CHAPTER 294: EURPTION

Every Inquisitor felt an odd sensation ring through them, their instincts telling them something was. A shudder passed them, it was a sensation that felt wrong, fundamentally unnatural, carrying malevolence that made their instincts scream.

The entire ground began to shake and tremble before it began splitting apart. Cracks appeared across Helios’s golden stones, spreading in web patterns that converged on the crater’s center.

The area buckled as thin skin stretched over something boiling underneath, the area itself straining against pressure from below.

From those fissures, fire burst upward in pillars.

But it’s not normal flames or the ones Reinhard had used to burn the tree. This was distorted crimson-black, shimmering like molten sunlight that had been corrupted. The flames roared out of the ground with force that created sonic booms, stunning everyone into frozen shock.

Reinhard and the others could only watch in disbelief as the flames erupted like geysers. They rose fifty feet, a hundred or even higher, the pillars of fire painted everything in crimson light.

The flames flowed like water despite being fire, as they made arcs through the sky.

The fissures created pathways, channels where the crimson-black flames spread with terrifying speed. They followed the cracks in Helios’s stones, rushing outward from the crater’s center in expanding waves.

The flames consumed everything they touched, fallen roots disintegrating instantly, soil being obscured, and even the air itself seemed to burn.

Mimir’s claws dug into Reinhard’s shoulder hard enough to hurt through his uniform. The crow’s eyes widened with recognition and absolute terror before he shouted. "Run up now, don’t let yourself get caught or even touch a little bit by it!"

Everyone’s expressions shifted instantly before they began rushing toward higher ground, boots pounding against golden stones as they sought elevation. Sections of roots that hadn’t been devoured or destroyed by the pale tree’s collapse became their salvation.

Reinhard leaped to a root fragment twenty feet high, Marie and Joseph following immediately. Amiya and Janus reached a different section, pulling themselves up. Veryn and Honor found elevation on collapsed building sections, stone proving more stable than wood.

Then they saw the still approaching Seekers and Luminous Knights.

The warriors were still running toward them, unaware of the danger erupting behind. They smiled, waved, and called out greetings and congratulations. Reinhard and the others tried to shout towards them, but it was too late.

The crimson-black flames reached them.

The effect was instantaneous and horrifying. Where the flames touched, people simply ceased existing in recognizable form.

Their bodies didn’t burn, but the flames simply began to consume them before drowning them. Screams started but cut off immediately, voices silenced as if they were being muffled by the flames.

A Seeker woman in mid-wave disappeared, her smile frozen for a fraction of a second before everything below her neck was consumed. A Luminous Knight, whose eyes widened in shock and who was trying to summon his Beast Spirit, was drowned by the flames.

Over a dozen of them were gone, all consumed so quickly there was no time to react, no opportunity to escape. The flames moved too fast, spread too widely, and gave no warning before devouring everything.

Their screams died out, replaced by the roar of spreading fire. The tidal flood of crimson-black flames continued moving, consuming the roots on the ground, spreading into the forest beyond, devouring all animals that hadn’t fled fast enough.

Reinhard and the others stood on their elevated positions, watching in absolute horror as celebration transformed into massacre. Marie’s hands covered her mouth, golden eyes staring in disbelief and shock.

Joseph’s expression showed shock beyond words. Amiya and Janus held each other, trembling. Veryn’s composure shattered completely as she blankly stared at the flooding tide. Honor’s massive form stood rigid, as if frozen by the magnitude of what they’d witnessed.

The flames spread outward from Helios in all directions, consuming everything. The forest that had oppressed them for centuries now served as fuel for something far worse. The darkness they’d thought defeated revealed itself as merely transformed.

The crimson-black flames painted everything while casting shadows that seemed to writhe with their own malevolence. Reinhard’s fingers tightened around the Star Jewel until the metal claws bit into his palm, but he barely registered the sting.

His light blue eyes tracked the spreading inferno, watching as it consumed fallen roots and transformed soil into glass with each advancing wave.

"What the heck is this?" The words came out flat, stripped of emotion by sheer disbelief, Reinhard felt.

Mimir’s claws dug deeper into Reinhard’s shoulder. The crow’s usual composure shattered, his feathers ruffled in agitation, wings half-spreading as if preparing for flight. "It’s something I can’t believe is actually here." His voice cracked. "No, it shouldn’t have ever appeared here... But maybe that would explain the roots and towering tree."

Marie’s boots pounded against the root fragment as she rushed over, platinum hair whipping behind her. Her light-gold eyes searched Mimir’s face with desperate intensity. "Mimir?" Her breath came quick and shallow. "Is it something from the Throne of Myth?"

The crow fell silent before his head turned away, black feathers catching the crimson glow of the flames below. "It’s the Source of All Evil."

Reinhard’s eyes widened as he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Marie blinked once, twice, her mouth opening slightly as the name registered while the others quickly rushed over.

Joseph’s footsteps are quick and light, Amiya and Janus scrambling across their root section, Veryn and Honor approaching from their elevated position on collapsed stone.

"The Source of All Evil..." Joseph muttered. His bright eyes reflected the flames below, twin points of crimson dancing in verdant depths. "What does that mean?"

Mimir’s beak clicked shut before it opened."The crimson flames you see don’t burn or attack a person with heat." Each word emerged while his wings folded tight against his body as if trying to make himself smaller. "No, it consumes anything it touches through creation’s failures. It uses the guilt, the weight of every regret, every sin, every sorrow that has ever been to create a deadly tidal curse."

The crow’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "It is the unspent malice and broken promises that fester in the world that shouldn’t be here."

Reinhard fell silent in realization before glancing back at the tide. These flames were every negative thing, every failure, every moment of darkness from the entire world given physical form and set loose.

Marie trembled, and Amiya stumbled backward before being caught by Janus, who looked equally stricken.

Joseph’s face drained of color while Veryn shook, and Honor stared ahead before sighing as he looked down.