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Chapter 526 – Preparations For The Final Encounter

"Alright… with this, all Four Empyreans have been re-awakened," I muttered, letting out a sigh. "I\'ve worked my ass off for the past few days, but… this immortality should be worth it."

"You had best not overly rely on it," Aquira stated calmly. "After all, immortality does not mean invincibility. A killing blow will still be a killing blow—do not blame it on us then."

"Relax, I am well aware of that," I replied. "If I die, it\'s simply because I was too weak. Nothing more."

"Well, let\'s get out of here, then!" Ignis said with a chuckle. "I heard you have a pretty nice lodging, kid! A private beach and all that? Sounds awesome!"

"Just know if you burn anything, you\'ll be paying for it," I muttered, and Aquira gave a soft chuckle.

"Hmph. Worry not, dear child. Should he burn anything, I will immediately drown his flames."

"Yeah… uh, thanks, I suppose," I said, scratching my head. "In any case… how do we-"

I was going to ask where the exit was since Space Magic was still being restricted here, but suddenly, a rumbling noise came from down below, and I immediately tensed up.

"Uh… what was that?"

"Hm, it would seem your earlier brawl with that demon fellow triggered a volcanic eruption," Terrarim said nonchalantly.

"Don\'t say that in such a calm way, dammit!" I yelled as the rumbling continued, and the marble ceiling above my head began crumbling. The ground shook, the earth trembled. More and more layers of rock and marble above me began to break and come crashing down, and the fractures appearing in the ground beneath me didn\'t help either.

"Tch…!"

Gritting my teeth with no other option, I began climbing up onto the pieces of rock falling down. The ground below me was giving way to the magma underneath, and with the surging lava, there was no way I could waste any time.

It wasn\'t easy, climbing onto the pieces of rock as they fell, then jumping off of them to reach a higher one. My wounds had already healed, but even so, this wasn\'t a feat just anyone could accomplish. All magic—including flying—was disabled still since Ignis was a meathead, so I was forced to rely on my own capabilities to jump my way out of this predicament.

Once I had an opening, however, I was able to summon my angelic wings, which Ignis had enabled earlier. This made things exponentially easier, but I still had to evade the incoming rocks dropping on my head, like icicles in a snowy ice cavern. One mistake, and I was done for.

As the entire volcano\'s deepest part began crumbling down all around me, I soared upwards, hoping my stamina would be able to make the top. Enormous chunks of rock collapsed beside me, and small pellets of pebbles and dust threatened to blind my eyes. From below, the raging pool of heat and lava surged upwards, and I could feel it at my feet. I could not afford to slow down.

This was more than a race against time. This, was a race against life itself.

I could see the exit above. The rocks that crumbled above revealed the bright blue sky, and it shone like a glimmer of hope that contrasted with the dark and brown rocks all around me along with the bloody pool of lava beneath my feet.

"Ngh…!"

Putting every ounce of strength I had into my wings, I forced myself upwards more than ever before. My back felt like it was on fire, but luckily, it wasn\'t actually on fire—yet.

Soon, however, I finally reached the very top of the volcano\'s exit, and spotted the girls, looking at me in surprise.

"Uh… Xuan Kai? What\'s going on?" Yu An Yan asked. The outside of the volcano was still oblivious to the shaking, somehow, but it wouldn\'t be for long.

As such, there was only time to say one word:

"Fly!"

"E-Eh?" She was confused at first, but when the lava reached the surface the moment after, she did not need to be told twice. "E-Eek!"

Obsidia, Mei Gui, An Yan, and I soared into the air, as far away as possible from the volcano, as the immense amounts of scorching lava inside erupted out of the mountain\'s mouth and spilled out along with tons of smog and smoke. The dwarven miners below at the base of the mountain were sent running for their lives, but that was none of our concern.

"… Those poor people…" Yu An Yan murmured as she watched the lava spread down below. "This… won\'t reach the city, right?"

"It will not," Mei Gui replied. "According to my calculations, the lava will only reach 300 meters outside the city borders at most."

"But those miners… they will not survive," Obsidia stated matter-of-factly, folding her arms. "Not that it is of any concern to us."

"It should be to him, though," I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the spirit of Ignis, who hovered beside me guiltily. "That\'s your volcano that blew up, right there. For a god, you can\'t even stabilize your own home?"

"Well, to be fair, I never expected your fight with that other dude to be able to cause a ripple powerful enough to actually make this dormant volcano erupt…" He responded, shrugging.

"Besides," Aquira added, stepping up. "These are the same creatures who forgot the origins of this world, and who gave them this beautiful planet to live on. If they are going to die, so be it."

"Wow… that\'s quite cold," Yu An Yan remarked, blinking a few times. "I like it."

I sighed. "Either way… what\'s done is done. I feel a little bad for doing this, but to avoid any trouble, we should just let the dwarves handle this situation on their own. It shouldn\'t be much to ask of them."

The girls nodded in agreement, and together, we teleported back to our home and base of operations, the private beach on the small uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean. Before leaving, though, I left behind a bagful of money, just to help the dwarves out a bit and soothe the guiltiness in my heart somewhat. I had so much money that I could afford to drop one of these bags every day for several hundred years and I would still have way more than just \'rich\', so this wasn\'t anything at all to me.

In any case, after returning to the beach, I explained to the girls what happened inside the volcano and how I accidentally used the crystal of immortality on the spot. I apologized for doing that without consulting them first since it honestly was more for them than for me, but they all shook their heads and said it was fine. Apparently, Aquira was right—this was the perfect age for girls to stop aging. Of course, there were minor discrepancies in preference as with all things, but more or less, all the girls were happy with this age. Some were skeptical at first, but time would tell whether or not the Empyreans had lied. And if they had, well… they were still under my control, and I knew some very nice torture tactics.

Speaking of the Empyreans, since I didn\'t want them bothering the girls and I, I decided to make good use of the small mountain on the island to build a shrine on top of. It wasn\'t very big or majestic, but there was enough space to house the Four Empyreans in their spirit forms. 

Of course, that was simply the plan—the actual execution would have to wait until all this antimagic Midnight Syndicate stuff was done and over with. That day wasn\'t particularly far off, though—there was just one final Cardinal standing in my way, really—and then I could confront my father.

So many mysteries remain unsolved. There was still much left to do after I convince my father that I was strong enough to tackle whatever outside threats may be coming—for example, the Hex that Sylvie mentioned. For one, I needed to search for my mother, who I now knew was still alive. And for two… I apparently had an elder sister…? One that I never knew about, anyway… I\'m not even sure how that worked. Were we blood-related, or was she adopted before I was even born, then left somewhere while my parents were with me?

According to my father, she loved me a lot, but I\'ve never even seen her… quite the one-sided love, if you ask me.

In any case, those were questions for the future, albeit the near one. For now, though, I was tired. Fighting the demon took more out of me than I realized, and quite honestly, I was still very weak in my current state. If my magic was restricted, my power level immediately plummeted hundredfold, but theoretically speaking… Chaos was unbound, and should be able to break through any form of restrictions or limitations. I asked Mei Gui about this earlier, and as expected… I needed to further deepen my understanding of Chaos.

But the question was… how?

And the answer she told me?

It was simple:

The Chaos Realm.