A City Erupting with Flames

"You see," Averill started to speak. "I'm not interested. I already told you that multiple times." he said to Naven. 

"Why not?" he replied. "You've never been to the outside world, and since I'm taking the twins with me to the outside today, why not join us? It will be a great experience for you." 

Averill sighed once again. 

"If I go, then promise me that you won't bother me for the next year. Do we have a deal?" 

"Wait, let me think about this first for a moment." 

"Go ahead." 

Currently, Naven, Eliva and her twin sister Avile were in Averill's and the latter's room, with the three of them sitting on the carpet, crossed-legged. 

The three of them decided to try to convince Averill to join them for the trip to the outside world. The Ezhil Clan does control most of Olette Island, but where they actually live is a dungeon with several stories going underground and going up towards the sky. From ground level, the dungeon is massive. Over three kilometres in diameter at the ground, before widening to over nine kilometres in diameter at the lowest level, and if you look up then, the dungeon shrinks to a kilometre at the very peak. 

Overall, the dungeon has over one hundred and fifty floors in total, and being a dungeon, one hundred of them are normal dungeon floors, with treasures, monsters, traps and bosses waiting for challengers, while the remaining fifty floors are under the personal usage of the Ezhil Clan. The actual 'living space' for the eight members of the clan is the very last ten floors, with each member having one floor they control personally, one for where they lived, and one for other purposes, like storage, all-out training battles, etc. 

As for how the Ezhil Clan made a live dungeon into their home and the reason is still a mystery to many. Including Chlas, the current head of the clan. 

"Alright! I just cancelled all the plans that included you for the next year. Therefore, I agree with your terms." 

"I figured you would say that. But I will stick true to my word. When are going?" Averill stood up from his desk. 

"Immediately," Naven replied. "We could wait a few minutes for you to gather some items." 

"No need. Let's get going then." 

Averill walked out of the room with the trio following him, cheering at their victory. 

Averill seemed to notice them celebrating and shook his head in disarray. But he regained his posture quickly and ignored their actions. 

(I did say I wasn't interested in going to the outside... but I'm still a little bit curious. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. Maybe found a criminal organisation to collect information for me? I heard the neighbouring cities are reeked with crime and criminals. If I can unite them under my banner...) an evil smirk appeared on Averill's face. (Countless loyal followers who would to able to gather intel, materials or even people for me. What's more, without hesitation! Isn't that just living the high life?! I understand that compared to Tier 11 and above-ranked adventurers, I am nothing. I am weak compared to them. But yet, if I can control them behind the scenes... bingo. It's MY victory.) 

"Ha-ha-hah!" he laughed aloud. "That's it! I should have done this earlier!" 

"What's up with him, Naven?" Eliva asks, worried and confused. 

"Not sure. Maybe he has realised something?" Naven whispered back. 

"I got a bad feeling about this..." added Avile. 

"Do you? I'm more interested in what his thought process was." Eliva replied. 

The twins giggled. Together, they made their way to the surface via their Transformed State. Strange, but it was an effective and efficient way to travel across all the floors of their home dungeon. 

Once they reached the midpoint, Floor seventy-five, they returned to their normal forms. Since the dungeon expands up and down, it means there are seventy-four floors that go down into the earth, and seventy-six floors that are above the ground. 

The rustling of trees, almost dancing in the strong wind caught Averill by surprise. He has never experienced such powerful winds like these before. His hair flew around, making a mess and the strong sunlight peaking through the leaves onto his face, making it sting a little. 

"Is it always like this, Naven?" Averill said. "I hate it up here." 

"All you do is complain, complain, complain. Try to challenge yourself for once. But no, the outside isn't always like this. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows and sometimes it's like this. Sunny, no clouds, just the open blue sky. " 

"I actually like this!" Eliva said. 

"Uhm. I agree with Eliva." added Avile. 

"See?" Naven looked over to Averill. "The twins enjoy this, and they aren't complaining." 

"Yeah, that's because they are a different type of breed compared to me. They are welcoming vampires. I am not." 

"Don't try to find excuses, little brother. But in any case, you must deal with it." 

"Fine." Averill rolled his eyes. He would stay put for now. 

"But enough of that!" he turned to the twins. "Where would you like to go? Around our territory? Maybe to one of the neighbouring cities? You pick and I will bring you there!" 

