Chapter 348: Miscast
Liam wasn’t really Liam anymore.
The Primal Urge had narrowed Liam’s perspective, eliminating thoughts, turning him into an instinctive, perfectly optimized being. He wasn’t quite a mindless beast since he preserved all his training and experience, but what drove him remained basic, almost animalistic.
Summoning the black Qi had worsened the issue. The Primal Urge filled Liam with the bottomless Hatred his lineage carried, but he had immersed himself in it now, choosing to drown in that seething blackness, until blackness was all there was.
Liam felt everything, but he couldn’t connect it to anything. Existence itself was his enemy, so the blackness had to replace all there was, including himself.
But the words spoken by the one who called Liam Brother stirred something. It wasn’t quite a ripple on the all-devouring sea of Hatred that had taken over Liam’s mind. It was more like heat that resonated with a now-submerged part of him, too deep in the blackness to have any consequence.
Truth be told, Liam would have already jumped at the blonde rooting expert, but his body wouldn’t move. He was trying, but his limbs and muscles failed him before he could even attempt to stand up.
Instead, Lancelot just focused on Dominic, his smirk hiding how seriously he was taking that whole predicament. He planned to replicate what he had done in the Trial of Greed, but his opponent was a problem.
Of course, Lancelot wasn’t one for thoughts, and that without resorting to a Demonic Art. His passion would fuel his fire, and the latter would guide his hand.
Despite the two rank 2 alchemical products, Lancelot hadn’t recovered much. He didn’t need to use his recovery-oriented martial art because the healing pill was already applying those effects, but he didn’t have much Qi at his disposal.
Naturally, Lancelot could simply burn himself instead.
"Senior, do you want to know who I am?" Lancelot wondered. "I’m living fire, Head Disciple of the Secret Jade Sect, Phoenix of the Kingdom."
"Pointless titles," Dominic scoffed, raising his arm. "I had collected twice as many when you were still in the womb."
A chunk of soil cracked and separated from the surface, defying gravity to enter Dominic’s palm. He instantly crushed it between his fingers, and something began to build up.
A smaller iteration of the eruption that had hit Liam brewed. Tremors succeeded themselves, joining forces, enhancing each other to multiply their individual power.
Nevertheless, as soon as the miniature eruption started, a burning hand appeared in its trajectory, hovering right before Dominic’s palm.
Lancelot had reached Dominic, but only his left arm was burning, and it faced the entirety of the miniature eruption. His flames flickered to no end, shattering at times, while far more spread through his body.
Patches of burned skin exploded. Orifices bled, and squashing noises resounded inside Lancelot, bending his figure forward. He blocked the martial art with most of his body exposed, and the effort seemed to demand the entirety of himself.
However, Lancelot didn’t collapse. The alchemical products were still working inside him, and he had a fire that just wouldn’t stop burning.
Despite the heavy hit, Lancelot took an additional step forward, his burning hand grabbing Dominic’s, his fiery fingers intertwining with his.
"I’m life’s spark," Lancelot chuckled. "His greatest lover."
Lancelot’s fire burned Dominic’s hand, but the Elder was quick to react. His other, corroded palm neared Lancelot, snapping his fingers to release a shockwave in his face.
Blood erupted from the injuries that littered Lancelot. The shockwave tried to send him flying, and his feet even left the ground, but his burning hand kept clinging to Dominic’s, and more followed.
The scarlet drops that had flown into the air glistened with a red light before setting themselves aflame. Tens of small fires lit up all around Lancelot, some even on his body.
"And Senior," Lancelot added, "I’ve never loved life more than I do now."
The floating flames converged toward Lancelot, enveloping him almost completely and pushing him, slamming him into Dominic, only for him not to move.
Black veins had covered Dominic. He endured the Burning Man with his battered body, uncaring of the additional injuries that opened on him, some of his Qi instead going underground.
"You have delivered the life you love so much to me," Dominic stated, his chilling tone matching the freezing of the world above the surface, only for Lancelot’s flames to expand.
The expansion was more of a contained explosion. Lancelot’s burning figure flared, growing bigger and transforming. Two vast wings, a long neck, a beaked head, and a feathered tail replaced him. He became the phoenix he claimed he was.
That was when the eruption arrived.
The soil shattered, rising and unleashing the energy hidden in its very fabric in the form of countless deadly vibrations. Yet, a red streak also flew alongside it, and a frenzied voice resounded through the chaos.
"So what if I die?" Lancelot cried, rising higher in the sky, his phoenix form shrinking under the storm of soil and shockwaves all around him. "I won’t stand for a boring life! If it doesn’t entertain me, I’ll share my fire and force it to reach the heights I seek!"
The eruption reached high into the sky, but the phoenix flew even higher, escaping its range. It had shrunk greatly by then, even showing parts of Lancelot’s charred body, but with Dominic still in his arms.
Naturally, Dominic already had a technique ready. His palms were on Lancelot’s burning chest, feeling his body’s rhythm and its structural integrity. He could shatter it with a single thought. It was too damaged to resist him, and the order flew, but nothing happened.
The technique failed, and Dominic was the most shocked of them all about the event. It had been decades since his last miscast, but injuries had continued to accumulate, especially beyond the physical. His Qi had escaped his control, leaving him defenseless.
And Lancelot didn’t exploit that opportunity. He didn’t need to because he had never once considered not attacking.
Lancelot retracted his hands, letting go of Dominic to point his palms at his chest. The flames on him flowed toward his hands, exposing the full, terrible extent of his burned, broken flesh, gathering into a large fiery sphere.
"And if death becomes boring," Lancelot declared, "I’ll set it on fire, too!"
Lancelot released the fiery sphere, which pushed Dominic down with it. For all the unfathomable power the branching expert had shown during the battle, he could only fall alongside the spell, crashing into the ground, engulfed in the explosion that followed.
