Chapter 10 - Toward the Volcano

''Good, it seems he won't need my help after all.'' From a dimension composed of the bright flame that has burned since the start of time, a godly being was looking at a black flame that seemed to produce ash instead of smoke. The godly being was, of course, the one and only God of fire and pain, Orion.

''Born for only one hour and he already killed seven Unioptiles, and one of them was even a kid, not bad at all. I knew it that I made the right choice by selecting him. With him, it's only a question of time before the crisis ends. I might even consider making him one of my slaves when the crisis is finished.''

''I wonder though, how is he able to fight with such ease? If I remember well, he was 5 years old when he was sacrificed to us. How could he have such a level of expertise at this age?''

''…well, I suppose I can always find out.'' Said Orion before utilizing a small fraction of his divinity to invoke a flame. This flame was also displaying an image, but this image wasn't from the present, but from the past. The fire showed a video of a baby imp, freshly born.

''Mmm, I see, he was born as a gladiator. It explains a lot of things; he seems to have been a great fighter. Let's gather more information about him.'' He said with a smile on his face. But as he continued to look into the flame, the more his smile started to disappear, letting place to a frown. He watched all of the video before dismissing it with a frown on his face, obviously displeased.

''Way to ruin my mood'' He simply restarted to watch the ashes flame with scold. 

… 

''Poor kid.''

***

''Zzzz…zzzzzz…zzzzzzzzz…zzz'' 

*BOOM*

''I'M AWAKE! I'M AWAKE!'' I stand up quickly ready to apologize to whoever I offended this time, before realizing that there was no one, only me, the body of several monsters, and the glorious body of the sun.

''Hello sun, do you want to burn me today?'' I asked him, but like usual, I receive no response. ''Understood, have a nice day.''

Now that the normal salutation is finished, I need to do something. I could start by regenerating my arm, they were torn off during my last… oh! They're back! 

''Yeah! My arms are back.''

And that one thing down, boy I am on fire! Welp, now that's done, I just have to gather the ash of the monsters and… is it me or the monsters have grown bigger since last day? Before, they were barely the size of my head, but now, they're even bigger than me!

No, I'm not jealous. Why would I be jealous that these pipsqueaks suddenly got bigger than me? Not jealous at all. Anyway, why did they grow? Do monsters still age when they die… are they dead?

I poke them a little. …

*poke*

Yep, they're dead. So why? Wait, was I the one to grow smaller? 

*Gaps* 

Did my arms feed on my ash to regenerate? So in exchange for regenerating, I will grow smaller.

Well, it doesn't matter that much, I just need to take more ash to regenerate. Come to me, delicious ash!

All the ash from the surrounding suddenly comes toward me, and the monsters I defeated were transforming into ash. That's convenient, no need to always wait for them to burn now… wait, that's not convenient, that's horrible! It's the only good part about these ashes! I WANT TO BURN STUFF! Their fire wasn't enough to please me! It looked more like red saliva than fire! It is disgusting!

I was sitting on the ground with a mad expression. I wasn't happy even when I regained my previous size and more. What's the point of gaining more power if I do not possess fire to celebrate?

''I want fire! I want fire! I want fire! I wan…'' I repeatedly said, hoping that it would do something… and it did! A small fire suddenly appears before me and I immediately jump into it, with a beaming smile on my face.

''YEAH! FIRE! Praise the God!'' I screamed while I enjoyed seeing the fire around me. But my joy didn't last for long because the fire disappears soon after. … At least I got to enjoy it, but if I want more reward, I need to kill even more monsters, so that my master becomes happy and gives me even more monsters.

Alright! Enough enjoying fire! I need I need to get this sweet volcanic ash! With this, I grow even bigger, letting me kill even more monsters, and maybe, if I kill enough, he will give me access to fire again!

I started to walk toward the volcano again, but this time, there were no lava to could make me run, but I did find more of these lizards, but most of them were alone and baby. So I simply approach them and give them a good swing of whips, which killed them rapidly. It helped me gain more ash, which mean I'm now the size of a normal child! Which is way bigger that the size of an infant…I think…

Well, it doesn't matter, it only mean that I can now create bigger spell with my ashes. It also seem that my ash are hotter than before, maybe that a result of taking ash from monster?

I'm just surprise that I found no infant lizard, or any different monster, maybe I'm on their territory? Should I worry?

Bah, doesn't matter, send me all of them at once, I will still beat them…

''''Ghogho ghoghogho gho!''''

'''Grogrogro grogro grogro!''''

''Sho!''

…maybe not now. And why do I hear multiple of 'grogro'? 

I looked back, only to see a veritable army of lizards. There were at least twenty babies, 5 infants, and I could see at the front, a way bigger lizard than the rest. This one wore red scales instead of the yellow ones of its followers, its teeth were fully matured, they were sharp and numerous! Two were even leaving their mount to form two defenses.

…I don't think I can defeat them right now. I don't have enough ash to burn them all, and I don't know how powerful the adolescent one is. I should probably just retreat…

Kidding! I would never refuse so much target to burn. I must become the strongest; there's no way I'm going to flee because there are too many of them.

But I am very courteous, so I shall prepare all of them a magnificent gift, just for them. No need to thank me; your scream will be enough.