Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 266

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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266
The Fire Spirits that died in Amy’s hands became small orbs that fell to the ground, only to be absorbed by the flames from the Fire Cavern walls and transform back into spirits.
The resurrected spirits had no memories, as if they were being born anew, but they resonated with the rage of the other spirits and attacked Amy.
“Immortal?! How am I supposed to overcome this?!”
Amy was too focused on her desperate battle to notice, but with each revival of the Fire Spirits, the cavern gradually narrowed.
If the resurrections repeated countless times, the power within the Fire Cavern would eventually be depleted. The question was whether Amy could endure until then.
Amy’s desperate struggle didn’t last long. The numbers kept growing, and now she faced hundreds beyond count—far too many for her to handle. A serpent of flame pierced through her thigh.
“Ugh…!”
In her electrified state, even an injured leg could be healed by her body’s electrical discharge, so her mobility remained unaffected.
However, that last blow had drastically reduced the duration of her electrified form.
If the electrified state granted by her flame defense ended, her human body couldn’t survive even a single second in this inferno.
Amy felt death approaching.
“I can’t die yet!”
Rather than slowly being attacked and perishing like this, Amy chose to make one final desperate gamble.
She gathered all her power and released electricity in all directions.
It was a gamble—expending most of her remaining strength—but fighting defensively piece by piece would never break through this situation.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
The electricity spread rapidly in all directions like cracks in glass, tearing the spirits apart and scattering them.
“Huff… huff… Is it over?”
But without fail, the spirits transformed into orbs again, absorbed the flames from the Fire Cavern walls, and resurrected.
“Tch… It’s not working.”
Her strength was now completely exhausted, and the urge to give up overwhelmed her.
“Huh?”
Amy noticed that one section of the cavern wall had become lighter in color. Because she’d blown away so many spirits, the resurrecting spirits had excessively drained the flames from the wall.
“Can I break through that wall?”
She resented herself for only discovering this after expending all her strength, but she was grateful to have found a way out.
“Here I go!”
Amy transformed into a single streak of electricity and ran forward, with the Fire Spirits clinging closely behind her, launching their attacks.
Waves of flame were already crashing down from behind. There was no option to retreat or dodge.
Amy positioned her hands forward, shaped her body like an arrow, and pierced the wall, which gave way like rubber.
“Break through!!!”
She pushed harder, releasing her power backward with greater force.
The river of fire tore open ever so slightly, as if it had a grain. Even in her electrified form, the opening was far too small for her to pass through.
“It’s over.”
With only minimal strength remaining, the electricity in her hands was about to dissipate.
Amy leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes, watching the flames pour down before her.
Crash!
“What… what is this?!”
With the explosion, Amy’s body shook from both sides. She felt scorching heat from the front and a biting cold from behind, so she turned around.
It was blue water. A stream of water shot through the hole Amy had made, attacking the Fire Spirits, and the biting cold water caused the Fire Spirits’ attacks to explode and vanish.
“…I’m alive!”
The water jets weren’t targeting me—only the Fire Spirits. The enemy of my enemy is my ally, as they say. I judged that these creatures wouldn’t be hostile toward me.
With each burst of water, the hole grew larger until it was wide enough for me to slip through.
I hurled myself through a gap in the water jets, diving past the wall of fire.
It resembled the Fire Cavern in structure, but the opposite in every other way—a cavern awash in shades of blue, as though painted with water itself.
Inside the Water Cavern, the Water Spirits—creatures bearing the forms of various marine life—were unleashing torrents of water.
Fish, eels, squid—all manner of sea creatures.
The Water Spirits possessed no greater intelligence than their Fire counterparts. They would recklessly charge into the Fire domain and boil away to death, or concentrate their firepower on a single opponent while ignoring threats from behind. It was pure, mindless brawling—striking only what lay directly before them.
Kee-eek! Kee-eek!
From behind the Water Spirits, a single Dolphin emerged, crying out loudly as it swam forward.
When it vocalized as though commanding the Water Spirits, the creatures that had been attacking at random suddenly formed orderly lines and struck in unison.
With this Commander leading them, the Water Spirits’ coordinated assault steadily drove back the Fire Spirits.
Had I not already weakened the Fire Spirits considerably, the Water Spirits could never have achieved victory so easily.
“Well done! Finish them!”
I cheered on the Water Spirits as though they were my own allies.
Soon after, an entire wall of the Fire Cavern collapsed, and the essence of water came flooding in.
The lower reaches of the Fire Cavern turned blue beneath the torrent of water essence.
“Serves them right! Hmph!”
Upstream, the Water Spirits formed a barrier with their bodies, and a wall of water materialized like healing flesh, severing the Fire Cavern and Water Cavern once more.
“…”
I slowly turned my head.
Countless fish were staring at me.
“This feels familiar… surely they’re not about to attack again?”
[Human. Why. Here.]
The Dolphin approached and spoke directly into my mind.
“Oh! You can talk?! I’m Amy. I came from Earth. I met the Spirit King to protect Earth. Oh! Have you seen my friend? She’s a gnome named Baldri, and she’s taken the form of a fire horse. If you see her, please don’t attack her, okay? She’s a good girl. Though honestly, I have no idea what form she’s in now.”
