Chapter 363: Eighty-Fourth Floor, Sea of Lava (4)

[Investigate the Sea of Lava, identify the source of the problem, and resolve it. Time remaining: 113 hours 42 minutes.]

Ssshhk—

Lava split to either side under the pressure of my divinity and mana. The scalding heat pierced through the barrier and seared against my skin.

This wasn’t my first time dealing with molten lava. Back on the fifty-ninth floor, I had taken down a lava beast over thirty meters tall. Not only that, but on the seventy-third floor, I had jumped straight into a molten furnace while fighting one of Endless Furnace’s apostles.

This time, however, things were different.

Back then, I had simply needed to cut through my enemy and retreat. Unfortunately, this time, I didn’t know how far the path would go.

I couldn’t even tell where the faint divine presence I sensed was located.

How far down do I have to go? I don’t think I can hold out much longer.

It sounded absurd, but it was true. My divinity and mana alone weren’t enough to endure the lava.

It was simple. The deeper I descended, the more divine energy the lava began to radiate. That made it even harder to navigate. The soft, indistinct divinity was flowing in from every direction.

I had expected something to be down here, but for the lava itself to carry traces of divinity was a deeply unsettling realization.

It isn’t like this divinity was deliberately infused.

Rather, it felt like divine energy was naturally seeping into the lava from something buried deep below. The lava erupting from the summit didn’t carry that same energy, which meant the divinity had spread slowly over time.

The farther I went, the more intense the heat became.

Sharply breathing in, I gathered more of my mana. Additionally, I summoned my wind spirit, forcing the molten sea back.

The spirit acted as the first line of defense, holding the lava at bay before it could reach my barrier of divine energy.

However, it wasn’t enough. Contrary to my expectation, the divine energy permeating the lava slipped right through the spirit’s protection. The barrier of mana and divinity was starting to crumble, little by little.

I need to make a decision.

I still couldn’t pinpoint the origin of the remnant power, but I could tell the divine presence below was steadily growing stronger. The deeper I went, the more overwhelming the divinity within the lava became.

If I didn’t proceed carefully, the shield would collapse under the pressure of this unfamiliar divine force pressing in from all sides—leading the molten lava to engulf me.

After coming this far, though, I refused to turn back. It was time to act.

Quickly and decisively.

Unfortunately, the oppressive force pressing down on me wasn’t physical. Since it was divine, Flash Strike was useless here.

There was only one path forward, which was straight through. I squeezed out every last drop of divine energy and mana, accelerating downward.

Ssshhh—

The lava roared and split violently around me.

Twenty seconds passed. I couldn’t say for sure, but I guessed I was somewhere around the midpoint between the summit and the base.

Huh?

Amid the crushing weight of divinity from all sides, I sensed something.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Still descending, I turned my head and caught a flash of brilliant blue-gold light, glinting through the roiling magma.

It wasn’t alive.

I immediately changed course.

Now that I had a target, the divine presence sharpened rapidly. The light grew stronger as I bore through the lava. It was embedded in something like a rocky outcrop beneath the molten sea. Moreover, it glowed so brightly that I couldn’t make out what it was.

I don’t have time.

Now wasn’t the moment to figure it out. I stretched out my hand and grabbed hold of it. It was big.

The instant I touched it, heat surged through my palm.

Without hesitation, I yanked it loose.

Sssuuuk—

I felt it dislodge, and the sensation seemed to travel up through my fingers.

Boom!

A deep tremor reverberated through the volcano. For a second, I wondered if the whole thing was about to erupt, but quickly refocused on escaping.

I didn’t look back. I kicked off the molten rock and shot upward.

This is dangerous.

My shield of divine energy was starting to melt away, so I roughly calculated how long I had been descending for. If I had to rise all the way back up, I was cutting it close.

Fortunately, retrieving the glowing object seemed to have thinned the divine energy saturating the lava just slightly.

I glanced down. The thing clutched in my right hand still pulsed with light and radiated divinity.

It burns.

A searing pain flared through my fingertips. My hand trembled from the surge of energy coursing through it.

As I grew more accustomed to the glow, I realized that it was a massive horn, over a meter long and thicker than my arm. My fingers throbbed, but I didn’t want to let go after going through this dive.

However, I couldn’t keep holding it either. In a spark of inspiration, I shoved it into Mung-chi. I was briefly concerned that it wouldn’t accept the horn, but the horn slipped in cleanly, and I exhaled in relief.

“

Phew.

”

Before long, I could feel myself nearing the summit, and my shield was still holding for now.

Fortunately, despite the tremor earlier, the volcano showed no signs of erupting.

I burst through the surface of the lava.

Ssshhhhh—!

As I shot into the air, lava followed. It exploded upward like a fan and scattered violently in all directions.

Honestly, it was kind of beautiful—although the nearby researchers clearly didn’t think so. Screams rang out from the distance.

“

Waaah!

”

“It-it’s exploding!”

Molten lava still hung suspended around me.

I realized I couldn’t let myself be seen. After all, it was not like I did anything to attain divinity.

Given that the lava lake was over thirty kilometers wide, no one had likely seen me. Still, I immediately activated Master of Shadows and sped over to a deserted area. From there, I watched as the researchers scattered in a panic.

No one looked back. They were all fleeing with their backs to the volcano. They probably thought it was about to erupt.

Well, I had thought the same when I felt that tremor earlier.

Considering that they had just witnessed lava erupt skyward before their eyes, their reaction was perfectly understandable.

“

Haaaaaa.

”

Only once I caught my breath did I glance down at my burned hand. The skin on my right hand looked raw and peeling as if it had been scorched. It felt like it was rotting from the inside out.

The pain was sharp and unmistakable.

