Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 271
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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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271
Amy burst forward with all her speed, and Baldri pursued with equal urgency, but the distance between them widened relentlessly.
“Go ahead! There are no Fire Spirits here!”
Time was running out. If Arnabel fell, both the Spirit Realm and Earth would be finished.
“…Be careful coming!”
Amy, who had deliberately held back her full speed out of consideration for Baldri, transformed into lightning and surged forward.
“She’s incredibly fast.”
In an instant, Amy vanished from Baldri’s sight, leaving only sparks dancing in her wake.
“I need to hurry too.”
There was no time to hesitate.
* * *
“Kurban! Ignis is receiving power from outside! We have to block it!”
[From outside? Who?]
“The Administrator! That’s not the point right now. We have to stop it!]
[We’re aware that Ignis has obtained infinite power. But how can we counter it?]
Kurban sensed something amiss as he watched the battle between Arnabel and Ignis unfold.
A Spirit King’s strength grew proportionally to the domain they possessed, so Ignis, who had lost most of the Fire Realm, should have been defeated instantly.
Arnabel, unwilling to prolong the fight, unleashed his full power from the start. Yet no matter how fiercely he attacked, Ignis’s flames refused to be extinguished—instead, they burned with even greater ferocity.
Meanwhile, Arnabel’s attacks, which consumed tremendous energy, grew progressively weaker.
“…That’s…”
Amy rushed over as quickly as she could, but hadn’t yet grasped the situation.
[Fool. You’ve laid your hands on a power you should never have touched.]
Arnabel ceased his assault and retreated backward.
[Who decided that? I am fire. Fire consumes. The future means nothing to me.]
As Arnabel withdrew, Ignis pursued him, spewing vicious black flames.
Then the walls shifted to tan and pale blue as two colossal presences forced their way into the space.
[Had you not reached for the forbidden, we would have remained observers.]
[Indeed.]
A translucent blue giant and a stone golem resembling a Dwarf materialized before them.
“Dolphin, what are those?”
[The Wind Spirit King Halitus and the Earth Spirit King Umbel.]
“Isn’t this actually good news?”
Though smaller than Arnabel, they were comparable in size to Ignis. And if they were Spirit Kings of different attributes—even with the Administrator’s power, Ignis seemed defeatable now.
[Halitus, Umbel—can you cowards who hide behind neutrality truly withstand my flames?]
[You’ve touched the forbidden and lost your mind.]
Halitus conjured a spear of wind and hurled it at Ignis.
[Hmph!]
Umbel, leveraging the property that stone resists fire and possesses overwhelming mass, pressed forward to restrain Ignis.
[Hold him there, Umbel.]
Arnabel released a surge of water from above, pressing down upon Ignis once more.
Ignis’s movements halted momentarily as attacks converged from three directions, yet even with Umbel and Halitus’s support, his flames refused to extinguish.
Instead, Ignis rallied desperately, recovering his inferno and pushing both Arnabel and Umbel back with increasing force.
“Damn it… Can we not win unless we sever the Administrator’s power?”
“Elice! We have to run!”
Baldri, who had joined the battlefield belatedly, assessed the situation and cried out.
“Where? If Ignis wins, there’s no way for us to survive!”
“If we stay here, we’ll just die meaninglessly!”
Baldri understood the power of spirits well, and she also knew the strength of a Spirit King.
Four such beings clashing tore the very fabric of the Spirit Realm asunder. A single stray attack would erase them without even a scream.
Fear grows with knowledge, and for Baldri, this situation was utterly terrifying—her instincts screamed at her to flee this place immediately.
“…Baldri, you go first.”
“You can’t do this! Don’t you understand?!”
“I understand.”
“Then why?”
“I’ve watched people overturn impossible situations for far too long.”
“You’re talking about Ji-seok? You’re not him!”
“I can’t abandon hope, Baldri. Not even if I die.”
Blue particles orbited around Amy. She was preparing to charge at Ignis with her newly acquired skill.
It was an attack she had already attempted—one that had dealt only a minor wound to Ignis while she suffered grievous damage.
Yet despite this, it was a reckless gambit where she wagered her life on the faintest glimmer of hope that her meager attack might tip the scales of battle.
Baldri, a Gnome whose nature pursued only interest and amusement, could not comprehend Amy’s resolve. Yet even without understanding, Amy’s determination was enough to suppress her terror.
“You can’t just charge in blindly.”
“Huh?”
“The Administrator is channeling power into Ignis. We need to stop that.”
“Okay. How?”
“There must be a point where he receives that power. Let me find it.”
Baldri’s eyes blazed with fire as she maintained her transformation into a fire horse. She focused intently on Ignis. Because of her affinity with fire, her detection abilities surpassed those of other elemental spirits.
“…I still can’t see it. The flames’ temperature is too high, and they keep flickering—I can’t distinguish where the core is…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll go.”
Amy prepared to hurl herself forward.
“Wait! There’s one method left. But not now. Ignis must come to a complete standstill.”
Baldri spoke with grim resolve, as if she had made a decision.
“Fine. That has better odds than a blind charge, doesn’t it? Kurban, can you relay this to the Spirit Kings?”
Kurban nodded.
Screee.
At Kurban’s cry, the Spirit Kings’ gazes shifted briefly toward Kurban and Amy before returning to Ignis.
[To halt Ignis’s movements? That’s an unreasonable demand.]
Umbel, the Earth Spirit King, glared at Ignis.
[Even this small human is willing to throw herself into the flames, yet a Spirit King shows fear?]
[Hmph. Arnabel, I was already planning to act without such cheap provocation.]
