An Inferno Worse Than Hell

Outside of the tents being built on the barren ground of the lifeless plains, Lloyd was taking his sweet time trying to experiment as much as he could with his abilities once his mana was fully replenished. As he used the Materia Refinement skill to fuse the block of Neptune Steel with a grunt soul orb, a new screen appeared which displayed two options: Armor and Tool. He chose the tool and wanted to see if what would come out would be the same thing he had thought earlier. Lights flashed for a few seconds and a small, blue vase with strange marks on it and with a size of a regular drinking bottle, popped out from nothingness. Lloyd tapped the bottle to examine it and his eyes lit up once he saw the description.

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Name: Vase of Eternal Spring

Rank: I

Soul: Grunt

Ability: Endless Spring

Description: A peculiar vase that was made from the blocks of steel that came from the endless river of the higher planes. What came together along its creation was an endless supply of fresh water.

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This was exactly what he needed. The ability of the vase called Endless Spring made the water coming out from the bottle endless which made it a very precious tool. Just about time that they were already short on water and there were no bodies of water found in this barren wasteland.

He brought the vase to his mouth and took a sip. The water coming out from it tasted so fresh that he felt rejuvenated just by drinking a little bit. The exhaustion he felt from having almost all of his mana consumed after casting these mana-hungry skills was lessen a little bit. He smiled as he placed the vase on the ground and thought of something else. He still didn't have any item storage like those spatial rings the others had. He had been jealous of them ever since he knew its existence.

"I wish I had that too. It's so tiresome to carry my spoils and equipment physically. I guess I'll ask them later what materials are used to make that then create my own…"

He mumbled to himself. He might be able to make something like those spatial rings. However, his ability might not exactly create the same thing even when using the same materials as his innate ability was not the same way as the methods the blacksmiths of Asteria used. On top of it, it seemed like his ability was already in the highest level of mastery, with no way of improving anymore and even accompanied with a weird side-effect like being only able to create random materials with names and abilities that were based on the materials used.

He sighed helplessly as he stared at the dark, starless sky with a bloody moon being obscured by the thick, black smokes.

He didn't notice that someone had approached him from his back until that person tapped him on his shoulders. He suddenly jumped out like a frightened cat and turned around to see Klaudia standing behind him earlier. She chuckled upon seeing his funny reaction.

"You scared me! I thought it was some hellspawn who got behind me without being noticed."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't sure what you were doing so I didn't call you." She explained as she sat on the laid worn-out mattress on the ground. She then saw the blue vase Lloyd had created.

"What is that?" She asked.

Lloyd scratched his head as he thought about asking her on keeping it for the meantime. Then, he replied:

"A water vase. It never runs out of water."

"R-really? That's quite amazing. Where did you acquire it?" she shockingly inquired.

"I created it myself. It's my innate ability."

"Oh, I see. That's… really a useful ability. It might not be suited directly for combat, but it is versatile."

A slight hint of excitement could be heard in her voice. Then, her emotions took a U-turn suddenly and looked a bit down. Then he heard her sighing as she continued talking. 

"Unlike mine, it has no unfair conditions when used. I become pretty much useless and unable to fight whenever I use my abilities. I can't even protect myself and just become a deadweight."

Lloyd stayed silent. It was a harsh truth and he couldn't think of any words to say to comfort her. He didn't want to carelessly talk without thinking or it might backfire and just dampen her spirits more. He knew what it felt like to be utterly useless as he was in that same situation his whole life before he participated in the trials. No one wanted him and no one wanted to go near him. He was completely alone ever since he lost his parents.

However, one thing was so sure in his heart. At least he never thought Klaudia was a worthless person who was just some deadweight princess that needed protection. If not for her, they wouldn't have been able to kill the gravebound ghoul nor the sentinels. They wouldn't have been able to escape that deadly forest if not for her being able to detect the defiled emissary hellspawn governing the area and avoided it. 

He stood up and patted her head. That felt strange for him. It was his first time doing such things like this. And yet, it felt so good and rewarding. He probably had been yearning to have companions like them for so long. After all, despite being used to the unbearable loneliness and sufferings of his life, he was still and human and there would be times he was close to breaking down and turned mad the same way his father did.

"It's alright. You are not a deadweight."

Klaudia looked up and stared at him. Her eyes were a little moist with tears.

"Just remember that we won't make it past here if it wasn't for you telling us how to kill the gravebound ghoul. So, don't feel too hard on yourself. We all have our roles to play. And your just happened to be the most crucial of them all."

"Do you mean it?"

"Yes, I do. Come on, what are you even crying for? A little sister shouldn't be such a crybaby."

She laughed at him. Finally, her mood lifted up and it was quite satisfying for Lloyd to.

"That reminds me of something. Can you hold onto this vase for the meantime? I don't have a spatial storage yet and it's quite inconvenient to keep on carrying this vase. We're also going to need it as we proceed on our journey to the south."

