Chapter 1185 — Fierce Battle
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
At first, the strange, searing odor that permeated the surroundings did not draw the adventurers' attention, for on this wasteland that had once witnessed a god-slaying war, countless bizarre smells had long since numbed the senses of outsiders. The compounds flowing out of underground factories, pipe networks and industrial raw-material pools, along with the gas wells and liquid-storage facilities still burning to this day, gave off every second the kind of stench that kept Lora and her companions on edge; after more false alarms than they could count, the adventurers' first reaction was simply that some industrial facility nearby must have sprung another leak.
Yet as that peculiar reek in the air grew ever more distinct, the alarm in the adventurers' hearts finally stirred awake. Lora unconsciously came to a halt, and upon the surface of the enchanted shortbow in her hand countless fine, delicate dark-red veins surfaced. A one-handed swordsman walking at her side likewise raised his blade into a guard stance and warned his companions in a low voice: "Something is off... I can feel something gathering..."
"Stay sharp!" The two-handed swordsman serving as interim leader raised an arm ahead of them. This seasoned adventurer had already caught the scent of danger drawing near. "The elements are massing... there is an invisible rift close by!"
Elements?
Almost instantly Lora turned her gaze to Mo Jin, quite possibly the most powerful spellcaster in the party—transcendents could all sense the flow of magic and elemental power, but only mages were true experts in the realm of the elements. This experienced old gentleman could surely prove of immense use at a moment like this!
Yet no sooner had her eyes swept over than she saw old Mo Jin merely standing there, somewhat blank and dazed—he seemed to have fallen into that trance-like state again.
"Damn it... Mo Jin!" A surge of panic gripped Lora, and forgetting all courtesy due to an elder, she cried out at once, "Stop spacing out! Something is wrong!"
Mo Jin snapped awake from his wandering thoughts. The old mage's eyelids jerked up with a start, and he instantly noticed the churning elemental force in the air around them. At once he exclaimed in a low voice: "By the lungs of the Founding Sovereign! Can none of you see the elemental rift opening right before your eyes? And you actually walked straight up to it at such close range?!"
Even as he cried out, this old mage, barely recovered from his daze, raised a hand and swept it forward; an invisible wave of magical power surged ahead, and the adventurers' eyes went wide. Where the invisible wind of magic passed, the concealed elemental shadows were abruptly traced into solid form, and incongruous fissures emerged upon the stable material world—a crimson rift fully a hundred meters tall and a dozen wide, like a dreadful vertical pupil, standing barely several dozen meters in front of the adventurer squad, while the firelight and scalding mist spraying ceaselessly from that pupil-like crimson rift had all but singed the scalps of Lora and her companions!!
The young huntress felt her heart skip half a beat. One glance into the rift was enough to show her countless rivers of molten lava coalescing and taking shape in another world, living flames dancing and leaping through the air, and grotesque creatures of pure energy gathering with ill intent on this side of the rift. Never in her entire adventuring career had she seen a sight of such horror—yet she still quickly understood what it was she beheld.
She stood face to face with the world of fire, face to face with the most savage and perilous domain of the elemental worlds.