“What’s happening?” Pait cried out.

“H-here, I think I can project what I see into Master’s soul world.” Alysia declared.

“Ahhhh! Turn it off! Turn it off!”

“Alysia, you should be turning into a drill now.”

“I’m working on it!”

We plummeted down quite a distance. I used air to blow away the smoke and to slow my descent, kicking off a step when I needed to. The heat grew as I reached the bottom, where dark material undulated menacingly, red light glowing out from the cracks.

My feet hit the lava and then fire erupted across my body. Did I make a mistake? I tossed all of my clothing into my soul world. Heat Immunity didn’t transfer over to the items I was wearing. Anything of decent enough quality would have survived that brief exposure and everything that was destroyed probably wasn’t worth it anyway. It wasn’t my best armor, although given my history of losing armor it was hard to say that I bothered with anything long-lasting.

“I’m ready!”

“Let me know if you can’t handle the heat.”

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Alysia was composed of plenty of incredible alloys that should be able to reach the limits, but lava was lava and I didn’t want to risk her being harmed. If I couldn’t use her, I’d figure something out. I had already sunk to my knees. I was completely naked, so it was good I was in a place I was unlikely to see anyone else.

“Go for it.”

I slammed Alysia down into the lava, pushing her down as far as she would go. Then, her body started turning, the blades of her drill-like form moving in a circle. She started to move down more and more into the muck. Creating an air bubble around my head, I allowed myself to sink in behind her. I was plunged into darkness, but I only had one direction in mind, heading straight down.

The lava felt like a strange puddy, like trying to swim through clay. Although I could recognize the incredible heat, it didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable for me. Under Alysia’s unstoppable blades, she was able to cut through it and move downward. Once I was completely buried, she picked up the pace, turning faster and faster. I could feel a strange pull. As the lava behind the drill tried to fill in space I was on, it would catch on my legs like arms trying to grab me and hold me in place.

“Faster,” I ordered.

“Y-yes!”

Her drilling sped up once again, and the movements were soon fast enough that a trail line was left in the lava. All I could do was hold on as Alysia used her strength to move forward. I lost track of time as I was pulled through the swampy muck like a worm. It was a rhythmic process, too strenuous to allow me to lose my attention, but too smooth to keep me focused. That was before we suddenly hit something and stopped.

“Alysia?”

“We’ve made it through the lava. We’re at the end of the volcanic shoot. It’s rock from here on.”

So, we reached the rocky part of our journey.