Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1862 (1834). The Flames of the Evil God
"tumultuous!"

The intense flames shot up to several meters high in an instant.

Originally shrouded in the purple light of the sealed prison, in an independent space with a blue-purple atmosphere, surging flames spread out.

The flames surged and raged, but in the hands of the person wearing bulky armor, they were molded into a small, floating spherical sun.

Lan En's gaze was solemn and deep.

Logically speaking, the speed at which this little sun was flying over should never be able to catch up with him.

But he just stood there without moving.

He stared at the fireball, which was about the size of a person, as if he were attracted to and captivated by the fire.

In reality, most other people in the world would probably not react to this prayer, treating it as just an ordinary fireball. They would only realize how different the flames were once it exploded.

But Lan En is different... He's currently using [Spirit Vision]!
A deep gaze can penetrate the superficial world and reach the deeper truth.

The moment Lan En saw the fireball, amidst the churning, surging flames that had shaped into a sphere, he seemed to vaguely make eye contact with a single eye.

The white of that one eye was bloodshot, but still relatively normal. However, the pupil…

That's not a pupil at all.

There were nine vortexes, one large and eight small, swirling with raging flames, forming what was called the pupil!

The giants worshipped a fiery evil god, which resided deep within their bodies until their defeat.

Suddenly, a sentence from Gideon Ophniel's collection of books flashed through Lan En's mind.

Sir Eldest was a veteran hero led by the First King, Gopher, during the War of the Giants.

He may have even fought in the giant annihilation battle that took place on the snowy mountain at the very beginning of the Giant War.

After verifying his collection of books and his own insights, Lan En found most of them to be credible.

So, Gideon believed that since the giants were defeated and annihilated, with only one giant remaining who was cursed to guard the cauldron of fire, the so-called 'evil god of fire' should have already been banished.

But now... what is it that Lan En sees through the fireball in front of him?
Originally, Lann was not entirely certain that the person imprisoned in this sealed prison was Adam, who had stolen the important prayers of the Flame Watchers.

But once the fireball appeared, the identity of the person in front of him was beyond doubt.

The fireball didn't fly very fast; it wasn't even as fast as a regular arrow.

But Lan En seemed so engrossed in watching that his thoughts were drawn into the surging flames.

Although Adam was imprisoned here and had lost even the ability to communicate, his fighting ability did not seem to be affected.

He immediately swung his meteor hammer and charged towards the Witcher, following behind the fireball he had released!
The seemingly normal, practical meteor hammer swung around, leaving an uncanny white afterimage and a heavy whistling sound, about to smash down on Lan En's head!

Even now, the Witcher was still looking up at the fireball, not at the enemy charging towards him.

But in the next instant...

"bass!"

A sharp, piercing sound followed by a slender flash of silver light!

The silver light streaked straight across the center of the fireball flying in mid-air from the center line!

As if a frame had been dropped and the scene was missing, Aarondet, who was in the scabbard at Lan En's waist just a moment ago, was now in his right hand, with his arm positioned on the right side of his body.

He looked as if he had already swung his sword.

As the thin, straight silver light swept across the center of the fireball, the previously well-formed spherical shape suddenly churned violently in mid-air and exploded in the next moment!

"boom!"

The fireball exploded, scattering a large amount of flames.

The flames landed on the stone bricks in the crater, and although there was nothing flammable, they continued to burn, the flames viciously licking everything they could touch.

“The Flame God… does look quite fierce,” the amber cat-like eyes, which had seemed to be bewitched and attracted by the flames just moments before, now calmly moved away from the mid-air after the fireball exploded. “But just looking at the spell itself, it can still cut through things.”

For Lan En, seeing the eye connected to the spell through the fireball spell did not put much mental pressure on him.

After all, the spiritual vision in these eyes has witnessed too much profound reality and has brought about too much growth and inspiration.

When he last visited the ancient Greek world, his [Spirit Vision] found it difficult to be as inspired as it had been during his first visit when he saw most of the Isu technological creations.

Most of the time I feel nothing.

His eyes, after all, had once witnessed the entire dissection process of an ancient god trapped in the material world.

In order to improve Mentos's computing power, he even wrote a summary paper on the spot.

During that battle, Lan En's [Spirit Vision] received a significant boost.

Even now, despite accompanying him, a witcher who travels through various worlds, and witnessing all sorts of surreal scenes, the power of [Spirit Vision] has entered a period of slow improvement.

However, by observing that fireball prayer just now, Lan En felt a long-lost sense of renewed enhancement in his [Spiritual Vision].

He had been staring blankly at the slowly drifting fireball, as if bewitched by the power of the flames.

It was as if he was captivated by the single eye of that vortex of flames.

