Hope’s heart pounded in his chest as he descended toward the heart of the volcano, his body trembling from the oppressive heat that reached out to him like the claws of a beast. The air around him shimmered, and each breath he took felt like inhaling molten metal. His feet sank slightly into the ground, which was soft and unstable, like a bed of embers. The very earth under him seemed to hum with the raw power of the volcano, and his mind was consumed by the fire’s potential.

This was the test he had chosen. To stand in the very heart of the earth’s fire was to risk everything. He could feel the power in the air, thick with energy. It called to him, a primal and ancient force that both terrified and fascinated him. This fire could forge him into something greater, but it could also destroy him. Still, he had chosen the path of flame, knowing that his body and mind would be tested to their very limits.

Hope’s first step into the heart of the volcano was like stepping into a furnace. His body recoiled at the heat, and he quickly stumbled back, his feet sliding across the loose volcanic rocks beneath him. It wasn’t just the temperature—it was the weight of the heat pressing down on him, suffocating him with its intensity. The moment he stepped further inside, the fire began to consume his flesh. His clothes burned away in an instant, reduced to ash. The heat was unbearable.

The pain hit him in waves, crashing through his body. His skin began to blister immediately. The air around him was thick with the scent of burning flesh, and his own skin crackled as if he were nothing more than dry kindling being set alight. Hope gasped, but his breath evaporated before it could reach his lungs. It felt as though his very cells were screaming, the pain spreading from the tips of his fingers all the way down to his bones.

Every step he took felt like a battle. His muscles burned, each movement sending new waves of pain as if his body itself was breaking down. His feet sunk into the molten earth, his boots dissolving, and the ground beneath him turned to liquid fire, lapping at his legs, threatening to consume him completely.

Hope gritted his teeth, struggling to steady himself. He had braced himself for the heat, but the fire was more than he had ever anticipated. It wasn’t just external. The fire was inside of him now, twisting around his insides, seeping deep into his flesh and soul, heating his blood to unbearable temperatures. His heart raced as the fire’s intense energy began to smolder deep within his chest, threatening to burn away everything it touched.

He could feel his body breaking apart. The pain was unbearable. His skin continued to crack and blacken, the flesh peeling away in jagged lines as his body began to break down. Every inch of his body felt like it was dissolving, burning away, consumed by the fire that swirled around him. His eyes watered as he tried to hold back the scream that burned at the back of his throat. The fire was relentless. An ordinary cultivator at Soul Resonance would be burnt to ashes in seconds if he stood here.

Hope staggered forward, his body nearly collapsing under the weight of the heat. His lungs were on fire, each breath a searing agony. His skin began to blister and crack, large swaths of it falling off in sizzling pieces, leaving only raw, red flesh behind. His muscles burned, each fiber of his body screaming for respite, but there was no relief. The fire was taking everything, destroying it.

His body was not regenerating like he had hoped. It didn’t seem to understand what was happening. It was breaking down, every second stretching into an eternity of pain.

Hope fell to his knees, gasping for air that didn’t exist. His body was cooked from the inside out, the heat too much for even his body to handle. His heart raced, and his thoughts were muddled by the agony. He could feel his body teetering on the edge of collapse, but there was nothing he could do to stop it.

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I can’t… I can’t bear this…

Hope’s mind flickered with thoughts of surrender, but he forced them aside. He couldn’t give up. Not now. The fire had to be conquered. He had chosen this path, and there was no turning back.

The lava around him began to pulse, sending waves of heat and pressure toward him. Hope’s body absorbed the heat, each wave stronger than the last. His muscles clenched, and his body spasmed, each movement excruciating as if the very marrow of his bones were being boiled alive. He could feel his body continuing to break down, but with each moment, something inside him also shifted.

His breath grew ragged as he focused, pushing through the unbearable pain. Despite the overwhelming agony, he began to sense the rhythm of the fire. It wasn’t just chaos and destruction—it was a force with its own pattern, its own flow. The heat, though intense, seemed to have a structure behind it. It burned with purpose, consuming, destroying, and remaking.

He focused on that. He focused on the burning. He would endure it. He had no choice.

Slowly, his breath started to steady, though it still came in short, painful gasps. His body was still breaking down. His flesh still burned and crumbled, but now there was something more—something deeper, like a flicker of fire that began to burn from within, trying to counter the external flames.

The pain continued to gnaw at him, but Hope focused on the sensation of fire that now threaded through his body. He could feel the heat in his chest, the fire twisting deeper inside of him. His blood boiled, but rather than retreating, the sensation turned into something else. The pain, the destruction—it felt like an ancient calling, like the fire was awakening something dormant inside him, something primal and powerful.

The burning intensified. His bones cracked as the flames coursed through him. He could feel the destruction happening—his body breaking, crumbling, melting—but he refused to scream. The fire wasn’t just destroying him; it was also forging him into something new. His muscles burned, his flesh crackled, and the heat spread like wildfire across every inch of his body.

With each passing second, Hope’s body grew weaker. His legs buckled, and he collapsed into the lava, the molten earth searing against his body. His vision blurred, his consciousness beginning to waver. He could feel himself fading, his body dissolving under the pressure of the flames. He was barely able to keep his thoughts intact, barely able to hold on to the thread of willpower that kept him grounded.

He felt himself falling deeper into the fire, the heat wrapping around him like a suffocating blanket. But then, just as he thought he might lose himself to the flames, he felt it—a strange, sharp shift in his body. The fire did not stop consuming him, but it no longer felt quite so alien. It didn’t feel as though it was merely burning him away—it was melding with him.

Hope’s body continued to break down, but there was something more now. His affinity for fire was beginning to take root. It wasn’t that the fire had become harmless—it was still just as dangerous, just as deadly—but it had begun to weave itself into his body, reshaping him with each passing second.

With one final, desperate cry, Hope forced himself to sit down and cross his legs, he couldn’t falter. His body still burning and breaking, but the flames no longer felt like pure agony. His skin was raw, his muscles searing, his bones aching with the fire's relentless assault. But inside that pain, something else was growing—a connection, an understanding.

He wasn’t immune, not yet. His body still suffered. His flesh still burned. But something within him had shifted. The fire had become part of him, and he could feel its presence in his blood, its heat in his heart.

For now, though, the pain was all-consuming. His body was still breaking down, still being forged in the flames, but there was hope—an ember of understanding, an affinity to the fire that would only grow stronger with time. But for now, Hope could do nothing but endure.

His body continued to burn, his mind consumed by the relentless fire, and he knew that if he was to survive, it would be through sheer willpower alone. The process will take time to fully transform and reshape him, this wasn’t a sprint but a marathon.

And as the flames continued to scorch him, he finally took the last step to forge his heart.

A scream like no other he ever uttered resounded in the world of lava.