The Mask

After stepping inside the zone, the scenery around Greg changed and the temperature around him grew to an almost unbearable level.

What appeared before him was a gigantic volcano, from where lava flowed out from time to time.

Greg looked around while wiping off the sweat from his face.

Except for the huge volcano before him, what could be seen was just desolate wilderness.

No plants, no animals, no buildings, or not even a single soul could be found.

"Strange. If I'm in a dual-zone, why don't I see any creatures around?"

*Bang!*

Hearing the loud sound from the top of the volcano, Greg looked up.

"What was that? Is there something up there?"

As he thought about this, he heard the bang again and thought, "Well, nothing could be found around except the volcano, so I should go up there and see what is happening, no?"

With that in mind, he started to walk toward the top.

However, he didn't dare to use his speed boost or acceleration ability, because he didn't know what danger waited for him here. He didn't even know what creatures lived there, to begin with, so it would be just a death wish to rush.

While walking, Greg felt as the temperature started to grow with each step, so when he was halfway, he stopped.

A huge amount of sweat flowed down his face. It looked almost like he just came out of a bathroom after a nice shower.

"This can't go on. I will just die because of dehydration if I continue going up. I need a solution."

Saying that Greg put his palm out and it started to get bluer and bluer.

It was his ice power wherewith he tried to protect himself from the immense temperature, but every time he tried to, the ice on his hand evaporated almost instantly.

"Damn! What should I do then?"

As he was thinking, he looked around his vicinity and he saw something unimaginable.

Not far away from him, there was a piece of flower, next to a river of lava. It was a white flower with a look like a rose.

"What the... Wait, what?"

As he looked closer he saw that the flower was releasing a white mist, which protected it from the lava and the high temperature. Even the ground was frozen a bit around it.

As he was looking at the plant, suddenly Alice appeared before him in her fox form and looked around with an excited look.

A while later she jumped on top of Greg's shoulder and as she did, suddenly a thin fire barrier appeared around his skin covering every part of his body.

In an instant, the insane temperature dropped drastically, making Greg breathe in a mouthful of fresh air.

"Much better. Thanks for the help.", said Greg to Alice as he petter her little fox head.

Seeing Alice's satisfied expression, Greg nodded and said, "Let's get going then."

With that, Greg started to continue his way up to the volcano.

After walking for half an hour, he finally reached the top.

"Well, except for the high temperature, this wasn't a big deal at all. However, what makes me uneasy is that I didn't meet a single creature yet."

As he thought about this, he looked down into the pit and his eyes contracted in shock.

What was down there was a small platform in the middle of the lava. And making things more shocking, two types of creatures were kowtowing before a huge statue in the middle of the platform.

"Demons and devils? Are you f**ing kidding me?"

Demons were one of the annoying creatures out of all, while the devils were the cruelest ones.

Demons usually used taboo powers or sealing ability and with that, they kill anyone with brute force. Like a tied up pig, their prey could only wait for death.

However, on the other hand, devils were more fearsome than demons. It's because they use cursing abilities or dark magic. There are some rare cases when an evil can use long-range curse ability, which kills its enemy from a hundred miles away.

Just imagine walking on the road and suddenly collapsing to the ground lifelessly because your heart just stopped working. No one will suspect a thing at all.

And now these two creatures were in one place. This was everyone's most fearful nightmare.

Greg started to hesitate about what he should do when suddenly his gaze fell on the statue below.

"What is that? A... Mask?"

As he was looking at the mask, suddenly a black light appeared above the statue.

It started to swirl in the air and from time to time red lightning came out of it.

While Greg watched the light in the air, suddenly one creature stood up and looked at the light in the sky. It was a devil with a black skin and a pair of red horns on top of its head.

As it looked at the black light in the sky, it raised its disgusting hand and started to chant in a strange language that Greg never heard before.

As the devil chanted in its unique language, the black light in the sky started to get wider and wider, until it covered almost the whole volcano in width.

The red lightings were getting more and more intense as the devil chanted and suddenly a thunderbolt with a width of a man, struck the top of the statue.

The devil seeing this, started to smile eerily, however in the next second its smile froze.

It was because as the red lightning was about to hit the statue, the mask on the monument released a white light, which deflected the terrifying thunderbolt toward the creatures.

*BOOOOM!!*

With a huge explosion, all the kowtowing creatures turned into ash, only leaving the standing devil alive.

However, it didn't look good either. Its skin was burnt, from half of its body it's organs could be seen, while its arms and both of it's horns got broken.

Greg saw this and was utterly dumbstruck.

He very well knew just how strong that creature was, because it was a devil on the Soul Collector rank. However, before that terrifying lightning and mask, it was like a baby before an adult.

"What is that thing? I don't remember learning about zones with treasures in them. There are some, but all of them are in the higher-ranked ones and not in the lower ones."

As he was thinking, the devil started to chant again and another red light struck down toward the mask, but like before it deflected it toward the evil.

Greg thought that this will be the end of it, but something unexpected happened.

The second thunderbolt didn't hit the devil. No, it just flew past it and the terrifying lightning came toward where he just was.

"What the hell?!", thought Greg and instantly jumped to the side.

*BOOOM!*

Where he was a second ago, a gigantic hole remained, leaving behind only dust and ash.

Greg looked where he was a moment ago, and cold sweat appeared on his back.

The devil down there noticed this too and looked toward Greg's direction. After seeing him, the evil smiled at him with a much-wicked smile than before, giving Greg a bad feeling.

Just as he thought, the devil started to walk toward him and while it did, its damaged body parts started to heal with a speed visible to the naked eye.

Arriving at the edge of the platform, it didn't stop but continued to walk toward Greg. As it did, small rocks appeared one after another from under the lava, giving solid ground to the evil.

Greg saw this and cursed inside him.

"What the hell is even happening here?! Do I really have such bad luck?"