Chapter 83

At the same time, in the cavern between the battlefield and Baelgin, Lucifer's eyes popped out of his skull as he observed the spreading fissures from above and below them. The stone rapidly fractured, cracks running in the middle through the ceiling, walls and ground.

Fortunately, he didn't use his eyes much as he was still able to use his perception sphere for some reason. Probably, something to do with his broken Path.

"Stone! You idiot! You did it again!" He yelled, frustration released from his barely functioning heart.

The falling rocks shattered on the ground, missing the group by a thin hair. The melted statues cracked even further. The floor was shaking as if the god of elements, Elementum was dancing with his wives.

Stone was completely livid and ignored Lucifer colourful swearing. He had never seen such a large-scale example of stone desecration… Stone felt rage, it was the Stone-Breaker, Stone just knew it. "Fireyyyyyy! You bastaaaaaard!" He yelled, his deep voice drowned by the collapsing cavern.

The elemental grinned inside Stone's body and went back to sleep. He was extremely tired as the Prime Material Plane's will had been constantly pushing him back to his home, the Fire Elemental Plane, lately.

"Luciiii! He… Look! He broke… He broke so many stooooone!" Stone wept like a little child.

Lucifer frustratedly groaned. He grabbed the enraged Stone, who despaired and cursed Gorash to seven generations, who on the other hand couldn't care less. His resistance to the curses was high enough.

Jarka was woken up by the shaking ground and instinctively grabbed Dafur. As a druegar from the Abyss, she was used to the ground shifts and collapses. For her, it was instinct and frankly, she couldn't care less.

Lucifer kissed the ground after his right foot lodged into a crevice created by the collapsing floor, his body fell with a soft thud.

Jarka and the squirming Dafur were right behind them, so was the large crack that looked like a snake hunting them.

"I. Refuse. To. Fall. Again!" Lucifer hastily scrambled up, jumping on one leg away from the still-spreading fissure.

Jarka supported him with her shoulder.

They limped forward, attempting to run away from the collapsing cavern.

Then the time slowed down.

A silvery bolt emerged from the floor. It near-missed Stone and Lucifer's nose, and continued its path up barely impeded by the rocky earth.

Lucifer's pupils would enlarge, but… well… He no longer had them…

The ground below them exploded a single moment after.

"Not again! Not again!" Lucifer repeated the mantra, in his mind resurfaced the memory of the Shul-Gahat's stomach, as they were thrown up.

Jarka conjured the bloody mist to protect herself and the rest.

And Stone? The boulder did not care. He was way too enraged at the yet-again-snoring elemental to notice he was falling.

He had enough of Gorash! So, he began to think of how to get rid of him. He dubbed him as a Stone-Breaker and in his inner world that meant a death sentence.

There was a slight problem however; he did not know how to dispose of him. When he wanted to ask Lucifer, the Devilish Sorcerer repeated "Not again!" constantly, while swearing things that no person would write down, for the curses would incinerate the paper. Stone tried to gain his attention a few times but no sensible answer ever came back.

<Lucifer had been cursing you for some time… I even feel sorry for the guy… Naaah! I don't!>

<You have acquired a new Resistance: Curse T1L1>

Then he remembered; the elemental was hurt when he pushed the refined mana into his spell through him.

He mentally grinned.

So, he began to pump all of his mana and refined mana into the suddenly-awakened fire elemental.

"That hurts!" Gorash yelled. "Why ?! Stop it! Please!" Gorash was flickering as Stone was pushing all of his refined mana into him.

"You know I hate Stone-Breakers, right? Answer!"

"Auchiee! Yes! But it was not meeeee!"Gorash regretted a few things now; the insanity of Stone was too deep. He had made a grave mistake. He never should have gone into him and formed the contract.

The mana began to really hurt him as it coursed through his sparkly body, forcing him to leave the Stone's body.

"Mast…!" He tried to say something but was silenced by Stone with a direct order.

Every drop of Stone's rapid mana regeneration and refinement was used to pump the squirming elemental full.

Gorash felt fear and pain. His body grew, illuminating the falling bodies and rocks.

Meanwhile, Lucifer was weeping like a kid, "I hate you, Stooooneeeee!"

"Yahoo!"

On the other hand, Jarka was enjoying herself. The bloody mist enveloped them, forming a cushion under them. On her shoulder, Dafur just silently closed his eyes, praying for his master to save him; be it Baelgin or Shaman-Garza.

