Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 265

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

265
“Blocking out the sun is only a temporary measure. To prevent thermal runaway, we need to stop the Spirit’s abnormal behavior.”
At Jae-in’s words, all eyes turned to Baldri, the only Spirit Summoner present.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this alone.”
Baldri hung her head under the weight of responsibility.
“What if I go with you~?”
“Amy, humans can’t go there.”
“Even like this?”
Amy transformed her body into pure electricity. Every trace of her human form vanished, replaced entirely by condensed electrical energy.
“Isn’t that the same as when you transformed into a fire horse?”
“I didn’t think of that! You’re right!”
“So you think you can do it?”
“The odds are better with two of us than with me alone, but I can’t promise anything.”
There was a world of difference between going alone on a mission with no hope and going with someone else.
“Information about the Spirit Realm is limited. Most people who’ve been there only stayed for a brief moment. For a situation of this magnitude, we’d need to speak with a Spirit King, but there’s no historical record of anyone ever meeting one.”
“Can’t we summon one?”
“Summoning is nearly impossible. Besides, if a Spirit King manifests, Earth might become even hotter.”
“That would be dangerous. You’ll be okay, Amy?”
“We have to do this anyway~, right?”
Amy returned to her normal form, and Ji-seok nodded with a grave expression. It was a nearly impossible task, but only these two could accomplish it.
“Baldri.”
Ji-seok looked at Baldri to ask what would be needed from this point forward.
“Just enter the gate that leads to the Spirit Realm.”
“Is there such a place on Earth?”
“Yes, there are many. Follow me.”
Following Baldri’s guidance, we arrived at a massive active volcano in the South Pacific.
“…This is the entrance?”
From the summit of Earth’s largest active volcano, I gazed down into the abyss. Steam rose in plumes from countless fissures, and the scorched black stone filled my entire field of vision.
“It’s both entrance and exit. Actually, entering the Fire Spirit Realm works anywhere hot. Even the sun would work, right? Now, step back.”
Baldri transformed into a fire horse at the volcano’s center. The small Naume Baldri became a colossal steed, reared up on her hind legs, and brought her hooves down with tremendous force.
Baldri struck the ground several more times, and as the earth cracked open and lava began seeping through, she leaped backward and returned to us.
Baldri hadn’t merely struck the ground. Using a Spirit’s power, she awakened the dormant lava sleeping beneath, and it slowly rose to form a spring of molten rock.
“We’re supposed to go in there~?”
The lava Amy pointed to was bubbling violently.
“Yes. Someone like you wouldn’t melt in lava this hot. Just stay in your electrical form and cling to my back.”
“…Okay~”
Amy forced a composed expression and transformed into electricity.
“Oh, that’s right! Don’t electrocute me. Even if I transform into a Spirit, electricity will still affect me.”
“I can control that. Probably~”
Even the usually optimistic Amy looked troubled this time.
“Let’s go.”
At Baldri’s words, Amy nervously undressed and completed her final preparations. The outfit was made from a special material that wouldn’t melt or burn even when she transformed into lightning.
She had to remove Earth’s belongings because they would decompose or be repelled once she entered the Spirit Realm.
Bae Na-young covered Ji-seok’s eyes. Even though he could see perfectly well with his other senses, Ji-seok remained still because he knew it put Bae Na-young’s mind at ease.
Amy, transformed into lightning, bounced up and climbed onto Baldri’s back.
“Let’s go!”
Amy transitioned from a state of tension into one of excitement.
“Whoooosh!”
Flames poured from Baldri’s mouth, and after pawing the ground once with a mighty stomp, she charged toward the Spring.
“Have a safe trip!”
Receiving everyone’s farewells, Baldri and Amy plunged into the lava Spring.
* * *
The heat posed no problem—Amy was wrapped in a lightning aura, and her fire resistance increased dramatically in her electrified state—but submerged in the lava, she could see nothing.
Unable to speak, all she could do was grip Baldri’s neck tightly and endure.
Though Amy couldn’t see it, horns sprouted and gleamed from Baldri’s head, and a path opened through the lava.
A brighter lava of luminous intensity spread before them like a corridor, and Baldri charged into it.
The temperature within that radiant passage burned far hotter than the surrounding lava, and the heat pierced through Amy’s aura and defenses.
Amy wrapped herself in more aura to reinforce her protection, and some of the excess lightning scattered and struck Baldri.
“Kyaaah!”
Baldri convulsed violently from the sudden electrical discharge against her back.
Baldri, now transformed into flames themselves, thrashed wildly in the lava, and Amy could no longer cling to her back.
As Amy separated from her, she flailed desperately, but Baldri had already slipped away—there was nothing to grasp.
Thinking it a failure, Amy tried to ascend back to the surface, but the river of lava refused to release her.
The two of them, now separated, were swept into the torrent of lava.
* * *
Ji-seok and his group watched from atop the volcano as the lava Spring where Amy and Baldri had entered vanished.
The Spring spiraled downward as if a hole had opened beneath it, then disappeared.
“…”
“It’s just like flushing a toilet….”
“Jae-in, that’s enough.”
Bae Na-young cut off Jae-in’s comment.
“We trust the two of them, and we do what we must.”
Ji-seok was worried about them too, but with no other choice, he had to trust them. He led everyone back to World Tree City.
