The air shifted from the biting frost of the North to a dry, sulfurous heat as the party crossed into the Cinder Peaks. The sky here was a bruised orange, choked by the constant ash falling from the volcanic vents above.
Rika’s wagon creaked louder than usual, the heat making the wood groan. For the first time since they had met, the witty, fast-talking alchemist was quiet. She kept staring at a crumpled letter in her hand, the seal of a prestigious Southern Noble house stamped in gold wax.
Rika’s Secret
As they made camp in the shadow of a jagged basalt ridge, the tension finally broke. Rika sat by the fire, but she wasn't grinding herbs or mixing tonics. She was just staring into the flames.
"I have to go back," she said suddenly, her voice small. "After the dragon is dead. I’m done."
Elara, who was practicing her Aether-control by levitating small pebbles, stopped. "Back? To the Southern Isles? I thought you said you were a 'Free Scholar' of the road."
"I lied," Rika admitted, looking up with a bitter smile. "I’m the youngest daughter of the House of Valerius. My 'research trip' was actually me running away from an arranged marriage to a man three times my age. I’m only seventeen, Elara. My parents think I’ve had enough 'fun' playing with potions."
Kaelan frowned, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. "You shouldn't be forced into that. You're a hero of the Northern Defense."
"In the South, I’m just a political bargaining chip," Rika sighed. She looked at the two of them—the way they stood together, their souls literally bonded by a star-crest. "My father sent a courier. If I don't return after this 'Calamity' is over, they’ll strip my family of their lands and titles. But... I don't want to go. I want to stay here. With you guys."
The Dragon’s Ambush
Before Elara could promise to help, the ground beneath them buckled.
A roar that sounded like a tectonic plate snapping echoed through the canyon. From a massive lava tube above them, Ignis-Vex emerged. He wasn't like the shadow-demons of the Abyss; he was a physical force of nature. His scales were the color of cooling magma, and his eyes were two burning suns of Level 92 Primal Aether.
He didn't breathe fire—he breathed Liquid Hypnosis.
A cloud of shimmering, red vapor billowed from his maw, coating the canyon floor. This was the 'Magma-Mind' hallucination. Unlike the Demon King’s mental invasion, this was a sensory heat-stroke. It made the air feel like it was boiling, twisting the environment into a hellscape of the victims' worst memories.
The Fight for the Future
"Rika, the neutralizing salts! Now!" Kaelan shouted, drawing his shield as the dragon's tail smashed into the ridge.
Rika snapped out of her gloom. Her eyes sharpened. If she was going to be forced into a marriage she hated, she was going to go out as the greatest alchemist the world had ever seen.
"I’m on it!" Rika yelled, throwing a series of "Frost-Core" canisters into the vapor. "Elara, he’s a physical-magic hybrid! You have to shut down his internal furnace or he’ll just regenerate!"
Elara took flight, her blonde hair glowing with silver light. "I'll handle the fire! Kaelan, take the legs! Rika... stay with us! We aren't letting you go back to that house!"
The Plea
As the dragon lunged, Rika dodged a spray of molten rock. She looked at Elara, her eyes shining with tears and sweat.
"Help me beat him!" Rika screamed over the roar. "Help me become a Legend! If we kill a Level 92 Calamity, my father won't be able to force me! I'll have the backing of the Global Guild!"
Elara felt a surge of protectiveness. She had been a prisoner of the Demon King's will; she wouldn't let her friend be a prisoner of a noble's greed.
"Consider it done!" Elara cried.
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