After wandering for so long, I finally found someone I could communicate with, and the words came pouring out like machine-gun fire.
“I didn’t know Dolphins could furrow their brows.”
[Wow.]
The Dolphin turned sharply and swam leisurely through the water realm.
“…Are you telling me to follow?”
The Dolphin continued swimming without another word. I shrugged and followed, and the other fish rushed after me in a great throng.
They weren’t hostile, but they weren’t welcoming either.
Following the Dolphin, I encountered several intersections. The passages twisted together like an Ant Nest—impossible to navigate without knowing the way.
Where the Dolphin led me was a vast convergence of caverns, a space far more enormous than any other I’d seen.
“Wow….”
Water Spirits moving in and out from all directions reminded me of a bustling water city.
“It’s beautiful. If only it weren’t so cold, it would be perfect.”
At first, the absence of scorching heat was a relief, but the water was bone-chillingly cold, and the pressure threatened to crush my body. Had I not transformed into lightning, I could never have survived in this water realm.
[Below. King.]
“Below this? Is the Water Spirit King down there?”
Dolphin didn’t answer, simply gazing at Amy in silence.
“You’re telling me to go down?”
Dolphin offered no response.
“So we can communicate after all….”
Under Dolphin’s wordless pressure, Amy descended beneath the enormous cavern. The water had grown so dense it appeared black, and the cold combined with the crushing pressure made it increasingly unbearable.
“I never thought I’d die by water instead of fire.”
Maintaining her electrified state grew progressively harder.
In the realm of fire, she would have burned to death, but if she released the electrification here, she’d either freeze or be crushed by the water pressure.
“Baldri…. Ji-seok…. I’m sorry….”
Without even confirming what the massive shape beneath the black water was, Amy’s electrified form collapsed.
“Cough!”
Water flooded her lungs instantly, and blood burst from her eyes and nose under the pressure. An ordinary person would have died on the spot, but because Amy possessed a superhuman body, her suffering only prolonged.
Moreover, a human body that shouldn’t exist in the Spirit Realm was decomposing and vanishing. There was a reason Baldri had said that objects from Earth couldn’t enter the Spirit Realm.
As Amy lost consciousness from the agony, water was pulled from her lungs as if by suction, and air rushed in.
“Cough! Cough! What is this…. An air bubble?”
Awakened by the sudden change, Amy looked around. She was inside an air bubble the size of a person.
[A human in the Spirit Realm. How did this happen?]
A massive shadow’s eyes glimmered in the water.
“W-who are you?”
[I am the one who leads the Water Spirits. I am Arnabel.]
A colossal whale rose from the deep water. Its size far exceeded any whale she’d ever seen on Earth.
Amy swallowed hard and steadied herself.
“I’m Amy Huntsman. I’ve come from Earth.”
[Quite a noisy place these days. But why?]
“Earth is growing hotter. If left unchecked, all life on Earth will perish.”
[…. We are aware of the situation. The Fire Spirit King, Ignis, has set his sights on Earth.]
“Why?”
[Because there is much to burn. Recently, it seems the World Tree has been sending power in that direction. The World Tree’s support is a double-edged sword. While receiving aid is fortunate, one also receives the affection of fire.]
“Ji-seok…. This is because of you….”
Even as she spoke those words, Amy knew the truth. If Ji-seok hadn’t contracted with Gaff and received the World Tree’s power, Earth would have been destroyed by the Administrator. Ji-seok had simply been deceived by Gaff.
“Spirit King, can you help us?”
Arnabel compressed water within the depths, forming the true image of the World Tree that Ji-seok had once witnessed, with tangled threads visible at its center.
[This is the Water Realm.]
A portion of the threads glowed blue.
[And this is the Fire Realm.]
Another section turned red. The Fire Realm clearly dominated the Water Realm.
[The Spirit Realm must maintain balance. More water is not better, nor is more fire. Most living creatures can only survive in harmony. For such creatures to exist, the World Tree grows, and the Spirit Realm grows.]
Across the miniature World Tree Arnabel had created, balanced water and fire energies spread, and the World Tree flourished abundantly.
[However, the Fire Spirit King cares nothing for balance or growth. He desires only to burn.]
Sil’s thread blazed with crimson fire, and the flames spread outward, consuming the entire World Tree.
“The World Tree will burn to ashes.”
[Young human, the World Tree will not burn so easily.]
“Oh my, I’m not that young~”
[The World Tree’s nature will simply change.]
“But our world will disappear.”
[Within such a vast World Tree, it is merely a trivial matter.]
“…”
[However, I find it displeasing. The Water Spirits suffering losses, innocent lives perishing—none of it sits well with me.]
“Ah!”
[War has already begun. To suppress that creature, we must convert more territory into Water domains, weakening its power.]
“How can we turn territory into Water domains?”
[Just as you did—slay the Fire Spirits and weaken their domains, then the Water Spirits can enter and seize the territory.]
“I’ll help. Once I recover my strength a little, I can fight again.”
Now that I understood the rules of this war and had the Water Spirits’ support, I was confident I could face the Fire Spirits.
[And there is something even more important. We need the help of Earthlings.]
“Earthlings?”
Amy tilted her head, not understanding what connection the Spirit Realm’s war could possibly have with Earth.

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