”Yeah come in” Gaya rolled her eyes,
”How do you like your job back Miss Steinmeyer?” Professor Lane asked in his waspish voice,
”Huh?”
Gaya was confused,
”I have a task for someone with your caliber, Miss Steinmeyer. Accomplish this and you will be Professor Steinmeyer”
Before Gaya could say anything, she had a feeling that she should hear him more. After all, she needed to pretend as she cares about this job to avoid raising suspicions.
She was really lucky whatever spell was cast on her when she took the identification card of the real imposter of Professor Steinmeyer was powerful enough to fool even the Fusion Stage cultivator such as Lane. Otherwise, she would have probably ended up in the deepest dungeons of Mazeroth.
”I have a week to get out of here Professor Lane. So whatever’s in your mind-“
”If you depart now, you can finish it before tomorrow night”
He stared at Gaya wordlessly asking for her answer.
”What’s the job?” Gaya asked, sighing.
”Escorting a student in and out of a dungeon”
”A dungeon?”
Gaya’s curiosity was slightly piqued because dungeons are rare but every dungeon would contain a priceless artifact or a relic worth risking their lives.
If a dungeon was found, it would cause a ruckus among cultivators. Soon, the dungeon would be filled with adventures, rogue cultivators, sects to loot everything inside. Anything that could be found in a dungeon would be extremely valuable.
However as much as the dungeons contained valuables, they also contained danger in every corner. If a hundred people entered the dungeon, only a few would come outside fully intact.
”The task seems extremely dangerous Professor Lane, especially for the student. If you tell me more about the dungeon and what it contains, I might take the task. After all, I want all the information I need before risking my life. Being alive is more important than being a professor”
”Fair enough,” Professor Lane nodded. He almost looked like he was expecting everything Gaya just said,
”Primordial fire”
A single word that came from Lane’s mouth was enough to make her shudder. The last time she witnessed the power of a primordial fore was when she was in the Fire Realm. Noah used Heaven’s flame to save the old man from House Fisher. The flame was powerful enough to obliterate even the extremely powerful poison miasma in the Fire Realm.
According to the texts she read in the Nagaland library, the primordial flames would grow stronger with time and enhance the spells and skills one possessed.
She also heard from Michael that he needs a Primordial flame to reach the 6-star Alchemist.
”That’s what’s inside the dungeon along with skeleton soldiers”
”Wait a minute. If that’s what’s all in the dungeon, why didn’t anyone get it? So what’s the catch?”
Gaya was not dumb enough to believe that there was primordial fire sitting in a dungeon but no one in the Akilan realm had taken steps to get the fire for themselves.
”The dungeon is protected by a void array. Even a half immortal would be rendered powerless the moment he or she steps into the dungeon. Which means, only a battle-hardened warrior can get in and out alive”
”Something tells me countless battle-hardened warriors had already tried that and didn’t live to tell the tale” Gaya emphasized the word ‘battle-hardened’, crossing her arms.
Lane was annoyed by all the questions but he never showed his emotions on his face. After all, he needed her to do his bidding.
With a flick of his wrist, Lane conjured a purple flame above his palm.
”Unlike the normal flames, Primordial flames have a mind of their own. If the primordial flames deemed you unworthy when you try to absorb them, you will be reduced to nothing but ashes” he threw the purple fire onto the broken table behind him. In mere moments, the oak table turned into ashes as he said. Gaya was surprised by his theatrics as he had no need to turn the table into ashes.
”I assume you want to know who is the student you have to accompany”
Gaya nodded in curiosity. She derived a bunch of plans to get rid of the student and sneak Michael into the dungeon instead.
”The student has the id sixty-six, weirdly he chose to go by the name ‘Ghost’ in where he came from”
Gaya received yet another shock from Professor Lane.
”He is an Alchemy student, probably a prodigy. He may have a chance to absorb the primordial flame without being obliterated by it”
She sensed no remorse or nothing at all in his voice. What if he was deemed not unworthy by the flames which she didn’t believe would be the case. If anyone was worthy of the primordial flames, it was him.
”I can get him in and if he survived the flames, I can get him outside”
”Great. Use this when you are within three feet of him. You will be teleported directly into the dungeon’s entryway. He will have no choice but to see it till the end” he talked while walking towards the door to leave the room,
Just before stepping out of the room, he handed over a golden teleportation scroll to Gaya. He did not even bother to ask if she was going to agree or not as he knew she had no choice.
