so?
Greem hesitated for a moment and asked
gravely, “Lasbes, what have you heard of this Molten Altar? Are there any taboos here?”
Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes crouched behind Greem. She looked at the altar in the distance fearfully as she said in a trembling voice, “No native creature of the Fire Elementium Plane would ever approach the Molten Altar of their own accord. Rather, it’s the outsiders that always seem to be attracted by the altar. They are always drawn in somehow.”
“Do outsiders often go missing here?”
“Yes! Many outsiders disappear after they get close to the altar. No one knows where they go. However, the more reliable sources say,” At this, Lasbes couldn’t help but lower her voice, “Their souls were taken away by the dead Fire Hierarch to be used as energy for a revival. As for the truth of these rumors, I have no idea!”
A Fire Hierarch plotting a revival…that was shockingly major news!
Greem couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.
Chapter 1447 - Enemy Tracks
Anyone else might have gone looking for a different place to stay once they heard of the mystery of Molten Altar.
However, Greem’s thought process was clearly different from an ordinary man’s.
He almost-instantly decided to make his home here to research this strange and dangerous Molten Altar.
However, even after the idea took root, actualizing it seemed to be very difficult.
The Fire Elementium Plane never lacked manpower. There were plenty of strong fire creatures standing over a dozen meters tall with the ability to move objects weighing several tons. However, there was a distinct lack of an architect with the proper aesthetic and ability to design.
Compared to the myriad of classes found in the material planes, the Fire Elementium Plane was much more rudimentary. Naturally, that meant they did not have any technicians.
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