He passed the vase to her and she took it and stored it into her spatial ring.

"Okay. I'll keep it for now."

"Thanks. I guess I'll be heading to bed now. I'm quite spent up from creating that vase. My skills consume a lot of mana, you see."

Alright. I'm going back to bed too. Thank you for earlier, Lloyd. Goodnight.

She smiled as she thanked him and turned to head towards the tent where she and Luna had occupied.

'Goodnight, huh? I guess I'll be able to hear it more from now on.' Lloyd thought as she watched her. He yawned and walked towards the large tent where Shane and the others stayed. Upon entering, he saw them already snoring. They must be quite tired from the long hours spent on travelling without resting at all. Lloyd crawled to the space on the corner of the tent and closed his eyes. Soon, he drifted to a long slumber.

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Morning came and the bloody moon was now gone, replaced by the rising sun which was still obscured by the thick smokes, so it wasn't really that bright compared to the weather they have on Asteria. Although the city was still covered with polluted air from the frequent use of natural oils for electricity since they still had to rely on the old technology for power supply as they haven't yet discovered a way to generate electricity using the soul orbs, the city was still in a better state compared to this wasteland.

This place seemed like a long-forgotten country that was destroyed from the previous third world-war of the humans before the generation of the hellspawn disease struck humanity and almost brought them to extinction. The thick smokes in the sky probably came from those unsightly nuclear weapons that could kill millions of humans in one explosion while the city was probably erased from the world after getting nuked.

Lloyd woke up, feeling refreshed and his mana was fully replenished. However, he wouldn't continue experimenting his skills for now as they still had to travel and it would be a problem if he became greatly exhausted and hinder the movement of a team. What if an abominable hellspawn suddenly swoop down at them from the sky or something from underground grabs them stealthily? He would be the one to bring them to danger because of his stupidity.

He killed whatever curiosity he had and went to the rest of the cohort who were already awake and preparing their meals. Their rations from the academy were all consumed last night. The only thing they could eat right now was the tree sap. It didn't matter anyway as it tasted so delicious like a honey created by bees.

Even though they still had an abundant supply of tree sap, they had to conserve it and only eat just enough to feel a little bit full. Luna handed out the bottles and they silently ate it fast.

"Where are we heading next?" Lloyd asked.

Luna looked at the others for their opinions and none of them seemed to have any idea where to go to. The only direction they could take is more south across the barren wasteland, or they could go either east or west where the barren wasteland also stretched across the horizon that it seemed to be another large area like the crimson forest as they could also see the trees of it stretched further as the barren land did.

"I thought of us heading towards south since both east and west are still a little bit near to the forest. We might not see anything by going to that way. However, please do speak up if you have other ideas."

"Let's go south, then. I agree with your idea. I was also thinking that the only direction where the crimson forest can't reach us is the southern area. We might be able to discover something if we cover enough area." Shane approvingly replied.

The others also nodded and they have reached a decision to travel towards the southern plains of the barren wasteland.

They had once again started their long hours of walking as they traverse through the plains. Several hours had passed by and the sun was quite high up in the sky which indicated it was already noon. Still, they haven't encountered a single soul in this area and there were also no structures or any kind of flora and fauna detected within a few kilometers.

Lloyd wondered what had caused this place to become barren to the point of not a single living thing would dare come here. His thoughts were answered by a horrible revelation later on as they had noticed something different as the air and temperature seemed to rise. They haven't noticed it earlier as they thought it was only a normal thing to happen. However, it was getting harder and harder to breath and it felt like the world was on fire. He then saw a strange phenomenon that made him and the others panicked. The ground was now beating and red lines that looked like blood vessels where glowing. Except that, it wasn't a blood vessel but magma seeping from the ground up to the surface.

"Blasted Hell! What in the world is happening now?!" Lloyd yelled out loud.

"I take it back! This place isn't safe at all! No wonder there's not a single soul in here." Ray complained.

"Start running instead of complaining unless you want to turn into a roasted human." Luna said as she held Klaudia's arm and dragged her quickly.

Klaudia didn't use her ability lately, so she wasn't blind and could run properly without stumbling. The others followed suit and ran as fast as they could as the magma was now closing in on them. They desperately tried to look for some higher places that might save them from being burned alive and they found a tall object which looked like a hand, around a few hundred meters away.

"Over there! Hurry!" Luna shouted as she pointed at the distant object.

Just barely escaping, they were able to reach the hand and climbed it which is around two meters above the ground. They caught up to their breaths while they looked down at the ground they had been walking on earlier. The ground was now fully submerged in magma, with only the giant hand, where they were currently standing on, being the only thing that could be seen on the entire wasteland.

Lloyd then found something that was like human language written on the palm of the giant hand just below their feet.

"Only hell awaits in the infernal plains. Beware of the burning dead." Lloyd slowly read, a trace of horror entering his mind.