* * *
A hole opened, and lava cascaded down. Amy, who had been struggling, finally found herself free.
“It’s so hot!”
Though the lava surrounding her body had vanished, the temperature remained unchanged.
Because Amy was in her electrified form, “hot” was all she could say—but the temperature was high enough to melt not just ordinary humans, but machines as well.
The cavern was enormous, spanning dozens of meters across, and though the walls were covered in flowing crimson paint-like lava, it was brilliantly bright rather than dark.
“Baldri~! Baldri~!”
Enduring the heat, Amy called out to Baldri, but there was no response. Looking around, there was no sign of Baldri—nor any other living creature or spirit.
“Where should I go~?”
As Amy walked aimlessly, her body drifted upward as if weightless. Gravity itself did not exist in this space.
“If only it weren’t so hot, this would truly be a beautiful place~.”
Captivated by the way red and orange flowed like watercolors across this world, Amy’s gaze and heart were momentarily stolen away.
“This is no time for that. Baldri~! Where are you~?”
Amy could maintain her lightning spirit form for only a day or two at most. She had to find Baldri as quickly as possible, solve Earth’s global warming problem—or at least find a solution—and return.
“Bal…”
As Amy called out desperately for Baldri, something slithered toward her from ahead.
“A snake?”
A meter-long serpent made entirely of flame.
“Salamander!”
The spirit that Ji-seok had defeated at Telus and shared with the World Hunter Association—Salamander—appeared before her eyes. Having read the report with interest, Amy knew Ji-seok had struggled, so she immediately took a combat stance.
“I’m not an enemy~.”
Since she needed to meet the Fire Spirit King and couldn’t afford to fight from the start, Amy extended both hands forward as she spoke.
The Salamander and the serpent regarded Amy as if observing a curious creature, slowly drawing closer.
“I’m looking for a friend. Have you seen a small one?”
Amy stepped back and asked, but as expected, the two fire spirits merely flicked their tongues without answering.
“I come from a place called Earth. Could I meet your king as well? The Fire Spirit King, that is.”
The moment Amy spoke of the Fire Spirit King, both the serpent and Salamander froze completely.
“Oh my, you know of him? Will you guide me?”
The serpent pulled its body back slightly, then shot forward as if released from a bowstring. It was no mere snake—it was a fire arrow incarnate.
“Ugh!”
Amy leaned back to evade, but the serpent grazed her cheek as it passed, scorching her skin.
Already a scorching place, their attacks carried heat dozens of times more intense, wounding even Amy’s body, which normally ignored ordinary attacks and magic.
Before Amy could reset her stance, the Salamander unleashed flames from its maw.
“Don’t do this! I don’t want to fight!”
She needed to speak with the Spirit King; this was problematic.
Though startled by the ambush, once Amy committed to evasion, the serpent and Salamander could not approach her, and soon they ceased their assault.
“Alright, alright, let’s not fight. I simply wish to talk.”
Amy displayed her open palms, her entire body conveying once more that she meant no harm.
Shrieeeeek!
The serpent, which had been watching Amy quietly, released a long, high-pitched cry.
“That sound feels ominous~”
Amy lacked Ji-seok’s keen sensory skills, but she possessed the instincts of a first-rate hunter.
As Amy looked around, various fire-formed reptiles burst forth from the gaps in the space that flowed like watercolor.
“I knew it!”
A fire frog puffed its mouth before spewing fireballs in rapid succession at Amy. The serpent shot forward like an arrow, while the Salamander unleashed waves of flame or hurled itself directly at her.
She tried to flee, but fire spirits poured endlessly from both sides of the cave. When she kicked at the cave wall, it rebounded her like she had struck a rubber tube.
“If you keep this up, I won’t hold back either!”
No matter how swift Amy was, evading the torrents of flame unleashed by hundreds of creatures within such confined quarters proved nearly impossible. And their numbers kept swelling.
“Damn!”
In a moment of carelessness, a Salamander lunged directly at Amy’s face.
Flames descended from all directions. The only escape lay straight ahead. But to reach it, she had to eliminate the Salamander blocking her path.
“Don’t blame me!”
Amy thrust both hands forward and unleashed a torrent of electricity.
The lightning struck the Salamander’s head dead-on, piercing clean through to its body.
Amy bolted through the narrow passage she’d just created. Then she stared at the corpse of the fallen Salamander.
“…Ji-seok! You said they were strong!”
Salamanders were formidable creatures. Even more so here in the Spirit Realm than they were on Telus. But Amy hadn’t accounted for just how much stronger she herself had become in the interim.
The other fire spirits gazed silently at the dead Salamander before turning their heads toward Amy in unison.
“…Sorry?”
ROOOAAARRR!
Frogs and Salamanders spewed flames.
SHRIEEEEEK!
A serpent cried out, summoning its allies.
“Hey! Don’t do that! I said I’m sorry?!”
Just as Amy had feared, their numbers multiplied.
Evasion alone was no longer viable, and with one creature already dead, any chance for negotiation had evaporated.
“Fine, I don’t care anymore!”
Amy incinerated the annoying serpents that were calling for reinforcements with a barrage of electricity.
“Serves you right!”
Though she’d eliminated dozens, the serpent had already summoned allied spirits, so their numbers only continued to grow.
To make matters worse, the corpses of the dead Salamanders and serpents were absorbed into the cave wall, which then regurgitated fresh ones.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————