But in reality: this wasn't the one-eyed flame vortex behind that spell; the [Flame God] put too much pressure on him.

He was just a little...surprised because of the improvement in his [Spiritual Vision].

That's why I froze. A series of crisp, cracking sounds followed!
The longsword that had just swept past the fireball with a thin, silvery sheen now spun smoothly around his side, like flowing water changing direction.

The graceful back of the longsword gently tapped the connection between the handle and the chain of the meteor hammer.

Inertia caused the hammer to continue moving at high speed, but because the chain was blocked by the back of the longsword, it could only change direction, and the violent swing turned into a rapid wrapping around the head of the longsword.

The chain links collided and rubbed against the blade, producing a crisp sound.

Adam tried to pull on the handle of the flail again, but Lann suddenly drew his sword!

"Stab!"

A sharp, cutting sound accompanied by a burst of sparks!

Arondette's blade, under the control of Lann's swordsmanship, sliced ​​straight through the meteor hammer chains wrapped around it!
The severed chains scattered and flew everywhere, and the hammer was also flung off course by inertia.

Adam was left with only a handle that barely qualifys as a short stick.

His body was still exerting the force he had just used to pull, but the chain, which was the object of the pulling force, had already broken.

Adam immediately staggered backward.

But it wasn't his turn to fall to the ground.

"call out!"

Suddenly, a large hand appeared and grabbed one of his arms, and then Adam was tripped sideways.

The force was so powerful that Adam, wearing his bulky armor, was thrown sideways in mid-air!
The swinging of his body produced a whooshing sound.

Followed by.

"Oh!"

In mid-air, Lann grabbed Adam's arm and forcibly twisted it behind his back. Then, pressing down on his arm and back, he slammed him to the ground!
Lan En slammed Adam to the ground, a seemingly ordinary action, but it was even more powerful than the Battle Ashes unleashed by the opponent!

Immediately, the already pitted floor of the sealed prison was smashed into an irregular depression.

Spiderweb-like cracks radiated outwards, tearing apart the originally neat stone brick floor, and the still-burning flames between the bricks were squeezed up and down.

A clear sound of blood spurting came from within Adam's massive armor.

He probably vomited blood from the impact.

But Lan En didn't care about any of that. These Golden Tree People were too difficult to kill, so there was no need to be careful at all.

Adam, who had lost his mind, still tried to struggle and resist, but he was unable to move under the restraint of Lann's single arm.

The Witcher sheathed his longsword, pinning him down with one hand while his other hand searched the bulky armor.

The small leather pouch on the armor belt, the small pocket inside the armor lining...

Those familiar with armor will find it very easy to search armed personnel.

Lann suppressed Adam, who had stolen the prayers of the Flame Watchers, and found a number of odds and ends.

Many experienced witchers can recognize a thief's tools at a glance.

But these are not his goals.

Finally, Lann found his target in a pocket close to the lining of his armor.

It was an old but sturdy piece of parchment, the edges of which looked as if they had just been burned, slightly charred and still bearing a few sparks.

It looks just like the "Prayer Book of the Flame Martial Arts Monk".

It can be basically concluded that it was a single page taken from a prayer book of the Flame Watchers.

The prayer recorded above is called "The Flame of the Evil God".

At first glance, Lan En sensed a huge difference from the outline he had compiled from studying the "Prayer Book of Flame Martial Arts Cultivators" and his learning experience.

The Flame Martial Arts Monks are an armed group ordered by Queen Marika to guard the Ash Flame and the Flame Cauldron on the snowy mountain.

Their faith should still be based on the Golden Law, and the use of fire was merely a necessary means in the process of guarding.

This stance manifested itself in the prayer book given to the head of the Watchers when Lann went to Aganti.

That prayer book has a cover with the powerful golden emblem of the law.

However, the prayer of "Evil God's Flame"...

"Not to monitor the flame in order to uphold the Golden Law, but simply... to revere and yearn for the flame itself?"

With one hand still holding Adam down, Lann unfolded the parchment in front of him with the other, murmuring softly as he read it.

"Tsk," even the Witcher couldn't help but gasp at the sight before him, his gaze shifting from the prayer in his hands to the subdued Adam. "This is what you stole? From the snow mountain? From the Flame Watchers?"

Adam could not respond to him.

Since being imprisoned in the sealed jail, this thief has lost all self-awareness.

Lan En didn't kill him; he just kicked him away.

Then, a flash of eerie blue light appeared from the scabbard of the dagger at his lower back. A gash appeared in the enclosed space, like a wound on a living organism.

Beyond the opening lies the normal world, unveiled by any curtain.

(End of this chapter)