Vol 5 Chapter 53

After about 10 minutes, the group suddenly felt the air become explosively hot and stopped in their tracks. They had a fierce debate (mainly between Blue Lady and Chow) about whether to continue or not, but without reaching a conclusion, they kept moving forward.

Rob honestly thought it was a bit hot, but he agreed to continue as this temperature felt like early summer and seemed bearable. However, 30 minutes later, he cursed his decision to death. The temperature rose surprisingly as they moved forward, until it eventually felt overwhelming even to breathe.

"Huff... hah... hah...!"

"Stop making sounds like a panting dog, Rob! Haa, haa..."

Even though Chow threw harsh words at Rob, who was breathing roughly, Rob was too exhausted to raise a fist to punch that bastard. Chow, who had invested his stat points in stamina and strength, typical of a swordsman type, seemed to have energy to spare, but Rob, being a speed-type swordsman who had invested heavily in speed and skill, was severely lacking in stamina.

'If I just get out of here, I'll... that bastard Chow...!'

As Rob was moving his heavy feet while just panting, Evan, who had been walking silently in front of him, muttered in a hoarse voice, wheezing.

"The light... seems to be... getting closer. Just a little... more... and we'll..."

At that moment, Blue Lady, who had finally succumbed to the murderous temperature, collapsed with a thud, possibly suffering from a status effect.

"Huh? Hey!"

Chow panicked and shook her, but there was no response from the darkness.

"Oh no! What should we do?"

"Chow, you'll have to carry her on your back, what else?"

"What? Me? You're here too!"

While patting Chow's back, who was flustered, Rob tried his best to sound as weak and pitiful as possible.

"As you know, I'm a speed-type swordsman... My armor is heavy, and if I carry her on top of that, I might faint too. But you have some stamina... What's the point of investing in stamina if not for times like this? Haa... ha... cough cough!"

"Ah, okay, I got it! I said I got it! I'll carry her, alright?"

After wandering through hell for a while longer, they were finally able to see with their naked eyes the light Evan had mentioned. By then, everyone was already exhausted to the point of crawling halfway on the ground, so their joy was particularly special.

"Ahhhhh, finally!"

"Sh, shh, be quiet! It's that man!"

As Chow, who had been crawling on the ground while crying and carrying the limp Blue Lady on his back, extended his trembling arm towards the light, Rob mercilessly swatted it down and hissed sharply.

As he said, in the distant reddish light, a man in black clothes stood deep in thought. Even from the shimmering back view, Rob could tell that this man was the one they had been chasing. How long had they been watching the man, unable to even breathe properly due to tension?

The man quietly stepped forward.

A sense of tension that something was about to begin made the air taut. The man, standing precariously at the edge of the cliff, stretched out both hands and chanted a spell loudly in a strangely resonating voice.

"Blizzard!"

Zing!

At that moment, all the hot air that had been swirling around suddenly froze solid. Just as Rob's group was about to wonder at the feeling of stagnant air, a cold wind that began to blow from somewhere cooled their skin that had been heated up.

"What... is this?"

"C-cold...? Huh? Snow?"

Starting from that, a snowstorm that could never be seen in a space where lava was boiling raged throughout the entire cave. Rob's group had to scream as if they had been suddenly thrown naked onto a Siberian plain in the midst of a midsummer heatwave.

"Ahhh! What is this!"

No matter how much they screamed, the snowstorm that felt like it was tearing their bodies apart gradually began to subside after they had gone back and forth between life and death about ten times, and at some point, it completely disappeared. Only then did Rob's group, who had been crouching and lying face down with incongruous snow on their heads and shoulders, raise their heads to see another kind of spectacle unfolding before their eyes.

"Huh... up."

Chow, who had almost let out a strange sound without realizing it, covered his own mouth. The scene before their eyes was so astonishing that it would have been unbelievable if they hadn't seen it directly.

The man who had summoned the tremendous magic of the raging snowstorm was still standing in the same place like a deeply rooted tree. His body was soaked to the point where water was dripping from various places, probably because the snow that had hit him during the blizzard had melted due to the heat of the lava.

In front of the man, the storm of snow that had raged wildly enough to sweep through the entire cave just moments ago was now swirling with a much reduced range, but with even greater power than before. As if it had been forcibly compressed.

The small air current floating in the middle of the air, swirling like a tornado and spewing out a snowstorm as if growling, and right below it, the sight of bright red lava boiling, was enough to make the viewers sick.

While everyone was watching speechlessly, the man waved his arm once, and the compressed snowstorm shot down towards his feet, starting to pile up white frost. As snow and what looked like ice powder clumped together with a crackling sound, forming a somewhat thick layer on the ground, the man stretched his other hand downward and summoned a new spell.

"Inferno!"

A bright red spark fell from the air, flickering its tongue.

The flame, which moved like a beast prowling for prey even after falling to the ground, seemed to be alive with its own will. As the flame moved according to the man's gestures and blazed fiercely next to the pile of ice powder about a few dozen centimeters high, the accumulated ice powder began to melt after a moment. Then the man moved the flame far away and made the whirling snow wind, which had become somewhat subdued, swirl fiercely again.