He retreated back into a tunnel and recovered in the Warp Worm for a while before heading back into the cavern and zeroing in on what he’d felt earlier. A flow. In the tunnels he couldn’t feel it, but now that he was in the area of higher power density he could sense a directional flow to it. Just like finding the direction of an up and down stream in a river, it gave him some clues as to where he was or where he might need to go. A few tests later, he found the ‘up’ stream, where the more concentrated energy was coming from. With that bit of guidance, he was no longer bumbling around blindly and every so often they’d run into another large cavern and kill more red worms before checking the flow of power and heading towards the place of greater concentration.

It was somewhat risky, heading towards the place of greater and greater danger and damage, but Sage wasn’t just here to hide inside the Tortoise. There was a greater prize at stake and he could feel they were getting closer. This tortoise lived quite a blessed life, it had come upon two great fortunes in its life. First, the relatively safe area that it first consumed enough natural treasures to elevate itself into a Spirit Animal. Second, and most importantly, the treasure gave it its second qualitative leap into a true Demonic Beast. The obsidian heart was no simple object, and as soon as he saw it, Sage knew why the damned tortoise had been awakened.

The Heart of Eruption.

The Warp Worm had entered a huge chamber and that heart shaped piece of obsidian was at the core of the room. The molten core inside it gave off light that rhythmically shifted between high and low intensity, like a glowing heartbeat. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by what could only be described as a waterpark in hell. Lava shot out from holes in the wall, creating arcing streams of burning heat. The floor of the circular chamber was completely flooded with more of the liquid stone, filled to a depth that Sage could only imagine. It swirled slowly, creating a gentle whirlpool effect around the obsidian heart so that somehow the ‘water’ level at the edges of the room was higher than that in the center. More amazingly, was that the streams of lava spouting from the walls were pouring into the huge lake, but instead landing on what looked like stone slides. Obsidian waterslides that curled gracefully around the room, circling the room while slowly descending.

Lava fountains pouring onto spiraling obsidian chutes.

Now that he finally caught sight of it, his guess was confirmed. It really was the Heart of Eruption. A Heavenly Material, and not just any Heavenly Material, but a Heavenly Jewel. It was commonly mistaken as a Heavenly Flame, given the molten material it created, but it was primarily an earth natured treasure. He had suspected what it was when he saw the Tortoise’s past, but only now that he had his eyes on it could he truly confirm what it was.

There was no way the Warp Worm could enter this chamber. It was already hard enough for it to observe the situation from down a tunnel and Sage went out with the Soul Clone. He kept Hou Hei in reserve, not trusting his strength here. The pair of Nascent Souls had to run their Second Skin Barrier at full power to resist the intense heat pouring onto them from the huge lava chamber. The heat they faced had been constantly ramping up, but this final chamber was at least double the intensity of the tunnels that led up to it. They were near the end of the tunnel when they felt like they passed some sort of unseen wall. That invisible delineating line released the full force of the burning chamber upon them. The barrier of Spirit Power around them fluctuated and they had to step back to allow it to stabilize itself from the sudden wave of power that met them.

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It was like stepping into an oven, which when considering the fact that he was in a spirit form and had no physical body, was a terrifying feeling. His soul felt like it was being cooked. After recovering from the initial test, the Soul Clone went first and now that it was prepared it was able to withstand the heat for more than a mere instant. Even so it had to pull back after just floating there for a minute. Worst yet, that was only at the edge of the chamber. How much worse would it get near the center where the Heart of Eruption was?

With that initial test complete, Sage readied himself for the true test. With the Soul Clone as a baseline he had an idea of how long he could last with just the Second Skin Barrier. The Soul Clone couldn’t do much more, but he was far from done. The main thing that differentiated his Nascent Soul from that of the Soul Clone was the Inner World, and more specifically the Seed of Life and the Heavenly Materials it allowed him to collect. He was also pretty sure it was the reason that the Living Disaster was so bent on his destruction.

A crystalline sphere appeared in his hand. It was a brilliant blue color, a bright cyan, but glowing with a bright yellow light. The Sovereign Stone. The yellow glow surrounded him and he flew out over the burning lake, avoiding the spouts of lava arcing through the air. The molten lake beneath him suddenly exploded. Spurting burning fragments towards him. Sage pushed his spiritual hand downwards and focused the yellow light downwards. The light around him repulsed the burning lava, affecting the trajectory of the lava and knocking it aside. He flew closer to the core and one of the lava streams traveling down the spiral ramps was suddenly diverted. The ramp reshaped itself and directed the flow of lava towards him. Sage held up the Sovereign Stone to deflect the flow, the glowing light barrier acting like an umbrella to block the spray.

Then another one of the spiral ramps reshaped itself and another lava stream flew towards him from behind. Has the Tortoise realized how close I am, or is this just the Heart of Eruption trying to protect itself?

Regardless of the cause, he was still going to get cooked by the flows of lava. The second stream hit him from behind and the light barrier around him visibly dimmed. A third lava ramp started to shift and Sage wasn’t going to test his defenses any further. He fled. Retreating back the way he came, he dashed out of the way of the stream of lava, the third flow had been coming from closer to the core so he had to get out of its range. Unfortunately, it only got worse. There were at least a dozen of these lava slides around the room and all of them started to change shape.

While dodging the now moving streams of lava, he sunk towards the lake and was met with an explosive fountain. The lava burst from the surface and sprayed through the air, the burning droplets spattering against the light barrier and obscuring his vision while the larger streams tried to pour down upon him. He quickly fled upwards, dodging more lava streams. The lava poured in from near the top of the chamber and along the walls, so the higher he was the less of them could spray towards him. Lesson learned. Don’t go down near the swirling lake. Only problem is the heart is basically sitting on top of it!