CHAPTER 59: [ TEMPEST ]

What once looked like a snowfall of fire had turned into hail.

It came straight down, burning the tendrils that protected them. He could feel it through them, the damage it did as the small shards magically burned them.

Alexander was still tightly holding Fae in his arms, both of them look on each sides where the scenery kept progressively changing.

So much fire rained down that they could barely see the opposing walls, smoldering lines that came straight from the ceiling blocked the view.

The world in that room had turned into a fiery orange, firelight saturating everything.

Alexander looked down, Fae was unbothered by the events.

He could see her hair slightly moving with the wind as her head rested on his chest.

He then frowned.

"Wind?..."

He looked at the fire on the outside, the straight lines it once did now bending.

Fae looked up.

"Don’t worry, it’ll be fine."

He focused his mind once more, commanding more tendrils out of the abyss.

Tendrils formed a dome around them, leaving tiny slits the allowed seeing what happened outside.

Just as he predicted, the bending lines of fire soon turned almost fully horizontal.

A tempest of fire that started slowly was now rotating through the room at great speed.

The skin layer on the exterior of the tendrils burned but bore no significant damage, able to withstand the hellstorm while sheltering the two of them.

Alexander was then taken by surprise.

Fae was now holding onto him, hugging him back.

She wasn’t scared or concerned. He could read her gaze beyond that mask, one emotion floating on the surface—content.

"If I had any other class, such as fighter, this isn’t the kind of room I’d want to be stuck in."

The only solution he could think of, was perhaps a sword strike that displaced wind easily enough to create a safe space—other than that, he had no idea how one would survive this room.

"Ah..."

Fae was still looking up, studying his expression.

He started playing with her hair, deep in thought.

"I’m guessing there’s a way to find refuge near the tree. Maybe we needed to find a shelter underneath it."

They hadn’t found the solution to the room and relied on their own powers, but if it had been someone such as a fighter, they most likely would’ve started running around the tree to find shelter the moment it was shedding fire.

They didn’t find the solution because they simply didn’t need it.

Looking through the slits, he could see the fire vortex around them growing in strength, he could barely notice the individual shards of burning leaves—it was just a hellish landscape.

The tendrils held up without any problems, the rising heat not an issue for Alexander who could feel Sunder’s mark on his chest.

"The storm is slowing down, the boss will be there soon."

Fae nodded, her hands reaching for her hilts as she broke away from him.

The tendrils around them relaxed, slowly reeling back into the abyss they came out of, revealing a severely charred room.

The walls were black with soot, the tiles cracked. The ground itself seemed to have at least a few millimeters of black dust on it.

In the middle, the tree that looked majestic was now smoldering.

Half its bark had been blown away, and what remained was darkened with red ember stripes going through it.

Its branches had no more leaves, resting against the ceiling that was now visible without all the previous greenery.

Alexander brought a hand to his nose, the ashy air felt like it stuck to his lungs at every breath.

A loud cracking sound resounded through the room, as if bones were being split in half.

A large fissure rose from the bottom to the top of the tree’s trunk.

It was thin, dust paired with ember coming out of it as if the tree exhaled. It then grew larger, splitting it in half.

It loudly creaked as two halves broke away and fell on either side.

Inside the tree, straight in the middle, is where the boss appeared.

Alexander readied his staff, while Fae pointed her already readied sword toward it.

It was a spriggan—but a larger one.

This one, unlike the previous ones, wasn’t one with nature.

It looked like a smoldering tree, instead of the leaves the others had this one had the ones made of fire.

It almost looked like a miniature version of the giant tree, but with a human shape.

It didn’t have any weapons, its hands ended in four long pointy fingers. Its skin, while it looked like smoldering bark, was surprisingly malleable. It easily moved around, unhindered by its form.

"We’re doing this quickly. We’re not the same, we’ve grown stronger."

Fae nodded, her glancing at Alexander who activated [ The Gift ] the moment their eyes met.

"I’ll attract its attention. When you’re out of its sight, activate the mask and strike."

She nodded, the boss returning to the center of her attention.

The spriggan took a few steps toward them then stopped.

The numerous fire leaves attached to its head all slowly dropped and levitated around its body mid-air.

Then, pulled by magic, they started lifting upward.

While moving up, they started moving in a circular motion. It created a ring that floated above its head, a fiery halo.

The speed at which the fire rotated was unlike the one they had just witnessed in the room. The halo was perfect, it was smooth and glowing.

If it wasn’t for [ Witness of All Paths ] giving him visual prowess, he wouldn’t even be able to tell the small pieces moving around apart.

It then lifted its palm.

Above it materialized more leaves that slowly started rotating, forming another halo right above his hand.

The halo thinned out, becoming slightly flatter as it revolved. It was as smooth as the previous one, multiple sparks flying out of it while its spinning was slightly messier.

Alexander pointed his staff toward the boss, his mind focused.