Like usual, I had taken off my gauntlet after entering this floor, as I had assumed that there wouldn’t be any strong enemies. I had kept the rest of my gear on, though, just in case something unexpected happened.

This time, however, everything had happened too fast. I hadn’t had the time nor spare mana to activate Flash Strike and equip my gauntlet.

Honestly, even if I had been wearing it, I probably would have still gotten burned.

It is recovering so slowly, too.

I had evolved to the point that most of my wounds healed quickly without extra treatment. Strangely, this one refused to close.

Somehow, the divine energy radiating from the horn was interfering with my ability to recover.

Should I treat it?

Usually, I would have left it alone to heal naturally, but wounds inflicted by divine energy seemed to be another matter.

Thankfully, I had figured out how to use a few basic divine spells during my training with Gehenna. I could cast them if I needed to.

I am still not on Doppy’s level, though.

It wasn’t about how much divinity I possessed but about knowing how to use it.

I had asked Doppy once, but even he didn’t have a clear answer. He only borrowed Fenrike’s power.

In the end, I decided to leave it be.

The pain was sharp enough to cut through my Pain Resistance skill, and it had been a long time since I had felt a pain like this.

On second thought, I debated whether it could help push me to adapt even further. It had been so long since I had felt pain this intense. It was oddly welcoming.

I have to be out of my mind, thinking like this.

It felt like a part of me that had grown dull over time had suddenly stirred back to life. I hadn’t felt pain this vivid in a long time, maybe ever.

After strapping the gauntlet onto my left hand, I cast Shadow Veil over the area.

Everyone had already bolted, but the horn definitely emitted a powerful light. That alone could spark rumors I didn’t want spreading.

“Mung-chi, take out that horn from earlier. Not in my hands, but on the ground.”

Whether it was due to discomfort or not, Mung-chi spat it out almost immediately. The speed at which it had was something else entirely, on a whole different level than usual.

I shifted my gaze to the horn now lying on the ground. Deep blue-gold and pulsing with divinity, it was unmistakably not a relic or weapon. It was a fragment of a corpse.

If I had to guess, it belonged to a god.

A part of a god’s body.

Why it had been buried beneath molten lava remained a mystery, though.

Did they lose it during a battle?

That seemed unlikely. This was a god we were talking about, so there was no way they would simply misplace something imbued with their own divine energy.

Which left only one possibility.

The god died.

Just then, I recalled the old legend that Remtal and the others kept mentioning. Apparently, long ago, a massive cataclysm destroyed the world.

Did a god perish during that event?

It was entirely plausible. The tower liked to hide tidbits of information in trials, and they often turned out to be part of hidden missions. Moreover, if the god were still alive, they would have come to reclaim the horn by now.

That line of thought led me down another path.

Are there more remnants like this buried within the lava?

I saw no reason that couldn’t be the case.

The lava sea and the volcanoes were said to constantly circulate lava. If the horn had surfaced in the volcano, then perhaps the rest of the corpse still lay buried, deeper.

Wait, is the body obstructing the natural flow, causing the lava levels to rise?

The notion crossed my mind, but I dismissed it almost immediately.

No, that doesn’t hold up.

It wouldn’t make sense, unless it had been lodged there since ancient times, but Remtal had clearly stated the lava level only began rising after the great earthquake forty years ago. That would suggest the god’s body wasn’t the cause.

Perhaps it had been there all along, hidden beneath the lava, and only the horn had floated up after the quake.

The more I thought about it, the more likely that seemed.

That did raise a bigger question, though. Why had the slayer of the god left the corpse behind? Perhaps the tower’s restrictions had something to do with it.

Anyway, if my theory holds, then the rest of the god should be somewhere near the trench or directly beneath it. Hmm.

Considering how much divine energy the lava surrounding the horn had held, retrieving the body would be no easy task. The horn alone had nearly overwhelmed me.

For now, I would keep this in mind. If something stirred in the Sea of Lava, I could try following up on it. If it proved too dangerous, I would simply walk away.

It was just part of a hidden mission, so there was no reason to gamble my life on it.

Let me start by taking a closer look at the horn, though.

A notification window hadn’t appeared. If one had, I wouldn’t still be wondering whether this was truly part of a god’s corpse.

Since it was difficult to handle directly, I tried lifting it with the wind spirit.

Nothing happened. Sadly, trying with Master of Shadows ended up with the same result.

Are all divine items like this?

Left with no alternative, I channeled divine energy into the gauntlet and picked it up again. Even through the gauntlet, the heat tore into me—sharp, searing, and immediate.

“

Ah!

”

I dropped it without a second thought.

Earlier, I had been too distracted to notice, but now that I was focused on it, the pain was far more intense than expected.

It sat harmlessly on the ground, yet the instant it made contact with my hand, it burned straight through my power.

I didn’t fully understand why, but if this really was part of a god’s corpse, perhaps that was how they were supposed to react.

A thought sparked in the back of my mind.

Could it be rejecting the divine energy I have infused into the gauntlet? Some kind of backlash?

I immediately withdrew the divine energy and touched it again—nothing changed. It flared painfully, and I dropped the horn once more.

I examined it a few more times, but nothing about it stood out.

A god’s horn, steeped in divinity.

That was all.

Then another idea surfaced.

Can I use this as a weapon?

In a future confrontation with a god or one of their apostles, it could prove invaluable. I could even consider it a hidden trump card.

Though I was fairly certain most of the gods were already watching me, I had Mung-chi absorb it again.

There was nothing more to gain here. As volcanic expeditions went, this had been more than successful.

I need to spend more time thinking about the horn later.

For now, it was time to return to the Sea of Lava Countermeasure Headquarters.