Speaking of Baelgin…

"Shiiiiiii…"

'Thump!'

The 4th-rank runemaster landed in the midst of them on the bloody mist cushion. His eyes shot open. "Hahaaaa! Fuck you, Rolly!" He laughed, ignoring everything else. Half of his armor was melted but otherwise he was fine. Well… if you didn't count the scratches on the face from when he face-planted the ground, the deep gash on his back and a missing eye.

"Stone-Breaker!" Stone recognized the dwarf, but couldn't do anything as all of his mana had been used up in his punishment of the other evil stone-breaker. Stone sadistically giggled; punishing stone-breakers was fun.

Gorash swelled more and more, silently shrieking as the forceful mana transfer forced him to grow and swell. He was already as big as a baseball. He could finally screech as the command wore off.

"Stooooone! You idioooooot!" Lucifer roared as they heavily landed right on the top of the rocky hill.

The battle halted as everyone, including Harkon and the Ogre, observed the bloody mist to clear out with opened mouths, revealing the pulsating baby fire elemental, laughing Jarka, crying Lucifer and mortally pale Dafur.

The Ogre and Harkon glanced at each other. They shrugged, showing they didn't know what the fuck was happening.

"BAELGIN!" Therdreag shouted from the dwarven ramparts, utterly stumped.

Baelgin, still half-dazed and in quite a pain as the adrenalin receded, answered, "Therdreag?!"

"DAFUR!" Tafur yelled, standing next to his master, noticing his twin brother. Dafur recognized the voice and found the source, "TAFUR!"

"IDIOT!" Lucifer added at Stone's address.

"LOUD! Silence!" Stone commanded. Very audibly. Every single eye landed on his body still held by consternated Lucifer, who suddenly decided to be a very devout priest. He didn't care for what deity… He just hoped that some would reply.

Gorash was in so much pain as the mana and refined mana was already bursting out in fiery tongues, he decided to do something he truly did not want to do. His last trump card. His lifeline. Something he knew he would regret for a very long time.

"Mooooooooom!"

As Gorash yelled, Stone gave him the last push of mana, and sent him towards one of the warring sides, feeling that the elemental reached the critical amount. He did not care which one, as far as Stone was concerned, both sides were just experience packs, waiting to be killed.

Sadly, the goblins cared. A lot. The screeching baby elemental exploded in their midst.

'TTTRRRIIING!'

The explosion was comparable to a full-powered 5th-rank explosion-type spell.

It was not because of the amount of mana inside of him. That would push it to only 4th-rank.

It was because the moment Gorash exploded, he was able to open a small portal back to his plane in an attempt to flee. The mana stimulated the spell, making it two-way. A small portion of the Law of Fire leaked to the Prime Material Plane, creating flames fueled by the very laws of the Fire Plane.

The fire from the Fire Elemental Plane seared everything in its path, bypassing the shields and defences as if they were not there.

The goblins did not even have time to scream as they ceased to exist, the floor beneath them turned to lava.

The reinforcement enchantments almost shattered again, but this time the spell-slingers were prepared and strengthened them.

The powerful pressure wave slowly weakened, and finally stopped before the goblins casters.

Baelgin gathered his bearings and ran away towards the dwarven encampment with haste, seeing the double-headed Ogre, Harkon and the purple fiery deathball next to him.

Jarka clapped, enjoying the spectacle, while Dafur had lost his consciousness long ago. It was too much for him.

The two-headed Ogre roared and charged towards Stone's group, but was stopped by a silvery bolt in the thigh.

Harkon shifted and appeared between them. His mind was simple; the enemy of my enemy was my friend.

The battle resumed, this time it was a full powered attack. Remaining Orcs with their large groups emerged from behind their ramparts and clashed with the dwarfs.

This was the last thing that Stone registered.

His 'vision' was filled with many thudding tablets and Universum's mechanical notifications.

<You have killed many, MANY goblins above your level...>

<You have gained 1617.72% experience>

<You have levelled up!>

<...>

<You have levelled up!>

<You have reached maximum level for your tier!>

<I would say that Universum notices… but why even bother… sigh…>

<You have fulfilled all requirements!>

<You are evolving to the Greater Mana Crystal!>

<You have broken Elemental pact with Baby Fire Elemental, Gorash in the most brutal way!>

Stone bathed in golden rays.

At first, his mind was empty. He did not feel; there was no good feeling nor bad feeling. Only silence. Calmness.