”What if that head prefect asshole tried to get me fired again?”
”Next time, not every professor will sign the petition”
By the time his voice reached her ears, he already vanished into thin air.
Then she realized that if what he said was true, all the professors signed the petition including him. This meant he manipulated the entire scenario just to get her to agree to the task.
She even doubted he may have been the person who initiated the plan to get her fired in the first place. However, instead of punching something to vent her anger, she burst into laughter.
”Hahahahaha”
Professor Lane may have felt like the mastermind, but only she knew who was the real winner in the situation; Michael. Lady Luck was on his side, that Gaya knew for sure.
The only thing that bugged her was in less than a day, they had the ritual to put his soul back together. Although they were talking about the ritual and how to perform it, they had no idea how it was going to go. To be honest, she was worried sick but she didn’t let Michael see her anxiety.
In the serenade of the black, the stars were a choir; they were lights that sing in infinite patterns. Sometimes eyes needed music, and the darker the night the sweeter the song. Amid the starlight was the ever glow of the moon, that mother of the sky who watched over every beating heart, steady and true.
Despite her angelic moonlight that bathed the planet with sapphire light, the black forest remained dark. The thousands of years old tree-shaded the ground with their ever-expanding canopy, preventing any light from cutting through them.
Nothing was audible except for the sound of snoring in the distance. In the middle of a large glowing chakra stood Michael, Gaya, and Elidyr.
”The fire giant is still sleeping I guess,” said Elidyr,
”When should we do this?” Nightmare flew back to Michael after surveying the surroundings.
”I just need your blood”
Michael walked towards Elidyr and took out a dagger from the system storage. The next moment, he cut open his palm as blood gushed out dripping onto the glowing chakra. When the blood touched the chakra, the glowing blue chakra turned crimson red.
”Step to the center and the ritual will begin” Elidyr’s voice turned serious. The usual calmness in his voice was nowhere to be found. Gaya was slightly shaking seeing Michael taking steps towards the center of the chakra.
”Nightmare now. Lure the fire giant here” Elidyr ordered Nightmare. The dragon quickly nodded his head before flying in the direction of the fire giant as fast as he could.
Gaya threw the bait potion into the air which was caught by Nightmare in mid-air.
Boom!
When he flapped his wing, it produced a quiet booming sound. She had never seen Nightmare fly so fast. Everyone was nervous including Elidyr despite his calm demeanor.
”Please come back to me in one piece human” she whispered to him. She prayed to her mother with her hands against the chest.
Regardless of the situation, when he warmly smiled at her, she calmed down.
”GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”
All of a sudden a thunderous roar echoed through the forest almost breaking their eardrums. The shout was soon followed by thunderous footsteps. The ground beneath them shook.
[Manual soul extraction is initiated…]
[Arch energy flow has been stopped…]
[Prepare to go through an extreme amount of pain…]
[System offline in three…two…one]
”ARGHH!”
Michael’s outcry in pain sent a chill through Gaya’s spine. She dashed towards him in instinct to save him only to be stopped by Elidyr.
”The ritual must not stop”
Elidyr and Gaya saw the blood gushing out of Michael’s nostrils and mouth as he collapsed onto his knees. He howled at the sky like a wolf in pain.
His soul was literally being stipped out of him. The pain he suffered could not be described in mere words.
Everything in his being hurt. His head hurt, his chest hurt, his feet hurt, and every single fiber in his body screamed in agony. The pain subsided at times, only to flare up several times more intense than before. He held his head tightly trying to fight through the pain. It was difficult to focus between the moments of pain and the voices telling him to stop what he was doing, but he pressed onward. But he felt sore all over, the ritual was taking its toll on his entire body more than he initially expected. However, his anger and pain in his heart offered him the strength to bear the pain.
His mind and body told him to give up but the anger of being abandoned and caged for something he never even did fueled his willpower to get through the ritual.
Gaya’s worried look took a turn to worse when she witnessed a smokey figure emerge from Michael. It was appearing and disappearing from his body as though it didn’t want to leave his body.
The figure was screaming but she never heard the screams.
”The broken piece of the soul,” Elidyr explained in utter shock. As a scholar specializing in souls, this was the first time he had seen such a phenomenon. Witnessing the power being radiated by the soul piece truly frightened him.