Umbel, the earth golem, stepped forward and collided with Ignis body-to-body.
[I’ll melt this filthy dirt with a single breath!]
Ignis’s black flames engulfed Umbel’s body. These weren’t ordinary stones—the rocks that composed a Spirit King’s form wouldn’t melt at mere thousands of degrees. Yet Ignis’s black inferno
gradually melted Umbel’s body from the surface down.
[Hurry!]
Umbel cried out in agony.
[I know!]
At Umbel’s call, Halitus drew the flames into himself from behind. Absorbing the flames was an act that harmed his own body, but it significantly weakened Ignis’s power.
[Hmph!]
Ignis spewed even more flames from his body than Halitus could draw in.
[Arnabel!]
Halitus and Umbel called out to Arnabel simultaneously.
The colossal whale Arnabel descended from above and pinned Ignis down.
Boom!
The entire Spirit Realm trembled from the impact.
“Alright… I’m going!”
Baldri transformed into a low-ranking Fire Spirit and approached Ignis.
Though weakened and movement halted, Ignis’s flames still burned unquenched, even causing Arnabel’s body to boil.
“Baldri?! How much further are you going?!”
“To find the core of the fire, I have no choice but to become fire myself and enter!”
“Come back! You’ll die! Kyaah!”
Amy rushed after her, but the flames prevented her from getting close.
‘Don’t try to pierce through the flames. Become one with them.’
Baldri moved through the flames with the most fundamental mindset of a spirit mage. But Ignis’s flames were the manifestation of a mind twisted abnormally with only the obsession to burn, and Baldri couldn’t fully synchronize with that will—her body burned away.
“Baldri! Come back!”
Amy could no longer see Baldri, but she called out with a voice that seemed to tear her throat.
Did Amy’s heart reach her? Baldri, burning yet aflame, returned.
“Gasp… gasp… the neck and torso… where the torso connects… feathers are pointing backward…”
With those words, Baldri lost consciousness and reverted to her original gnome form. Before her body could scatter into the Spirit Realm, Kurban created a water droplet to envelop her.
“Huh? You could do that too?!”
[I just realized it myself.]
“Good! I’m leaving Baldri to you!”
Amy wrapped electricity around her body and prepared to launch herself forward. Just as Baldri had said, a tuft of feathers protruded backward where Ignis’s neck connected to his torso.
[Wait.]
“Why again?! Huh? Spirit King?”
It was the Lightning Spirit King, appearing in the form of a flying squirrel.
[I granted you power, but if you go like this, you’ll die in Ignis’s flames.]
“But I can sever the Administrator’s power, right? Then the Spirit Kings will win?”
[…That’s true. But do you have a reason to go this far for the Spirit Realm?]
“I’m not doing this for the Spirit Realm. I’m doing it for my homeland.”
During their brief exchange, Ignis had melted more than half of Umbel’s body and brought him down. Now, turning his gaze upward, he concentrated his flames and unleashed them upon Arnabel.
The colossal whale’s body burst apart, boiling from within.
“We’re out of time!”
There was no time to converse with the Lightning Spirit King. Amy discharged the electricity she had charged to maximum capacity all at once. Not a single shred, not a speck of power remained. It was her ultimate technique, a desperate strike that wagered everything.
Amy discharged electricity in all directions as she launched forward.
Perhaps because she had poured out everything? This jump was different from usual.
Until now, I would depart from one point and arrive at my destination when I regained consciousness. The process in between was imperceptible.
But in this jump, Amy could see her surroundings with perfect clarity. The world had stopped, and only she moved forward slowly.
Ignis’s flames loomed before her eyes. Though she had steeled herself for death, witnessing death approach so gradually inflicted unbearable terror upon her.
For Amy, who had anticipated a swift end, this was excruciating torture.
Then the Lightning Spirit King, launched from behind, overtook Amy.
“Spirit King?”
[My name is Galban. If we are reborn, let us meet again.]
The Lightning Spirit King Galban advanced faster than Amy, reached Ignis, and detonated.
Galban exploded in an instant, but he tore a massive hole through Ignis’s body, and within it, a blackly burning orb became visible.
Amy followed in Galban’s wake and threw herself at the orb.
She pierced through the orb and burst out the opposite side of Ignis’s body.
[Kugh?! Ah… No! Kraaaagh! My power!]
With a hole suddenly torn through his body and the orb shattered, Ignis convulsed.
Where the orb had broken, a void opened, sucking in Ignis’s black flames like a black hole.
[Those who lay hands upon the forbidden shall perish by the forbidden.]
Arnabel looked down upon Ignis, who grew smaller as his flames were absorbed.
[How dare you look down upon me… I shall burn again. Wait for me…]
Ignis was completely extinguished, leaving only a faded orb in his place.
[Hmph. As always, I bear all the difficult burdens.]
Umbel, whose body had shrunk to less than half its original size, grumbled.
[We are all in the same situation. The Spirit Realm’s power has been drastically reduced.]
As Halitus said, Arnabel and Halitus’s bodies had also diminished, and it was no exaggeration to say that the Spirit Realm’s forces had fallen to less than half their former strength.
Baldri, who had been unconscious, barely regained consciousness and searched for Amy.
“Amy!”
Amy appeared behind where Ignis had been. Baldri broke free from Kurban’s regenerative droplets and rushed toward Amy.
Galban had sacrificed himself to clear the path, so she had not taken the full impact, but neither had she escaped unscathed.
“Hehe… I think I overdid it.”
Amy had poured all her power into that single strike. She could no longer maintain her electrified form, and her body was dispersing, spreading throughout the Spirit Realm.
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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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