The twins showed interest in everything that Naven had said. But before answering, they ran around on the path exiting the forest to the entrance of their dungeon. Once they had made it out of the forest, it was rolling plains, tall grass swaying in the wind. If it was not for the Tier 4 tracking spell, [Track] Naven would have lost the twins after they had disappeared into the grass.

"Decided on where to go yet?" Naven asked the twins again when they were taking a break under the shadows of a great oak tree. 

"Yeah! We have explored most of our surroundings and we had enough of it, so let us go to the neighbouring city!" Eliva raised her fist into the air. 

"Yeah!" Avile joined her and so did Naven. Once again, Averill did not join them, instead, he opted to do his own thing. Naven looked disappointed in Averill but didn't say anything. 

The group of four travelled to the eastern shores of Olette Island and from there, Deplan City could be seen. Tall stone buildings rise up high into the air, with the flag of the Xvan Republic flying at the very top of the buildings, warships sailing on the calm sea and large walls surrounding the entire city. 

"That's a city, you two." Naven pointed in the direction of Deplan City. 

"Uwaaa! So big!" Avile excitedly said. 

"I know, right?" Eliva replied in the same manner. 

"I wonder how they live like that." Averill said. 

"Hm?" Naven turned his attention to him. "What do you mean?" 

"Never mind what I just said. It was stupid, sorry." he answered. 

"If you say so..." glazing back at the sea reflecting the orange, red and yellow rays of the setting sun, as the stars just started to reveal themselves, Naven sighed. 

"What's the matter?" Averill asks him. 

"Nothing. Nothing at all," he answers. "And besides, since the sun is setting right now, we should get going and enter the city. But first, wear these." he handed each of them a robe with a hood. They were a greyish-yellow colour, the robe covering their entire bodies, with the hood covering most of their faces. 

"What are these for?" Eliva curiously asked. 

"For protecting and hiding our identities. We wouldn't like to have a manhunting event during this trip after all." 

"Oh. I see!" she energetically replied. 

"Say..." Averill started. 

"Hm?" 

"What's up with that mountain over there? It gives off a bad vibe." 

Looking at where Averill has pointed to, Naven used [Zoom], a Tier 2 spell in order to find out more.

"It looks like some plain old mountain. It certainly does give off a bad aura, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." he responds. 

"Are you sure?" 

"I'm pretty sure."

Averill gave Naven a look of distrust before starting to put on the robe. Once done, he covered his face with the hood, with to Naven and the twins, all of his upper face was covered. The others followed Averill and they had the same result. 

"How do you all feel?" Naven asks. 

"Not bad. The small field of vision is the only thing I would complain about though." 

"Same. My vision is reduced too much!"

"I don't mind the small field of vision. It makes me comfortable actually." Avile said. 

"Of course, you would complain about something... but I guess this time, it's reasonable," Naven responded. He pulled out a cart seemingly from nowhere. The cart was entirely made out of wood, and there were gaps, cracks and holes all over the cart. It was basically on its last legs. "Shall we get going?" 

Except for Averill again, no one complained much about the state of the cart. Naven was the one who pulled it out from who knows where, while the twins were fine with the cart. 

It took some time before Averill would get on, and once he did and got seated, the cart sped up and started to run over the water. 

Of course, magic was the reason why the cart was able to run over the water, and it was Naven who was casting it. 

"I never expected Tier 3 spell, [Weightlessness] to be used like this. Won't we like, float away up into the air or something?" Averill commented. 

"Heh-heh. Your mastery over magic is low so I won't blame you for not being informed about some well-known tricks for certain magic." 

"So it's a trick, huh?" 

"Yeah. I won't spoil the trick though. Even if I did, you wouldn't be using it anyway, or even know how to use it." 

"That's fair I guess." he responded to Naven. He stayed quiet for the remainder of the trip over the body of water known as the Olette Strait.

The Strait separates Olette Island from the mainland, the continent of Ulius. To the south of Olette Island, is the Glin Sea, where terrifying strong sea monsters reside. Even a Tier 12 adventurer, basically the cream of the top for any normal human being, has a hard time against one of these sea monsters. 

On land though, a Tier 9 adventurer could easily take one down. 

Naven steered the cart slightly off course, and they landed on a beach not too far from the western city gates. Making sure that there were no other people around them, Naven made the cart levitate onto the main road as the road was slightly higher terrain compared to the beach they were just on. 

As their cart approached the gates, the twins just grew more and more excited, while Averill remained calm. It was the first time the three of them actually met or even saw actual human beings in person so they were curious about their nature, what they do and things like that. Staring at every guard they passed, sometimes mimicking their moments or way of speech, Eliva and Avile had fun doing so. 

(No... these guys are too weak. They seem to be loyal to someone else already so taking them under my wing and making them loyal to me would be time-consuming and hard to do.) Averill thought as he stared intensely at the passing guards. His ruby-red eyes softly glowed in the dark space within the hood as they continued to scan each and every bit of detail of any guard that came into their view. They continued to do so until they reached the city gates, where he saw a man, probably in his twenties checking the luggage or travel books of the people in front of them. 

As soon as Averill noticed him, he could not take his eyes off him. Something about him was strange, and that strange feeling was the reason why Averill wasn't able to take his eyes off him. He was wearing armour, like the guards he saw before, but his armour was a bit larger and thicker, with a red rose symbol near the centre of his breastplate. 

His hair colour is pure black, while his greenish-blue eye colour reminds Averill of the ocean. A kind, but still strict-looking face and a well-built body. 

Averill snickered under his breath. As Naven greeted the soldier and as they entered the city, Averill continued to stare at the man, seeing him collapse and being transported out of view. Only then, he took his eyes off him. 

"You found someone interesting?" Naven asked him. 

"Yeah," he replied, in a cheerful manner. "He's the one I have been looking for." 

"Oh? That's interesting for you to say that. Just don't go overboard with whatever plans you thought up of." 

"Heh. Thanks for the reminder." he jokingly responded. 

The sun has completely set by now. The streets were lit up by lanterns powered by fire elemental magic, providing a great source of light for passersby. Though it was not as bad compared to direct sunlight, it was still too bright to be in a vampire's comfort zone. 

But being the high-class vampires they are, not a single one of them batted an eye at the bright streets. Even Averill. Even he didn't complain about the streets being too bright. 

Once deep inside the city, Naven made the cart disappear and the four of them walked to the darkest part of the city they could find. It was a challenge, as the highly advanced Xvan Republic made it almost mandatory to have well-lit-up streets at night in order to lower crime and other unwanted activities. 

"This is such a pain..." Averill mumbled. "Why can't we go to the outskirts of the city, rest there and come back just before dawn arrives? Besides, why do we even need to rest away? We are vampires, the rulers of the night!" 

"Unfortunately, my dear little brother, for this trip, the twins have requested our activities to be as human-like as possible so they can get as much information as they can from this trip." 

"But why?" 

"Just respect their choices. As their older brother, I wanted to give them a nice experience with a topic they are interested in." 

Averill let out a deep sigh. He wasn't in the mood to argue with his older brother nor was he going to comply with his words. Unlike the flexible and empathic thinking of Naven, Averill was more self-centred, selfish and inflexible. 

Of course, he did care for his little sisters—to a certain degree, but it doesn't mean he would always follow their requests. 

"You know what? Okay. I'll comply. A little bit though." 

"Oh? Will you?" Naven said, a little bit surprised. 

"I will do my own thing until three or two hours before dawn. After that, I shall comply with the twin's request to act like humans." 

"Why the disgusted tone?" 

"I hate humans in general. That's it." Averill bluntly replied. 

"..." Naven stared at him. "Why?" he simply asked. 

"They think they are the 'rulers' of the world. It is pathetic of them to think that way. While they do have the potential to become powerful enough to slay Tier 15 monsters, the odds of that are extremely low. Most of them are weak. Little weak ants that run away at the sight hint of danger. 

Not to mention that the governments of some of these human countries think that they are the only ones suitable to rule this world! They discriminate against other races and the surprising part is that the governments of both parties involved turn a huge blind eye to it!" 

Averill continued to ramble on and on while Naven listened to him in silence. His face was serious and seemed to be somewhat agreeing with Averill's thoughts. 

Once he was done rambling, Averill exposed his black bat-like wings and flew off into the night. 

"Hmmm. I understand him a bit more now," Naven said to himself. "Out of all the things he said, I'm curious—why does he think that humans should be driven to extinction?" a blatant smile appeared on his face. 

...

Sitting on top of the tall wooden mast of an old Model-10 ship in a dry dock near the Southern Docks of Deplan City is Averill staring off into the distant horizon, where the sky is a little brighter than the one right above him. 

(I really should apologise to Naven for my actions back then... I really need to work on my temper.) 

He is currently observing the nature of humans in the city. While he does hate them, they are beings that can be manipulated quite easily, which is a trait that Averill certainly does not mind. 

He plans to recruit some criminals that are lurking around the city and make them loyal to him via some form of convincing, deal, contract or blackmail if required. After that, he would make them do his bidding, like information collection, illegal trade businesses, kidnapping, etc. 

Averill plans to make good use of this criminal organisation to ruin countries' economies, populations, and relationships with each other behind the scenes. 

And his first target to recruit is the man he saw at the gates. But in order to convince him to join his side wasn't going to be easy, and he would need information about the man in order to do so. 

Averill suddenly felt a rumbling deep into the earth, and the temperature of the ground he was now standing on was a bit warmer. He thought nothing of it, was it was his first time in the outside world so he wasn't familiar with all the norms that a human might see, feel, touch or even smell on a regular day-to-day basis. 

However, he did gaze at the mountain he had seen earlier on the other side of the Olette Strait. He still could feel the imminent chance of danger coming from that mountain but didn't know the reason why. 

(Could there possibly be an actual danger that my body—my instincts are trying to warn me about? If so, then I would need to take some precautions. But what kind of precautions should I take?) 

After failing to come up with any precautions, Averill just ignored the mountain for the time being and focused on gathering intel about the man. 

First, after strolling around the city's streets for a couple of minutes, Averill realised that he... was lost. He had underestimated the scale and sheer size of Deplan City, thinking it was nothing more than a mere village, while in reality, Deplan City is home to over three million individuals, and the urban area of the city is well over four thousand square kilometres. If the suburban area of Deplan City is included as well, then the surface area grows by another one and a half-thousand square kilometres. 

To enter the urban part of the city, which is surrounded by tall walls made out of materials that look like stone, one must take either the north, east or west gates. To the south of the city is the Olette Strait, so the southern part of the city is reserved for docks for military vessels or civilian ones. 

Averill was currently scrolling the streets around the Southern Docks, no human insight, but the streets were well-lit up like the rest of the city. The road was made out of stone, and some kind of hard substance and filled the gaps between the large stones. 

"I'm surprised at how advanced this city is. The roads are well-maintained and of good quality, it is well-lit up by these fire elemental magic lamps and the city is huge!" he praised. Jumping high into the air, he exposed his wings and made his way up and up and up. He soared through the sky vertically, going as high as he possibly could before the lack of air at the high altitudes started to cause lift problems.

Maintaining an altitude of eight kilometres off the ground and due to the cloudless night, he could see everything. The entirety of Deplan City, which Averill could clearly see where the city ends and where the wilderness begins due to the light difference. He could see the rough waves of Olette Strait that glitter as they reflected some of the moonlight and the city lights of Gyana, the only city that humanity has control over on Olette Island.

As he stopped looking down and instead started to scan his surroundings, an even more beautiful view was waiting for him. He can see the world curving at the edges of the horizon, small pockets of brightly lit areas, signifying other cities, and further past that, he could see the shores- no, he could see to the middle of the Olavan continent, the landmass just pass the Glin Sea. Once again, small pockets of light coming from the Olavan continent meant that they were cities. 

The stars, the cold and powerful winds eight kilometres up into the sky, were amplified. The winds were much more powerful, and the stars—glittering like a mountain of jewels, covered the entire night sky, with a huge cluster of them running through the centre of the sky, shining with colours of pink, orange, purple and blue. 

"If I was born with a plentiful amount of mana like the rest of my family—I would conquer the world so I can have this view just for myself." he uttered. 

A small but bright light coming from directly under his feet grabbed Averill's attention and made him observe Deplan City again. 

"Hm? What's going on?" 

The source of light seemed to be moving—one 'tail' was moving, but an extremely powerful shockwave suddenly blew away Averill even higher into the air, followed by an even louder wave of sound. The sound was nothing like he had ever experienced before. 

After descending a couple of kilometres, Averill recovered from the sound wave and started to eyeball all the details he could see. 

"I think that mountain is the cause of the shockwave and the sound." he said. The mountain in question was the one that Averill said to Naven gave off a 'bad vibe', which is certainly true right now. 

Some kind of red-orange and black liquid which appears to be quite thick and extremely hot is currently spewing out of the mountain and is heading towards the city. 

He could also see tiny moving objects—probably humans running away from the mysterious liquid. Averill continued to watch and gather information about the current situation before he was suddenly interrupted by Naven and the twins joining him up in the air. 

"Naven?!" he shouted out in surprise. "And the twins too? How did you find me all the way up here?" 

"I placed a tracking spell onto you. After that explosion occurred, I worriedly saw you get rapidly shot up even further up into the sky." he replied.

"Right..." Averill responded as he remembered the event. "Do you know what is going on?" 

"From my knowledge, it is probably a volcanic eruption." he answered. 

"What's that?" the twins asked. 

"Basically it's when extremely hot and melted rock called magma gets released from a mountain called a volcano," he pointed to the mountain that had released the mysterious liquid. "That is a volcano." 

"I see," Averill responded. "So that mysterious liquid is magma. But how should we respond?" 

"Oh no, my dear Averill. The liquid you are talking about is lava. But in any case, we should be fine. We should move on to another city," he turned his head to face Averill, "—Unless you have something planned that you must do?" 

Averill snickered back to Naven,

"You know me so well, brother. Well, I don't mind if we move onto another city immediately, but I do have someone I must secure first before moving." 

"Is that so? I shall cast the Tier 10 protection spell, [All Protect] so you won't get harmed by the lava and other dangers surrounding the erupting volcano."

"Thank you, Naven. Where should we meet up?" he said, looking at his surroundings. 

"Don't worry, the tracking spell will tell me where you are. So have no worries about us finding you after."

"Got it." 

Descending to the city now engulfed with flames and smoke was a hazardous thing to do. But with the Tier 10 protection spell cast onto Averill by Naven, [All Protect], he was completely fine. The spell is more like a barrier that coats the target and protects them from all harm. 

"I'm still not used to my senses being this dull. It makes me feel like I'm currently sick." Averill complained. 

Landing at the western city gates of Deplan City, the fires and smoke still haven't reached this part of the city yet, so Averill was able to casually search around the area. Averill started to search for the man at the place he last saw him. 

(He was on the ground, looking quite unwell, so he must be in some sort of infirmary.) Averill started to look around. There were buildings, but none of them had soldiers stationed in them. Even Averill, a full-blood vampire, felt a little sense of creepiness when exploring these abandoned buildings. 

He started out exploring the largest building, but it turned out to be just a storage building for the soldiers. Feeling disappointed, but not willing to give up, he started to search for the next building, and the next, and the next, but nothing. 

"Is there seriously no infirmary building here?" he mumbled in surprise and disappointment. 

After double-checking the entirety of the barracks once again, he confirmed there was no infirmary here so he flew off up into the sky again. 

By this point, a few minutes had passed and the flames and smoke were rapidly approaching the western city gates. Up in the air, he could see hundreds, no tens of thousands of humans running for their lives and most of them were rushing through the northern gates and onto the roads that read to a city, just north of Deplan, Belize. While Belize certainly isn't as big or as important as Deplan City, it was a largely agricultural city, feeding around ten per cent of the population of the Xvan Republic. 

However—

"What is that?!" Averill cried out. He was looking up. What he saw, a huge ash cloud was forming. Lighting strikes, from cloud to cloud, and a rumbling sound similar to a great beast waking up from a deep slumber. Nothing in his twenty years of being alive has he ever seen or even read about an event like this. It was completely new. 

Now panicking, Averill urged himself to find the man quickly before that volcanic cloud completely fell and flattened the city. Dodging flying bombs of rock and superheated small fragments of materials that were sent flying due to the eruption, he searched every building around the barracks but then, he felt the heat. Sweltering heat, up to 220°C started to melt all buildings around him.

"No! I need more time! What can I do?!" 

But to his luck—he saw someone in the corner of his eye. Rushing towards the person, 

(Black hair, eyes that are like the ocean, a soldier... I've found him!)

Whether it was to his luck or a sign of fate itself, Averill found the man he was searching for. 

...